diff --git "a/articles/2023-12.json" "b/articles/2023-12.json"
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+{"title": ["Brain surgery teen to have first seizure-free Christmas - BBC News", "Mark Drakeford won't visit Welsh pubs that banned him - BBC News", "Israel Gaza: 'I walked my kids past explosions and rotting corpses' - BBC News", "South Wales Police officer sex offences horrifying, chief says - BBC News", "A9 dualling project delayed by 10 years until 2035 - BBC News", "Social media platform X suffers global outages - BBC News", "Strong winds cause travel issues as Storm Pia hits Scotland - BBC News", "Talks on new pause in Gaza war gain urgency as Hamas chief visits Cairo - BBC News", "Non-burping can damage quality of life, researchers say - BBC News", "Venezuela: Americans freed in swap deal - and fraudster Fat Leonard returned - BBC News", "Ella Smith: Learner drivers guilty of killing passenger - BBC News", "Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount in merger talks - BBC News", "Leaked Iran hijab documents call for mobile courts and jail terms for celebrities - BBC News", "Primark sorry after ban on employee's Irish language Christmas jumper - BBC News", "'I don't want to be a number': Gazans live in fear of dying - BBC News", "Australia: Moment house collapses in Perth wildfire - BBC News", "Iceland volcano: Spectacular aerial footage shows scale of eruption - BBC News", "Lockerbie bombing: 'We've wanted justice - and it's coming' - BBC News", "Ikea warns of product delays after Red Sea attacks - BBC News", "Scottish government abandons court case over gender law veto - BBC News", "Biologists airlift deer for health check in Utah - BBC News", "JN.1 Covid variant: WHO charts its rapid global spread - BBC News", "European Super League: Uefa and Fifa rules banning breakaway league unlawful, says court - BBC Sport", "The Crown star Dominic West says he can understand criticism of the show - BBC News", "Organ donation: Powys dad in limbo as he waits for heart - BBC News", "Glynn Simmons: US judge exonerates inmate after 48 years in prison - BBC News", "British Sign Language to be introduced as GCSE in England - BBC News", "European Super League timeline: Game changer - football's volatile 72 hours - BBC Sport", "Brianna Ghey: The young killers who tried to get away with murder - BBC News", "Ukraine war live updates: Ukraine says it's 'holding back the enemy' in major battle for Avdiivka - BBC News", "Nearly 100,000 Gaza buildings may be damaged, satellite images show - BBC News", "Christmas number one: Wham! and Sam Ryder do battle as chart race enters final day - BBC News", "Watch Jurassic Park reborn on Welsh Christmas pub crawl - BBC News", "Gambling: Premier League and other sporting bodies urged to cut betting adverts - BBC Sport", "Fears UK not ready for deepfake general election - BBC News", "Sir Keir Starmer supports assisted dying law change - BBC News", "Activists who climbed Kelpies 'put police in danger' - BBC News", "Al-Mawasi: Gaza humanitarian zone not humane, evacuees say - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza live news: US says 'serious negotiations' taking place on new Gaza truce - BBC News", "Gérard Depardieu: Feminists criticise Emmanuel Macron over defence of actor - BBC News", "Brianna Ghey murder: Teens guilty of 'ferocious' killing - BBC News", "Tide turns for Channel smugglers but the migrant crossings go on - BBC News", "Temu shoppers risk buying items made by forced labour, MP warns - BBC News", "Storm Pia disrupts UK Christmas travel - BBC News", "Disabled people left as 'collateral damage' in Essex contract row - BBC News", "Philippines earthquake: Video shows chaos in shop as tremors hit - BBC News", "Russia LGBT: Police raid Moscow gay clubs, media say - BBC News", "Queens New York: Four killed including two children in stabbing attack - BBC News", "Shane MacGowan: A unifying Irish-English voice, in time of bombs and bullets - BBC News", "Nigel Harman pulls out of Strictly Come Dancing - BBC News", "Baby formula soaring costs: 'I struggle, but I won’t buy a cheaper brand' - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza: UK launches surveillance flights to find Hamas hostages - BBC News", "AUKUS: Radars will help counter threat of 'space warfare' - BBC News", "Snow disrupts travel as cold and icy spell persists - BBC News", "Paris attack near Eiffel Tower leaves one dead and two injured - BBC News", "Gaza's fear and anger as ceasefire ends and fighting erupts - BBC News", "Therese Coffey: Brain abscess from stress left me 'close to dying' - BBC News", "British soldier killed off duty in Kenya - BBC News", "24 Hours in Police Custody: Bedford takeaway siege recounted - BBC News", "'I’m not ready to lose hope': The hostages still in Gaza - BBC News", "Glenys Kinnock: Former minister and wife of Neil Kinnock dies aged 79 - BBC News", "Euro 2024 draw: Scotland in group with hosts Germany while England in with Denmark - BBC Sport", "Nelson Mandela's granddaughter slams \"climate apartheid\" by rich nations - BBC News", "Labour won't turn on spending taps, says Starmer - BBC News", "Solar panels used by British Army linked to claims of forced labour in China - BBC News", "Cardiff mum told her soaked and mouldy flat is habitable - BBC News", "Laura Kuenssberg: Health Secretary Victoria Atkins could decide Tory party's fate - BBC News", "Bernard Cribbins: Doctor Who pays tribute to veteran actor - BBC News", "Video 'shows armed police approach Paris suspect' - BBC News", "Cumbria hit by snow and ice travel chaos - BBC News", "Infected blood: Tory rebellion expected on payouts amendment - BBC News", "Mindanao: Four killed in explosion at Catholic Mass in Philippines - BBC News", "Philippines earthquake: Pregnant woman killed by Mindanao quake - BBC News", "Henry Kissinger's Cambodia legacy of bombs and chaos - BBC News", "Israel says troops in 'heart of Khan Younis' after bombarding south Gaza - BBC News", "Israeli forces pushing into south Gaza - BBC News", "Nearly 100,000 Gaza buildings may be damaged, satellite images show - BBC News", "Police trace woman who was 'carried into vehicle' in Dundee - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza war: Residents of Khan Younis say Israeli strikes heaviest since start of war - BBC News", "French anti-bullying bikers accused of threatening headteacher - BBC News", "How Hamas built a force to attack Israel on 7 October - BBC News", "Bowen: US sets clearer red lines for Israel as ceasefire ends - BBC News", "Warnings for snow and ice as sporting events cancelled - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak could miss NHS waiting list target over strikes, says Victoria Atkins - BBC News", "Euro 2024 draw: Uefa investigates after sex noises disrupt broadcast - BBC Sport", "Hamas hostages: Stories of the people taken from Israel - BBC News", "I'm a Celebrity hosts Ant and Dec call for 'no more politicians' on show - BBC News", "Shea Ryan: Mother to sue firm over boy's manhole death - BBC News", "Pogues, Wham! and Mariah battle to be Christmas number one - BBC News", "Ilkeston: Murder arrest after group hit by van in town centre - BBC News", "Shetland is first UK spaceport for vertical rocket launches - BBC News", "Felixstowe same-sex couple receives one of Anglican church's first blessings - BBC News", "Network Rail manager for stranded passenger line quits - BBC News", "Alex Batty: French couple give details about British teen’s life - BBC News", "Crowds strip aid trucks of food and supplies at Gaza's Rafah crossing - BBC News", "Queensland floods: Airport submerged and crocodiles seen after record rain - BBC News", "Strictly Come Dancing: Brian Cox turned down show as he's 'too old' - BBC News", "Caroline Aherne: New unseen photos of ‘a light that didn’t shine long enough’ - BBC News", "Cardinal Becciu: Vatican court convicts former Pope adviser of financial crimes - BBC News", "Israel Gaza: Lord Cameron supports 'sustainable ceasefire' and warns over deaths - BBC News", "Serbia election: Vucic claims big election victory for ruling party - BBC News", "More than 60 migrants feared drowned off Libya, IOM says - BBC News", "ICO's criminal investigations team looks into claims BBC withheld documents - BBC News", "France calls for 'immediate and durable' ceasefire in Gaza - BBC News", "Ian Wright: Match of the Day pundit to step down at end of season - BBC Sport", "London's Ulez-scrapped cars cannot go to Ukraine, Sadiq Khan says - BBC News", "Eurovision 2024: Pop star Olly Alexander to represent the UK - BBC News", "Tom Lockyer: Luton captain still in hospital after cardiac arrest - BBC Sport", "Steve Coogan: Prince Harry's hacking case is 'start of something' - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza war: What is the price of peace? - BBC News", "Israel Gaza: Hostages were carrying white cloth when shot, IDF says - BBC News", "Seven-stone turkey dog used to guard Somerset flock - BBC News", "BBC iPlayer - Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg - Baroness Mone and the PPE Scandal", "Moment landslide sweeps down mountainside into Lake Garda - BBC News", "Alex Batty: British teen found in France returns to UK - BBC News", "Israel Gaza: The perils of hostage rescue - BBC News", "Gaza: UK MP says family trapped in church area amid sniper fire - BBC News", "Translink: Widespread disruption caused by transport strike - BBC News", "Olly Alexander says Eurovision will be 'a wild ride' and that song is 'not a ballad' - BBC News", "Tom Lockyer: Luton captain 'stable' after suffering cardiac arrest - BBC Sport", "UK MP Layla Moran's family among hundreds trapped in Gaza church - BBC News", "Israel Gaza: Hostages shot by IDF put out 'SOS' sign written with leftover food - BBC News", "HMS Diamond: British warship shoots down suspected attack drone in Red Sea - BBC News", "Michelle Mone admits she stands to benefit from £60m PPE profit - BBC News", "The secret sauce for Taiwan's chip superstardom - BBC News", "Hamas hostages: Stories of the people taken from Israel - BBC News", "Spiking crackdown to see more funding for test kits - BBC News", "Why Covid is still flooring some people - BBC News", "BBC One - Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Baroness Mone and the PPE Scandal", "Hyperemesis: Scientists make pregnancy sickness cure breakthrough - BBC News", "Derry: Council to take action over 'crumbling' kennels - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak seeks to calm minimum income visa fears - BBC News", "US House votes to authorise Biden impeachment inquiry - BBC News", "Watch: Why Sunak’s Rwanda bill battle isn’t over - BBC News", "Israel losing global support over Gaza bombing, Biden says - BBC News", "Ex-BP boss to lose £32m after 'serious misconduct' - BBC News", "Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford announces resignation - BBC News", "Lemon juice bottle object discovery 'stomach-churning' - BBC News", "Car crashed into Rutherglen ice cream shop and set alight - BBC News", "Minister says war will continue 'with or without' international support - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak sees off Tory rebellion in Rwanda bill vote - BBC News", "National Theatre: Indhu Rubasingham to be first female artistic director - BBC News", "Smyllum Park: Nuns and carer guilty of abusing orphanage children - BBC News", "Andre Braugher: How his deadpan delivery made Captain Holt Brooklyn Nine-Nine's beating heart - BBC News", "NI education: Early years expansion needed, review finds - BBC News", "Elon Musk's Tesla recalls two million cars in US over Autopilot defect - BBC News", "US House votes to approve Biden impeachment inquiry - live updates - BBC News", "Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone: Mayor rejects driver charges - BBC News", "Coedely crash: Families pay tribute to teenagers killed - BBC News", "Belfast: Fake model agent who targeted children online jailed - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Dozens wounded in Russian missile strikes on Kyiv - BBC News", "Downpatrick floods: Businesses still recovering one month on - BBC News", "Watch: Motorists block road to save runaway chihuahua - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza war: Video shows Gaza detainees allegedly 'surrendering guns' - what we know - BBC News", "Laura Kenny: Women struggle to get pregnant because of athlete lifestyle - BBC Sport", "Bibby Stockholm: Calls for migrants to be removed after death - BBC News", "Support for Hamas grows among Palestinians in West Bank - BBC News", "British Museum deputy director to leave after thefts inquiry - BBC News", "Israel Gaza: UN General Assembly demands immediate ceasefire - BBC News", "James Bulger killer Jon Venables' parole bid fails - BBC News", "NHS vaccinations to be booked online in drive to increase uptake - BBC News", "Netflix: Users spent 812 million hours watching The Night Agent - BBC News", "Manchester United 0-1 Bayern Munich: Red Devils out of Europe with defeat by German champions - BBC Sport", "Thai MP convicted for posts insulting the monarchy - BBC News", "Lianne Gordon: Mother died trying to protect family, court hears - BBC News", "Mehmet Koray Alpergin: Kidnappers jailed for killing DJ - BBC News", "Silver Roman ring found in Cotswolds declared treasure - BBC News", "Climate change: What is my country doing about it? - BBC News", "Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky meets Joe Biden and Mike Johnson after US $61bn aid package stalls - live updates - BBC News", "Virgin Media 'fastest wi-fi' advert banned by watchdog - BBC News", "Examining COP28's potential impact on climate change - BBC News", "Watch: Intruder jumps on table in Indian parliament - BBC News", "Brooklyn Nine-Nine stars pay tribute to Andre Braugher - BBC News", "Charles Hurst: NI's largest car dealership to cut about 100 jobs - BBC News", "Mastercard and Visa face post-Brexit card fee cap - BBC News", "Argentina peso: Milei begins 'shock therapy' by devaluing currency - BBC News", "Bibby Stockholm: Asylum seeker on board barge dies - BBC News", "COP28: Landmark summit takes direct aim at fossil fuels - BBC News", "Gaza surgeon: 'It broke me, not being able to save so many innocent lives' - BBC News", "Gary Lineker seemed to break rules, next BBC chairman says - BBC News", "Rastafarian soldier wins racism case against Army - BBC News", "MoD fined after email blunder risked Afghan interpreters' lives - BBC News", "Treforest Industrial Estate: Explosion leaves one unaccounted for - BBC News", "Tata: Doubt over Port Talbot's ability to make new steel - BBC News", "UK economy falls unexpectedly in October as higher rates bite - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak apologises to LGBT veterans for past armed forces gay ban - BBC News", "Rwanda bill must be in Goldilocks zone, says James Cleverly - BBC News", "Drakeford resignation: Who will be Wales' next first minister? - BBC News", "Can the new Rwanda bill work and what could stop it? - BBC News", "Zelensky pleads for more aid amid standoff in US Congress - BBC News", "Andre Braugher: Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Captain Raymond Holt dies aged 61 - BBC News", "Perseverance: Nasa's Mars rover celebrates 1,000 days of science - BBC News", "Tyson Fury and family ordered to pay £100k in land row - BBC News", "Baby formula prices: Soaring costs devastating family finances - survey - BBC News", "COP28: Climate mums make themselves heard in halls of power - BBC News", "Great Yarmouth Hippodrome Circus acrobat making 'good recovery' after fall - BBC News", "Newcastle United 1-2 AC Milan: Magpies finish bottom of Champions League group - BBC Sport", "Cawdery killings: Deaths of pensioners could be repeated, coroner warns - BBC News", "Israel determined to finish Gaza operation despite civilian suffering - BBC News", "Boy was 'admiring trees' when Brianna Ghey killed - BBC News", "Israel-Hamas war: Ceasefire in Gaza chances shrinking, Qatar says - BBC News", "Thames Water says it can't pay back £190m loan - BBC News", "COP28 agreement on fossil fuels live: New global deal agrees to move away from oil, gas, and coal - BBC News", "CCTV of missing Norfolk mum Gaynor Lord released by police - BBC News", "Aid stalemate leaves Zelensky with little to show from US trip - BBC News", "PMQs live: Sunak defends government's 2023 after Starmer's 'meltdown' jibe - BBC News", "Usman Khawaja to fight cricket authorities' decision on Gaza message - BBC News", "Eyal Waldman: Israeli tech billionaire hopes for peace despite daughter's killing - BBC News", "Northumberland farm firm admits Marian Clode cow death failings - BBC News", "Ex-minister David Davis intervenes in street attack near Parliament - BBC News", "Martin Lewis: 'I have dark days mental health wise' - BBC News", "UK weather warnings in force as rain replaces snow - BBC News", "Rail passengers stuck for hours in 'surreal' ordeal - BBC News", "Hillsborough Law decision an insult, says victim's sister - BBC News", "Serial killer Steve Wright arrested over 1999 murder of Victoria Hall - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak tells Rwanda policy critics they are wrong after minister quits - BBC News", "Ukraine claims killing of 'traitor' ex-MP Illya Kyva in Russia - BBC News", "Aberfan: Man, 28, charged after pregnant woman stabbed - BBC News", "BBC funding: TV licence fee to rise by £10.50, government says - BBC News", "Former minister gets suspended sentence over historical child sex abuse - BBC News", "Orangefield Park woodland cut down by accident - BBC News", "Phillip Schofield: ITV made 'considerable efforts' to find out truth - review - BBC News", "Israeli settler violence brings destruction and fear to West Bank as war rages - BBC News", "'I'm helpless' - Gaza doctor tells of desperate situation - BBC News", "Putin makes rare foreign trip to Gulf states - BBC News", "Hackney shooting: Victim named locally as Lianne Gordon - BBC News", "Ruth Perry: Ofsted inspection 'contributed' to head teacher's death - BBC News", "William Brown: Arrest after boy, 7, killed in Sandgate hit-and-run - BBC News", "Facebook and Messenger to automatically encrypt messages - BBC News", "Russia luring migrants from Finnish border for war in Ukraine - BBC News", "NI education: Plea to government to end 'chronic underfunding' - BBC News", "Israel hostages in Gaza: We have evidence their health worsening, say families - BBC News", "Colin Pitchfork: Double child murderer denied prison release - BBC News", "Chris Mason: Mood in Conservative Party bleak after Jenrick's resignation - BBC News", "McDonald’s unveils US CosMc's trial and global expansion - BBC News", "UNLV shooting: Former college professor accused of killing three on Las Vegas campus - BBC News", "Gaza Strip in maps: How life has changed in two months - BBC News", "Prince William shocks mum on mental health charity walk - BBC News", "Covid inquiry: Five takeaways from Boris Johnson's evidence - BBC News", "Shopping with cash rises for first time in a decade - BBC News", "Republican candidates largely duck Trump attacks in final debate - BBC News", "Get behind my Rwanda asylum plan, Rishi Sunak tells Tories - BBC News", "XLH: Family distraught as bone disease drug not approved - BBC News", "Covid inquiry: I did not back a 'let it rip' policy, says Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Prince Harry tells court he wants his children to feel at home in UK - BBC News", "ChatGPT tool could be abused by scammers and hackers - BBC News", "Brit Awards: Indie band The Last Dinner Party win rising star prize - BBC News", "Met Police: Ex-officers sentenced over racist WhatsApp posts - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda law at mercy of Tory factions - BBC News", "Sean 'Diddy' Combs accused of sexual assault by fourth woman - BBC News", "Climate change: What is my country doing about it? - BBC News", "Boris Johnson Covid inquiry live: We still need to know where Covid came from, ex-PM tells inquiry - BBC News", "Woman who assaulted Chipotle worker sentenced to fast food job for two months - BBC News", "Lego Fortnite: Gaming giant launches Minecraft rival - BBC News", "I should have twigged Covid threat earlier, admits Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Suella Braverman: Tories face 'electoral oblivion' if Rwanda bill fails - BBC News", "NI weather: Heavy rain brings flooding to some roads - BBC News", "I.N.A.D.E.Q.U.A.T.E - Ruth Perry’s despair in handwritten notes - BBC News", "Contrite, shorn of theatrics - Johnson's first day at inquiry - BBC News", "Ukraine aid from US in doubt after failed Senate vote - BBC News", "Robert Jenrick resigns as immigration minister over Rwanda legislation - BBC News", "Bringing broken survivors of the Israel Nova festival attack back from darkness - BBC News", "Watch: Video shows moment of huge explosion in Seychelles - BBC News", "Mine explosion: Colombian authorities blow up illegal sites - BBC News", "Can the new Rwanda bill work and what could stop it? - BBC News", "Chanel Metiers d'Art: Models turn Manchester street into a catwalk - BBC News", "S4C: TV boss in hospital after bullying allegations - BBC News", "Hamas hostages: Stories of the people taken from Israel - BBC News", "Robert Jenrick's resignation letter in full - BBC News", "Lurgan murder: Two charged after Odhrán Kelly killing - BBC News", "BBC reporter in Gaza: People here are traumatised and exhausted - BBC News", "Why was a man who took a wee in a layby fined for littering? - BBC News", "Kidney transplant: Three-year-old is smallest patient - BBC News", "Russia school shooting: Teenage girl kills classmate and herself - BBC News", "Russia hacking: 'FSB in years-long cyber attacks on UK', says government - BBC News", "How missiles from Yemen could escalate Israel-Gaza war - BBC News", "Blood test shows if organs are ageing fast or slowly - BBC News", "Denmark passes law to ban Quran burnings - BBC News", "Robert Jenrick immigration minister job divided in two - BBC News", "Racism: Social worker calls experiences exhausting - BBC News", "Benjamin Zephaniah: Writer, poet and Peaky Blinders actor dies aged 65 - BBC News", "No room in shelters as thousands flee to Gaza border city - BBC News", "Braverman: I urge Sunak to change course - BBC News", "Hyperemesis: Scientists make pregnancy sickness cure breakthrough - BBC News", "US House votes to authorise Biden impeachment inquiry - BBC News", "Israel losing global support over Gaza bombing, Biden says - BBC News", "Ex-BP boss to lose £32m after 'serious misconduct' - BBC News", "Germany arrests over alleged Hamas anti-Jewish plot - BBC News", "Interest rates decision: Bank of England holds interest rates at 5.25% - BBC News", "Sienna Miller condemns age gap 'double standards' - BBC News", "Israel says it mistakenly killed three hostages in Gaza campaign - BBC News", "Vaughan Gething announces Welsh first minister bid - BBC News", "Blackpool nurse and colleague jailed over drugging patients - BBC News", "Endometriosis: NI women get a 'raw deal', says surgeon - BBC News", "Minister says war will continue 'with or without' international support - BBC News", "EU to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova - BBC News", "Smyllum Park: Nuns and carer guilty of abusing orphanage children - BBC News", "Doctors' warning after man tears hole in throat trying to stop sneeze - BBC News", "Welsh Labour leader: Vaughan Gething to announce bid - BBC News", "Sara Sharif: Father, step-mother and uncle deny girl's murder - BBC News", "Russia-Ukraine war: Putin tells Russia his war objectives are unchanged - BBC News", "Gang jailed for £1m cocaine-coated broom handle plot - BBC News", "NI education: Early years expansion needed, review finds - BBC News", "Israel to continue Gaza war with or without international support, FM says - BBC News", "Treforest Industrial Estate: Explosion caught on CCTV - BBC News", "Elon Musk's Tesla recalls two million cars in US over Autopilot defect - BBC News", "Post Office Horizon scandal: Call for all convictions to be overturned - BBC News", "Mobo Awards: Little Simz and Stormzy dominate nominations - BBC News", "Tesco recalls Christmas stuffing mix because it may contain moths - BBC News", "Paris 2024 Olympics: IOC boss defends move to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete as neutrals - BBC News", "Allergy details must be mandatory on menus - Food Standards Agency - BBC News", "Threads: Meta's rival to Elon Musk's X launches in EU - BBC News", "GCHQ Christmas challenge: Agency reveals 2023 codebreaker - BBC News", "A23a: Monster iceberg just shy of a trillion tonnes - BBC News", "Great Yarmouth Hippodrome Circus acrobat falls from 'wheel of death' - BBC News", "Rebecca Welch to become Premier League's first female referee - BBC Sport", "Support for Hamas grows among Palestinians in West Bank - BBC News", "Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Andre Braugher died of lung cancer - BBC News", "Gaynor Lord: 'High probability' missing Norwich mum went into river - police - BBC News", "Japan: Four cabinet ministers quit over fundraising scandal - BBC News", "Watch: Cool pool player pots black as car ploughs into pub - BBC News", "Cats purrfectly happy to play fetch, research finds - BBC News", "Cardiff: South Wales Police investigated after complaints - BBC News", "Jimmy Savile victim says new NI law could protect sex offenders - BBC News", "Examining COP28's potential impact on climate change - BBC News", "Caroline Glachan: Three guilty of murdering schoolgirl 27 years ago - BBC News", "Australian woman charged with stealing van carrying 10,000 doughnuts - BBC News", "Nicholas Rossi: US fugitive loses appeal over extradition - BBC News", "Brooklyn Nine-Nine stars pay tribute to Andre Braugher - BBC News", "Treforest Industrial Estate: Explosion leaves one unaccounted for - BBC News", "Gaynor Lord: Friend 'feels terrible' over call from missing woman - BBC News", "Treforest Industrial Estate: Man says explosion was carnage - BBC News", "Kathleen Folbigg: Woman jailed over infant deaths has convictions quashed - BBC News", "Bloody Sunday: High Court quashes decision to discontinue Soldier F case - BBC News", "Interest rates: Too early to speculate about cut, says Bank boss - BBC News", "Alex Batty: Teen from Oldham missing for six years found in France - BBC News", "Impeachment inquiry threatens Biden with election-year headache - BBC News", "Great Yarmouth Hippodrome Circus acrobat making 'good recovery' after fall - BBC News", "Newcastle United 1-2 AC Milan: Magpies finish bottom of Champions League group - BBC Sport", "Cawdery killings: Deaths of pensioners could be repeated, coroner warns - BBC News", "Treforest fire: Body found after industrial estate explosion - BBC News", "Israel-Hamas war: Ceasefire in Gaza chances shrinking, Qatar says - BBC News", "Smoking decline stalls since Covid as more young people take up the habit - study - BBC News", "Lisbellaw: Pedestrian dies after County Fermanagh crash - BBC News", "Potential by-election as ex-Tory MP Scott Benton faces Commons suspension - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza war: What is the price of peace? - BBC News", "Men accused of killing 3,600 birds including eagles - BBC News", "Inside Putin's carefully choreographed annual news conference - BBC News", "Ex-minister David Davis intervenes in street attack near Parliament - BBC News", "More than 300,000 in England face being homeless at Christmas, charity estimates - BBC News", "Car crashed into Rutherglen ice cream shop and set alight - BBC News", "Watch: Bear dodges skiers on California slopes - BBC News", "Grand Theft Auto 6: Car-top twerking, flamingos in a crazy Miami - BBC News", "Shirley Ballas says bullying nearly forced her to quit - BBC News", "Sudan war: Two people killed in attack on aid convoy in Sudan, says Red Cross - BBC News", "McDonald's security guard soaks homeless man's sleeping bag - BBC News", "Ipswich murder investigation launched after baby's death - BBC News", "Judge orders BBC to release emails related to Martin Bashir - BBC News", "Pliosaur discovery: Huge sea monster emerges from Dorset cliffs - BBC News", "I'm A Celebrity winner named after Sam Thompson, Tony Bellew and Nigel Farage made final - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza war: Video shows Gaza detainees allegedly 'surrendering guns' - what we know - BBC News", "Tate McRae: Singer says she feels 'way more badass' after ditching 'sad girl' persona - BBC News", "Tory peer Michelle Mone 'regrets' denying links with PPE firm - BBC News", "Laura Kuenssberg: Tory party splits and spats put Sunak under serious pressure - BBC News", "Shropshire: Two die after crash involving police vehicle - BBC News", "Gap between haves and have-nots widening, report warns - BBC News", "West Indies vs England: Matthew Forde stars on debut as hosts win series - BBC Sport", "Teenage children of jailed Narges Mohammadi accept her Nobel Peace Prize - BBC News", "Bowen: US uses veto but pressure for Gaza ceasefire is building - BBC News", "Shohei Ohtani: Baseball star joins LA Dodgers in record $700m deal - BBC News", "Australian swimmers approach sperm whale 'dangerously close' to shore - BBC News", "Israel-Hamas war: Ceasefire in Gaza chances shrinking, Qatar says - BBC News", "Man arrested in connection with 1984 murder - BBC News", "Palestinian recounts being stripped and driven away by Israeli army - BBC News", "Smile Direct Club dentistry aligners firm shuts down - BBC News", "Ohtani: How 'Shotime' became Japan's biggest baseball export - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza: The status quo is smashed. 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BBC News", "Premier League agrees record £6.7bn domestic TV rights deal - BBC Sport", "Denny Laine, Wings and Moody Blues musician, dies age 79 - BBC News", "Trans women inmates who hurt females to go to male prisons - BBC News", "Caerphilly: Man dragging swan by neck sought by police - BBC News", "Villejuif: Small plane makes emergency landing in Paris suburb - BBC News", "Air pollution: map shows 'concrete jungles' more polluted - BBC News", "Lurgan: Vigil to be held for man named locally as murder victim - BBC News", "Robert Jenrick pledges 'serious reforms' to curb migration - BBC News", "Virginia home explodes as police respond to call - BBC News", "Ex-Tesla employee casts doubt on car safety - BBC News", "Wonka reviews: Critics say Timothée Chalamet film is a treat - BBC News", "Turner Prize: Jesse Darling wins for 'delirious' art using tattered flags and barbed wire - BBC News", "Supreme Court rules Rwanda asylum policy unlawful - BBC News", "Couples 'devastated' by migration visa rule changes - BBC News", "Thames Water says turnaround will 'take time' - BBC News", "Tony Mowbray: Sunderland sack head coach after 15 months in charge - BBC Sport", "Paddy McCourt: Court quashes sexual assault conviction - BBC News", "UK net migration in 2022 revised up to record 745,000 - BBC News", "UK porn watchers could have faces scanned - BBC News", "Prince Harry security decision unfair, High Court told - BBC News", "Lurgan: Murder investigation after sudden death on Edward Street - BBC News", "Hackney shooting: Woman killed and two wounded - BBC News", "Paramilitary intimidation leads to homelessness, report finds - BBC News", "Israel says troops in 'heart of Khan Younis' after bombarding south Gaza - BBC News", "Aberfan stabbing latest: Man, 28, arrested on suspicion of attempted murder - BBC News", "Nearly 100,000 Gaza buildings may be damaged, satellite images show - BBC News", "Robert Jenrick insists UK workers will fill labour gaps after migration crackdown - BBC News", "YouTuber Trevor Jacob jailed after crashing plane for views - 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BBC News", "Baby owl found living in family Christmas tree - BBC News", "Bloody Sunday: High Court quashes decision to discontinue Soldier F case - BBC News", "Alex Batty: Teen from Oldham missing for six years found in France - BBC News", "Gaynor Lord: Body found in search for missing Norwich mum - BBC News", "Piers Morgan and hacking: What the Prince Harry case heard - BBC News", "British teen Alex Batty expected back in UK in next few days - BBC News", "'Betrayed' Afghan special forces references ignored - BBC News", "Banbury: Sparse Christmas tree sells for 'astonishing' fee - BBC News", "Great Yarmouth Hippodrome Circus acrobat making 'good recovery' after fall - BBC News", "Speakers' Corner: Edward Little jailed over Hyde Park gun attack plot - BBC News", "Cheaper train tickets: Five ways to save money - BBC News", "Stranger Things: The First Shadow - critics call prequel play 'breathtaking' - BBC News", "Treforest fire: Body found after industrial estate explosion - BBC News", "Stormont: DUP officers meet to consider Stormont deal - 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BBC News", "Watch: Bear dodges skiers on California slopes - BBC News", "COP28 live: Food we eat matters for climate, leaders agree in first-ever pledge - BBC News", "Pontins closes Prestatyn and Camber Sands holiday parks - BBC News", "University Challenge: Christmas episode axed after ableism complaints - BBC News", "Ukraine says it blew up railway in eastern Russia - BBC News", "Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi freed by Israel - BBC News", "Lawrence Jones: Ex-tech boss who drugged and raped women jailed - BBC News", "Mark Lovell: Killers followed victim after he visited sick mother - BBC News", "Head teacher says autistic student died despite family's plea for support - BBC News", "Bedouin family desperate for news on teenagers held hostage in Gaza - BBC News", "Covid inquiry: Earlier lockdown could have kept schools open, says Matt Hancock - BBC News", "Danny Macklin: Police find ex-AFC Wimbledon chief in Cornwall - BBC News", "Released Palestinians allege abuse in Israeli jails - BBC News", "Liat Beinin Atzili: US citizen among 16 Hamas hostages released - BBC News", "England 3-2 Netherlands: Ella Toone scores late winner in crucial Women's Nations League tie - BBC Sport", "Trafalgar Square Christmas tree arrives at Port of Immingham - BBC News", "The Vivienne: Drag Race star attack was homophobic - magistrates - BBC News", "Aston Villa: Officer hit by flare in clashes with Legia Warsaw fans - BBC News", "Watch: Musk attempts Cybertruck window stunt again - BBC News", "Will Tesla's cybertruck recover from its shattering start? - BBC News", "Booking.com hackers increase attacks on customers - BBC News", "Cardiff brewery Brains recovers from debt after Covid - BBC News", "George Santos faces expulsion in historic House vote - BBC News", "Rise in English bathing sites rated unfit to swim - BBC News", "Nearly 100,000 Gaza buildings may be damaged, satellite images show - BBC News", "Donald Trump gag order reinstated in New York civil fraud trial - BBC News", "Rugby concussion: Wales' Henson and Charvis named in lawsuit - BBC News", "Covid inquiry: Lockdown should have been three weeks earlier - Hancock - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Zelensky says fortifying front lines must be accelerated - BBC News", "Former Chancellor Alistair Darling dies aged 70 - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza war: The Red Cross's delicate role in hostage crises - BBC News", "Shane MacGowan: U2 and Paul Weller lead tributes to Pogues singer - BBC News", "Woman who spent six years in NI care system calls for change - BBC News", "Firefighters crawl to rescue deer stuck on frozen lake - BBC News", "NI bus and rail strike: Pubs and bars fear trade will be hit - BBC News", "'I’m not ready to lose hope': The hostages still in Gaza - BBC News", "George Santos expelled from the US House - live updates - BBC News", "Elliott Erwitt: Legendary photographer dies aged 95 - BBC News", "Brigit Forsyth: Still Open All Hours actress dies aged 83 - BBC News", "School closures could have been avoided with earlier lockdown - Hancock - BBC News", "Ex-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor dies aged 93 - 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The future is messy and dangerous - BBC News", "Omid Scobie: Endgame draft text to blame for royal naming error - BBC News", "Disney goes punk: TikTok sends Welsh covers band viral - BBC News", "BBC presenter sniffs therapy husky dog - BBC News", "Royal Family members reveal family Christmas card images - BBC News", "Why does the Scottish government keep losing court cases? - BBC News", "Ryan O'Neal, Oscar-nominated star of Love Story, dead at 82 - BBC News", "Wham!, Mariah Carey and The Pogues lead flood of Christmas songs in UK top 40 - BBC News", "Doctor Who: Yasmin Finney on fandom, family and online trolls - BBC News", "Iran: Mahsa Amini's family stopped at airport on way to collect award - BBC News", "Hackney shooting: Boy charged over Lianne Gordon killing - BBC News", "'We can't stop' - the Israeli woman still helping sick Palestinians - BBC News", "Storm Elin, Storm Fergus duo lash UK with wet and windy weather - BBC News", "Odhrán Kelly murder: Gary Damien Scullion charged 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African singer sparks culture war - BBC News", "Tyrannosaur’s last meal was two baby dinosaurs - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza war: Half of Gaza's population is starving, warns UN - BBC News", "Chinese ships 'fire water at Philippine vessels' - BBC News", "Peter Bone MP loses seat as recall petition triggers by-election - BBC News", "Colorado Supreme Court kicks Trump off ballot, citing 'insurrection' - BBC News", "Sports Personality of the Year 2023: Mary Earps wins award - BBC Sport", "Amazon to make Warhammer 40,000 shows and movies - BBC News", "Homelessness: 'I was raped while sleeping under a pier in Blackpool' - BBC News", "Serial killer's ex-wife Monique Olivier convicted for part in murders - BBC News", "Flight and travel fears: Why Iceland's Reykjanes volcano eruption won't cause disruption - BBC News", "Scotland's climate 'changing faster than expected' - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak quizzed over cost of Rwanda scheme final grilling of the year - BBC News", "Russell Brand questioned by 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Gaza - BBC News", "Zara advert accused of resembling Gaza images - BBC News", "Pakistan: 23 soldiers killed in attack on army base - BBC News", "Can the new Rwanda bill work and what could stop it? - BBC News", "Homeless man soaked by McDonald's guard speaks out - BBC News", "Tyson Fury and family ordered to pay £100k in land row - BBC News", "Chris Mason: Rishi Sunak’s authority on the line over Rwanda vote - BBC News", "E3: Once world's biggest gaming show permanently axed - BBC News", "Emmanuel Macron's government in crisis after migration bill defeat - BBC News", "Prince Harry and Meghan's charity makes $1.2m donations - BBC News", "Alicia Keys' surprise performance for London commuters - BBC News", "Thames Water says it can't pay back £190m loan - BBC News", "COP28 agreement on fossil fuels live: New global deal agrees to move away from oil, gas, and coal - BBC News", "Climate minister Graham Stuart makes 6,824 mile round trip for Rwanda vote - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak seeks to defuse Tory revolt ahead of Rwanda vote - BBC News", "BBC Radio 1: Clara Amfo to quit Future Sounds - BBC News", "Eyal Waldman: Israeli tech billionaire hopes for peace despite daughter's killing - BBC News", "UK pay growth slows as jobs market stalls - BBC News", "Covid inquiry: Eat Out To Help Out curbed devastating job losses - PM - BBC News", "Humza Yousaf brands David Cameron 'petty' over meeting threat - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza war: UN aid worker describes nightmare journey to al-Ahli Hospital - BBC News", "South Wales explosion: Tributes paid to Danielle Evans - BBC News", "Ilkeston: Murder arrest after group hit by van in town centre - BBC News", "Gaynor Lord: Body found in search for missing Norwich mum - BBC News", "Kuwaiti leader Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmed dies aged 86 - BBC News", "Crowds strip aid trucks of food and supplies at Gaza's Rafah crossing - BBC News", "Piers Morgan and hacking: What the Prince Harry case heard - BBC News", "Banbury: Sparse Christmas tree sells for 'astonishing' fee - BBC News", "Steve Halliwell: Emmerdale's Zak Dingle actor dies aged 77 - BBC News", "Cardinal Becciu: Vatican court convicts former Pope adviser of financial crimes - BBC News", "Heavy rain harming grassroots sport - rugby club - BBC News", "More than 60 migrants feared drowned off Libya, IOM says - BBC News", "Louis Theroux shaves off eyebrows due to alopecia - BBC News", "Julian De Bono: Body is found in river in search for missing man - BBC News", "Tata Steel: Unions infighting grows ahead of jobs meeting - BBC News", "Ncuti Gatwa: Doctor Who star on why he 'felt like alien' growing up - BBC News", "Lucy Williamson: Hamas support soars in West Bank - but full uprising can still be avoided - BBC News", "London's Ulez-scrapped cars cannot go to Ukraine, Sadiq Khan says - BBC News", "British teen Alex Batty left mother to avoid Finland move - French officials - BBC News", "Israel-Hamas war: Ceasefire in Gaza chances shrinking, Qatar says - BBC News", "Rudy Giuliani 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"Mirror hacking case: Prince Harry has last laugh but 'mission' goes on - BBC News", "Alex Batty: British teen found in France returns to UK - BBC News", "More big shipping firms stop Red Sea routes after attacks - BBC News", "The mountain wilderness where British teen Alex Batty lived for years - BBC News", "Comedian's bid to bust myths about being bisexual - BBC News", "How Israel jails hundreds of Palestinians without charge - BBC News", "Tom Lockyer: Luton captain 'stable' after suffering cardiac arrest - BBC Sport", "Perry death an accident caused by ketamine - coroner - BBC News", "UK MP Layla Moran's family among hundreds trapped in Gaza church - BBC News", "Question of Sport has been shelved, BBC confirms - BBC News", "Trains and ferries cancelled as warning for heavy rain in force - BBC News", "HMS Diamond: British warship shoots down suspected attack drone in Red Sea - BBC News", "Watch: Sun emits strongest solar flare in years - BBC News", "Channel migrants: Hundreds cross 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prodigy, 8, wins title at European championships - BBC News", "Serial killer's ex-wife Monique Olivier convicted for part in murders - BBC News", "Scottish government abandons court case over gender law veto - BBC News", "Kidnapped British businessman Colin Armstrong freed in Ecuador - BBC News", "Iceland volcano eruption weakening - BBC News", "Gansu earthquake: Authorities nearing end of rescues as more than 130 killed - BBC News", "Brain surgery teen to have first seizure-free Christmas - BBC News", "Mark Drakeford won't visit Welsh pubs that banned him - BBC News", "Iceland volcano: 'We're worried our village will disappear from map' - BBC News", "Solihull: Car flips and narrowly misses woman with child - BBC News", "Phil Spencer’s parents died 'in most tragic' accident - coroner - BBC News", "Sydney Sweeney says Euphoria co-star Angus Cloud's death still doesn't feel real - BBC News", "Stormont talks: What issues are affecting people in Northern Ireland? - BBC News", "Venezuela: Americans freed in swap deal - and fraudster Fat Leonard returned - BBC News", "Ella Smith: Learner drivers guilty of killing passenger - BBC News", "Biden risks Democrats' fury over deal on border and Ukraine - BBC News", "'I don't want to be a number': Gazans live in fear of dying - BBC News", "Iceland volcano: Spectacular aerial footage shows scale of eruption - BBC News", "French MPs pass controversial immigration reform - BBC News", "The Crown star Dominic West says he can understand criticism of the show - BBC News", "Esther Rantzen: Minister says he is 'not averse' to new assisted dying vote - BBC News", "Isabel dos Santos: Angolan billionaire hit with £580m asset freeze - BBC News", "South Korea: Students sue after teacher ends exam 90 seconds early - BBC News", "£26m celebrity burglaries suspect arrested in Serbia - BBC News", "Claire Holland: Darren Osment jailed for life for murder of missing ex-partner - BBC News", "Lawrence Bierton: Killer guilty of third murder will never be released - BBC News", "Brianna Ghey: 'My daughter was fearless to be who she wanted to be' - BBC News", "Complaints about rats in social housing rise - BBC News", "Rare 'rainbow cloud' spotted in UK skies - BBC Weather", "Complaints about rats in social housing rise - BBC News", "The boy aiming to break a running world record - when he's 62 - BBC News", "Abortion: PSNI investigate safe access zone protest law breaches - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza: The man held with the hostages Israel mistakenly killed - BBC News", "Gaza health ministry says Israeli strikes kill 110 in Jabalia - BBC News", "Beavers in Cairngorms for first time in 400 years - BBC News", "Hungary blocks €50bn of EU funding for Ukraine - BBC News", "Will Scotland see a white Christmas this year? - BBC News", "Israel Gaza: Negotiations delay UN vote urging pause in fighting - BBC News", "JN.1 Covid variant: WHO charts its rapid global spread - BBC News", "Sports Personality of the Year 2023: Mary Earps wants 'to change the world' - BBC Sport", "Liverpool 5-1 West Ham United: Jurgen Klopp's side reach Carabao Cup last four - BBC Sport", "Brianna Ghey: The young killers who tried to get away with murder - BBC News", "Troubles legacy act: Ireland takes human rights case against UK - BBC News", "Iceland volcano: Pollution warning for capital after eruption - BBC News", "Polish state TVP Info channel off air as Tusk reforms kick in - BBC News", "Ukraine military seeks extra 500,000 soldiers - President Zelensky - BBC News", "Watch Jurassic Park reborn on Welsh Christmas pub crawl - BBC News", "Rimmel London ad banned for implying girls need make-up - BBC News", "Activists who climbed Kelpies 'put police in danger' - BBC News", "Italian court jails parents for life over 'honour killing' of Pakistani teen - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Kyiv forced to cut military operations as foreign aid dries up - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza live news: US says 'serious negotiations' taking place on new Gaza truce - BBC News", "Hamas hostages: Stories of the people taken from Israel - BBC News", "Stormont: Government should raise public sector pay - DUP - BBC News", "Gazans trapped in church fear being shot, says relative - BBC News", "A9 dualling project delayed by 10 years until 2035 - BBC News", "Five children die in fire while father Christmas shopping - BBC News", "Basil McAfee: Renewed appeal 10 years after vicious murder - BBC News", "British Museum signs £50m funding deal with BP - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak's five promises: What progress has he made? - BBC News", "Boy who planned synagogue attack ordered to write book report - BBC News", "Israel has gone beyond self-defence in Gaza, Tory MP Alicia Kearns says - BBC News", "Disruption warning as junior doctor strikes return - BBC News", "Public pay must reflect rises, ministers say - BBC News", "Food and fuel drive drop in UK inflation rate to 3.9% - BBC News", "Luton's abandoned match at Bournemouth to be replayed in full - BBC Sport", "Scottish Budget: Higher earners to pay more income tax - BBC News", "Brianna Ghey murder trial: Jury retires to consider verdicts - BBC News", "Brianna Ghey murder: Teens guilty of 'ferocious' killing - BBC News", "UN vote postponed to Wednesday as talks continue - BBC News", "Russia LGBT: Police raid Moscow gay clubs, media say - BBC News", "Kevin Sinfield in Cardiff for day two of ultra-marathon MND challenge - BBC News", "Nigel Harman pulls out of Strictly Come Dancing - BBC News", "Ex-gang member charged with stabbing Derek Chauvin 22 times - BBC News", "Shane MacGowan's wife hopes Fairytale of New York will be Christmas number one - BBC News", "Gloria Steinem: Feminist icon on 'lethal' desire to control wombs - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza: UK launches surveillance flights to find Hamas hostages - BBC News", "Danny Macklin: Police find ex-AFC Wimbledon chief in Cornwall - BBC News", "AUKUS: Radars will help counter threat of 'space warfare' - BBC News", "University Challenge: Christmas episode axed after ableism complaints - BBC News", "Paris attack near Eiffel Tower leaves one dead and two injured - BBC News", "Woman who spent six years in NI care system calls for change - BBC News", "Gaza's fear and anger as ceasefire ends and fighting erupts - BBC News", "I'm a Celeb producers sorry for liking 'unacceptable' Instagram comment - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza live news: Residents of Khan Younis say Israeli strikes heaviest since start of war - BBC News", "British soldier killed off duty in Kenya - BBC News", "24 Hours in Police Custody: Bedford takeaway siege recounted - BBC News", "Man, 84, dead after explosion destroys neighbour's house in Edinburgh - BBC News", "'I’m not ready to lose hope': The hostages still in Gaza - BBC News", "Court rules Donald Trump can be sued for allegedly inciting Capitol riot - BBC News", "Pope Francis calls for end to fossil fuels at COP28 in Dubai - BBC News", "Euro 2024 draw: Scotland in group with hosts Germany while England in with Denmark - BBC Sport", "England 3-2 Netherlands: Ella Toone scores late winner in crucial Women's Nations League tie - BBC Sport", "King's tie features Greek flag after Elgin Marbles row - BBC News", "Bologna's leaning tower sealed off over fears it could collapse - BBC News", "Glasgow Airport: Flights resume following snow cancellations - BBC News", "Brigit Forsyth: Still Open All Hours actress dies aged 83 - BBC News", "Laura Kuenssberg: Health Secretary Victoria Atkins could decide Tory party's fate - BBC News", "Mark Lovell: Killers followed victim after he visited sick mother - BBC News", "Two rescued as explosion destroys Edinburgh house - BBC News", "Paris Olympics 2024: Locals ask if they're worth the trouble - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Putin to boost Russian troop numbers by 15% - BBC News", "Philippines earthquake: Pregnant woman killed by Mindanao quake - BBC News", "Judge taken to hospital after family court assault - BBC News", "Muriel McKay's daughter urges Met to let mother's killer find body - BBC News", "Boris Johnson to apologise to Covid inquiry but say he got big calls right - BBC News", "Nearly 100,000 Gaza buildings may be damaged, satellite images show - BBC News", "French anti-bullying bikers accused of threatening headteacher - BBC News", "Israel-Gaza war: Residents of Khan Younis say Israeli strikes heaviest since start of war - BBC News", "Snow and ice warnings in place as temperatures plummet - BBC News", "How Hamas built a force to attack Israel on 7 October - BBC News", "Palestinian man criticises Israeli prison as 30 more freed - BBC News", "How the Palace got stuck in Scobie-gate - BBC News", "Bowen: US sets clearer red lines for Israel as ceasefire ends - BBC News", "Warnings for snow and ice as sporting events cancelled - BBC News", "Villa Park: Forty-six men charged after officers hurt in clashes - BBC News", "The Crown's Imelda Staunton on the 'shock' of playing the Queen when the Queen died - BBC News", "Wales weather: Snow and ice warnings after temperatures drop - BBC News", "Hamas hostages: Stories of the people taken from Israel - BBC News", "Thurrock residents tell of life under a 'bankrupt' council - BBC News"], "published_date": ["2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-21", "2023-12-03", "2023-12-03", "2023-12-03", "2023-12-03", "2023-12-03", "2023-12-03", "2023-12-03", "2023-12-03", "2023-12-03", "2023-12-03", "2023-12-03", "2023-12-03", 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"description": ["Angus Bain, 17, has suffered debilitating epileptic fits every week throughout his childhood.", "First minister says 90 pubs which told him he's not welcome are in no danger of him popping in.", "BBC Arabic’s Jehad El-Mashhrawi documents fatigue, hunger and climbing over corpses as he fled north Gaza.", "PC Lewis Edwards was jailed for life in October after grooming 200 girls on Snapchat.", "The Scottish government's previous target of completing the job by 2025 was deemed \"unachievable\".", "Users were unable to view posts on the social media site for just over an hour.", "The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for wind across the country until 21:00.", "Hamas's leader is in Egypt to discuss a potential deal that could see more Israeli hostages released.", "People with the condition have to deal with abdominal bloating, gurgling noises and flatulence.", "Venezuela releases a fraudster wanted by the US and 10 Americans, as part of a prisoner swap deal.", "Jago Clarke and Emma Price are convicted of causing the death of 21-year-old passenger Ella Smith.", "The firms behind CNN, HBO and Barbie are reportedly in early stage discussions to join forces.", "\"Confidential\" documents obtained by the BBC show how Iran is dealing with women violating its dress code.", "Firm apologises after worker was told she could not wear a jumper saying happy Christmas in Irish.", "At least 8,000 children are among those killed since the war began, according to Hamas.", "Residents in the Parkerville area of Perth were warned to leave the area, due to a threat to life.", "Drone footage shows lava and smoke spewing into the air weeks after waiting on the seismic activity.", "It has been 35 years since the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie.", "The Swedish flat-pack furniture firm says some goods may not be available after rebel strikes on ships.", "Ministers will not appeal a ruling that the UK government acted lawfully when it blocked the reforms.", "Every year, around 1,200 deer are fitted with GPS monitors before being rereleased into the wild.", "Covid and other infections could rise in many parts of the world this winter, the experts warn.", "Uefa and Fifa rules banning clubs joining breakaway competitions like the European Super League are unlawful, the European Court of Justice rules.", "Dominic West admits he's \"uncomfortable\" with the idea that the Royal Family's lives are \"fair game\".", "Black, Asian and minority ethnic patients face longer waits for organ transplants than white people.", "Glynn Simmons says his nearly half-century in prison is a \"lesson in resilience and tenacity\".", "Students in England will be able to choose British Sign Language as a GCSE subject from September 2025.", "Just when you thought this season could not get any stranger, along came a plan that appeared to divide the game and then united fans in fighting against it.", "The pair who killed Brianna Ghey in broad daylight arrogantly thought they were too clever to be caught.", "Russia has gained ground in the key eastern town - but Ukraine says it's inflicting \"major losses on the invaders\".", "Images commissioned by the BBC reveal the damage in Gaza before the recent temporary truce started.", "Wham!, Sam Ryder and Mariah Carey are in one of the most open festive chart races of recent years.", "Dinosaurs prowl the streets as friends recreate classic blockbuster movie scene for annual day out.", "The Premier League and other sports governing bodies \"should commit to cutting the volume\" of gambling adverts in stadiums, says an influential group of MPs.", "A senior Tory MP leads calls for more government action to prevent AI sabotaging British democracy.", "The Labour leader says MPs should be allowed to vote with their conscience on assisted dying.", "Hannah Taylor and Lewis Conroy admit climbing the 98ft structure but deny breach of the peace.", "Israel has told civilians to shelter in a \"safe\" zone, but people say it is not fit for people to stay in.", "But prospects remain uncertain after Hamas's leader reportedly rejected the prospect of a temporary pause.", "The actor has been accused of rape, sexual assault and harassment. He denies any wrongdoing.", "The 16-year-old was stabbed 28 times in a park in Cheshire by pair with a \"thirst for killing\".", "UK funds have helped French police drive down the number of small boat crossings - but not stop them.", "The Chinese online retailer with the slogan 'shop like a billionaire' faces questions over its ultra low prices.", "There are strong winds across all four nations - with one rail operator issuing \"do not travel\" advice.", "Money used to care for disabled people disappears amid a dispute between a council and payroll firm.", "Video shows violent tremors shaking goods off shop shelves and blowing out street lights.", "The reported raids come a day after the country's Supreme Court outlawed the \"LGBT movement\".", "Two police officers were injured and the suspect was taken to hospital but later declared dead.", "Shane MacGowan gave voice to an Irish-English generation, writes author Joseph O'Connor.", "There was no elimination this week, after the Casualty star pulled out after injuring a rib.", "Why struggling parents aren't choosing cheaper brands when it comes to infant formula milk.", "The UK is sending unarmed, manned aircraft over Israel and Gaza to aid rescue efforts.", "Three sites set to monitor deep space in a security arrangement between the UK, US and Australia.", "Thousands are still without power and cars marooned by thick snow in Cumbria, with more warnings ahead.", "The suspect tells police he was upset by \"so many Muslims dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine\".", "The UN says renewed war between Israel and Hamas is \"catastrophic\" and a \"nightmare\".", "The Suffolk MP spent a month in hospital in 2018 and had to rebuild \"aspects\" of her memory.", "BBC understands 32-year-old Maj Kevin McCool was on a motorcycle trip off base when he was attacked.", "A new series of 24 Hours in Police Custody kicks off with a dramatic armed siege in Bedford.", "There are still over 100 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, including at least 16 women.", "Baroness Kinnock, a lifelong socialist campaigner, served as a minister under Gordon Brown.", "Scotland are drawn in the same group as hosts Germany at Euro 2024 while England are in Group C along with Denmark, Slovenia and Serbia.", "Social activist Ndileka Mandela says \"the global north is using economic and legal power to subjugate poor nations\".", "Sir Keir Starmer says the UK will face \"huge constraints\" on public spending if Labour wins power.", "A senior Tory MP urges the UK government to ban solar firms with links to forced labour in China.", "A woman was told it was safe to move back to a flat with soaking wet carpets days after a flood.", "Victoria Atkins' performance, when pressure mounts on the NHS, is vital for her party's prospects.", "The veteran actor, who died in 2022 aged 93, reprised his role as Wilfred Mott one last time.", "Video posted on social media shows a man dressed in black who appears to be carrying a knife.", "A \"major incident\" is declared in Cumbria after heavy snowfall, with police urging people not to travel.", "Up to 30,000 people were given contaminated blood in the 1970s and 1980s. Thousands have died.", "Four are killed and 42 wounded in a blast officials suspect was carried out by Islamist militants.", "Officials say four people are injured and nine are missing after a powerful quake and several aftershocks.", "Henry Kissinger died aged 100 this week. His policies caused widespread destruction in Cambodia.", "As Israel enters the major southern city, the UN warns \"no place is safe in Gaza\".", "The head of Israel's military says the IDF is fighting \"strongly and thoroughly\" in southern Gaza.", "Images commissioned by the BBC reveal the damage in Gaza before the recent temporary truce started.", "Detectives have traced a woman after issuing an appeal following a street disturbance in Dundee.", "Civilians in parts of north and south Gaza have been told to evacuate as Israel's renewed bombardment continues.", "Members of a French motorcycle group against bullying are charged with threats to headteacher.", "BBC Arabic and BBC Verify have pieced together how armed groups came together to train for the assault.", "If Israel kills as many in south Gaza as in the north, Biden will face some tough questions over US support for its ally.", "Cumbria Police declare a \"major incident\" after heavy snowfalls and reports of vehicles getting stuck.", "New health secretary Victoria Atkins says strikes by medics have delayed 1.1 million appointments.", "Uefa says it is investigating after sex noises were transmitted during the broadcast of the Euro 2024 draw on Saturday.", "It is thought more than 100 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza after the 7 October attacks.", "The call for a break comes as Nigel Farage appears Down Under this year - following Matt Hancock.", "Shea Ryan, 10, died after contractor RJ McLeod failed to put in place adequate safety measures.", "Fairytale of New York has surged since the death of Pogues' frontman Shane MacGowan.", "Police say a man was killed and two others injured when they were struck in a Derbyshire town.", "SaxaVord Spaceport on the island of Unst has been given approval from the Civil Aviation Authority.", "Prayers for Catherine Bond and Jane Pearce are held after approval from the House of Bishops.", "Passengers were stuck in cold and dark carriages recently after overhead electric cables were damaged.", "Alex Batty is back in the UK after vanishing on a holiday in Spain in 2017 with his mother and grandfather.", "Aid trucks are being boarded by groups of people while passing through the border city of Rafah.", "Hundreds in the Australian state have been evacuated but others remain stranded.", "The Succession star told the BBC he likes dancing but is not sure he wants \"to go down that road\".", "Images of the comedy performer help tell the story of her complex life in a new documentary.", "Italian cardinal Angelo Becciu is sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail for financial crimes.", "Lord Cameron warns \"too many civilians have been killed\" in Gaza in a shift in tone from the UK.", "Near-final results showed the president's party far ahead, but the opposition claimed electoral fraud.", "An overcrowded boat is believed to have been swamped by high waves after leaving the city of Zuwara.", "Its criminal investigations team is looking into claims the BBC withheld documents related to Martin Bashir's interview with Princess Diana.", "Foreign Minister Colonna said on a visit to Israel that too many civilians were being killed.", "Arsenal legend Ian Wright is to step down as a pundit from Match of the Day at the end of the season.", "London's mayor says he cannot legally change the Ulez scheme and send scrapped vehicles to Ukraine.", "The pop star will sing in Sweden next May, after a disappointing result for Mae Muller this year.", "Luton Town captain Tom Lockyer is still in hospital and undergoing \"tests and scans\" after suffering a cardiac arrest on the pitch during Saturday's Premier League match at Bournemouth.", "Actor and comedian Steve Coogan says the press needs \"proper, independent regulation\".", "The BBC's Jeremy Bowen asks Israeli and Palestinian activists about their hopes for resolving the conflict.", "Three hostages were mistakenly killed in Gaza on Friday by Israeli troops in an area of intense fighting.", "Farmer employs sheepdogs between August and December to guard his 600 free range turkeys.", "Baroness Mone speaks exclusively to Laura Kuenssberg.", "The landslide created large waves and disrupted traffic on lakeside roads.", "Alex Batty, who was missing for six years, has returned to the UK, Greater Manchester Police says.", "The shooting of three Israelis by IDF troops shows the risks of armed intervention in hostage situations.", "Layla Moran tells the BBC her relatives are trapped in a church complex as Israeli forces operate nearby.", "Major disruption is caused to bus and rail services in the latest action by Translink staff.", "\"It's going to be the wildest ride\" says the star, in the first interview since his Eurovision news.", "Luton captain Tom Lockyer is \"stable\" after suffering a cardiac arrest on the pitch during the Premier League match at Bournemouth, his club confirms.", "Layla Moran's relatives and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem say a sniper has killed two women there.", "The three hostages were mistakenly killed in Gaza on Friday by Israeli troops.", "The Royal Navy has not shot down an aerial target in anger since 1991, the Ministry of Defence says.", "In an exclusive interview, the ex-Tory peer says she and her husband were made \"scapegoats\" for PPE failings.", "How an island that exported t-shirts and sugar turned into the world's largest silicon chip factory.", "It is thought more than 100 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza after the 7 October attacks.", "Modernising the law and training for door staff are also among measures announced by the government.", "A lot of us know someone who has felt pretty rough with the most recent form of the virus.", "Baroness Mone speaks exclusively to Laura Kuenssberg.", "Better treatments and even a cure for hyperemesis gravidarum could be on the horizon, researchers say.", "Derry City and Strabane Council says any \"defciencies\" in the facility will be addressed.", "The prime minister suggests migrant families already in the UK may get exemptions from higher wage rules.", "Republicans have yet to produce evidence of wrongdoing but are seeking more powers for the investigation.", "The BBC's Ione Wells tells us what's next for the PM's Rwanda plan after it passes a vote in the Commons.", "The US president issues his strongest criticism yet and refers to \"indiscriminate bombing\" in Gaza.", "Bernard Looney is dismissed without notice after BP finds he misled board over colleague relationships.", "He will remain in Wales' top job until his successor is picked by the party before Easter.", "Tesco said the discovery was most likely mould growth from \"improper storage\".", "Several flats were evacuated after what police believe was a deliberate attack in South Lanarkshire.", "Israel's foreign minister says a ceasefire \"at the current stage\" would be a \"gift\" to Hamas.", "Flagship bill passes its first Commons hurdle but PM still faces battle to get it through Parliament.", "Indhu Rubasingham will be the seventh director in the landmark London venue's 60-year history.", "The three women mistreated children at Smyllum Park in Lanark for more than a decade until it closed in 1981.", "Andre Braugher baked comedy, intellect and heart into the delivery of his lines on the US sitcom.", "It is one of a number of wide-ranging recommendations made in an independent review of education.", "It follows investigation into crashes which occurred when firm's Autopilot system was in use.", "The Republican-led House votes to formalise the inquiry, which Democrats and the White House say is baseless.", "Investing in electric buses and taxi upgrades will cut pollution more than charges, Andy Burnham says.", "The BBC is told the three teenagers had all been at a funeral earlier in the day.", "Matthew McMahon, who persuaded victims to send him sexual images, will serve two years in prison.", "A total of 53 people have been hurt in the attacks, including six children, the mayor of Kyiv says.", "Six weeks after Downpatrick was hit by severe flooding, businesses say they are still recovering.", "Dashcam footage shows drivers trying to steer the dog towards exits on the Staten Island Expressway.", "A man in his underwear is filmed laying down weapons - but there are questions about what happened.", "Dame Laura Kenny says women struggle to get pregnant because of the athlete lifestyle.", "A number of people say too many men are \"crammed\" into the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset.", "Israel aims to destroy the group in Gaza, but its influence is spreading in the occupied West Bank.", "Dr Jonathan Williams had agreed to step back from his duties until the conclusion of an external review.", "A non-binding resolution is backed by 153 states, with the US and Israel among 10 voting against.", "James Bulger killer Jon Venables cannot be freed because he remains a danger to children, it is ruled.", "The digital expansion follows the success of the Covid vaccination programme, NHS England says.", "For the first time, the streaming giant has released global viewing data across almost its entire catalogue.", "Manchester United fall to defeat by Bayern Munich at Old Trafford to exit the Champions League at the group stage.", "Rights groups say around 260 charges have been filed under the lese-majeste law since the 2020 protests.", "Lianne Gordon was shot by a teenager trying to force his way into her home, a court hears.", "Tejean Kennedy and Ali Kavak killed Mehmet Koray Alpergin in a bar near Tottenham Hotspur's ground.", "An expert from the British Museum dates the artefact between 100 and 300 AD.", "Find out how the world's major economies are doing on cutting their emissions and what lies ahead.", "Republicans will not approve US military aid to Ukraine unless Democrats back a deal on border security.", "Advertising regulator tells firm to withdraw \"fastest wi-fi guarantee of any major provider\" advert.", "Is the climate agreement enough to keep global temperatures in check?", "Lawmakers said two men jumped into the well of the house from the visitors' gallery.", "The hit show's cast remember their \"kind\" and \"loyal\" captain, who loved singing in his dressing room.", "Charles Hurst has eight sites across Northern Ireland and employs close to 900 staff.", "A watchdog says the firms have hiked card payment fees from the European Union too much since Brexit.", "The South American nation's new government is trying to tackle its worst crisis in decades.", "The man who died on the vessel, moored off Dorset, is thought to have taken his own life.", "The deal agrees to 'transition away' from fossil fuels for the first time but falls short of phasing them out.", "Gaza’s first female surgeon describes the horror of having to choose which patients to save at Al-Shifa hospital.", "Samir Shah says the sports presenter \"seemed to breach\" guidelines with online swipes at Tory MPs.", "Dwight Pile-Gray, an ex-guardsman, says a colleague doubted he was a soldier due to his appearance.", "A mass email revealed details of more than 200 people who the UK was trying to help flee the Taliban.", "The MP for the area says there were \"walking wounded\" after the fire at Treforest Industrial Estate.", "The UK sector risks a \"slow death\" unless it stops making new steel, an industry boss claims.", "Higher interest rates and bad weather hold back growth as the economy continues to stagnate.", "Rishi Sunak says it was an \"appalling failure\" that service people were sacked because of their sexuality.", "The home secretary says a balance needs to be struck as he seeks to placate Tory backbench MPs.", "BBC Wales political editor Gareth Lewis looks at names in the mix to be next Welsh Labour leader.", "The legislation could set up a politically explosive fight with the courts.", "Republicans remain \"resolute\" in demanding border policy reform in exchange for backing Ukraine aid.", "Braugher often portrayed a gruff policeman, but in roles both dramatic and comedic.", "Nasa's Perseverance rover has done everything asked of it since landing on the Red Planet in 2021.", "The boxing champion and his brothers are ordered to pay business rates for land used as car park.", "Two-thirds of new mothers have been forced into \"tough choices\" due to 25% price rise, a survey says.", "Three mothers from different continents say their love for their children has motivated them to take climate action.", "The manager and ringmaster says he is confident the performer will be \"back even stronger\".", "Newcastle United are knocked out of the Champions League after losing to AC Milan, finishing bottom of Group F and dropping out of European competition.", "Michael and Marjorie Cawdery, who were 83, were brutally attacked in their own home.", "A senior military adviser tells the BBC Israel will need more than a few more weeks to destroy Hamas.", "The boy denies murdering Brianna Ghey, saying his co-accused used his knife to carry out the attack.", "Benjamin Netanyahu says \"the war is in full swing\" and calls on Hamas fighters to surrender.", "Thames Water boss tells MPs it doesn't have enough money to pay back a loan due in April next year.", "A major deal is agreed by almost 200 countries in Dubai - although some island nations, and other groups, criticise parts of the text.", "Police release footage of Gaynor Lord’s last known movements as part of an appeal for information.", "The Ukrainian president failed to secure a breakthrough on more US aid during his third visit to Washington.", "The Labour leader takes aim at the government's record - but the PM insists they have achieved plenty.", "In a video message, Khawaja said he \"respected\" authorities' decision to bar his shoes bearing the words \"all lives are equal\".", "Eyal Waldman's youngest daughter was killed in the Supernova music festival massacre on 7 October.", "Holidaymaker Marion Clode died after she was flipped over a fence by a cow in Northumberland in 2016.", "David Davis says a rough sleeper was \"badly beaten up\" after two men kicked \"seven bells\" out of him.", "The \"Money Saving Expert\" says pressure of being a trusted voice on finance is \"horrendous\".", "Some areas could face flooding, with up to 80mm of rainfall forecast in some western areas.", "One commuter described the experience as \"feeling like a wartime thing\".", "The government signs a Hillsborough Charter but stops short of a law wanted by campaigners.", "Police arrest serial killer Steve Wright on suspicion of murdering the teenager in Suffolk in 1999.", "The prime minister says next Tuesday's vote on Rwanda bill will not be treated as confidence vote in his government.", "Illya Kyva was shot dead in a special operation by Ukraine's SBU security service, sources tell the BBC.", "The woman was airlifted to hospital with non life-threatening injuries but has since been released.", "The annual fee will rise by 6.6% - less than the BBC hoped for - based on September's rate of inflation.", "James Henry Clarke, 81, appeared at Belfast Crown Court after being extradited from Canada.", "About 170 healthy trees and saplings were mistakenly felled in Orangefield Park in east Belfast.", "The former presenter left ITV after he admitted lying about the affair.", "Attacks including fatal shootings of Palestinians by Jewish settlers have risen sharply since 7 October.", "Dr Ahmed Moghrabi told the BBC there's a scarcity of food, water, medicine and he cannot operate on patients.", "Russia's leader visits the UAE and Saudi Arabia for talks expected to include the Gaza and Ukraine wars.", "Lianne Gordon was shot in an attack on Tuesday evening in which a man and boy were also wounded.", "The head teacher died two months after Ofsted inspected her school in Reading in November 2022.", "A man has been arrested after seven-year-old William Brown died when he was hit by a vehicle.", "The Home Secretary James Cleverly says he's \"incredibly disappointed\" by Meta's decision to automatically encrypt all messages", "The BBC has seen evidence of foreigners without valid visas being sent to a military camp near Ukraine.", "The heads of Northern Ireland's main education bodies have written to Chris Heaton-Harris.", "A three-hour meeting between freed hostages and Israel's leaders turned tense, observers say.", "A decision that ruled Colin Pitchfork could be released again was challenged by the government.", "Senior Tories say they would not be surprised if Rishi Sunak ends up facing a confidence vote, says Chris Mason.", "The fast-food giant pilots CosMc's and plans to open about 10,000 McDonald's globally by 2027.", "The gunman was killed by police after opening fire at the Las Vegas campus of the University of Nevada.", "Find out how much has changed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its military response to Hamas's attacks on 7 October.", "The Prince of Wales shocks Emma Webb by turning up on day 13 of her charity walk to London.", "The former PM is the most high-profile witness so far to testify at the inquiry into the pandemic.", "People are using notes and coins as a way of budgeting while prices rise, says the British Retail Consortium.", "Only former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie sought to criticise the Republican frontrunner.", "The PM seeks to head off Tory rebels by insisting his policy is the \"toughest immigration law ever\".", "Four generations of the same family with the condition XLH are distraught over the NICE decision.", "The former prime minister says he offered counter arguments but ultimately acted to curb Covid.", "The Duke of Sussex is challenging the Home Office over a decision to downgrade his protection.", "A cutting-edge tool from Open AI appears to be poorly moderated, allowing it to be abused by cyber-criminals.", "The indie band follow in the footsteps of Adele, Florence + The Machine and Sam Fender.", "The six retired officers were told their behaviour had harmed public confidence in the police.", "Rebellious Tory MPs from different wings of the party could sink the prime minister's asylum policy.", "Following new legal action, the rapper says he \"did not do any of the awful things being alleged\".", "Find out how the world's major economies are doing on cutting their emissions and what lies ahead.", "In his final comments to the Covid inquiry, the ex-PM says the British public needs to know \"how this thing originated\".", "A viral video captured the woman screaming at a Chipotle worker before throwing her food in her face.", "The new co-operative survival game mode sees players crafting items with Lego bricks.", "The former PM tells the pandemic inquiry he initially underestimated the challenge posed by the virus.", "The former home secretary says legislation must block all routes of legal challenge to allow flights to take off.", "This comes as a yellow weather warning was in place for heavy rain through Thursday in parts of NI.", "In the days following an inspection at her school, the head teacher wrote down her innermost thoughts.", "Boris Johnson mixed contrition with an effort to take on former colleagues who questioned him.", "Security aid is in jeopardy as US Republicans insist on new US-Mexico border security measures.", "The former immigration minister says the government's emergency legislation \"does not go far enough\".", "\"I just wanted them to be held\": Inside the centre helping survivors of the 7 October attacks.", "A state of emergency is declared in the country after massive blast at an industrial area.", "Colombia and Brazil destroy 19 illegal gold mining sites and equipment in the Amazon rainforest.", "The legislation could set up a politically explosive fight with the courts.", "Kristen Stewart and Hugh Grant are among the stars to cram into a Manchester street to watch the show.", "The husband of Sian Doyle says a report into bullying at the TV channel was “the last straw”.", "It is thought more than 100 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza after the 7 October attacks.", "Robert Jenrick quits as immigration minister, citing \"strong disagreements\" over immigration policy.", "Police investigating the murder of Odhrán Kelly in County Armagh have charged two women with assisting an offender.", "People say life in Khan Younis is \"indescribable\" as Israel's bombardment of the south intensifies.", "A high-profile lawyer disputes a council's claim that public urination is littering.", "Olly Cartmill was 13kg when he had the life-saving operation, getting a kidney from his grandmother.", "Police say they believe the 14-year-old girl may have been involved in a conflict with classmates.", "The FSB state security service is accused of hacking and releasing sensitive documents.", "The Iran-backed Houthis have recently begun attacking vessels in the Red Sea they say are linked to Israel.", "Proteins in blood reflect how well the brain, heart and other major organs are faring, say scientists.", "MPs stop the \"inappropriate treatment\" of religious texts after a series of burnings of Islam's holy book.", "Brexit backers Michael Tomlinson and Tom Pursglove will split the illegal and legal migration roles.", "Jade Forbes said dealing with bigotry was like \"death by a thousand cuts\".", "Zephaniah, who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumour, is remembered as a \"beautiful human being\".", "Rafah is suffering severe water shortages, there is no food or electricity and supermarkets are empty.", "Suella Braverman tells Radio 4's Today the plan \"won't work\" unless the PM makes changes.", "Better treatments and even a cure for hyperemesis gravidarum could be on the horizon, researchers say.", "Republicans have yet to produce evidence of wrongdoing but are seeking more powers for the investigation.", "The US president issues his strongest criticism yet and refers to \"indiscriminate bombing\" in Gaza.", "Bernard Looney is dismissed without notice after BP finds he misled board over colleague relationships.", "Prosecutors said the suspects intended to store weapons in Berlin for possible use in an attack.", "Bank governor Andrew Bailey says \"we've come a long way\" in bringing down inflation, but there is \"still some way to go\".", "The actress discusses comments about expecting a baby at the age of 41 with her 27-year-old partner.", "The IDF says it wrongly believed the trio were a \"threat\" and opened fire on them during combat.", "Economy minister to stand, and cabinet colleague Jeremy Miles expected also to confirm candidacy.", "Catherine Hudson, 54, and Charlotte Wilmot, 48, conspired to unlawfully drug a patient at a hospital.", "A leading gynaecologist says the current health system is not working for women with endometriosis.", "Israel's foreign minister says a ceasefire \"at the current stage\" would be a \"gift\" to Hamas.", "Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky hails the decision as \"a victory\" for his country and Europe.", "The three women mistreated children at Smyllum Park in Lanark for more than a decade until it closed in 1981.", "The patient was taken to hospital in severe pain after he pinched his nose and closed his mouth.", "One of the two frontrunners for the contest is expected to announce his bid later today.", "Sara Sharif, 10, was found dead at her home in Woking, Surrey, in August.", "Russia's leader holds his first major news conference since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.", "Police said 30kg of cocaine was chemically converted into lacquer and used as broom handle varnish.", "It is one of a number of wide-ranging recommendations made in an independent review of education.", "Eli Cohen's comments come a day after the UN General Assembly demanded an immediate ceasefire.", "The explosion at Treforest Industrial Estate was caught on a local brewery's CCTV.", "It follows investigation into crashes which occurred when firm's Autopilot system was in use.", "A board advising ministers on compensation for the Horizon software scandal says all should be cleared.", "Central Cee, PinkPantheress, J Hus and Raye also feature heavily in the UK's premier black music awards.", "The UK's largest retailer says a batch of Christmas stuffing may be \"unfit for human consumption\",", "Thomas Bach says Ukraine is \"one war among 28 wars and conflicts going on this world\".", "Calls for change stem from the family of a teenager who died after an allergic reaction to a meal out.", "The platform is released five months after it debuted in the UK, US and other parts of the world.", "The annual brainteaser this year features a puzzle described as the toughest to date.", "Scientists use a radar satellite to take a \"tape measure\" to the world's biggest block of ice.", "The man, in his 20s, fell from about 10m (33ft) above the circus ring during the act.", "Rebecca Welch will become the first female referee to take charge of a men's Premier League match on 23 December.", "Israel aims to destroy the group in Gaza, but its influence is spreading in the occupied West Bank.", "The Emmy winner was diagnosed with the disease several months ago, his publicist says.", "Officers continue to search the Wensum as a friend recounts receiving two calls from the missing mum.", "It is yet another blow for Fumio Kishida's government, whose approval ratings have plunged to a record low.", "Footage showed a pool player potting a ball as the car smashed through the wall.", "Scientists find many cats instinctively want to play throwing and retrieving games, just like dogs.", "Complaints made by the families of two teenagers who died in a crash are investigated.", "The law stops the publication of claims against alleged perpetrators until 25 years after they die.", "Is the climate agreement enough to keep global temperatures in check?", "The body of Caroline Glachan was found on a riverbank in 1996 but her killers have only now been brought to justice.", "It is unclear if the 28-year-old knew the van she is alleged to have stolen contained 10,000 doughnuts.", "Prosecutors want Nicholas Rossi returned to his homeland to face rape charges in Utah.", "The hit show's cast remember their \"kind\" and \"loyal\" captain, who loved singing in his dressing room.", "The MP for the area says there were \"walking wounded\" after the fire at Treforest Industrial Estate.", "A friend of Gaynor Lord says she \"keeps going over\" a call she had with her on the day she went missing.", "Stephen Davies was at the gym in the industrial estate when he heard the explosion.", "An Australian court quashes Kathleen Folbigg's four convictions, after she was pardoned earlier this year.", "The PPS had said it was seeking to drop the case against Soldier F, who is accused of two murders on Bloody Sunday.", "The Bank of England has held interest rates at a 15-year high and dashed hopes they may soon fall.", "Alex Batty borrowed a stranger’s phone to text his grandmother: “I love you, I want to come home”.", "A formal inquiry, with public hearings, has the potential to loom over his election campaign in 2024.", "The manager and ringmaster says he is confident the performer will be \"back even stronger\".", "Newcastle United are knocked out of the Champions League after losing to AC Milan, finishing bottom of Group F and dropping out of European competition.", "Michael and Marjorie Cawdery, who were 83, were brutally attacked in their own home.", "A body is discovered after an explosion and fire at Treforest Industrial Estate in south Wales.", "Benjamin Netanyahu says \"the war is in full swing\" and calls on Hamas fighters to surrender.", "Many people quit smoking, but there was an increase in young adults who took it up, researchers say.", "A man was arrested after the incident in which a 20-year-old woman died on the A4 Belfast Road.", "Scott Benton committed a \"very serious breach\" of parliamentary rules, standards watchdog finds.", "The BBC's Jeremy Bowen asks Israeli and Palestinian activists about their hopes for resolving the conflict.", "US prosecutors say the pair sold birds that they shot on a reservation in Montana.", "The four-hour TV extravaganza was inescapable, writes BBC Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg.", "David Davis says a rough sleeper was \"badly beaten up\" after two men kicked \"seven bells\" out of him.", "A lack of social housing and rising rents has seen numbers in England rise this year, Shelter said.", "Several flats were evacuated after what police believe was a deliberate attack in South Lanarkshire.", "The bear escaped collision-free and is said to have reunited with its mother on the other side of the trail.", "The Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer depicts the city's extremes - what does it tell us about US culture?", "The Strictly Come Dancing judge says she was targeted by men \"at the top\" of dancing.", "Seven others including three staff were injured in what the ICRC called a \"deliberate attack\".", "The worker is seen kicking the homeless man's belongings away as he tries to mop the street.", "Police are called to a property and arrest three people.", "Judge criticises response to a request for documents about reporter behind Princess Diana interview.", "Scientists marvel at the fossilised head of an underwater 'killing machine' from the Jurassic.", "Sam Thompson, Tony Bellew and Nigel Farage were the last men standing on the reality TV show.", "A man in his underwear is filmed laying down weapons - but there are questions about what happened.", "The Canadian singer on her transformation from Billie Eilish balladeer to platinum-plated pop star.", "PPE Medpro is being sued by the government and is being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).", "The PM's unique selling point - ending the chaos of the Truss and Johnson years - is taking a battering.", "A man in his 60s and a woman in her 50s died and an officer is in hospital after the collision.", "Report mentions stagnant wages and mental health issues, and says the gap widened in the pandemic.", "West Indies get over the line in a nervy chase to beat England by four wickets in a rain-shortened third one-day international.", "In a speech smuggled from prison and read out by her twins, Narges Mohammadi denounces \"tyrannical\" Iran.", "Israel rejects the UN chief's description of the war in Gaza as a \"risk to international peace and security\".", "The new contract with LA Dodgers makes the Japanese star one of the world's most valuable athletes.", "The sperm whale strayed into shallow waters, which caught the attention of swimmers.", "Benjamin Netanyahu says \"the war is in full swing\" and calls on Hamas fighters to surrender.", "Anthony Littler, 45, was found with head injuries in an alleyway near a London Tube station.", "The BBC speaks to one of the men seen being detained, who was later released.", "Best known for selling clear aligners remotely, it has shut down months after filing for bankruptcy.", "He's made more impact than every Japanese player before him - and has now signed a record $700m deal.", "Even when the war between Israel and Hamas ends, there is no easy future, the BBC's Jeremy Bowen says.", "Judges, journalists and women's groups watch as Poland's Donald Tusk inches closer to power.", "Charlie Stayt gets up close with Thunder the therapy dog as he visits BBC Breakfast.", "Prince and Princess of Wales use a monochrome image, while King and Queen go for Coronation photo.", "The failed challenge over the fate of Holyrood's gender reform bill is the latest in a series of legal setbacks.", "Foreign Secretary says first minister broke protocol by meeting Turkish president without a UK official.", "Iran bans her parents from heading to Europe to collect an award in her honour, their lawyer says.", "Deveca Rose, 29, of Sutton, is charged with the manslaughter of four young brothers.", "Green Party Women's committee argue they are being punished for members' gender-critical views.", "Flood warnings, service disruptions and power failures are in place for much of the country.", "Israel orders civilians to flee the centre of Gaza's southern city, while intense bombing is seen in northern areas.", "The actor speaks for the first time about needing a cane to walk after falling 6ft (1.8m) at the O2 Arena.", "The ex-immigration minister says the PM's bill to revive the asylum scheme \"doesn't do the job\".", "Images commissioned by the BBC reveal the damage in Gaza before the recent temporary truce started.", "She has faced mounting calls to resign since giving controversial Congressional testimony.", "Israel has told civilians to shelter in a \"safe\" zone, but people say it is not fit for people to stay in.", "The conspiracy theorist was banned from Twitter - now X - but its owner has now reinstated him.", "Tributes are paid to the supporter who died in the stands during Granada's home game against Athletic Bilbao on Sunday, with the game resuming on Monday.", "Conditions in Gaza have made the delivery of food almost impossible, the UN World Food Programme says.", "The event was felt just before 15:30 on Saturday in parts of the region and in the Inner Hebrides.", "Iron Age leaders ruled from fortified villages on 700 hilltops across Wales, an archaeologist says.", "A B-side from the Canadian urged a supposedly fictional Diana to leave her husband and \"bring her limousine\".", "An Israeli campaigner says militants planned acts of sexual violence committed in October's attack.", "Two police officers were injured and the suspect was taken to hospital but later declared dead.", "The music-streaming company says it is making people redundant to \"rightsize\" the firm.", "Leaked papers suggest United Utilities logged dozens of incidents as less serious than they had been.", "The salary needed for skilled workers is rising to £38,700, and care workers will not be allowed to bring dependants.", "The British sprinter said the six-month driving ban could dash her Olympic hopes.", "A Ukrainian soldier on the east side of the Dnipro river tells the BBC about life on the front line.", "The Football Association charges Manchester City after players surrounded referee Simon Hooper in Sunday's draw against Tottenham.", "MPs were voting on a plan to set up a compensation scheme for infected blood scandal victims.", "It comes after the Supreme Court ruled proposals unlawful amid concerns about the Rwandan justice system.", "The culture secretary says an increase of £15 to the fee would add to cost of living pressures.", "The UK is sending unarmed, manned aircraft over Israel and Gaza to aid rescue efforts.", "The government has failed to meet its own promises - this week it makes renewed efforts to rectify that.", "A 26-year-old man is accused of stabbing a German tourist to death near the Eiffel Tower on Saturday.", "Palestinians tell the BBC they were beaten and had dogs set on them while in Israeli detention.", "Thousands are still without power and cars marooned by thick snow in Cumbria, with more warnings ahead.", "The suspect tells police he was upset by \"so many Muslims dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine\".", "James Cleverly is hoping to finally secure flights to the country for migrants who travel to the UK illegally.", "The UN says renewed war between Israel and Hamas is \"catastrophic\" and a \"nightmare\".", "The BBC's Fergal Keane returns ahead of elections next year - 30 years since apartheid ended.", "It says reports of passengers having to pay for a seat before they can download a boarding pass are false.", "Several Met Office weather warnings are in place for parts of the UK.", "Fairytale of New York has surged since the death of Pogues' frontman Shane MacGowan.", "The Premier League agrees a new £6.7bn deal for its domestic television rights with Sky and TNT to show up to 270 live games a season, with the BBC continuing to screen highlights on Match of the Day.", "Eleven people were killed and another 12 are missing after Sumatra's Mount Marapi erupted.", "Cathy says she experienced controlling behaviour and stalking before getting help from the police.", "There are still over 100 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, including at least 16 women.", "An engine failure forces the pilot to make an emergency landing, crashing into an apartment building.", "Baroness Kinnock, a lifelong socialist campaigner, served as a minister under Gordon Brown.", "Ravel Morrison told magistrates he bought the permit for £50 from \"someone in Old Trafford\".", "Complex arrangements have been made to safely send Edinburgh's two giant pandas back to China.", "Right-wing Tory MPs say they are relying on the immigration minister to take action to cut numbers.", "Hundreds of hours go into Gaurav Gupta's designs for Beyoncé, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion.", "Social activist Ndileka Mandela says \"the global north is using economic and legal power to subjugate poor nations\".", "Sir Keir Starmer says the UK will face \"huge constraints\" on public spending if Labour wins power.", "Championship side Sunderland sack head coach Tony Mowbray after 15 months in charge.", "Amateur photographer Nick Sturdy says his images \"don't do justice\" to the feeling of being there.", "Video posted on social media shows a man dressed in black who appears to be carrying a knife.", "Glenys Kinnock, the wife of Neil Kinnock, became a prominent political figure in her own right.", "Stella Creasy says her children have a social services record because of an online troll's harassment.", "Officials said the USS Carney assisted three vessels, including a British ship, that were attacked.", "Up to 30,000 people were given contaminated blood in the 1970s and 1980s. Thousands have died.", "Engineers say 99% of affected properties will have power restored by the end of Monday.", "New figures show last year's net migration was far higher than previously thought, piling pressure on the PM.", "Two women and a man are arrested on suspicion of murder in the County Armagh town.", "The event is in doubt after the state of Victoria withdrew from hosting duties over spiralling costs.", "After leaving the EU, the UK can't blame the bloc for rising migration figures, Chris Mason writes.", "As Israel enters the major southern city, the UN warns \"no place is safe in Gaza\".", "Images commissioned by the BBC reveal the damage in Gaza before the recent temporary truce started.", "The head of Israel's military says the IDF is fighting \"strongly and thoroughly\" in southern Gaza.", "Over 95% of voters approve a territorial claim to oil-rich Essequibo, electoral officials say.", "BBC Arabic and BBC Verify have pieced together how armed groups came together to train for the assault.", "Fiji international Api Ratuniyarawa admits attacking three different women in a Cardiff bar.", "If Israel kills as many in south Gaza as in the north, Biden will face some tough questions over US support for its ally.", "The UK government says its five-point plan will curb legal migration, which has hit record levels.", "A hopeful from Redditch is praised for \"amazing\" commitment after spending £1,380 and 60 hours to pass.", "Peter Norgrove killed Sharon Gordon with a hammer after a disagreement over work at her home.", "The call for a break comes as Nigel Farage appears Down Under this year - following Matt Hancock.", "Their struggles mirror the dashed hopes of so many people confronting a slowing economy.", "\"Unbelievable - you wouldn't treat your home like that,\" the comic says, at the litter-strewn floor.", "A body recovered from a river is formally identified as that of the missing mother of three.", "Modernising the law and training for door staff are also among measures announced by the government.", "SaxaVord Spaceport on the island of Unst has been given approval from the Civil Aviation Authority.", "Franke was arrested in August after her malnourished child escaped from a Utah home.", "Alex Batty is back in the UK after vanishing on a holiday in Spain in 2017 with his mother and grandfather.", "Passengers were stuck in cold and dark carriages recently after overhead electric cables were damaged.", "The Succession star told the BBC he likes dancing but is not sure he wants \"to go down that road\".", "Record rainfall driven by a tropical cyclone causes widespread flooding in Australia's north-east.", "Near-final results showed the president's party far ahead, but the opposition claimed electoral fraud.", "Calls by Hamas for an uprising in the West Bank have come and gone, despite rising support for the group.", "The EU says it is launching \"formal enforcement proceedings\" against the social media platform.", "Pyongyang had warned of action after the US and South Korea met last week to talk defence.", "A lot of us know someone who has felt pretty rough with the most recent form of the virus.", "Its criminal investigations team is looking into claims the BBC withheld documents related to Martin Bashir's interview with Princess Diana.", "Former political adviser Derek Draper, 56, has been living with extreme complications from Covid.", "Arsenal legend Ian Wright is to step down as a pundit from Match of the Day at the end of the season.", "The party says it is approaching the time for a decision on restoring the executive.", "The Foreign Affairs Committee chair says she thinks Israel has \"lost its moral authority\" in Gaza.", "Speaking to the BBC, the nuclear site's boss rejects hacking claims and accusations of safety failings.", "Police question Russell Brand in relation to a further six allegations of historical sex offences.", "A flood of AI-generated nudity prompts the streaming giant to abandon new rules after just two days.", "Luton Town captain Tom Lockyer is still in hospital and undergoing \"tests and scans\" after suffering a cardiac arrest on the pitch during Saturday's Premier League match at Bournemouth.", "Announcing the change, the Vatican emphasised that it continues to view marriage as between a man and a woman.", "Samer Abudaqa died of wounds after a drone strike while working for Al Jazeera at a school.", "Glasgow-born Susan Swimm's 23-year-old son Rory was shot dead by a teenager in Utah in October.", "The BBC's Jeremy Bowen asks Israeli and Palestinian activists about their hopes for resolving the conflict.", "The government says extra money next year will account for inflation - but local authorities disagree.", "A US-based author had published what he called \"the pitch-perfect sequel to The Lord of the Rings\".", "A man who died on the Bibby Stockholm last week was an Albanian national called Leonard Farruku.", "A new peer’s introduction to the House of Lords is briefly sidelined as a mobile phone’s ringtone is heard.", "Stephen McKinney was jailed for a minimum of 20 years for killing Lu Na McKinney in April 2017.", "Veoza, or fezolinetant, a non-hormonal daily pill, works on the brain's temperature-control centre.", "The eruption, in south-west Iceland, led to half the sky being \"lit up in red\", an eyewitness says.", "The landslide created large waves and disrupted traffic on lakeside roads.", "The shooting of three Israelis by IDF troops shows the risks of armed intervention in hostage situations.", "Gail Bradbrook has tried to argue she was justified in causing damage to government property.", "Major disruption is caused to bus and rail services in the latest action by Translink staff.", "The peer says she was \"honest\" with the government over contracts for personal protective equipment.", "A top general says diminishing foreign military aid is already having an impact on the battlefield.", "The government says it cannot make a decision on compensation after losing a key vote on the scandal.", "Layla Moran's relatives and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem say a sniper has killed two women there.", "Care home staff say they feel exploited and trapped by the firm that brought them to the UK to work.", "More than 3,000 doctors in Wales could take part after 98% of those who voted supported a walkout.", "The Oscar-nominated French actor is facing allegations of sexual assault, which he denies.", "The three hostages were mistakenly killed in Gaza on Friday by Israeli troops.", "In an exclusive interview, the ex-Tory peer says she and her husband were made \"scapegoats\" for PPE failings.", "The US will lead an international operation to protect ships on the route, after several firms halt journeys.", "The blast at the African country's only oil refinery blew out the windows of local houses, witnesses say.", "The black, ballerina-length velvet evening dress sold for 11 times its estimated price.", "Negotiations continued all day in a bid to get a ceasefire resolution passed by the security council.", "It is thought more than 100 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza after the 7 October attacks.", "World record holder Ellie Challis, 19, says she took a 200-mile trip home in the middle of the night.", "The UK's chief veterinary officer says there could still be many unregistered dogs out there.", "Jonathan Majors, known for starring in the Marvel universe, has been dropped by the Marvel studios.", "Two women were killed inside the Holy Family Church by sniper fire, a top Catholic cleric says.", "The president's son allegedly evaded at least $1.4m in taxes while funding an \"extravagant lifestyle\".", "Gadi Eisenkot's son Gal, 25, died after a tunnel shaft exploded in northern Gaza, Israeli media say.", "One commuter described the experience as \"feeling like a wartime thing\".", "Police arrest serial killer Steve Wright on suspicion of murdering the teenager in Suffolk in 1999.", "Patients in one health board area are waiting up to nine months for a coil fitting.", "Steelworkers in need of cash were among the men of Merthyr Tydfil who became medical guinea pigs.", "James Henry Clarke, 81, appeared at Belfast Crown Court after being extradited from Canada.", "About 170 healthy trees and saplings were mistakenly felled in Orangefield Park in east Belfast.", "Rwanda has facilities ready to host asylum seekers but some there are not sure it is a good idea.", "PC Joe Gerrard has spoken to the BBC about his ordeal as the man who tried to kill him is jailed.", "Sports Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal defends Saudi Arabia's right to host the 2034 World Cup in exclusive interview with BBC sports editor Dan Roan.", "Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance described the discovery as a \"Christmas cracker\".", "Chelsea manager Emma Hayes says women are \"routinely used to dealing with systemic misogyny and bullying\" in football.", "A major University of Pennsylvania donor withdraws grant after Congress hearing about antisemitism on campus.", "A man has been arrested after seven-year-old William Brown died when he was hit by a vehicle.", "Josh Taylor, 23, suffered severe injuries after he fell into a hole on Queensland's Bribie Island.", "The Wonka star announces Baldur's Gate 3 has won Game of the Year at the popular ceremony.", "Three MPs now face an investigation by the parliamentary watchdog.", "Engineers are on site at Swansea's Morriston Hospital trying to fix the problem.", "Archbishop raises concerns about new rules for Britons who want to bring a foreign family member to the UK.", "Severe weather is expected across parts of England, southwest Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.", "Police say bystanders stopped the arson attempt and \"saved an important part of American history\".", "Olivia Spencer took an illegal drug before collapsing at a venue in Cardiff, an inquest hears.", "The French actor is under renewed pressure as a programme shows him sexually demeaning women.", "Family and friends gather for the funeral Mass of The Pogues frontman, who died last month at the age of 65.", "Ruth Perry's sister says Ofsted apologised \"for the distress rather than causing my sister's death\".", "Claudine Gay was under fire over her testimony in Congress which was described as \"painfully inadequate\".", "Instead of the AI responding to voice and video, it was fed text prompts and still images.", "Last Christmas is back at number one, followed by Mariah Carey and The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl.", "The Prince of Wales shocks Emma Webb by turning up on day 13 of her charity walk to London.", "The former PM is the most high-profile witness so far to testify at the inquiry into the pandemic.", "Volunteers used to drive sick Gazans to hospital. Hamas's attack on 7 October changed everything.", "The group releases video it says shows the aftermath of a failed attempt to free a hostage held in Gaza.", "Images commissioned by the BBC reveal the damage in Gaza before the recent temporary truce started.", "Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis post cards at their mother's carol concert.", "Four generations of the same family with the condition XLH are distraught over the NICE decision.", "Israel has told civilians to shelter in a \"safe\" zone, but people say it is not fit for people to stay in.", "NI Screen asks the public to send in footage to create a \"more accurate and representative\" archive.", "Samuel Paty was killed after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed in a class debate about freedom of expression.", "The Competition and Markets Authority will consider if links between the two could be considered a merger.", "The Duke of Sussex is challenging the Home Office over a decision to downgrade his protection.", "A girl accused of murdering Brianna Ghey says she began to fantasise about killing people at 14.", "The indie band follow in the footsteps of Adele, Florence + The Machine and Sam Fender.", "Rebellious Tory MPs from different wings of the party could sink the prime minister's asylum policy.", "The 31-year old is due to appear before Craigavon Magistrates' Court on Friday.", "Pictures on social media show dozens of men in their underwear being guarded by Israeli troops in north Gaza.", "U2, Paul Weller and Pete Doherty lead the tributes to the Pogues frontman, who died on Thursday.", "David Clarke, 80, killed his wife Helen near Swansea's Singleton Hospital in September.", "Israel rejects the UN chief's description of the war in Gaza as a \"risk to international peace and security\".", "An official says most people in the territory can't eat every day, as Israeli bombardment continues.", "Paul Bryan is sentenced to at least 24 years in prison after killing Roman Szalajko in 1984.", "Police in Strasbourg say the men charged victims thousands of euros for pest control they did not need.", "The police watchdog also warns of concerns about victim-blaming and officers lacking training.", "In the days following an inspection at her school, the head teacher wrote down her innermost thoughts.", "Gary Damien Scullion, 31, appears in court charged with Mr Kelly's murder in Lurgan at the weekend.", "It means the UK has spent £240m on the scheme, despite no asylum seekers being sent to the African nation.", "BBC Arabic and BBC Verify have pieced together how armed groups came together to train for the assault.", "Writer and literary scholar Refaat Alareer was killed in an air strike on Wednesday, his family say.", "In 2021, Ethan Crumbley killed four students at Oxford High School when he was 15 years old.", "Officials said being denied \"several\" jobs at various colleges may have been a motive for the shooting.", "The legislation could set up a politically explosive fight with the courts.", "Remains of baby dinosaurs inside another dinosaur reveal what a young predator ate 75m years ago.", "Kristen Stewart and Hugh Grant are among the stars to cram into a Manchester street to watch the show.", "It is thought more than 100 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza after the 7 October attacks.", "Leonarda Zarcone learned she did not have UK residency when she returned from a wedding in France.", "The late Pogues singer is hailed as a poet as family, fans and famous friends mourn him in Tipperary.", "Judges rule that the UK government acted lawfully in blocking Scotland's gender self-identification reforms.", "Comedian Lucy Beaumont, from Hull, says Timothée Chalamet will be \"savaged by middle-aged women\".", "Omid Scobie says he included the names in an earlier version of the text of Endgame.", "The Duke of Sussex has taken the newspaper's publishers to the High Court in a libel case.", "The 16-year-old is being held on suspicion of murdering Lianne Gordon, who was shot in east London.", "The walkout is over pay with some staff at the anti-poverty charity reporting having to use foodbanks, a union says.", "Masters champion and world number three Jon Rahm becomes arguably LIV Golf's most significant signing in its short history.", "The Oscar-nominated actor was also known for What's Up, Doc?, Paper Moon and TV soap Peyton Place.", "Jade Forbes said dealing with bigotry was like \"death by a thousand cuts\".", "Northern Ireland's political parties are expected to hold talks with the NI secretary on Monday.", "Rishi Sunak's emergency legislation has attracted criticism from both sides of his party.", "The 71-year-old is widely expected to win next March, and can then potentially stay in power until 2036.", "The posthumous award is for his \"lifelong determination to make the world a kinder place for animals\".", "Charismatic Pogues frontman who successfully mixed punk with traditional Irish songs.", "The Irish singer-songwriter, whose hits include Fairytale of New York, was unwell for some time.", "Rafah is suffering severe water shortages, there is no food or electricity and supermarkets are empty.", "This weekend different groupings of MPs in the party are scrutinising the government's planned new law on Rwanda.", "An Israeli campaigner says militants planned acts of sexual violence committed in October's attack.", "They escaped from a Christmas event over the weekend and were finally tracked down the next day.", "Hackers were able to gain access because some customers reused old passwords, biotech company 23andMe said.", "Here's what our main takeaways are from the long-awaited trailer for the gaming blockbuster.", "At least 22 people are known to have been killed on Mount Marapi after nine more bodies are found.", "The UK progresses slightly in OECD education rankings - but food-poverty levels are above average.", "The British sprinter said the six-month driving ban could dash her Olympic hopes.", "MPs were voting on a plan to set up a compensation scheme for infected blood scandal victims.", "The home secretary makes a new attempt to implement ministers' signature migrant plan after the Supreme Court blocked it.", "Intense competition for places to live is driving rents up and up, but is there hope for change?", "Walkouts are planned on three days in the run-up to Christmas and six days in the new year.", "There is no evidence investors profited from inside knowledge of Hamas's attack on Israel, authorities say.", "The historic company was controversially told to leave London or lose its Arts Council funding.", "James Cleverly is hoping to finally secure flights to the country for migrants who travel to the UK illegally.", "London gangs are recruiting young people to steal expensive watches off victims in the street.", "The Premier League agrees a new £6.7bn deal for its domestic television rights with Sky and TNT to show up to 270 live games a season, with the BBC continuing to screen highlights on Match of the Day.", "The guitarist and singer worked alongside Sir Paul McCartney and co-wrote the hit Mull of Kintyre.", "New guidance bans trans women who have been convicted of hurting females from women's prisons in most circumstances.", "Witnesses confronted the man near Caerphilly Castle to save the bird.", "An engine failure forces the pilot to make an emergency landing, crashing into an apartment building.", "A Sheffield school is fighting dirty air with trees as new data links their absence to pollution.", "Family and friends of Odhrán Kelly say he should be remembered as \"loving, funny and caring\".", "Right-wing Tory MPs say they are relying on the immigration minister to take action to cut numbers.", "A huge explosion destroys at least one home in Arlington, Virginia as police carried out a search warrant.", "A whistleblower believes the self-driving vehicle technology is not safe enough for public roads.", "Several reviews awarded the film five stars, although some suggested Timothée Chalamet was miscast.", "Jesse Darling wins the prestigious £25,000 award for art making a comment on modern British life.", "The UK's highest court says the plan leaves people at risk of being sent back to unsafe countries.", "New rules will make it harder for British citizens to live in the UK with a foreign partner.", "The UK's largest water firm has been criticised by customers and faces questions over its finances.", "Championship side Sunderland sack head coach Tony Mowbray after 15 months in charge.", "Paddy McCourt wins an appeal over being convicted of indecently touching a woman in a bar.", "New figures show last year's net migration was far higher than previously thought, piling pressure on the PM.", "New draft guidance sets out how porn websites and apps should stop children viewing their content.", "The Duke of Sussex's lawyers are challenging the Home Office over the decision to downgrade his protection.", "Two women and a man are arrested on suspicion of murder in the County Armagh town.", "A murder investigation is launched as a woman dies and a man and teenage boy are injured.", "The Independent Reporting Commission says a sustained focus is needed to tackle paramilitarism.", "As Israel enters the major southern city, the UN warns \"no place is safe in Gaza\".", "A 29-year-old woman is in hospital after being attacked in a south Wales valleys village.", "Images commissioned by the BBC reveal the damage in Gaza before the recent temporary truce started.", "The immigration minister says he is prepared to \"take further steps\" if net migration does not come down.", "Trevor Jacob is sentenced to six months in prison for staging a plane crash for social media clicks.", "BBC Arabic and BBC Verify have pieced together how armed groups came together to train for the assault.", "The army was targeting \"terrorists\" when civilians were hit by accident, the state governor says.", "The influencer is the second contestant to be kicked off the show after getting the fewest public votes.", "Damion Johnson, who has been jailed, was \"overcome with grief and not able to let go of his friend\".", "Lawrence Bierton denies murdering Pauline Quinn in 2021 on the grounds of diminished responsibility.", "A total of 36 flood warnings are in force across England after snow gave way to heavy rain.", "The home secretary says Rwanda is committed to the safety of anyone sent there as part of the government's migration deal.", "Claims against News Group Newspapers by ex-Spice Girl Melanie C and actor Keith Allen were also settled.", "The UK government says its five-point plan will curb legal migration, which has hit record levels.", "The BBC has seen and heard evidence that Hamas fighters committed horrific sexual violence in Israel.", "Swansea City sack head coach Michael Duff after less than six months in charge of the Championship club.", "Over 2,400 participants are linked to coal, oil and gas, four times more than attended last year's gathering.", "Peter Norgrove killed Sharon Gordon with a hammer after a disagreement over work at her home.", "Ruthless England thump Scotland in their final Women's Nations League group match but their hopes of helping Team GB qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics are over.", "Rockstar Games releases the trailer 15 hours earlier than expected after it was leaked online.", "\"Unbelievable - you wouldn't treat your home like that,\" the comic says, at the litter-strewn floor.", "The Princess of Wales and her children visit a Christmas project providing gifts for struggling families.", "Referee Halil Umut Meler is knocked to the ground by a football club president following a Turkish Super Lig game, leading officials to suspend all matches.", "Seven others including three staff were injured in what the ICRC called a \"deliberate attack\".", "His exchange with the man threatening to block Ukraine's EU aspirations comes ahead of a visit to the US.", "PPE Medpro is being sued by the government and is being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).", "Invitation to businesses to manage migrants is sign that officials see Channel crossings continuing.", "But more than 500 faculty members urge Harvard to \"resist political pressures\" to force Dr Gay out.", "The \"five families\" and other groups of Tory MPs who have had their say on Rishi Sunak's Rwanda plan.", "Two men have been released on bail pending further inquiries, while a female remains in police custody.", "Powerful solar storms could cause train signals to switch, according to Lancaster University research.", "The ex-immigration minister says the PM's bill to revive the asylum scheme \"doesn't do the job\".", "Rishi Sunak’s fragile authority is on display as warring Tory factions weigh up the Rwanda Bill.", "MPs from the ERG group say they don't yet know how they will vote on Rishi Sunak's Rwanda bill.", "Campaigners are accusing the government of failing on its key pledges over LGBT veterans ban.", "The PM says he looks forward to giving his evidence to the ongoing Covid inquiry.", "Rishi Sunak will give evidence about the pandemic as Tory MPs debate his plans for migrants.", "At the Old Bailey trial, the prosecution likened Shakira Spencer's killers to a pack of feral savages.", "The pro-EU politician will be sworn in on Wednesday, ending the eight-year rule of the right-wing PiS party.", "Scientists marvel at the fossilised head of an underwater 'killing machine' from the Jurassic.", "BBC Panorama filmed undercover at a Universal Church of the Kingdom of God youth group service.", "A man in his underwear is filmed laying down weapons - but there are questions about what happened.", "The sperm whale strayed into shallow waters, which caught the attention of swimmers.", "Anthony Littler, 45, was found with head injuries in an alleyway near a London Tube station.", "Ukraine's leader says a delay in US military aid is dream for Russia, as he arrives in Washington.", "Police arrest an alleged gunman following an eight-hour manhunt.", "Even when the war between Israel and Hamas ends, there is no easy future, the BBC's Jeremy Bowen says.", "In a major data breach, details of nearly 10,000 staff including their names, were released by mistake.", "Anna Cardwell, known as Chickadee, co-starred on the family reality TV show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.", "Foreign Secretary says first minister broke protocol by meeting Turkish president without a UK official.", "The former PM is the most high-profile witness so far to testify at the inquiry into the pandemic.", "Conservative Party critics of the updated plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda are debating whether to support the PM.", "Barbie and Oppenheimer were the most-searched for films in 2023, and took £30m in their opening weekend.", "Israel has told civilians to shelter in a \"safe\" zone, but people say it is not fit for people to stay in.", "West Lothian Council has been left with a £15m shortfall when rebuilding a school in Blackburn.", "The Ukrainian president met the Hungarian PM at the inauguration of Argentina's new president.", "Sam Thompson, Tony Bellew and Nigel Farage were the last men standing on the reality TV show.", "The ceremony honouring the best in film and TV will take place on 7 January in Los Angeles.", "Health workers stage a noisy protest as parties arrive for crucial talks with the government.", "The accused US citizen is associated with the secret service, according to police.", "Israel orders civilians to flee the centre of Gaza's southern city, while intense bombing is seen in northern areas.", "The advertising watchdog has received 50 complaints about the retailer's fashion campaign.", "Sir Paul McCartney's ex-wife's company falls into administration, blaming rising costs.", "The legislation could set up a politically explosive fight with the courts.", "A girl accused of murder tells a jury she saw a boy stab Brianna Ghey after hearing the teen scream.", "Aaron McCarthy says he was left to feel like \"nothing\" when a security guard soaked his bedding.", "It forms part of a wider effort to bolster Ukraine's abilities at sea, as the war with Russia continues.", "The worker is seen kicking the homeless man's belongings away as he tries to mop the street.", "The prime minister, who was chancellor during the pandemic, says the summer 2020 policy was not a major risk.", "Diseases like dengue fever could be common if little is done to tackle climate change, report warns.", "Alexei Navalny's associates say they don't know where he is, after six days of uncertainty.", "In a blow to the French government, opposition parties united to reject a major immigration reform.", "In a speech smuggled from prison and read out by her twins, Narges Mohammadi denounces \"tyrannical\" Iran.", "Benjamin Netanyahu says \"the war is in full swing\" and calls on Hamas fighters to surrender.", "Watch the US artist sing and play on a public piano inside St Pancras International station.", "She starred in films such as Alfie, opposite Sir Michael Caine, and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.", "Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson's sudden death was medical-related, Lancashire Police say.", "Best known for selling clear aligners remotely, it has shut down months after filing for bankruptcy.", "A major deal is agreed by almost 200 countries in Dubai - although some island nations, and other groups, criticise parts of the text.", "The Duke of Sussex faces £48,000 in legal costs after losing part of an ongoing libel battle.", "Rishi Sunak is facing the biggest challenge to his authority from his MPs over his flagship asylum policy.", "The owner has said she left the ring on a table in her hotel room but when she returned it was gone.", "About 200 British-trained special forces soldiers are in danger as Pakistan expels undocumented foreigners.", "Synthetic opioids are being produced in illicit labs in China, the UK's National Crime Agency says.", "A High Court case is looking at whether universities owe a duty of care towards their students.", "A suspect was arrested at the scene of the crime in a small Nebraska community.", "The country's new far-right president vows to launch a radical economic programme as he is sworn in.", "Rishi Sunak defends the scheme and says advisers and ministers had \"ample\" chances to raise concerns.", "Conditions in Gaza have made the delivery of food almost impossible, the UN World Food Programme says.", "The event was felt just before 15:30 on Saturday in parts of the region and in the Inner Hebrides.", "Humza Yousaf says the foreign secretary's threat to withdraw support during overseas visits is \"misguided\".", "The government denies watering down online protections promised to bereaved families.", "The Eurovision star's festive single has been climbing the charts - but you might not have heard it.", "Prosecutors said the suspects intended to store weapons in Berlin for possible use in an attack.", "The IDF says it wrongly believed the trio were a \"threat\" and opened fire on them during combat.", "Alex Batty was constantly on the move since going missing in 2017, French officials say.", "HBO's longest running comedy series starring Larry David will end next year.", "The former Daily Mirror editor again insists he \"never hacked a phone or told anyone else to hack a phone\".", "Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky hails the decision as \"a victory\" for his country and Europe.", "Earlier, a judge ruled Morgan knew about phone hacking - and was involved - while editor of the Daily Mirror.", "Almost half needed support for their mental health or wellbeing in the last year, a survey suggests.", "The body, found in the River Wensum, has yet to be identified.", "Alex Batty, 17, went missing in 2017 and British officials are preparing to bring him back to the UK later.", "The owner of Winston, a 20-year-old donkey, stolen on 9 December, has pleaded for his safe return.", "Maersk temporarily stops its ship using the route - and a German company follows suit.", "The woman found dead at Treforest Industrial Estate is named as 40-year-old Danielle Evans.", "Twenty-six people were wounded when the man launched an attack during a budget debate.", "Australian entertainer Humphries - best known for his Dame Edna Everage persona - died in April.", "Rebecca Welch will become the first female referee to take charge of a men's Premier League match on 23 December.", "The Emmy winner was diagnosed with the disease several months ago, his publicist says.", "Donald Trump's former personal lawyer was sued by ex-poll workers he accused of vote tampering.", "Joshua from Barry has hand-made and delivered the festive cards to care homes and hospital.", "Human rights groups say Israel is abusing a security law inherited from the British to strip due process.", "On the anniversary of the fatal crush, the victims' families say they still have few answers.", "The French prosecutor is giving an update on Alex Batty - who was found in France on Wednesday.", "One mother says she was so traumatised by her experience she never wanted to give birth again.", "Eluned Morgan out of contest to replace Mark Drakeford, but Jeremy Miles has enough backers to run.", "The actor is best known for playing Zak Dingle on the ITV soap opera for 29 years.", "The doctor and TV personality says he \"he felt bullied at times\" while working on the ITV programme.", "The Taliban says it's done for their \"protection\", but the UN says it is harmful to the survivors.", "Hungary blocks new funding just hours after a deal is struck on starting talks to admit Ukraine to the EU.", "The law stops the publication of claims against alleged perpetrators until 25 years after they die.", "Some images posted from scenes of a car crash and fire were described as \"horrendous\" by an MP.", "Andrew Cox said his business was unsalvageable and sent his thoughts to the dead person's family.", "The military said the three men were shot and killed by troops who were operating in northern Gaza.", "A letter sent by 80 families urges the government to set up a scheme for relatives trapped in Gaza.", "The impact of the collision, which occurred during heavy snowfall, caused some carriages to detach.", "A friend of Gaynor Lord says she \"keeps going over\" a call she had with her on the day she went missing.", "The Friends star was found unresponsive in the pool of his Los Angeles home in October.", "There had been just two series with current host Paddy McGuiness and captains Sam Quek and Ugo Monye.", "The Kentucky family says the bird went undetected for four days because it blended into the tree's branches.", "The PPS had said it was seeking to drop the case against Soldier F, who is accused of two murders on Bloody Sunday.", "Alex Batty borrowed a stranger’s phone to text his grandmother: “I love you, I want to come home”.", "Police say they do not suspect any \"third-party involvement\" after divers recover a body.", "Editors and powerful executives knew of phone hacking at Mirror group, judge rules.", "The 17-year-old, who vanished in 2017, is currently being looked after by French authorities.", "Members of the Afghan special forces were denied help under a UK scheme to settle those in danger.", "The vintage tree with 25 branches is a \"humble reminder of 1920s life\", according to the seller.", "The manager and ringmaster says he is confident the performer will be \"back even stronger\".", "Edward Little planned to target Christian preacher Hatun Tash, a regular speaker at Hyde Park.", "As rail fares increase, we find the ways passengers can keep journeys as cheap as possible.", "The stage show, a prequel to the hit Netflix series, has its world premiere in London's West End.", "A body is discovered after an explosion and fire at Treforest Industrial Estate in south Wales.", "The party says it is approaching the time for a decision on restoring the executive.", "Edward Little has been sentenced to 16 years, after admitting preparing to commit acts of terrorism.", "Scott Benton says an inquiry which found he breached standards rules was not fair or transparent.", "Stephen McKinney was jailed for a minimum of 20 years for killing Lu Na McKinney in April 2017.", "The state-owned Russian energy firm earned £39m from its Dutch-UK gas field in 2022, accounts show.", "Humphries was celebrated for his comedic “genius” but also kindness, at a state memorial in Sydney.", "Major disruption is caused to bus and rail services in the latest action by Translink staff.", "The four-hour TV extravaganza was inescapable, writes BBC Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg.", "Campaigners want ministers to upgrade guidance to councils providing for families in temporary accommodation.", "A boat with more than 60 people on board partially deflated off the French coast, coastguard says.", "A lack of social housing and rising rents has seen numbers in England rise this year, Shelter said.", "High Court finds evidence of \"widespread and habitual\" phone hacking at Mirror newspapers.", "Police said the activists will be \"pursued until the end\" for \"endangering national security\".", "It has been a week since the married mother-of-three's belonging were found scattered across a park.", "The bear escaped collision-free and is said to have reunited with its mother on the other side of the trail.", "More than 130 countries at COP28 say they will consider farming in their plans to limit global warming.", "The company says the Prestatyn site will close straight away, and apologises to customers.", "Two contestants in the Christmas version of the BBC quiz say their disabilities weren't provided for.", "Explosions are said to have hit trains on the Baikal Amur mainline 500km from the Chinese border.", "The 22-year-old was arrested earlier this month over an Instagram post her family say she did not write.", "Lawrence Jones, 55, committed the two rapes when he was working as a hotel pianist in the early 1990s.", "Police are appealing for information one year on from the shooting of Mark Lovell in Newry.", "Isaac Uzoegbu was hit by a car when he ran from home. His head teacher says it could have been prevented.", "Two Bedouin teenagers are among the last of the young hostages yet to be released by Hamas.", "The former health secretary says avoiding action in autumn 2020 led to tougher lockdowns later on.", "Former AFC Wimbledon managing director Danny Macklin, 42, says he was found in Cornwall.", "Palestinians tell the BBC they were beaten and had dogs set on them while in Israeli detention.", "Two dual US-Israeli citizens have so far been released as part of a Qatari-brokered ceasefire in Gaza.", "Ella Toone scores a late winner as England come from two goals down to beat the Netherlands at Wembley in a tie crucial for their Olympic Games hopes.", "The 70-year-old Norwegian spruce grew near Oslo and is destined for Trafalgar Square in the capital.", "Alan Whitfield punched The Vivienne in the face in a fast food outlet in Liverpool in June.", "Forty six Legia Warsaw fans are in custody after \"high levels of violence\" went on for 90 minutes.", "The pickup truck - Tesla’s latest offering - had its windows smashed during a demonstration in 2019.", "Tesla boss Elon Musk says the new cybertruck will \"change the look of the roads\".", "Researchers say cyber-criminals are offering big sums for hotels' log-in details to target holidaymakers.", "Jon Bridge says he \"grew up smelling the hops and the malt\" and remembers his first pint.", "The New York congressman could be kicked out after a damning ethics report and criminal charges of fraud.", "Fewer swimming spots are rated \"excellent\" and more rated \"poor\" by the environment watchdog.", "Images commissioned by the BBC reveal the damage in Gaza before the recent temporary truce started.", "A judge vows to enforce the order \"rigorously and vigorously\" - but how he will do so is not clear.", "An application by ex-players to sue as a group will be considered next year, the High Court hears.", "The ex-health secretary also said a \"toxic culture\", driven by Dominic Cummings, hindered the Covid response.", "Ukraine's president meets frontline commanders and says winter is a new phase of the war with Russia.", "Tributes from all sides to former Labour chancellor who steered the UK through 2008's economic crisis.", "The part played by the Red Cross in the Gaza hostage releases highlights its unique role.", "U2, Paul Weller and Pete Doherty lead the tributes to the Pogues frontman, who died on Thursday.", "The number of children and young people in care in Northern Ireland is at an all-time high.", "A stag in Minnesota was stranded on thin ice until a rescue team stepped in - on all fours.", "Colin Neill of Hospitality Ulster urges the Northern Ireland secretary to negotiate.", "There are still over 100 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, including at least 16 women.", "After three attempts, US lawmakers have expelled the embattled New York congressman.", "Magnum says he will be remembered for seeking out life's \"most absurd and charming moments\".", "The star was best known for TV shows Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Still Open All Hours.", "The ex-health secretary says failing to lock down early in autumn 2020 meant a \"tougher lockdown\".", "Chief Justice John Roberts said she \"blazed a historic trail\" for US women over decades of public service.", "At its peak, the holiday park had 30 venues across the UK, now it is left with just four.", "Tree Paine has been part of the singer's team since 2014, calling the Deuxmoi rumours \"fabricated lies\".", "Police make 39 arrests after clashing with Legia Warsaw fans outside Aston Villa's stadium.", "The death of the contentious former US secretary of state draws nostalgia and compliments in China.", "Temperatures could fall to -10C in north-east Scotland after snow swept across parts of the UK on Friday.", "BBC Arabic and BBC Verify have pieced together how armed groups came together to train for the assault.", "The network says it is working on the issue to fix it as soon as possible.", "After the naming of names in the race row, the Royal Family has to tackle difficult questions.", "Everton submit a formal appeal against the decision to dock them 10 Premier League points over financial rule breaches.", "Israel frees Palestinian prisoners in return for hostages, hours before a truce is due to expire.", "Police work is ongoing \"at a number of locations\" in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, officers say.", "The prisoner allegedly said he attacked Chauvin on Black Friday as a symbolic link to Black Lives Matter.", "The drink, dentistry and other stories that overshadowed the music of the late former Pogues singer.", "Mum-of-two Lisa says free school meals \"should have carried on\" throughout the holidays.", "Civilians in parts of Gaza are told to evacuate as Israel's renewed bombardment continues for a second day.", "The company says accounts posted about divisive issues ahead of the 2024 presidential election.", "Royal sources say the tie was a coincidence and not linked to Rishi Sunak's spat with the Greek PM.", "Omid Scobie denies in a BBC interview claims a version of his book deliberately identified two royals.", "The inventor was suing the newspaper for libel over an article published in January 2022.", "Russia's president signs a decree aimed at increasing numbers of serving military personnel by 170,000.", "Public transport will stop on 1 December after workers vote for a industrial action, unions say.", "When they starred in Fairytale of New York, the Irish-American officers had never heard of The Pogues.", "The former prime minister hails the \"integrity\" of Lord Darling following his death aged 70.", "The 83-year-old was an acclaimed designer and painter and found his widest audience writing for TV.", "Matt Facer apologises for potentially eliminating 7,000 from a game in which players avoid the song.", "Judges rule that the UK government acted lawfully in blocking Scotland's gender self-identification reforms.", "Offer seen as breakthrough, but it appears to have inflamed tensions with junior doctors and nurses.", "The former soap actor who starred in one of Hollywood's biggest weepies has died at the age of 82.", "Police are called to a property and arrest three people.", "A man in his 60s and a woman in her 50s died and an officer is in hospital after the collision.", "The PM's unique selling point - ending the chaos of the Truss and Johnson years - is taking a battering.", "One student says she was laughed at by three male staff members when she said they must act.", "The singer raked in the money faster than anyone and averaged one of the highest prices per ticket.", "Report mentions stagnant wages and mental health issues, and says the gap widened in the pandemic.", "France's president is denounced by all sides after lighting a Hanukkah candle at the Elysée Palace.", "Israel rejects the UN chief's description of the war in Gaza as a \"risk to international peace and security\".", "Those losing their seats at the next election will get taxpayer-funded advice with landing a new job.", "Family and friends gather for the funeral Mass of The Pogues frontman, who died last month at the age of 65.", "An official says most people in the territory can't eat every day, as Israeli bombardment continues.", "The incident is the latest dispute between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea.", "The former immigration minister speaks for the first time since he resigned saying the policy wasn't being tough enough.", "Comedian Lucy Beaumont, from Hull, says Timothée Chalamet will be \"savaged by middle-aged women\".", "Even when the war between Israel and Hamas ends, there is no easy future, the BBC's Jeremy Bowen says.", "Omid Scobie says he included the names in an earlier version of the text of Endgame.", "Punk covers of Disney and show tunes? Heavy metal fans go mad for it, say the band rocking Frozen.", "Charlie Stayt gets up close with Thunder the therapy dog as he visits BBC Breakfast.", "Prince and Princess of Wales use a monochrome image, while King and Queen go for Coronation photo.", "The failed challenge over the fate of Holyrood's gender reform bill is the latest in a series of legal setbacks.", "The Oscar-nominated actor was also known for What's Up, Doc?, Paper Moon and TV soap Peyton Place.", "Last Christmas is back at number one, followed by Mariah Carey and The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl.", "The 20-year-old stars as a trans character in the new series after her breakout role in Heartstopper.", "Iran bans her parents from heading to Europe to collect an award in her honour, their lawyer says.", "The 16-year-old is charged with murdering Lianne Gordon, who was shot in east London.", "Volunteers used to drive sick Gazans to hospital. Hamas's attack on 7 October changed everything.", "Flood warnings, service disruptions and power failures are in place for much of the country.", "Gary Damien Scullion, 31, appears in court charged with Mr Kelly's murder in Lurgan at the weekend.", "The actor speaks for the first time about needing a cane to walk after falling 6ft (1.8m) at the O2 Arena.", "Images commissioned by the BBC reveal the damage in Gaza before the recent temporary truce started.", "The group releases video it says shows the aftermath of a failed attempt to free a hostage held in Gaza.", "She has faced mounting calls to resign since giving controversial Congressional testimony.", "Head teachers talk frankly about the mental health impact that Ofsted inspections have had on them.", "The proposed rules cover the use of AI in systems like ChatGPT and by law enforcement.", "Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis post cards at their mother's carol concert.", "Ukraine's first lady tells Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that continued Western support is life or death.", "Rishi Sunak's emergency legislation has attracted criticism from both sides of his party.", "Israel has told civilians to shelter in a \"safe\" zone, but people say it is not fit for people to stay in.", "In 2021, Ethan Crumbley killed four students at Oxford High School when he was 15 years old.", "Samuel Paty was killed after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed in a class debate about freedom of expression.", "The term \"coloured\" is a slur in the US, but for millions of South Africans it is part of their identity.", "Remains of baby dinosaurs inside another dinosaur reveal what a young predator ate 75m years ago.", "Conditions in Gaza have made the delivery of food almost impossible, the UN World Food Programme says.", "Manila has accused Beijing of obstructing government vessels that were trying to deliver supplies to fisherman.", "A recall vote was held after the MP was suspended over bullying and sexual misconduct allegations.", "The Trump campaign vows to challenge the historic decision, which does not apply to other states.", "Manchester United and England goalkeeper Mary Earps is voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023.", "The streaming platform will have exclusive rights to make content based on Games Workshop's popular brand.", "Homeless people tell the BBC about violent, sexual and degrading attacks they suffer as they sleep.", "Monique Olivier, 75, was complicit in Michael Fourniret's murders, including of a British student.", "The Reykjanes eruption will not cause same travel disruption as 2010's Eyjafjallajökull volcano.", "Scientists warn that temperatures in some parts are already reaching levels predicted for mid century.", "\"I think that's genuinely an extraordinary question,\" the PM says, when asked about who's to blame for civilian deaths in Gaza.", "Police question Russell Brand in relation to a further six allegations of historical sex offences.", "Llanberis Mountain Rescue sees its busiest year and is reaching its limit, its chairman says.", "The 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck north-west China’s Gansu Province, killing more than 100 people.", "Glasgow-born Susan Swimm's 23-year-old son Rory was shot dead by a teenager in Utah in October.", "An eruption is thought imminent but its impact depends on where magma breaches the surface.", "It is unclear whether Marvel will replace the star or write his character out of the films.", "Hundreds of people still require rescue from croc-infested floodwaters and one man is missing.", "The new rate will apply to earnings between £75,000 and £125,140 - and the highest rate is going up from 47% to 48%.", "The broadcaster tells the BBC she will consider assisted dying if her lung cancer treatment fails.", "CCTV from Solihull shows a car mounting a pavement, turning over and hurtling at pedestrians.", "Analysts warn delays on the key trading route risk pushing up energy prices following missile strikes.", "Richard and Anne Spencer’s car crashed into the Nailbourne River in Littlebourne, Kent, in August.", "Nottingham Forest sack manager Steve Cooper with former Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo in talks to replace him.", "As hopes of a pre-Christmas Stormont deal fade, four people explain how the limbo affects them.", "To get a Ukraine aid deal, the president may have to reward political enemies while angering allies.", "The lawsuit focuses on claims made by Giuliani during a defamation case, which left him owing $148m.", "CCTV footage shows customers and staff pausing for a moment before scrambling for the exit.", "The vote divided Mr Macron's party, with a minister resigning in protest at the tough reform.", "Details of Insomniac's upcoming Wolverine game plus employee and company data appear online.", "The UK Statistics Authority says the assertion \"may have undermined trust\" in the government's use of data.", "The A&E department will not fully reopen until 9 January due to planned strikes.", "The government says it cannot make a decision on compensation after losing a key vote on the scandal.", "The prime minister insists his Rwanda plan will work and curb migrant crossings, as he is questioned by senior MPs.", "The US will lead an international operation to protect ships on the route, after several firms halt journeys.", "Jonathan Majors, known for starring in the Marvel universe, has been dropped by the Marvel studios.", "Research on a skeleton dug up during road works have shed light on the history of Roman Britain.", "It is an offence to hold anti-abortion protests directly outside specific health clinics in Northern Ireland.", "Helicopter shots show the eruption on the island's coast after weeks of intense earthquake activity.", "Wichian spent weeks in Hamas captivity with Yotam, Samer and Alon who, he says, tried to cheer him up.", "Hungary blocks new funding just hours after a deal is struck on starting talks to admit Ukraine to the EU.", "At least 118 people have been killed in the earthquake that struck a rural province in north-west China.", "The lawyers representing Prince Harry and others say they could launch a legal challenge.", "Ukraine's president says although there are weapons shortages, \"we are living creatures, we fight\".", "Weather presenter Christopher Blanchett explores the tricky business of forecasting a white Christmas.", "The eruption, in south-west Iceland, led to half the sky being \"lit up in red\", an eyewitness says.", "Ukraine's leader admits mobilisation is a sensitive and costly issue as the war with Russia nears two-year mark.", "Police say there has been \"no formal complaint\" after Delia Smith's BMW is hit outside Portman Road.", "Ben Cardin says the staff member who reportedly appeared in the clip was \"no longer a Senate employee\".", "Police will be able to hold undocumented border crossers - an area until now enforced by federal officials.", "The peer says she was \"honest\" with the government over contracts for personal protective equipment.", "A top general says diminishing foreign military aid is already having an impact on the battlefield.", "In an exclusive interview, the ex-Tory peer says she and her husband were made \"scapegoats\" for PPE failings.", "The theft has \"taken the cheer from the village\" after a difficult year, residents say.", "Franke was arrested in August after her malnourished child escaped from a Utah home.", "Chiara Ferragni was fined for claiming sales of a Christmas pandoro would fund a children's hospital.", "Ministers are looking at new ways to improve trans lives instead of pursuing self-ID legislation.", "The money will be used in a major renovation programme - but climate campaigners criticise the move.", "Wichian spent weeks in Hamas captivity with Yotam, Samer and Alon who, he says, tried to cheer him up.", "The 6.2 magnitude earthquake flattened mountain villages in one of the country's poorest regions.", "The Foreign Affairs Committee chair says she thinks Israel has \"lost its moral authority\" in Gaza.", "The ultra HD footage of Taters the cat was sent as the agency tries to improve space communications.", "A family have reached Indonesia without flying after a journey of three and a half months.", "A US-based author had published what he called \"the pitch-perfect sequel to The Lord of the Rings\".", "Four women were taken to hospital after taking the substance at the West End nightclub in December 2021.", "Forecasters say the eruption has weakened, but warn new vents could open at short notice.", "People earning more than £75,000 will pay more tax as part of efforts to plug a £1.5bn funding shortfall.", "The four-hour TV extravaganza was inescapable, writes BBC Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg.", "The PM is currently meeting just one of the five priorities he set out at the start of the year.", "A dealer bought the African mask from the couple for €150, reselling it for €4.2m.", "The blast at the African country's only oil refinery blew out the windows of local houses, witnesses say.", "Negotiations continued all day in a bid to get a ceasefire resolution passed by the security council.", "It marks the start of a reintroduction programme after years of political divisions.", "Mr Kim and his family pull off a seemingly impossible feat and gives new insights into life there.", "A 2017 report called for key reforms following inquests into the deaths of the Hillsborough victims.", "The government signs a Hillsborough Charter but stops short of a law wanted by campaigners.", "The prime minister says next Tuesday's vote on Rwanda bill will not be treated as confidence vote in his government.", "Illya Kyva was shot dead in a special operation by Ukraine's SBU security service, sources tell the BBC.", "The woman was airlifted to hospital with non life-threatening injuries but has since been released.", "Tom Petty's B-side track Love Is A Long Road has seen a near 37,000% increase in streams on Spotify.", "The guitarist and singer worked alongside Sir Paul McCartney and co-wrote the hit Mull of Kintyre.", "Band members RM, Jimin, V and Jung Kook urge fans to avoid send-offs when they report for duty.", "Witnesses confronted the man near Caerphilly Castle to save the bird.", "The star tells fans he's giving up music to devote his life to religion - and he's not the first.", "Attacks including fatal shootings of Palestinians by Jewish settlers have risen sharply since 7 October.", "But the former PM will argue robustly his government got many big pandemic calls right, sources say.", "As Israel enters the major southern city, the UN warns \"no place is safe in Gaza\".", "Lianne Gordon was shot in an attack on Tuesday evening in which a man and boy were also wounded.", "The bill aims to enable the government's plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda to go ahead.", "Damion Johnson, who has been jailed, was \"overcome with grief and not able to let go of his friend\".", "Tech giant says Gemini will supercharge existing products, and take on market leader GPT-4.", "If Israel kills as many in south Gaza as in the north, Biden will face some tough questions over US support for its ally.", "The home secretary says Rwanda is committed to the safety of anyone sent there as part of the government's migration deal.", "Here's what our main takeaways are from the long-awaited trailer for the gaming blockbuster.", "An ordinary road is being transformed into a catwalk for one of fashion's most prestigious events.", "A three-hour meeting between freed hostages and Israel's leaders turned tense, observers say.", "The ASA said Air France, Lufthansa and Etihad had misled customers over their environment impact", "The gunman was killed by police after opening fire at the Las Vegas campus of the University of Nevada.", "Family and friends of Odhrán Kelly say he should be remembered as \"loving, funny and caring\".", "Beth Mead says England are \"devastated to miss out by such small margins\" after being denied a place in the Women's Nations League finals.", "Mr Kim and his family pull off a seemingly impossible feat and gives new insights into life there.", "The former prime minister is expected to apologise for mistakes but defend his pandemic record.", "Paddy McCourt wins an appeal over being convicted of indecently touching a woman in a bar.", "Shah, a former BBC journalist, is the government's preferred candidate to replace Richard Sharp.", "PC Lewis Marks used a member of the public's bike to chase down a man in Northampton.", "The Independent Reporting Commission says a sustained focus is needed to tackle paramilitarism.", "Images commissioned by the BBC reveal the damage in Gaza before the recent temporary truce started.", "The bridal store's event lets people model a dress even if they have no intention of marrying.", "The BBC has seen and heard evidence that Hamas fighters committed horrific sexual violence in Israel.", "Mr Kim and his family pull off a seemingly impossible feat and gives new insights into life there.", "Sewell, who played Jasper in the festive film The Holiday, has been married twice before.", "Following new legal action, the rapper says he \"did not do any of the awful things being alleged\".", "On James \"Jemmy\" Wood's death, people lined the streets to boo and throw stones at his coffin.", "The Bank of England says fewer households will struggle to keep up with mortgage payments than previously thought.", "In his final comments to the Covid inquiry, the ex-PM says the British public needs to know \"how this thing originated\".", "The money Danish authorities are seeking to recoup over fraud charges amounts to nearly 0.5% of the country's entire GDP.", "A viral video captured the woman screaming at a Chipotle worker before throwing her food in her face.", "It comes after EU and UK carmakers said they were not ready for the change in post-Brexit trade rules.", "The former PM tells the pandemic inquiry he initially underestimated the challenge posed by the virus.", "The former home secretary says legislation must block all routes of legal challenge to allow flights to take off.", "This comes as a yellow weather warning was in place for heavy rain through Thursday in parts of NI.", "He was best known for his trailblazing sitcoms in the 1970s and 80s including All in the Family.", "Boris Johnson mixed contrition with an effort to take on former colleagues who questioned him.", "A murder investigation is launched as a woman dies and a man and teenage boy are injured.", "The singer told the magazine that she is \"the proudest and happiest I've ever felt\".", "Local leaders say more councils in England are at risk of going bust because of a lack of funding.", "The former immigration minister says the government's emergency legislation \"does not go far enough\".", "If Tui de-lists its shares it would be another blow to the UK's ability to attract big business.", "The former home secretary warns the government it is running out of time to bring in new laws about the controversial policy.", "The K-pop girl band have been negotiating terms with YG Entertainment for months.", "BBC Arabic and BBC Verify have pieced together how armed groups came together to train for the assault.", "The legislation could set up a politically explosive fight with the courts.", "It is thought more than 100 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza after the 7 October attacks.", "Banning live animal exports, trophy hunting imports and criminalising dog theft are back on the agenda.", "Local councils had challenged plans to house asylum seekers at sites in Lincolnshire and Essex.", "Ruthless England thump Scotland in their final Women's Nations League group match but their hopes of helping Team GB qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics are over.", "Robert Jenrick quits as immigration minister, citing \"strong disagreements\" over immigration policy.", "People say life in Khan Younis is \"indescribable\" as Israel's bombardment of the south intensifies.", "It is the first photo of the King and Princess of Wales together since a new book reignited a race row.", "Ministers want to make their plan to send asylum seekers to Africa work - but nothing is certain.", "Jesse Darling wins the prestigious £25,000 award for art making a comment on modern British life.", "New rules will make it harder for British citizens to live in the UK with a foreign partner.", "The immigration minister says he is prepared to \"take further steps\" if net migration does not come down.", "Rishi Sunak defends the new Rwanda deal and says he will do \"everything it takes\" to get the scheme working.", "Rafah is suffering severe water shortages, there is no food or electricity and supermarkets are empty.", "Referee Halil Umut Meler is knocked to the ground by a football club president following a Turkish Super Lig game, leading officials to suspend all matches.", "The hidden devices remain available despite being at the centre of a US case against the firm.", "The BBC's Ione Wells tells us what's next for the PM's Rwanda plan after it passes a vote in the Commons.", "A jury found that the tech giant used illegal strategies to maintain its app store dominance.", "A shortlist of six contenders is announced for the 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.", "Israel's foreign minister says a ceasefire \"at the current stage\" would be a \"gift\" to Hamas.", "Flagship bill passes its first Commons hurdle but PM still faces battle to get it through Parliament.", "Claudine Gay faced anger after failing to say if students calling for the genocide of Jews would be disciplined.", "The \"five families\" and other groups of Tory MPs who have had their say on Rishi Sunak's Rwanda plan.", "Two men have been released on bail pending further inquiries, while a female remains in police custody.", "Officials are investigating what caused the collapse of the residential structure in the Bronx on Monday.", "Experts had expressed grave concerns for the 15m-long animal after it came dangerously close to shore.", "A UK-wide shoplifting gang based in Scotland is funnelling money to criminals in Eastern Europe.", "Several pupils refused to look at a Renaissance artwork and accused their teacher of racism, which the school denies.", "A Turkish football club president is arrested after punching a referee following a top-flight game on Monday, as all league football in the country is suspended.", "At the Old Bailey trial, the prosecution likened Shakira Spencer's killers to a pack of feral savages.", "The BBC is told the three teenagers had all been at a funeral earlier in the day.", "A 23-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man have been arrested on suspicion of murder, police say", "Thousands of illegal wildlife products have been intercepted coming into the UK.", "The pro-EU politician will be sworn in on Wednesday, ending the eight-year rule of the right-wing PiS party.", "The owner of the local Miss Universe franchise has been accused of conspiring against the government.", "The landmark verdict comes after a 24-year-old soldier went public with accusations against her ex-colleagues.", "MPs vote through the prime minister’s new Rwanda deal on asylum seekers by a majority of 44.", "Kammar Henry-Richards, Kay-O, boasted about killing rival gang member Kacey Boothe in a rap video.", "The men, aged between 69 and 90, were arrested in connection with historical abuse at the school.", "Ukraine's leader says a delay in US military aid is dream for Russia, as he arrives in Washington.", "Homes were left perilously close to the cliff edge after the collapse on Sunday, a council says.", "In a major data breach, details of nearly 10,000 staff including their names, were released by mistake.", "The top court is asked to rule on whether Mr Trump is immune from federal prosecution over the Capitol riot.", "Zahara, known for her soulful voice and hit song Loliwe, was once named in a BBC 100 Women list.", "Drivers are urged to avoid the area as the local MP describes what happened as \"devastating\".", "The Houthis have vowed to stop ships heading to Israel, but its owners say it was going to Italy.", "Manchester United fall to defeat by Bayern Munich at Old Trafford to exit the Champions League at the group stage.", "Kate Cox sued Texas to have an abortion after her foetus was diagnosed with a high-risk condition.", "West Lothian Council has been left with a £15m shortfall when rebuilding a school in Blackburn.", "Tejean Kennedy and Ali Kavak killed Mehmet Koray Alpergin in a bar near Tottenham Hotspur's ground.", "The fashion company says it has now pulled all pictures from an advertising campaign about a jacket.", "Campaigners in Norfolk and Suffolk say lessons are not being learned after thousands of unexpected deaths.", "The maker of Transformers action figures and Monopoly will lay off about 1,100 workers globally - close to 20% of its staff.", "Republicans will not approve US military aid to Ukraine unless Democrats back a deal on border security.", "George Osborne says staff member they believe stole and damaged about 2,000 objects is not co-operating.", "Customers are left without phone and internet access, while one city's air raid sirens stop working.", "The serial killer is removed from the nursing register by a panel which heard she maintains her innocence.", "Kenneth Law, a 57-year-old ex-chef, has been linked to deaths in multiple countries, including the UK.", "Health workers stage a noisy protest as parties arrive for crucial talks with the government.", "The man who died on the vessel, moored off Dorset, is thought to have taken his own life.", "Police Scotland says there has been a vast increase in calls about individuals giving cause for concern.", "Israel orders civilians to flee the centre of Gaza's southern city, while intense bombing is seen in northern areas.", "The advertising watchdog has received 50 complaints about the retailer's fashion campaign.", "An explosives-laden vehicle rams into a building, which is being used as a Pakistani army base.", "The legislation could set up a politically explosive fight with the courts.", "Aaron McCarthy says he was left to feel like \"nothing\" when a security guard soaked his bedding.", "The boxing champion and his brothers are ordered to pay business rates for land used as car park.", "Jeopardy is in the air and MPs are being tracked down to ensure they are around to vote. says Chris Mason.", "The annual video game expo struggled to stay popular after gaming giants launched their own events.", "In a blow to the French government, opposition parties united to reject a major immigration reform.", "Financial accounts show the level of donations made by the Archewell Foundation.", "Watch the US artist sing and play on a public piano inside St Pancras International station.", "Thames Water boss tells MPs it doesn't have enough money to pay back a loan due in April next year.", "A major deal is agreed by almost 200 countries in Dubai - although some island nations, and other groups, criticise parts of the text.", "The government dragged MPs back to Parliament, fearing a tight vote on Rwanda bill.", "Rishi Sunak is facing the biggest challenge to his authority from his MPs over his flagship asylum policy.", "Clara, who has presented the evening showcase of the best new music since 2021, will stay at the BBC.", "Eyal Waldman's youngest daughter was killed in the Supernova music festival massacre on 7 October.", "Wage increases are easing but continue to outpace inflation, making an imminent interest rate cut unlikely.", "Rishi Sunak defends the scheme and says advisers and ministers had \"ample\" chances to raise concerns.", "Humza Yousaf says the foreign secretary's threat to withdraw support during overseas visits is \"misguided\".", "A British aid worker tells the BBC his humanitarian convoy was delayed for hours by the Israeli military.", "The woman found dead at Treforest Industrial Estate is named as 40-year-old Danielle Evans.", "Police say a man was killed and two others injured when they were struck in a Derbyshire town.", "Police say they do not suspect any \"third-party involvement\" after divers recover a body.", "Sheikh Emir Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah had led the country for the last three years.", "Aid trucks are being boarded by groups of people while passing through the border city of Rafah.", "Editors and powerful executives knew of phone hacking at Mirror group, judge rules.", "The vintage tree with 25 branches is a \"humble reminder of 1920s life\", according to the seller.", "The actor is best known for playing Zak Dingle on the ITV soap opera for 29 years.", "Italian cardinal Angelo Becciu is sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail for financial crimes.", "Waterlogged pitches means growing concerns over fixtures, funding and the future for some sides.", "An overcrowded boat is believed to have been swamped by high waves after leaving the city of Zuwara.", "The broadcaster says he is considering getting a semi-permanent tattoo on his eyebrows.", "An underwater dive team searching for missing man Julian De Bono have retrieved a body, say police.", "Community and the GMB are at loggerheads with Unite over a battle to save up to 3,000 jobs at Tata.", "The actor talks about the anxiety, joy and sexiness of making his full debut as the 15th Doctor.", "Calls by Hamas for an uprising in the West Bank have come and gone, despite rising support for the group.", "London's mayor says he cannot legally change the Ulez scheme and send scrapped vehicles to Ukraine.", "Alex Batty was constantly on the move since going missing in 2017, French officials say.", "Benjamin Netanyahu says \"the war is in full swing\" and calls on Hamas fighters to surrender.", "Donald Trump's former personal lawyer was sued by ex-poll workers he accused of vote tampering.", "The pop star will sing in Sweden next May, after a disappointing result for Mae Muller this year.", "A specialist team is helping police with a river search as Julian De Bono remains missing.", "The body of a woman found in the River Wensum is expected to be formally identified on Sunday.", "The military said the three men were shot and killed by troops who were operating in northern Gaza.", "BBC documentary captures nervous rehearsals and the emotion of friends ahead of the Coronation.", "Edward Little has been sentenced to 16 years, after admitting preparing to commit acts of terrorism.", "Alex Batty, 17, who went missing for six years, is expected to be reunited with his grandmother.", "Earlier, a judge ruled Morgan knew about phone hacking - and was involved - while editor of the Daily Mirror.", "Actor and comedian Steve Coogan says the press needs \"proper, independent regulation\".", "Samer Abudaqa died of wounds after a drone strike while working for Al Jazeera at a school.", "The BBC's Jeremy Bowen asks Israeli and Palestinian activists about their hopes for resolving the conflict.", "Three hostages were mistakenly killed in Gaza on Friday by Israeli troops in an area of intense fighting.", "The prince's win over Mirror Group Newspapers raises many questions, writes Katie Razzall.", "Alex Batty, who was missing for six years, has returned to the UK, Greater Manchester Police says.", "MSC, the world's largest shipping group, becomes the fourth company to divert ships following attacks.", "Since disappearing in 2017, the 17-year-old has reportedly been living in a commune near the French town of Quillan.", "Morgan Rees says bisexual people are often seen as greedy, promiscuous and untrustworthy.", "Human rights groups say Israel is abusing a security law inherited from the British to strip due process.", "Luton captain Tom Lockyer is \"stable\" after suffering a cardiac arrest on the pitch during the Premier League match at Bournemouth, his club confirms.", "The Friends star was found unresponsive in the pool of his Los Angeles home in October.", "Layla Moran's relatives and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem say a sniper has killed two women there.", "There had been just two series with current host Paddy McGuiness and captains Sam Quek and Ugo Monye.", "A Met Office weather warning for heavy rain has been issued for parts of Scotland on Sunday.", "The Royal Navy has not shot down an aerial target in anger since 1991, the Ministry of Defence says.", "Space agency Nasa captured the burst that temporarily disrupted radio communication on Earth.", "The Home Office says 292 migrants crossed to the UK from France in seven boats on Friday.", "Maersk temporarily stops its ship using the route - and a German company follows suit.", "The Kentucky family says the bird went undetected for four days because it blended into the tree's branches.", "It is thought more than 100 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza after the 7 October attacks.", "High Court finds evidence of \"widespread and habitual\" phone hacking at Mirror newspapers.", "A recall vote was held after the MP was suspended over bullying and sexual misconduct allegations.", "Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail in 2019, was known to associate with powerful figures.", "Brianna's mother says she has lost all sympathy for the killers who didn't display \"an ounce of remorse\".", "Margaret Colhoun is among those trying to navigate grief at a monthly bereavement café.", "Hamas's leader is in Egypt to discuss a potential deal that could see more Israeli hostages released.", "The Trump campaign vows to challenge the historic decision, which does not apply to other states.", "Manchester United and England goalkeeper Mary Earps is voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023.", "\"Confidential\" documents obtained by the BBC show how Iran is dealing with women violating its dress code.", "Bodhana Sivanandan wins after beating an international master at the European blitz championships.", "Monique Olivier, 75, was complicit in Michael Fourniret's murders, including of a British student.", "Ministers will not appeal a ruling that the UK government acted lawfully when it blocked the reforms.", "Colin Armstrong, 78, from North Yorkshire, had been taken hostage from his farm near Guayaquil.", "But new vents could open at short notice at the volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula, meteorologists say.", "Chinese authorities say rescue operations are wrapping up in order to focus on helping survivors.", "Angus Bain, 17, has suffered debilitating epileptic fits every week throughout his childhood.", "First minister says 90 pubs which told him he's not welcome are in no danger of him popping in.", "Forced to flee by the Iceland volcano, 4,000 evacuees must spend Christmas away from home.", "CCTV from Solihull shows a car mounting a pavement, turning over and hurtling at pedestrians.", "Richard and Anne Spencer’s car crashed into the Nailbourne River in Littlebourne, Kent, in August.", "The Euphoria cast were \"were constantly on the phone with each other crying\" after Angus Cloud died.", "As hopes of a pre-Christmas Stormont deal fade, four people explain how the limbo affects them.", "Venezuela releases a fraudster wanted by the US and 10 Americans, as part of a prisoner swap deal.", "Jago Clarke and Emma Price are convicted of causing the death of 21-year-old passenger Ella Smith.", "To get a Ukraine aid deal, the president may have to reward political enemies while angering allies.", "At least 8,000 children are among those killed since the war began, according to Hamas.", "Drone footage shows lava and smoke spewing into the air weeks after waiting on the seismic activity.", "The vote divided Mr Macron's party, with a minister resigning in protest at the tough reform.", "Dominic West admits he's \"uncomfortable\" with the idea that the Royal Family's lives are \"fair game\".", "Mel Stride says MPs may wish to revisit the topic after Esther Rantzen announces she is joining Dignitas.", "A firm once run by Isabel dos Santos is seeking huge damages from the controversial Angolan billionaire.", "South Korea's Suneung, which determines college admission, is one of the hardest exams in the world.", "The London homes of celebrities including Tamara Ecclestone and Frank Lampard were raided in 2019.", "A chef has been jailed for murdering his ex-partner in 2012 and whose body has never been found.", "Lawrence Bierton battered neighbour Pauline Quinn to death with a coffee table while out on licence.", "Brianna Ghey's mother says she will never get over the death of her \"brave and strong\" daughter.", "Complaints about infestations are increasing - a housing official says some landlords blame tenants.", "Clouds with beautiful iridescent colour were captured by BBC Weather Watchers.", "Complaints about infestations are increasing - a housing official says some landlords blame tenants.", "Seb Jellema, 11, runs every day and wants to beat the world record of 52 years and 39 days in 2075.", "It is an offence to hold anti-abortion protests directly outside specific health clinics in Northern Ireland.", "Wichian spent weeks in Hamas captivity with Yotam, Samer and Alon who, he says, tried to cheer him up.", "Hamas-run authorities report that the deadliest attack targeted three homes in the refugee camp.", "The animals are part of a reintroduction project that could see 15 families released over five years.", "Hungary blocks new funding just hours after a deal is struck on starting talks to admit Ukraine to the EU.", "Weather presenter Christopher Blanchett explores the tricky business of forecasting a white Christmas.", "Wrangles over the wording of the Security Council resolution push the vote back to Wednesday.", "Covid and other infections could rise in many parts of the world this winter, the experts warn.", "England and Manchester United goalkeeper Mary Earps wants \"to change the world\" after being named Sports Personality of the Year 2023.", "Liverpool cruise into the EFL Cup semi-finals with a dominant performance against West Ham at Anfield.", "The pair who killed Brianna Ghey in broad daylight arrogantly thought they were too clever to be caught.", "The UK government says it \"profoundly regrets\" the move over its bill to deal with Troubles-era crimes.", "The eruption, in south-west Iceland, led to half the sky being \"lit up in red\", an eyewitness says.", "MPs from the former ruling party stage a sit-in accusing the new government of illegal actions.", "Ukraine's leader admits mobilisation is a sensitive and costly issue as the war with Russia nears two-year mark.", "Dinosaurs prowl the streets as friends recreate classic blockbuster movie scene for annual day out.", "The Facebook advert featured a Love Islander and read \"get ready to slay this back-to-school season\".", "Hannah Taylor and Lewis Conroy admit climbing the 98ft structure but deny breach of the peace.", "The Pakistani couple were jailed for life for killing Saman Abbas, 18, over an arranged marriage.", "A top general says diminishing foreign military aid is already having an impact on the battlefield.", "But prospects remain uncertain after Hamas's leader reportedly rejected the prospect of a temporary pause.", "It is thought more than 100 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza after the 7 October attacks.", "Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says the pay rise should go ahead despite the ongoing Stormont stalemate.", "Two women were killed inside the Holy Family Church by sniper fire, a top Catholic cleric says.", "The Scottish government's previous target of completing the job by 2025 was deemed \"unachievable\".", "The children, who ranged in age from two to 13, died trapped by the blaze in the Arizona house.", "Police appeal for information 10 years after the murder of Basil McAfee in north Belfast.", "The money will be used in a major renovation programme - but climate campaigners criticise the move.", "In January the prime minister said five priorities should be used to hold his government to account.", "The 13-year-old from Ohio was also sentenced to a year of probation for plotting to attack a synagogue.", "The Foreign Affairs Committee chair says she thinks Israel has \"lost its moral authority\" in Gaza.", "NHS bosses say their worst fears are being realised with a three-day walkout under way in England.", "Government letters to pay review bodies say pay rises should be reflected when setting pay in 2024", "Inflation slowed by more than expected in the year to November, thanks to the price of staples such as pasta, milk and butter.", "Luton Town's match at Bournemouth, abandoned last Saturday after their captain Tom Lockyer collapsed on the pitch, is to be replayed in full, says the Premier League.", "People earning more than £75,000 will pay more tax as part of efforts to plug a £1.5bn funding shortfall.", "A boy and girl, who cannot be named, deny murdering the teenager who was stabbed 28 times in Cheshire.", "The 16-year-old was stabbed 28 times in a park in Cheshire by pair with a \"thirst for killing\".", "Negotiations continued all day in a bid to get a ceasefire resolution passed by the security council.", "The reported raids come a day after the country's Supreme Court outlawed the \"LGBT movement\".", "Rugby league star runs day two of ultra-marathon challenge in Cardiff, as supporters cheer him on.", "There was no elimination this week, after the Casualty star pulled out after injuring a rib.", "The prisoner allegedly said he attacked Chauvin on Black Friday as a symbolic link to Black Lives Matter.", "Victoria Mary Clarke wants Fairytale of New York to top the festive chart in her husband's memory.", "Bodily autonomy should be top of the women’s rights agenda, says the 89-year-old activist.", "The UK is sending unarmed, manned aircraft over Israel and Gaza to aid rescue efforts.", "Former AFC Wimbledon managing director Danny Macklin, 42, says he was found in Cornwall.", "Three sites set to monitor deep space in a security arrangement between the UK, US and Australia.", "Two contestants in the Christmas version of the BBC quiz say their disabilities weren't provided for.", "The suspect tells police he was upset by \"so many Muslims dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine\".", "The number of children and young people in care in Northern Ireland is at an all-time high.", "The UN says renewed war between Israel and Hamas is \"catastrophic\" and a \"nightmare\".", "Producers say they \"apologise for the mistake made and any offence caused\" after liking the post.", "Civilians in parts of Gaza are told to evacuate as Israel's renewed bombardment continues for a second day.", "BBC understands 32-year-old Maj Kevin McCool was on a motorcycle trip off base when he was attacked.", "A new series of 24 Hours in Police Custody kicks off with a dramatic armed siege in Bedford.", "Police say two people aged, 43 and 54, were also taken to hospital following the blast in Edinburgh.", "There are still over 100 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, including at least 16 women.", "Mr Trump had claimed his role as president made him immune from prosecution for his role in the riots.", "In a message to the summit in Dubai, the Pope urges the world to move away from coal, oil and gas.", "Scotland are drawn in the same group as hosts Germany at Euro 2024 while England are in Group C along with Denmark, Slovenia and Serbia.", "Ella Toone scores a late winner as England come from two goals down to beat the Netherlands at Wembley in a tie crucial for their Olympic Games hopes.", "Royal sources say the tie was a coincidence and not linked to Rishi Sunak's spat with the Greek PM.", "Work has begun on a barrier around the Garisenda Tower and authorities say the situation is \"critical\".", "Rail services and football matches were also affected and a fresh ice warning has been issued for Sunday.", "The star was best known for TV shows Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Still Open All Hours.", "Victoria Atkins' performance, when pressure mounts on the NHS, is vital for her party's prospects.", "Police are appealing for information one year on from the shooting of Mark Lovell in Newry.", "A property appears to have been completely destroyed by the blast in the Baberton area of the city.", "Metro tickets will cost more, rentals are soaring and Paris faces months of disruption.", "Russia's president signs a decree aimed at increasing numbers of serving military personnel by 170,000.", "Officials say four people are injured and nine are missing after a powerful quake and several aftershocks.", "The senior judge is now recovering at home from the attack by a man whose case he was hearing.", "Dianne McKay wants the man who murdered her mother allowed back to the UK to locate her remains.", "But the former PM will argue robustly his government got many big pandemic calls right, sources say.", "Images commissioned by the BBC reveal the damage in Gaza before the recent temporary truce started.", "Members of a French motorcycle group against bullying are charged with threats to headteacher.", "Civilians in parts of north and south Gaza have been told to evacuate as Israel's renewed bombardment continues.", "Temperatures could fall to -10C in north-east Scotland after snow swept across parts of the UK on Friday.", "BBC Arabic and BBC Verify have pieced together how armed groups came together to train for the assault.", "In the seventh exchange of prisoners and hostages, eight Israelis are also released by Hamas.", "After the naming of names in the race row, the Royal Family has to tackle difficult questions.", "If Israel kills as many in south Gaza as in the north, Biden will face some tough questions over US support for its ally.", "Cumbria Police declare a \"major incident\" after heavy snowfalls and reports of vehicles getting stuck.", "Forty-five out of 46 Legia Warsaw fans are due before a special magistrates' court, police say.", "Imelda Staunton found out the monarch had died while filming the final series of the Netflix show.", "Forecasters warn of \"difficult travel conditions\" with snow, ice and rain predicted across Wales.", "It is thought more than 100 Israelis are still being held hostage in Gaza after the 7 October attacks.", "In the past year a number of councils have ended up effectively bankrupt. 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"Europe", "Northern Ireland", "Middle East", "Entertainment & Arts", "Middle East", "UK", "Beds, Herts & Bucks", "Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland", "Middle East", "US & Canada", "Science & Environment", null, null, "UK", "Europe", "Scotland", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK Politics", "Northern Ireland", "Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland", "Europe", "Europe", "Asia", "UK", "Beds, Herts & Bucks", "UK Politics", "Middle East", "Europe", "Middle East", "UK", "Middle East", "Middle East", "UK", "Middle East", "UK", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Entertainment & Arts", "Wales", "Middle East", "Essex"], "content": ["Angus Bain, who is now recovering at home, must spend a year waiting for the outcome of the pioneering operation\n\nAngus Bain has suffered debilitating epileptic fits every Christmas for the past 13 years.\n\nBut this year the 17-year-old is hoping to have a seizure-free festive season, after undergoing life-changing laser brain surgery just 11 weeks ago.\n\nAfter years of enduring almost weekly attacks, they appear to have been virtually eliminated by the pioneering procedure.\n\n\"I've never had such a long period not having a seizure, it's an amazing relief. I'm so happy,\" Angus told BBC Scotland News.\n\n\"Christmas is a big occasion and now it will be even bigger this year.\n\n\"Being able to have this surgery is amazing. I think it could change my life forever by making me able to do the things I haven't been able to do.\"\n\nEach seizure is the equivalent in the energy used to run a marathon\n\nAngus, who lives in Gateside, Fife, was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was four years old.\n\nHis seizures are so severe they leave him wiped out for days afterwards.\n\nIn October a piece of his brain that causes the attacks was removed by laser at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh.\n\nIt will take a year before he can come off the strong medication he is on so his brain recovers from the surgery but it is hoped he will then be seizure-free.\n\nHis mum, Nicki Bain, 48, said: \"Our lives have been consumed with Angus's epilepsy since he was four. He has been on lots of very heavy medication, had wires in his head, brain stimulation, so many tests and scans.\n\n\"The build-up to him having a seizure would last a few days, then after the seizure it would take another couple of days for him to recover, so I don't think he's ever actually had a normal day.\n\n\"He would say, 'I just want to get rid of my epilepsy and get on with my life'.\"\n\nAngus has had many tests and scans in his life\n\nAngus, a pupil at Strathallan School in Perthshire, said that, although it's early days, he was daring to dream he could go skiing.\n\nIt was previously deemed too dangerous for him to ride on a chairlift.\n\n\"In the past it made me feel a bit annoyed and upset that it was holding me back and keeping me from doing sport especially rugby,\" he said.\n\n\"And I might also be able to become a singer now, I'd love to do that as a career and to be able to get my driver's licence, something I've not been allowed to apply for as my seizures were too bad.\n\n\"I wish I could go to parties with my friends. I see photos of all my friends together and I am jealous that I can't go but they can.\n\n\"But it's just been too risky for me with all the seizures I have had.\"\n\nThe pioneering new technology is MRI-guided Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT) surgery - which can reach the centre of the brain.\n\nEdinburgh Children's Hospital Charity said The Welch Trust bought the £140,000 equipment, which costs £15,000 a year to maintain.\n\nNicki, from Gateside, said: \"The process was absolutely mind-blowing and recovery was fast. You'd never know he'd had brain surgery.\n\n\"It's extraordinary that this surgery is now available in Scotland. It's going to change so many lives.\n\n\"For the past 13 years, Angus has had seizures at Christmas time. I can't even put into words what it means to him, and all our family, for him to be seizure-free for Christmas this year.\n\n\"He's a remarkable boy who has shown so much resilience. His future is looking so bright, and we're incredibly proud and excited for him.\"\n\nAngus Bain with his parents and brother in Morocco\n\nDr Jothy Kandasamy, consultant neurosurgeon at the hospital, said: \"For some patients, by replacing invasive neurosurgery with cutting-edge laser therapy, we not only dramatically reduce risks to these patients, but significantly reduce their recovery time too.\n\n\"The laser surgery is a breakthrough for some patients and will give some patients with epilepsy a real chance to live a normal life.\n\n\"The surgery has been life-changing not just for Angus, but for the entire family.\n\n\"These experiences are what drive me. My patients motivate and inspire me to provide the highest level of neurosurgical care possible to change young people's lives.\"\n\nThe scar where the laser went in is minimal on Angus' head\n\nTo qualify for the laser surgery patients must go through months of scans and tests. They must also have continued having seizures despite being on anti-epilepsy medication.\n\nRoslyn Neely, chief executive officer of Edinburgh Children's Hospital Charity, said: \"We are encouraged by the life-changing impact that the laser surgery has had for Angus, and his whole family.\n\n\"What an incredible difference this will make to his future, and that of others living with epilepsy who can now go on to have the surgery.\"\n\nAngus said he now cannot wait for Christmas adding: \"I feel like this is a happy ending because I have been through a lot.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mark Drakeford may be full of Christmas cheer... but he won't be raising a glass in many Conwy pubs\n\nMark Drakeford says he is \"intensely relaxed\" about reports that he is banned from a series of pubs in north Wales.\n\nThe outgoing first minister of Wales said the publicans behind the ban were not in \"any danger\" of him visiting.\n\nHis comments came as the last Labour Senedd member to endorse a candidate in the campaign declared their nomination.\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan said she would support Economy Minister Vaughan Gething.\n\nThe health minister and MS for Mid and West Wales said on social media: \"Vaughan has demonstrated his capabilities for high office throughout the pandemic, making him a valuable candidate with a profound understanding of the NHS for the position of first minister.\"\n\nThe announcement means Mr Gething has 10 supporters in the Senedd Labour group, while 16 are for Education Minister Jeremy Miles.\n\nNeither Mr Drakeford nor his Chief Whip Jane Hutt are expected to nominate a candidate.\n\nSenedd nominations officially close on Thursday, before the vote of the membership opens in February.\n\nMr Drakeford will hand over to either Mr Gething or Mr Miles at the end of March.\n\nThe Local Democracy Reporting Service reported claims last week that he is not welcome in 90 pubs in Conwy.\n\nThe protest dates back to restrictions imposed during the Covid pandemic in hospitality.\n\nIn an interview with the PA news agency, Mr Drakeford said: \"I find myself intensely relaxed at this.\n\n\"They are not in any danger of me visiting, so they can be relaxed as well.\"\n\nMeanwhile Mr Drakeford said he would refuse a peerage if asked.\n\n\"I will not be looking to, if I were ever to be asked, become a member of an unelected House of Lords.\"\n\nHe added: \"I simply don't believe that that is the right way to run things in a democracy.\"\n\nLabour promises to replace the lords with an elected second chamber to be called the Assembly of the Nations and Regions.\n\n\"I think they are very important reforms,\" Mr Drakeford said. \"I don't say for a minute that they all have to be done on the first day, but there is a journey of House of Lords reform that we need to embark upon.\n\n\"The fact that there are hereditary peers still making laws in this country is surely, well if I was to call it a democratic anachronism that would be giving you the kindest description I can think of.\"", "Jehad, his wife and their four sons at home before the war\n\nAfter weeks of Israeli bombing, on 16 November Jehad El-Mashhrawi and his young family fled their home in northern Gaza. The BBC Arabic cameraman shares a vivid and shocking account of what he, his wife and children experienced as they headed south.\n\nWarning: This story contains graphic descriptions which may be distressing\n\nWe left in such a hurry. We were in the middle of baking some bread and realised the houses opposite us were being bombed, one by one. I knew it would soon be our turn. We had packed some bags in case this happened but everything was so rushed we forgot to take them. We didn't even shut the front door.\n\nWe had waited to leave because we didn't want to move my elderly parents and we had taken years to save up to build our house in al-Zeitoun, but in the end we had to go. My baby son, Omar, died there in November 2012, killed when shrapnel hit our house in another war with Israel and I couldn't risk losing any more children.\n\nI knew that in the south there was no electricity, no water and people had to queue for hours to use a toilet. But in the end, grabbing just a bottle of water and some leftover bread, we joined thousands of others making the dangerous journey down the Salah al-Din road to the south, where Israel said it was safe.\n\nJehad's son Omar was 11 months old when he was killed in 2012\n\nLots of my family walked together - my wife Ahlam, our four sons, who are two, eight, nine and 14 years old, my parents, brothers, sisters, cousins and their children.\n\nWe walked for hours and knew that eventually we would have to go through an Israeli checkpoint that was set up during the war. We were nervous and my children kept asking: \"What will the army do to us?\"\n\nWe came to a stop about two-thirds of a mile (1km) from the checkpoint and joined a huge queue of people that filled the entire road. We spent more than four hours waiting there and my father fainted three times.\n\nThere were Israeli soldiers watching us from bombed-out buildings on one side of the road and more on an empty plot of land on the other side.\n\nAs we edged closer to the checkpoint we saw more soldiers above us in a tent on a hill. We think they managed the checkpoint remotely from there, watching us through binoculars and using loudspeakers to tell us what to do.\n\nThere were two open-sided shipping containers near the tent. All the men had to pass through one and the women through the other, with cameras constantly trained on us. When we had gone through, Israeli soldiers asked to see our IDs and we were photographed.\n\nIt was like judgement day.\n\nThis satellite photo shows a large crowd of people waiting to pass through the checkpoint on 17 November 2023\n\nI saw about 50 people detained, all men, including two of my neighbours. One young man was stopped because he had lost his documents and couldn't remember his ID number. Another man next to me in the queue was called a terrorist by an Israeli soldier, before he too was taken away.\n\nThey were told to strip down to their underwear and sit on the ground. Some were later asked to get dressed and leave, while others were blindfolded.\n\nI saw four blindfolded detainees, including my neighbours, taken behind a sand hill by a demolished building. When they were out of sight, we heard gunfire. I have no idea whether they were shot or not.\n\nSeparately, other people who made the same journey as me were contacted by a colleague of mine in Cairo. One of them, Kamal Aljojo, said that just after he went through the checkpoint a week earlier, he had seen dead bodies, but he didn't know how they had died.\n\nMy colleague also spoke to a man called Muhammed who went through the same checkpoint on 13 November. \"A soldier asked me to strip off all of my clothes, even my underwear,\" Muhammed told the BBC. He added: \"I was naked in front of everyone walking past. I felt ashamed. Suddenly a female soldier pointed her gun at me and laughed before quickly moving it away. I was humiliated.\" Muhammed said he had to wait naked for about two hours before he was allowed to go.\n\nAlthough my wife, children, parents and I all got through the checkpoint safely, two of my brothers were delayed.\n\nWhile we were waiting for them, an Israeli soldier shouted at a group of people in front of us who were trying to go back towards the containers to check on their relatives, who had been held up.\n\nHe used a loudspeaker to tell them to move on and to stay at least 300yds (300m) away, then a soldier started shooting in the air in their direction to intimidate them. We had heard a lot of gunshots while we were queueing.\n\nEveryone was crying and my mother was sobbing: \"What happened to my sons? Did they shoot them?\"\n\nAfter well over an hour my brothers finally appeared.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC that \"individuals suspected of affiliations with terrorist organisations\" were detained for preliminary inquiries, and if they remained suspects they were transferred to Israel for further questioning. Others were \"promptly released\", it said.\n\nIt said clothes had to be removed to check for explosive vests or other weapons and detainees were clothed as soon possible. It said it did not aim to \"undermine the security and dignity of the detainees\" and that the IDF \"operates in accordance with international law\".\n\nThe IDF also said it \"does not shoot at civilians moving along the humanitarian corridor from the north to the south\", but when young men tried to move in the opposite direction they \"were met with shots for the purposes of dispersal, after they were told with a loudspeaker not to advance towards the position of the troops and continued to do so\".\n\nIt added that the sound of shooting was common and \"the sound of gunfire alone does not constitute an indication of shooting from a specific place or of a certain type\".\n\nMy wife and I felt relieved as we moved on and the checkpoint disappeared from sight behind us, but we had no idea that the hardest part of the journey was yet to come.\n\nAs we walked further south, I saw about 10 bodies in different places by the roadside.\n\nOther scattered, rotting body parts, were covered in flies with birds pecking at the remains. They gave off one of the foulest smells I have ever experienced.\n\nI couldn't bear the thought of my children seeing them so I screamed at the top of my lungs, telling them to look at the sky and keep walking.\n\nI saw a burned-out car with a severed human head inside. The hands of the headless rotting corpse were still holding the steering wheel.\n\nThere were also bodies of dead donkeys and horses, some reduced to skeletons, and huge piles of rubbish and spoiled food.\n\nThen an Israeli tank appeared on a side road, moving towards us at breakneck speed. We were frightened and in order to get away, we had to run over corpses. Some people in the crowd tripped on the bodies. The tank changed course about 20yds (20m) before it reached the main road.\n\nSuddenly, next to the road, a building was bombed. The explosion was terrifying and shrapnel flew everywhere.\n\nI wanted the world to swallow us up.\n\nWe were shaken and exhausted but carried on towards Nuseirat camp. We arrived there in the evening and had to sleep on the pavement. It was freezing.\n\nWe put my jacket around our middle sons, tucking their hands into the sleeves to try to keep them warm. We covered our youngest with my shirt. I have never been so cold in all my life.\n\nWhen the BBC asked about the tank and the bodies, the IDF said that \"during the day, tanks move on routes that intersect with the Salah al-Din road, but there was no case in which tanks moved towards civilians moving from north to south of the Gaza Strip on the humanitarian corridor\".\n\nThe IDF said it did not know of any cases of piles of corpses on the Salah al-Din road but there were times when Gazan vehicles \"abandoned bodies during the journey, which the IDF subsequently evacuated\".\n\nThe next morning we set off early for Khan Younis, Gaza's second largest city. We paid someone to take us part of the way in a cart pulled by a donkey. Then at Deir al-Balah, we got on a bus that was only meant to carry 20 people, but 30 people got on board. Some sat on the roof and others clung to the doors and windows from the outside.\n\nIn Khan Younis, we tried to find a safe place to stay at a UN-run school that had been turned into a shelter, but it was full. We ended up renting a warehouse under a residential building instead and stayed there for a week.\n\nJehad cooks over an open fire for his family in Rafah\n\nMy parents, brother and sisters decided to stay in Khan Younis, but after the local market was bombed, my wife and I decided to take our children further south to Rafah to be with her family. They managed to get a lift in a car and I joined them later by bus, but it was so full I had to hang on to the outside of the door.\n\nWe are now renting a small outhouse with a roof made of tin and plastic. There is nothing to protect us from falling shrapnel.\n\nEverything is expensive and we can't get many of the things we need. If we want drinking water, we have to queue for three hours and we don't have enough food for three meals a day, so we don't eat lunch any more, only breakfast and dinner.\n\nMy son used to have an egg every day. An egg - can you imagine? I can't even give him that now. All I want to do is leave Gaza and be safe with my children, even if that means living in a tent.", "Jeremy Vaughan said he will \"stop at nothing\" to root out police misconduct\n\nPeople are right to be horrified at the misconduct of some South Wales Police officers in the past year, the man in charge of the force has said.\n\nPC Lewis Edwards, from Bridgend, was jailed for life in October after grooming 200 girls on Snapchat.\n\nA former police officer was sentenced to 15 months in prison in August for having sex with a vulnerable victim of crime.\n\nChief Constable Jeremy Vaughan said he would continue to root out misconduct.\n\nEdwards had 4,500 indecent images of children and admitted 160 counts of child sexual abuse and blackmail, after threatening underage girls on social media.\n\nHe will serve a minimum sentence of 12 years.\n\nEdwards joined the force as a police constable in January 2021 but has since been barred from policing.\n\nLewis Edwards pleaded guilty to 160 counts of child sex abuse and blackmail\n\nMr Vaughan said Edwards was suspended as soon as his conduct was revealed.\n\n\"The moment we knew about it, we dealt with it,\" he said. \"There is no other word for it than horrifying and people quite rightly, are shocked and stunned by it, as am I.\"\n\nIn August former police officer Richard Helling was jailed for having sex with a vulnerable victim of crime he met on duty.\n\nHe pleaded guilty to four counts of corruption, perverting the course of justice and misuse of a police computer.\n\nThe 49-year-old from Bridgend was sentenced to 15 months in prison.\n\nRichard Helling admitted corruption, perverting the course of justice and misuse of a police computer\n\nAt the time, Mr Vaughan said Helling's behaviour was \"shameful and unforgivable\".\n\nThe force has said there are no issues with vetting, but there is concern these cases have eroded public trust.\n\nMr Vaughan said: \"People are rightly horrified with some of the conduct we've seen this year.\n\n\"It's despicable, but I've got rid of them and made sure they won't be in policing again.\n\n\"I'm very worried about trust. It's one of the most precious things that define the relationship between the police and the public.\"\n\nMr Vaughan said, among the 6,000 employees, there would be people that let him down.\n\n\"The best I can do is find them, get rid of them, and make sure that those who are left are not let down by those who were determined to let them down.\n\n\"I feel that the organisation is responding to that. And I'm responsive to it. I am being told of behaviour more than ever before and I'm responding to it,\" he said.\n\nHe said some employees breach the standards of professional behaviour and misuse their access to private information.\n\nMr Vaughan added out of the 12 forces in England and Wales, the inspectorate investigating counter corruption, vetting and standards only found two were good.\n\n\"We were one of them and I want us to be outstanding,\" he said.\n\nMr Vaughan said he was \"convinced\" he had \"upstanding people\" working for him who were prepared to call out poor behaviour.\n\nHe said the high-profile criminal cases against officers in the past year were down to his anti-corruption unit and his determination to root out misconduct.\n\nMr Vaughan said 1,000 staff had been taken on in the past four years since he became chief constable.\n\n\"I've got a workforce who are young, keen, and determined to protect the public,\" he said.\n\n\"I would ask the public to work with me to make policing feel like a valued public service in our country because we need it, and we need it to be as strong as it can be.\n\n\"Every day without fail, I hear stories of people doing heroic work,\" he said. \"People who have gone the extra mile, people who've safeguarded a child. People who have investigated the most horrendous crimes and people will see that.\n\n\"My reassurance is to deal with us as you find us and accept the fact that I am trying to root out the bad things,\" Mr Vaughan said.", "The roads project aims to tackle single carriageway sections between Inverness and Perth\n\nCompleting the dualling of the A9 between Inverness and Perth has been delayed by 10 years until 2035.\n\nTransport Secretary Mairi McAllan said a new rolling programme of improvements was \"achievable\" and there would be \"no let up\" in the work.\n\nBut opposition MSPs said communities had been waiting since SNP manifesto commitments in 2007 and 2011 to see the road upgraded by a target date of 2025.\n\nThe government said in February that finishing by 2025 was \"unachievable\".\n\nTwo sections of single carriageway totalling 11 miles (18km) of road have been upgraded over the past decade - but 77 miles of the route has still to be dualled.\n\nMs McAllan told Holyrood on Wednesday that fully dualling the route would make it safer and reduce journey times.\n\nShe said communities living along the route should have confidence a new rolling programme would fully complete the job by the end of 2035.\n\nShe told Holyrood a new hybrid way of funding the road-building project would be used, with some of the construction work involving private investment using a Mutual Investment Model developed by the Welsh government.\n\nMs McAllan said the total cost was estimated at £3.7bn at April 2023 prices, which she said was the equivalent of £2.45bn at April 2008 prices.\n\nShe said this was well within the original cost estimate of £3bn in 2008.\n\nMs McAllan said: \"Under this new plan, by the end of 2030 we anticipate that nearly 50% of the A9 will be open as dual-carriageway, rising to 85% by the end of 2033 and eventually 100% by the end of 2035.\n\n\"This means we will see significant benefits from the dualling programme years ahead of that backstop and 2035.\n\n\"The approach that I have set out means that the Highlands can have confidence that the considerable benefits of the A9 dualling programme will be delivered and in full.\"\n\nThe project has seen two sections of single carriageway dualled so far\n\nShe also pledged that there will be \"no let up\" when construction starts on Tomatin to Moy next year, and offered her \"heartfelt sympathies and condolences to anyone who has lost a loved one or been injured in collisions on the A9\".\n\nScottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said communities in Perth and Kinross and the Highlands had already waited too long for improvements to the road.\n\nHe added: \"Throughout that period, too many lives have needlessly been lost and more will die as a result of the delays we have heard about today.\n\n\"At best we will be waiting another 12 years for this project to be completed, and that is the most optimistic outcome we can hope for.\"\n\nLabour's Alex Rowley said the SNP first committed to dual the A9 in 2007.\n\nHe added: \"With the new date of 2035 for completion between Perth and Inverness, some 28 years after the initial promise, one has to wonder how on earth can the Cabinet Secretary say with a straight face that the Highlands can have confidence?\"\n\nSNP backbencher Fergus Ewing, who has been a vocal critic of the Scottish government's failure to meet its original targets for dualling the road, said he would continue to remain sceptical until he sees diggers on the road.\n\nHe added: \"There must be no more slippage, no more delays and no more broken promises.\"\n\nA9 safety campaigner Laura Hansler said she welcomed changes to how the project would now be progressed.\n\nShe told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme: \"On the surface of it, it sounds fantastic.\n\n\"What is most welcome is the change to the procurement procedures.\"\n\nBut Ms Hansler said she still had concerns over the length of time for completing each of the remaining sections.\n\nA Holyrood inquiry has been examining the delays to the project and has called for evidence from former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her successor Humza Yousaf.\n\nExpected completion dates of the remaining sections under the new programme, subject to contract and funding processes, are:\n\nThe A9 is Scotland's longest trunk road and often described as the spine of the Scottish road network.\n\nIt runs about 230 miles (370km) from Scrabster, near Thurso on the north Highland coast, to near Dunblane in central Scotland. The A9 then continues to near Falkirk.\n\nThe Inverness to Perth stretch is one of the busiest on the A9, and has been the scene of numerous fatal accidents in recent years.\n\nThe Scottish government has spent almost £500m on improvements so far.\n\nAmong the challenging sections left to be upgraded is the area around the 1,315ft (401m) Slochd Summit south of Inverness.\n\nThe first major revamps of the A9, in the 1970s and 1980s, included bypasses of more than a dozen towns and villages - but most of the road has remained single carriageway.", "Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, suffered global outages for just over an hour on Thursday.\n\nAccording to Downdetector.com, which tracks outages by collating status reports, more than 47,000 US users faced access issues with X and X Pro.\n\nSome users in the UK and Asia were also unable to view posts on the site with a message that said \"Welcome to X!\"\n\nX, which is owned by Elon Musk, has been asked for comment. Mr Musk bought Twitter for $44bn (£35bn) last year.\n\nThe hashtag #TwitterDown started trending within minutes of reports of the outages emerging.\n\nBut the outage was short-lived, with users able to access the platform again after just over an hour.\n\nSince Mr Musk bought the platform, it has been suffering from a loss of advertising revenue.\n\nHe has also been accused of allowing antisemitic posts next to advertising.\n\nThe company has since sued a left-leaning pressure group, Media Matters for America, which made the accusation.\n\nLast month, Elon Musk slammed advertisers that left X, saying they would kill the social media platform.\n\nThe company has also been accused of spreading disinformation with the European Union formally announcing that it suspects X of breaching its rules in areas including countering illegal content and disinformation.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A yellow warning for high winds cover the whole of Scotland\n\nPassengers are being warned against travelling as Storm Pia is expected to cause significant disruption.\n\nThe Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for wind until 15:00 - gusts of 70-80mph are expected in northern Scotland.\n\nTrains between Edinburgh and England have been cancelled and there is disruption on the ferries.\n\nIn Shetland, all schools have been closed due to the storm-force winds and there are power cuts in some areas.\n\nScottish and Southern Electricity Networks said more than 2,000 customers were affected in rural areas, including parts of South Uist, the isle of Lewis and Orkney.\n\nMultiple power cuts have also been reported across Dumfries and Galloway. Properties in Collin, Terregles, Sanquhar, Carronbridge, Moniaive, Colvend, Kirkcudbright, Gatehouse and Leswalt are among those affected.\n\nThe Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for most of Scotland and parts of England, Northern Ireland and Wales\n\nThe yellow warning initially lasted until 21:00 but the Met Office has now changed that to 15:00.\n\nNetwork Rail said many train services would only run once safety inspections had taken place, leading to some cancellations.\n\nRail operator Transpennnie Express (TPE) is \"strongly\" advising customers not to travel during the storm, asking customers to delay their journeys in and out of Edinburgh until after 15:00.\n\nTravellers have been warned of \"short-notice changes to journeys\" on ScotRail services and are advised to check ahead, while additional engineers will be deployed to deal with any incidents.\n\nStephen Dixon, a Met Office spokesman, said: \"It is quite a wide wind warning area. Gusts are forecast quite widely to be 45mph to 55mph, possibly 65mph to 70mph to the east of high ground in Scotland.\n\n\"The strongest winds are likely to be found in the north and north-east of Scotland, including the Northern Isles, with 70mph to 80mph in the morning.\"\n\nFerries in Shetland have been cancelled due to the windy conditions\n\nThe Met Office yellow weather warning covers much of Scotland.\n\nThe strongest winds are likely to be across the far north and north east of Scotland, including the Northern Isles during the morning, where gusts are set to reach up to 80mph.\n\nThe warning also covers Belfast, Newcastle upon Tyne and Manchester.\n\nThe Met Office also forecasts showers, with more rain expected on Friday.\n• None Wind warning as Storm Pia moves in from Atlantic", "It is believed that more than 100 hostages remain alive in Gaza, 10 weeks after Hamas's attacks on Israel\n\nWhile a full ceasefire in the Gaza Strip still looks a long way off, there are fresh signs that a new pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas could be possible.\n\nHowever, that would require a shift in Hamas's public position. It has consistently said that it will only free more Israeli hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire.\n\nHamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who usually lives in Doha, has now travelled to Cairo along with a \"high level\" delegation for talks with Egypt's intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel.\n\nThat indicates a level of seriousness.\n\nBoth Egypt and Qatar play key roles in mediation efforts and helped secure a week-long truce late last month.\n\nIsrael maintains that the war in Gaza will only end when its goal of dismantling Hamas - which has governed there since 2007 - has been achieved.\n\nAccording to mainstream Israeli media reports, Israel has presented a plan to mediators which could secure the release of some 30 to 40 hostages. This prioritises the remaining women, as well as men who are elderly or in need of urgent medical care.\n\nIt is thought that they could be exchanged for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons who have been convicted of more serious offences than the women and teenagers released in the previous deal, and that a truce could last for a week or two.\n\nHamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met Iran's foreign minister and spoke to Iranian media in Doha before flying to Cairo\n\nThe Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, told foreign diplomats on Tuesday that his country was ready for \"another humanitarian pause, and additional humanitarian aid in order to enable the release of hostages\".\n\nLater, after meeting a select group of families with loved ones held in captivity in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that \"retrieving them is a top goal\".\n\nHe confirmed that the head of Israel's Mossad spy agency had been twice to Europe in recent days to promote a new release deal. On Monday, in Poland, he and his US counterpart met the Qatari prime minister.\n\nIsraeli leaders have continued to assert that only strong military pressure on Hamas will bring it to the negotiating table. However, the families of the remaining hostages have openly expressed scepticism about that.\n\nTheir anxiety has risen since Friday's accidental killing by Israeli forces of three hostages.\n\nIn recent days, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a smaller armed faction, have put out two videos showing a total of five men still held captive, pleading to be brought home. All appear thin and the speakers say they fear becoming victims of Israel's bombardment.\n\nNext week, the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, is also due to travel to Cairo with other senior officials from his group.\n\nAlon Shamriz was one of the three Israeli hostages who were mistakenly killed by Israeli forces last week\n\nIt is believed that more than 100 hostages remain alive in Gaza, after 105 civilians were released from captivity in late November, most of them Israeli women and children.\n\nFour hostages had been released prior to that and one had been rescued by Israeli troops.\n\nA number of bodies have also been recovered and the Israeli prime minister's office has confirmed the deaths of more than 20 people who had been held by Hamas.\n\nAt a global level, there are growing calls for a complete ceasefire, including at the UN General Assembly.\n\nWith the death toll now close to 20,000 in Gaza, according to local health officials in the Hamas-run territory, the UN estimates that 1.9 million of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled or lost their homes. There is growing concern about the limited scope for aid agencies to help them.\n\n\"Amid displacement at an unimaginable scale and active hostilities, the humanitarian response system is on the brink,\" Tor Wennesland, the UN's Special Co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council on Tuesday.\n\nWhile UN officials say much more needs to be done, a new pause in fighting could at least allow a boost in aid delivery and distribution.", "R-CPD can be painful and cause \"socially awkward\" symptoms, researchers said\n\nPeople who cannot burp suffer embarrassment, anxiety and depression because of the condition, on top of physical pain, researchers say.\n\nRetrograde cricopharyngeus dysfunction (R-CPD) causes abdominal bloating, \"socially awkward\" gurgling noises from the chest and neck, and flatulence.\n\nThe research was carried out by a group of Texan university academics.\n\nThey said many doctors are \"unfamiliar\" with the disease, leaving patients \"underserved\".\n\nThey added that more research into, and more awareness of, R-CPD were needed.\n\nThe group added there is a need to investigate \"the severity that this syndrome has on a patient's daily life, including its mental and social implications\", because it can negatively affect sufferers' quality of life,.\n\nR-CPD, also known as \"no burp syndrome\", occurs when the cricopharyngeal muscle in the throat is unable to relax to allow gas to pass upwards.\n\nYakubu Karagama, an ear, nose and throat consultant at London's Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, said the condition had been \"tormenting people for a long time\".\n\n\"When you eat something or drink, you have this pain. Some patients have to lie down so that the gas will come up, and some people have to stick their finger in their mouth to force themselves to be sick, so that the gas will come out with it.\"\n\nMr Karagama told the BBC that since 2016 he had been treating people with this condition with Botox injections, which work by relaxing the cricopharyngeus muscle.\n\nHe said the treatment had been \"life-changing\" for \"almost every single patient\" on whom he had operated.\n\nHowever, it is currently available as a private treatment only because there is little awareness of the condition among the health profession, Mr Karagama said.\n\n\"You can imagine if I said to you 'I can't burp'. This is the problem. Most people would laugh at it.\n\n\"People don't understand the physiology of burping,\" he said.\n\nMr Karagama said it was not known how many people have the condition, but he believed it was common.\n\n\"A lot of people don't even know that the symptoms they're having is because of this condition. The majority of the patients that have presented to my clinic said that they've had this all their life.\"\n\nHe said funding was needed to undertake clinical research into the condition, which he said people were suffering with \"unnecessarily\".\n\nAn NHS England spokesperson said: \"While the clinical evidence of this condition is extremely limited due to the small number of people who have come forward with it, NHS staff enact clinical advice from NICE [the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence], which sets out the care and services suitable for patients with a specific condition or need.\"\n\nThis study, based on their survey of 199 people unable to burp, concluded there was \"very limited awareness\" of the condition among health professionals, and improved understanding of the disease could increase diagnosis and treatment rates.\n\nThis would lead to an improved quality of life for patients, the authors said.\n\nResearchers found half of people with symptoms of R-CPD discussed them with their primary care provider, but that 90% of those said they did not receive adequate help.\n\nThe study notes a general \"prevalence of psychiatric symptoms\" in people with disorders which are difficult to diagnose.\n\n\"Therefore, it is paramount to explore the mental health implications of this condition,\" the authors say.\n\nR-CPD was only recently officially given a name by a US academic 2019 when the first scientific paper on it was published.\n• None Botox allows man to burp again after 20 years", "Francis was behind what has been described as one of the most embarrassing incidents in the US Navy's history\n\nAn infamous fugitive billionaire - known as Fat Leonard - has been released as part of a prisoner swap with Venezuela, the White House has confirmed.\n\nThe fugitive, whose real name is Leonard Glenn Francis, masterminded a $35m (£30m) fraud against the US Navy. He escaped from US custody in 2022.\n\nTen US citizens held in Venezuela were released as part of the deal.\n\nIn exchange, the US released Alex Saab, an aide to Venezuela's president.\n\nFrancis, the most high-profile prisoner involved in the deal, was detained in September 2022 trying to board a flight from Venezuela to Russia while on the run from US authorities.\n\nThe Malaysian businessman had escaped house arrest in California two weeks earlier, where he was being held after admitting to his role in a sprawling scam that cost the US tens of millions of dollars and implicated dozens of navy officers.\n\nProsecutors say he used his Singapore-based business - which had contracts to service US naval vessels - to defraud the US Navy, while also plying American officers with cash and gifts as bribes.\n\nCourt documents filed as part of his plea agreement accused Francis of giving US officials millions of dollars worth of gifts, which included lavish trips, \"top-shelf alcohol and wine\", Spanish suckling pigs, Cuban cigars and access to prostitution services.\n\nFrancis was first arrested in 2013, and pleaded guilty to offering $500,000 (£444,000) in bribes in 2015.\n\nJournalist Tom Wright, who made a podcast with Francis entitled Fat Leonard, told the BBC that Francis made \"huge amounts of money\" after the 9/11 terror attacks by overcharging the US Navy.\n\nMr Wright added that Francis had agreed to do the podcast as he was \"furious\" over what he saw as a cover-up. \"Admiral after admiral who were involved with him were not taken to court criminally. In the US, it was more lower level officers [who were taken to court].\"\n\nIn a statement, President Joe Biden said Francis will now be \"sentenced for his lead role in a brazen bribery and corruption case\".\n\nAlluding to the other US nationals released by Venezuela, he added: \"I am grateful that their ordeal is finally over, and that these families are being made whole once more.\"\n\nThe swap deal will also see Mr Saab, a close aide of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, returned.\n\nHe faced allegations of laundering money on behalf of the Maduro government, which he denied.\n\nMr Saab was extradited to the US in 2021 after being arrested during a stopover in Cape Verde.\n\nThe agreement sees the US release an aide close to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro\n\nThe Maduro government has long demanded the release of Mr Saab, whom it describes as a \"diplomat\".\n\nThe Colombian-born businessman was on his way to Iran when he was detained on an Interpol \"red notice\" while his plane refuelled in Cape Verde in 2020.\n\nThe Venezuelan government described him as an \"envoy\" and argued that he had been travelling to Iran to buy medical supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nBut Cape Verde ruled that he did not have diplomatic status and extradited him to the US, where he was charged with money laundering and bribery.\n\nAccording to US prosecutors, Mr Saab siphoned off $350m (£276m) from Venezuelan government contracts by fraudulently using favourable exchange rates.\n\nAlex Saab's wife, Camilla Fabri, is in Venezuela as her home country of Italy has issued an arrest warrant for her\n\nHe then allegedly laundered the money in the US before finally transferring it to accounts controlled by him and his alleged associate.\n\nThe US treasury department has described Mr Saab as a \"profiteer orchestrating a vast corruption network\" that it says enabled \"President Nicolás Maduro and his regime to significantly profit from food imports and distribution in Venezuela\".\n\nMr Saab has denied the charges and the Maduro government has stood by him, even walking out of US-backed talks with the Venezuelan opposition in protest at Mr Saab's extradition in 2021.\n\nThe White House also said Joseph Cristella, Eyvin Hernandez, Jerrel Kenemore, and Savoi Wright were among those released.\n\nIt classes six of the 10 Americans released by Venezuela as having been \"wrongfully detained\".\n\nThe White House also said Venezuela had agreed to release 20 Venezuelan political prisoners, as well as opposition figure Roberto Abdul, and had committed to suspending the arrest warrants of three other Venezuelans.\n\nThis is not the first prisoner swap the US and Venezuela have agreed.\n\nIn October 2022, Venezuela freed seven jailed US citizens in exchange for the release of two nephews of Mr Maduro's wife.\n\nKnown as the \"narco-nephews\", the two men had been serving 18-year sentences in the US for attempting to smuggle cocaine into the US.\n\nRelations between the two countries eased further in October this year when the US agreed to loosen its sanctions on Venezuela in exchange for President Maduro agreeing to allow international observers to monitor next year's presidential election.\n\nBut the US has since reiterated its demand that US citizens \"wrongfully detained\" in Venezuela be freed and threatened to reimpose sanctions if progress was not made on the issue.\n\nHuman rights groups in Venezuela have reacted to the news by demanding that the close to 300 people they list as political prisoners in Venezuelan jails also be freed.", "Ella Smith was killed after a car she was a passenger in crashed in June 2021\n\nTwo 21-year-old learner drivers killed a passenger in a crash after driving dangerously and \"competitively\".\n\nJago Clarke and Emma Price were seen swerving their vehicles before Ella Smith's Ford Ka, which Clarke was driving, collided with another car.\n\nMiss Smith, also 21, from Camrose, near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, died at the scene of the crash on 13 June 2021.\n\nBoth have been found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving following a trial at Swansea Crown Court.\n\nClarke, of Sunningdale Drive, Hubberston, Milford Haven, told the jury he had no memory of the crash after suffering a bleed on the brain, two collapsed lungs and being placed in a coma for two days.\n\nThe blue Citroen driven by Price, of Holloway, Haverfordwest, was not physically involved in the collision, but prosecutors argued she was equally responsible due to the manner of her driving.\n\nThe crash occurred as the group approached Portfield Gate on the B4341 in Pembrokeshire\n\nThe court heard that Ms Smith had met Clarke and Price at Broad Haven beach before the group set off towards Haverfordwest, with Clarke driving Ms Smith's Ford Ka.\n\nAs the group approached the village of Portfield Gate on the B4341, Clarke lost control on a bend and clipped the nearside verge before careering across the road and into the path of an oncoming Seat.\n\nMiss Smith suffered catastrophic injuries in the collision and died at the scene.\n\nThe passenger in the Seat, Daisy Buck, was badly injured and had to undergo surgery.\n\nPrice, giving evidence in the trial, denied \"racing\" with Clarke on the day and denied positioning her Citroen in the road to stop Clarke from overtaking her.\n\nThe trial also heard evidence from Luis Heathfield, a friend who was driving a third car in the convoy ahead of Clarke and Price.\n\nMr Heathfield said Clarke, who he had seen drinking alcohol at the beach, was \"bragging\" about driving and being \"cocky,\" and said he warned Clarke not to drive because it was \"stupid.\"\n\nHe told the court that near to the crash site he could see in his rear view mirrors that both cars behind him were \"swerving\" and said he thought Price was trying to stop Clarke from passing her.\n\nMr Heathfield added that he then saw Clarke's car pull in to the left and clip the kerb before \"twisting and turning\" and crossing into the opposite carriageway into the path of the oncoming Seat.\n\nBoth Clarke and Price were found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by driving.\n\nPrice was also found guilty of causing death by driving while unlicensed and uninsured.\n\nThe pair will be sentenced on 19 January.", "Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global are in early talks to merge, according to multiple media reports.\n\nThe deal would see the owner of HBO channels and CNN team up with the studio behind the Mission Impossible films and CBS News.\n\nThe deal would bring together two of Hollywood's \"Big Five\" studios, with Warner and Paramount's combined market value standing at $38bn (£30bn).\n\nTalks are believed to be at an early stage and a deal may not happen.\n\nWarner chief David Zaslav and Paramount boss Bob Bakish discussed a possible deal over lunch in New York this week, according to news site Axios.\n\nStreaming of shows and films has meant that traditional media companies have had to invest quickly to compete with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Video and Apple TV.\n\nWarner and Paramount have had to commit to some deep cost-cutting, as they try to minimise losses running into the billions of dollars from their video streaming services.\n\nAs a result their stock prices continue to trade well below their highs in the early days of streaming.\n\nAccording to Axios, the chief executives discussed how each company's main streaming service, Paramount Plus and Max (formerly HBO Max), could merge to better take on rivals Netflix and Disney Plus.\n\nParamount is under a lot of pressure to find a buyer or strategic partner because of its levels of debt accrued in recent years whilst bulking up its streaming service.\n\nAnalysts said Warner Bros, the company behind this year's blockbuster Barbie, has a slightly better cash position, partly due to some shrewd mergers.\n\nLast year, AT&T's WarnerMedia unit and Discovery merged to become Warner Bros Discovery, with a portfolio that included Discovery Channel, Warner Bros. Entertainment, CNN, HBO, Cartoon Network and franchises such as Batman and Harry Potter.\n\nMedia reports suggest that more consolidation is coming in the industry.\n\nThe dominance of Netflix and other big technology companies in the media space is undeniable - not just in terms of their financial performances but also through their extensive portfolios of shows and subscriber numbers.\n\nNetflix's crackdown on account-sharing in these months led to new accounts created, mostly in the US, Canada and the Europe, bringing its total number of subscribers to 247.2 million globally.\n\nIn comparison, Paramount Plus total subscribers stand at 63.4 million and Warner Bros Discovery 95 million as of November 2023.", "Many Iranian woman are openly defying the dress code by going out on to the streets without a hijab\n\n\"Highly confidential\" documents obtained by BBC Persian outline how Iran's government is trying to crack down on women who do not wear a hijab.\n\nTwo documents from April and May reveal the judiciary could set up \"mobile courts\" in public places like shopping malls to punish dress code violations.\n\nThey also show schoolgirls could face action by the education ministry and that celebrities could be jailed for up to 10 years for \"promoting corruption\".\n\nHowever, an Iranian newspaper that published a short section of one of the directives has been charged with publishing classified documents.\n\nAnd some of the directives were included in the controversial \"Hijab and Chastity Bill\" that is currently being reviewed by the Guardian Council watchdog before becoming law.\n\nIran's parliament passed the bill in September - a year after protests erupted over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.\n\nWomen burnt their headscarves or waved them in the air at the demonstrations against clerical rule, during which hundreds of people were reportedly killed in a brutal crackdown by security forces.\n\nAlthough the unrest has subsided, a growing number of women and girls have stopped covering their hair in public altogether in open acts of defiance.\n\nAccording to the leaked documents, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi approved a series of directives aimed at coordinating action by the government and other entities to address the issue of women not covering their hair in public - several months before parliament began debating the hijab bill in secret.\n\nSecurity services - including the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence service, the ministry of intelligence, and the Security Police - were granted extensive powers to implement those directives, they show.\n\nSome of the directives state that:\n\nA significant portion of the directives in the leaked documents has already been implemented, including setting up hijab enforcement units inside metro stations and other public spaces; impounding cars that transport unveiled women; denying services to women violating the dress code; and closing cafes.\n\nAccording to the documents, the police force is required to assign a sufficient number of officers to \"identify and warn women who have unveiled themselves\", and that in areas where there is sufficient manpower IRGC personnel will help carry out the task.\n\nInterior Minister Ahmad Vahidi approved the directives included on two documents marked as \"highly confidential\"\n\nIn the past few months Iranians have noticed the presence of hijab enforcers at metro stations across the capital, Tehran.\n\nThe interior ministry and Tehran municipality have described them as \"self-motivated forces that do not require a licence for their activities\".\n\nBut the documents show that their presence is the result of a government decision, which has required planning and the allocation of resources.\n\nThe documents also emphasise the importance of \"extensively filming and documenting the identity of those involved in unveiling\", and indicate that hijab enforcers filming women and girls are affiliated to the security services.", "The employee works at Primark's flagship store on Belfast's Royal Avenue\n\nPrimark has apologised after one of its employees was told she could not wear an Irish language Christmas jumper.\n\nThe young woman, who works in Primark's Belfast store, had been wearing a jumper that said \"Nollaig shona\", which means happy Christmas in Irish.\n\nShe was reportedly called into an office and told some people could be offended by the Irish words.\n\nPrimark has since said sorry over the incident.\n\nThe company, which was founded in the Republic of Ireland in 1969, added that \"no policy exists which prohibits the use of the Irish language on colleague clothing\".\n\n\"We are really sorry that this incident took place, this was an isolated event that should not have happened, and we are taking steps to provide further guidance to our colleagues on our workwear policy,\" it said.\n\nThe story was first reported by the Irish News, which said the young woman involved did not wish to be named.\n\nShe works part-time at Primark's flagship Northern Ireland store on Belfast's Royal Avenue.\n\nIt reported that the young employee was called into a manager's office last Friday to have a chat about a \"sensitive subject\".\n\nIn the meeting she was told some people might be offended by the Irish language on clothing, the paper claimed.\n\nIt also alleged that she was told it would be acceptable to wear clothing featuring the Spanish language, but not Irish.\n\nThe shop worker was then reportedly ordered to report to Primark's personnel and communications departments over the issue.\n\nPrimark told BBC News NI that no-one from the firm was available for interview on Thursday.\n\nHowever, its spokeswoman confirmed the company has not received any complaints from employees or customers about Irish language clothing.\n\nIn addition to the firm's apology, the statement said: \"We support an inclusive workplace where everyone should feel welcome at work.\"\n\nPrimark currently operates more than 400 stores in 16 countries around the world but the firm has strong Irish roots.\n\nIt was found by the late Arthur Ryan who opened his first clothing store in his native Dublin in 1969, operating under the name Penneys.\n\nThe firm expanded into to England in 1974 and the UK is now its largest market.\n\nIt has 37 stores in the Republic of Ireland, all of which still operate under the original Irish brand name Penneys.\n\nIts Belfast store was almost destroyed by a major fire in August 2018.\n\nThe historic city centre building was rebuilt and reopened to shoppers in November 2022.", "Rama Zaqout (left) was injured in an Israeli air strike that killed several of her family members\n\nThe children at al-Aqsa hospital do not think of the dead of Gaza in figures of thousands. Theirs is a more intimate reckoning. It is counted in beloved faces that have vanished into the fire and rubble of the war.\n\nThirteen-year-old Rama Zaqout was sleeping when an Israeli missile struck the mosque in which she was sheltering with her family.\n\nShe woke in hospital to discover that her two-year-old brother Hisham and many other family members were dead.\n\nShe lists the names of those killed in a voice that seems detached from the immense loss she has experienced. It is the voice of a child still in shock at the loss of her grandparents, Hashim, Issam and Ni'ma, her aunt Reem, and her cousins Sireen, Riham and Asma. Sireen was pregnant and had a young daughter. That child was also among the dead.\n\nRama survived with severe wounds to her left hand and right leg, but the hospital does not have the facilities to treat her injuries properly. If she is not evacuated from Gaza, she says, both limbs will be amputated.\n\n\"Running and drawing were once my best hobbies,\" Rama says, \"but without the proper treatment, I won't be able to enjoy them again… I dream of a life like other children around the world, where I can again run and draw.\"\n\nNear to where Rama lies, there is another girl - about 10 years old - who lies strapped into a medical brace. She appears to have suffered a serious back injury. Somebody has given the child some Barbie dolls to play with and a plastic tiara to wear. They are symbols of a vanished normality in a place of the dead and maimed.\n\nMore than 52,000 people have been injured in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry\n\nShe picks up a doll with red hair and caresses it gently. A small child's screaming erupts from another ward. Adult voices can be heard trying to console him. The girl with the doll does not react, as if she is trying to close herself into a world that war cannot reach.\n\nOutside the hospital, the soundscape of Gaza is dominated by the rumble of jets, the constant whine of the military drones and the explosions when they find their target.\n\nFor 24-year-old Tala Abu Nahel, who lives in Rafah in a house shared with nine other families, there is a belief that survival is a matter of luck.\n\nWe first interviewed Tala more than a month ago, when she tried to escape Gaza with her severely disabled brother, Yazid, aged 17. They were turned back as they did not have foreign passports. Yazid suffers chronic seizures, made much worse now by the absence of medication.\n\nTala explains the psychological torment of living under constant threat of attack.\n\n\"Every time I hear like a rocket or bomb that's going to drop on people… it's horrible to say this, but sort of it gives me this, this sort of relief, that it's not us,\" she says. \"But that does not mean that we're fully safe. It's like every day it feels like we're next. And it feels like we're just getting by on luck. I don't think I have any more hope.\"\n\nSitting in his wheelchair in the garden of the house in Rafah, Yazid glances repeatedly upwards in the direction of the drones. Tala strokes her brother's hand to comfort him.\n\nTala (left) and her brother Yazid (right) were turned back at the border when they tried to leave Gaza\n\n\"It's been over 70 days, with nothing changing. It keeps getting worse,\" she says. \"I think what I fear the most is that I don't want to be a number. I just don't want to die or get killed to be another one of those 20,000 people who got killed.\"\n\nThe people of Gaza grieve their dead and live in fear of dying themselves. They flee from one unsafe place to another. They endure this because they have no choice. Every border is closed to them.\n\nEach day, the funerals of their dead bring forth corpses of all ages, wrapped in white shrouds or in plastic body bags.\n\nAt the Nasser Medical Complex, a boy prostrates himself on the body of his father lying among a group of corpses. He spreads his arms to hug the dead man, his fingers grasping the plastic sheeting.\n\n\"Our dad,\" he sobs, \"I can't take it any more.\"\n\nAn older male relative reaches in to stroke his arm. But the child is beyond consolation. Eventually he is gently drawn away from his father. The men begin to lift the corpses, one holding each end of the body bag. They move through the gates where they stop and pray for the dead.\n\nBarring a sudden declaration of ceasefire, the same rituals of mourning will be repeated tomorrow by different families in the same small place.", "A house has collapsed near Perth, Australia, after a wildfire tore through the property.\n\nResidents in Parkerville, to the east of Perth, were given an emergency warning to leave the area immediately due to a threat to life.\n\nAccording to the Western Australia Fire and Emergency Services, the threat level in the area has since been downgraded to a \"Watch and Act\" area, after the fire was contained.\n\nLocal media reports two people received minor injuries in Parkerville and were receiving treatment in hospital.", "The eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula has been seen across the world, with spectacular aerial shots showing the scale of the volcanic activity.\n\nThe intensity has diminished on its second day but nearby communities remain off limits for at least a week.\n\nIt spewed lava and smoke more than 100 metres (330 feet) into the air after weeks of waiting on the seismic activity.", "The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 was the deadliest terror attack carried out in the UK\n\nThirty-five years after her brother Rick died in the Lockerbie bombing, Kara Weipz is hoping an end to the legal side of the case is in sight.\n\nKara leads an organisation which represents 400 relatives and friends of the Americans who were killed on 21 December, 1988, when Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over the Scottish town.\n\nThe group has welcomed the prospect of a second Lockerbie trial.\n\nBut once the case against Abu Agila Masud has been concluded, Kara believes the Lockerbie file should be closed.\n\nProsecutors allege Masud made the bomb which destroyed the plane and was an accomplice of Abdulbaset Al Megrahi, his fellow Libyan who was convicted at the first Lockerbie trial 22 years ago.\n\nThe district court in Washington DC has set a starting date for Masud's trial - 12 May 2025, some 17 months from the 35th anniversary.\n\nEven that distant date feels optimistic. It is an enormously complicated case and the defence has already indicated it may need more time to consider all the evidence.\n\nNonetheless, the setting of a potential starting date has been welcomed by Kara.\n\n\"It's finally justice in this country and it's something that members of the group have waited a very long time to see,\" she said.\n\n\"It's what we've wanted. We've wanted justice, and it's coming. Hopefully.\"\n\nKara Weipz and her father Bob Monetti have welcomed the prospect of a second Lockerbie trial\n\nKara and Rick's father Bob Monetti was president of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 group before her.\n\n\"Some of us keeping hoping against hope that this idiot will realise how much evidence there is against him and plead guilty and cut out a year and a half,\" Bob said. \"I'd like that.\"\n\nMasud has entered a not guilty plea to charges of destroying an aircraft and killing 270 people.\n\nScotland's prosecution service will be heavily involved in the American trial, just as American prosecutors were heavily involved in the first Lockerbie trial, which took place under Scots Law at a specially convened court in the neutral Netherlands.\n\nThe head of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, is in Washington for the annual Lockerbie memorial service at Arlington.\n\nShe describes the setting of the date as a significant step forward, and also promises that the inquiry into Lockerbie will continue.\n\nMasud's trial is due to be held in Washington on 12 May, 2025\n\nAbdullah Senussi was the intelligence chief for the Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi until his regime was toppled in 2011. He has previously been named as a suspect over Lockerbie by Scottish and American prosecutors.\n\n\"Senussi remains in custody in Libya,\" Ms Bain said. \"The fact that there's an ongoing live investigation means I can't comment on the lines of inquiry that are being pursued, but it's important that we continue to investigate those who are responsible for this atrocity.\"\n\nLockerbie has always been the subject of a joint Scottish and American investigation.\n\nPolice Scotland's Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Graham said: \"There's always a prospect of this case progressing while people are still alive who we can continue to pursue and where we can potentially gather new evidence as things come to light.\"\n\nThere's long been a difference of opinion over Lockerbie between some representatives of American and British relatives.\n\nDr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died on the plane, said: \"Justice was denied at the first trial. What we're after is the truth. Why were our families not protected, and why are we still not being told all that we know our government knows about who was really responsible?\"\n\nKara and her father have no doubt that Megrahi was involved and Lockerbie was an act of state-sponsored terrorism.\n\nBut they believe a line should be drawn after Masud's trial and any further information about the bombing which hasn't been made public in the courts should be revealed once the case against him is over.\n\n\"I love the tenacity,\" Kara said. \"I love that the prosecutors and the investigators in the US and in Scotland are willing to keep going, and that they feel so strongly about this case.\n\n\"But I think there also has to be a reality here. Where is this new evidence going to come from if they haven't found it already?\"", "Furniture giant Ikea has said supplies of its products could be delayed following rebel attacks on ships using the key Red Sea trade route.\n\nSeveral firms have paused shipments through the route after vessels were attacked by Houthi rebels in Yemen.\n\nIt has forced a number of companies to re-route cargo around Africa's Cape of Good Hope, adding days to journeys.\n\nBut one major shipping firm claimed the disruption will not lead to empty shelves in shops.\n\nHouthi militants in Yemen have stepped up attacks on vessels since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.\n\nIran-backed rebels have used drones and rockets to target foreign-owned ships transporting goods through the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Suez Canal.\n\nA spokesperson for Ikea said: \"The situation in the Suez Canal will result in delays and may cause availability constraints for certain Ikea products.\"\n\nThey added that the firm was looking for other options to ensure its products will be available to customers.\n\nThe alternative shipping route, around the Cape of Good Hope, adds about 3,500 nautical miles to the journey and takes about 10 extra days.\n\nSupply chain research company Project 44 has said items could start to be missing from shelves by February.\n\nAndrew Opie, the British Retail Consortium's director of food and sustainability, told the BBC the current crisis would not have any effect on the holiday season as those products are already in the UK, but warned: \"In the longer term, some goods may take longer to be shipped, as they are routed via longer routes.\"\n\nAs well as delays to products, longer journeys will increase shipping costs which could have an impact on prices that customers pay.\n\nShipping analysts Xeneta estimate every journey between Asia and Northern Europe could cost an extra $1m (£790,000).\n\n\"This is a cost that will ultimately be passed on to consumers who are buying the goods,\" said Peter Sand, chief analyst at Xeneta.\n\nNils Haupt, head of corporate communications at shipping firm Hapag Lloyd, told the BBC's Today programme that bookings for new freight trips are set to cost more.\n\nHowever, he added that transport costs were a relatively small part of the overall costs of most products, so he did not expect consumers to see a \"huge increase\" in prices.\n\nMr Haupt also said that the disruption was not as bad as that seen during the Covid pandemic. \"Yes, it is challenging, but it will not mean that we will have empty shelves in the shops,\" he said.\n\nOther brands are keeping a close eye on the region.\n\nElectrolux has set up a taskforce with their carriers to look at a number of measures including \"re-routing, identifying extra time-sensitive deliveries and finding alternative routes, if needed\". It said it expected any knock-on effect on deliveries to be limited.\n\nDairy giant Danone told the BBC that it was working with suppliers and partners to monitor the situation closely.\n\nThe attacks have led the US to launch an international naval operation to protect ships in the Red Sea route, and countries including the UK, Canada, France, Bahrain, Norway and Spain have joined.\n\nShipping firms have welcomed the plans but can not yet determine when it will be safe to resume using the Red Sea, which could mean the disruption continues for some time.\n\nMr Haupt said Hapag Lloyd would only use the Suez Canal and Red Sea \"when it's absolutely safe and secure for our crews, for our vessels, and the cargo and board of our vessels\".", "Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville says the government remains committed to supporting the trans community\n\nScottish ministers have confirmed they will abandon their legal challenge against a UK government veto of gender recognition reforms.\n\nSocial Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the Scottish government remained committed to improving transgender health care.\n\nThe Court of Session ruled earlier this month that the block on the gender self-ID reforms was legal.\n\nThe Scottish government had until 29 December to appeal against that ruling.\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack welcomed the decision and said the UK government would seek to reclaim expenses from the case, understood to be about £150,000.\n\nLegislation making it easier for people to change their legally-recognised sex was passed by the Scottish Parliament last year.\n\nThe UK government used a Section 35 Order of the Scotland Act to prevent it from becoming law over concerns it would impact equality laws across Great Britain.\n\nA Scottish government legal challenge against the block was rejected by the Court of Session earlier this month, with ministers given 21 days to appeal.\n\nReports that the government was going to drop its legal challenge were leaked to media outlets ahead of Ms Somerville's statement to parliament on Wednesday.\n\nCampaigners gathered outside the Scottish Parliament before the bill was passed\n\nDeputy First Minister Shona Robison also talked about the case during an earlier interview with BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme.\n\nMs Somerville said that media speculation on the government's decision was \"deeply disappointing\" and \"regretful\".\n\nShe said that while Ms Robison did not confirm or deny the reports, she accepted it was \"inferred by the comments made\".\n\n\"She in no way meant to pre-empt the statement made today,\" Ms Somerville said, adding that Ms Robison had apologised to Presiding Officer Alison Johnston.\n\nMs Somerville said that while the bill would not be withdrawn from parliament, that it was \"impossible\" to see a way forward.\n\nShe told MSPs the bill was \"not in the bin and awaits an incoming UK government that has more respect for devolution\".\n\nThe minister claimed the Scottish secretary views the Section 35 powers as a \"veto\" which can be used on legislation they \"disagree with\".\n\n\"Regardless of people's views and opinions on gender recognition, that is a very worrying place for our parliament to be,\" Ms Somerville said.\n\nDeputy First Minister Shona Robison apologised for discussing the government's decision ahead of the announcement\n\nShe told parliament that while many trans people would be disappointed by this decision, the government would \"never waver\" in its commitment to their rights.\n\n\"You are not a threat and you will always be free to live your lives free from prejudice and abuse in the type of Scotland we all want to see,\" the minister said.\n\nShe said the government remained committed to consulting on plans to end conversion practices for both sexual orientation and gender identity.\n\nIn response to the statement, Mr Jack said the Scottish government had pursued the case despite warnings about the cost to the taxpayer.\n\n\"These resources would have been better spent addressing the priorities of people in Scotland - such as growing the economy, cutting NHS waiting lists and improving our children's education,\" he said.\n\n\"The UK government now intends to lodge an application with the court seeking our expenses in defending this matter.\"\n\nSpeaking to the Scottish Affairs Committee last week, the Conservative minister said he was \"minded\" to pursue the Scottish government for abound £150,000 in costs relating to the court battle.\n\nThe Scottish Secretary told MPs he was holding discussions with UK government law officers about that possibility.\n\nHe also warned the total cost to the taxpayer could be \"the thick end of £2m\" if the case were to go all the way to the Supreme Court.\n\nThis has been a long and bruising episode for the Scottish government.\n\nPerhaps they have had devastating legal advice, or concluded that this is not a hill they want to keep fighting on - at great expense.\n\nBut their key concern is that it doesn't become an even more damaging affair for the trans community.\n\nIf this were simply a question of the veto power contained in the Scotland Act, ministers might have been tempted to fight on.\n\nThey do not want to give in on the principle of that - but nor do they want to leave a marginalised group at the centre of a constitutional stand-off.\n\nThe promise to keep the bill on ice is mostly a bid to put pressure on a future UK administration, whatever party forms it.\n\nIn practice, the legislation is off the agenda - and the question is now what the government will deliver instead, having long promised to do something for the trans community.\n\nThe Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was backed by MSPs from all parties, passing by 86 votes to 39 following heated debates.\n\nThose opposed to the changes have warned they could risk the safety of women and girls in same-sex spaces such as hospital wards and refuges.\n\nSupporters argued it would make the process of obtaining a gender recognition certificate easier and less traumatic for trans people.\n\nThe legislation would remove the need for trans people to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria by a doctor before they are allowed to change their legally-recognised sex in Scotland, and would lower the age that someone can apply for a GRC from 18 to 16.\n\nThe period in which applicants would need to have lived in their acquired gender would be cut from two years to three months.\n\nScottish Tory justice spokesman Russell Findlay said the announcement was a \"hard won victory\" for opponents of the \"dangerous\" bill.\n\nThe gender recognition reforms have been championed by the SNP's government partners, the Scottish Greens.\n\nGreen equality spokesperson Maggie Chapman said the court ruling was a \"bitter blow\" to trans people, who would now have to \"wait indefinitely\" for the reforms.\n\nAlba Party MSP Ash Regan, who resigned as community safety minister over the bill while formerly an SNP parliamentarian, said the \"sorry and sad episode has created a culture where women are dismissed as transphobes and bigots\".\n\nShe called for the government to apologise and said the law must never be passed.", "This is what it looks like to airlift deer from the wild.\n\nEvery year, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources captures around 1,200 deer to conduct health assessments.\n\nThe deer are fitted with GPS monitors before being rereleased unharmed.", "A sub-variant of the Omicron strain of coronavirus has been classified as a \"variant of interest\" by the World Health Organization, because of \"its rapidly increasing spread\".\n\nJN.1 has been found in many countries around the world, including India, China, UK and the United States.\n\nThe risk to the public is currently low and current vaccines continue to offer protection, the WHO says.\n\nBut it warns Covid and other infections could rise this winter.\n\nRespiratory viruses such as flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and childhood pneumonia are also on the rise in the northern hemisphere.\n\nThe virus which causes Covid is constantly changing over time and sometimes this leads to new variants developing.\n\nOmicron has been the globally dominant variant for some time.\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) is currently tracking a number of variants of interest linked to Omicron - including JN.1 - although none of them are deemed to be concerning.\n\nBut JN.1 is spreading quickly in many corners of the world.\n\nIt is currently the fastest-growing variant in the United States, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, accounting for 15-29% of infections.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency says JN.1 currently makes up around 7% of positive Covid tests analysed in a lab. It said it would continue to monitor all available data on this and other variants.\n\nJN.1 is spreading fast in all regions, probably because it has an additional mutation in the spike protein compared to the BA.2.86 variant from which it's descended.\n\n\"It is anticipated that this variant may cause an increase in Sars-Cov-2 [coronavirus] cases amid a surge of infections of other viral and bacterial infections, especially in countries entering the winter season,\" the WHO's risk assessment says.\n\nThere is still limited evidence on how capable JN.1 is of getting round the immunity offered by vaccines, the WHO says.\n\nThere are no reports of people becoming more ill with this variant than previous ones.\n\nBut more studies are needed to work out the health impact, the WHO says, as the number of countries reporting data on people admitted to hospital with Covid has dramatically reduced.\n\nTo prevent infections and severe disease, the WHO advises:\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nBanning clubs from joining a European Super League was unlawful and Uefa and Fifa are \"abusing a dominant position\", the European Court of Justice has said.\n\nIt comes after a case was brought by the ESL and its backers claiming Uefa and Fifa were breaking competition law by threatening to sanction those who joined the breakaway league.\n\nIt added that did not mean a breakaway league would \"necessarily be approved\".\n• None Uefa said it was \"confident in the robustness\" of rules\n• None Real Madrid said clubs were \"masters of their own destiny\"\n• None La Liga referred to the ESL as a \"selfish and elitist model\"\n\nAn initial report released last December by the ECJ said the rules of football's European and world governing bodies were \"compatible with EU competition law\".\n\nThe verdict will be seen as a blow to the authority of Uefa and Fifa and how they govern the game.\n\nUefa said it was \"confident in the robustness\" of rules it has brought in since the ESL was first proposed, and that it would \"comply with all relevant European laws and regulations\".\n\nIt added it trusted football's existing set-up would be \"safeguarded against the threat of breakaways by European and national laws\".\n\nBarcelona - one of the initial 12 clubs to agree to the ESL - said the verdict \"paved the way for a new competition\".\n\nAnd ESL backers A22 then released revamped proposals, which this time include a women's European tournament.\n\nThe plan would feature a league system with 64 clubs across three leagues in the men's competition, and 32 clubs across two leagues in the women's competition. Both would involve promotion and relegation.\n\nThe ESL had initially been intended to be a midweek competition consisting of two groups of 10 teams, followed by a play-off phase.\n\nAnger grew when details emerged that the 12 founding clubs would never have to forfeit their places in the league, locking out all but five other clubs across the whole of Europe in the process, once another three founding clubs had been confirmed.\n\nFans protested that the ESL would be detrimental to leagues across Europe and that greed was the driving factor for clubs joining, with no consideration for supporters.\n\nThe report said that when new competitions are \"potentially entering the market\" Fifa and Uefa must ensure their powers are \"transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate\".\n\nThe report added: \"However, the powers of Fifa and Uefa are not subject to any such criteria. Fifa and Uefa are, therefore, abusing a dominant position.\n\n\"Moreover, given their arbitrary nature, their rules on approval, control and sanctions must be held to be unjustified restrictions on the freedom to provide services.\n\n\"That does not mean that a competition such as the Super League project must necessarily be approved. The Court does not rule on that specific project in its judgment.\"\n\nBernd Reichart, chief executive of A22, wrote on X - formerly Twitter - that the ESL \"have won the right to exist\".\n\nHe added: \"Uefa's monopoly is over. Football is free. Clubs are now free from the threat of sanctions and free to determine their own future.\n\n\"For fans: we offer free broadcasting of all Superleague matches. For clubs: Income and solidarity expenses will be guaranteed.\"\n\nThe ESL saga began in April 2021 when news broke that 12 teams - including English teams Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham - had signed up to the breakaway competition.\n\nThere was widespread fury and condemnation from fans, other European leagues and even government, leading to the collapse of the plans within 72 hours.\n\nThe six Premier League clubs plus Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and AC Milan were fined by Uefa, but action against Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus was halted during the legal process, although Juventus signalled their intention to quit the project in July.\n\nThe ESL has not been scrapped completely, however, with Real Madrid and Barcelona remaining interested in pursuing the venture.\n\nReal welcomed the ruling, saying clubs will now be the \"masters of their own destiny\".\n\n\"It is a great day for the history of football and for the history of sports,\" a statement added.\n\nMeanwhile, Spain's La Liga said European football had \"spoken\".\n\nThe statement said: \"Today, more than ever, we reiterate that the \"Super League\" is a selfish and elitist model.\n\n\"Anything that is not fully open, with direct access only through the domestic leagues, season by season, is a closed format.\"\n\nNo-one expected this judgement to be so powerful\n\nThis judgement is a massive blow to Uefa and Fifa and their authority to govern the game.\n\nThe wording of the ruling from the 15-strong Grand Chamber is damning.\n\nIt says their structures mean there is no way of checking whether their operations are 'transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate'.\n\nIt says the rules around commercial rights are anti-competitive.\n\nThis does not mean a European Super League is coming. For the English clubs in particular a lot of bad blood was created by the ill-fated launch of the project in 2021. Unpicking that, certainly in the short-term, will not be easy.\n\nHowever, those who have pushed the project now know they can go away and speak to who they want, when they want, about a vision for European football that suits them, and Uefa and Fifa will have to work with them or risk losing their power.\n\nNo-one, including Uefa and Fifa, expected this judgement to be so powerful.\n\nThe ramifications will be felt for a long time to come.", "Dominic West played Prince Charles in the last two seasons, with Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana\n\nThe Crown star Dominic West has said he can understand the criticism of the show's depiction of royal life.\n\nThe sixth and final season of the Netflix hit dramatised events including the death of Princess Diana.\n\nWest, who played Prince Charles in the last two seasons, said: \"I can understand why people think this is too close to the actual events and that the grief is still so real.\"\n\nHe said he \"did think a lot about that\" before taking the role. \"I still do.\"\n\nWest told BBC Radio 5 Live he had persuaded himself that the Royal Family were \"fair game\" - but he was \"uncomfortable\" with that idea.\n\nIn recent years, the show has faced growing criticism for using artistic licence to portray private royal life and sensitive events.\n\nLast month, the Guardian's review said it \"borders on the exploitative\", while the Telegraph called it \"intrusive and clumsy\".\n\nShowing Prince Harry's imagined reaction to being told about his mother's death amounted to \"intruding upon the worst moment of someone's life for the purpose of entertainment\", the Telegraph said.\n\nThe Times' TV critic praised the first part of the final series, despite the fact it was \"obviously mining tragedy for ratings\".\n\nSpeaking to 5 Live's Nihal Arthanayake, West said: \"I acknowledge that there's discomfort about it, and I can see why people think that way, and I have persuaded myself that the Royal Family are public property and therefore fair game.\n\n\"But I'm still uncomfortable with the thought of anyone being fair game or anyone's private life being made public.\"\n\nHowever, he put his trust in writer Peter Morgan, and \"he's a proven great dramatist so that trust was easy to give\", the actor added.\n\nAlthough he felt conflicted over the role, West told 5 Live: \"Someone like me can't turn down a part like Charles. He's so interesting. He's so complex.\n\n\"I did agonise for a while about it, but my wife tells me the result was always inevitable.\"\n\nHe jokingly added that one of the negatives when he considered the part was that he had to \"forgo the British Empire Medal that I might have got for services to acting\".\n\nThe final season, which also includes Prince William meeting Kate Middleton and Princess Margaret's death, was met with generally negative reviews from critics.\n\nBoth the Independent and The Telegraph gave the season two-star reviews, with the latter writing that \"a once fine drama abdicates with a miserable whimper\".", "Kal Sandhu has been waiting for a new heart for three years\n\nA dad-of-two who has been waiting for a heart transplant for more than three years has said he feels \"in limbo\".\n\nKal Sandhu, 51, from Brecon, Powys, was born with a congenital heart condition.\n\nHe is one of several from an Asian background who, alongside other diverse racial backgrounds, face longer average transplant waits than white people.\n\nThe lead nurse for organ donation in south Wales said this was often due to low consent rates and families not knowing loved ones' wishes.\n\nMr Sandhu, a lawyer, has never known what it is like to have a fully functioning heart and has been waiting for a call to tell him there is a heart for him since 2020.\n\nHe has had open heart surgery twice, as well as several other heart procedures, and has to travel to University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff every three weeks for transfusions to keep him alive.\n\n\"I'm waiting for a new heart that's had one careful owner,\" he said.\n\nHe said this has left him in \"limbo\" with \"no control\" and said the impact on his family was hard.\n\n\"When you see the fear in their eyes… that's when the wait really starts to get to you.\"\n\nPatients from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds accounted for 22% of those who died waiting for a transplant in the UK in 2022-23.\n\nAccording to 2021 Census data, 18% of the population of England and Wales belong to one of those groups.\n\nMr Sandhu has had open heart surgery twice as well as several other heart procedures\n\nMr Sandhu's wife, Ros, a mental health worker said it had been \"really tough\" seeing him deteriorate from \"leading a full and normal life\" to needing to use a wheelchair.\n\nShe said: \"As humans, we avoid the subject of death. That would include discussions about organ donation.\"\n\nShe added their situation had taught her it was important to discuss organ donation with family members, but also what kind of funeral and how they want to be remembered.\n\n\"I know it sounds morbid, but it's actually weirdly life-enhancing,\" she said.\n\nMr Sandhu said organ donation was \"incredibly brave\" and \"selfless\" and wanted to encourage families, especially those from different ethnic backgrounds to discuss their wishes with loved ones.\n\n\"Without sounding too dramatic, I want to be there for my when my daughters graduate. That would be my best outcome.\"\n\nIn 2015, Wales introduced deemed consent for organ donation - meaning people are automatically considered to have no objection to becoming a donor unless they say otherwise.\n\nBut experts say a lack of discussion mean some families are choosing to withdraw consent when their loved one has died, due to uncertainty, cultural or religious beliefs.\n\nIt has lead to consent rates from ethnic minority backgrounds being less than half of the white population, according to Charlotte Goodwin, the lead nurse for organ donation in south Wales.\n\nShe said not discussing wishes left family members \"wondering what's the right thing to do\".\n\nDiscussions around donation among black, Asian and people from other ethnic minority backgrounds could lead to shorter waiting times for these groups as \"heritage\" and \"ethnic characteristics\" can lead to a better organ match, Ms Goodwin said.\n\nPoornima Sreekumar's family chose to donate her organs when she died suddenly\n\nSandhya Sreekumar's mother, Poornima, died suddenly when she was 56.\n\nPoornima was a doctor when she suddenly collapsed at work, having experienced a cerebral haemorrhage caused by an unknown brain aneurism.\n\nThe anaesthetist from Newport never regained consciousness and died a week later.\n\nIt was \"a huge shock\" for the family, said Ms Sreekumar, 31.\n\nHer dad, who was also a doctor, decided to donate Poornima's internal organs, despite not knowing her exact wishes.\n\nMs Sreekumar said: \"Mum and dad had both worked at some point or another with organ transplant, so I think it was it was pretty important to her.\"\n\nSandhya Sreekumar says she has been very vocal with family about donating her organs\n\nPoornima was a devout Hindu Brahmin and although Ms Sreekumar said \"there's a lot of variation about what Hinduism might say about organ donation\", she believes it \"falls within the ethics of faith\".\n\nAs a result of her mother's sudden death, she has been \"very vocal\" with her loved ones about her wishes to donate her organs.\n\nShe thinks it is an \"excellent thing to do\", to \"help other people after you're gone\" and wants more people to speak about donation even though \"death is taboo\".\n\n\"We had to guess her [mum's] wishes after she was gone. It would have given us more peace of mind if we'd known from her directly.\n\n\"She worked very hard to become a doctor in the first place and she was very proud of being one.\n\n\"I think that being able to continue, essentially, in some ways, being a physician after death is probably a good legacy to have.\"", "Glynn Simmons says his time in prison is a \"lesson in resilience and tenacity\"\n\nAn Oklahoma judge has exonerated a man who spent 48 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit, the longest known wrongful sentence in the US.\n\nGlynn Simmons, 70, was freed in July after a district court found that crucial evidence in his case was not turned over to his defence lawyers.\n\nOn Monday, a county district attorney said there was not enough evidence to warrant a new trial.\n\nIn an order on Tuesday, Judge Amy Palumbo declared Mr Simmons innocent.\n\n\"This court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the offence for which Mr Simmons was convicted, sentenced and imprisoned... was not committed by Mr Simmons,\" said Oklahoma County District Judge Palumbo in her ruling.\n\n\"It's a lesson in resilience and tenacity,\" Mr Simmons told reporters after the decision, according to the Associated Press. \"Don't let nobody tell you that it can't happen, because it really can.\"\n\nMr Simmons served 48 years, one month and 18 days in prison for the 1974 murder of Carolyn Sue Rogers during a liquor store robbery in an Oklahoma City suburb.\n\nMr Simmons was 22 years old when he and a co-defendant, Don Roberts, were convicted and sentenced to death in 1975.\n\nThe punishments were later reduced to life in prison because of US Supreme Court rulings on the death penalty.\n\nMr Simmons had maintained his innocence, saying he was in his home state of Louisiana at the time of the murder.\n\nMr Simmons smiled as the court declared his innocence on Tuesday. Dressed in a grey hooded sweater and fedora, a soft-spoken Mr Simmons later told reporters he had been waiting for this moment for a \"long, long time\".\n\n\"What's been done can't be undone, but there can be accountability,\" he said.\n\nA district court vacated his sentence in July after finding that prosecutors had not turned over all evidence to defence lawyers, including that a witness had identified other suspects.\n\nMr Simmons and Mr Roberts were convicted in part because of testimony from a teenager who had been shot in the back of the head. The teenager pointed to several other men during police line-ups and later contradicted some of her own testimony, the National Registry of Exonerations said.\n\nMr Roberts was released on parole in 2008.\n\nWrongfully convicted people who serve time in Oklahoma are eligible for up to $175,000 (£138,000) in compensation.\n\nMr Simmons is currently battling liver cancer, according to his GoFundMe, which has raised thousands of dollars to help support his living costs and chemotherapy.", "GCSE pupils will be able to choose to study British Sign Language from 2025\n\nBritish Sign Language (BSL) will be taught as a GCSE in England from September 2025, the government says.\n\nIt says the qualification will be open to all pupils, who will learn about 1,000 signs, as well as an important life skill and advance inclusivity.\n\nEducation Secretary Gillian Keegan said the subject will \"open so many doors for young people\".\n\nThe exams regulator Ofqual will review and accredit the syllabus before it can be taught in schools and colleges.\n\nThe curriculum has been finalised after a 12-week public consultation with input from parents, teachers and organisations from the deaf and hearing communities.\n\nBSL was officially recognised as a language in the UK last year, after the British Sign Language Act was passed.\n\nSusan Daniels, chief executive of the National Deaf Children's Society, said she was \"delighted\" the course content had been published after a decade of campaigning, adding that the GCSE will celebrate \"the rich culture and history of British Sign Language\".\n\nThe government first said it would consider introducing a GCSE in BSL after a long-fought campaign by 17-year-old Daniel Jillings.\n\nThe teenager is profoundly deaf and was born without a cochlea, meaning he cannot use hearing aids or cochlear implants and does not use speech.\n\nDaniel began campaigning for the GCSE when he was 12 years old.\n\n\"This is a significant moment in the history of the British deaf community, as it is a powerful step to equality,\" he says.\n\nDaniel says the GCSE will mean deaf students will feel less isolated in school\n\nEarlier this year, the teenager spoke at a parliamentary reception about the importance of deaf awareness and specialist education support for deaf young people.\n\n\"It will also allow hearing students to learn BSL so they can improve their awareness of the deaf community,\" he adds.\n\nIt is too late for Daniel to take advantage of this GCSE, but he said he hoped \"deaf students will feel less isolated in school\".\n\nThe British Deaf Association estimates about 151,000 people use BSL in the UK, with 87,000 being deaf.\n\nArran Masterman, from the National Deaf Children's Society, said it was a \"momentous step forward\", adding that \"it is a fun, engaging language to learn\".\n\nMr Masterman, who uses BSL as his first language, also said it would help ensure \"the deaf community, but especially deaf children and young people, don't get left behind\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Environmental science terms have been added to BSL to help teachers, scientists and deaf children discuss climate change\n\nThe question for schools will now be how to offer and deliver this to students.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the union \"fully supported\" the new GCSE, but warned \"there are likely to be practical constraints because schools are under tremendous pressure in terms of staffing, finances and time\".\n\nSue Denny, president of the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf, said she would be keen to see training become available to deaf and hearing people who are fluent in BSL to teach the subject for GCSE.\n\nShe added there will also be a need to have sustainable succession planning to recruit and retain suitable qualified BSL teachers.", "Just when you thought this season could not get any stranger, along came a plan that appeared to divide the game and then united fans in fighting against it.\n\nIt all began on Sunday afternoon, just as Arsenal were limbering up to play Fulham.\n\nThe Times reported that 12 clubs from England, Italy and Spain - including six of the Premier League's biggest - had agreed to take part in a new European Super League, to the fury of European governing body Uefa.\n\nAs details emerged - two groups of 10 teams, followed by a play-off phase - people began to realise just how far planning for this European Super League had already got.\n\nWhat raised most eyebrows, though, was the prospect the 'dirty dozen', as they were soon named, would never have to forfeit their places in the league, locking out all but five other clubs across the whole of Europe in the process, once another three founding clubs had been confirmed.\n\nThe Premier League moved quickly to condemn the plans, followed swiftly by… every other major body in football, including Uefa and the English, Spanish and Italian football federations. Uefa - European football's governing body - announced at 16:30 BST it would use \"all measures\" possible to stop the \"cynical project\".\n\nPoliticians were soon involved, a statement from Prime Minister Boris Johnson supporting the sport's authorities \"in taking action\", and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer expressing his opposition to the plans.\n\nFormer Manchester United and England defender and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville added later: \"It's pure greed. There's 100-odd years of history in this country of fans who have lived and loved these clubs.\n\n\"Dock them all points tomorrow. Put them at the bottom of the league and take the money off them. Seriously. You have to stamp on this.\"\n\nSunday 23:00 BST: 'Commence as soon as practicable'\n\nThe response to breaking the internet on a sleepy Sunday afternoon? The ESL put out an official statement, confirming the 12 clubs signed up: AC Milan, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Tottenham.\n\nThe statement also said the ESL wished to \"commence as soon as practicable\", and that \"clubs look forward to holding discussions with Uefa and Fifa to work together in partnership\".\n\nFifa got involved just before midnight, condemning the move.\n\nAs soon as Europe was awake again the ESL contacted Fifa and Uefa presidents Gianni Infantino and Aleksander Ceferin to issue notice of legal proceedings in European courts designed to block any sanctions the two governing bodies might try enforce over the formation of the ESL.\n\nAn hour later, all 12 clubs turned the screw further by resigning from the European Club Association (ECA), as Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano also stood down from their roles at Uefa.\n\nSpain's top flight, La Liga, would soon condemn the proposals.\n\nMonday 11:40 BST: 'The rich stealing what the people created'\n\nCurrent players soon began speaking out: one of the first was Ander Herrera, Paris St-Germain's former Manchester United midfielder. The Spaniard, whose French club side had not signed up to the ESL, said: \"I cannot remain silent about this, I believe in an improved Champions League, but not in the rich stealing what the people created.\"\n\nBy 14:00 BST Uefa president Ceferin was not mincing his words, calling the ESL a \"disgraceful, self-serving\" plan and a \"spit in the face of football lovers\".\n\n\"This is new for us,\" he added. \"We might be naive in not knowing we have snakes close to us. Now we do. There will be legal action soon.\"\n\nUefa simultaneously announced its widely trailed new format for the Champions League from 2024, with 36 teams in one league, each team playing 10 matches.\n\nAt 17:00 BST Paris St-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi denied he had turned down the chance to replace Andrea Agnelli as chairman of the ECA because PSG were considering joining the ESL, insisting his reason was simply a reluctance to add to his existing workload.\n\nElland Road became the focal point on Monday evening. Leeds supporters were joined by fans from other clubs as they gathered outside the ground to stage a protest - during which a Liverpool shirt was burned, and a plane flew over the stadium displaying an anti-ESL message.\n\nIn the stadium, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was the focal point. The German had said in 2019 he hoped there would never be a Super League, and at Elland Road he confirmed his opinion had not changed.\n\nLeeds players wore T-shirts saying 'Earn it' next to the Champions League logo and 'Football is for the fans', and left the shirts in Liverpool's dressing room in case they wanted to join the protest. That angered Klopp.\n\n\"We were not involved in the process,\" he said after the game. \"We are the team, we wear the shirts with pride. Somebody has made a decision with the owners in world football that we don't know exactly why.\"\n\nAt 23:00 BST former England captain David Beckham, now a franchise owner in the United States' Major League Soccer, posted on Instagram that football was \"nothing without the fans\" and that the game should be \"for everyone\" and competitions \"based on merit\".\n\nTuesday 06:00 BST: 'We're doing it to save football'\n\nTuesday began as combatively as Monday had ended, as much of Europe awoke to an interview with Real president Florentino Perez - the first ESL chairman - that had gone out on Spanish TV late on Monday night. Perez claimed the clubs were \"doing this to save football at this critical moment\" and that \"young people are no longer interested in football\".\n\nHe later said expulsion from the Champions League would not happen, claiming \"the law protects us\".\n\nBy 09:30 BST Fifa president Infantino had given an insight into the world governing body's approach, saying his organisation \"strongly disapproves\" of the plans and warning the breakaway clubs they could not be \"half in and half out\" and would have to \"live with the consequences of their choice\".\n\nAt 12:00 GMT Boris Johnson held a meeting with the representatives from the Football Association, Premier League and football fan groups, with Downing Street saying the prime minister had reiterated his \"unwavering support\" for their attempts to prevent the breakaway competition.\n\nA meeting of the 14 non-ESL Premier League clubs \"unanimously and vigorously rejected\" plans for the Super League at 14:00 BST, and the league announced it was \"considering all actions available to prevent it from progressing\".\n\nAt about 17:00 BST Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich confirmed they had said no to the ESL.\n\nTuesday 19:00 BST: 'We don't like it and we don't want it to happen'\n\nAs Chelsea warmed up for their match against Brighton, and fans gathered outside Stamford Bridge to protest, the BBC learned Manchester City were to pull out of the ESL - and that Chelsea were considering following suit.\n\nAt 20:00 BST, Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward said he would resign at the end of 2021, and Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson posted on social media that his side's \"collective position\" was against the breakaway.\n\nHis message - \"We don't like it and we don't want it to happen\" - was also posted by many of his Liverpool team-mates.\n\nThe pressure had built, the cracks had begun to show, and then the dam burst.\n\nFrom 22:45 BST, all six of the Premier League teams involved in the ESL announced they were to formally withdraw from the competition.\n\nManchester City defender Benjamin Mendy spoke for many when he welcomed the move.\n\nUefa president Ceferin said the six English clubs were \"back in the fold\", adding: \"The important thing now is that we move on, rebuild the unity that the game enjoyed before this and move forward together.\"\n\nBut perhaps the ESL is not dead yet.\n\nIn a statement released at 07:30 BST it said: \"Despite the announced departure of the English clubs, forced to take such decisions due to the pressure put on them, we are convinced our proposal is fully aligned with European law and regulations as was demonstrated today by a court decision to protect the Super League from third-party actions.\"\n\nWednesday 08:00 BST: 'I've let you down'\n\nJust 36 hours after the team kicked off against Leeds amid a maelstrom of criticism, Liverpool released a video in which owner John W Henry apologised to the club's supporters, saying: \"In this endeavour I've let you down.\"\n\nThe American also apologised to Klopp, the players and chief executive Billy Hogan, promising to do all he could to win back the supporters' trust.\n\nWednesday 10:00 BST: 'I don't think that project is still up and running'\n\nFor the first time, a senior figure in the ESL acknowledged publicly what seemed inevitable once the English teams pulled out late on Tuesday.\n\nAsked whether the project could still happen, ESL founder and Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli told Reuters: \"To be frank and honest, no. Evidently that is not the case.\n\n\"I remain convinced of the beauty of that project, of the value that it would have developed to the pyramid, of the creation of the best competition in the world, but evidently no. I don't think that project is now still up and running.\"\n\nWithin the next 90 minutes, both Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan pulled out. Just four of the initial 12 remained.\n• None Meet the man who stole millions from work to sustain his gambling habit\n• None 'Food is more than calories': Different strategies to help you achieve a healthy weight", "Brianna Ghey was found dead at Culcheth Linear Park after being stabbed 28 times\n\nWithin 24 hours of the murder of Brianna Ghey, investigating officers had identified the suspects - two teenagers who thought that hiding the most brutal of killings would be easy.\n\nThe pair, who were just 15 at the time, were quickly arrested at their homes and taken away for questioning.\n\nDetectives would soon unravel the crime despite the killers arrogantly presuming their endless lies would save them.\n\nSixteen-year-old Brianna, who was transgender, was stabbed 28 times in broad daylight in Culcheth Linear Park in Cheshire on the afternoon of 11 February.\n\nThe teenagers, who were referred to only as girl X and boy Y during their trial due to their age, have both been convicted of her murder.\n\nWarning: Some readers might find the following report distressing\n\nThe court heard how their web of deceit began shortly after the killing when the pair began to craft what they thought would emerge to be a subtle cover story.\n\nGirl X messaged boy Y to say a \"woman got stabbed\" in the park.\n\n\"Holy crap\" was boy Y's reply despite the pair later admitting to police they were present during the stabbing - albeit blaming each other for the killing.\n\nThe following day, girl X messaged Brianna saying: \"Girl, is everything okay? Some teenage girl got killed in Linear Park its on news everywhere.\n\n\"And why did you ditch us for some random man from Manchester. Like wtf.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The jury was shown footage of the 16-year-old leaving home for the last time\n\nFor Det Ch Supt Mike Evans, it became clear early on that the two school pupils believed they could cover their tracks.\n\nGirl X, who has traits of autism and ADHD, even assured boy Y, who has been diagnosed with selective mutism and autism spectrum disorder, that he would not be caught, criticising the capabilities of police in the area.\n\n\"These are really high functioning, intelligent children,\" said the officer, who is head of crime at Cheshire Police.\n\n\"I know people sat at home reading this will have this sort of image that they've built themselves.\n\n\"But actually they're both really clever kids and very bright, very articulate.\n\n\"I think probably their downfall has been their confidence or arrogance around the fact that they thought that they could take another human life and then thought there would be no comeuppance for them and they'd never get caught.\"\n\nOnce their lies unravelled, the truth that emerged was that both had a fascination with violence, torture and murder and had planned the killing for weeks.\n\nMessages between them showed they encouraged one another to think about how they would actually carry out a killing.\n\nGirl X admitted she enjoyed \"dark fantasies\" but the jury did not accept her claims that she had no intention of turning them into reality.\n\nNeither did the jury accept boy Y's claims that he had simply played along with these fantasies and did not take them seriously.\n\nHowever, police admit they may never know exactly what motivated the teenagers to act.\n\nDet Ch Supt Mike Evans described the attack on Brianna as \"violent and vicious\"\n\nDet Ch Supt Evans continued: \"I don't think many of us has ever seen the level of depravity shown and the dehumanising nature of the text messages between the two, and the hatred towards Brianna and others for no reason whatsoever.\n\n\"And just that thirst for killing from two 15 year olds - that was really disturbing.\n\n\"And we still do not know to why they've done it. What led them to want to do it?\n\n\"Obviously now they've played on the fact that they thought it was fantasy and but when you read those messages, it was quite clear that was a plan. That wasn't a fantasy.\"\n\nBrianna was found by dog walkers in Culcheth Linear Park\n\nBoth teenagers spoke about people they wanted to kill and by 26 January - just two weeks before Brianna's death - they had compiled a \"kill list\" of five people.\n\n\"We never built this case around a transgender element,\" he said.\n\n\"This was about the murder of a young, vulnerable girl. We obviously know there was that kill list, which had five people on it. Brianna was one of them.\n\n\"Brianna was the only person on that list who was transgender. This was about murderous intent for somebody.\"\n\nIn one message, girl X messaged boy Y telling him she was \"obsessed over someone\" called Brianna but did not have feelings for the teenager.\n\nGirl X posted a tribute to Brianna on Snapchat following her death\n\n\"She was really cruel. This girl was the one who has befriended and who has betrayed and who has essentially instigated this attack throughout,\" said Det Ch Supt Evans.\n\n\"She has been the planner behind it. She's been the person who was sending the text messages and ultimately lured Brianna out to her death and then murdered her in the coldest fashion.\"\n\nUrsula Doyle, the Crown Prosecution Service's deputy chief crown prosecutor, said one of the key elements of the case was the messages, which \"provided a terrifying insight into the warped fantasies\" of the teenagers.\n\n\"This actually gave us detailed knowledge and insight into the relationship of the two defendants, what they talked about, the dark fantasies and the content of those messages were chilling,\" she added.\n\n\"It also gave us the evidence to actually see how the whole event had unfolded from the planning right the way through to luring Brianna to the park on that date.\n\n\"In fact, the way the attack was carried out was exactly the way it had been planned.\"\n\nA handwritten note of \"murder plan\" to kill Brianna was found in girl X's bedroom\n\nShe said the investigation was one of the most disturbing cases she had dealt with during her career.\n\n\"The planning, the violence and the age of the killers is beyond belief,\" she said.\n\nDet Ch Supt Evans added: \"I think this case is truly horrific.\n\n\"I would rather we talked about Brianna than these two individuals.\n\n\"I think what they did on that day and leading up to that day was evil. It was cruel and it was vicious.\n\n\"But as I say, I only want to think about Brianna going forward, not these two individuals who hopefully now will remain in prison for a considerable amount of time.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n• None The Murder of Brianna Ghey - A File On 4 special\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "On the front line in eastern Ukraine, the bleak mood among soldiers is in striking contrast to the last year’s elated atmosphere when the Kharkiv region and city of Kherson were liberated.\n\nA company commander from the 93rd brigade told me Russian troops attack their positions at least twice a day. However, units that try to stop such attacks are running low on ammunition.\n\nSome soldiers told me that they have to limit fire due to the lack of artillery shells.\n\nUkrainian troops on the front line have received new Western weapons, such as Swedish howitzer Archer and US-made M109 Paladin artillery systems. But soldiers say that those expensive guns will turn into scrap metal if they have no rounds to fire.\n\nWinter creates new challenges for soldiers. Hypothermia is a new enemy. Low temperatures affect the hardware too – engine oil solidifies and some gun components can freeze.\n\nAccess to front line positions is now far more difficult, since roads are covered with snow or completely frozen.\n\nSmall cars struggle to reach remote posts. And, due to the constant threat of drones, it is too risky to deliver supplies on big trucks or armoured vehicles.\n• Read Abdujalil's recent report from the front line here", "Satellite images commissioned by the BBC reveal the extent of destruction across Gaza, showing that nearly 98,000 buildings may have suffered damage.\n\nThe satellite images were taken last Thursday - before the start of a seven-day suspension of hostilities, which has now ended.\n\nDrone footage and verified video also show buildings and entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble after Israeli air strikes and on-the-ground fighting.\n\nWhile northern Gaza has been the focus of the Israeli offensive and has borne the brunt of the destruction, widespread damage extends across the entire strip.\n\nIsrael says northern Gaza, which includes the major urban centre of Gaza City, was a \"centre of gravity of Hamas\", the group behind the deadly 7 October attacks on Israel. The Israeli military says its bombing campaign has successfully targeted Hamas commanders and fighters and accuses the group of embedding itself in civilian areas.\n\nSatellite data analysis suggests that almost 98,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip may have suffered damage, mostly in the north - as shown in the above map.\n\nAnalysis of the data was carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University. It is based on comparisons of two separate images, revealing changes in the height or structure of buildings which suggests damage.\n\nWe have analysed satellite imagery from several areas with extensive damage.\n\nThe cities of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the north and north-east of the Gaza Strip were among the first to be targeted by air strikes after the 7 October attacks by Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the area was a hideout for Hamas.\n\nParts of Beit Lahia, which overlooked olive groves and sand dunes stretching towards the border with Israel, were flattened. The satellite image below shows an area in the north-east of Beit Lahia, where a significant block of buildings was destroyed.\n\nBulldozers appear to have cleared roads through the rubble and the Israeli military cleared land and set up defensive positions in surrounding fields.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe IDF also struck the small nearby city of Beit Hanoun, less than 1.6km (1 mile) from the border. It said 120 targets were hit in the area on the first day of air strikes.\n\nAs the images above show, a skyline of multi-storey buildings and a mosque was gradually reduced to rubble between 14 October and 22 November.\n\nAfter weeks of air strikes on Gaza, Israel moved in on the ground - tanks and bulldozers going through areas which had been heavily bombarded. The IDF worked its way southwards along the coast towards Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in the Gaza City area.\n\nAs the image below shows, a whole series of craters are visible in what was once a residential area. Some of the buildings on the beach front, which boasted Gaza's first five-star hotel, the Al-Mashtal, as well as huts and restaurants, appear to have been partially destroyed.\n\nAbout a week after the air strikes began, the IDF warned Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south of a river known as Wadi Gaza for their own safety.\n\nDespite the warning and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Gaza City, areas in the south continued to be targeted.\n\nNuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza was hit several times before the temporary pause in hostilities began. The camp was said to be home to about 85,000 people, according to the UN.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn this verified video, which emerged online, people are seen picking through the rubble of collapsed and damaged buildings.\n\nThe distinctive black chimney stacks of the Gaza Power Plant, situated just north of the camp, are visible in the background.\n\nThe BBC has approached the IDF for comment.\n\nIn Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, thousands of people are living in tents or the rubble of bombed-out buildings.\n\nAlthough the damage was not as widespread as in the north, up to 15% of buildings across the city may have been damaged, according to Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek's analysis.\n\nAs well as pushing down from the north, Israeli forces also cut across the Gaza Strip westwards, isolating Gaza City from the south.\n\nIn this image below, taken to the south of Gaza City, we can see that a previously populated residential area was cleared by the IDF with heavy machinery and a road bulldozed towards the western Mediterranean shoreline.\n\nYou can also see dozens of military vehicles, including tanks, grouped behind fortifications made from earth.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nSatellite images also show an open square of land with a Star of David carved into the earth by vehicle tracks in Gaza City, near al-Azhar University.\n\nImages online from before the war showed children playing there and suggested it was a park, but IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said the ground was used by Hamas as a parade square near a base. The area was taken over by the IDF's Golani Brigade.\n\nA Star of David - which is used as a Jewish and Israeli symbol - was made by armoured vehicles in a ceremony in memory of Israeli soldiers who had been killed since the war began, according to a post by Rear Adm Hagari on X.\n\nAdditional reporting by Thomas Spencer, Paul Brown, Jake Horton, Alex Murray and Shayan Sardarizadeh and Jemimah Herd", "Sam Ryder's You're Christmas To Me is challenging the classic festive favourites\n\nWham!, Sam Ryder and Mariah Carey are all vying for this year's Christmas number one, in one of the most open festive chart battles of recent years.\n\nThursday is the final day for streams and sales to count before the Christmas chart is revealed on Friday.\n\nWham!'s 1984 classic Last Christmas is leading the way, with Ryder's You're Christmas To Me the top new release.\n\nYouTubers LadBaby have been Christmas number one for the past five years, but decided not to enter the 2023 race.\n\nMariah Carey (featuring Santa) reappears in the charts every year thanks to streaming\n\nThe Christmas chart battle \"feels much more exciting than it has done for a few years\", according to Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company.\n\nTalbot said there is \"a much more open field\" this year.\n\n\"LadBaby have dominated for the last five years and I think by the time it reached its fifth Christmas number one last year, people were keen to see something a bit fresh and a bit new.\n\n\"We've obviously got the classics that are coming back into the charts, we've got the usual run of charity records driven by ordinary people who just want to raise some money for good causes, and we've also got one or two really interesting releases as well, like Sam Ryder.\"\n\nThe former Eurovision Song Contest runner-up has been busy trying to drum up support for his single.\n\nRyder told BBC Breakfast on Thursday that he could understand why some people think \"all new Christmas songs are rubbish\", but said he took inspiration from festive classics by Darlene Love, Stevie Wonder and The Darkness.\n\n\"We've done 26 performances in the last six days, doing everything we possibly can to make this Christmas miracle come true - because it's not often you find yourself in a chart race against the almighty Wham!\" the singer said.\n\n\"But, with massive respect to those absolute legends, there's always room for new music and new artists coming through and attempts at putting new Christmas music out there.\"\n\nWham!'s Last Christmas has been reissued on green vinyl in an attempt to give it a boost\n\nThe chart is compiled from streams and sales in the week leading up to midnight on Thursday night.\n\nThe Wham! and Pogues songs have been reissued on vinyl, while Ryder's single is available on CD - with physical sales counting for more than streams in the chart formula.\n\nStreams of newer songs also carry greater weight - meaning Ryder and Sheeran/Sir Elton have a better chance of competing with classic festive tunes.\n\nThere has been a campaign to get The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl to number one following Shane MacGowan's death\n\nAnd a song's placing on streaming services' Christmas playlists can be influential too.\n\nSo although Ryder's song isn't on services like Spotify and Apple, it is likely to pop up for Amazon users who ask Alexa for festive tunes.\n\n\"Playlists have a big part to play, and they are influential in terms of the chart when it comes to Christmas,\" says Talbot.\n\n\"That said, particularly with a Christmas number one race, the key is not to rely on streaming - it's to generate sales, whether they be downloads or physical releases.\"\n\nThe Christmas chart will be revealed on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Sounds from 16:00 GMT on Friday.", "There was no sign of Steven Spielberg or terrifyingly realistic velociraptors and T. rexes.\n\nBut a group of friends from the south Wales valleys have breathed new life into the daddy of all dinosaur movies.\n\nThey took to the streets of Porth in Rhondda Cynon Taf dressed as both beloved characters and prehistoric beasts from Jurassic Park for their Christmas fancy dress pub crawl.\n\nFor their 19th annual night out they chose the 1993 blockbuster as their theme, and recreated a classic shot in a kiddies' playground.\n\nMember Matthew Jones remembered one year when they dressed as Oompa Loompas from the Willie Wonka films.\n\n“And an article appeared in the local paper asking if people could help explain why there were 20 Oompa Loompas around Porth,\" he said.", "The Premier League and other sports governing bodies \"should commit to cutting the volume\" of gambling adverts in stadiums, says an influential group of MPs.\n\nIn a new report, the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee said a reduction was needed \"to shield children from exposure\" to betting companies' logos.\n\nThe parliamentary group's chair, Dame Caroline Dinenage, said that \"more should be done…[over] what often seems like a bombardment of advertising branding at football and other sporting events\".\n\nDuring the 2022-23 season, eight Premier League clubs had gambling companies on the front of their shirts, in deals worth an estimated £60m per year.\n\nIn April 2023, Premier League clubs reached a groundbreaking agreement to withdraw gambling sponsorships on the front of match shirts by the end of the 2025-26 season.\n\nWhile welcoming the move, the cross-party committee warns that this will \"not significantly reduce the volume of betting adverts visible during a game\" with clubs still able to continue featuring them on shirt sleeves and with LED perimeter advertising.\n\nIts report cites a recent study that found that front-of-shirt gambling branding accounted for just 7% of all gambling advertising that was visible during 10 broadcast matches. It also revealed that nearly 7,000 gambling messages could be seen during six matches on the opening weekend of the season.\n\nThe MPs recommend that a new gambling sponsorship code of conduct for sports should include provision to reduce adverts in stadia, and ensure more space is dedicated to safer gambling messaging. \"The publication of the code has been delayed repeatedly which is highly regrettable\" they add. \"The government should require the relevant sporting bodies to publish [it]…without further undue delay.\"\n\nThey also call on ministers to take \"a more precautionary approach\" than that proposed in the gambling white paper, published earlier this year, which avoided firm restrictions on advertising. \"While a complete ban on gambling advertising would not be appropriate, there is still scope for further regulation…\" they say. The committee adds that there should be \"a distinct approach…for horse racing and greyhound racing, given their close and long-standing relationships with betting\".\n\nDinenage said that \"…more should be done to shield both children and people who have experienced problem gambling from what often seems like a bombardment of advertising branding at football and other sporting events\".\n\nA Premier League spokesperson said its clubs \"collectively agreed to withdraw gambling sponsorship from the front of matchday shirts following extensive consultation with the league and the government. The Premier League is now currently working with other sports and the government on the development of a new code for responsible gambling sponsorship.\n\n\"While the Premier League does not have a central gambling-related partner, our clubs adhere to all the legal and regulatory requirements that flow from the law…\"\n\nA Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson said: \"The gambling white paper outlines a balanced and proportionate package of measures, delivering greater protections for those at risk of experiencing harm, while having minimal impact on the freedoms of the large majority of punters…\"\n\n\"There are already robust rules in place to ensure gambling advertising is socially responsible, and we support the work ongoing across the sport sector to develop new standards through an industry wide code of practice.\"\n\nLast year footballers were among celebrities banned from appearing in gambling adverts that targeted youngsters under new rules.\n\nHowever, a spokesperson for the Big Step campaign group said: \"Gambling advertising in our national sport is out of control, with thousands of ads for addictive products infecting the minds of children every single match. Behind every advert is the reality that gambling causes devastating harm to millions of families in the UK.\n\n\"Although it's welcome that these MPs are calling for action, sadly their recommendations do not touch the sides. If they're deemed harmful enough to be reduced, then all ads should be removed from every football ground. This government or the next must end all gambling advertising and sponsorship in football.\"\n\nThe MPs say the \"whistle-to-whistle\" ban on TV betting adverts during live sport, introduced by the gambling industry in 2019, had been \"criticised as ineffective because match viewers - whether inside the stadium or watching on TV - are still exposed to numerous adverts and logos displayed on perimeter boards and kit\".\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already been used to disrupt elections around the world - and there are fears among senior politicians and the security services that the UK will be next.\n\nFormer Justice Secretary Sir Robert Buckland is urging the government to do more to tackle what he sees as a \"clear and present danger\" to UK democracy.\n\nThe Conservative MP, who now chairs the Northern Ireland select committee, is particularly concerned about the rise of deepfakes - realistic audio and video clips of politicians appearing to say things they did not say.\n\nThe threat posed to democracy by AI-generated misinformation does not belong to some dystopian vision of the future, he argues.\n\n\"The future is here. It's happening.\n\n\"Unless the policymakers [in the UK] are showing some leadership on the need for a strong and effective domestic set of guardrails - plus international work - then we are going to be behind the curve.\"\n\nHe fears the next general election, which must take place by January 2025, could face the kind of disruption seen in 2017, when campaigning was suspended less than a week before polling day after the Manchester Arena bombing.\n\nThe UK government says it is taking steps to protect elections from foreign interference, through a Defending Democracy Taskforce launched last year and chaired by Home Office Security Minister Tom Tugendhat.\n\nSir Keir Starmer was targeted by a deepfake at the Labour conference\n\nMany of the threats it is targeting are not new. Misinformation and dirty tricks have long been a feature of election campaigns around the world. Photoshopped images and memes - and even doctored audio of politicians - have been around for decades.\n\nWhat is new, as the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) - an arm of GCHQ - pointed out in its annual report, is the easy availability of powerful, generative AI tools, which can be used to create convincing fakes.\n\nThe boom in large language models, such as ChatGPT, and text-to-speech, or text-to-video, software, is seen by some as a gift to those bent on disrupting elections, from bedroom-based mischief makers to malicious state actors.\n\n\"Large language models will almost certainly be used to generate fabricated content, AI-created hyper-realistic bots will make the spread of disinformation easier and the manipulation of media for use in deepfake campaigns will likely become more advanced,\" warns the NCSC in its report.\n\nThe Labour Party got a taste of what might be to come during its party conference in September, when an audio clip popped up on social media of leader Sir Keir Starmer apparently verbally abusing aides. The clip was quickly denounced as a fake, but was viewed 1.5 million times.\n\nIn November, a fake audio clip of London Mayor Sadiq Khan calling for Armistice Day to be re-scheduled due to a pro-Palestinian march circulated widely on social media.\n\nMr Khan warned that deepfakes were a \"slippery slope\" for democracy if not properly regulated after the Met Police decided no offence had been committed.\n\nThe nightmare scenario, for Sir Robert Buckland and others worried about this issue, is a deepfake clip of a party leader emerging just before polling day in a closely-fought election.\n\nScience Secretary Michelle Donelan says the government is taking the AI threat \"extremely seriously\"\n\nThis is exactly what happened in Slovakia's general election in September, when a fake audio clip emerged of Michal Šimečka, the leader of the liberal Progressive Slovakia party, apparently discussing how to rig the election.\n\nMr Šimečka went on to lose the election to the populist pro-Moscow Smer-SSD party.\n\n\"Who knows how many votes it changed - or how many were convinced not to vote at all?\" Tom Tugendhat said in a recent speech.\n\nAI-generated images and audio have been a factor in other recent elections and referendums around the world, including Argentina, which saw right-wing libertarian Javier Milei emerge victorious.\n\nSir Robert Buckland says these elections show what can happen if adequate laws are not in place. He is calling on the government to get on with plans to beef up regulator Ofcom's monitoring of misinformation.\n\nAnd he is part of a group of Tory MPs who have written to Science Secretary Michelle Donelan to demand clearer guidance for social media firms to help them comply with recently passed national security laws aimed at combating foreign interference.\n\nSir Robert Buckland believes the government can do more\n\nLast week, Ms Donelan told a group of Labour, Tory and SNP MPs the government was taking the AI threat \"extremely seriously\".\n\nMs Donelan, who sits on the Defending Democracy Taskforce, ruled out new laws, but said the UK was working with social media companies and international allies, including the US, to combat the threat.\n\n\"I expect that by the next general election we will have robust mechanisms in place that will be able to tackle these topics,\" she told the science and technology committee.\n\nSo what can be done to stop deepfakes undermining democracy?\n\nSome have argued that they should simply be made illegal (the government has already legislated to ban the sharing of pornographic deepfakes in England and Wales).\n\nOthers - such as Ms Donelan - have argued that technology to detect and neutralise fakes is part of the answer.\n\nBut is it possible to prove - beyond all doubt - that a clip is fake?\n\nJan Nicola Beyer, research coordinator at the Democracy Reporting International think tank, describes it as a \"cat and mouse game\".\n\n\"The detection mechanisms get better, but in the moment they get better, the generative AI models get better in order to generate even more convincing and even harder to detect content.\"\n\nAudio was particularly hard to debunk, he added.\n\nAnd while it was important for fact checkers and the media to call out likely fakes - and provide evidence for their judgement - it was just as important to prevent them going viral, he argued.\n\nMost of the tech giants are working on systems to protect the elections taking place around the world in 2024.\n\nBut Mr Beyer said they should ensure that only material from reliable sources is recommended to users, and that unreliable sources are \"demonetised\".\n\nBut maybe deepfakes are not the real problem.\n\nIn October, Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, which is working with the government to combat foreign election interference, said there was a \"slight risk\" of \"fixating\" on one form of risk.\n\n\"And then if you've got creative adversaries, they decide not to play that card and do something quite different,\" he told reporters.\n\n\"So I wouldn't want to make some sort of strong prediction that [deepfakes] will feature in the forthcoming election, but we would be not doing our jobs properly if we didn't really think through the possibility.\"\n\nOne security source told the BBC that while deepfakes might be the longer-term threat, the more immediate issue was likely to be the use of AI to craft more effective \"spearphishing\" emails, which encourage people to click on links leading to their computers being compromised.\n\nThis technique was used by Russian intelligence as far back as 2016 to get hold of the emails of the chair of Hillary Clinton's presidential election campaign, which were then leaked online during a tight election she went on to lose.\n\nWith the US election next November likely to be equally hotly contested, some security officials in the UK privately hope that foreign spies and their helpers may focus so much on events over there that they will have less capacity to interfere in a UK election which could take place at roughly the same time.\n\nAnother fear, expressed by senior national security figures, is that too much emphasis on the risk of deepfakes and AI interfering with politics will itself spread fear and undermine trust in the political process.\n\nBut whether deepfakes become a major problem or not, the generative AI genie is out of the bottle.\n\nIf social media is flooded with synthetic images and text - even if it is clearly labelled as such - some experts fear voters could reach the point where where they no longer know what is real or not.\n\nIn such an environment, unscrupulous politicians may find it easier to call fake things that are real - what researchers have called the \"liar's dividend\".\n\nSir Robert Buckland has also warned about the \"liar's dividend\".\n\n\"Because of this corrosive attack on the veracity of information, we cease trusting anything, and those who want to undermine the process will simply say attempts to deal with deepfakes are censorships rather than something more legitimate designed to protect the sanctity of the truth,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nThe media, the tech giants, the security services - and the political parties - will all have to grapple with this challenge at the next general election.", "Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer has said there are \"grounds for changing the law\" on assisted dying.\n\nSir Keir said MPs should be given a chance to vote with their conscience on the matter.\n\nA bill to legalise assisted dying in the UK was defeated in 2015, but was backed by Sir Keir and several Tory cabinet members.\n\nThe issue is under discussion after Esther Rantzen announced she had joined the Dignitas assisted dying clinic.\n\nThe 83-year-old broadcaster told the BBC she is currently undergoing a \"miracle\" treatment for stage four lung cancer.\n\nIf it does not work, \"I might buzz off to Zurich\", where assisted dying is legal, she told Radio 4's The Today Podcast.\n\nDame Esther, who is best known for presenting the BBC Show That's Life! for 21 years and launching the charity ChildLine, said she believed people should be given the choice about \"how you want to go and when you want to go\".\n\nThe broadcaster said if she did decide to have an assisted death at Dignitas that would put \"my family and friends in a difficult position because they would want to go with me, and that means that the police might prosecute them\".\n\nAssisted suicide is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. While there is no specific offence of assisted suicide in Scotland, euthanasia is illegal and can be prosecuted as murder or culpable homicide.\n\nDuring his tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Sir Keir changed guidelines to make it less likely for people to be prosecuted for helping someone die.\n\nSpeaking to broadcasters on a visit to Estonia, Sir Keir stressed politicians \"have to be careful\" when dealing with such a sensitive topic.\n\nWere the issue to be considered by MPs again, it should be a free vote, as he \"respected\" the \"strong views\" on either side, he said.\n\nSir Keir said: \"I personally do think there are grounds for changing the law.\n\n\"Traditionally this has always been dealt with through a Private Members' Bill and a free vote, and that seems appropriate to me.\"\n\nAs a backbench MP, Sir Keir backed a 2015 bill which would have legalised terminally ill people ending their own life. The bill was voted down by 330 to 118.\n\nIn the 2015 vote - 11 MPs who are now members of Sir Keir's shadow cabinet supported the bill and eight, including deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, voted the down the law.\n\nThree of Rishi Sunak's cabinet voted in favour of assisted dying eight years ago - including Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride.\n\nThere are now questions around when another vote could take place.\n\nMs Kearns, who chairs the foreign affairs select committee, said she thought there had been \"a fundamental shift in the country, but also in parliament\" since 2015.\n\n\"The amount of my colleagues who say 'I've reflected, I've changed my views'… I really do think that the national conversation has changed,\" she told the BBC, adding: \"In my opinion, assisted dying is not about ending life, it's about shortening death.\"\n\nHealth Secretary Victoria Atkins would not be drawn on her feelings about the highly sensitive issue.\n\n\"It has to be a matter for parliament and individual MPs,\" she said, pointing out that the last vote was on a Private Members' Bill.\n\nLegislation is currently being proposed the Scottish Parliament by Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur. The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill due to come before Holyrood next year.\n\nThe Health and Social Care Committee is due to publish its report into assisted dying and assisted suicide in England and Wales, having launched an inquiry in December 2022 to examine different perspectives in the debate.", "Hannah Taylor and Lewis Conroy are representing themselves in court\n\nTwo climate change activists who climbed to the top of one of the Kelpies put police who had to remove them in danger, a court has heard.\n\nHannah Taylor, 23, and Lewis Conroy, 22 attached a banner to the 98ft (30 metres) sculpture's neck in July.\n\nThe court heard adjoining Helix Park in Falkirk had to be closed and more than 200 visitors had tours cancelled.\n\nThe pair accept they scaled the sculpture but deny committing a breach of the peace.\n\nScottish Canals and the Helix Park operator Falkirk Council lost nearly £2,000 in revenue as a result, the court heard.\n\nMs Taylor, of Derbyshire, and Mr Conroy, of Glasgow, are representing themselves at a summary trial which will continue in January.\n\nLisa Wilson, 41, visitor manager at the Helix, told Falkirk Sheriff Court she received a text at 07:00 telling her \"people were climbing on the Kelpies\".\n\nThe Kelpies have been a feature at the Helix for the last 10 years\n\nWhen she got there, Ms Taylor and Mr Conroy were \"on the cheek of the horse\" and later on top of its head, she said.\n\nQuestioned by Mr Conroy, Ms Wilson agreed that, as someone living in the area, \"it would be a fear\" for her if flooding caused by climate change were to obliterate the Kelpies and the Helix Park.\n\nPolice negotiator Alan Jenkins said he was suspended within the structure for 40 minutes by special operations officers to speak to the two activists, who by then were \"between the ears\" of the horse.\n\nSixteen rope access officers and four supervisors from Police Scotland's special operations unit at Fettes, Edinburgh, were sent to the scene.\n\nPC Jenkins said Mr Conroy and Ms Taylor seemed \"oblivious to the danger\" to themselves and police officers, and he was worried that their banner could blow across the motorway.\n\nMotorists on the M9 were also said to be sounding their horns, making it obvious they were taking their attention off the road.\n\nThe police officer described the activists as \"both very polite\".\n\nHe said: \"When I saw them on the top I was frankly amazed at their disregard for their own safety - they didn't have helmets on.\n\n\"My fear was there could be injuries through misadventure, causing a fatality either to themselves or my colleagues working there.\"\n\nPC Andrew Baird, 36, said the climbing equipment that the two were using was new, but \"absolutely not safe\" for use on the Kelpies.\n\nHe said the sharp metal edges of the sculpture could have \"very easily\" severed the climbing straps they were using.\n\nSheriff Craig Harris adjourned the trial until 30 January to allow the accused to consider whether to make submissions of no case to answer, or to give evidence themselves.", "As Israel presses its military offensive across Gaza, the army has been repeatedly advising some two million civilians to move to a \"humanitarian zone\" smaller than London's Heathrow Airport.\n\nAl-Mawasi is a narrow strip of land by the Mediterranean Sea. It has few buildings and largely consists of sandy dunes and agricultural land.\n\nThe zone designated as safe by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is just 8.5 sq km (3.3 sq miles).\n\nReem Abd Rabu has spent the last few weeks sleeping on the ground and sharing a tent with four other families in the area.\n\nShe is one of the 1.8 million Palestinians who have been displaced since the war began on 7 October after Hamas's attack on Israel.\n\nShe first travelled to Khan Younis after fleeing northern Gaza, but after nearby houses were bombed, she said she felt she had to go to the place the Israeli army identified on the map as safe.\n\nReem told the BBC al-Mawasi was an abandoned place, \"not a place for human beings\".\n\nShe thought it would be safe from the intense bombardment and fighting, but when she arrived, she found little to no basic services.\n\n\"Water comes one day and not for the next 10 days, even in the bathrooms. And it's the same thing for electricity,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThe IDF has urged civilians to move to al-Mawasi on at least 15 occasions on social media, the last on 2 December.\n\nAlthough the UN is distributing some supplies, civilians say there is a lack of basic necessities in the area\n\nThe first mention of the humanitarian zone was on 18 October, when the IDF's Arabic spokesperson posted on X: \"The IDF orders Gaza residents to move to the humanitarian zone in the area of al-Mawasi, to which international humanitarian aid will be directed if necessary.\"\n\nAnother post, from 21 October, stated: \"If your life and the lives of those you love are important to you, head south of Wadi Gaza. We advise you to arrive at the humanitarian area in Mawasi according to our instructions.\"\n\nLittle to no internet connectivity has made it difficult for people to find safe areas in other parts of Gaza.\n\nHowever, even the IDF instructions on al-Mawasi have changed several times. Civilians say the changing messaging has made it difficult for them to know exactly where to find safety there too.\n\nEach IDF post has been accompanied by a map pinpointing a small area within al-Mawasi that Gazans should evacuate to.\n\nBut different areas in al-Mawasi have been designated as \"humanitarian zones\" by Israel on different dates.\n\nOn 18 October, the IDF designated the humanitarian zone marked in purple below. But three days later, the IDF declared a different area - shown in blue.\n\nThen, on 30 October, the area changed again - to the one marked in green.\n\nMona al-Astal, who has also fled to al-Mawasi, says she is kept awake all night by the sound of shelling.\n\nShe is a doctor who says she was forced to leave Khan Younis after her neighbour's home was bombed.\n\nMona also describes a lack of water, electricity and supplies in the humanitarian zone. She said she had been forced to buy a tent and other supplies for $300 (£238).\n\nMona said that she had seen people breaking into a UN agency storehouse because \"they were so hungry, they have nothing to eat\".\n\nTo make matters worse, diseases including lice, chicken pox and intestinal infections have become widespread among children, she says.\n\n\"With every day that passes, the danger for us here increases,\" Mona added.\n\nMohammed Ghanem fled from an area near al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza where he said more than 25 strikes occurred next to his house.\n\nHe said he came to al-Mawasi because \"the Israeli army has been directing people here\" but said the area was \"neither humane nor safe\".\n\nHe described seeing Israeli tanks less than a kilometre away and said there had been strikes on an area just 500 metres (1,640ft) from the humanitarian zone.\n\nThe BBC has identified at least one area of damage approximately 500m away from the designated area of al-Mawasi since the IDF began directing people there.\n\nThe BBC has contacted Israeli forces, but has not received a response.\n\nThe IDF does claim that on 6 December Hamas \"launched a rocket from a humanitarian zone toward Israel\", and released a map with al-Mawasi marked.\n\nThe BBC has not been able to independently verify this.\n\nInternational agencies have been voicing concerns about the viability of humanitarian zones in Gaza when fighting and air strikes extend across so much of the territory.\n\nIn mid-November the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the plan for al-Mawasi was \"a recipe for disaster\".\n\nWHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: \"Attempting to cram so many people into such a small area with such little infrastructure or services will significantly increase risks to health for people who are already on the brink.\"\n\nThe United Nations also has wider concerns about the plan.\n\n\"The situation in Gaza is catastrophic; no one and no place is safe,\" Andrea de Domenico, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) told the BBC.", "'When explosions hit, I can't see anything'\n\nWe've been hearing voices from Gaza discussing the difficulties people with disabilities are facing because of the war. Safa Jalal, 28, who has a visual disability, says she is dependent on her hearing when explosions hit. \"When explosions take place, I cannot see anything, but only hear sounds, and I do not know where I am at the time,\" Safa told the BBC World Service. \"I would like this war to come to an end so that my life goes back to normal, I hope my tragedy ends,\" she said. The UN warned earlier in the conflict that about 15% of the displaced people inside the Gaza Strip have a disability and shelters are not well equipped to meet their needs. Youssef Ali Abu Khater said his sister, who is deaf and unable to speak, refused to flee to Khan Younis with his family. They have been unable to locate her since. \"She was very tired as she was facing a great difficulty in doing anything,\" he said. \"She only wanted to stay at her home. Her family did not want to abandon her, so they asked her to come with them, but she left them and went in the direction of bombing and fighting.\"", "The French president said France's highest honour should not be taken away from the actor\n\nFeminist figures have criticised French President Emmanuel Macron over his defence of the actor Gérard Depardieu.\n\nIn an interview, President Macron said Depardieu was the target of a \"manhunt\" and added that France's highest honour, the Legion of Honour, should not be withdrawn from him.\n\nDepardieu has been accused of sexual assault or harassment by 13 women, and was filmed making obscene remarks in a documentary released this month.\n\nSpeaking to French TV on Wednesday, Mr Macron said Depardieu was \"a great actor\" who \"makes France proud\".\n\nA documentary released this month showed Depardieu sexually harassing a translator and making sexual comments about a 10-year-old child. In response, the Prime Minister of Quebec stripped Depardieu of the Canadian province's National Order honour on 13 December.\n\nBut Mr Macron said the Legion of Honour - France's highest honour, which Depardieu was awarded in 1996 - was \"not there to do any moralising\". He added that the Legion should not be taken away from Depardieu on the basis of \"reports\".\n\nDepardieu was placed under judicial investigation on suspicion of rape and sexual assault in 2020.\n\nHe was also accused in April of sexual assault or harassment by 13 women. He has strenuously denied all of the allegations.\n\nSandrine Rousseau, an MP for the Green party, said the president had insulted victims of sexual violence with his defence of the actor.\n\nShe told French radio: \"Someone who sexualises a 10-year-old child does not make a country proud.\"\n\nRaphaëlle Rémy-Leleu, a Paris councillor for the Greens, said that unless Depardieu was held accountable, victims of sexual assault \"will never mean as much as a man's supposed reputation\".\n\nShe said the president was letting French women down.\n\nPresident Macron has previously said that gender equality would be his \"great cause\".\n\nBut feminist groups have said they are disappointed by the results of his terms in office.\n\nA report published in 2022 said his policies were \"insufficient\" and had failed to transform a \"profoundly sexist system\".\n\nMr Macron's appointment of Gérald Darmanin as interior minister in 2020, despite two accusations of rape, was also criticised by feminist groups.\n\nMr Darmanin has never been convicted of a crime. A case brought by one of his accusers, Sophie Patterson-Spatz, was dismissed in 2022.\n\nÉlisabeth Borne, appointed prime minister by Mr Macron last year, is France's second female head of government.", "Brianna Ghey died after being repeatedly stabbed in Culcheth Linear Park\n\nA boy and a girl who had a fascination with violence and torture have been found guilty of murdering Brianna Ghey.\n\nThe 16-year-old, who was transgender, was stabbed 28 times in a \"ferocious\" attack in a park in Cheshire.\n\nGirl X and boy Y, who cannot be named due to their age, had blamed each other for the killing but were convicted of her murder at Manchester Crown Court.\n\nBrianna's mother Esther said the pair had not shown \"an ounce of remorse\" and she had \"lost all sympathy\" for them.\n\n\"To know how scared my usually fearless child must have been when she was alone in that park with someone that she called her friend will haunt me forever,\" she said, as her voice broke with emotion.\n\nHer father Peter Spooner said he was \"so proud\" of his daughter and would never stop loving her.\n\n\"When she was little, I remember the faces she would pull to make me laugh,\" he said, while fighting back tears.\n\n\"The cheeky giggle, the funny dances are engraved in my memory.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Esther Ghey said her daughter was \"betrayed by someone she thought was her friend\"\n\nThere were gasps in court as the verdicts were delivered after four hours and 40 minutes of deliberations.\n\nThe two teenagers, who are now 16 years old, showed no emotion from the dock.\n\nJudge Mrs Justice Yip told the pair she would \"have to impose a life sentence\".\n\n\"What I have to decide is the minimum amount of time you will be required to serve before you might be considered for release,\" she said.\n\n\"I'm not going to do that this week. I'm going to ask for some reports in relation to each of you.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The jury was shown footage of the 16-year-old leaving home for the last time on the day she died\n\nShe said she would deal with an application by the media to be allowed to publish the names of the teenagers on Thursday.\n\nA sentencing hearing is due to take place in the new year.\n\nWarning: Some readers might find the following report distressing\n\nThe 18-day trial had heard the pair were intelligent, \"high functioning\" and came from normal backgrounds, but had a \"thirst for killing\".\n\nNeither had been in trouble with police before.\n\nThe handwritten murder plan was found in the bedroom of girl X\n\nBrianna, who had thousands of followers on TikTok, was in reality a withdrawn, shy and anxious teenager who struggled with depression and rarely left her home.\n\nThe pair, who were 15 at the time of the killing, planned the murder for weeks before killing Brianna in Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington on the afternoon of 11 February.\n\nA handwritten \"murder plan\" of how to carry out the killing was found in girl X's bedroom following her arrest.\n\nThe pair also drew up a \"kill list\" of five children, before settling on Brianna as their target.\n\nOn the day of her death, Brianna was lured to the park by girl X before being attacked with a hunting knife in broad daylight, suffering stab wounds to her head, neck, chest and back.\n\nThe pair had planned to conceal her body in the park but were spotted by a couple walking their dogs and fled the scene.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Peter Spooner says he knew the teen would be a star and was \"so proud\" of what she did\n\nBoth teenagers went home and carried on as if nothing had happened with girl X later posting an online tribute with a photo of Brianna.\n\nThe jury heard girl X admitted to police that she enjoyed \"dark fantasies\", but claimed to have no intention to ever turn them into reality, while boy Y said he went along with them and did not take them seriously.\n\nBoth had also claimed they never expected the other to act on them and gave the same explanation of the crime, suggesting their own back was turned when the other began stabbing Brianna.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC ahead of the verdict, Brianna's mother said she would never forget her daughter's unwavering bravery and strength.\n\n\"She was fearless to be whoever she wanted to be,\" she said.\n\n\"She wanted to identify as a female and she wanted to wear girls' school uniform. She just did it - it wasn't a hurdle at all for her.\"\n\nBrianna was lured to the park by girl X before being attacked with a hunting knife\n\nSpeaking outside the hearing, deputy chief crown prosecutor Ursula Doyle said girl X and boy Y had been \"a deadly influence on each other and turned what may have started out as dark fantasies about murder into a reality\".\n\n\"The pages and pages of Whatsapp messages between the two, planning and plotting to kill people, talking of murder, torture and cruelty were very difficult to read,\" she said.\n\nShe said the messages \"provided a terrifying insight\" into the minds of the pair, but the jury had \"clearly seen their explanations for the lies that they were\".\n\nCheshire Police's Det Ch Supt Mike Evans said it became clear early on that the pair believed they could cover their tracks.\n\nGirl X, who the court heard had traits of autism and ADHD, even assured boy Y, who had been diagnosed with selective mutism and autism spectrum disorder, that he would not be caught, criticising the capabilities of police in the area.\n\nBrianna was lured to Culcheth Linear Park before being murdered\n\nHe said the pair were \"really high functioning, intelligent children\".\n\n\"I know people... will have this sort of image that they've built themselves, but actually they're both really clever kids and very bright, very articulate,\" he said.\n\n\"Their downfall has been their confidence or arrogance around the fact that they thought that they could take another human life and then thought there would be no comeuppance.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n• None The Murder of Brianna Ghey - A File On 4 special\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The number of people trying to cross to the UK from France has dropped sharply - but many are still attempting the dangerous journey\n\nBorder officials in the UK and France have welcomed a \"really significant\" drop in the number of migrants crossing the English Channel this year in small boats.\n\nOfficial figures are down by over a third compared with 2022.\n\nThe UK has helped to fund a doubling of French police patrolling the border along with other measures like drones.\n\nBut tens of thousands of migrants remain ready to attempt the dangerous journey.\n\nOn a cold, moonless night in December, a 17-year-old Iraqi girl named Faisa lay hidden in the sand dunes outside the port of Boulogne, clutching her 10-year-old sister's hand, listening to the steady roar of the sea, and waiting for the order to run.\n\n\"I was not scared because everything for us is a risk,\" she explained later.\n\nIt was a little after two in the morning, and the tide was beginning to turn.\n\nThe smugglers organising that night's crossing for this particular group of about 50 migrants from Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Iran had waited for more than a week to get the timing right. A lull in the winter winds. Calmer seas. Favourable currents off the French coast.\n\nAnd now, if possible, a short dash over the sandy beach before the tide raced out and left them with hundreds of metres to cross to reach the sea.\n\nThe wind was picking up. In a small village further up the beach, Christmas lights glimmered in the dark.\n\nOut in the Channel, the bright lights of a few anchored cargo ships sparkled, and behind them, to the north-west, a faint glow seemed to indicate the floodlights at Dover's busy port, reflecting off its famous white cliffs.\n\nAs Faisa, her parents and three siblings reacted to the whispered order and slipped down the steep dunes, similar sprints were taking place, at intervals, along 150km (93 miles) of French coastline.\n\nDespite the bitter cold and the occasional gust of drizzle, this was perhaps the last decent chance, of the year and maybe even of the entire winter, to attempt an illegal crossing.\n\nHundreds of young men and a handful of women and children began dragging inflatable boats and outboard motors down past big, silhouetted rocks and the dark outlines of ruined World War Two German gun emplacements and on across the tide-rippled sands towards the sea.\n\n\"Did you see that light?\"\n\nIn their sector on a long beach near Boulogne, four French gendarmes, masked and wearing green camouflage uniforms, stopped their foot patrol.\n\nThe UK has pledged hundreds of millions of pounds' worth of support to help France stop people from crossing the Channel\n\nThey were a new team, recently brought into the region as part of a UK-funded move to double the number of French police involved in blocking the migrants. A young officer tucked his rifle under one arm and scanned the dunes to the south with a pair of thermal-imaging binoculars.\n\nThe binoculars and a range of other equipment including drones, motorbikes, and small four-wheeled vehicles had recently been provided by the UK, as part of a three-year support package worth £480m ($607m; €555m).\n\nSuddenly, the gendarmes began running. They'd spotted something French border patrols have begun dubbing \"larvae\".\n\nIt's a reference to the shape that has appeared in their heatseeking binoculars and drones. A long, white blob indicating a solid mass of bodies shuffling fast in one direction. It looks like the larva of a butterfly.\n\nIn past weeks there have been increasingly violent clashes between the police and smugglers, and between the criminal gangs themselves. Shots fired. Knives wielded. Some 30 policemen severely injured.\n\nBut this time the encounter ended almost before it had begun. By the time the gendarmes had sprinted to the boat, which now lay on the beach some 10m or so from the fast-retreating waves, the migrants and their minders had scrambled back into the dunes.\n\n\"They're still up there now. I think they're trying to decide how to get away without us seeing them. But there could be other groups up there still waiting for their chance,\" said a French officer, named Robert.\n\nThe gendarmes set to work. By four in the morning, they had broken the outboard motor, smashed two foot pumps, and cut long gashes into the sides of the inflatable boat. A stain of petrol slid down the beach towards the waves.\n\nDebris of previous attempts to cross the Channel litter France's north-eastern coast\n\nAnd inside the boat they'd found and ripped apart something they hadn't seen used in this context before - dozens of motorbike innertubes provided by the smugglers in place of more familiar, and significantly more expensive, bright orange lifejackets.\n\nThen came a message from a police patrol further north, closer to Calais.\n\nA boat overloaded with more than 60 people had passed through the coastal security gauntlet and out to sea but had then started to sink. One man had already drowned, another was unconscious, and two more people were reported missing. A 25-year-old Sudanese man was found on another beach and later died of a suspected heart attack.\n\n\"This is what keeps us motivated and active. You can't brush off scenes like this, when you see families, young children, or elderly people on boats like that,\" said Major Laurent Lemoine from France's anti-trafficking unit.\n\nWithin hours of the latest migrant death in the Channel, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's office had issued a statement condemning the \"dangerous\" crossings and emphasising the need to \"stop the boats and clamp down on the organised criminal gangs that are fuelling it\".\n\nWe've seen a reduction in the number of arriving individuals this year by over one third... we are continuing to see the fruits of our labour\n\nBut Charlie Eastaugh, director of international operations for the Small Boats Operational Command at the Home Office, observed that a clampdown was already achieving \"really significant\" results.\n\n\"We've seen a reduction in the number of arriving individuals this year in this way by over one third, and we've also seen the number of boats reduced by 45% this year, to date.\"\n\nMr Eastaugh said the figures showed that many migrants were being stopped long before they even reached the coast of France, thanks to a large extent to \"a massive increase in the number of law enforcement personnel\" targeting the smuggling gangs in the region.\n\n\"Overall we are continuing to see the fruits of our labour and our investment as these additional resources come on board,\" he added.\n\nFrench officials pointed out that more than 300 suspected smugglers had been arrested over the past year. In Calais, officials noted an overall fall in migrant crossings, from 46,000 in 2022, to just over 29,000 this year.\n\n\"We've increased the number of people on the ground. Fortunately, we have this (UK) financial aid because it allows us to obtain equipment that supports our military and police,\" said Mathilde Potel, the French police commissioner co-ordinating all security forces on the coast of northern France.\n\n\"The co-ordination of all these factors today explains the drop in the number of migrants who have made the crossing,\" added Ms Potel, who recently toured the coastline with a visiting delegation of British embedded observers from the Small Boats Operational Command.\n\nAnd yet, among French officials, humanitarian workers, and the migrants themselves, there is a deeply rooted scepticism about the notion that more and better policing alone can put an end to the illegal crossings. Many also believe a preoccupation with the criminality of the smugglers misses a larger point about the forces driving the migrations.\n\nMathilde Potel says the UK aid has helped French police slow the numbers of people trying to cross\n\nSome locals insist rougher seas can account for the drop in numbers this year. Others point to a deal between the UK and Albania that has put an end to most illegal migration by young Albanian men.\n\nIn a makeshift migrant camp, a cluster of flimsy tents and bonfires linked by pale, muddy pathways outside Dunkirk, dozens of young men gathered at noon last week to receive hot food brought in by women from a local humanitarian group.\n\nThe women, ladling out stew and potatoes with frozen hands, scoffed at the idea that the police could stop the crossings.\n\n\"People will adapt, the smugglers will adapt. A long-term policy is to open safe and legal pathways (for migrants) to the UK,\" said Juliette Delaplace from the humanitarian group, Secours Catholique.\n\nStanding in the food queue, half a dozen migrants from Afghanistan, Sudan, and other war-ravaged countries stamped their feet to keep warm and told us that it was the prospect of work in the UK, often after years failing to get documentation or find jobs in mainland Europe, that had lured them to attempt the crossing.\n\n\"I waited years in Belgium. They don't give me documents,\" said Wahid, 21, from Afghanistan.\n\nSeveral men asked me about the status of the UK government's plan to send illegal migrants to Rwanda. All expressed concern about the policy but while it continues to face legal challenges, none of the migrants saw it as a reason to abandon their own current plans.\n\n\"Tonight, I will try to cross. If they send people to Rwanda next year, maybe nobody goes to England,\" said Majid, 36, also from Afghanistan. Moments later, a group of several dozen migrants suddenly began moving fast towards the bushes, herded on by two men who appeared to be in charge.\n\n\"Goodbye. God be with you,\" someone shouted at the group.\n\n\"Stop. No filming,\" said a man to us, blocking our path, as the migrants vanished down a muddy track towards the coast.\n\nHundreds of people camped out in northern France are still desperate to make the journey to the UK\n\nVisiting Calais last week, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the UK's poorly regulated jobs market continued to lure illegal migrants to its shores, and that the UK government \"has work to do\" to make it harder for unregistered, \"irregular people\" to find work there.\n\nHe also asked for more UK funding and urged the UK government to open up \"legal routes for immigration to [the UK], in particular for asylum seekers who want to re-join their families\".\n\nMeanwhile, a few hours after she and her family had rushed down the sand dunes near Boulogne, 17-year-old Faisa, from Kirkuk in Iraq, was standing, sobbing quietly, at a bus stop a few hundred metres from the beach. It was around six in the morning, and still dark.\n\nFaisa's younger sister was sitting, shivering, on the nearby bench, wrapped in a foil blanket that she'd been given by a local charity. Two police vans were parked nearby.\n\n\"I tried. But the boat was broken before I got to the water. The other family got into the water but…\"\n\nFaisa spoke in good English but seemed too tired to find the right words. Gesturing with her hand to indicate that the waves had got too big, she said: \"The water is up. So, they had to come back.\"\n\nSeveral people at the bus stop were still soaking wet. I asked Faisa what she thought would happen to her now.\n\n\"I have no idea. I have no place to go. I have no other chance. My life is bad, bad, bad. I came from Kirkuk. We are here for 10 days, and [before that] two years and three months in Germany. But Germany deports us. We have to run here,\" she said.\n\nHer father showed me a picture on his phone of an article in a German newspaper, indicating he'd worked for an NGO there, but had failed to secure permission to stay.\n\nI asked Faisa if she would try again to cross the Channel to England.\n\n\"Not now. Maybe in the summer.\"", "The Chinese online retailer has had 9 million UK users in December, according to data\n\nChristmas shoppers ordering cheap gifts from Temu risk buying items made using forced labour, an MP has warned.\n\nThe Chinese app, popular for its huge range of clothing, toys and gadgets at ultra low prices, was downloaded 19 million times in the UK in 2023.\n\nBut Alicia Kearns, head of the foreign affairs select committee, told the BBC she'd \"long been concerned about the rise of Temu and the risks it poses\".\n\nTemu said it \"strictly prohibits\" the use of forced, penal, or child labour.\n\nThe warning comes after a US government investigation found an \"extremely high risk\" that products sold on Temu could have been made with forced labour.\n\nThe Senate Committee reported the only measure Temu took to ensure this did not happen was to insist that suppliers agree to terms and conditions that prohibit the use of forced labour.\n\nTemu is backed by Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo and launched in the US in 2022.\n\nSince its UK launch earlier in 2023, Temu has regularly topped app download charts. The app has nine million monthly users according to figures given to the BBC by data analyst Sensor Tower.\n\nThe online marketplace with the slogan \"shop like a billionaire\" allows consumers to buy directly from Chinese manufacturers at low prices.\n\nIt told the BBC by offering more affordable options for everyday items, it had helped \"numerous families mitigate the impact of rising living costs\".\n\nSingle mum Rina has posted videos of her unpackaging Temu orders online\n\nSingle mum Rina agrees. She started using Temu after watching unboxing videos of people opening packages online.\n\nThe 32-year-old, who lives in Bedfordshire with her four-year-old son, says shopping on the Chinese marketplace has helped her save money to pay her rent and bills.\n\n\"Sometimes I feel guilty, you know, but I need to prioritise myself first... I don't like when my son would ask me for something. I want to have some money to buy it,\" Rina explains.\n\nShe says this Christmas she has spent £100 on gifts, compared with the years before Temu when she spent between £200 and £300.\n\n\"As a single mum, I need to be looking for a bargain. It's scary at first, but it's just so cheap. So I just disregard the bad things\".\n\nRina vlogs her shopping on Youtube, and says she was approached by Temu and offered £100 to do an unboxing video.\n\nThe company has spent millions on marketing, including brand partnerships with online influencers, social media adverts and even a 30-second advert at this year's Super Bowl - the price of a prime tv slot like this has been known to be as high as $5m (£3.8m).\n\nTemu's online search presence is huge - with items from the site consistently appearing in the top results when shoppers use a search engine to look for an item.\n\nAlicia Kearns MP has been one of those \"inundated\" with Temu adverts, telling the BBC \"it's been difficult to get away from them\".\n\nShe is calling for greater scrutiny of the online marketplace to make sure \"consumers are not inadvertently contributing to the Uyghur genocide\".\n\nThe Uyghurs are the largest minority ethnic group in China's north-western province of Xinjiang\n\nChina has been accused of detaining more than one million Uyghurs in Xinjiang against their will over the past few years.\n\nThe region produces about a fifth of the world's cotton and human rights groups have voiced concerns that much of that cotton export is picked by forced labour. China denies all allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.\n\nBut speaking about a lack of transparency around its supply chains, Ms Kearns warned the reality of cheaper prices could come from a \"reliance on slave labour\".\n\n\"When you look into where Temu gets its goods from, where in China it is producing them, you can see that these are areas where we know that there is the use of force Uyghur slave labour,\" said Ms Kearns.\n\n\"My request to Temu would be show us your supply chain. Show us that you are not using Uyghur slave labour,\" she urged.\n\nMs Kearns' comments have been echoed by leading anti-slavery charities in the UK.\n\nChloe Cranston from Anti-Slavery called on Temu to provide \"full transparency on its supply chain,\" while the Chief Executive of Unseen, Andrew Wallis OBE, said \"It is imperative consumers, but also governments, know the circumstances and the situations in which goods are manufactured and brought to market.\n\n\"The question consumers need to ask themselves is, these are goods that are in essence made by slaves? Is that the kind of gift you want to give at Christmas?\"\n\nTemu told the BBC anyone doing business with it must \"comply with all regulatory standards and compliance requirements\".\n\n\"Employment by all our merchants and suppliers must be voluntary. We explicitly reserve the right to terminate any business relationship if a third party violates our platform's Code of Conduct or the law,\" the spokesperson added.", "Storm Pia's strong winds have caused a lorry on the Barton Bridge on the M60 to blow over.\n\nNo injuries have been reported.\n\nNorth West Motorway Police say the anticlockwise carriageway has reopened but the clockwise side is still closed and there are huge queues. Diversion signs are being used to assist motorists.\n\nDrivers have been advised to avoid the area with police advising people not to travel unless essential.", "Claire Jennings is one of hundreds of disabled people in Essex who are missing money from their personal budgets\n\nAs a counsellor, Claire Jennings has always been there for other people. But she is one of hundreds of disabled people caught up in a contractual dispute between a county council and a firm that provides payroll services. And they all have the same question: \"Where has our money gone?\"\n\nClaire Jennings is registered blind and has scoliosis, a spinal condition that causes her \"constant pain\".\n\nIn April, she lost all hearing in her right ear, which has affected her balance.\n\nShe is entitled to 29 hours of support every week, which includes help to get up, wash, dress and take medication, as well as preparing meals to make sure she does not eat food that could be out of date.\n\n\"In the most recent budget we were told that disabled people should work,\" she says.\n\n\"I do work, but I can't sit in front of my clients if I'm still in my pyjamas.\"\n\nShe says it is these little things that others might \"take for granted\" - but give Claire \"dignity, and offer meaning to my life\".\n\nThe contractual dispute has left hundreds of disabled people in Essex struggling to access their money\n\nClaire is one of about 1,500 disabled people in Essex who use \"direct payments\" to buy personal care, and whose budgets are held by an organisation that manages payroll services, like paying carers and sorting out tax or National Insurance.\n\nThe payroll firm Purple, based in Chelmsford - and its predecessor Essex Paths - provided this service for nearly two decades, but the contract was terminated by Essex County Council in July, and a new firm, Penderels Trust, was appointed.\n\nClaire says that, at that time, she had almost £2,000 in her account because she had been advised by Purple to keep a \"buffer\" for emergencies.\n\nBut since July, she has contacted both Purple and Essex County Council a number of times to find out where her money is and why it has not been paid to her, or transferred to the new provider.\n\nShe says she was told her outstanding balance would be returned in August.\n\nFive months on, she has still not received a penny. The situation has left Claire extremely worried.\n\n\"There's no transparency, no communication about where it's gone,\" she says.\n\nShe feels it is \"unfair\" that disabled people are caught in the middle of the dispute, likening the situation to a child of divorcing parents.\n\n\"We are collateral damage to something I've got no comprehension of,\" she says.\n\nMary Hunt holds a picture of her daughter Laura when she took part in the London Disability Games\n\nThe BBC has spoken to a number of Purple service users who set up a Facebook group called \"Unhappy Carers and Customers\".\n\nTheir complaints include late payments to carers, incorrect payments to HMRC, poor communication, and a failure to provide up-to-date account statements.\n\nAmong them is Mary Hunt, who looks after the personal budget of her daughter Laura.\n\nLaura is 41 and has Down's syndrome, asthma and an underactive thyroid. She also struggles to regulate her body temperature.\n\nShe lives in supported accommodation with 24-hour support staff in Chelmsford, and is also entitled to 25 hours of personal care every week.\n\nMary says she had no problems with Purple up until 2017 when she says the service \"deteriorated\". Since then, she says life has been \"chaotic\" and \"stressful\".\n\nOn one occasion last year, Laura's account had gone into debit and Mary said she called \"90 times in a week\" to get hold of someone who could sort out the issue.\n\nLike others, she has had problems with carers and personal assistants being paid on time. One carer, to whom Laura had become attached, left the sector altogether because payments were so unreliable, she said.\n\n\"To this day I have no idea how much was left in that Purple account,\" she says.\n\nShe says she tried to contact the new provider, Penderels Trust, but found that they were \"inundated\" with others in the same situation.\n\nBy the end of July, Mary took the decision to take control of the budget herself.\n\nShe says she holds Essex County Council responsible for failing to take action when she and others had made complaints about Purple for some years.\n\n\"These pots of money keep families going, keep people safe, keep them secure,\" she adds.\n\n\"When you mess about with people's lives like this, the consequences are huge.\"\n\nService users have found difficulty accessing the money their own money to pay for care\n\nPurple told the BBC: \"Our aim is to provide a high quality, individualised service. Every person deserves the support and tools to meet their day-to-day needs.\n\n\"We are sorry to hear about the concerns raised by Claire and Mary. Their experience does not reflect what we strive to achieve.\n\n\"Unfortunately, we are unable to comment publicly on the detailed points raised as we take confidentiality seriously.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Essex County Council said the authority was \"in the process of reconciling all funds that were held by the previous Direct Payment Support Service provider\".\n\n\"This is taking some time due to the volume of information and accounts that need to be reconciled,\" the spokesperson added.\n\n\"However, all funds will be transferred with no detriment to any individual who receives a direct payment. All care commitments will continue to be met.\"\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastinvestigationsteam@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Videos show how violent tremors which hit the Philippines' southern Mindanao island shook goods from shop shelves, and blew out street lights.\n\nIt is reported that at least one person was killed.\n\nRead more: Two powerful earthquakes hit the Philippines", "Russia's LGBT community has been under pressure from the authorities for years\n\nPolice in Moscow have raided several gay clubs, local media report, a day after Russia's Supreme Court moved to outlaw the \"LGBT movement\".\n\nClub goers were briefly held and their passports were photographed during the raids late on Friday, Telegram channel Ostorozhno Novosti said.\n\nOne attendee told the channel he feared he would be given a lengthy jail term.\n\nThe police said they were searching for drugs, Ostorozhno Novosti said. City officials have not commented so far.\n\n\"In the middle of the party, the music was stopped, and [police] began going into the lounges\", one eyewitness told the outlet, adding that foreigners were also present at the gathering in central Moscow.\n\nSota, another Telegram channel, said three clubs were raided on Friday evening in the Russian capital.\n\nPhotos and a video have emerged on social media purportedly showing a police van and officers outside one of the clubs.\n\nThe raids came a day after Russia's Supreme Court declared what it described as the \"LGBT public movement\" an extremist organisation and banned its activities across the country.\n\nThe ruling was prompted by a motion from the justice ministry, although no such organisation exists as a legal entity.\n\nRussia's constitution was changed in 2020 to make it clear that marriage meant a union between a man and a woman. Same-sex unions are not recognised in Russia.\n\nIn recent years the country's LGBT community has come under increasing pressure from the authorities, says the BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow. In 2013 a law was adopted prohibiting \"propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations\" aimed at minors.\n\nLast year, those restrictions were extended to all age groups in Russia. References to LGBT people have been deleted from books, films, adverts and TV shows.\n\nEarlier this month, one Russian TV channel discoloured a rainbow in a South Korean pop video, to avoid being accused of violating the \"gay propaganda\" law.", "Chief of department for the New York Police Department Jeff Maddrey addresses reporters\n\nFour people, including two children, have been killed and three others injured following a stabbing in Queens, New York.\n\nPolice called to the Far Rockaway neighbourhood in the early hours of Sunday found the victims in a home that had been set on fire.\n\nThe male suspect stabbed two police officers before being shot by one of the injured officers.\n\nThe suspect was taken to hospital but was declared dead on arrival.\n\nIn a press briefing at Jamaica Hospital, police confirmed that they received a 911 call at 05:10 local time (10:10 GMT), when a \"young female caller stated that her cousin is killing her family members\".\n\nTwo officers were sent to the address on Beach 22nd Street where they saw a male walking out with luggage.\n\nWhen the officers tried to talk to the male he pulled a knife out, stabbing one officer in the neck and chest area, and a second officer in the head.\n\nOne of the officers was able to take out his firearm and shot the suspect.\n\nWhen more officers were dispatched to the scene, they found an 11-year-old girl at the front of the house. She was taken to hospital but later died of her injuries.\n\nAfter the New York Fire Department arrived at the scene, emergency services found the bodies of three other people inside the house: a 12-year-old boy, a 44-year-old female, and a male in his 30s.\n\nA 61-year-old female was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with multiple stab wounds.\n\nPolice believe all victims died as a result of stab wounds and a kitchen steak knife was recovered from the scene.\n\nNew York police named the suspect as 39-year-old Courtney Gordon, who had one prior arrest for domestic violence in the Bronx.\n\nHe was visiting his family members in Queens at the time of the attack.\n\nPolice said that the investigation was ongoing, but that the person who made the 911 call was being interviewed at the police station.", "Tributes to The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan, who died this week, noted his immense presence and unique talent. Born in Kent to Irish parents, he also gave voice to an Irish-English generation, writes author Joseph O'Connor.\n\nThe first time I saw The Pogues live was at a midnight gig in Dublin in 1985.\n\nShane's voice was dangerous, dark, exciting, wolfish, a sound once heard never forgotten. He yelped at the microphone as though it was about to attack him, then he lilted, eyes closed, like a crooner.\n\nOn the stage by his feet was a bottle of tequila. Seven songs in, it was empty.\n\nYou heard the influences in his music, from The Dubliners to The Clash, and you knew that what he was doing was radically new. At the same time, he was utterly authentic, rooted deeply in a tradition.\n\nHis songs were peppered with references to cultural figures, from writer Christy Brown to mythological hero Cuchulainn. He understood a truth that even important artists sometimes forget - if you've nothing to evolve from, you've nowhere to go.\n\nI had heard traditional music before The Pogues; everyone in Ireland had, but it was often twee and sanitised, cleansed of its power, made more hummable, certainly, and easier to listen to, and in no way at all unpleasant.\n\nBut The Pogues did Irish song with dirt under its fingernails, as spellbinding as American gospel, as heart-rending as Puccini, as wild as the sea-spray on a Connemara cliff, as wrenching as a Kilburn hangover.\n\nShane was steeped in the corpus of older Irish ballads he heard from his mother, Therese, and on childhood trips to Tipperary from England. But he glimpsed something new in them: that these songs were our Chaucerian saga, our tarot cards, our Odyssey, our blues, our soul music.\n\nComposed by storytelling geniuses whose names we will never know, they represent some of the finest achievements in narrative of these islands' writers. Shane would join that pantheon himself.\n\nThe Irish novelist John McGahern, himself a onetime London resident, said the most important thing any storyteller needs is \"first, a way of seeing\". Story-making is a matter of intense perception before it is a matter of style.\n\nShane, an oversimplified figure, had a unique way of seeing which arose from his complex identity. He was Irish and English, rural and deeply urban, punk and poet, true believer and upstart. He was reverent and rude, a very knowledgeable man and an iconoclast, smalltown and metropolitan at the same time.\n\nHe was literary, like others of his family, and louche like punk London. He wrote lovingly of the broad majestic Shannon and of rainy nights in Soho in the English capital. Remove any of those allegiances and you might still have a great artist. But you wouldn't have Shane MacGowan.\n\nThose of us growing up in Ireland, whose cousins had London or Liverpool accents, immediately got the point, if there was one. The multitudes of British-born people who, like Shane, returned often to their parents' Ireland, now had a bard of their own.\n\nHe thought of himself as Irish but didn't do slogans or exclusions. In footage of early punk gigs, he's to be seen in the audience, wearing a Union Jack-patterned suit.\n\nHis genius - I do not use the overused word lightly - was to see that there was only a limited point in appropriation.\n\nOther bands of the era adopted reggae stylings or tried to borrow from the wonderful authentic movement that was two-tone ska. Shane's passion saw to it that his own music would be offered not as a version of Irishness or a version of punk, that in essence they were one and the same.\n\n\"The sea is wide, and I can't swim over, and neither have I wings to fly\"\n\nA line such as this one, from Carrickfergus, a traditional ballad Shane admired, says more about state of mind than any sentence loaded with adjectives and adverbs. Shane understood the power of simple words placed in order carefully.\n\n\"The boys of the NYPD choir were singing Galway Bay\" (Fairytale of New York)\n\nIt's poignant, perfect, beautiful, touching. It's punk grown up but still gritty.\n\nHe melded punk, folk, balladry, Woody Guthrie-style protest blues with a fiery lyrical flair and a style of musical presentation all his own.\n\nPart of the style was the adoption and adaptation of a very old mask, the stage Irishman stumbling for the audience. To some, he was a rollicking drifter in ragamuffin punk tatters. You could see it was a persona he felt safe in.\n\nThere were periods when the mask perhaps became hard to remove, a second skin. Sometimes it made it difficult for Shane to be seen clearly. Roaring boy he could be, but there was also a hugely committed and serious artistic sensibility.\n\nI used to wonder if Shane went home quietly at the weekends to mow the lawn or walk the dog and do yoga. You don't achieve the truly remarkable things he achieved as a writer if you're out of it all the time.\n\nI've been going to gigs since I was 14, and this year I turned 60. I think I've been to 500 concerts. Like the T-shirt says, \"I may be old but at least I saw all the great bands.\"\n\nAt the very top of the list were the annual Pogues' concerts in London around St Patrick's night in the late 1980s, often at the Brixton Academy. Dark times, when the bomb and the bullet still featured in relationships between Britain and Ireland.\n\nWhen you were a young Irish immigrant in a city where the locals were a bit afraid of you, and you of them, grace and solidarity came roaring from that stage, out of a mouth that looked like a thunderstruck graveyard.\n\nHis art was fuelled by a reality about the strange country that was Ireland, a so-called republic that could not feed or employ great multitudes of its own citizens, who had fled to the land of the ancient oppressor for work.\n\nMoney that they sent home kept Irish families fed, a guilty secret Official Ireland didn't like to acknowledge. Those people were rarely written about in novels or short stories, rarely spoken of in Irish political speeches. They were inconvenient, a bit embarrassing. There was silence around them.\n\nWhen Shane sang, that silence, the awful wordlessness was defeated. He was of an immigrant people; it was time they be heard. The Brixton Academy would often see tears. You were part of the generations who'd been asked to disappear, but you were far from alone in your loneliness.\n\nShane MacGowan was of that body, was in fact its greatest voice. I hope the angels are ready for what's coming.\n\nBestselling author Joseph O'Connor has written extensively about the Irish emigrant experience. His latest novel is My Father's House", "Nigel Harman with professional partner Katya Jones in one of their routines\n\nThere was no elimination or public vote on tonight's Strictly Come Dancing after actor Nigel Harman was forced to pull out after an injury.\n\nThe Casualty star had been due to dance a Charleston in the quarter final with professional partner Katya Jones.\n\nOpening the show, host Claudia Winkleman said \"Unfortunately Nigel has sustained an injury... and has had to withdraw from the competition.\"\n\nViewers will be able to vote next week on who goes through to the final.\n\nCo-host Tess Daly clarified that the judges would still be scoring the dance and their votes would be carried over to next week.\n\nInitial reports suggested Harman had suffered a leg injury, but it was later clarified by the BBC that it was a rib injury.\n\nSpeaking on the show, Harman said he was \"leaping off a rostrum, about to be caught by some very handsome men. As I flew I was Peter Pan. As I landed I was in A&E.\"\n\n\"I've done something to my rib basically and it's quite painful.\"\n\nThe remaining celebrities are actress Ellie Leach, tennis star Annabel Croft, theatre and TV star Layton Williams and EastEnders actor Bobby Brazier.\n\nFans wished Harman well - they last saw him dancing a rumba last week\n\nSaturday's show saw judge Craig Revel Horwood award his first 10 of the season to Layton Williams, who got a maximum score of 40 with partner Nikita Kuzmin.\n\nEllie Leach scored 36 for her quickstep with partner Vito Coppola, Annabel Croft got 33 for her foxtrot with Johannes and Radebe and Bobby Brazier got 34 for his salsa with Dianne Buswell.\n\nLast Saturday, Harman and Jones danced a rumba to a cover of 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now' by Celine Dion.\n\nThe pair were given a score of 33 points by the judges.\n\nHarman told the Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two on Friday that the routine the pair had been practicing this week had been a step-up in intensity from last week.\n\n\"The rumba, just sort of mincing around and wafting my hips in the general directions was lovely, maybe one bead of sweat,\" he said.\n\n\"This week, St John's ambulance is on standby. This is the complete other end of the scale.\"\n\nThe quarter final is \"musicals week\" and Harman had been due to dance to Step in Time from Disney's Mary Poppins.\n\nA post on the show's Instagram page wished him a \"speedy recovery\", adding the couple will be \"very much missed by our entire Strictly family\".\n\nStrictly fans took to social media to express their concern for Harman at the news.\n\n\"Wishing Nigel a speedy recovery, it's such a shame to get this far and sustain an injury that is forcing him to quit, but health has to come first,\" one fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter.\n\n\"Heartbroken for Nigel & Katya. Their Charleston looked fantastic,\" another wrote. They added that they thought the dance show should not have an elimination tonight.\n\nAnother said Harman should have \"a free pass\" into next week.\n\nThe star had said he was \"amazed, excited, and terrified\" when he was confirmed in August to be doing Strictly.\n\nHe added: \"As an armchair fan of the show I have watched in awe as people have twirled and gyrated across the screen. And now it's my turn... gulp!\"\n\nHowever, he and Jones were absent from the line-up of participants taking part in the Strictly Come Dancing live UK tour next year.\n\nHarman is not the first to quit this year's show.\n\nIn October, actress Amanda Abbington withdrew from Strictly, citing \"personal reasons\" for being \"unable to continue\".", "Emma Davies says she wants the best for her child and the formula brand she uses has been reliable\n\nSingle mum Emma Davies is struggling with the cost of baby formula for her 13-week-old daughter Nancy.\n\nBut despite the expense, the 42-year-old says she won't buy cheaper alternatives.\n\n\"You just want the best for your children, you don't want to give them a cheaper brand,\" she says.Many new parents feel the same.\n\nAmy, 25, says she and her husband have skipped meals to ensure their children are fed, clothed and warm. The mum of two spends about £72 a month on formula milk.\n\nAccording to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), formula prices have risen by 25% over the past two years, generating high profit margins.\n\nThe watchdog highlighted that parents could save £500 in the first year of a baby's life by shopping around for alternative brands.\n\nAlthough there are many available, the market is still dominated by two big players.\n\nDanone, which owns the Aptamil and Cow & Gate brands, and Nestle, which owns SMA and Little Steps, have an 85% market share.\n\nEmma feels like breastfeeding is not an option for her, after she contracted mastitis while breastfeeding her first child.\n\nWhen it comes to her weekly grocery shop, she says she will buy the cheapest possible own-brand products available and will often look for deals and damaged products that are discounted.\n\n\"I've always been a single parent, so you budget,\" she says.\n\nBut for baby formula, she won't change from a more expensive brand.\n\n\"It's a risk. I'd rather stick to what I've been told, obviously, by my parents, and what I've used with my older children. It's what's been reliable.\"\n\nSome parents worry that cheaper brands are less nutritional than the more expensive ones. But Amy Brown, a professor in maternal and infant health at Swansea University, says that is not the case.\n\n\"All infant formulas are tightly regulated to make sure they include the same carb, fat and protein levels and there is no evidence to say that one formula milk is better than the other.\"\n\nShe believes that parents may be reluctant to buy cheaper brands due to the idea that if a brand is more expensive, it must be better quality.\n\n\"Parents want the best for their baby and so they will get the more expensive product. However, parents need to understand that the price does not reflect the quality,\" she says.\n\nSophie Livingstone says her charity has helped 50% more families this year than last year\n\nPart of the issue might be down to the law as well.\n\nIn the UK, it is illegal to advertise infant formula - for babies up to six months - because it might discourage breastfeeding.\n\nAdditionally, retailers cannot communicate special offers via any platform for infant formula, although they can with follow-on formula - for babies older than six months.\n\nMany, including supermarket chain Iceland, want those rules to change.\n\nThe frozen food chain's boss Richard Walker has called them \"archaic and outdated\" and said it prevents Iceland from being able to accept loyalty cards, cash equivalents and High Street vouchers.\n\n\"You can't even donate to food banks with infant stage formula,\" he said.\n\nAnother factor may be that, although the CMA says savings can be made by shopping around, when it comes to baby formula, there aren't that many own-brand products available, which are typically much cheaper than branded products.\n\nCurrently, Aldi is the only supermarket that offers formula through its own brand Mamia. Campaigners have called for more retailers to do so to help ease the financial pressures on parents.\n\nWhatever the reason, experts agree that this is a huge issue.\n\nSophie Livingstone, the chief executive of charity Little Village HQ, says she hears about \"terrible choices\" parents and carers are having to make every day.\n\n\"Watering down formula to make it stretch further, nappy rationing and kids wearing shoes that are too small for them,\" she says.\n\nThe charity supports families with children under the age of five living in poverty across London.\n\nMs Livingstone says increases in bills, rents, food and the price of formula has created a perfect storm.\n\n\"The huge increase in demand for our help is a clear indicator of the increased pressure families are under. By August of this year, we'd helped 50% more families than the same time last year,\" she adds.\n\nThe CMA has said it is launching an investigation into the baby formula market, with an update expected around mid-2024.", "Rockets streak into the sky from Gaza towards Israel\n\nThe UK will carry out unarmed surveillance flights over the Middle East to search for Hamas hostage locations, the Ministry of Defence says.\n\nThe flights will help gather intelligence on potential hostage whereabouts.\n\nFive British nationals are missing and the UK government has not said how many could be held by Hamas.\n\n\"The safety of British nationals is our utmost priority,\" the MoD said.\n\n\"In support of the ongoing hostage rescue activity, the Ministry of Defence will conduct surveillance flights over the eastern Mediterranean, including operating in air space over Israel and Gaza.\"\n\nIt added that the aircraft will be unarmed and will be tasked solely to locate hostages.\n\n\"Only information relating to hostage rescue will be passed to the relevant authorities responsible for hostage rescue.\"\n\nThe aircraft will include Shadow R1s, which the Royal Air Force use for intelligence gathering, ministry officials said.\n\nInformation on the potential locations of hostages will be shared with Israel. More than 130 captives are thought to be in Gaza.\n\nThe Pentagon said unarmed UAV drones had been deployed over Gaza in \"support of hostage recovery efforts\", earlier this month.\n\n\"The US is conducting unarmed UAV flights over Gaza, as well as providing advice and assistance to support our Israeli partner as they work on their hostage recovery efforts,\" the Pentagon said.\n\nFighting resumed on Friday after a week-long truce in Gaza. The IDF said it had hit more than 400 Hamas targets on the first day.\n\nGaza's Hamas-run health ministry says at least 193 people have been killed in the latest wave of Israeli attacks.\n\nThe ministry says more than 15,200 people have died in the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October that killed at least 1,200 people.\n• None Israeli strikes heaviest so far, say residents of south Gaza city", "Radars tracking activity in \"deep space\" will help the UK protect itself from \"space warfare\", the defence secretary has said.\n\nIt marks a \"new phase\" of a security arrangement between the UK, US and Australia by 2030 - known as AUKUS.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said radars will enable nations to identify objects in deep space, up to 22,000 miles (36,000 km) away from earth.\n\nGrant Shapps said the system would be \"constantly tracking threats\".\n\nThe Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) programme will be used to inform UK defence operations.\n\nIn a post on X, the Mr Shapps continued \"that's why alongside the US and Australia we will build a global space radar system capable of constantly tracking threats in deep space.\"\n\nThe first radar site will be built in Australia and is expected to be up and running by 2026.\n\nCawdor Barracks in Pembrokeshire, Wales has been earmarked for the UK's radar, but the final decision depends on the outcome of an Environmental Impact Assessment and Town Planning application.\n\nThe barracks is currently home to a British Army Signals Regiment, which is due to relocate from 2028.\n\nIf given the go-ahead, construction is expected to be completed and the radar fully operational by 2030.\n\nThe radars will be operated from the ground, and will be equipped to provide 24/7 monitoring in all-weathers.\n\nThey have higher sensitivity, better accuracy, increased capacity, and more agile tracking than the current radars keeping tabs on deep space activity, the MoD said.\n\nThe \"unique geographic positioning\" of three radars would provide global monitoring and coverage, the MoD says, including \"detecting potential threats to defence or civilian space systems\".\n\nIt added the radars will assist in \"critical space-traffic management and contribute to the global surveillance\" of satellites in deep space.\n\nThe plan is part of the AUKUS security and defence pact between the three nations, which aims to maintain peaceful relations globally and in the Indo-Pacific area.\n\nThe DARC programme is key to \"space domain awareness\", a key objective of the UK's Defence Space Strategy, published last year.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA rescue operation is under way to reunite drivers with their vehicles abandoned in heavy snow and restore electricity to 2,000 homes in Cumbria.\n\nThe Met Office estimates as much as 30cm of snow fell, trapping people in cars and forcing them to spend the night in temporary accommodation.\n\nFurther north, the coldest night since March was recorded in Scotland with the temperature dropping to -12.5C (9.5F)\n\nMore weather warnings for snow and ice come into force on Sunday evening.\n\nA Met Office yellow warning for ice across much of northern England, the Midlands and northern Wales is in place until midday on Monday.\n\nThis means difficult travel conditions are likely, as well as icy patches on roads and pavements.\n\nIn eastern Scotland, a yellow warning for snow and ice will be in place at the same time.\n\nOn Monday, heavy rain is forecast across parts of southern England and south-east Wales.\n\nThe Met Office has a yellow warning in place for possible flooded homes and businesses and travel disruption from midnight until 18:00 GMT.\n\nIn Cumbria, police declared a \"major incident\" on Saturday evening after thick snow caused about 7,000 homes and businesses to lose power and made roads unpassable.\n\nDrivers were forced to abandon their cars to seek warm places to spend the night.\n\nEmma Thompson, from Ulverston, slept in a scout hut in Hawkshead after she became stranded on her way home from manning a chilli jam stall at the local Christmas fair.\n\n\"By 16:00 I was up to my knees (in snow),\" she told BBC News.\n\nThe 54-year-old slept in a dormitory with 10 other women, while others stayed in the local church and school.\n\nMrs Thompson praised residents, who brought them tea, coffee and blankets. The vicar offered them soup, and a fish and chip shop provided food.\n\nMeteorologist Tom Morgan estimated 20 to 30cm of snow fell in southern Cumbria but cautioned these were not official measurements.\n\nElectricity North West (ENWL) said its network had been severely impacted but indicated it had restored power to nearly 5,000 customers on Sunday.\n\nBBC Weather's Paul Goddard said Cumbria was not likely to see any more disruptive snow over the next few days, after a change in wind direction.\n\nEmma Thompson trying to offer some winter warmth to Cumbria residents with her chilli jam\n\nSnow-covered peaks near Loch Droma in the Scottish Highlands\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. UK weather forecast: Are we set for more snow?\n\nElsewhere, Ant Brett, from Essex, travelled to Cumbria for a family wedding but the conditions meant he was travelling for 19 hours.\n\nHe told the BBC he became stuck on Saturday afternoon while waiting on the A595.\n\n\"I was heading up to a family wedding - it's fair to say I didn't make it. The cars here haven't had any water or food supplies.\"\n\nHeavy snow fell in Duddon Valley, Cumbria, leaving trees looking white and roofs covered in inches of snow\n\nRoads have been treacherous for drivers in Cumbria\n\nCumbria Fire and Rescue Service said it worked through Saturday night to rescue people from cars trapped in deep snow.\n\nHighways teams spent Sunday clearing and treating main routes through the county and advised drivers picking up abandoned cars to only use these routes on their journeys.\n\nCumbria police urged people to only travel if necessary and warned that black ice might become a risk in some areas.\n\nChildren enjoyed sledging outside beach huts in Blyth, Northumberland, on Sunday\n\nThick blankets of snow covered cars and streets in Cumbria, making some roads almost impassable\n\nFreezing temperatures and a blanket of snow greeted ramblers at the North York Moors National Park on Saturday\n\nOvernight on Saturday, the Met Office said Altnaharra, in the Highland region of northern Scotland, saw the coldest recorded temperature so far this winter at-12.5C.\n\nTemperatures overnight on Sunday were not expected to be as cold as Saturday night, BBC Weather's Paul Goddard said.\n\nHe added that colder-than-average temperatures would remain for the first half of the week, but by Thursday it could be wetter and windier but more mild, with a possible 13C in south-west England.\n\nSeparately, an amber health alert for cold weather, issued by the UK Health Security Agency, is in place until Tuesday for five central and northern regions in England. A yellow warning is in place for four other regions, including London and southern and eastern England.\n\nThe agency warned: \"Cold weather impacts are likely to be felt across the whole health service for an extended period of time, with potential for the whole population to be at risk.\"\n\nHeavy snow has also been causing disruption across Europe this weekend.\n\nGermany, Austria and the Czech Republic have been hit by train and flight cancellations.\n\nHas your area been affected by the adverse weather? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFind out the weather forecast for your area, with an hourly breakdown and a 14-day lookahead, by downloading the BBC Weather app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nThe BBC Weather app is only available to download in the UK.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA German man has died and two others, including a British man, have been injured in a knife and hammer attack on a street in central Paris.\n\nThe attack occurred near the Eiffel Tower shortly before 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on Saturday.\n\nA 26-year-old French man was later arrested, and anti-terrorism prosecutors opened an investigation.\n\nProsecutor Jean-François Ricard said the suspect had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group (IS).\n\nMr Ricard told a briefing on Sunday that the suspect Armand R, a French national born in France to Iranian parents, made the pledge in a video posted on social media.\n\nHe converted to Islam aged 18, the prosecutor said, and was imprisoned in 2016 for four years after making plans to travel to Syria to join IS.\n\nPolice said he was supposed to be following treatment for psychiatric problems.\n\nMr Ricard added that the suspect had been under surveillance for suspected extremism and that three associates, including members of his family, had been detained for questioning.\n\nEarlier, it was revealed that the victim killed in Saturday night's attack was a German tourist who worked as a nurse.\n\nFrance's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the victim was with his wife when he was attacked and fatally stabbed on Quai de Grenelle.\n\nHe said the wife's life was saved by the intervention of a taxi driver and that the suspect fled across a nearby bridge spanning the River Seine.\n\nAfter crossing to the north side of the river he attacked two more people: a French man aged around 60 and a 66-year-old British tourist who was hit in the eye with a hammer.\n\nThe suspect was then Tasered by police and arrested on suspicion of assassination - defined in French law as premeditated murder - and attempted assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise.\n\nVideo published online appeared to show the moment the suspect was apprehended by armed police not far from where the attack happened.\n\nForensics teams work at one of the scenes of the attack\n\nThe two people injured were treated by emergency services and on Sunday, Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau told French media they were \"in good health\".\n\nMr Darmanin said the alleged attacker was heard shouting \"Allahu Akbar\", Arabic for \"God is greatest\", and told police he was upset because \"so many Muslims are dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine\".\n\nThe suspect is also understood to have suggested France was complicit in the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza.\n\nOn Saturday, a video was posted on social media in which the suspect criticised the French government and discussed what he described as the murder of innocent Muslims, AFP news agency reports.\n\nWriting on X, formerly Twitter, French President Emmanuel Macron sent his thoughts to all those affected by the \"terrorist attack\" and thanked the emergency services for their response.\n\n\"The national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office will now be responsible for shedding light on this affair so that justice can be done in the name of the French people,\" he said.\n\nIt comes less than two months after a teacher was killed in a knife attack at a high school in the northern city of Arras, prompting the French government to put the country on its highest level of national security alert.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How missiles and destruction quickly returned to Gaza\n\nThe resumption of fighting between Israel and Hamas has been met with a mixture of fear and anger in Gaza, with the UN calling it a \"nightmare\".\n\nA temporary ceasefire expired at 07:00 (05:00 GMT) with both warring sides blaming each other.\n\nSince then, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says 178 people have been killed in Israeli attacks.\n\nA UN official said much-needed aid had stopped coming through the Rafah crossing since the ceasefire ended.\n\nOn Friday morning, the sound of heavy gunfire could be heard in areas of northern Gaza infiltrated by the Israeli military, with clashes breaking out between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters.\n\nThere seemed to be no let up in the pace of fighting after the ceasefire, with jet fighters and reconnaissance planes deployed.\n\nAreas targeted by air strikes included north-western Gaza and Khan Younis in the south - where hundreds of thousands of people fled earlier in the war to escape fighting in the north. Houses in the city were targeted - including one house in close proximity to Nasser hospital, where the BBC Arabic team was based.\n\n\"Around 06:30 the drones started flying,\" Mohammad Ghalaiyini, a Briton who is currently in Khan Younis with his family, said in a voice message sent to the BBC. \"Around 07:30, I think, the bombings started and there's been like non-stop bombing every 10, 15, 20 minutes.\"\n\nLeaflets dropped by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned that areas east of Khan Younis and Salah al-Din were \"dangerous\" combat zones and urged people in some parts to head to shelters further south in Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.\n\nMeanwhile, Hamas and other groups fired rockets at Israel, which deployed its Iron Dome defence system to intercept them.\n\nThe renewed clashes were \"catastrophic for the people of Gaza,\" James Elder, a spokesman for the UN children's agency, Unicef, told the BBC.\n\nMr Elder said Nasser hospital - which he said was now Gaza's biggest functioning medical facility - was \"wildly overflowing with children and people with wounds of war recovering from the last attack\".\n\nHe said many families had been sleeping on mattresses at the hospital for weeks.\n\n\"This hospital cannot possibly cope with a surge in wounds from the battlefield with more children with burns, with those horrendous shrapnel injuries,\" he said.\n\nOther UN aid agencies have described similar conditions at other hospitals.\n\nThe situation at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City was \"like a horror movie\" even before the bombing started again, World Health Organization (WHO) senior emergency officer Rob Holden said.\n\nHis team - who visited the site earlier in the week - reported patients with \"the most horrific injuries\" lying on floors \"running with blood\", while the bodies of those who had been killed were lined up in the car park outside.\n\nThe WHO says only 18 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are \"minimally to partially functional\".\n\n\"Gaza's health system has been crippled by the ongoing hostilities,\" Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories, said. \"We are extremely concerned about the resumption of violence.\"\n\nThere is also major concern over the wider humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is likely to worsen as fighting resumes.\n\nAs supplies of cooking gas, food and water are dangerously low, shops are empty and there is not enough aid to distribute to displaced people.\n\nMany are sleeping in tents and have told the BBC they are struggling to cope with the cold weather conditions. They are desperately urging for more aid including warm clothing to be delivered.\n\nThey also say very little water, food and medicine is reaching hospitals.\n\nPhilippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN's relief agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said he was beyond mere concern that \"no humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza today including fuel\".\n\nHundreds of trucks carrying aid were able to enter Gaza during the seven-day ceasefire but they were still fewer in number than the roughly 500 trucks that entered Gaza every day before the war.\n\nOn Friday Mark Regev, senior adviser to the Israeli prime minister, said Hamas could have ensured the pause in fighting was extended if they had freed more hostages.\n\n\"They have close to 20 women [eligible for release] in the framework of the existing agreement, yet they chose not to do so,\" Mr Regev told the BBC.\n\nAsked whether those women were civilians or Israeli soldiers, Mr Regev said some of the women were in their 20s and had finished their military service.\n\nFor its part, Hamas says it did make several offers regarding further hostage releases - all of which were rejected by Israel.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its military strikes on Friday had hit Hamas command centres, underground sites and groups of Hamas fighters.\n\nOfficials in Gaza say more than 14,800 people including about 6,000 children have been killed since Israel began its military campaign against Hamas there, with thousands more believed to be dead under rubble.\n\nIt follows Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October during which it killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped 240 others.", "Therese Coffey: \"I do value life more now than ever. I came close to dying\"\n\nTherese Coffey has said she \"came close to dying\" after the stress of being a government minister left her with a brain abscess.\n\nIn an interview with the Sunday Times, the Suffolk MP said she spent a month in hospital after she started hallucinating and slurring her words.\n\nShe says she now tries to \"live in the moment\" after giving up the pressure of her role as a minister.\n\nA brain abscess is caused by \"pus-filled swelling in the brain\".\n\nThe 52-year-old believes she started to became ill in 2018 because she \"overdid it and burnt the candle at both ends\".\n\n\"Michael [Gove] had come in [as environment secretary] and had really upped the pace and was really pushing on a variety of issues, and we were working very long hours trying to get stuff done and really trying to make a difference,\" she told the paper.\n\nMs Coffey remembered first noticing symptoms and feeling not \"quite myself\" around this time, but brushed it off as brain fog.\n\nHowever, on the day of the local elections of 3 May 2018, she began to realise \"something was badly wrong\".\n\n\"I can always tell when I'm not well because I don't eat, but also when I dragged myself out to vote, I couldn't actually remember exactly where I lived,\" she said.\n\nHer sister, Clare, who has worked in her parliamentary office as a secretary since 2015, phoned St Thomas' Hospital in London and she was told to come in.\n\nAfter a scan was performed, doctors discovered there was an abscess on her brain.\n\nMs Coffey said she spent a month recovering in hospital and was unable to drive for the next year due to losing \"aspects\" of her memory.\n\n\"I couldn't remember the words for certain things. I can remember thinking… I can't remember what these thing are. It was slippers, and it still happens now.\"\n\nMs Coffey admitted work had been a source of worry - even in the first moments after surgery.\n\n\"Almost my first thought was, 'I am going to have to resign as a minister'. I guess that just goes to show the kind of pressure I was feeling,\" she said.\n\nShe served in a few cabinet positions over the past few years - including as health secretary under former Prime Minster Liz Truss - but resigned as environment secretary last month, and now \"lives in the moment\" and \"grabs opportunities\".\n\n\"I do value life more now than ever. I came close to dying, and I think looking back that if my sister hadn't phoned St Thomas' [Hospital] and they hadn't done that scan, I probably would have been dead in a matter of days,\" she said.", "Maj Kevin McCool thrived in the military environment, the MoD said\n\nA British soldier has died while off duty in Kenya, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.\n\nThe BBC understands 32-year-old Maj Kevin McCool was on a motorcycle trip off base when he was attacked.\n\nMoD officials said it would not be releasing any details of what happened to the soldier, who was from Northern Ireland.\n\nDefence Secretary Grant Shapps led tributes to Maj McCool describing the death as a \"tragic loss\".\n\nHe added: \"It's clear from the tributes of those who knew him that Maj McCool was an exceptional person and an exceptional soldier, loved and respected in equal measure, who served his country with distinction.\"\n\nThe MoD said Maj McCool died on 29 November.\n\nHe was commissioned from Sandhurst in August 2014 and was deployed in Europe, the Middle East, the Falklands and Africa.\n\n\"As well as a glittering operational record, he also aced many of the military's hardest courses,\" the MoD said in a eulogy.\n\nIt added: \"His fitness was legendary, once beating the whole Battalion on a two miler, as was his endurance. His enthusiasm was infectious.\n\n\"He had a mischievous twinkle in his eye, that made him tremendous fun to be with. Yet his professionalism and sense of purpose was paramount, and clear to all those lucky enough to serve with him.\"\n\nMaj McCool has been described as a \"big family man\" and his commanding officer paid tribute to him as a man \"of the utmost integrity\".\n\n\"I will never forget my final memory of him, which was on operations; he had just come off the ground having slept a handful of hours in as many days,\" the officer said.\n\n\"We discussed the possibility of having to deploy another team into the operational furnace from which he had just come. He stopped me mid-sentence, fixed me with his piercing blue eyes, and simply said, 'send me'.\n\n\"A bright light has gone out amongst our ranks. He will be missed, but never forgotten.\"\n\nThe dead man's father, Joseph McCool, said his \"special\" son \"thrived in the military environment\", adding that \"he was at his best when deployed, and at his very best when the conditions were at their very worst\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: \"My heart goes out to Maj McCool's family, friends, and fellow soldiers today in the face of their tragic loss.\"\n\nA file photo of the British army holding a training exercise near Nanyuki, in Kenya\n\nFor many years the British army has had a unit based in Kenya, where soldiers receive training before being deployed elsewhere in the world.\n\nThe British Army has a small base in Nairobi and a bigger training support unit in Nanyuki which is 200km north of the Kenyan capital.\n\nAccording to the British Army website, there are around 100 permanent staff in Kenya reinforcing a short tour cohort of another 280 personnel.\n\nKenyan troops also receive training especially to help with the fight against Islamist militants in the region.\n\nUnder an agreement with the Kenyan government, up to six infantry battalions per year carry out eight-week exercises in Kenya.", "Nathan Turner and Paul Burton threatened neighbours and police during an armed siege\n\nThe dramatic developments of a 14-hour armed siege sparked by a cold kebab are recounted in a television programme.\n\n24 Hours in Police Custody features the tense stand-off at a tower block in Bedford in November 2022.\n\nPaul Burton, 45, and Nathan Turner, 37, were jailed after they threatened neighbours with a high-powered air rifle and Burton fired at a police car.\n\nSupt Steve Ashdown of Bedfordshire Police said: \"Thankfully we achieved a peaceful outcome.\"\n\n\"I've been a firearms commander for 10 years and this is the first siege of this type that I've dealt with,\" he said.\n\nHe recalled the weapon used by Burton was very powerful and praised firearms officers and negotiating teams who \"trained for scenarios like this on a regular basis\".\n\nBurton and Turner, who were drunk and high on drugs, initially kept a delivery driver prisoner in a lift for two hours after claiming their takeaway was late and cold.\n\nThey had ordered food at about 03:00 on 27 November last year but when the driver arrived on the eighth floor of the flats they placed a coffee table across the lift door to trap him inside.\n\nThe takeaway's owner later drove to the scene after receiving abusive calls from Turner and pleas for help from his distressed employee.\n\nOn his arrival, his car roof was damaged by an item thrown from above.\n\nPaul Burton (left) was jailed for seven years and Nathan Turner was sentenced to 20 months\n\nThe duo then began to threaten neighbours and police with the weapon.\n\nBurton vowed he would \"shoot the first officer that walks through the door\" before shooting at the windscreen of a manned police car.\n\nThe siege continued throughout the day with Turner throwing paint and plants from a balcony, damaging several vehicles below.\n\nHe eventually gave himself up at 12:34 and Burton finally relented at 17:49 - 14 hours after the stand-off began.\n\nPaint was thrown into the car park below the flat\n\nBurton was jailed for seven years after pleading guilty to attempting to cause grievous bodily harm and possessing a firearm without a certificate.\n\nTurner was sentenced to 20 months after admitting affray and criminal damage.\n\nSentencing them at Luton Crown Court in October, Judge David Farrell KC said: \"It was an appalling and terrifying incident.\n\n\"This was an extremely disturbing and frightening siege in which a firearm was present.\"\n\nSupt Ashdown said after a decade of working with the Channel 4 TV programme, \"you become familiar with the camera teams and it becomes second nature to walk past and ignore them\".\n\n\"It's very easy to look at the headlines and judge police and other emergency service on the outcomes but if you see the effort that goes into the investigations - and the actual siege in this case - you can see the added complexities that the public don't normally witness,\" he added.\n\nThe siege in Bedford features on the new series of 24 Hours in Police Custody\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Inbar Haiman, 27, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, and Carmel Gat, 39, were all kidnapped on 7 October\n\n\"She doesn't deserve to wait for the next deal, just because she's not somebody's mother or grandmother,\" writes Or Neko Maymon on Facebook in Hebrew.\n\nOr is talking about 27-year-old street artist and art student Inbar Haiman, who is his partner's sister.\n\nInbar was kidnapped by Hamas from the Supernova music festival in Israel on 7 October, and was seen days later in a hostage video circulated on social media, with blood on her face.\n\nShe is one of 16 women BBC Verify has identified as still being captive in Gaza, following a seven-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. This pause in fighting saw Hamas agree to release 110 hostages (including 78 women and children), in return for 240 Palestinian prisoners being freed from Israeli jails.\n\nIsrael's focus on securing the release of female hostages has raised and dashed hopes for the families of the women who are still left behind.\n\nSince her kidnap, Inbar's friends and family have been campaigning for her release, and using the hashtag #FreePink, a reference to her street artist name.\n\n\"I'm really not ready for you to take away my hope to see Inbar come back,\" Or wrote in another post three days ago.\n\nInbar Haiman is one of 16 women who are still being held captive in Gaza\n\nIn November, Inbar's boyfriend, 24-year-old Noam Alon, camped for 10 days in front of the central military headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling for the Israeli government to do more to secure Inbar's release.\n\nOf the 237 people taken hostage by Hamas and five other armed Palestinian groups during the 7 October attacks, BBC News has verified that 115 are left in Gaza. An Israeli government spokesman says 135 people remain captive. There is no official published list of hostages, so the BBC has had to confirm names itself.\n\nAmong the remaining hostages are at least 16 women and 95 men. This number includes French-Mexican Orión Hernández Radoux, the boyfriend of 22-year-old Shani Louk, who was killed after being kidnapped from the Supernova musical festival.\n\nSoon after the festival was attacked, a video began circulating widely on social media showing the body of a young woman being paraded through the streets. Shani's family was able to identify her in the footage from her dreadlocks and distinctive tattoos.\n\nOrión Hernández Radoux pictured with his girlfriend Shani Louk, who was killed in the 7 October attacks\n\nAt the end of October, Shani's mother Ricarda said she had been told by the Israeli military that a piece of skull bone belonging to her daughter had been found. Shani's body has not yet been recovered.\n\nIn November, her boyfriend Orión turned 31 in captivity.\n\n\"Today is Orión's birthday,\" wrote family friend Gabriel De la Fuente on Facebook in Spanish, \"already a month since his kidnapping, may God return you well.\"\n\nOrión is believed to have been snatched at the festival, and the Sun newspaper says it has seen threatening messages written in Arabic sent from his phone.\n\nHis friends and family join together in prayer each night at 7pm, in a WhatsApp group created to help them support each other.\n\n\"Only by uniting together in prayer will we provide the spiritual strength and support that your soul needs right now, wherever it may be,\" writes Gabriel.\n\nFamilies waiting for loved ones to come home have become a great source of support to each other, says Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat has been captive since 7 October.\n\nCarmel Gat was visiting her parents when she was taken\n\n\"We became like a real large family of families,\" he told the BBC News channel. \"It feels as though, when their relatives are getting released, so are mine.\"\n\nCarmel, a 39-year-old occupational therapist from Tel Aviv, had been visiting parents in Be'eri on 7 October.\n\nHer sister in law, Yarden Roman-Gat, was released by Hamas on Wednesday, and reunited with her husband and three-year-old daughter.\n\n\"I wasn't even sure that she was alive until I saw her,\" Gil says of Yarden.\n\nWhen the 36-year-old German-Israeli, her husband and daughter were captured, they managed to break out of the gunmen's car near the Gaza-Israel barrier, Gil explains.\n\nThe family then began to run away while being shot at. Realising she couldn't run fast enough, Yarden gave her daughter to her husband and surrendered so that the others could make their escape.\n\nYarden Roman-Gat initially escaped with husband Alon and daughter Gefen but went missing during the chase\n\n\"We were very, very happy to see her,\" says Gil.\n\nBut now the ceasefire is over, Gil grows more and more scared for his cousin Carmel, who has not yet come home.\n\n\"We were very, very worried by the fact that the truce is ended,\" Gil says. \"I'm personally very worried for her.\"\n\nMany people whose loved ones remain hostages in Gaza have been using social media to campaign for their release, share feelings and support each other in grief.\n\nThe mother of dual US-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin has been posting videos of herself talking about her son on his family's Bring Hersh Home Facebook page.\n\n\"I wanted to share with you what happened last night when I woke up at 2:13 in the morning,\" Rachel told the Facebook page's 17,000 followers on Wednesday. \"I started to think about how much pain Hersh must be in.\"\n\nHersh lost his dominant arm during a grenade explosion before being kidnapped\n\nAccording to eye witnesses Rachel spoke with, Hersh lost half of his arm in a grenade explosion before he was kidnapped from the Supernova festival.\n\nEyewitness accounts say the 23-year-old was seen being forced onto a white pick-up truck. The last-known signal from his phone came from just inside Gaza.\n\n\"It is really important that we get him home so that he can start the process of learning how to live his life in a very different way than he ever lived it before,\" says Rachel in one of her latest videos.\n\n\"It's just another reason why we are tenaciously and tirelessly fighting for him to come home.\"", "Glenys Kinnock, pictured here with her husband, Neil in 1987, was described by her family as \"a proud democratic socialist\"\n\nFormer Labour minister Glenys Kinnock, an ex-MEP and wife of ex-Labour leader Lord Kinnock, has died at 79, her family have said.\n\nThey praised her political work, saying Europe, Africa and the UN were the \"three great passions of her life\".\n\nHer family said she had \"endured Alzheimer's\" since a 2017 diagnosis and faced it with \"innate courage\".\n\nGordon Brown made her a baroness in 2009 so she could serve as a Foreign Office minister in his government.\n\nHer family, which includes Labour MP Stephen Kinnock and daughter Rachel, said they were \"devastated\" by her death.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer called her a \"true fighter\" for the party\n\nIn a statement they said: \"Neil was with her in her final moments. They had been married for 56 years.\n\n\"A proud democratic socialist, she campaigned, in Britain and internationally, for justice and against poverty all her life.\"\n\nStephen Kinnock, Labour MP for Aberavon, described her as \"a beloved Mum and Nain who was adored by her family and friends\".\n\nIn a social media post, he paid tribute to his mother as \"a truly formidable person in every single way, and with such a cheeky sense of humour\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer called her a \"true fighter\" for the party.\n\nHe said: \"She supported Neil through his leadership and went on to have an impressive political career of her own.\"\n\n\"Glenys was a passionate lifelong campaigner for social justice at home and abroad.\"\n\nStephen Kinnock, pictured left with his parents, is Labour MP for Aberavon\n\nFormer prime minister Sir Tony Blair said her death would be \"mourned in many countries and corners of the Earth\".\n\nIn a statement, he called her a \"huge figure in progressive politics for decades: incredibly smart, brave, determined and resolute in standing up for what she believed was right.\"\n\nHe said: \"Whether in fighting the cause of development, and the eradication of global poverty, social justice in Britain, equality for women or making the case for a European Union of weight and influence in the world, Glenys was passionate and persuasive.\n\n\"She was of course an enormous support to Neil but she was a leader in her own right.\"In her last years, as Stephen and Rachel have written, she took her illness with the same steadfastness which had governed her life.\"\n\nThe charity Dementia UK said that by publicly discussing their experiences of Alzheimer's, the Kinnock family had helped raise awareness and \"the challenge that a diagnosis can bring\".\n\nBaroness Kinnock was born in Northamptonshire in 1944 and moved to Anglesey in north Wales.\n\nShe was 18 and studying at Cardiff University when she met Neil Kinnock. They married in 1967.\n\nHe spoke about the importance of supporting her in her illness, and said she had been \"not just a rock, but a continent of rocks\" during his career.\n\nDuring her husband's Labour Party leadership from 1983 - and his two attempts to become prime minister - she was sometimes represented in the media as the power behind the throne, an experience she described as \"painful\" and \"difficult to take\".\n\n\"It was relentless, the description of me as being very manipulative and always undermining Neil,\" she said.\n\nWhen he stepped down as Labour leader in 1992, she took up the political baton and served as an MEP, representing Wales at European level from 1994 to 2009.\n\nDuring a Desert Island Discs interview after being elected, she spoke of her happiness at finding her own political voice.\n\n\"It has been a pleasure to be able to speak out about things that I care about,\" she said.\n\nShe received a life peerage in 2009 to enable her to join the Labour government, becoming Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead.\n\nGordon Brown said he was \"delighted\" when he \"persuaded her\" to join his government.\n\nPaying tribute, Mr Brown said: \"All who met Glenys admired her for her generosity, her warmth and her passionate support for the best of national and international causes.\"\n\nShe served as Minister for Europe and Minister of State with responsibility for Africa, the Caribbean, Central America and the UN.\n• None Caring for my wife is the least I can do - Kinnock", "Last updated on .From the section European Championship\n\nScotland will play Germany in the opening match of Euro 2024 after being drawn in the same group as the hosts.\n\nHungary and Switzerland complete Group A, while England are in Group C alongside Denmark, Slovenia and Serbia.\n\nWales would be in Group D with France, the Netherlands and Austria at next summer's tournament should they qualify via March's play-offs.\n\nGermany will face Steve Clarke's Scotland in the opener at the Allianz Arena in Munich on Friday, 14 June.\n\nEuro 2020 finalists England will begin their campaign on 16 June against Serbia.\n\nDefending champions Italy, who beat Gareth Southgate's side on penalties in the 2020 final, are up against three-time winners Spain, Croatia and Albania in Group B.\n\nThe final of Euro 2024 will take place on 14 July at Berlin's Olympiastadion.\n• None Follow reaction to the draw here.\n• None Euro 2024 - all you need to know\n\nFormer Scotland forward James McFadden said Scotland \"will be confident they can get out of\" a difficult Group A that features three-time winners Germany.\n\n\"It's a tough group, I'm not going to lie and say I'm delighted with the group,\" he told BBC Two.\n\n\"The opening game against Germany will be a great occasion and all the pressure will be on Germany to go and get a result, and that should suit Scotland because against the better sides they tend to do OK.\"\n\nScotland finished bottom of their group at Euro 2020, losing to Croatia and the Czech Republic, while they played out a goalless draw with England.\n\nMcFadden added: \"I think Scotland will give a good account of themselves and be a very good side because they have had the experience of playing in the Euros before this group and the disappointment of those games. They will want to put it right.\n\n\"The players will be supremely confident going into this group stage.\"\n\nEngland 'can't complain' about Group C\n\nSouthgate led England to the final of Euro 2020 at Wembley, which Italy won 3-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.\n\nFormer England striker Alan Shearer said Southgate will be \"extremely happy\" with the draw, with Serbia and Slovenia outside the world's top 30, while 1992 champions Denmark are ranked 19th.\n\n\"I don't think England can complain with that group,\" Shearer said.\n\n\"I think it's pretty favourable when you look at some of the teams that have been drawn out against each other.\"\n\nChris Sutton, who was capped for the Three Lions in 1997, added that it was a \"pretty soft\" group for England.\n\nDespite it not appearing the toughest group, Southgate says all the teams in Group C are \"more than capable\".\n\n\"You can look at it on paper, but the games aren't played on paper,\" Southgate said.\n\n'One of the toughest groups'\n\nIf Wales qualify for next summer's tournament, their first game will be against the Netherlands - winners in 1988 - in Hamburg on 16 June, before fixtures against Austria and France, who are ranked second in the world.\n\nRobert Page's side face Finland in the play-off semi-finals on 21 March, and should they win that they will play either Poland or Estonia in the play-off final on 26 March.\n\n\"It looks like one of the toughest groups there,\" Page said of Group D.\n\n\"We've got a lot of work to do to get there but the rewards are there. We're all in football because we want to play against the best teams, players and managers and they certainly fall into that category.\"\n\nEngland will be highly satisfied with their draw for the Euro 2024 group stage and while it looks like a tougher route for Scotland, they will feel they can make their way through into the knockout phase.\n\nAs for Wales, if they get to Germany via the play-offs they will face a very hazardous assignment to take their campaign any further than the group.\n\nEngland manager Gareth Southgate will ensure there is no complacency, but a group containing Serbia, Denmark - who they beat in the semi-finals of Euro 2020 at Wembley - and Slovenia will surely hold no terrors for a side now ranked third in the latest Fifa rankings.\n\nScotland get the glamour of the opening game and the chance to make an instant impact against hosts Germany.\n\nThey will start that game as underdogs, but manager Steve Clarke will know Germany are nowhere near the superpower of old and very much in transition under new coach Julian Nagelsmann.\n\nHungary and Switzerland are in with the Scots, who have been built into a solid and quietly confident unit under Clarke's astute guidance. This is a group to certainly give them a measure of optimism.\n\nIf Wales make it to Germany they will have a daunting task as they will go into a group with the Netherlands, World Cup runners-up France and Ralf Rangnick's Austria. Even if they successfully navigate the play-offs they will be rank outsiders.\n\nIf you are viewing this page on the BBC News app please click here to vote.", "The granddaughter of Nelson Mandela has spoken out against \"climate apartheid\".\n\nSpeaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg from the COP28 climate summit, Ndileka Mandela said \"the global north is using their economic and legal power to subjugate poor nations, who at the brunt of the effects of climate change.\"\n\n\"Africa and the global south has the smallest percentage of carbon emissions\", she added", "Sir Keir said the UK's economy was \"in a hole\"\n\nSir Keir Starmer has warned the UK will face \"huge constraints\" on public spending if his party wins the next general election.\n\nHe said anyone expecting a Labour government \"to quickly turn on the spending taps\" would be disappointed.\n\nIt comes as a think tank claimed the average household income in the UK is £8,000 less than in countries such as France and Germany.\n\nGrowing the economy will be an election battleground for both major parties.\n\nThe cost of living in the UK has put the economy at the centre of political debate as inflation and high interest rates put pressure on household budgets.\n\nThe Resolution Foundation released a report on Monday claiming that \"the toxic combination of slow growth and high inequality was straining the living standards of low- and middle-income Britain well before the cost of living crisis struck\".\n\nThe think tank, which focuses on improving living standards, has made a series of recommendations ranging from increasing investment in public services and improving transport systems and housing outside of London.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has already made economic growth one of his key pledges and, speaking at the conference launching the Resolution Foundation's report, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said his tax cuts were designed to boost the UK economy as he defended his Autumn Statement.\n\nMr Hunt told the conference that his decision to make tax cuts for business investment aimed to improve the UK's productivity.\n\n\"The only way in the long run that you can raise living standards is by raising productivity,\" he said.\n\nWhile the UK has not slipped into recession, there have been concerns over weak growth. The most recent official figures show the economy failed to grow between July and September, after a succession of interest rate rises increased borrowing costs.\n\nIn a speech at the conference, Sir Keir argued that decisions taken by the government and previous Conservative administrations over the past 13 years \"will constrain what a future Labour government can do\".\n\n\"We are in a hole, no doubt about it,\" he said.\n\n\"Taxes [are] higher than at any time since the war, none of which was true in 2010. Never before has a British government asked its people to pay so much, for so little,\" the Labour leader said.\n\nSir Keir added economic growth \"will have to become Labour's obsession if we are to turn around the economy\", which he admitted \"had not always been the Labour Party's comfort zone\".\n\nBut he said economic growth \"must better serve working people. And must raise living standards in every community\".\n\nLast month, Labour was forced to deny claims it could further water down its flagship green prosperity plan, after a senior source had suggested to the BBC that the level of investment previously promised - of £28bn a year - might never be reached.\n\nIn June, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the £28bn pledge would not be met at the beginning of a Labour term of government. A senior source in the Labour leader's office said the decision was made because of the state of the public finances.\n\nAsked whether a Labour administration would avoid cuts to government department budgets, Sir Keir said while he was \"not in the business of cutting the funding\", public services did require reform.\n\nA Conservative spokesman said Labour's policy \"presents a major risk\" to the British economy at a time when the cost of borrowing is \"so high\".\n\nSir Keir said Labour would be \"ruthless when it comes to spending every pound wisely\", saying he was offering \"a counsel of realism, not despair\".\n\nIn step with Mr Hunt, Sir Keir outlined plans which include changing \"restrictive planning laws\" to build more houses and infrastructure.\n\nHe declared Labour would secure \"a new deal to make work pay with increased mental health support, a fully-funded plan to cut NHS waiting lists, an end to zero-hour contracts, no more fire and rehire, a bold new act to stamp out racial injustice - and a real living wage\".\n\nMr Hunt said raising productivity was key to reviving the economy\n\nThe government has announced it will increase the minimum wage by more than a pound to £11.44 next April, but the government's forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), has said living standards are also not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2027-28.\n\nCritics have argued for increased investment in public services, but the chancellor argued he inherited an \"incredibly difficult situation\" in the aftermath of former Prime Minister Liz Truss's tenure.\n\n\"I don't think you want declining public investment, and I hope we get to a place where we don't have that,\" Mr Hunt told the conference.\n\nHe said reforming the country's planning system as well as reforms to the welfare system would help to boost economy growth.\n\nBut his changes announced in the Autumn Statement will not prevent tax levels staying at their highest level on record and economic growth is forecast to be sluggish.", "Project Prometheus opened its first solar farm at the Defence School of Transport in 2021\n\nThe British Army is using solar panels made by companies claimed to have a \"very high\" exposure to forced labour in China, the BBC can reveal.\n\nThe production of solar panels in the Xinjiang region has been linked to the alleged exploitation of Uyghur Muslims.\n\nThe British Army is investing £200m in solar panels across four of its sites.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence listed JA Solar, Trina and Qcells as the solar panel suppliers in response to a BBC Freedom of Information request.\n\nA report in July this year by the UK's Sheffield Hallam University flags the three companies as having \"very high\" exposure to production in Xinjiang.\n\nJA Solar and Qcells told the BBC they were taking action to make sure forced labour had no part in their supply chains, but Trina didn't reply to requests for comment.\n\nA Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: \"We have robust procedures in place that allow us to vet and routinely monitor all aspects of our supply chain which is kept under constant review.\"\n\nBut Alan Crawford, one of the authors of the Sheffield Hallam report, said he had seen the list of companies obtained by the BBC and he believed his findings still stood.\n\nAs a chemical engineer with extensive experience of supplier identification, he said big solar firms were unlikely to buy components they knew for certain were the products of forced labour.\n\nBut, he added, there was a \"lack of transparency\" in the supply chain, which led some firms to \"hide behind\" their \"anti-slavery declarations\".\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing calls to take a harder line against China and to end the UK's reliance on solar production from the country.\n\nSenior Conservative MP Alicia Kearns is urging the UK government to \"sanction and [impose] a ban on any solar company with links to Uyghur forced labour from operating in the UK\".\n\nThe US has accused the Chinese government of arbitrarily detaining more than one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang prison camps.\n\nIn state-sponsored programmes, detainees are forced to produce goods including polysilicon, a core ingredient in solar panels, according to the US Department of Labor.\n\nThe Chinese government has always staunchly denied all allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.\n\nMs Kearns, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee, told the BBC there was \"an ever-growing mass of evidence linking the solar industry to the forced labour and genocide of the Uyghur people in China\".\n\nThe MP said the UK Ministry of Defence's \"exposure via solar investments is indicative of the scale of the issue, which will only get worse as the UK continues to lag behind international partners in acting\".\n\nSolar power is huge source of renewable energy and one of the cornerstones of the international effort to curb climate-warming carbon emissions.\n\nChina has dominated the market and, according to the International Energy Agency, the country's global share in all the manufacturing stages of solar panels exceeds 80%.\n\nIt's a dilemma for the UK, which imports a large portion of its solar panels from China.\n\nThe British Army's use of Chinese-made solar panels comes as no surprise to Yalkun Uluyol.\n\nAn academic native of Xinjiang, Mr Uluyol has been researching the links between Chinese manufacturers and alleged forced labour in his home region.\n\nMr Uluyol said his research found forced labour \"happens almost everywhere in every sector\".\n\nThe evidence for this, he added, can be found in official Chinese records and the personal experiences of Uyghurs like members of his family.\n\nHe said relatives - including his father - had been held in detention camps, with some \"taken away to work in facilities\".\n\n\"Green energy means respect for human rights and respect for the environment,\" Mr Uluyol said. \"Both are absent from the Uyghur region.\"\n\nMr Uluyol's conclusions are shared by the US government, which has passed a law that requires companies to prove that goods imported from Xinjiang were not produced with forced labour.\n\nThe US has been blocking shipments of solar energy components since passing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in 2021.\n\nProject Prometheus began in the same year, as allegations of forced labour in solar supply chains came into sharper focus.\n\nThe fourth and final site - which is using solar panels made by JA Solar, a Chinese company - was due to open at Rock Barracks in Suffolk this year.\n\nYalkun Uluyol said his father Memet Yaqup had been detained in Xinjiang for unknown reasons\n\nAsked to comment on the Sheffield Hallam report, Michael Parr, a solar expert who works with Qcells, said there was \"no doubt that the broad assessment was pretty fair\".\n\n\"It's really challenging to do an airtight independent audit in China,\" said Mr Parr, the executive director of the Ultra Low Carbon Solar Alliance.\n\n\"It's difficult to get clear data from the companies. Most of the wafer supply comes from numerous companies and they often blend. Even companies who are buying polysilicon from the US and Europe are reliant on China.\"\n\nWhen told the British Army was using solar panels made by JA Solar, Trina and Qcells, Mr Parr said: \"Europe has been less attentive to the risk of forced labour in solar than the US\".\n\nHe said he would \"differentiate\" between the three companies supplying panels for Project Prometheus.\n\nHe said while Trina and JA Solar were Chinese manufacturers \"with the vast majority of their manufacturing\" in China, Qcells was a South Korean company that's \"done a lot of work on trying to clean up their supply chains\".\n\nIn recent years, solar companies have taken steps to sever ties with Xinjiang.\n\nSome have diversified their production to cut out the region, while the solar industry has tried to improve its monitoring of supply chains.\n\nA spokesperson for JA Solar said the company was \"strongly committed to ensuring that our operations and supply chain are free from any form of forced labour\".\n\n\"JA Solar has due diligence mechanisms in place, reviews its suppliers and has several ongoing projects to further enhance the traceability of all JA Solar modules,\" it added.\n\nA spokesperson for Segen, which supplied JA Solar panels to Project Prometheus, said the company was \"committed to achieving a traceable supply chain and has processes in place\".\n\nThe spokesperson said the UK solar sector was \"driving best practice\" through a scheme to encourage common standards of production and oversight.\n\nQcells said it took \"the forced labour issue very seriously, which is why we do everything we can to track and monitor our supply chain\".\n\nA spokesperson said Qcells had adopted a code of conduct that \"prohibits forced-labour made products in our supply chain and we terminate agreements if suppliers fail to comply\".\n\nQcells had invested \"billions of dollars\" in \"an entirely American supply chain to produce polysilicon-based solar panels\", the spokesperson added.\n\nTrina did not respond to requests for comment.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Water gushes into every room in a flat the tenant says in now a mouldy mess\n\nA woman was told that her flooded flat was \"habitable\" - despite having \"squelching\" wet carpets and broken fire alarms.\n\nEmma Helliar said a leak above her Cardiff flat left it soaked and mouldy.\n\nHer letting agent set up a dehumidifier and said it was safe to move back in days later - which Ms Helliar described as \"atrocious\".\n\nKingstons Residential said the issue was being dealt with and \"actioned as quickly as we can\".\n\nMs Helliar, 40, said she and her nine-year-old son William faced an \"off-the-scale\" flooding incident on 3 November, with water from the flat above streaming through the ceiling into every room.\n\n\"The amount of water that came in was horrendous,\" she said, explaining how the carpets were \"squelching\" underfoot and almost all of her son's things were drenched.\n\nFirefighters were called to the scene in the Whitchurch area of Cardiff.\n\nShe said they left behind warning stickers which stated that the electricity should not be put back on until an inspection had taken place.\n\nThe flooding could be seen in the brickwork around the windows of Emma's rented flat\n\nMs Helliar and her son moved in with friends temporarily.\n\nOn 8 November, Ms Helliar received an email from Kingstons Residential, seen by BBC News, which said \"the property has been inspected and deemed habitable\".\n\nBut when Ms Helliar visited the flat, she found the carpets were still squelching underfoot and there was a heavy smell of mould.\n\nShe said, as far as she could tell, no repairs had been carried out and the carpets had not been taken up.\n\nShe said the power had been switched back on and a dehumidifier set up in her lounge.\n\nShe also said that the flat's two fire alarms, in the kitchen and passageway, were not working and she was concerned about whether the electricity had been made safe.\n\nEmma Helliar says she and her son are staying with friends after their apartment was flooded\n\n\"How [the letting agent] can say it was habitable is atrocious,\" she said.\n\n\"It's not reasonable to move back in,\" she added, explaining how her biggest fear was whether the mould could affect her son's health.\n\nShe said her insurance company had advised that their furniture, clothes and William's toys would need to be binned due to mould contamination.\n\n\"It's really hard trying to explain to a nearly 10-year-old that everything you own has got to go in the skip,\" she said.\n\n\"It is not a safe environment, with the mould and no fire alarms and they can't guarantee we won't get an electric shock,\" she added.\n\nAfter the flood, firefighters put a tag over the breaker switch saying it should be inspected before the power is switched back on\n\nEmails between Emma and Kingstons Residential over the next two weeks suggested these concerns were not addressed.\n\nShe asked in one email for an electrical safety inspection report, but the letting agent sent back a copy of a report carried out on 7 July 2023, months before the flood.\n\n\"Is it still safe now after tonnes of water have flown through the electrics?\" she asked.\n\n\"They are only saying it's habitable but they didn't reply to that question.\"\n\nShe said she also wanted to know if the ceiling contained reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) that could be structurally affected by the flooding.\n\nKingstons Residential said an \"industrial dehumidifier\" was put in the flat to help prevent mould and the fire alarms were found to be working at that time.\n\nBut because the leak came from another property, it said: \"We are awaiting further instruction from the insurance company as to what other action can be taken to restore this property to our usual standards.\"\n\nIt said the landlord of the flat had been advised to carry out a new fire inspection, which was \"being implemented\".\n\n\"Whilst we understand the inconvenience and the matter at hand this issue is being dealt with and actioned as quickly as we can.\"\n\nEmma, a trainee pharmacist, called her treatment by the letting agency \"horrible\".\n\nShe said the stress of the experience had forced her to take time off work.\n\n\"My little one is really struggling not being in his own space and not having his things,\" she said.\n\n\"I'm just lucky I have a support network around me.\"", "If you're feeling charitable, you might say things are not going well for the government.\n\nBut if you're feeling grumpy - perhaps because every morning you're leaving the warmth of your duvet to shiver in the freezing morning cold - then you might suggest No 10 is bouncing from bungle to bungle.\n\nThe bizarre diplomatic row with the Greeks over relatively niche artefacts (which has even piqued the King's interest). The home secretary's hot-mic swearing. Judges kicking out the centrepiece of Sunak's plan to \"stop the boats\" (more on that later). And as if that wasn't enough, Boris Johnson is getting his arguments in early before his appearance at the Covid inquiry - Rishi Sunak will soon take the stand too.\n\nAs the temperature plummets, there is a different risk that might trump all of them: what will happen to the NHS this winter?\n\nLast year, pictures of ambulances queuing for hours outside hospitals became familiar - agonising stories of delays and long, dangerous waits dominated the news.\n\nThe Health Secretary, Victoria Atkins, is with us in the studio tomorrow and how she fares in the coming months is absolutely vital for her party's prospects. One of her MP colleagues told me: \"I'm not sure she realised it when she took the job, but for a lot of us, whether we win is dependent on her.\"\n\nTake a look at the broad state of the service and it's not pretty. Nearly 7.8 million people are on the NHS waiting list - a record high. This is partly explained by the pandemic, as government ministers always remind you with some justification.\n\nBut check the figures more thoroughly and you can see that many of the numbers - from cancer treatment times to waits for diagnostic tests - were trending the wrong way before Covid-19 hit.\n\nNow, thousands of patients are in hospital not because they are too sick to leave, but because they don't have the help they need to get home. In October 2023, there were between 12,000 and 13,000 patients stuck like this, with the obvious knock-on effects for others needing care. That is roughly the same level as it was at last year, despite promises of action.\n\nThere are more than a 100,000 staff vacancies, shortages of NHS dentists and difficulties in getting mental health care. A series of bitter industrial disputes hasn't helped.\n\nVictoria Atkins was appointed Health Secretary in last month's Cabinet reshuffle\n\nIt is not, of course, all bad. Every day millions of people receive brilliant life-saving care. The government trumpeted meeting its manifesto promise to hire 50,000 extra nurses this week, and there are amazing advances in some forms of treatment.\n\nBut there is acute concern about what is going on in wards, clinics and practices all around the country.\n\nA nurse told me after finishing another long shift this week: \"The government are making out they're doing a great job, patting themselves on the back, but nothing could be further than the truth. Patients and their families fill up bays and corridors and every shift is short staffed.\"\n\nOne of our viewers told us they had to wait nine hours to be seen in their local A&E in the North West last week, followed by an even longer wait for a bed on a ward.\n\nThose fears go beyond anecdote and are widely felt, with the NHS often second only to the cost of living among voters' key concerns. One pollster tells me that in every focus group \"there is an NHS horror story\", alongside frustrations about not being able to see a GP or emergency wards being like \"war zones\".\n\nThe Prime Minister is well aware how important the service is to voters. Labour is well aware how vulnerable the Conservatives might be. In previous elections the party has had to struggle to get it onto the agenda, with their familiar cry of Labour having to \"save the NHS\". They won't struggle this time.\n\nFor whoever has the job after the election, a fundamental, long-term puzzle remains. The NHS has more money and more doctors than ever before. But according to the number crunchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank, it's treating about the same number of patients. In other words, the taxpayer seems to be getting less bang for its many billions of bucks.\n\nNHS England says it's more complicated than that. The figures focus on acute hospital care and only look at the numbers of people treated, it says, not the quality of care. But it does admit there are productivity challenges.\n\nThe \"productivity problem\", as the IFS calls it, is a big deal. The less productive the NHS is, the more the government - and therefore taxpayers - have to spend for the same level of healthcare.\n\nOur population is older and sicker, the health service more and more expensive, taking precedence over other parts of public spending. And just to remind you - as I seem to do every week - none of the big parties have yet come up with a fully worked-out plan for caring for the most elderly and vulnerable. Without that plan, the problems in the health service are much harder to solve.\n\nMost politicians would privately say it's hard to have candid conversations about radical long-term solutions because the public has such affection for the NHS, even when their own experiences might fall far short. But in the next couple of months, with winter coming, and pressure building, longer term discussions are likely to have to wait.\n\nIs Rwanda problem about to return?\n\nP.S. As we talked about last week, the government has a nightmare job on handling migration. Do not underestimate how fractious this is becoming as an issue on the Conservative backbenches. Cabinet ministers deny there is a vicious stand-off over how far the government should be willing to go in new promised laws, in light of a court decision to kick out their plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nOne source says there is a perfectly good reason for the delay to what was dramatically described as \"emergency legislation\" - it can't be sorted out until the revised treaty with Rwanda is concluded.\n\nIf that's true, no one seems to have told the backbenchers - and in the vacuum there is furious chatter. Several sources have even suggested to me in the last couple of days there could be real fireworks, potential ministerial resignations, and Rishi Sunak's leadership even questioned. One senior Conservative joked that there is someone who knows how to do the job back in Cabinet and could be a caretaker (yes, they mean the new Lord Cameron).\n\nI stress, all this seems pretty far-fetched, but the fact that even those speculative conversations are happening is a symbol of the deep unease.\n\nWhat questions would you like to ask Laura's guests on Sunday?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Bernard Cribbins filmed his final Doctor Who appearance before his death in 2022, aged 93\n\nDoctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has paid tribute to the late Bernard Cribbins after the star reprised his role in the show for one final time.\n\n\"Farewell, old soldier. That's goodnight and goodbye to our beloved Bernard,\" Davies wrote on Instagram.\n\nCribbins, who died in July 2022, played Wilfred Mott, grandfather of companion Donna Noble, between 2007 and 2010.\n\nThe scene in Saturday's episode, saw Cribbins reunite with David Tennant's Doctor and Catherine Tate's Donna.\n\nThe veteran actor first appeared in Doctor Who as companion Tom Campbell in 1966 film Daleks' Invasion Earth, before returning 41 years later in the revived TV series.\n\nDavies revealed they had written more scenes for Cribbins to feature in, but he died before they had chance to film them.\n\n\"We had a little more written, but it wasn't to be; at 93 years old, the old soldier had given us his best, and stepped away,\" he said.\n\nCribbins played Doctor Who companion Tom Campbell in the 1966 film Daleks' Invasion Earth\n\n\"We'd never lost touch, in all these years, so I phoned him up and asked him to come back. He sniffed and said 'Let me see the script',\" said Davies.\n\n\"We had a wonderful readthrough with 120 people at which he was adored by one and all.\n\n\"A lovely dinner in Cardiff where he regaled us with tales galore, twinkling as ever.\n\n\"Night, Bernard, and thank you. I love you.\"\n\nThe episode, titled Wild Blue Yonder, sees Tate's Donna rush from the Tardis to embrace Wilfred, who is sitting outside in a wheelchair.\n\nWilfred is further shocked when the Doctor hugs him and says: \"Wilfred Mott - now I feel better. Now nothing is wrong, nothing in the whole wide world.\"", "A man has died and two others, including a British man, have been injured in a knife and hammer attack on a street in central Paris.\n\nThe attack occurred near the Eiffel Tower shortly before 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on Saturday.\n\nThe suspect was then Tasered by police and arrested on suspicion of assassination - defined in French law as premeditated murder - and \"attempted assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise\".\n\nThe man, dressed all in black, appears to be carrying a knife.\n\nRead more on this story.", "A \"major incident\" incident has been declared in Cumbria after heavy snowfall, with police urging people not to travel on Sunday unless necessary.\n\nDrivers in the area told the BBC they had been in stop-start traffic with no food or water for many hours.\n\nTemperatures have also fallen below freezing in many other parts of the UK.", "Jason Evans was four when his father, Jonathan, died in 1993\n\nThe government faces a rebellion with at least 30 Tories backing an amendment to extend interim payouts to more victims of the infected blood scandal.\n\nUp to 30,000 people were given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 80s. Thousands have died.\n\nA Labour amendment will be brought on Monday calling for a new body to be set up to administer compensation.\n\nMore than 100 MPs, including Tories Sir Robert Buckland, Sir Edward Leigh and David Davis, are backing the move.\n\nMore than 3,000 people died after contracting HIV or hepatitis C after receiving a blood transfusion on the NHS or a treatment made from contaminated blood products.\n\nIn a letter sent to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves called the scandal \"one of the most appalling tragedies in our country's recent history.\"\n\nShe added: \"Blood infected with hepatitis C and HIV has stolen life, denied opportunities and harmed livelihoods.\"\n\nShe praised Theresa May, who set up the Infected Blood Inquiry when she was prime minister in 2017.\n\nBut she warned: \"For the victims, time matters. It is estimated that every four days someone affected by infected blood dies.\"\n\nJason Evans, from Coventry, was four when his father, Jonathan, died in 1993 after developing Aids and Hepatitis C as a result of receiving Factor VIII - a clotting agent given to people with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders to help their blood clot.\n\nMr Evans founded the Factor 8 organisation to campaign on behalf of those affected by the infected blood scandal.\n\nHe said time is key for many of those he meets. The inquiry heard that one person dies as a result of contaminated blood products every four days.\n\n\"For people like myself this is not just a catchphrase,\" he said. \"Every week or so someone I have known personally dies.\"\n\nInterim compensation is key, he said.\n\n\"I often hear of parents who lost multiple children and they are now elderly and they have received no recognition of what they have been through. Nothing.\"\n\nAmong those waiting for compensation is Lauren Palmer who was nine years old when she lost both her parents within a week of each other after her father was infected with HIV after receiving Factor VIII and unknowingly infected his wife.\n\nShe previously told the BBC: \"Factor VIII was supposed to prolong my father's life, not take him and my mum prematurely.\"\n\nMs Palmer said losing her parents meant she endured a miserable childhood\n\nThe chancellor, himself a former health secretary, told the inquiry in July that the government accepted the moral case for compensation.\n\nBut he said no final decisions could be made before the inquiry publishes its findings - now expected in March next year.\n\nIn August 2022, the government agreed to make the first interim compensation payments of £100,000 each to about 4,000 surviving victims and bereaved widows.\n\nBut inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff, said in April this year that the parents and children of victims should also receive compensation and also called for a full compensation scheme to be set up immediately.\n\nThe Commons Speaker will decide on Monday which amendments to the bill MPs will vote on.\n\nBut the government has said it will not be supporting the amendment.\n\nA Department of Health spokesperson said: \"We are deeply sympathetic to the strength of feeling on this and understand the need for action. However, it would not be right to pre-empt the findings of the final report into infected blood.\"\n\nNew Health Secretary Victoria Atkins was asked on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme whether she would be supporting the amendment.\n\n\"It's right that we take our time to wait for the report,\" she said, intimating that she would not be voting for the amendment.\n\nThe amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill has been brought by Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson, who leads the All-Party Parliamentary group on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood.\n\nShe said: \"The government have already accepted the 'moral case' for compensation to be paid, so now is the time for action - not further delay. There is no reason for the government not to support the amendments.\"\n\nIf the amendment is passed the government would have three months to set up an arms-length body, chaired by a High Court judge, to administer compensation.\n\nInterim compensation would be paid within a month to bereaved children, parents and siblings not covered by the first interim payment in October 2022, psychological support would be provided for victims within a month in England (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already provide this support).", "The blast occurred as the predominantly Catholic nation started a four-week vigil to Christmas Day\n\nFour people have been killed in an explosion at a Catholic Mass in the southern Philippines on Sunday morning.\n\nThe incident occurred at the gymnasium of Mindanao State University in Marawi, the country's largest Muslim city.\n\nForty-two others suffered mostly minor wounds, authorities said, adding the situation was \"under control\".\n\nIn 2017, Marawi was the scene of a five-month battle between government forces and militants with links to the Islamic State group.\n\nThe Daulah Islamiyah-Maute Group could be behind Sunday's bombing, said Brig Gen Allan Nobleza, the police commander in the region.\n\nGen Nobleza said 11 of its members died in an encounter with the Philippine Army last Friday in neighbouring Datu Hoffer Ampatuan town - suggesting Sunday's explosion could be a form of retaliation.\n\nThe Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the AFP news agency.\n\nPresident Ferdinand Marcos Jr condemned the blast as a \"senseless and most heinous\" act, which was \"perpetrated by foreign terrorists\". He did not elaborate.\n\nHe appealed to the public to remain calm. \"Rest assured, we will bring the perpetrators of this ruthless act to justice,\" he said.\n\nA grenade or an improvised bomb is likely to have caused the explosion, officials said, citing a preliminary investigation.\n\nPhotos shared on social media by local officials showed plastic chairs in disarray and dark fragments on the ground of the MSU gymnasium after the blast. Aside from its floor, the building did not appear to sustain major damage.\n\nThose who were brought to a nearby hospital received treatment mostly for minor wounds and bruises, photos suggested. The Provincial Governor, Mamintal Adiong Jr, said many of the three dozen wounded have been sent home.\n\nThe blast may be retaliation after 11 militants linked to the Islamic State group died in clashes with the army last Friday, officials suggest\n\nMasses on Sunday drew larger crowds than usual across the Philippines as it is the start of Advent, the Catholic Church's four-week vigil to Christmas Day.\n\nNearly 80% of the country's 113 million population are Catholic and it is not uncommon for school gymnasiums and even shopping malls to designate areas for Sunday Mass, especially in places where there are no churches.\n\nThe MSU, one of country's largest universities, said it was \"deeply saddened and appalled\" by the \"senseless and horrific\" violence.\n\n\"Violence has no place in a civilized society, and it is particularly abhorrent in an institution of higher learning like MSU,\" it said.\n\n\"We stand in solidarity with our Christian community and all those affected by this tragedy.\"\n\nThe university added that additional security staff had been deployed on its campus and that all academic activities would be suspended until further notice.\n\nMindanao is home to the country's Muslim minority and has borne the brunt of insurgency and extremist violence.\n\nIn 2012, Manila and the country's largest Muslim rebel group agreed to establish an autonomous region in Mindanao and the first elections for the regional assembly was held in 2022. However, sporadic violence flares up from time to time.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Earthquake shakes food from shop shelves in the Philippines\n\nA pregnant woman has died, four people injured, and nine are missing after a powerful earthquake hit the Philippines' second-largest island of Mindanao.\n\nDefence secretary Gilbert Teodoro said 529 families have been affected.\n\nThe US Geological Survey measured the first tremor late on Saturday at 7.6 magnitude, followed by four major aftershocks exceeding 6.0.\n\nThe quakes had triggered tsunami warnings that were later lifted.\n\nThe Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology measured the quake at 7.4, and recorded at least 600 aftershocks with magnitudes raging from 1.4 to 6.2.\n\nPeople were seen rushing out of buildings and staying in open areas after the first tremor\n\nEarlier, residents of coastal areas of Surigao Del Sur and Davao Oriental had been told to evacuate to higher ground after the first earthquake at about 22:37 local time (14:37 GMT) off Mindanao's eastern coast.\n\nPeople in several towns not far from the quake's epicentre were seen rushing out of buildings and staying in open areas. In Butuan City, patients were evacuated from a hospital.\n\nIn the Hinatuan municipality - about 21km from the epicentre - crowds gathered at evacuation centres. Disaster officials there are inspecting villages for damage and casualties.\n\nOne disaster official for Bilsig City told AFP that there have been no reports of major damage to buildings or infrastructure so far, but some roads in the city in the Surigao Del Sur province were cracked during the quake and the aftershocks.\n\nIn Japan, north-east of the Philippines, tsunami waves of up to 0.4m (1.3ft) were later observed on some outlying islands.\n\nThe two island nations are part of the Pacific \"Ring of Fire\" - a zone of major seismic activity which has one of the world's most active fault lines.\n\nThe Mindanao quakes come nearly two weeks after a 6.7 magnitude quake hit the island, killing at least nine people, shaking buildings and causing part of a shopping mall ceiling to collapse.", "Henry Kissinger died this week at the age of 100\n\nWhen news of Henry Kissinger's death spread this week, many former world leaders lined up to pay tribute.\n\nFormer US President George W Bush said the US had \"lost one of the most dependable and distinctive voices on foreign affairs\".\n\nFormer UK Prime Minister Tony Blair described the ex-US secretary of state as an artist of diplomacy, who was motivated by \"a genuine love of the free world and the need to protect it\". Boris Johnson called Kissinger \"a giant of diplomacy and strategy - and peace-making\".\n\nBut peacemaker is not a term you're likely to hear many in Cambodia use when describing Henry Kissinger.\n\nDuring the Vietnam War, Kissinger and then-President Richard Nixon ordered clandestine bombing raids on neutral Cambodia, in an effort to flush out Viet Cong forces in the east of country.\n\nBen Kiernan, a historian at Yale University and a leading scholar on Cambodia, has estimated that around 500,000 tons of US bombs were dropped on Cambodia between 1969-1973.\n\nKissinger maintained that the bombing was aimed at the Vietnamese army inside Cambodia, not at the country itself.\n\nVorng Chhut recalls people being killed by the US bombing\n\nVorng Chhut, 76, had never heard the name Henry Kissinger when bombs started dropping down on his village in Svay Rieng province, near the Vietnamese border.\n\n\"Nothing was left, not even the bamboo trees. People escaped, while those who stayed in the village died,\" he said. \"A lot of people died, I can't count all their names. The bodies were swollen and when it became quiet, people would come and bury the bodies.\"\n\nA Pentagon report released in 1973 stated that \"Kissinger approved each of the 3,875 Cambodia bombing raids in 1969 and 1970\" as well as \"the methods for keeping them out of the newspapers\".\n\n\"It's an order, it's to be done. Anything that flies, on anything that moves. You got that?\" Kissinger told a deputy in 1970, according to declassified transcripts of his telephone conversations.\n\nThe number of people killed by those bombs is not known, but estimates range from 50,000 to upwards of 150,000.\n\nThe US dropped around 500,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia\n\nOne of the most notorious incidents was the accidental bombing of the small town of Neak Luong, where at least 137 Cambodians were killed and another 268 were wounded.\n\nA New York Times report by Sydney Schanberg, who was later portrayed in the film the Killing Fields, quoted a man called Keo Chan, whose wife and 10 children had just been killed.\n\n\"All my family is dead!\" he cried, beating his hand on the wooden bench where he had collapsed. \"All my family is dead! Take my picture, take my picture! Let the Americans see me!\"\n\nAnother man stood near an unexploded bomb in the town asked simply: \"When are you Americans going to take it away?\"\n\nUnexploded American bombs littered the Cambodian countryside, maiming and killing people for decades to come.\n\nMany also say that another consequence of Nixon and Kissinger's bombing campaign was that it helped pave the way for one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. Around 1.7 million people died at the hands of the Pol Pot-led Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979 - almost a quarter of the population.\n\nPrior to that, the ultra-communists had little support, but its ranks grew as American bombs fell.\n\nThe CIA's director of operations reported in 1973 the Khmer Rouge forces were successfully \"using damage by B-52 strikes as the main theme of their propaganda\".\n\nIn 2009, the first Khmer Rouge official to be tried for crimes committed under the regime's reign of terror told the UN-backed court: \"Mr Richard Nixon and Kissinger allowed the Khmer Rouge to grasp golden opportunities.\"\n\nKissinger always pushed back on criticism regarding the bombing of Cambodia.\n\n\"I just wanted to make clear that it was not a bombing of Cambodia, but it was a bombing of North Vietnamese in Cambodia,\" he said in 1973.\n\nWhen he was 90, he claimed bombs were only dropped on areas \"within five miles of the Vietnamese border that were essentially unpopulated\".\n\nRichard Nixon, seen here pointing at a map of Cambodia, and Kissinger ordered clandestine bombing raids on Cambodia\n\nElizabeth Becker, an American journalist who covered the bombing campaign in 1973, said this was not the case.\n\n\"First you interviewed the refugees as they were coming away from the bombing, then you'd go to the bombing and there were moonscapes - you'd see the corpses of buffalo, you'd see houses burned, the rice fields gutted,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"You saw the destruction and you thought: why was this modern air force bombing the countryside so much? In those days the farmers of Cambodia weren't even used to seeing motor vehicles, they routinely said to me: 'Why is fire falling from the sky?'\"\n\nPen Yai, 78, cooperated with the Viet Cong inside Cambodia before the bombing started, but said large numbers of civilians were killed by American bombs, including his father and brother-in-law.\n\n\"I was so scared and could not sleep. People died everywhere. We just ran and recognised people who had been killed... we could not do anything,\" he said.\n\nMany world leaders have praised Kissinger, who shared the 1973 Nobel peace prize for his role in negotiating an end to the Vietnam war and was later handed the Presidential Medal of Freedom - America's highest civilian award.\n\nPrum Hen says she is still angry at the US to this day\n\nBut few who were in Cambodia in the 1970s will remember his legacy fondly.\n\nPrum Hen, 70, was forced to flee her village when American bombs started raining down. She said she knew little about Kissinger and felt little sympathy when informed of his death.\n\n\"Let him die because he killed a lot of our people,\" she said, adding that she still feels deep resentment towards the US.\n\n\"They bombed our country, killing a lot of people and separating people from their children. Later on, the Khmer Rouge killed husbands, wives and children.\"\n\nMs Becker said the gravity of Kissinger's policies in Cambodia cannot be understated.\n\n\"To say the bombing was imprecise... it was inhumane. It's not just the number of people, it's the legacy.\n\n\"You cannot exaggerate what it did to the country.\"\n\nNote: An earlier version of this story referenced Yale University data stating that the US dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on Cambodia. The story has been updated to reflect that the author of this report later revised the number down to around 500,000 tons.", "The Israelis have said that today was the fiercest fighting they've had since the start of the ground invasion and that they are now in centre of second biggest town in Gaza, Khan Younis.\n\nThere are people trying to move out of the path of the fighting and the UN is coming out with some of the most solemn and terrifying warnings we've heard from them so far about the massive humanitarian crisis that is undeniably taking place there. They're very concerned that they can't get to help the people who need it.\n\nIsrael's armed forces are now pushing further down the Gaza strip – the whole surface area of the strip is roughly the same as Isle of Wight – and more and more people are being pushed to the southern tip near Egypt.\n\nPalestinians pictured making their way through the rubble following strikes on Deir al-Balah Image caption: Palestinians pictured making their way through the rubble following strikes on Deir al-Balah\n\nNow the Egyptians are very, very concerned about the pressure of almost two million people in a very small area with not enough food or water, right on their border.\n\nOne of my colleagues has been in touch with a friend in Gaza today, who was saying: \"I cannot go on. I cannot hear my children saying, 'dad I need food please' – and I have nothing to give them.\"\n\nThis is someone who has a job, with money, and if there was food available to buy he could afford it. But there is nothing to buy.\n\nOne thing the UN says is that Israel should allow commercial suppliers in to revive the market, so that at least those people with money can buy food and the relief supplies can go to someone who doesn’t have money.", "An Israeli military tank rolls near the border with the Gaza Strip on Sunday\n\nIsraeli ground forces are pushing into southern Gaza, after three days of heavy bombardment.\n\nInitial reports from Israeli army radio effectively confirmed Israel has launched a ground operation to the north of Khan Younis.\n\nThe BBC has also verified images of an Israeli tank operating near the city.\n\nThe head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later told troops the IDF was also fighting \"strongly and thoroughly\" in south Gaza.\n\nLt General Herzi Halevi was speaking to reservists from the Gaza division about military objectives and the IDF's killing of Hamas commanders.\n\nHe told the soldiers: \"We fought strongly and thoroughly in the northern Gaza Strip, and we are also doing it now in the southern Gaza Strip\".\n\nAn IDF spokesman later confirmed Israel \"continues to expand the ground incursion\" across all of Gaza, including troops \"conducting face to face battles with terrorists\".\n\nSince a week-long ceasefire ended on Friday, Israel has resumed a large-scale bombing campaign on Gaza, which residents of Khan Younis have described as the heaviest wave of attacks so far.\n\nThe seven-day truce saw Hamas release 110 hostages being held in Gaza in return for 240 Palestinians being released from Israeli prisons.\n\nOn Sunday morning, the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for several districts of Khan Younis, urging people to leave immediately.\n\nIsraeli authorities believe members of the Hamas leadership are hiding in the city, where hundreds of thousands of people have been sheltering after fleeing fighting in the north in the early stages of the war.\n\nA UN official has described a \"degree of panic\" he has not seen before in a Gaza hospital, after the Israeli military shifted the focus of its offensive to the south.\n\nJames Elder, from the children's agency Unicef, described Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Younis as a \"warzone\".\n\nAn adviser to Israel's prime minister said Israel is making \"maximum effort\" to avoid killing civilians.\n\nMr Elder told the BBC he could hear constant large explosions close to the Nasser hospital and children were arriving with head injuries, terrible burns, and shrapnel from recent blasts.\n\n\"It's a hospital I've gone to regularly and the children know me now, the families know me now. Those same people are grabbing my hand, or grabbing my shirt saying 'please take us somewhere safe. Where is safe?'\"\n\n\"They are unfortunately asking a question to which the only answer is there is nowhere safe. And that includes for them, as they know, that hospital,\" he said.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 500 people have been killed since the bombing resumed.\n\nMore than 15,500 people have been killed in the strip since the war began, the ministry also said.\n\nNasser hospital in Khan Younis has been described by a UN official as a \"warzone\" since IDF airstrikes began again\n\nMohammed Ghalayini, a British-Palestinian who has stayed in Gaza, said the situation in the city was \"beyond catastrophic\".\n\n\"People have been, for 50 days or more, withstanding brutal Israeli onslaught and are very low on all resources - food, water, power and the sanitation and the waste services,\" he told the BBC by phone, before the connection cut off.\n\nThe air pollution expert, who normally lives in Manchester, arrived in Gaza for a three-month visit to see his mother shortly before the 7 October attacks.\n\nIsrael began its retaliatory bombing of Gaza following Hamas's attacks on southern Israel on 7 October, which saw around 1,200 people killed and 240 taken hostage.\n\nRockets have also been regularly fired at Israel from Gaza since fighting resumed on Friday. A 22-year-old man in the city of Holon, near Tel Aviv, was treated for minor shrapnel injuries on Saturday.\n\nHundreds of thousands of people have already fled the fighting to take shelter in Khan Younis, after Israel told them to leave the north of the strip.\n\nThe latest UN update says around 1.8 million people are internally displaced in Gaza.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees chief, Filippo Grandi, said Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are being \"pushed more and more towards a narrow corner of what is already a very narrow territory\".\n\nThe IDF has begun posting maps of areas set to be attacked online. It says these maps, along with other measures like phone calls and leaflets being dropped on Gaza by plane, will warn people to evacuate.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's senior adviser Mark Regev said civilians are not targets and protecting them is made more difficult by Hamas \"embedding its military terror machine\" in civilian neighbourhoods.\n\nHe says the IDF are trying to be \"as surgical as we can in a very difficult combat situation\", and has given advance warning of attacks.\n\nSeparately, the IDF say they have destroyed 500 \"terror tunnel\" shafts used by Hamas in Gaza, out of the 800 they say have been found so far.\n\nIt also said around 10,000 air strikes on \"terror targets\" have been carried out by the air force \"under the guidance of IDF soldiers on the ground\" since the war began.", "Satellite images commissioned by the BBC reveal the extent of destruction across Gaza, showing that nearly 98,000 buildings may have suffered damage.\n\nThe satellite images were taken last Thursday - before the start of a seven-day suspension of hostilities, which has now ended.\n\nDrone footage and verified video also show buildings and entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble after Israeli air strikes and on-the-ground fighting.\n\nWhile northern Gaza has been the focus of the Israeli offensive and has borne the brunt of the destruction, widespread damage extends across the entire strip.\n\nIsrael says northern Gaza, which includes the major urban centre of Gaza City, was a \"centre of gravity of Hamas\", the group behind the deadly 7 October attacks on Israel. The Israeli military says its bombing campaign has successfully targeted Hamas commanders and fighters and accuses the group of embedding itself in civilian areas.\n\nSatellite data analysis suggests that almost 98,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip may have suffered damage, mostly in the north - as shown in the above map.\n\nAnalysis of the data was carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University. It is based on comparisons of two separate images, revealing changes in the height or structure of buildings which suggests damage.\n\nWe have analysed satellite imagery from several areas with extensive damage.\n\nThe cities of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the north and north-east of the Gaza Strip were among the first to be targeted by air strikes after the 7 October attacks by Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the area was a hideout for Hamas.\n\nParts of Beit Lahia, which overlooked olive groves and sand dunes stretching towards the border with Israel, were flattened. The satellite image below shows an area in the north-east of Beit Lahia, where a significant block of buildings was destroyed.\n\nBulldozers appear to have cleared roads through the rubble and the Israeli military cleared land and set up defensive positions in surrounding fields.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe IDF also struck the small nearby city of Beit Hanoun, less than 1.6km (1 mile) from the border. It said 120 targets were hit in the area on the first day of air strikes.\n\nAs the images above show, a skyline of multi-storey buildings and a mosque was gradually reduced to rubble between 14 October and 22 November.\n\nAfter weeks of air strikes on Gaza, Israel moved in on the ground - tanks and bulldozers going through areas which had been heavily bombarded. The IDF worked its way southwards along the coast towards Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in the Gaza City area.\n\nAs the image below shows, a whole series of craters are visible in what was once a residential area. Some of the buildings on the beach front, which boasted Gaza's first five-star hotel, the Al-Mashtal, as well as huts and restaurants, appear to have been partially destroyed.\n\nAbout a week after the air strikes began, the IDF warned Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south of a river known as Wadi Gaza for their own safety.\n\nDespite the warning and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Gaza City, areas in the south continued to be targeted.\n\nNuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza was hit several times before the temporary pause in hostilities began. The camp was said to be home to about 85,000 people, according to the UN.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn this verified video, which emerged online, people are seen picking through the rubble of collapsed and damaged buildings.\n\nThe distinctive black chimney stacks of the Gaza Power Plant, situated just north of the camp, are visible in the background.\n\nThe BBC has approached the IDF for comment.\n\nIn Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, thousands of people are living in tents or the rubble of bombed-out buildings.\n\nAlthough the damage was not as widespread as in the north, up to 15% of buildings across the city may have been damaged, according to Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek's analysis.\n\nAs well as pushing down from the north, Israeli forces also cut across the Gaza Strip westwards, isolating Gaza City from the south.\n\nIn this image below, taken to the south of Gaza City, we can see that a previously populated residential area was cleared by the IDF with heavy machinery and a road bulldozed towards the western Mediterranean shoreline.\n\nYou can also see dozens of military vehicles, including tanks, grouped behind fortifications made from earth.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nSatellite images also show an open square of land with a Star of David carved into the earth by vehicle tracks in Gaza City, near al-Azhar University.\n\nImages online from before the war showed children playing there and suggested it was a park, but IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said the ground was used by Hamas as a parade square near a base. The area was taken over by the IDF's Golani Brigade.\n\nA Star of David - which is used as a Jewish and Israeli symbol - was made by armoured vehicles in a ceremony in memory of Israeli soldiers who had been killed since the war began, according to a post by Rear Adm Hagari on X.\n\nAdditional reporting by Thomas Spencer, Paul Brown, Jake Horton, Alex Murray and Shayan Sardarizadeh and Jemimah Herd", "Police Scotland had earlier released an image of the vehicle the woman was driven off in\n\nDetectives have traced a woman who was \"carried into a vehicle\" after issuing an appeal following a street disturbance in Dundee.\n\nOfficers said the incident happened on Turnberry Avenue at about 23:50 on Saturday.\n\nPolice Scotland earlier released an image of a dark Range Rover, which was last seen on the A90, and said they were concerned for the woman's welfare.\n\nBut the force later confirmed she had been located safe and well.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Palestinians injured in Israeli airstrikes arrive at Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Younis on Saturday\n\nIsrael has carried out intense air strikes on Khan Younis in southern Gaza, with residents describing it as the heaviest bombing of the war.\n\nPeople in eastern areas of the city have been told by the Israeli military to evacuate further to the south.\n\nIsrael believes some Hamas leaders are in the city, where many civilians are sheltering after fleeing the north.\n\nGaza's Hamas-run health ministry says at least 193 people have been killed in the latest wave of Israeli attacks.\n\nOn Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) resumed its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, launched in response to the 7 October attacks in Israel which killed around 1,200 people.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry says the number of people killed in Gaza has now exceeded 15,200 people.\n\nIsrael's bombardment of Gaza resumed after a temporary ceasefire ended on Friday. The IDF said it had hit more than 400 Hamas \"terror targets\" on the first day of the renewed operation.\n\nRockets have also been regularly fired at Israel from Gaza since fighting resumed, including a barrage aimed at Tel Aviv and the surrounding area of central Israel on Saturday evening.\n\nFollowing this attack, Israel's ambulance service said it treated a 22-year-old man for \"minor shrapnel injuries\" to the head in Holon - a city just south of Tel Aviv.\n\nAt a briefing on Saturday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to continue with the Israeli military operation until \"we achieve all the goals\" in eliminating Hamas and securing the release of the hostages.\n\nHe acknowledged that \"a tough war is ahead of us\".\n\nKhan Younis and the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, were some of the places hit with heavy air strikes, with the next phase of the offensive likely to focus on southern Gaza.\n\nHundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter in the area, after being told to flee the north of the territory, which was Israel's main target in the early stages of the war.\n\nThe IDF's Arabic-language spokesman posted maps on social media indicating which areas civilians should leave, directing people in areas east of Khan Younis to evacuate further south to shelters in Rafah, an indication that a ground offensive could be imminent.\n\nHospitals, operating with limited resources after weeks of fighting, were overwhelmed with casualties, and at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, some patients were treated on the floor.\n\n\"A night of horror,\" Samira, a mother of four, told the Reuters news agency. \"It was one of the worst nights we spent in Khan Younis in the past six weeks since we arrived here... We are so afraid they will enter Khan Younis.\"\n\nUnicef spokesman James Elder, who was in Khan Younis on Saturday, told the BBC that hospitals were already \"saturated\" with casualties before the strikes resumed.\n\n\"There is literally blood in the corridors, there are mothers yet again holding babies who look like they've been killed\", he said.\n\nThe Palestinian Red Crescent charity confirmed 100 lorries with aid were allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt on Saturday. On Friday, no humanitarian supplies were delivered to the territory.\n\nTalks to reach a deal for another temporary ceasefire and to secure the release of the people kidnapped on 7 October who remain in Gaza collapsed on Saturday.\n\nA Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC that the negotiations were completely stalled, with no contacts or attempts to reach a fresh truce.\n\nOn Saturday, Israel announced it was pulling its negotiators from the Mossad intelligence service out of talks in Qatar, which has been acting as a mediator, following an \"impasse in the negotiations\".\n\nSaleh al-Arouri, deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that \"there are no negotiations now\" and there would be no more prisoners exchanged with Israel until the war is over.\n\nUS Vice President Kamala Harris, in a meeting with the president of Egypt, said \"under no circumstances [would] the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza\".\n\nShe also reiterated the US position that Israel had the right to defend itself.\n\nDuring their meeting in Dubai on the sidelines of the UN's COP28 climate conference, she told Abdul Fattah al-Sisi that peace efforts could only succeed if \"pursued in the context of a clear political horizon for the Palestinian people towards a state of their own led by a revitalized Palestinian Authority\".\n\nAt Saturday's briefing, Mr Netanyahu praised the release of 110 Israeli hostages - women and children - as well as some foreigners.\n\n\"Welcome back from hell,\" Mr Netanyahu said.\n\nThe hostages were released in exchange for the freeing of 240 Palestinian prisoners - women and teenagers.\n\nMost of the about 140 captives remaining in Gaza are men and military personnel.", "Some bikers' groups are using their tough image to send a strong message against bullying\n\nThe leaders of an anti-bullying motorcycle club in northern France have been arrested on charges of threatening a school headteacher and his deputy.\n\nThe president of the Black Shadow North WC club and his wife were questioned by police in the town of Auchel, 65km (40 miles) west of Lille.\n\nThe alleged offences - which they deny - include threatening to bundle the headteacher into the boot of a car.\n\nThe row arose from reports of violence between pupils, prosecutors say.\n\nThe Black Shadow North WC club is one of several biker clubs that have emerged in France to combat bullying in recent years.\n\nMembers accuse police and school officials of not doing enough to tackle the problem. According to health experts, over 10% of French pupils experience bullying by the age of 16.\n\nThe confrontation in Auchel originated in a complaint last month by a mother who said her teenage daughter was being targeted, media say.\n\nThe bullying allegation was not confirmed by authorities. But feelings were running high after a teenager from a neighbouring school took her own life in early November.\n\nProsecutors say the president of Black Shadow North WC went near the school in Auchel to demand sanctions against the alleged offenders.\n\nThe prosecutor's office says the biker and his wife threatened to come back \"with dozens of bikers to put the headteacher in a car boot and take him across the Belgian border because of his lack of action\".\n\nThe accused, who deny any wrongdoing, are due to appear in court on Monday.", "Joint military drills were held between Palestinian armed factions from 2020 onwards\n\nFive armed Palestinian groups joined Hamas in the deadly 7 October attack on Israel after training together in military-style exercises from 2020 onwards, BBC News analysis shows.\n\nThe groups carried out joint drills in Gaza which closely resembled the tactics used during the deadly assault - including at a site less than 1km (0.6 miles) from the barrier with Israel - and posted them on social media.\n\nThey practised hostage-taking, raiding compounds and breaching Israel's defences during these exercises, the last of which was held just 25 days before the attack.\n\nBBC Arabic and BBC Verify have collated evidence which shows how Hamas brought together Gaza's factions to hone their combat methods - and ultimately execute a raid into Israel which has plunged the region into war.\n\nOn 29 December 2020, Hamas's overall leader Ismail Haniyeh declared the first of four drills codenamed Strong Pillar a \"strong message and a sign of unity\" between Gaza's various armed factions.\n\nAs the most powerful of Gaza's armed groups, Hamas was the dominant force in a coalition which brought together 10 other Palestinian factions in a war games-style exercise overseen by a \"joint operation room\".\n\nThe structure was set up in 2018 to coordinate Gaza's armed factions under a central command.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Videos reveal how armed groups trained together before 7 October attacks\n\nPrior to 2018, Hamas had formally coordinated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Gaza's second largest armed faction and - like Hamas - a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK and other countries.\n\nHamas had also fought alongside other groups in previous conflicts, but the 2020 drill was billed in propaganda as evidence a wider array of groups were being unified.\n\nHamas's leader said the first drill reflected the \"permanent readiness\" of the armed factions.\n\nThe 2020 exercise was the first of four joint drills held over three years, each of which was documented in polished videos posted on public social media channels.\n\nThe BBC has visually identified 10 groups, including PIJ, by their distinctive headbands and emblems training alongside Hamas during the Strong Pillar drills in footage posted on the messaging app Telegram.\n\nFollowing the 7 October attack, five of the groups went on to post videos claiming to show them taking part in the assault. Three others issued written statements on Telegram claiming to have participated.\n\nThe role of these groups has come into sharp focus as pressure builds on Hamas to find dozens of women and children believed to have been taken as captives from Israel into Gaza by other factions on 7 October.\n\nThree groups - PIJ, the Mujahideen Brigades and Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades - claim to have seized Israeli hostages, alongside Hamas, on that day.\n\nEfforts to extend the temporary truce in Gaza were said to be hinging on Hamas locating those hostages.\n\nWhile these groups are drawn from a broad ideological spectrum ranging from hard-line Islamist to relatively secular, all shared a willingness to use violence against Israel.\n\nHamas statements repeatedly stressed the theme of unity between Gaza's disparate armed groups. The group suggested they were equal partners in the joint drills, whilst it continued to play a leading role in the plans to attack Israel.\n\nFootage from the first drill shows masked commanders in a bunker appearing to conduct the exercise, and begins with a volley of rocket fire.\n\nIt cuts to heavily armed fighters overrunning a mocked-up tank marked with an Israeli flag, detaining a crew member and dragging him away as a prisoner, as well as raiding buildings.\n\nWe know from videos and harrowing witness statements that both tactics were used to capture soldiers and target civilians on 7 October, when around 1,200 people were killed and an estimated 240 hostages were taken.\n\nThe first Strong Pillar drill propaganda video showed a command room overseeing the joint exercise\n\nThe second Strong Pillar drill was held almost exactly one year later.\n\nAyman Nofal, a commander in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades - the official name for Hamas's armed wing - said the aim of the exercise on 26 December 2021 was to \"affirm the unity of the resistance factions\".\n\nHe said the drills would \"tell the enemy that the walls and engineering measures on the borders of Gaza will not protect them\".\n\nAnother Hamas statement said the \"joint military manoeuvres\" were designed to \"simulate the liberation of settlements near Gaza\" - which is how the group refers to Israeli communities.\n\nThe exercise was repeated on 28 December 2022, and propaganda images of fighters practising clearing buildings and overrunning tanks in what appears to be a replica of a military base were published to mark the event.\n\nThe exercises were reported on in Israel, so it's inconceivable they were not being closely monitored by the country's extensive intelligence agencies.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have previously carried out air strikes to disrupt Hamas's training activities. In April 2023, they bombed the site used for the first Strong Pillar drill.\n\nWeeks before the attacks, female surveillance soldiers near the Gaza border reportedly warned of unusually high drone activity and that Hamas was training to take over observation posts with replicas of their positions.\n\nBut, according to reports in the Israeli media, they say they were ignored.\n\nBrigadier General Amir Avivi, a former IDF deputy commander in Gaza, told the BBC: \"There was a lot of intelligence that they were doing this training - after all, the videos are public, and this was happening just hundreds of metres from the fence (with Israel).\"\n\nBut he said while the military knew about the drills, they \"didn't see what they were training for\".\n\nThe IDF said they \"eliminated\" Nofal on 17 October 2023, the first senior Hamas military leader to be killed during the conflict.\n\nHamas went to great lengths to make sure the drills were realistic.\n\nIn 2022, fighters practised storming a mock Israeli military base built just 2.6km (1.6 miles) from the Erez crossing, a route between Gaza and Israel controlled by the IDF.\n\nBBC Verify has pinpointed the site in the far north of Gaza, just 800m (0.5 miles) from the barrier, by matching geographic features seen in the training footage to aerial images of the area. As of November 2023, the site was still visible on Bing Maps.\n\nThe training camp was within 1.6km (1 mile) of an Israeli observation tower and an elevated observation box, elements in a security barrier Israel has spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing.\n\nThe mock base is on land dug several metres below ground level, so it may not have been immediately visible to any nearby Israeli patrols - but the smoke rising from the explosions surely would have been, and the IDF is known to use aerial surveillance.\n\nHamas used this site to practise storming buildings, taking hostages at gunpoint and destroying security barriers.\n\nBBC Verify has used publicly available information - including satellite imagery - to locate 14 training sites at nine different locations across Gaza.\n\nThey even trained twice at a site less than 1.6 km (1 mile) from the United Nations' aid agency distribution centre, and which was visible in the background of an official video published by the agency in December 2022.\n\nOn 10 September 2023, the so-called joint committee room published images on its dedicated Telegram channel of men in military uniforms carrying out surveillance of military installations along the Gaza barrier.\n\nTwo days later, the fourth Strong Pillar military exercise was staged, and by 7 October, all the tactics that would be deployed in the unprecedented attack had been rehearsed.\n\nFighters were filmed riding in the same type of white Toyota pickup trucks which were seen roaming through southern Israel the following month.\n\nThe propaganda video shows gunmen raiding mock buildings and firing at dummy targets inside, as well as training to storm a beach using a boat and underwater divers. Israel has said it repelled attempted Hamas boat landings on its shores on 7 October.\n\nThe fourth and final Strong Pillar drill saw fighters training on raiding buildings\n\nHowever, Hamas did not publicise its training with motorcycles and paragliders as part of the Strong Pillar propaganda.\n\nA training video posted by Hamas three days after 7 October shows fences and barriers being demolished to allow motorcycles to pass through, a tactic they used to reach communities in southern Israel. We have not identified similar earlier videos.\n\nFootage of fighters using paragliding equipment was also not published until the 7 October attack was under way.\n\nIn a training video shared on the day of the attack, gunmen are seen landing in a mock kibbutz at an airstrip we have located to a site north of Rafah in southern Gaza.\n\nBBC Verify established it was recorded some time before 25 August 2022, and was stored in a computer file titled Eagle Squadron, the name Hamas uses for its aerial division - suggesting the paragliders plan was in the works for over a year.\n\nBefore 7 October, Hamas was thought to have about 30,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip, according to reports quoting IDF commanders. It was also thought that Hamas could draw on several thousands of fighters from smaller groups.\n\nHamas is by far the most powerful of the Palestinian armed groups, even without the support of other factions - suggesting its interest in galvanising the factions was driven by an attempt to secure broad support within Gaza at least as much as bolstering its own numbers.\n\nThe IDF has previously estimated 1,500 fighters joined the 7 October raids. The Times of Israel reported earlier this month the IDF now believes the number was closer to 3,000.\n\nWhatever the true number, it means only a relatively small fraction of the total number of armed operatives in Gaza took part. It is not possible to verify precise numbers for how many fighters from smaller groups took part in the attack or the Strong Pillar drills.\n\nWhile Hamas was building cross-faction support in the build-up to the attack, Hisham Jaber, a former Brigadier General in the Lebanese army who is now a security analyst at the Middle East Centre for Studies and Research, said he believed only Hamas was aware of the ultimate plan, and it was \"probable [they] asked other factions to join on the day\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAndreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at Kings College London, told the BBC: \"While there was centralised planning, execution was de-centralised, with each squad operationalising the plan as they saw fit.\"\n\nHe said people inside Hamas were said to be surprised by the weakness of Israel's defences, and assessed militants had likely bypassed Israel's surveillance technology by communicating offline.\n\nHugh Lovatt, a Middle East analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Israel would have been aware of the joint training drills but \"reached the wrong conclusion\", assessing they amounted to the \"standard\" activity of paramilitary groups in the Palestinian territories, rather than being \"indicative of a looming large-scale attack\".\n\nAsked about the issues raised in this article, the Israel Defense Forces said it was \"currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organisation Hamas\" and questions about any potential failures \"will be looked into in a later stage\".\n\nIt could be several years until Israel formally reckons with whether it missed opportunities to prevent the 7 October massacre.\n\nThe ramifications for its military, intelligence services and government could be seismic.\n\nAdditional reporting by Paul Brown, Kumar Malhotra and Abdirahim Saeed. Video production by Soraya Auer.", "In the end it was a diplomatic achievement that the ceasefire lasted as long as it did. Now, after a seven-day pause, Israel and Hamas are facing their greatest military and political challenges.\n\nFor Hamas, it is the fight to survive. As long as a Hamas gunman can pull a trigger or launch a rocket into Israel it will claim to be undefeated.\n\nFor all its overwhelming military power, Israel's task is more complicated.\n\nIts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swore \"mighty vengeance\" after Hamas breached the border and killed around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, on 7 October.\n\nIn the first hours after the Israeli military went back on the offensive, the government recommitted itself to its war aims in a WhatsApp post: \"Releasing the hostages, eliminating Hamas and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to the residents of Israel.\"\n\nIsraeli soldiers gather near tanks as smoke rises from Gaza in the background, after the ceasefire ended on Friday\n\nHow it does that and what happens next are now the number one preoccupations of Mr Netanyahu, his political allies and enemies in Israel and Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state who has made four trips to Israel and the region since the war started.\n\nPerhaps Mr Blinken knew that his attempt to prolong what he called the \"humanitarian pause\" would fail.\n\nOn the evening before the fighting resumed, he repeated America's support for Israel's right to defend itself, and once again condemned Hamas.\n\nMr Blinken repeated his insistence \"that Israel act in accordance with international humanitarian law and the laws of war, even when confronting a terrorist group that respects neither\".\n\nThen Mr Blinken made his starkest public statement yet about how Israel should fight the war.\n\nIt is worth quoting at length, because it is a checklist of what the US expects from its closest ally.\n\nMr Blinken said that it meant \"taking more effective steps to protect the lives of civilians, including by clearly and precisely designating areas and places in southern and central Gaza where they can be safe and out of the line of fire\".\n\nDisplaced Palestinians take refuge in a school in Khan Younis\n\n\"It means avoiding further significant displacement of civilians inside of Gaza. It means avoiding damage to life-critical infrastructure, like hospitals, like power stations, like water facilities.\"\n\n\"And it means giving civilians who've been displaced to southern Gaza the choice to return to the north as soon as conditions permit. There must be no enduring internal displacement.\"\n\nAt the beginning of the war Joe Biden, the US president, came here. While trying to wrap Israel in a warm and powerful embrace he also warned his allies not to be blinded by rage as they sought justice, as America had been after the al-Qaeda attacks of 11 September, 2001.\n\nMr Blinken's remarks suggest Joe Biden believes that Mr Netanyahu, with whom he has had a difficult relationship, did not listen.\n\nIsrael's war aims require that the next phase of its offensive is aimed at Hamas in southern Gaza. When it invaded northern Gaza, it ordered Palestinian civilians to head to the south for their own safety.\n\nWhile not as lethal as the north, much of which Israel has turned into a wasteland, nowhere in Gaza is safe.\n\nA few hours after hostilities resumed, Palestinians in Rafah, in the far south of Gaza on the border with Egypt, were being killed in Israeli air strikes.\n\nIsrael cannot claim to have eliminated Hamas without destroying its infrastructure in the south, where it believes Yahya Sinwar and the other leaders are lying low in tunnels under the civilian population, along with an unspecified number of fighting men.\n\nResidents conduct search and rescue works in Rafah, as Israeli air strikes resumed hours after the end of the truce\n\nIf Israel is going to use the same tactics as it did in northern Gaza, thousands more civilians will be killed. Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, already calls the plight of the people of Gaza \"an epic humanitarian catastrophe\".\n\nEgypt, and others, fear that extreme military pressure on approaching two million civilians in the south could mean thousands of desperate people forcing their way over the border into the Sinai Desert. A new Palestinian refugee crisis would be another dangerous and desperate moment for the Middle East.\n\nLet us assume that Israel has promised the US that Palestinian civilians will be told to move to specific areas where they will be safe. In a high-intensity war of the kind that Israel has been waging, with tanks, air strikes and heavy artillery, it is far easier to see how that plan might go wrong, rather than how it might succeed.\n\nPalestinians travel toward safer areas to avoid air strikes in Rafah\n\nIf Israel shifts to lighter counter-insurgency tactics, with troops moving without a blanket of heavy protection, it will most likely suffer many more battle casualties than it has so far.\n\nIsrael's next moves are also a significant moment for Joe Biden, who is facing strident criticism of his support for Israel from the progressive wing of his own Democratic party.\n\nBiden's chief diplomat, Antony Blinken, has spoken clearly, in public, about the way the US wants Israel to fight Hamas. If Israel kills anything like as many Palestinian civilians as it did in the north, in defiance of the stated will of Joe Biden, the US president will have to decide whether he can continue to give Israel so much support, not just on the battlefield but also in the United Nations Security Council, where the US has used its veto many times to protect Israel.\n\nHamas is not beaten. Its remaining hostages give it a powerful lever that it can use to disrupt Israel's military campaign, and to inflict more psychological pressure on the home front. The Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his men will also try to exploit opportunities that open up if and when Israel's generals follow American instructions to use less firepower.\n\nThis war is in a new phase. So is the whole region. Many Palestinians and Israelis, including those far from the battles in Gaza, seem beaten down by the weight of a dangerous and uncertain future.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Cold weather continues to grip the UK with warnings for ice and snow\n\nA fresh yellow weather warning for snow and ice has been issued by the Met Office for large parts of the UK.\n\nForecasters say the latest alert covers much of the Midlands, Yorkshire and north and central Wales, with roads and railways \"likely to be affected\" by the conditions.\n\nPolice have declared a \"major incident\" in Cumbria after heavy snowfalls.\n\nThey say people should \"only travel where necessary\", especially in the South Lakes and Millom area.\n\nCumbria Police said the M6 southbound between J38 and J37 was blocked due to jack-knifed lorries and that the A595 between Millom and Furness was impassable.\n\nNational Highways said it was also dealing with a large number of stranded vehicles on Saturday evening, particularly on the M6 between J38 and J40.\n\nPolice say they are aware of multiple reports of vehicles stuck in traffic because of snow.\n\nSuperintendent Andy Wilkinson said: \"We are working at pace, to help clear roads so those currently affected can get moving.\"\n\nBBC Weather forecaster Stav Danaos said temperatures could drop as low as -11C overnight in northern Scotland.\n\n\"We will start with a wintry mix in eastern England and south-east Scotland first thing on Sunday, which will be replaced with outbreaks of cloud and slightly less cold weather - although it's still going to be chilly,\" he said.\n\nMr Danaos added \"wetter and windier weather\" is predicted to sweep across the UK by Monday.\n\nThe forecast follows heavy snow overnight forcing Glasgow Airport to ground all flights for several hours on Saturday morning.\n\nDespite crews \"working through the night\" airport bosses had to suspend arrivals and departures due to \"heavier than forecast snow\".\n\nGlasgow Airport said flights resumed mid-morning on Saturday, but disruption is still expected and passengers are urged to check with their airline.\n\nA yellow weather warning for ice has been issued from midnight until 0800 on Sunday for London, the east of England, the West Midlands and parts of south Wales.\n\nThe Met Office added that rain or sleet falling on frozen surfaces could cause people being injured from slipping and falling in icy conditions.\n\nTravel disruption is possible as well as a \"good chance\" that some rural communities could become cut off\" and be affected by power cuts.\n\nGlasgow's Winterfest in George Square looked extra festive after being dusted with snow overnight\n\nThe chilly weather hit sporting events across the UK.\n\nEleven football matches in the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) were postponed.\n\nThe FA Cup tie between Alfreton Town and Walsall was dramatically called off with just minutes to go before kick-off after checks were made on the frozen pitch as a BBC TV crew was set to film the second round tie.\n\nSports presenter Alex Scott (left) with fellow BBC commentators at Alfreton Town's frozen ground just before the game was postponed\n\nCrewe Alexandra's FA Cup tie against Bristol Rovers was also called off, while Saturday's high-profile racing fixture at Newcastle was abandoned due to snow on the track.\n\nBad weather forced the cancellation of Manchester United's team flight to Newcastle ahead of their Saturday evening game so they made the journey by coach.\n\nThe latest Met Office yellow weather warning will run into Sunday.\n\nSeparately, an amber cold-health alert issued by the UK Health Security Agency remains in place for five regions in England.\n\nAn early morning frost in Cardington, Shropshire as temperatures fell to -4°C on Saturday\n\nCold weather is likely to affect the whole health service, with the potential for the entire population to be at risk, the agency's alert says.\n\nThe alert is in place for the East Midlands, West Midlands, North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber until 5 December.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHeavy snow has also been causing disruption across Europe this weekend.\n\nGermany, Austria and the Czech Republic have been hit by train and flight cancellations, with the German weather service predicting that 30-40cm of snow could fall by Saturday evening.\n\nHas your area been affected by the adverse weather? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFind out the weather forecast for your area, with an hourly breakdown and a 14-day lookahead, by downloading the BBC Weather app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nThe BBC Weather app is only available to download in the UK.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Heath Secretary Victoria Atkins says avoiding a winter NHS crisis is her number one priority\n\nRishi Sunak may miss his target to cut NHS waiting lists if doctors go ahead with their plans to strike, the new health secretary has warned.\n\nVictoria Atkins said strikes by doctors and nurses had led to \"1.1 million appointments having to be rescheduled\".\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, she said avoiding a crisis was her \"number one priority this winter\".\n\nThe NHS could face extra pressure this winter, due to record waiting lists and warnings over fewer extra beds.\n\nMs Atkins told BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg the government's target to cut NHS waiting lists was one of the prime minister's Rtop priorities.\n\nBut she warned it may not be met, unless doctors dropped plans to take industrial action over the coming months.\n\n\"We are very much looking to meet those targets [to cut waiting lists], but I need the consultants to pass this settlement that we've put forward [and] I hope very much that doctors in training will be able to reach a settlement with us as well,\" Ms Atkins said.\n\nWhen asked whether Mr Sunak's promise could be still achieved even if strikes went ahead, Ms Atkins said \"we are doing everything we can\".\n\n\"Again, I would very much ask consultants to look at the settlement because actually it's a very modern contract which I hope they'll find acceptable,\" she said.\n\nHave you been waiting a long time for an operation on the NHS? Get in touch.\n\nThe waiting list for planned NHS treatment in England rose to a record high of 7.77 million in September.\n\nMs Atkins, appointed to the role at the recent reshuffle, went on to say that planning for winter \"started much earlier than usual\" as an extra 5,000 beds have been created.\n\nShe said: \"The NHS has been working very hard to prepare for this winter.\"\n\nResearch by the Health Foundation think tank suggested industrial action by consultants and junior doctors had lengthened the waiting list by around 210,000, which is 3% of the list.\n\nIt comes as consultant doctors in NHS England are considering a deal that could potentially resolve the bitter pay dispute.\n\nMs Atkins has struck a more conciliatory tone and suggested there could be progress in talks over non-pay issues like rotas and conditions.\n\nHer predecessor Stephen Barclay previously described the doctor's union as taking a \"militant\" stance.\n\nRoyal College of Nursing Chief Nurse Professor Nicola Ranger said: \"Cold months bring particular challenges, but nursing staff are working in dire situations year-round.\"\n\nShe said staff \"cannot deliver the care they want for their patients. They are battling against record waiting lists, longer waits for ambulances, and staff shortages on every shift.\"\n\nLib Dem treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said the UK was \"flying blind into another winter crisis and Atkins would not even deny it\".\n\n\"This Conservative government has already broken its promise on recruiting new GPs, now it looks likely that the promise to cut waiting lists will also be broken,\" she said.\n\nShadow business secretary James Reynolds accused the government of planning \"real terms cuts in the next parliament\" for the NHS, as part of the recent Autumn Statement.\n\nLabour has promised a major workforce expansion to help cut waiting lists and improve care if it wins the next general election.\n\nMr Reynolds said the health service also needs to be modernised as \"one in five [NHS] trusts are still using the same diagnostic equipment, the same scanners, as they had put in in the last Labour government\".", "Last updated on .From the section European Championship\n\nUefa says it is investigating after sex noises were transmitted during the broadcast of the Euro 2024 draw on Saturday.\n\nLewd noises could be heard as Switzerland were drawn in Group A with Scotland, Hungary and hosts Germany.\n\nA similar incident occurred on the BBC in the build-up to January's FA Cup tie between Liverpool and Wolves.\n\nYouTube prankster Daniel Jarvis claimed responsibility for both that and the latest prank.\n\nJarvis broadcast himself live on X, formerly Twitter, ringing a mobile phone at intervals to trigger the noises as the Euros draw, which was streamed on the BBC, took place in Hamburg, Germany.\n\nHe told viewers: \"Listen that was us, that was us. We got it in there, we put the phone in there, we rung it, sex noise at the Euro 2024 draw.\"\n\nHost Giorgio Marchetti, the deputy general secretary of European football's governing body, attempted to take control of the situation, saying: \"There is some noise here that... has now stopped. No noise anymore.\"\n\nWhen asked about the incident, England manager Gareth Southgate said he could vaguely hear the noises while sat in the audience.\n\n\"I'm assuming it was some sort of a prank, but it was hard to really make out what it was,\" he said.\n\nDuring the FA Cup coverage, presenter Gary Lineker and pundits Paul Ince and Danny Murphy were startled when similar noises were heard during a broadcast from Molineux Stadium.\n\nA studio hunt uncovered a planted mobile phone and the BBC apologised to any viewers who were offended.\n\nLineker later posted on X he thought it was a \"good prank\" and added: \"As sabotage goes it was quite amusing.\"\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Amiram Cooper, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Tsachi Idan are being held in Gaza\n\nIsrael says 132 people remain unaccounted for after they were abducted and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attacks by Hamas.\n\nAn estimated 240 people were taken prisoner, but 105 were later released by Hamas during a six-day ceasefire at the end of November.\n\nThe Israeli military said it mistakenly killed three hostages in northern Gaza who had escaped from their captors and expressed \"deep remorse\" over the incident.\n\nOf the 132 still unaccounted for, Israel says that 20 of them are believed to be dead.\n\nThese are the stories of those hostages who are still being held, which have either been confirmed by the BBC or credibly reported.\n\nThis list is regularly updated and names may change, as some people feared kidnapped are confirmed to have been killed or released.\n\nLast updated on 19 December 2023 at 10:33 GMT\n\nYagev Kirsht, 34, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nirim, alongside his wife, Rimon Buchstab Kirsht. She has now been released.\n\nAlexander Trupanov, was taken hostage with his mother Lena Trupanov, 50, his partner Sapir Cohen, 29, and his grandmother Irina Tati, 73. All were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz as they spent the Sabbath together, according to a statement by Canada's Raoul Wallenburg Center for Human Rights. Irina and Lena were released on Wednesday 29 November and Sapir was freed the next day.\n\nAriel Cunio, his girlfriend Arbel Yahud and her brother Dolev are also thought to have been abducted in the same attack on Nir Oz. Eitan Cunio, Ariel's brother who escaped Hamas, told the Jewish Chronicle that his last message from Ariel said: \"We are in a horror movie.\"\n\nDavid Cunio, 33, another of Ariel's brothers, was also kidnapped from Nir Oz, family say. David's wife Sharon Aloni Cunio and their three-year-old twin daughters Ema and Yuly were released on 27 November. Sharon's sister Daniele Aloni, and her six-year-old daughter Emilia were both released on 24 November.\n\nDoron Steinbrecher, 30, a veterinary nurse, was in her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas attacked, the Times of Israel reported. At 10:30 on 7 October, the newspaper said, she sent a voice message to friends: \"They've arrived, they have me.\"\n\nItzhak Gelerenter, 53, was taken from the Supernova festival. His family said the IDF found his phone was located in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported. His daughter Pivko told the paper: \"I'm trying to think good thoughts, I have a powerful, smart, resourceful father.\"\n\nDoron Steinbrecher sent a voice message to friends during Hamas' attack\n\nNaama Levy, 19, was filmed being bundled into a jeep, her hands tied behind her back. The footage was released by Hamas and circulated widely on social media. According to her mother, the teenager had just begun her military service.\n\nYousef Zyadna, a 53-year-old Bedouin dairy farmer, was abducted from Kibbutz Holit and taken to Gaza along with his sons Hamza, 22, and Bilal, 18, and his daughter, Aisha, 16. Aisha and Bilal were released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nElad Katzir, 47, was abducted from Nir Oz with his mother Hanna. Hanna has now been released.\n\nOhad Ben Ami, 55, was kidnapped from Be'eri with his wife, Raz. She was released by Hamas on 29 November.\n\nTwin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, 26, were taken from Kfar Aza. Ziv was messaging a friend as the attack happened. Their family said the IDF has told them the brothers are being held in Gaza. Their brother Liran told CBN news the pair had \"twin power\" and were the centre of attention wherever they went.\n\nIraq-born Shlomo Mansour, 85, was taken captive from Kibbutz Kissufim, where he lived and worked as a chicken coop manager. His wife, Mazal, managed to escape.\n\nMichel Nisenbaum, 59, is a dual Brazilian-Israeli citizen who has lived in Israel for 45 years and works as a computer technician, his family told Brazilian media. They also say he is diabetic and has Crohn's disease. On 7 October, they say, someone claiming to be from Hamas answered his phone when they tried to call him.\n\nDaniela Gilboa, 19, sent messages saying that Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where she was staying, was under attack and asked her mother to pray for her. Her boyfriend, Roy Dadon, told the Economist 1843 magazine that he believes he saw a glimpse of her in a video showing three girls being driven away in the back of an SUV.\n\nItay Chen, 19, a dual US-Israeli citizen and IDF solider, was on active duty with a tank unit on 7 October, according to the Times of Israel. The paper reported that his family was notified by the IDF that he is officially considered missing in action and probably being held hostage. Another soldier in his unit, Matan Angrest, 21, is also presumed to be in Gaza.\n\nYosi Sharabi, 51, was taken from Be'eri with his brother, Eli Sharabi, 55. Eli's wife and two daughters were murdered in the attack. Ofir Engel, the boyfriend of Yosi's daughter, Yuval, was also taken, but released on 29 November.\n\nAgam Berger, 19, was kidnapped from Nahal Oz. She was seen being taken away in videos released by Hamas.\n\nEdan Alexander, 19, is an Israeli-US citizen who volunteered to join the Israeli army. He was serving near the Gaza border at the time of Hamas's attack. Edan's family said they had been told by Israeli officials that he had been taken to Gaza as a hostage.\n\nKaid Farhan Elkadi, 53, lives with his family south of Rahat and worked as a security guard, according to Israeli media. Reports said his family believes he was kidnapped and taken to Gaza, based on images shared by Hamas.\n\nIlana Gritzewsky and Matan Zanguaker were captured near the Gaza border, family say\n\nMatan Zanguaker, 24, was taken with his partner Ilana Gritzewsky, 30, from Nir Oz, according to Ilana's father. Ilana, a Mexican national, was released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nThe family of Eitan and Yair Horn believe they were taken from Nir Oz kibbutz\n\nEitan Horn, 37, and his brother Yair, 45, both Argentinian citizens, were also in Nir Oz at the time of the attack. Their father Itzik said he believes they were kidnapped. Yair is a construction worker while Eitan works in education.\n\nItai Svirsky, 38, is thought to have been abducted when his elderly parents were killed in Be'eri. He had been visiting them for the holiday of Simhat Torah.\n\nKeith Seigel, 64, and his wife Adrienne - often known as Aviva - Seigel, 62, were taken from their home in Kfar Aza, Keith's brother Lee Seigel told the BBC. Adrienne was released on 26 November.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, lived in Nahal Oz with his wife and two daughters. Omri was led away by Hamas with his hands tied, his wife Lishay told the Guardian newspaper. She told him not to be a hero, urging: \"Do whatever they want because I want you back.\"\n\nBipin Joshi, 23, a Nepalese student, is believed to have been taken from Kibbutz Alumim. Nepalese newspaper Setopati says he was one of 49 university students studying agriculture in Israel. It says 10 students were killed in the attack.\n\nIlan Weiss, 58, went missing from Kibbutz Be'eri after he was last seen leaving the house to defend the community. On 25 November, his wife Shiri Weiss, 53, and their daughter, Noga, 18, were freed from captivity in a hostage deal.\n\nAmiram Cooper, 85, and his wife Nurit, 80, were taken from their home in Nir Oz, their daughter-in-law Noa told the BBC. The family last spoke to the couple during the Hamas attack, Noa said, when the couple were in their safe room. The family later traced Amiram's phone to Gaza. On Monday 23 October, Nurit was one of two women to be released.\n\nAmiram and Nurit Cooper, pictured with their granddaughter, Gali\n\nOded Lifshitz, 83, and his wife Yocheved, 85 were taken hostage from Nir Oz. On Monday 23 October, Yocheved was one of two elderly women to be freed. After hearing the news of her mother's release, their daughter Sharone - a London-based artist - said: \"While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those - some 200 innocent people - who remain hostages in Gaza.\"\n\nHaim Peri, 79, was taken from his home in Nir Oz, reports the Times of Israel, and freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz said she saw that he was alive and well. His son Lior Peri told Talk TV that Haim had locked his wife inside the safe room before giving himself up to kidnappers.\n\nAvraham Munder, 78, was kidnapped from Nir Oz, Israeli officials say. His wife Ruthi, daughter and grandson have since been released.\n\nOmer Neutra, a 22-year-old Israeli-American and grandson of Holocaust survivors, put off plans to go to college in the US to study in Israel, and eventually joined the IDF. He was serving as a tank commander near Gaza when Hamas attacked. Omer's parents say they were told by the Israeli embassy that he had been kidnapped.\n\nRon Benjamin's vehicle was found empty following the attacks\n\nRon Benjamin, 53, had been taking part in a group cycle ride near the Gaza border when the Hamas attack began and he decided to drive home, his family told Israeli media. Days later, his vehicle was found empty and his family believe he was kidnapped.\n\nLouis Har, 70, is believed to have been taken from Nir Yitzhak. His partner Clara Marman was released on 28 November along with her sister Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and Gabriela's daughter Mia Leimberg,17. Clara and Gabriela's brother Fernando Simon Marman, 60, also remains in captivity.\n\nJudith Weinstein Haggai, 70, and her husband, Gad Haggai, 73, also went missing from Nir Oz after the Hamas attack. Ten days later, the Israeli military confirmed to the family they had been taken hostage, CTV News in Canada reported.\n\nAlex Danzig, 75, a scholar and historian of the Holocaust, was at his home in Nir Oz, when it was attacked by Hamas. \"We know for sure he was kidnapped,\" his son Mati told the BBC. Alex - whose older sister Edith is a Holocaust survivor - has spent the last 30 years working for Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance centre. His disappearance has triggered a campaign for his release, both in Israel and in Poland, the country of his birth.\n\nAlex Danzig has spent decades educating people about the Holocaust\n\nItzhk Elgarat, 68, was kidnapped at the same time as Alex Danzig, his brother Danny Elgert told Israel's Kan 11 TV station, adding that he had tracked his brother's phone to the border with Gaza.\n\nGadi Moses, 79, was also abducted during the same attack on Nir Oz, according to relatives and the Israeli aid agency where he worked as an agricultural expert. Efrat Katz, his partner, was initially thought to have been captured as well, but she was later found dead, the Times of Israel reported. Efrat was the mother of Doron Asher, who was taken hostage and later released with her two daughters. Ravid Katz, 51, Doron Asher's brother, was originally thought to have been taken hostage from Nir Oz, but on 28 November his family confirmed that he had been killed on 7 October.\n\nYair Yaakov, 59, is listed among the hostages. His partner Meirav Tal, 53, was released on 28 November. Yair's children Yagil, 13, and Or, 16, were released on 27 November.\n\nYair Yaakov was pictured being held captive by a gunman in a video shared online\n\nNimrod Cohen, 19, had studied software engineering in high school, according to reports. After he was kidnapped, his father was invited to meet Pope Francis in Rome along with other hostages' families.\n\nTsachi Idan, 51, was last seen by his wife, Gali, as he was taken away by Hamas gunmen. Their family had been ambushed in their safe room in Nahal Oz. Their ordeal was live-streamed by Hamas. Their eldest child, Maayan - who had just turned 18 - was shot dead, Gali told the BBC.\n\nTsachi Idan was ambushed with his wife and children and then led away\n\nYarden Bibas, 34, was abducted from Nir Oz. His wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel and Kfir, were also taken hostage, but on 29 November, Hamas claimed they had been killed in an Israeli air strike while in captivity. The Israeli government has said it is checking the claim.\n\nRonen Engel, 54, was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his wife, Karina Engelbert, 51, and their two daughters, Mika, 18 and Yuval, 11. On 1 December, the organisation representing the families said he had been murdered. Karina, Mika and Yuval were released on 27 November.\n\nKarina Ariev, a 19-year-old soldier, was serving at an army base near Gaza when she was kidnapped. Her sister Alexandra told the BBC she heard shooting as Karina called her during the attack, and later saw a video showing Karina being taken away in a vehicle.\n\nKarina Ariev was at the Nahal Oz military base, which was among the first to be attacked\n\nOfer Kalderon, 53, was taken by Hamas from Nir Oz. On 27 November his two children, Erez, 12, and Sahar, 16, were released. Two other relatives, 80-year-old Carmela Dan and her granddaughter, Noya, 12, were also believed to have been taken, but Israeli authorities later announced they had been found dead.\n\nYoram Metzger, 80, was a resident of Nir Oz. He has diabetes and broke his hip six months ago, his daughter-in-law said. Yoram's wife Tamar was released on 28 November.\n\nNadav Popplewell, 51, and his mother Channah were taken hostage by Hamas, said Channah's daughter Ayelet Svatitzky, who was speaking to them on the phone when the gunmen burst in. She said the captors sent pictures of her two relatives, who both have diabetes, with armed men in the background. Channah has now been released.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, was abducted after his family opened the door to their secure shelter to an Israeli child, who said he would be killed otherwise. Omri's wife, Lishay Lavi, said she saw him being taken away in handcuffs with three other hostages from Nahal Oz.\n\nLiri Elbag, 18, had just started military training as an Army lookout near the Gaza border when Hamas attacked, her father Eli told the Associated Press. Eli said he saw her in a video circulated later by Hamas, crowded with others on the back of a military truck which had been seized by the gunmen.\n\nLior Rudaeff, 61, was taken from Nir Yitzhak during the attack. His family have heard nothing from him since then.\n\nA number of people are believed to have been abducted from the Supernova music festival in southern Israel. Among them:\n\nShlomi Ziv, 40, was part of the security detail at the festival and was initially in contact with his sisters as the attack unfolded, according to an interview with The Times of Israel. A few weeks later the family learned he was officially considered to be a hostage, the report says.\n\nAlexander Lobanov, 32, is a Russian-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped at the festival.\n\nOri Danino, 25, is reported to have got away from the festival in his car, but it's believed he was captured after turning back in an attempt to save some people he had met there.\n\nAlmog Sarusi, 26, was kidnapped from the music festival and his partner Shahar Gindi was killed, according to Israeli media. Almog's father, Yigal, was among the relatives of hostages who met with Israel's prime minister in October.\n\nOmer Shem Tov, 21, called his parents as he was running away from gunfire and managed to get into a friend's car. His parents, Shelly and Malki Shem Tov, told Israeli media they lost contact with their son and the live location on his phone showed he was beyond the border in Gaza.\n\nIdan Shtivi, 28, an environmental sciences student, was attending the festival to take pictures at music and yoga workshops being held by friends. He escaped the site in his car but was attacked by Hamas along the route. The bodies of two of his passengers were found, and his family told the Jerusalem Post they suspect he was kidnapped.\n\nYosef Ohana, 24, had been at the festival with a friend, who told his mother he and Yosef had remained to help people escape the gunfire before running themselves. Yosef was last seen hiding under a car, and Israeli authorities have visited his mother to say he was kidnapped.\n\nAndrei Kozlov, 27, a Russian who moved to Israel in 2022, is missing from the Supernova festival, where he was working as a security guard. His mother told the De Taly publication the family was told by the IDF on October 26 that he was being held hostage.\n\nElyakim Libman, 23, was working as a security guard at the festival. In a Facebook post his father Eliyahu Libman said another guard told him his son had helped rescue others before trying to escape. He was last seen trying to help two badly-injured women.\n\nNoa Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was also kidnapped from the festival. Video footage - verified by her father Yaakov Argamani to Israel's Channel 12 - shows the 25-year-old being taken away on the back of a motorbike screaming, \"Don't kill me!\" Her boyfriend Avinatan Or, 30, also appears in the video being marched away from her by Hamas, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nEden Yerushalmi's family say they were told she had been taken hostage\n\nEden Yerushalmi, 24, called her family during Hamas's attack on the festival, her sister May told CBS News. The family say they were subsequently informed by the IDF that Eden had been abducted.\n\nChanan Yablonka, 42, is a father-of-two from Tel Aviv. According to reports, he attended the festival with friends and was due to celebrate his birthday a few days after the attacks.\n\nJonathan Samerano, 21, has been missing since 7am on the morning of the festival. His family have been told to presume he is being held in Gaza, Israeli media reported.\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal was filmed in captivity in Gaza, his family say\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal, 22, attended the festival with his brother. Guy appears in a hostage video that his family say confirms he is in Gaza.\n\nUriel Baruch, 35, was injured during the attack on the festival, his wife said on Facebook. Reports in Israeli media say his mother, Naomi, has heard from the IDF that he is a hostage.\n\nMaxim Kharkin's mother described speaking to him on the morning of 7 October\n\nMaxim Kharkin is aged 35 and a Russian speaker, his mother told Russian media. She added that he had called her at 07:00 on the morning of the attack.\n\nElkana Bohbot was seen in a video posted by Hamas\n\nElkana Bohbot, 34, had gone to the party with friends and, before losing contact, he spoke to his wife and mother telling them he was helping to evacuate the wounded, the Times of Israel reported. Hours later, his family found a video of him posted online by Hamas, which has been seen by BBC Verify.\n\nRom Braslavski, 19, was working on security for the festival. According to an account published by Hostages and Missing Families Forum, he was trying to rescue an injured person in the attack when he was caught in a volley of fire. He has not been heard from since.\n\nOmer Wenkert, 22, a restaurant manager, sent a message to his family to say he was going to a safe shelter but then lost contact, his father Shai Wenkert told the BBC's Today Programme. Shai Wenkert said he had seen footage of his son in captivity, including a photo of him handcuffed and wearing only underwear.\n\nEvyatar David's family say they were sent a video of him in captivity\n\nEvyatar David, 23, was at the festival and on the morning of the attacks, described fleeing from gunfire before losing contact with the outside world, his brother says. Later, his family say, Evyatar's sister posted on Instagram appealing for information about his whereabouts. She then received a text from an unknown number, which contained video footage of Evyatar handcuffed on the floor of a dark room. According to Israel's foreign ministry he is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nEitan Mor, 23, lives in Jerusalem, and was working as a security guard at the festival, the Times of Israel said. He reportedly texted his uncle after Hamas arrived and was last seen with a friend bringing others to safety.\n\nAlon Ohel, 22, a Serbian citizen, took refuge in a shelter after the festival came under attack, his family say. They have seen footage of him being dragged away after a grenade attack.\n\nAlmog Meir Jan, 21, tried to flee the festival. He and a friend made it to the friend's car but only managed to drive a short distance before being forced to stop. Almog's family say they have seen a hostage video in which he appears.\n\nInbar Heiman, a student aged 21, was seen by two young Israeli men being taken away from the festival on a motorcycle. Hamas have released a video in which she is seen very briefly.\n\nHersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a dual US-Israeli citizen, was badly injured in the attack, his family told the BBC. Eyewitness accounts say he was seen being forced onto a white pick-up truck - the last-known signal from his phone came from just inside Gaza.\n\nSegev Kalfon, 26, was running away from the festival, across the highway, when he was captured by Hamas, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.\n\nOrión Hernández Radoux, 30, from Mexico, attended the festival with his girlfriend, Shani Louk. He has not been seen since. The Sun newspaper says it has seen threatening messages written in Arabic sent from his phone. Shani, a tourist from Germany, was initially thought to be among those seized. But on 30 October, her mother Ricarda told German media that the family had been informed by Israeli military of her death following DNA identification.\n\nRomi Lesham Gonen, 23, was on the phone to her mother as she tried to escape from the Supernova festival. Merav Leshem Gonan has recounted a conversation in which her daughter begged for help after being shot. ABC News reports that Romi's phone is now in Gaza.\n\nBar Kuperstein, 21, last spoke to his family early on the morning of 7 October, as the attack unfolded. Later the same day, his family say they identified him in a video of Israeli prisoners, posted by Hamas. Since then, they say they have had no further information.\n\nEliya Cohen, 26, was hiding with his girlfriend Ziv from the attack, when Ziv felt him being pulled up and driven away by the gunmen, Eliya's mother has told the video initiative #BringThemHomeNow. The family then found a photo of Eliya in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nAmit Buskila, 28, from Ashdod, was last heard of making a call to her uncle, Shimon, as Hamas overran the festival. Her family say they have now been told by the government that she is being held in Gaza.\n\nCarmel Gat, 39, is Jordan's sister-in-law, and also was seen by her father being taken by gunmen from Kibbutz Be'eri, Haaretz newspaper reported. She has not been heard from since.\n\nOhad Yahalomi, 49, was abducted from Nir Oz, along with his 12-year-old son, Eitan, who was released during the November ceasefire.\n\nDror Or, 48, was seen by a neighbour being dragged out of his home in Be'eri, according to their nephew Emmanuel Besorai, along with his son and daughter. On Saturday 25 November Dror's son Noam, 17, and daughter Alma, 13, were released from captivity. The body of Yonat, 50 - Dror's wife and the children's mother - was identified among the 120 people murdered at the kibbutz, Yonat's brother told the Guardian newspaper.\n\nTal Shoham, 38, was taken from Kibbutz Be'eri. His wife Adi, also 38, her mother Dr Shoshan Haran, 67, were released by Hamas on 25 November, along with the couple's children Nave, eight, and Yahel, three. Dr Haran's husband, Avshalom - an economist and dual German/Israeli citizen - was killed on 7 October.\n\nTamir Adar, 38, who defended Nir Oz as part of the kibbutz's emergency squad, was taken to Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen, 35, an American-Israeli citizen, has been missing since Hamas's attack on Nir Oz, his father Jonathan told the BBC. He said his son was not found among the dead and the \"only reasonable explanation\" is that he was taken to Gaza.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen's father has not heard from him since Hamas attacked the kibbutz where he lived\n\nThailand's ambassador to Israel says 26 of its citizens were taken hostage, 23 of whom have now been released.\n\nThose still being held are believed to include Watchara Sriuan, 32. His mother, Viewwaew, told the Thaiger news site that the family had been informed he was being held captive.\n\nKiattisak \"Top\" Patee and a Mr Pongtorn (no first name given) have also been named by the Thai foreign ministry as hostages.\n\nA number of other people thought to have been held hostage are now confirmed to have died, either during the 7 October attack or while in captivity.\n\nAs well as Ron Scherman and Nik Beizer, four bodies were identified this week. They were Tal Chaimi, an Israeli-Romanian citizen aged 41, and Joshua Mollel, a 19-year-old Tanzanian student. Also, 27-year-old Eden Zecharya, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, and 36-year-old Ziv Dado, who had already been declared dead by the Israeli military.\n\nOthers known to have died include Dror Kaplun, 68, Aviv Atzili, 49, Arye Zalmanovich, 85, Ronen Engel, 54, Maya Goren, 56, Guy Iluz, 26, Ofir Tzarfati, 27, Ofra Keider, 70, and Eliyahu Margalit, 75.\n\nThe bodies of 19-year-old soldier, Noa Marciano, and 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss were found by Israeli troops in buildings close to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.\n\nOn Saturday 9 December Kibbutz Bari announced that Sahar Baruch, 25, had been killed in Gaza.\n\nOther hostages whose death has been reported, but not confirmed include Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir.\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? If it is safe to do so, please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! hosts Ant and Dec have suggested the ITV show takes a break from putting politicians in the jungle.\n\nAsked on Instagram whether Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was a potential future campmate, Dec said: \"I think we do a year without any politicians.\"\n\n\"Agreed, agreed, agreed,\" Ant responded, according to the Daily Mail.\n\nFormer MEP Nigel Farage is on this year's show, while ex-health secretary Matt Hancock appeared last year.\n\nAsked about the comments from the presenting duo, ITV declined to comment.\n\nThe pair - real names Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly - made the comments during an Instagram livestream with fans on Saturday, the Mail reported.\n\nFarage is the latest political figure to star on the show, following in the footsteps of Hancock last year.\n\nBoth have brushed with controversy by appearing in the jungle.\n\nNigel Farage, who is earning £1.5m for taking part, entered the jungle claiming he is \"a hero\" to some people and \"an absolute villain\" to millions of others.\n\n\"In the jungle you're going to find the real me,\" the former Ukip and Brexit Party leader promised viewers.\n\nHis fellow campmates have taken the opportunity to question his political beliefs on multiple occasions.\n\nNella Rose questioned Nigel Farage on his attitudes towards immigration\n\nEarly on in the series, YouTube star and influencer Nella Rose accused him of being anti-immigration, adding that the former politician wanted people like her \"gone\" from the UK.\n\n\"Anti-immigrant, right? No, no, all I've said is we cannot go on with the numbers coming to Britain that are coming,\" Farage responded.\n\nHe was also criticised by another contestant, First Dates star Fred Sirieix, about a poster he used in his campaign for the UK to leave the European Union during the 2016 referendum.\n\nSirieix said Farage was \"demonising migrants\" and that it was \"shameful\".\n\nFarage replied: \"In your view it was, but it wasn't.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Hancock's appearance on I'm a Celeb last year caused a public outcry.\n\nHe was suspended as a Conservative MP as party managers disagreed with his decision to take part in a reality TV show while Parliament was sitting.\n\nHancock - who came third in the show and made it to the jungle final - defended his decision to leave his constituents behind, saying he wanted to raise awareness of dyslexia and show that politicians are human beings.\n\nHe was paid £320,000 for taking part, according to the register of MPs' financial interests.\n\nOther political figures who've had stints in the jungle include Robert Kilroy-Silk in 2008, Nadine Dorries in 2012, Edwina Currie in 2014, and Kezia Dugdale and Stanley Johnson in 2017.\n\nThis year's series has so far attracted a lower audience than last year's.\n\nLast year's launch was more than 12 million, based on seven-day figures. The comparable figure for this year is more than 10 million on seven-day figures.\n\nBBC News has contacted Ant & Dec and Nigel Farage's spokesperson for comment.", "Shea Ryan, 10, fell down a manhole on a construction site in Drumchapel, Glasgow\n\nA mother is suing a building firm over its failure to implement safety measures which led to the death of her 10-year-old son in Glasgow.\n\nShea Ryan entered a construction site in Drumchapel with his friends through an insecure fence in July 2020.\n\nHe told them he wanted to climb down a manhole but slipped on a ladder and fell about 6.3 metres (20ft).\n\nIn April contractor RJ McLeod admitted breaching health and safety laws and was fined £800,000.\n\nThe company, which said it \"fully accepted\" the ruling, was also told it would need to pay a victim surcharge of £60,000.\n\nSheriff Matthew Jackson KC said the punishment wouldn't \"replace the terrible loss of Shea's life.\"\n\nHe told Glasgow Sheriff Court the headline figure for a fine was £1.5m but added that this was reduced due to mitigating factors, including the timing of the company's plea.\n\nSheriff Jackson said: \"Nothing this court can do can bring Shea back who was a wonderful, son and friend as well as a loss to his family, school and all of us.\"\n\nThe court heard the building site was close to a playpark but it was only secured by a single fence which had been vandalised in the past and breached on six occasions.\n\nAfter the alarm was raised officers found the school boy lying on his back with his stepfather, Graham Patterson, and a neighbour beside him.\n\nHis cause of death was noted as \"head injury and drowning.\"\n\nFloral tributes were placed at the site\n\nIn a statement after the hearing Shea's mother Joanne Ferguson said she hoped lessons would be learned from the tragedy.\n\n\"My son is not here and that destroys me every day,\" she said.\n\n\"That totally avoidable accident has ruined my life and my kids' lives - I don't even feel human anymore at times because of the grief.\n\n\"I just hope this makes them consider site safety everywhere - not just for RJ McLeod but for companies everywhere because the safety of these places is so important.\"\n\nFollowing the case RJ McLeod said it \"extended condolences\" to Shea's family.\n\nA spokesperson added: \"We have carried out a comprehensive review of the event and have taken action to protect against the risk of a re-occurrence.\n\n\"We fully co-operated and engaged with the investigating authorities.\n\n\"Safety is always our top priority and site safety updates are implemented across the business on an ongoing basis.\"\n\nMs Ferguson's civil case against RJ McLeod will be handled by law firm Digby Brown.\n\nA fatal accident inquiry into Shea's death will take place at a later date.", "The late Shane MacGowan and the late Kirsty MacColl performing in 1988\n\nThe Pogues are battling for number one along with Wham! and Mariah Carey after the death of frontman Shane MacGowan, the Official Charts Company says.\n\nTheir gritty festive track Fairytale of New York has never reached the top spot since its release in 1987.\n\nLast Christmas by Wham! is currently on track to take the top spot next Friday.\n\nCarey's All I Want for Christmas is You has climbed from sixth to second. But The Pogues' rise to third spot puts them in the running for Christmas.\n\nThe rise of 15 places in seven days puts them in contention for the coveted festive number one spot to be announced on 22 December.\n\nFairytale of New York peaked at number two when it was released after being beaten to the Christmas number one slot by the Pet Shop Boys' Always on My Mind.\n\nAfter MacGowan's death, aged 65, on Thursday, his wife Victoria Mary Clarke told the BBC she would love to see the song at the top of the charts.\n\n\"It would be nice, wouldn't it?\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. \"It should be the Christmas number one, it absolutely should. I'm very much in favour of that.\"\n\nFairytale of New York was written by MacGowan with fellow Pogues founder Jem Finer and was later re-recorded to have the late Kirsty MacColl duet with MacGowan, which led to the best-known version of the track.\n\nIt has returned to the top 40 every year since 2005.", "Police said Market Place was likely to remain closed \"for some time\"\n\nA man has died after a van struck a group of people in a town centre, police have said.\n\nDerbyshire Police said officers were called to Market Place, Ilkeston, at about 02:10 GMT on Saturday.\n\nThe force said one person suffered serious injuries and died at the scene, while two other people were taken to hospital.\n\nIt added that a man, thought to be the driver of the van, had been arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nHe is being held in custody while investigations continue.\n\nA police representative said officers did not believe the incident was terror-related and were not seeking anyone else in connection with it.\n\nThe injuries suffered by the other two people were not thought to be serious, they said.\n\nAppealing for witnesses and dashcam footage, they said Market Place was likely to remain closed \"for some time\".\n\nThey added a van had been recovered in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, which they believed was involved in the incident.\n\nMarket Place had earlier been busy with Christmas revellers at the start of the weekend.\n\nFootage shared on social media showed a crowd of people gathered in the area after the emergency services were called.\n\nAn area between the King's Head and Sir John Warren pubs was then taped off by police as paramedics dealt with the casualties.\n\nPolice recovered a van in Stapleford, in Nottinghamshire, after the incident\n\nIn a post on social media, Erewash MP Maggie Throup said her \"thoughts and prayers\" were with \"those who have been affected\".\n\n\"This is a developing situation and I would urge against speculating online as to what has happened,\" she added.\n\nErewash Borough Council leader James Dawson said he was being briefed by police on what he described as a \"terrible incident\".\n\nHe confirmed the council had cancelled the Saturday market and said traders had been offered alternative stalls in Long Eaton.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA site in the Shetland Islands has become the UK's first spaceport for vertical rocket launches.\n\nSaxaVord Spaceport on the small island of Unst has been given approval from the Civil Aviation Authority to begin orbital launches in 2024.\n\nIt will be the first fully-licensed spaceport in Western Europe able to launch vertically into orbit.\n\nIt permits up to 30 launches a year, that will be used to take satellites and other payload into space.\n\nThe site, which is the first spaceport in Scotland, has a number of launch operators around the world currently developing rockets.\n\nIt is hoped that German rocket firm HyImpulse will attempt sub-orbital launches - flights that do not travel high enough to reach outer space - from August.\n\nFull orbital launches are expected to take place at SaxaVord from 2025.\n\nAnother German company, Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), is also planning orbital launches, followed by Lockheed Martin/ABL Space Systems with the official UK Government Pathfinder launch.\n\nEdinburgh-based Skyrora also aims to be the first UK company to launch from British soil in the coming years.\n\nThe SaxaVord Spaceport, a former RAF radar station, is co-owned by Frank and Debbie Strang.\n\nThey bought the site 15 years ago with initial plans to turn it into an eco-tourism attraction.\n\nMr Strang said the awarding of the licence was \"historic\".\n\nHe added: \"Our team is very proud that the government has entrusted us with operating a complex, multi-disciplinary and multi-launch spaceport, and we all take this responsibility very seriously.\n\n\"There is much to do still but this is a fantastic way to end the year and head into Christmas.\"\n\nThe space industry in the UK is estimated to be worth £17.5bn and supports about 48,800 jobs at 2,200 firms.\n\nCornwall Spaceport was the UK's first licensed spaceport, however its rockets are launched horizontally carried by an aircraft.\n\nA mock up of how launches will take place from the Shetland site\n\nTim Johnson, director of space regulation at the CAA, said: \"Granting SaxaVord their licence is an era-defining moment for the UK space sector.\n\n\"This marks the beginning of a new chapter for UK space as rockets may soon launch satellites into orbit from Scotland.\n\n\"We are undertaking vital work to make sure the UK's space activities are safe and sustainable for all.\"\n\nUK transport Secretary Mark Harper said the CAA's announcement would boost Shetland's economy and \"put the United Kingdom at the forefront of spaceflight innovation\".\n\nLast week, the UK Space Agency announced funding of more than £6.7m to further Scotland's spaceport ambitions.\n\nScotland currently has five proposed spaceports under development, with the Sutherland Spaceport also under construction with ambitions of launching 12 rockets into orbit per year.\n\nA further spaceport is planned on North Uist, with both Glasgow Prestwick and Spaceport Machrihanish hoping to join the space race and conduct horizontal orbital launches in the future.\n\nThe approval of SaxaVord Spaceport by regulators did not come as a huge surprise.\n\nFor months the mood music had been that the licence was imminent and work on the three launch pads was progressing at pace.\n\nStanding on top of Launch Pad Fredo earlier this year, co-director Frank Strang told me it was all about \"location, location, location\".\n\nUndeniably, that was a big part of the civil aviation authorities' decision to award the licence.\n\nFrom Unst, operators have a good trajectory to get their satellites into polar orbit.\n\nSatellites in polar orbit are used for various applications such as earth mapping, weather tracking, communications and security.\n\nBut the safety of people and environmental concerns are also key components of the licence agreement and being remote certainly helps in that respect.\n\nSo where does this leave other prospective spaceports in Scotland?\n\nSaxaVord has been able to move faster than others because it has been largely privately financed.\n\nOn the other hand, there is now a blueprint in terms of what regulators are looking for, from which others could potentially learn.\n\nScotland also has recognised expertise in terms of small satellite production with about 8,500 people already working in the space sector here.\n\nHaving a homegrown spaceport could further boost the industry.\n\nAnd worldwide there is no shortage of demand with companies like SpaceX looking to send thousands of satellites into space to create giant constellations with many others looking to follow.", "Catherine Bond (left) and Jane Pearce were blessed at St John the Baptist Church in Felixstowe after permission was granted by the House of Bishops\n\nA couple has become one of the first same-sex partnerships to receive a blessing at a Church of England service.\n\nPrayers for Catherine Bond and Jane Pearce were held at St John the Baptist Church in Felixstowe, Suffolk.\n\nBoth are associate priests in the parish and celebrated the \"love and friendship\" and \"commitment to one another\".\n\nBlessing same-sex couples was recently sanctioned by the House of Bishops.\n\nDuring the prayers, Canon Andrew Dotchin said the pair were continuing on a \"pilgrimage graced by your [God's] blessing, with you as their companion in the dark where they can rejoice and hope in sustaining their love for all the days of their lives\".\n\nCatherine Bond (left) and Jane Pearce toasting after their blessing at St John the Baptist church in Felixstowe, Suffolk\n\nThe General Synod, known as the Church of England's Parliament, of which Canon Dotchin is a member, voted in favour of offering blessings to same-sex couples in civil partnerships and marriages for the first time in February.\n\nThe vote followed a debate that took nearly eight hours and was spread across two days.\n\nOn Tuesday, the House of Bishops met online to confirm its earlier decision to commend the prayers for use in regular public worship such as Sunday Eucharist or Evensong, agreeing it should take effect this weekend.\n\nThe motion was passed by 24 votes to 11, with three abstentions.\n\nThere has been no legislative change in the Anglican Church and offering blessings is a voluntary decision for clergy.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n• None House of Bishops - The Church of England The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Michelle Handforth was in charge of Network Rail’s Wales and Western Region\n\nNetwork Rail's managing director for the Wales and Western region, Michelle Handforth, has resigned.\n\nIt came just days after infrastructure problems left hundreds of passengers stranded in carriages for hours in the dark in west London.\n\nMs Handforth was paid a £330,000 salary and commuted to work from Aberdeen.\n\nA rail insider said she had made the decision to resign before the west London incident, after recognising the challenges of the role.\n\nEarlier this month, passengers were stuck in cold and dark carriages for hours when overhead electric cables were damaged in Ladbroke Grove.\n\nElizabeth line, Great Western Railway and Heathrow Express trains were all affected, with some passengers trapped for more than three hours with no access to toilets.\n\nMultiple rail system faults and damaged rails had caused problems on Paddington services in the weeks before the incident.\n\nMs Handforth had been in the role for three-and-a-half years.\n\nBefore joining Network Rail, she was chief executive for the Port of Aberdeen.\n\nLast month, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) launched an investigation into poor train punctuality and reliability in the Wales and Western region.\n\nThe regulator said train services in the region had \"continued to deteriorate\", while performance over the rest of the network in Britain had stabilised.\n\nThe ORR added that it would consider whether Network Rail could be doing more to improve services and may decide on \"appropriate measures\", which could include enforcement action.\n\nReacting to Ms Handforth's departure, Maryam Eslamdoust, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) union, said one person resigning \"simply isn't enough\".\n\nShe urged Network Rail needed to invest properly \"in the maintenance of its infrastructure\", saying delays to repairs and maintenance caused cancellations and increased safety risks.\n\n\"Ultimately though, this all goes back to the government who set the budget that Network Rail have to work with,\" she said.\n\nThe TSSA says nearly 500 staff who work on replacing old rails and sleepers face losing their jobs under Network Rail plans to cut costs.\n\nBut the campaign group Railfuture, which represents passengers, said Ms Handforth's resignation was a welcome show of responsibility.\n\n\"We certainly support the notion there is accountability at the top of the rail industry,\" said the group's spokesman Bruce Williamson.\n\n\"And it's also important that the people who are recruited to run our railway are the people with the right set of skills to deliver the railway that we all want to see.\"", "A younger Alex Batty, pictured before he went missing.\n\nThe owners of a French farmhouse where British teenager Alex Batty stayed during his years missing abroad have spoken about his time living there.\n\nAlex left home in Oldham, Greater Manchester, with his mother and grandfather for a holiday in Spain in 2017, but then disappeared.\n\nNow 17, he returned to the UK on Saturday after walking alone for days in the French Pyrenees to find help.\n\nThe gite owners said Alex, who they knew as Zach, was \"part of our family\".\n\nHe is thought to have stayed there, on and off, over the last two years.\n\nFrench authorities have described Alex's relatives' lifestyle as nomadic, with the family travelling from Morocco to Spain and then on to France.\n\nThe Gite de la Bastide is one of a handful of stone houses that make up part of a small hamlet nestling in the foothills of the Pyrenees.\n\nPosting on their website on Sunday, the owners of the property, Frederic Hambye and Ingrid Beauve, said Alex did odd jobs in return for food and accommodation.\n\nThe couple said they would take him on outings throughout the summer, including cycling and trips to the beach and nearby river.\n\nWhile his mother did not live there, Alex \"left several times\" to join her, they said - adding that the last time he came back to the gite was early this summer.\n\nThe guesthouse in the Pyrenees where locals say Alex was living\n\nThey said he voiced a desire to \"return to a normal life\" so they helped him find a place at a school, but learned that he needed official identification which he did not possess.\n\nSoon afterwards, they said he told them of his intention to return to the UK to get the identity documents he needed to enrol in a local French school to study computer science.\n\nThe couple said when he left, he told them he was going to join his mother. They told him he \"would always be welcome\" and \"if needed, we were there to help him\", adding: \"We wish him the best of luck.\"\n\nGreater Manchester Police said they needed to fully establish the circumstances surrounding his disappearance before deciding whether to mount a criminal investigation.\n\nThey said their other priorities were to support Alex and his family, and to aid his integration back into society.\n\nThe whereabouts of Alex's mother is unknown, although French prosecutors said he told them she intended to take him to Finland - prompting his decision to return to the UK.\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "That's it from us for now, goodbye\n\nIt's just coming up to 18:00 here in London and 20:00 in Gaza and Israel so we are going to finish our live coverage now. We've been bringing you the updates from the conflict and if you want to read more you can follow the links below:\n• The UK, France and Germany joined calls for a ceasefire in the war\n• We've been keeping across updates from Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, whose family is trapped in a Catholic Church in Gaza City\n• Four shipping companies have halted their routes through the Red Sea after attacks on vessels by the Iran-backed Houthis rebels in Yemen\n• Civilians have been chasing aid trucks, hungry for food and desperate for supplies We realise this coverage often contains distressing content. If you have been affected by anything in this page, go to BBC Action Line. This live page has been brought to you by Andrew Humphrey, Tarik Habte and Gem O'Reilly in London and of course our colleagues in the Middle East. As for further coverage you can read more about the stories from the war here and keep up to date on BBC TV and radio. We will be back to bring you the latest from tomorrow morning.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Crocodile and wallaby captured as planes submerged in Australia floods\n\nMajor floods have inundated parts of northern Queensland - with the heavy rain thwarting attempts to evacuate a settlement hit by rising water.\n\nExtreme weather driven by tropical cyclone Jasper has dumped a year's worth of rain on some areas.\n\nImages show planes stuck on Cairns airport runway, and a 2.8m crocodile captured in floodwaters in Ingham.\n\nAuthorities called off the evacuation of Wujal Wujal's 300 residents due to adverse conditions.\n\nNo deaths or missing people have so far been reported.\n\nHowever, authorities expect the flooding to be the worst recorded in the state, and intense rainfall is expected to continue for another 24 hours.\n\nHundreds of people have been rescued - with many homes inundated, power and roads cut off and safe drinking water dwindling.\n\nThe city of Cairns has received more than 2m (7ft) of rainfall since the weather event began.\n\nIts airport was closed after planes became trapped by flooding of the runway, although authorities say the waters have since cleared.\n\nQueensland Premier Steven Miles told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the natural disaster was \"about the worst I can remember.\n\n\"I have been talking to Cairns locals on the ground... and they say they have never seen anything like it,\" he said.\n\n\"For someone from far north Queensland to say that, that is really saying something.\"\n\nIn the remote town of Wujal Wujal, about 175km (110 miles) north of Cairns, nine people including a sick child spent the night on the roof of a hospital after emergency crews were unable to reach them.\n\nThe group were relocated to another spot on Monday, but Mr Miles said he had been forced to call off the evacuation of the rest of the town due to the bad weather.\n\nAnother attempt would be made on Tuesday morning local time, ABC reported. All those remaining were \"safe and on higher ground\", said Queensland's Deputy Commissioner Shane Chelepy.\n\nMr Miles had earlier voiced \"concerns about drinking water, about sewerage, power and telecommunications, the roads - many of the roads are blocked and we can't get aerial support in\".\n\nForecasters said the torrential rain would continue for most of Monday and coincide with a high tide, intensifying the impact on low-lying communities.\n\nWhile the rain is expected to begin easing on Tuesday, rivers are yet to peak and will remain swollen for days.\n\nFloods have inundated many places in far north Queensland, including Cairns Airport\n\nSeveral rivers are expected to break records set during a flood event in 1977. The Daintree River, for example, has already exceeded the previous record by 2m, after receiving 820mm of rain in 24 hours.\n\nState officials estimate the toll of the disaster will top A$1bn (£529m; $670m).\n\nEastern Australia has been hit by frequent flooding in recent years and the country is now enduring an El Nino weather event, which is typically associated with extreme events such as wildfires and cyclones.\n\nAustralia has been plagued by a series of disasters in recent years - severe drought and bushfires, successive years of record floods, and six mass bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef.\n\nA future of worsening disasters is likely unless urgent action is taken to halt climate change, the latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warns.\n\nIf you are in Queensland, how have you been affected by the floods? Email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nYou can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Brian Cox says there is a \"joke element\" to being on Strictly\n\nBrian Cox has said he turned down an invitation to be a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing as he felt he was \"too old\" to take part.\n\nThe Succession star, 77, told the BBC he liked dancing but was not sure he wanted \"to go down that road\".\n\nMore than eight million people viewed Saturday's grand final of the dance competition on BBC One.\n\nActress Ellie Leach, 22, was crowned this year's champion, making her the youngest winner in the show's history.\n\nThe Coronation Street actress, partnered by professional dancer Vito Coppola, beat EastEnders' Bobby Brazier and Bad Education star Layton Williams to lift the glitterball trophy.\n\nWith an average age of 23, they were the youngest trio of finalists ever to compete.\n\nThe moment of victory for Ellie and Vito\n\nCox, who starred as Logan Roy in the TV drama Succession, was asked about Strictly when he appeared on the BBC One programme Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.\n\n\"I've actually been asked to be on it,\" he revealed.\n\nBut he added: \"I declined. I mean, I like dancing, don't get me wrong... I just don't know why, but I always see that there's a sort of joke element in it.\n\n\"There's almost a character that's going to be getting the elbow... and I just thought, 'I don't know if I want to go down that road'.\"\n\nWhen asked if he could be convinced to take part, he stated: \"I'm getting too old for it anyway.\"\n\nFormer cabinet minister Robert Buckland, who was also a panellist on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, said he too loved dancing and is able to do the Charleston and \"a little bit of ballroom\".\n\n\"That show means so much to me and my family,\" he said. But he did not answer directly when asked if he fancied competing on the show.\n\nGood Morning Britain presenter Susanna Reid, who made it to the final of the show in 2013, congratulated this year's winners.\n\nBut she warned them \"it is not real life\".\n\n\"Any of those contestants who wake up this morning, they will come back down to earth with a bump because it's like a completely different planet where you breathe air which is sequin-encrusted,\" she added.\n\nAngela Rippon was the eighth contestant to be eliminated this year\n\nAngela Rippon told the BBC that she felt her appearance on the show this year had been an inspiration to older people.\n\nThe presenter - at 79, two years older than Cox - made it through to the Blackpool special before being eliminated after facing Brazier in the dance-off.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast on Sunday, she said she had \"loved every minute\" of being on Strictly.\n\nShe added that she had been \"overwhelmed\" by the support she had received, \"and the number of men of a certain age - as well as women - who are saying you've been an inspiration, just to demonstrate that it is possible to do what I do\".\n\nShe said it was \"amazing and joyful\" to hear she had inspired others to take dancing classes \"because they thought, well, 'if she could do it, why can't I?'\".\n\nThe final of Strictly Come Dancing 2023 was watched by an average of 8.8 million viewers.\n\nThat is a drop compared with last year, when 9.2 million people tuned in to see presenter Hamza Yassin crowned winner.\n• None Strictly stars gear up for youngest ever finale", "Caroline Aherne found comedy in the everyday and ordinary\n\nPersonal and family photographs of the comedy performer Caroline Aherne - best known for her character Mrs Merton and for playing Denise in sitcom The Royle Family - help to tell the story of her complex life in a new documentary.\n\nThe film - to be shown on BBC Two on Christmas Day evening - will feature friends' and co-stars' memories of the actress and writer, and her unique talent.\n\n\"We had some laughs though, didn't we Cashy?\"\n\nThese were the words TV star Craig Cash remembers his close friend Caroline Aherne saying to him when she found out she only had two months left to live.\n\n\"I was in denial,\" says Cash. \"I just kept repeating 'no', but there's a lot to be said for denial.\"\n\nAherne, diagnosed with lung cancer in 2014, passed away in 2016 at the age of 52.\n\n\"She was a very bright light that didn't shine long enough,\" says Cash.\n\nAfter meeting Craig Cash for the first time, Caroline Aherne wrote in her diary, \"I've just met the funniest man in the world\"\n\nBBC Two is set to air an evening of programmes about the comedy performer on Christmas Day. Aherne rose to fame on the channel with her acerbic chat show character, Mrs Merton. Her grey rinse and sharp tongue meant she could get away with questions like, \"What first, Debbie [McGee], attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?\"\n\nShe made everyone laugh as Poula Fisch - the weather presenter on The Fast Show, where the temperature was always \"scorchio\". But it was sitcom The Royle Family, that she co-wrote with Cash, which saw her genius played out on a sofa. The life of a northern family watching telly made the mundane magic.\n\nShe was a Manchester girl with \"a passion to hold a mirror up to real people\", says Cash.\n\nAherne poses for a photo in the sun. It was always \"scorchio\" for her weather forecaster character, Poula Fisch, in The Fast Show\n\nHer working class background gave her a \"superpower\", says comedian and friend Steve Coogan, that you don't have if you come from a more privileged background.\n\nPlaying the character of Dave in the sitcom was Cash's first television acting role and he was nervous.\n\n\"She'd be like, 'telly's full of people with more confidence than talent, and you've got talent'.\n\n\"She gave me confidence,\" he says.\n\nAherne was very close to her mum, Maureen, seen here with Cash\n\n\"Her mum would always be up to some sort of mischief,\" says Cash.\n\nHe recalls his first meeting with Aherne's parents, Maureen and Bert.\n\n\"Maureen was like the Queen of Sheba and she had a wraparound thing on and I had to kiss her hand,\" says Cash. \"Bert had a tea-towel round his head.\"\n\nWhen Cash was invited to sit down, he failed to realise they had placed a towel between two chairs, and he fell to the floor.\n\n\"Caroline would come running in, 'he's fallen for the Queen of Sheba routine'.\n\n\"The mischief was in her blood,\" says Cash.\n\nAherne, pictured here with Maureen, used to do impressions of her mother's friends as a child\n\nDespite the humour, cancer had cast an unwelcome shadow over the family. Her older brother, Patrick, had cancer of the retina as a child and had his eye removed when he was 18 months old.\n\nCaroline was born with the same retinoblastoma, which left her partially sighted in one eye.\n\nPatrick Aherne was 18 months older than his sister - he died in 2018\n\nHaving finished her drama course with a big overdraft, Aherne started working as a secretary at the BBC in the late 1980s and also began doing stand-up.\n\n\"The industry was very male,\" says poet Lemn Sissay, who often appeared before her on the bill.\n\n\"She was the only woman… but she knew what she was doing and she shone.\"\n\nAherne loved watching television so much, she decided to study drama at Liverpool Polytechnic\n\nOn the comedy circuit she made friends with comedians Coogan and John Thomson and the writer Henry Normal - who went on to co-write the first series of The Royle Family with her and Cash.\n\n\"She liked me, but I annoyed her as well,\" says Coogan. \"She sort of saw me as a working class boy with intellectual pretensions and didn't let me off the hook.\"\n\nHe remembers wearing shorts one hot day and she looked at him and said: \"Oh that reminds me, I must get some chicken drumsticks on the way home.\"\n\nCoogan says Cash and Aherne were always a pair.\n\n\"Craig was funny and Caroline was funny, but Caroline was a bit funnier than Craig,\" he says.\n\nWhen Normal worked at the BBC with Aherne, the \"bigwigs\", he says, would come to see how they were getting on in their office. When they left, Aherne would open the window and shout out to them to \"do a funny walk\" across the road - and they did.\n\n\"She'd kill herself laughing,\" he says. \"That's how cheeky she was, because you're supposed to treat the producer with respect, but I think Caroline was more the boss.\"\n\nAherne showed that \"clever, intelligent comedy can appeal to everyone\", says Coogan\n\nAs her fame grew in the 1990s, so did the press intrusion.\n\n\"She suffered terribly at the hands of the tabloids,\" says comedian John Thomson, \"because they were always waiting for the next fall. Romantically, it never worked out for her and [for the press] that's a good story.\"\n\nShe would have loved to have had children, remembers Aherne's close friend Cal Lavelle, but she chose not to because of the risk the child might have been born with retinoblastoma.\n\nShe struggled with depression, says Cash. One night, in 1998, he received a shocking call.\n\n\"I was in bed and the phone rang and she was saying goodbye really. She just said, 'I love you and I'm sorry and I'm going. I've taken an overdose.'\"\n\nParamedics reached her in time and Aherne was later diagnosed with alcohol addiction and bipolar disorder.\n\n\"She definitely did drink and get drunk because of the stresses and the challenges in her life,\" says Lavelle.\n\nA one-off special of The Royle Family - The Queen of Sheba - won the Bafta for best situation comedy in 2007. The episode saw the family's beloved Nana, played by Liz Smith, pass away.\n\nAherne shunned the limelight of the award ceremony, and instead stayed comfortably at home in her pyjamas, watching television.\n\n\"The show ended up being more than just the show that won the Bafta,\" says Cash.\n\n\"It was a show that helped her step towards happiness again. So what happened next felt very cruel.\"\n\nAherne paid homage to Molly, her own Nana, in the episode The Queen of Sheba\n\nShe had been recovering from bladder cancer, when like a \"sledgehammer\", she was diagnosed with lung cancer, says Cash.\n\nSue Johnston, who played character Denise's on-screen mum Barbara Royle, says despite the devastating diagnosis, Aherne retained her sharp wit.\n\n\"If she texted at all, it was always hysterical,\" says Johnston - remembering Aherne telling her that she didn't realise her ears would stick out when she lost her hair during chemotherapy.\n\n\"I mean just self-deprecating jokes to make us feel better about her demise. That's her generosity, that's what she gave back.\"\n\nHer funeral was testament to her, says co-star Ricky Tomlinson, who played her on-screen dad Jim Royle, because so many people attended. As a tribute, her coffin was brought in to the sitcom's theme tune, Half the World Away by Oasis.\n\nAherne's fascination with the ordinary meant that \"the stuff of life was the stuff of comedy for her\", says Andy Harries, who worked alongside her as executive producer on The Royle Family.\n\nShe would be bemused and amused, says Cash, that we are all \"yapping about her\" now.\n\n\"She'd say, 'Cashy, you'd never say anything nice about me when I was alive, did ya?'\"\n\nCaroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy will be broadcast on Monday 25 December at 22:25 GMT on BBC Two\n\nIf you are affected by any of the issues raised in this story, support and advice is available via the BBC Action Line.\n• None Gogglebox is a gift Caroline left me, Cash says", "Cardinal Becciu intends to appeal against the verdict\n\nA Vatican court has sentenced Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a former adviser to Pope Francis, to five-and-a-half years in jail for financial crimes.\n\nBecciu, 75, was the most senior Vatican official ever to face such charges and once seen as a papal contender himself.\n\nThe trial centred on a London property deal that ended in huge losses for the Catholic Church.\n\nHe strongly denied charges including embezzlement and abuse of office.\n\nCardinal Becciu's lawyer said his client was innocent and would lodge an appeal.\n\nHe was on trial with nine other defendants. All were convicted on some counts and found not guilty on others.\n\nThe trial, which exposed infighting and intrigue in the highest Vatican ranks, had been going on for two-and-a-half years.\n\nAfter three judges spent more than five hours considering the verdict, Court President Giuseppe Pignatone announced that Cardinal Becciu had been convicted of embezzlement.\n\nThe others, who included financiers, lawyers and ex-Vatican employees, were accused of various crimes, including fraud, money laundering and abuse of office. They all denied wrongdoing.\n\n\"We reaffirm Cardinal Angelo Becciu's innocence and will appeal,\" stated Becciu's lawyer, Fabio Viglione, after the verdict. \"We respect the ruling, but we will definitely appeal.\"\n\nThe case - the first of a Cardinal standing trial in a Vatican court - was the stuff of intrigue and skulduggery. It involved allegations of financial impropriety at the top of the Vatican, cloak-and-dagger activity of the kind that has often characterised the secretive world of the Holy See.\n\nIt centred around a building not in the Vatican, or even in Rome, but a thousand kilometres away in London - 60 Sloane Avenue in affluent Chelsea, a former warehouse belonging to the department store Harrod's.\n\nCardinal Becciu (L) had been a close adviser to Pope Francis\n\nIn 2014, the Vatican spent more than €200m ($220m; £170m) acquiring a 45% stake in the building, which was planned to be converted into luxury apartments. By 2018, the Vatican's Secretariat of State had decided to buy the property outright, sinking a further €150m euros into the purchase. Allegedly signing off on the whole deal was Cardinal Becciu, who was at the time the Vatican's Substitute for General Affairs - in effect chief of staff to the Pope.\n\nThe money, part of which was intended to be used for charitable works, had been paid into a trust run by a London-based Italian financier Raffaele Mincione, who orchestrated the purchase. When the Secretariat later sought financial help from the Vatican's own bank, it sparked concern - and a raid by Vatican police that led to the charges against Becciu, Mincione, and eight others.\n\nBut the investigation into Becciu's affairs wasn't limited to the London property deal.\n\nThe cardinal was also accused of funnelling vast sums of money to his home diocese of Sardinia, some of which reportedly benefited his family. And it was alleged he paid almost €600,000 to another of the accused, Cecilia Marogna, to help free a nun kidnapped in Mali. Prosecutors said she instead spent much of the money on luxury goods and holidays. Marogna, who had offered her services to the Vatican as an intelligence expert, visited Becciu's residence on several occasions. Both denied claims of a sexual relationship.\n\nThe charges against Becciu made him the first cardinal ever tried for financial crimes. It also prompted Pope Francis to strip him of rights including that of voting in a future conclave to select Francis's successor.\n\nAfter he was removed from office by the Pope in 2020, he gave a news conference to plead his innocence.\n\n\"Until 6:02 p.m. on Thursday I felt like a friend of the Pope, a faithful executor of his will,\" Cardinal Becciu said. \"Then the Pope says he no longer has faith in me.\"\n\nThe whole affair became a test case for Pope Francis's aim of clearing up the Vatican's finances, which were long plagued by scandal, bedevilling the papacy of Francis's predecessor, Benedict XVI.\n\nThe result of the case could have significant implications for Francis's legacy as a reformer.", "The foreign secretary has said he would like to see a \"sustainable ceasefire\" in the Israel-Gaza conflict.\n\nLord Cameron also warned \"too many civilians have been killed\" in Gaza.\n\nMore than 18,000 people have been killed, including thousands of children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.\n\nHis intervention in a Sunday Times article marks a shift in tone from the UK government, but stops short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.\n\nPenning a joint article with Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Lord Cameron said he supported a ceasefire only if it was sustainable in the long term.\n\nHe said: \"Our goal cannot simply be an end to fighting today. It must be peace lasting for days, years, generations.\n\n\"We therefore support a ceasefire, but only if it is sustainable.\"\n\nEarlier this week the UK and Germany abstained over a United Nations resolution, backed by 153 countries, demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.\n\nOn Sunday France, which was among the countries which voted for the resolution, called for an \"immediate and durable truce\" in the conflict, ahead of a meeting between the French and Israeli foreign ministers in Tel Aviv.\n\nSeeking to explain the UK's position, Lord Cameron wrote: \"We do not believe that calling right now for a general and immediate ceasefire, hoping it somehow becomes permanent, is the way forward.\"\n\nHe added: \"Would Hamas stop firing rockets? Would it release the hostages? Would its murderous ideology change? An unsustainable ceasefire, quickly collapsing into further violence, would only make it harder to build the confidence needed for peace.\"\n\nInstead the UK and Germany are pushing for further humanitarian pauses to get more aid in and more hostages out.\n\nPalestinians inspect damage in the northern Gaza on Saturday\n\n\"We have been consistent that what we support is a sustainable ceasefire, which means Hamas must stop launching rockets into Israel and release all the hostages,\" Mr Sunak said.\n\nAppearing on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said: \"In order for a ceasefire to be sustainable, we have to ensure we remove the threat of Hamas from Israel...\n\n\"So, that's why we continue to support Israel in its right to self-defence, to remove the threat of Hamas, and at the same time to get those hostages back.\"\n\nAsked if he thought Israel had gone too far, Mr Dowden said: \"I wouldn't characterise it as Israel going too far. Israel is dealing with a very difficult situation.\"\n\nHe said the UK continued to urge Israel to exercise restraint but added: \"If you're going after an enemy that literally hides underneath hospitals, hides amongst the civilian population, you are going to sustain high levels of civilian casualties.\"\n\nThe offensive into Gaza, triggered by Hamas's deadly 7 October attack on Israel which killed 1,200 people, has led to vast areas of the territory being flattened.\n\nIn a sign attitudes are shifting, in the article, the UK and German foreign ministers warned that Israel \"should do more to discriminate sufficiently between terrorists and civilians\".\n\nThey also said more aid must reach Gaza, amid warnings from the United Nations of a humanitarian catastrophe due to widespread shortages of basic supplies.\n\nIsrael's main ally the US has also expressed unease over the failure of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's administration to reduce civilian casualties.\n\nDeflecting that pressure on Saturday, Mr Netanyahu said: \"Military pressure is necessary both for the return of the hostages and for victory. Without military pressure... we have nothing.\"", "President Aleksandar Vucic said his party was heading for an absolute majority in parliament\n\nSerbian President Aleksandar Vucic has claimed victory in snap parliamentary elections, saying his party is heading for an absolute majority.\n\nHis Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, won 47% of the vote, according to a near-final count.\n\nOpposition parties under the Serbia Against Violence (SPN) banner were well behind with around 23%.\n\nBut they claimed electoral fraud favouring the government, and called a protest for Monday evening.\n\nIf confirmed, the results will likely mean the SNS has won more than half of the 250 seats in the National Assembly.\n\nJoined by Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and controversial Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik on stage, Mr Vucic told supporters: \"My job was to do everything in my power to secure an absolute majority,\" although he himself was not running for election.\n\nAs well as voting for parliament, Serbians were deciding on Sunday who would control 65 local authorities.\n\nThe loose opposition SPN alliance had hoped to win control of Belgrade in Sunday's local elections.\n\nIt was formed after two mass shootings in May which sparked huge protests. The attacks killed 19 people, including 10 at a school in Belgrade.\n\nDespite the SPN's hopes, near-final results showed Mr Vucic's party slightly ahead in the capital.\n\nIn a statement, SPN claimed electoral fraud. The coalition said: \"More than 40,000 non-residents were brought to Belgrade\".\n\nIt demanded the annulment of the vote in the capital, and called on supporters to protest on Monday evening.\n\nBut President Vucic told supporters that the party had seen off the opposition challenge in Belgrade and that he was confident the capital would once again be run by former water polo star Aleksandar Sapic, who merged his party with the Progressives.\n\nThe vote was almost immediately marred by accusations of irregularities.\n\nThe International Election Observation Mission said in a statement that \"serious irregularities, including vote-buying and ballot box stuffing were observed\".\n\nThe SNS has been in power since 2012 but there have been three elections in the past three years.\n\nOpposition figures have accused the SNS of using public resources for political purposes and election monitor CRTA complained before the vote of a \"chronic lack of pluralism\" in Serbia.\n\nLocal observers reported various irregularities on Sunday, including voters being bussed in from Bosnia-Herzegovina to vote in Belgrade.\n\nThe CRTA observer mission gave details of attempted ballot-rigging in a number of polling stations.\n\nSerbia is a candidate to become a member of the European Union, and President Vucic is under pressure from both the EU and the US to normalise relations with Kosovo.\n\nKosovo declared unilateral independence from Serbia in 2008, and while it is recognised by more than 100 UN members, Serbia has refused to do so - backed by allies like Russia, China and five EU members.\n\nSome 95,000 ethnic Serbs live in Kosovo and those who wanted to vote had to cross into Serbia to cast their ballot.", "Migrant boats in the Mediterranean (file pic) are often overcrowded and unstable\n\nMore than 60 migrants are believed to have drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.\n\nCiting survivors, the UN agency said on Saturday the vessel left the city of Zuwara with around 86 people on board.\n\nIt said high waves swamped the boat and that 61 migrants, including children, were missing and presumed dead.\n\nLibya is among the main departure points for migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean and enter Europe.\n\nThe IOM estimates that more than 2,200 people have drowned while attempting the crossing this year alone, making it one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world.\n\nThe agency said most of the victims of the latest incident were from Nigeria, Gambia, and other African countries, the AFP news agency reports.\n\nIt also said 25 survivors had been transferred to a Libyan detention centre and were being given medical support.\n\nWriting on X, formerly Twitter, an IOM spokesperson called the death toll for this year a \"dramatic number which unfortunately demonstrates that not enough is being done to save lives at sea\".\n\nIn June, at least 78 people died and another 100 were rescued after a fishing boat sank off southern Greece.\n\nThe Mediterranean crossings frequently see scores of migrants crowded onto boats too small to safely hold them.\n\nThose making the trip are typically hoping to land in Italy before making their way to other countries in Europe, some escaping conflict or persecution, others in search of work.\n\nMore than 153,000 migrants have arrived in Italy this year from Tunisia and Libya, according to the UN's refugee agency.\n\nOn Saturday, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had talks in Rome with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni and Albania's PM Edi Rama on how to reduce illegal migration to Europe.\n\nAt the start of this year, Mr Sunak made stopping small boat crossings in the English Channel one of the five key priorities of his government.", "Martin Bashir stepped down from his role at the BBC in 2021\n\nThe Information Commissioner's Office says its criminal investigations team is looking into claims the BBC withheld documents relating to Martin Bashir's 1995 interview with Princess Diana.\n\nLast week, a judge strongly criticised the BBC for failing to release a large number of emails relating to the way Bashir secured the Panorama interview.\n\nThey had been requested by a journalist who claims the corporation breached the Freedom of Information Act.\n\nThe BBC has rejected the allegations.\n\nBashir officially stepped down from his job at the BBC in 2021, after it had emerged he had secured the Panorama interview through deception and faking documents.\n\nJournalist Andy Webb made a freedom of information request, asking to see the emails BBC managers sent each other about Bashir over a two-month period in 2020.\n\nThe BBC disclosed a small number of messages to Webb, but it has since emerged there were more than 3,000 emails.\n\nThe corporation previously said these contained information that was either \"irrelevant\" or \"legally privileged\".\n\nEarlier this month, Judge Brian Kennedy ordered the BBC to release more emails - saying the corporation had been \"inconsistent, erroneous and unreliable\" in the way it dealt with the initial request.\n\nA spokesperson for the ICO confirmed Mr Webb's case has since been referred to its criminal investigations team \"who are currently reviewing the material provided\".\n\nThe BBC said it rejected \"these allegations entirely, including any suggestion that the BBC has acted unlawfully\".\n\nA spokesperson said: \"We have repeatedly set out to Mr Webb that Martin Bashir's significant health issues prevented us from disclosing documentation in 2020, as we were unable to consult him on the substantive issues.\n\n\"As Mr Webb also knows, all relevant documentation that was in the BBC's possession was passed to the Lord Dyson inquiry which concluded and was published in 2021.\"\n\nMr Webb previously said it was \"overwhelmingly in the public interest for these internal emails to be divulged to the public\".\n\nThe inquiry found that Bashir used deception to secure the interview and then lied to BBC managers.", "Israel says military pressure is needed on Hamas to secure the release of hostages\n\nFrance has called for an \"immediate and durable truce\" in the Israel-Hamas war, saying that it is deeply concerned about the situation in Gaza.\n\nForeign Minister Catherine Colonna added that too many civilians were being killed.\n\nIsraeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said a ceasefire would be an error, describing it as a gift to Hamas.\n\nThe UK and Germany earlier called for a \"sustainable ceasefire\", but stopped short of saying it should be immediate.\n\nMs Colonna arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday for a meeting with her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen.\n\nA statement released by the French Foreign Ministry before her visit said she would call for a truce, which should \"lead to a lasting ceasefire with the aim of releasing all hostages and delivering aid to Gaza\".\n\nDuring the meeting with Mr Cohen, the French foreign minister added that the victims of the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October should not be forgotten.\n\nMr Cohen repeated the Israeli government's position that there would be no ceasefire.\n\nBut he said that France could play an important role in preventing the escalation of regional tensions.\n\nHe added that while Israel \"has no intention to start another front\" on its northern border with Lebanon, it would do \"whatever it takes\" to protect Israeli citizens.\n\nMs Colonna said too many civilians were being killed in Gaza\n\nIsrael has been engaged in regular cross-border exchanges of fire with armed groups in southern Lebanon, most notably with the Iran-backed Hezbollah.\n\nEarlier on Sunday, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for a \"sustainable ceasefire\" in the conflict.\n\nIn a joint article in the Sunday Times, Lord Cameron said he supported a ceasefire only if it was sustainable in the long term. Although this marks a shift in tone from the UK government, it does not go as far as calling for an immediate ceasefire.\n\nOn Tuesday, the UK and Germany abstained over a United Nations resolution to this effect, backed by 153 countries.\n\n\"We do not believe that calling right now for a general and immediate ceasefire, hoping it somehow becomes permanent, is the way forward,\" Lord Cameron wrote seeking to explain the UK's decision.\n\n\"Would Hamas stop firing rockets? Would it release the hostages... an unsustainable ceasefire, quickly collapsing into further violence, would only make it harder to build the confidence needed for peace.\"\n\nInstead the UK and Germany are pushing for further humanitarian pauses to get more aid in and more hostages out.\n\nCatherine Colonna is also scheduled to meet the families of French hostages still being held by Hamas during her visit to Israel.\n\nReferring to allegations of sexual assault during the 7 October attacks, Ms Colonna said France \"believed the words of the victims\" and those who witnessed the alleged attacks.\n\nEarlier this week, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recovered the body of 28-year-old French-Israeli hostage Elya Toledano.\n\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Israeli government is still trying to complete the recovery of all the hostages held in Gaza, saying military pressure on Hamas was needed to secure their release.\n\nMr Netanyahu has indicated that talks are happening, and there are reports which suggest both Egypt and Qatar are involved in the discussions.\n\nBut Hamas has said there will be no negotiations to release hostages \"unless the aggression against our people stops once and for all\".\n\nOn Friday, the IDF accidentally killed three Israeli hostages during its operations in Gaza.\n\nYotam Haim, 28, Samer Talalka, 22, and Alon Shamriz, 26 were shot at whilst holding a white cloth - the IDF said the incident was \"against our rules of engagement\" and that it was investigating the incident.\n\nThere are still more than 120 people still being held in Gaza, and the accidental killing has added pressure on Israeli authorities to reach a deal for their release.\n\nFrance's Foreign Ministry has also demanded Israel explain an airstrike which killed one of its staff in Rafah this week.\n\nThe employee died of his injuries as a result of the strike in Rafah, which the foreign ministry said also killed other civilians.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 18,700 people have been killed and over 50,000 injured in the territory since the start of the war.", "Arsenal legend Ian Wright will step down as a pundit from Match of the Day at the end of the season.\n\nWright, 60, made his debut on the BBC programme as a player in 1997 and, following his retirement in 2000, went on to become a regular pundit in 2002.\n\nWright said the decision \"had been coming for a while\" and was \"fast-tracked\" by turning 60 last month.\n\n\"Ultimately, it's time to do a few more different things with my Saturdays,\" the former England striker said.\n\nWright had two spells on Match of the Day, first from 2002 before he left in 2008, and then returning in 2015. In May he appeared alongside Shaun Wright-Phillips to become the first father and son punditry team to appear on the show.\n\n\"After my debut show whilst still a player in 1997 and many more memorable years, I'll be stepping back from BBC MOTD at the end of this season,\" said Wright, who will be on Sunday's MOTD2 on BBC One at 22:30 GMT.\n\n\"I feel very privileged to have had such an incredible run on the most iconic football show in the world.\"\n\nHe added: \"Anyone that knows my story knows how much the show has meant to me since I was a young boy. MOTD is my Holy Grail. On my first ever show, I told [presenter] Des Lynam, 'This is my Graceland'. It will always be my Graceland and I will always be watching.\n\n\"I'm stepping back having made great friends and many great memories. I'm really looking forward to my last months on the show and covering what will hopefully be an amazing title race.\"\n\nThe show's host, Gary Lineker, wrote: \"It has been an absolute pleasure and privilege to work alongside you, Ian. One of my favourite people on the planet. Farewell my friend.\"\n\nHead of BBC Sport Content Philip Bernie said: \"Ian has been a wonderful star player on MOTD since his first appearance over 20 years ago. His insight, wit and warmth have richly entertained and informed all those watching him. We will miss his unique style and presence when he goes at the end of this season, but we will be sure to give him the send-off he deserves.\"\n\nWright started his professional career with Crystal Palace aged 21 in 1985 and scored 90 goals, including two in the 1990 FA Cup final against Manchester United. Palace drew 3-3 but were beaten 1-0 in the replay.\n\nHe moved to Arsenal in 1991 for a then club record of £2.5m and went on to score 185 times for them, becoming the club's leading goalscorer in September 1997 and also winning the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup during his time with the Gunners.\n\nAfter leaving Arsenal, he had spells with West Ham, Nottingham Forest, Celtic and Burnley.\n\nHe also won 33 caps for England and scored nine goals.\n\nSince retiring, he has become one of television's best-known football pundits, covering both the men's and women's game for the BBC and ITV.\n\nAway from football, he fronted a BBC programme on his upbringing and his abusive childhood.\n\nIn June, he was appointed an OBE in the Birthday Honours list for services to football and charity and last month received the Freedom of the City of London.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "The London mayor said he does not have the legal powers to export Ulez non-compliant vehicles\n\nVehicles eligible for scrappage as part of London's Ulez scheme cannot legally be sent to Ukraine, the mayor's office has said.\n\nThe Telegraph reported Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko had written to to his London counterpart to suggest the idea as part of the scrappage scheme.\n\nHowever, Sadiq Khan's office said the Labour mayor was legally unable to alter it to allow vehicle exports.\n\nSusan Hall, the Tory mayoral candidate, said the response was \"absurd\".\n\nUnder the Ulez scrappage scheme, which came into force in August, Londoners with vehicles that fall foul of emission standards can claim up to £2,000 when their non-compliant vehicles are taken to be destroyed.\n\nIn the letter obtained by The Telegraph, Mr Klitschko said some of the vehicles being scrapped, particularly 4x4s, had \"enormous potential\" to help the country in a \"variety of life-saving and transport roles\" to aid its war with Russia.\n\nBBC News has not seen the full contents of the letter, reportedly sent in September, but a spokesperson for Mr Khan confirmed it had been received.\n\n\"Unfortunately, altering the Ulez scheme for the purpose of exporting vehicles to Ukraine is not possible within the current limits of the Greater London Authority Act,\" they said.\n\nThey said exporting the vehicles to Ukraine would \"not meet the legal threshold of the benefit to Londoners from an economic, social, or environmental perspective\" as set out within the act.\n\nThey added that Mr Khan was \"deeply frustrated\" and had instead set up a website which enabled Londoners with a \"suitable non-compliant vehicle to donate their vehicles directly to Ukraine\".\n\nOwners of vehicles donated directly through a charity will not be entitled to claim £2,000 from the Ulez scrappage scheme.\n\nMs Hall said Londoners who choose to scrap their cars \"should have the freedom to decide for themselves if they want their car sent to support Ukraine\".\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "A seasoned performer, Alexander has scored several top 10 hits around Europe\n\nPop star Olly Alexander will represent the United Kingdom at next year's Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden.\n\nThe former Years and Years frontman will hope to improve on the UK's disappointing performance this year, when Mae Muller came second to last.\n\nAlexander is already known around Europe for hits including Desire, King and If You're Over Me.\n\nHe is also a Bafta-nominated actor, having played the lead role in Channel 4's hard-hitting Aids drama It's A Sin.\n\nThe star's participation was revealed during the final of Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday, months before the BBC usually confirms its Eurovision plans.\n\n\"I love Eurovision so much, it's a dream come true,\" he told host Claudia Winkleman. \"I'm just so, so excited.\"\n\nIn a press release, he added: \"I really can't believe I'm going to be a part of such a special legacy and fly the flag for the UK in the gayest way possible.\n\n\"I'm determined to give it everything I've got and put on an excellent and unforgettable performance for you all!\"\n\nYears and Years became a solo project in 2021, but now Alexander is releasing music under his own name\n\nThe song he will perform in Malmö next May is still under wraps - but it was co-written by Alexander and Danny L Harle, who has produced hits for Dua Lipa, Chic and Charli XCX.\n\n\"It's gonna be electronic, something you can dance to,\" Alexander told BBC News. \"But I can't say much more than that.\n\n\"I just can't wait to get out there and meet the fans and everyone else taking part,\" he added.\n\n\"It's going to be the wildest experience of my life.\"\n\nThe singer is a seasoned performer with a big fanbase, having scored five UK top 10 singles and two number one albums over the past decade with Years and Years.\n\nThe band also enjoyed chart success in Eurovision countries including Belgium, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden.\n\nAlexander's hometown of Harrogate previously played host to the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest, after Bucks Fizz won for the UK the previous year.\n\nLoreen is one of only two people to score multiple Eurovision victories - the other being Ireland's Johnny Logan\n\nSweden is hosting Eurovision 2024 after Swedish icon Loreen won this year's trophy with the jackhammer pop anthem Tattoo.\n\nIt was her second Eurovision victory, having previously won in 2012 with Euphoria.\n\nSweden is now tied with Ireland for the most Eurovision victories, with seven apiece - but the UK hasn't won since 1997, and its recent track record has been largely underwhelming.\n\nMichael Rice and James Newman came last in 2019 and 2021 respectively. Mae Muller was only saved from the same fate this year by German rock band Lord of the Lost.\n\nThe bright spot in the UK's otherwise dismal recent Eurovision history was Sam Ryder, who took second place in Turin in 2022 with his pop-rock anthem Spaceman.\n\nThe star, who is currently in contention for the Christmas number one crown with his festive song You're Christmas To Me, sent Alexander a message of good luck on Saturday night.\n\n\"What's up mate?\" he said. \"Best of luck, go sing your head off, enjoy Sweden and send us a postcard!\"\n\nOlly Alexander performed It's A Sin with Sir Elton John at the 2021 Brit Awards\n\nBoth Ryder and Muller were chosen by TaP management, the music company behind Lana Del Rey and Dua Lipa.\n\nHowever, they pulled out after this year's contest, and the latest selection was made internally at the BBC.\n\nAlexander is the most well-established artist to be picked to represent the UK since Bonnie Tyler, who finished 19th in 2013.\n\nWhile the UK has generally sent newer and less well-known singers to Eurovision, other countries send some of their biggest stars to the contest.\n\nThis year, Italy was represented by the swoonsome balladeer Marco Mengoni, who has 70 platinum records to his name.\n\nRussia, who are currently excluded from the contest due to the war in Ukraine, put forward the globally successful pop duo Tatu in 2003, while Sweden's Måns Zelmerlöw had three number one albums before winning the 2015 contest with Heroes.", "Last updated on .From the section Luton\n\nLuton Town captain Tom Lockyer is still in hospital and undergoing \"tests and scans\" after suffering a cardiac arrest on the pitch during Saturday's Premier League match at Bournemouth.\n\nLuton said Lockyer \"is awaiting the results before the next steps for his recovery are determined\".\n\nBoth sets of players were taken off midway through the second half as Lockyer received medical treatment.\n\nThe game at the Vitality Stadium was eventually abandoned.\n\nThe 29-year-old was responsive as he was carried off on a stretcher to applause and taken to hospital.\n\nOn Saturday, Luton said Lockyer was \"stable and currently undergoing further tests\".\n\nA day later the club provided an update, saying, \"We understand that supporters are concerned for him and that there is widespread media interest in his condition,\" before adding that updates on the player \"will be released via the club's official channels when the time is right\".\n\n\"We all want the very best for Tom, his partner Taylor and the whole Lockyer family, and politely ask that his and their privacy is respected at this difficult time.\"\n\nFollowing confirmation the game was abandoned on Saturday, both the Luton and Bournemouth players came back out on to the pitch to applaud the supporters, with Hatters manager Rob Edwards visibly emotional.\n\nLockyer collapsed during the play-off final win against Coventry in May and was taken to hospital.\n\nHe subsequently had heart surgery and was given the all-clear to return to playing in June.\n\nThe Premier League said in a statement: \"The match between AFC Bournemouth and Luton Town FC has been abandoned due to a player medical incident.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with Tom Lockyer and all players involved in today's match.\"\n\nLuton called for players, staff and supporters \"to come together\" in support of Lockyer and his family.\n\n\"We are sorry to all supporters present that players from both sides were in no state of mind to continue with the game after seeing their much-loved team-mate and friend taken off like that and staff could not carry on with managing the game in such circumstances,\" Luton said.\n\n\"We thank everyone for the wonderful applause and singing of Locks' [Lockyer's] name inside the stadium at such a difficult time.\"\n\nBournemouth responded to Luton's update on Lockyer's condition, saying: \"We're relieved to hear Tom is responsive.\"\n\nThe club added: \"Our thoughts will continue to be with Tom and his family at this time. We'd like to thank all the medical staff for their quick action as well as everyone inside the stadium for their support and unity during a difficult moment.\"\n• None Our coverage of Luton Town is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Hatters - go straight to all the best content", "A High Court ruling that Prince Harry's phone had been hacked by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) is the \"start of something\", actor Steve Coogan said.\n\nCoogan said the ruling exposed \"widespread contempt\" by newspaper editors for the Leveson Inquiry, which looked at the ethics of the press.\n\nHe said the press needed to be held accountable with \"proper, independent regulation\".\n\nCoogan was a victim of phone hacking by MGN and settled with the group in 2017.\n\nThe actor and comedian has long been an outspoken critic of sections of the tabloid press.\n\nPrince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, won in relation to 15 articles published by MGN, with the judge finding evidence of \"widespread and habitual\" use of phone hacking at the group's newspapers.\n\nCoogan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"What this shows is the contempt that newspaper editors had for a judge-led public inquiry.\n\n\"Now we've got prima facia evidence of crimes having been committed, perjury being one of the most serious.\n\n\"The police need to apply the law evenly and fairly, without fear or favour. It doesn't matter how much time has passed.\"\n\nFollowing the High Court ruling on Friday, Prince Harry called on the police and prosecuting authorities to \"investigate bringing charges against the company and those who have broken the law\".\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said it would \"carefully consider the civil judgment\" but added that there was \"no ongoing investigation\".\n\nCoogan told the BBC the second part of the Leveson Inquiry, which was officially abandoned by the Conservative government in 2017, should now take place.\n\nHe said he would like to know what Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer would do about it if he became prime minister.\n\n\"Is he going to fold like a deckchair as previous, mostly Conservative prime ministers, have?\" he asked.\n\nThe Leveson Inquiry was established under then-Prime Minister David Cameron following the phone-hacking scandal at News International. The second stage was meant to look into the relationship between journalists and the police.\n\nThe inquiry found politicians and the press had been too close, and that a new self-regulated body independent of serving editors, government and business should be established.\n\nIt concluded that a legal framework was needed to underpin the body. The industry rejected this, arguing the move would give politicians too much power.\n\nThe current regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), was set up in 2014 as successor to the Press Complaints Commission, which was criticised for its lack of action in the phone-hacking scandal.\n\nCoogan told the BBC a new regulatory body was needed, claiming Ipso was \"run by the press, for the press\".\n\n\"What we need to see is proper, independent regulation, not run by the press, not run by the government, but independent voices,\" he added.\n\nBut Sir Alan Moses, former chair of Ipso, told the Today programme it was \"ridiculous\" to regard the regulator as \"controlled or toothless\".\n\n\"It's not run by the press, it's run by independent people with whom I worked,\" he said.\n\nIpso is paid for by its members through the Regulatory Funding Company, and has come under criticism from the Hacked Off campaign group - which Coogan is affiliated with - as being \"owned and controlled by the very newspapers it is supposed to regulate\".\n\nPrince Harry became the first senior member of the Royal Family to testify in court since the late 19th century\n\nThe judge in the case found that editors and executives at MGN knew of phone hacking, and accepted evidence that that group included former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan.\n\nMr Morgan has repeatedly denied involvement in phone hacking and delivered a further statement about it outside his home hours after Friday's ruling.\n\n\"There is just one article relating to the prince published in The Daily Mirror during my entire nine-year tenure as editor that he [the High Court judge] thinks may have involved some unlawful information gathering,\" he said.\n\n\"To be clear, I had then and still have zero knowledge of how that particular story was gathered.\"\n\nAs well as taking aim at the prince among others, Mr Morgan denied personally hacking a phone or ordering someone to, and said \"nobody has produced any actual evidence to prove that I did\".\n\nBut Coogan said that nobody had accused Mr Morgan of this, and that Mr Morgan's statement did not address the judge's comments.\n\n\"Piers Morgan could have quite easily received illegally gained information whilst he was editor of the Mirror, used that knowing it was illegally gathered, and still be able to claim that he hadn't instructed anyone to hack anyone's phone or he personally hadn't hacked anyone's phone,\" Coogan told the BBC.\n\nThe BBC has approached Mr Morgan for further comment.", "International calls for a ceasefire in Gaza have been growing with the UN passing a non-binding resolution on Wednesday\n\nJust getting to the end of the day and surviving the night must feel like a miracle in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians \"plead for safety\", wrote Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the main UN relief agency in Gaza, in an \"endless, deepening tragedy… hell on earth\".\n\nIt must be just as hellish for the hostages taken by Hamas and for the families of their victims. War is a cruel furnace that puts humans through terrible agonies. But its heat can produce changes that seemed impossible.\n\nIt happened in western Europe after World War Two. Old enemies who had killed each other for centuries chose peace. Will the war in Gaza shock Israelis and Palestinians into ending their century of conflict over the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan river?\n\n18,600 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry\n\nI've been watching a video of a woman wracked by grief, sitting next to the body of her husband, Muhammad Abu Shaar. As Israel and Egypt are not allowing journalists to enter Gaza, I have not met her. I haven't been able to find out her name, which was not posted alongside those of her dead husband and children.\n\nIn the video, it is as if she hopes, somehow, that the power of her grief will bring him back.\n\n\"I swear, we promised to die together. You died and left me. What are we supposed to do, God? Muhammad, get up! For God's sake my beloved, I swear to God, I love you. For God's sake get up. Our children Nour and Aboud are here with you. Get up.\"\n\nThe two children were with their father because all three of them had just been killed by Israel. An air strike destroyed the house they were hoping would shelter them in Rafah.\n\nYonatan Zeigan (left) quit his job to campaign for peace after his mother, well-known peace activist Vivian Silver (centre), was killed by Hamas on 7 October\n\nI visited Yonatan Zeigen at his flat in Tel Aviv. It was a comfortable home, full of his children's toys. Among the family photos I recognised his mother, Vivian Silver, who was one of Israel's leading campaigners for peace with the Palestinians. Vivian was in the family home in kibbutz Be'eri, on the border with Gaza, when Hamas attacked on 7 October.\n\nThe first time I met Yonatan, in the days after their kibbutz was attacked, he was hoping his mother had been taken into Gaza as a hostage.\n\nWhen he heard the air raid sirens in Tel Aviv, he rang Vivian. They switched to WhatsApp as they heard gunfire and explosions in the kibbutz, hoping that if she made no noise, Hamas would bypass the house.\n\nHe read out the texts they exchanged, first some black humour and suddenly serious and full of love as she realised a massacre was happening.\n\n\"She wrote me, they're inside the house, it's time to stop joking and say goodbye,\" he tells me.\n\n\"And I wrote back that 'I love you, Mum. I have no words, I'm with you'. Then she writes, 'I feel you'. And then that was it, that's the last message.\"\n\nA drawing by Vivian's grandchildren reads, \"I am afraid my grandma will die\"\n\nThe next day, I visited her house in the kibbutz and saw it was burnt out. It took weeks for investigators to find Vivian Silver's remains in the ash left behind in the safe room. Yonatan has given up his career as a social worker to campaign for peace.\n\n\"They came into my country and killed my mother because we didn't have peace. So, to me, this just proves the point that we need it,\" he says.\n\n\"It could go either way. Catastrophes like this create changes in societies in the world. And I believe that it can lead to a better future.\"\n\nActivist Issa Amro says life for Palestinians in the West Bank has become much harder since October 7\n\nIssa Amro is a Palestinian activist in Hebron in the West Bank. The city is holy to Muslims and Jews, who revere it as the burial place of the prophet Abraham. It has been a flashpoint for decades.\n\nIssa is well known in Hebron and considered a troublemaker by Israeli soldiers who have enforced a curfew on Palestinians who live near the Jewish settlement in the heart of the city. He told me he was detained and beaten after the 7 October attacks.\n\nPalestinian activist Issa Amro told the BBC his hands were bound so tightly when he was detained by the IDF on October 7 that it cut off his circulation\n\nLike Yonatan Zeigen in Tel Aviv, Issa Amro believes that the war could produce a chance for Israelis and Palestinians to lead better and safer lives.\n\n\"I think it's two opportunities. Either we choose to make it deeper and worse, or we make it as an opportunity to solve the conflict and to solve the occupation, to solve the apartheid and make living together possible because the security solution failed… only peace is the solution.\"\n\nIt might seem a long way off now, and many more people are going to be killed before it happens, but like every war this one will stop.\n\nAll the wars in and around Gaza since Hamas seized control there in 2007 have ended the same way, with a ceasefire deal. The ceasefires all came with a fatal flaw that guaranteed the next war between Israel and Hamas. That was because no attempt was made to end a century of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.\n\nThe killing and destruction in this war are of such a different order that no one can pretend there is any kind of normality to restore. This time it must be different. That much is accepted by Palestinians and Israelis and the outside powers that matter the most.\n\nThe problem is agreeing which future to try to create. The Israeli government is heading for a diplomatic row with the United States, its most important ally, about what happens after the ceasefire.\n\nPresident Joe Biden is exasperated by what he called Israel's \"indiscriminate bombing\" of Gaza. Even so, he continues to back Israel, as he has since the start of the war, by deploying aircraft carriers, sending planeloads of weapons and vetoing ceasefire resolutions at the UN Security Council.\n\nIn return, Joe Biden wants Israel to agree that the only way forward is revive talks to establish an independent Palestinian state. That was the objective of the Oslo peace process, which failed after years of negotiations.\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not said much about how Gaza would be governed if and when he declares victory over Hamas. But he has rejected Joe Biden's plan.\n\nOne constant in Netanyahu's long political career has been opposition to the independent Palestinian state that Oslo tried and failed to produce.\n\nTotal victory and the unconditional surrender of anyone left alive in Hamas remain Israel's objectives. Annihilating Hamas, Mr Netanyahu believes, is the only way to rescue the hostages.\n\nA few hours before Mr Biden said Israel's bombing was indiscriminate, Mr Netanyahu made his own speech.\n\n\"I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo,\" he said. \"After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism. Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan.\"\n\nFatahstan is a derogatory reference to the Palestinian Authority, the rival to Hamas, which recognises Israel and co-operates with it on security.\n\nIsraeli domestic politics feed into Mr Netanyahu's calculations. Opinion polls indicate that many Israelis blame him for the intelligence and security failures that allowed Hamas to break into Israel with such force. By doubling down on his opposition to Palestinian self-determination, Mr Netanyahu is trying to regain the trust of the right-wing Jewish nationalists who support his government.\n\n1200 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October, including from Kibbutz Be'eri\n\nYonatan Zeigen, the son of the slain peace campaigner Vivian Silver, says his mother would have been heartbroken to see the war, believing that wars cause more wars.\n\n\"I think she would have said 'not in my name'… a war, if we're not too naïve, should be a means, right? But it feels like this war is a cause in itself, of revenge.\"\n\nYonatan senses a new opportunity, to put peace back on Israel's political agenda.\n\nPeace campaigners were prominent in Israel until they were discredited as an armed Palestinian uprising erupted after the Oslo process collapsed in 2000. The idea of peace with the Palestinians vanished from mainstream Israeli politics. Now, Yonatan hopes, it is inching its way back.\n\n\"Absolutely. You couldn't even say the word. And now people are talking about it.\"\n\nIssa Amro, the Palestinian activist in Hebron, told me life there is much harder for Palestinians since 7 October.\n\n\"It got much worse. Ten times worse. More restrictions. More violence. More intimidation. People don't feel safe at all. People don't have enough food to eat. People don't get any access to a social life. No schools, no kindergartens, no work. It's a collective punishment inside an area which is very restricted.\"\n\nFormer Palestinian shops in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron\n\nIssa got into a verbal spat with a group of Israeli soldiers while we were walking with him through the centre of Hebron. One of them, in combat gear, with an assault rifle and large pistol in a holster, wearing a black mask that only exposed his eyes, listened closely as Issa told me that peace was the only way ahead as there was no military solution to the conflict. The soldier wouldn't give his name when he butted into the conversation.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"You don't know what it's like to grow up in Israel with neighbours like this,\" he said. \"Gay rights, they beat the women, I saw this with my eyes. Yes. They kill their daughters if they have an affair with someone they don't like. They [Palestinians] are violent. I know them, I live with them. They don't want peace… They hate me. You know I can feel it. I know all the stuff they are telling. I don't talk to them.\"\n\nA chance for a peaceful future, for an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel that the Americans, the British and many other countries say they want, will not emerge without sustained diplomatic and political will and determination.\n\nThe old Oslo format, of negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis brokered by the Americans, ended in failure.\n\nIf there is a next time, one idea mentioned by senior Western diplomats is to make Palestinian independence a crucial part of a broader package of change in the Middle East. Israel would be offered the prize of mutual recognition with Saudi Arabia, if they made the concessions necessary for Palestinian independence. Jordan and Egypt would be crucial players, as countries who have made lasting peace with Israel. Also vital would be Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, immensely wealthy Gulf states. Like the Saudis, they need peace in the Middle East as they spend hundreds of billions establishing themselves as global players.\n\nA blueprint already exists. Twenty years ago, the Saudi peace plan offered Israel full recognition and peace with Arab states, in return for a viable and sovereign Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, with a capital in East Jerusalem. It could be relaunched by extending the existing Abraham Accords between Israel and some Arab countries, but adding to it the price tag of a Palestinian state.\n\nIt is an ambitious idea, that would not happen without new Israeli and Palestinian leaders who believed in the project.\n\nThe Americans could mediate, though they would have to be even-handed, something they have never managed before. Both sides would have to be prepared to make painful compromises on cherished beliefs, especially concerning territory. Political storms would break over leaders prepared to take risks for peace.\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist in 1995 when he tried to make peace with the Palestinians. An Islamist extremist killed Egypt's President Anwar Sadat because he made peace with Israel.\n\nAnd the war in Gaza would have to end as soon as possible. If it spreads, nightmare scenarios include desperate Palestinians breaching the Egyptian border as Israeli tanks close in and the escalation into full-scale war of the current cross-border exchanges between Israel and the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah.\n\nSo much needs to go right for peace to have a chance. So much has already gone wrong that peace might just be impossible.", "Left to right: Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka\n\nThree Israeli hostages mistakenly killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza were shot dead while holding a white cloth, an Israeli military official says.\n\nThe official said the case was \"against our rules of engagement\" and an investigation was happening at the \"highest level\".\n\nThe hostages - Yotam Haim, 28, Samer Talalka, 22, and Alon Shamriz, 26 - were killed in Shejaiya on Friday.\n\nIsraeli troops have been facing stiff resistance in the area near Gaza City.\n\nThe case has added pressure on Israeli authorities to reach a deal for the release of the more than 120 captives who remain in Gaza.\n\nThe wait of their families has gripped Israel, as the military carries out its offensive against Hamas.\n\nSpeaking at a news conference, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would be no let-up in the Israeli operations.\n\n\"Military pressure is necessary both for the return of the hostages and for victory. Without military pressure... we have nothing,\" he said.\n\nHamas, for its part, said it had told mediators there would be no negotiations to release hostages \"unless the aggression against our people stops once and for all\".\n\nAn Israeli military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said an initial investigation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) suggested the three hostages emerged shirtless from a building, with one carrying a stick with a white cloth.\n\nOne of the soldiers, the official added, felt threatened, as the men were at a distance of tens of metres, declared them \"terrorists\" and opened fire. Two were immediately killed while the third, wounded, returned to the building.\n\nA cry for help was heard in Hebrew and the battalion commander ordered the troops to cease fire. The wounded hostage later re-emerged, and was shot and killed, the official said.\n\nThe hostages had either been abandoned by their captors or escaped, the official added.\n\nA building with a message SOS was found in the area, and the authorities were investigating whether it was linked to the killed hostages.\n\nMeanwhile Wichian Temthong, a freed Thai hostage who was held with the three men, recalled his time with them, saying that, as they had no common language they used hand signals to communicate and give each other moral support. He was \"very shocked\" and \"saddened\" to learn of the deaths of the men he spent nearly 50 days in captivity with, he said.\n\nHostages' relatives are keeping up pressure on the Israeli government\n\nSince the end of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas earlier this month, the families have urged the Israeli government to reach a new truce for at least some of the captives to be freed. The initial deal led to the release of more than 100 hostages, in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.\n\nIn Tel Aviv, thousands of people gathered outside the city's Museum of Art, in what is now known as Hostages Square, and called for a truce, chanting \"Bring them home now\".\n\n\"It's our biggest fear what happened - hostages who were alive are now dead,\" Naama Weinberg, whose cousin Itai Svirsky is a hostage, said at the vigil. \"We don't need bodies, or bags. Make a ceasefire until all hostages are back, alive. Every day that passes by we're just discovering more and more names of hostages that were taken alive and are now coming back dead.\"\n\nThe war in Gaza, launched in response to the Hamas attacks that killed around 1,200 in Israel, has killed more than 18,000 people, according to the local health authorities, and pushed hundreds of thousands of others from their homes.\n\nVast areas of the territory have been destroyed, and the United Nations has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe amid widespread shortages of basic supplies.\n\nIsraeli authorities say the offensive's goal is to destroy Hamas and release the hostages.\n\nAmid mounting Palestinian civilian casualties, Israeli authorities have come under growing international pressure, including from the country's main ally, the US, but they have resisted calls for a ceasefire.\n\nMr Netanyahu deflected the pressure again on Saturday.\n\n\"Despite grief, despite international pressure, we continue until the end, nothing will stop us,\" he said.\n\nThe BBC's Thanyarat Doksone in Bangkok contributed to this article", "Bear spends five months outside with the flock of 600 turkeys guarding them day and night\n\nA pair of Italian sheepdogs, trained to ward off bears and wolves, have helped protect a flock of Christmas turkeys.\n\nFarmer George Ford, from Blagdon, uses two Maremma sheepdogs - Bear and Holly - between August and December to guard his 600 free range turkeys.\n\nMr Ford, said: \"When Bear was a puppy he would play and try and pick up a bird in his mouth but now we can leave him in with them all day and night.\"\n\nHe added without the dogs he would not be able to raise his turkeys outside.\n\nMr Ford, who runs Nempnett Pasture, got Bear three years ago to guard his turkeys which live outside 24/7.\n\nRecently, Bear (right) was joined by rescue dog Holly (left) another Maremma\n\nHe said the large white fluffy Maremma has been bred as a livestock guardian dog.\n\n\"It's an Italian sheep guardian dog breed, so they're bred to live up in the Alps with flocks of sheep to protect them from wolves and bears,\" he said.\n\n\"Bear's big, he's about 50 kilos and three to four times the size of a fox so he's a real deterrent for foxes, badgers and other predators.\"\n\nDespite his size, Mr Ford said there were no bird fatalities or casualties during Bear's early training.\n\n\"As soon as we got him we put him in with the birds, behind a poultry net,\" he said.\n\n\"There was one chicken that got into Bear's enclosure and when I saw the chicken on its back with its legs in the air covered in slobber, I thought 'oh no'.\n\n\"But when I put it back in with the other birds it stood up on its feet and was fine. And it only happened the once.\"\n\nMr Ford says Bear is three to four times the size of a fox and is a \"real deterrent\".\n\nThe turkeys, the majority of which have now been slaughtered, were delivered to the farm in August.\n\nEight weeks later, once they were fully feathered they were released outside with the guard dogs.\n\nMr Ford said the turkeys: \"just love it, [being outside], pecking at the grass, pecking at bugs\n\n\"We used to put the turkeys in a big building and shut them in at night for protection,\" he said.\n\n\"Now there's no shed to house them at night. so the dogs are there to keep predators away.\"\n\nRecently, Bear has been joined by rescue dog Holly, another Maremma.\n\nThe pair live outside with the chickens from April to August and are split up when the turkeys arrive in the summer.\n\n\"Holly's not as gentle as Bear, she'll just run through the flocks as if they're not there but she's very protective,\" he said.\n\n\"They [the dogs] stay out the whole time. We provide them with a shelter but they don't use it - only in the summer for some shade - they're built for the Alps.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "", "Footage shows the moment a landslide swept down a mountainside into Lake Garda, Italy.\n\nThe landslide created large waves and disrupted traffic on roads near the town of Tremosine.\n\nRescue teams were deployed to the scene, but Italian firefighters confirmed no one was injured in the incident.", "A younger Alex Batty, pictured before he went missing\n\nBritish teenager Alex Batty, who was found in France after being missing for six years, has returned to the UK, Greater Manchester Police has said.\n\nAlex, his mother and grandfather all vanished in 2017 while they were on holiday in Spain.\n\nHis mother does not have parental guardianship of the 17-year-old and her current whereabouts are unknown.\n\nThe force said at a press conference it is yet to establish the circumstances about his disappearance.\n\nPolice are yet to determine whether there will be a criminal investigation.\n\nAlex was found on Wednesday by a motorist, who spotted him on a road in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, near Toulouse.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Matt Boyle said his force are yet to determine whether there will be a criminal investigation\n\nSpeaking at a news conference on Saturday night, GMP Assistant Chief Constable Matt Boyle said Alex was met at Toulouse airport by a family member and specially-trained officers earlier, before flying back to the UK.\n\n\"This moment was undoubtedly huge for him and his loved ones and we're glad that they have been able to see each other again after all this time.\"\n\nGMP said as it had not obtained formal statements from Alex, it could not comment on details disclosed by French authorities about what he may have been doing while he has been missing.\n\n\"Speaking with him at a pace that feels comfortable to him will ultimately determine how this case is progressed and whether a criminal investigation is to ensue,\" ACC Boyle added.\n\n\"We are yet to fully establish the circumstances surrounding his disappearance.\"\n\nAlex is believed to have been living a nomadic lifestyle in spiritual communities with his mother and grandfather for the past few years.\n\nMelanie and David Batty left Greater Manchester with Alex for a pre-agreed week-long holiday to Marbella in Spain on 30 September 2017.\n\nHe was last seen at the Port of Malaga on 8 October that year, the day they were expected to return to the UK.\n\nIt is understood that, since that time, Alex had been living in the remote Pyrenean valleys, travelling about from place to place in a kind of itinerant commune.\n\nThe area in the foothills of the Pyrenees is known for attracting people in search of alternative lifestyles.\n\nResidents of the small hamlet of La Bastide in the Pyrenees have told the BBC that Alex had been staying at a guesthouse on and off for the past two years.\n\nFrench officials said he decided to leave when his mother wanted to go to Finland.\n\nAlex is believed to have walked through the mountainous terrain of southern France for four days before being found by a delivery driver in the middle of the night.\n\nThe driver, Fabien Accidini, said he lent the teenager his phone and let him use his Facebook account to contact his grandmother, Susan Caruana.\n\n\"I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found safe and well,\" she said in a statement issued by police on Friday.\n\nShe added it was \"so good to hear his voice and see his face again\".\n\nShe requested privacy for the family, so that they could \"make his return as comforting as possible\".", "The disastrous incident in which Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops shot dead three Israeli hostages in Gaza on Friday, mistaking them for Hamas fighters despite their waving a white cloth, is a graphic illustration of the risks involved in armed hostage rescue.\n\nMaj Gen Charlie Herbert, a retired British Army general who served on 13 operational tours including Iraq and Afghanistan, told the BBC: \"As desperately sad as it is, the shooting dead of the three hostages... again calls into question IDF tactics, proportionality and distinction. One can only imagine how many civilians have been killed in similar circumstances.\"\n\nThe IDF says it takes great care to avoid harming civilians, but the horrific death toll in Gaza - more than 18,000 and rising - has caused Israel to be accused of indiscriminate bombing.\n\nIn nearly every case of kidnap in history, those abducted stand a far better chance of emerging alive and unscathed through mediation and a deal, rather than by armed intervention.\n\nOne of the first hostage cases I covered was when Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in Yemen abducted 16 Western tourists in 1998. The British ambassador went to see the interior minister to press for a negotiated release of the hostages. Too late, he was told, the Yemeni army has already gone in. A quarter of those kidnapped were killed in the ensuing firefight, with others injured.\n\nWestern and Israeli special forces have spent decades perfecting the art of hostage rescue, but even then it doesn't always go to plan. Israel's Operation Thunderbolt in Entebbe, Uganda in 1976 rescued 102 of the 106 hostages, but the commander of the Israeli commandos was killed. Today his brother, Benjamin Netanyahu, is prime minister.\n\nKilled by the IDF by mistake: (L-R) Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka\n\nThe 1980 SAS siege of the Iranian embassy in London is perhaps the most iconic hostage rescue of modern times, as it took place in the full glare of the TV cameras.\n\nWhen a British journalist, Stephen Farrell, was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2009 he was rescued by British Special Forces. But the raid also resulted in the deaths of one of his rescuers, two civilians and his Afghan interpreter.\n\nThe following year a US Navy SEAL team attempted to rescue the British aid worker Linda Norgrove, also kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The raid killed her kidnappers but she died from a grenade thrown by one of her rescuers.\n\nIn 2012 a British Special Forces operation to free one British and one Italian hostage in Nigeria was ruined when one of the Nigerian soldiers fired his weapon prematurely, alerting the kidnappers who then murdered their captives.\n\nMany hostage cases in Yemen have been resolved peacefully over the years, usually through lengthy tribal negotiations accompanied by interminable narcotic qat-chewing sessions. But ultimately, much depends on the demands and intentions of the kidnappers.\n\nIn the case of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State group (IS), the jihadist kidnappers never really had any intention of releasing their US and British captives. Instead they were aiming for maximum psychological impact by killing them on camera. In those situations, armed intervention, if they can be located, is usually the only option available.\n\nSharon Avigdori, seen hugging her husband, is among more than 100 hostages released after being abducted and taken to Gaza by Hamas\n\nHamas is something of a hybrid case. The atrocities committed in their raid into southern Israel on 7 October were gratuitously cruel and violent. Yet they have subsequently been willing to bargain the release of more than 100 hostages.\n\nToday, Israel's hostage relatives are all too aware that nearly all those already released won their freedom not by daring military action but by painstaking negotiations and mediation by Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States. To date, only one Israeli hostage, Private Ori Megedish, has been rescued by force.\n\nBut doing a deal with kidnappers, especially those considered by many governments to be terrorists, can be a bitter pill to swallow. Hostage-takers will demand something in return.\n\nIn the case of Hamas, that has meant releasing large numbers of prisoners from Israeli jails, pausing the fighting and significantly increasing the amount of aid getting into Gaza.\n\nYet any further successful return of the hostages, says Gen Herbert, can only come about through diplomatic means: \"There is no effective military solution to this issue in Gaza.\"", "UK MP Layla Moran says she has several relatives who are trapped in a church in Gaza as Israeli forces operate nearby.\n\nShe says no food is getting into the Holy Family church complex in Gaza city, where hundreds of civilians - including dozens of disabled people are sheltering.\n\n\"No one can go in and out. They are absolutely terrified,\" Moran told the BBC.\n\nHer relatives and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem say a mother and daughter were killed inside the Holy Family Church complex on Saturday by what appeared to be sniper fire.", "Strikes are being held on Friday and Saturday, with another day of action scheduled for 22 December\n\nPublic transport workers in Northern Ireland are staging a 48-hour strike in a dispute about pay.\n\nTrade unions Unite, GMB and Siptu are involved in the action on what is traditionally one of the busiest weekends before Christmas.\n\nTranslink has apologised for \"any inconvenience\" that will be caused.\n\nDr Graham Gault, from the National Association of Headteachers, said many hundreds of pupils could not attend school as a result of the strike.\n\nHe added there were additional impacts on school meals and school trips.\n\n\"The employers really should have settled this dispute long before now, thereby avoiding the widespread impacts across education,\" Dr Gault told BBC News NI.\n\nThe Education Authority said it was expecting \"significant disruption\" to school transport given the \"scale of the action\", which has affected bus, rail and Glider services.\n\nA further strike is also scheduled for 22 December.\n\nEamon Sturgeon, a bus driver on a picket line in Belfast, said workers felt they had \"no other option but to strike\".\n\n\"The support from the public is great, they understand that we deserve to be paid right,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bus and rail strikes: Why NI's public transport isn't running (in 109 seconds)\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has been engaged in talks with Stormont's largest parties this week about the restoration of the executive, with a £2.5bn financial package on offer from the UK government.\n\nThis would include provision for public sector pay increases.\n\nThe unions previously took strike action on 1 December.\n\nOn Friday, Davy Thompson from Unite said the action being taken is \"both proportionate and reasonable\".\n\nHe said that strike action is a \"very last resort\", adding: \"The secretary of state with the stroke of a pen could fix this.\"\n\nTranslink staff gathered at Belfast's Lanyon Place station to demonstrate over pay\n\nDamien Doherty, a bus driver in Londonderry, said on Friday: \"There isn't anybody standing on a picket line this morning that actually wants to be on a picket line, we've been forced out on to it.\"\n\nHe told BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster workers \"are sick to the back teeth of potential, we want concrete pay talks\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI at the picket line in Derry on Friday morning, Brian Warke, a bus driver at Pennyburn bus depot in the city, said his colleagues are struggling.\n\n\"People can't pay their mortgages,\" he said.\n\n\"We have been offered a zero per cent pay rise this year from April. And that's why we have had to make this decision today to come out together.\n\n\"We just need help here.\"\n\nBus driver Eamon Sturgeon in Belfast said workers had \"no other option but to strike\"\n\nDavid Shearer, a train conductor and union representative with SIPTU in Londonderry, added: \"We are frontline workers and have worked all through the Covid-19 pandemic and the government aren't taking us seriously.\"\n\nHe was joined by conductors, train signallers and porters on the picket line at the city's North West Transport Hub on Friday.\n\n\"I've been here from 06:30 this morning and we haven't had one complaint from anyone who missed a train or anyone walking past,\" he said.\n\nThe action has faced criticism from representatives of the hospitality and retail sectors as it falls during one of the most lucrative periods for both.\n\nStephen Margorrian, of hospitality collective Horatio Group, said the latest round of strikes could lead to some closing their doors for good.\n\n\"We're expecting to be down quite a considerable amount,\" he explained.\n\n\"I know for a lot of businesses in our sector, they were already pessimistic about next year and for some people this will just be destruction.\"\n\nChristmas is the busiest time of year for many hospitality businesses, Stephen Margorrian says\n\nRetail NI chief executive Glyn Roberts said the timing of strikes \"leaves a lot to be desired\" as it targets some of the industry's busiest days.\n\n\"There are independent retailers that are on life support who are depending on this Christmas to help them through to keep the doors open and to keep workers employed,\" he said.\n\nHe urged unions to reconsider planned action for next week and wait for a political breakthrough.\n\nJanice Gault, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation, said her industry had not reported many room cancellations so far but the strike had affected staff travel and some passing trade.\n\n\"We would like to see people dropping in for that ad hoc drink - a glass of wine, cup of coffee, and if people aren't coming in to shop, that's a big impact,\" she said.\n\n\"We aren't a standalone business; we're relying on bars, restaurants and the retail industry who have no doubt been very severely impacted by this.\"\n\nTranslink said it was \"fully committed to entering constructive pay negotiations,\" adding: \"This can only be done once the budget issue has been resolved\".\n\n\"This situation impacts all public sector workers and needs to be resolved at the NI Executive level,\" it said.\n\n\"We have urged our colleagues to reconsider and pause this action in light of the social and economic impact it will have at this time and to await the outcome of political talks.\"\n\nThe key to why we have seen so much disruption in the public sector is because people have seen the real value of their wages eroded quite substantially in a short period of time.\n\nIf Stormont was to come back next week, people, for example, would not expect to see their pay increasing in their January pay packet.\n\nThere's certainly money on the table, but there would have to be a process; an agreement reached between employers and unions, before you would actually see that pay flowing through to people.\n\nSo you could even be talking up into the spring before all that's sorted out.\n\nThe president of the Secondary Students Union NI (SSUNI) said young people were among the hardest hit as they were among the main users of public transport.\n\n\"Some schools have closed today, further disrupting education, while many students will not have been able to get into school,\" said Ellen Taylor from SSUNI.\n\n\"However, while we do not appreciate this disruption to education, we also acknowledge that Translink workers are underpaid and undervalued, and we support their calls for a pay rise.\n\n\"This is an endemic issue across Northern Ireland,\" she added, stating that public sector workers were taken for granted.\n\nOne of the private companies which operates services linking City of Derry, Belfast International and Dublin airports says it will be doubling its capacity on Friday and Saturday.\n\nMany have called for cars to be allowed to use the bus lanes as the volume of traffic is expected to increase considerably on Friday and Saturday.\n\nIn a statement the Department for Infrastructure said bus lanes would remain operational during the industrial action for \"cyclists, motorcyclists, permitted taxis, any operating buses, which could include buses provided by health and education authorities, and the emergency services\".\n\n\"Bus lane enforcement will continue as normal,\" it continued.", "Olly Alexander is the highest-profile musician to represent the UK in years\n\n\"I'm scared, but I'm excited,\" says Olly Alexander. \"I've wanted to do this for a really, really long time.\"\n\nThe star is backstage at Strictly Come Dancing, minutes after revealing live on air that he would be singing for the UK at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest.\n\n\"It's all a bit of a blur,\" he says of the announcement, but reality is starting to sink in.\n\nHis phone buzzes with an endless stream of messages from family, friends, cousins and even his neighbourhood pet owner's group.\n\nHe has yet to organise who will look after his cats when he heads to Malmö for the contest next year - but that's just one of the many big decisions heading his way, including choreography, staging, costumes, and expanding his Swedish vocabulary from its current tally of one word: Tack (thank you).\n\nPlumping himself down on a horrible lime green sofa, he settles in for the first (of many) interviews about his Eurovision dreams.\n\nCongratulations, Olly! How long have you been sitting on this news?\n\nI've known for about two months. It's been really tough to keep it secret.\n\nIt goes right back to being a kid and watching the show with my family - ordering pizza and spending all night in front of the TV watching this insane, amazing show.\n\nIt's a bit like a spiritual homecoming for me because I love Eurovision so much.\n\nWhat makes it so special for you?\n\nI love the theatrics, the drama. There's such an amazing chaos of different musical styles and performers. You get so much on one night. It's just so fun and camp.\n\nThe staging is always a big deal… You must be looking at books and books of costume ideas.\n\nOh, for sure. It's fun just imagining what you could do on stage - but it has to be achievable in a short amount of time because there's such a quick turnaround [between acts].\n\nYou've worked with Lady Gaga in the past. Maybe she could lend you her meat dress.\n\nI'm a vegetarian, Mark! I wouldn't be putting that on!\n\nA Tofurky dress! But, yeah, it needs to be a wow moment. Maybe there could be multiple outfits. Three minutes, three costumes.\n\nI know you haven't revealed the song yet, but is there anything you can tell us?\n\nI wrote the song with Danny Harle, and it'll be coming next year. And it's really good.\n\nFor people who don't know, Danny has written with Charli XCX and Dua Lipa - so this is going to be really cutting-edge, forward-thinking pop, right?\n\nThat's definitely the vibe. It's gonna be electronic, something you can dance to. But yeah, I can't say much more than that.\n\nThat's actually quite a lot!\n\nI mean, it wasn't gonna be a ballad. Or maybe it could have been a ballad. I love a ballad. Am I saying too much now?\n\nAlexander is also a Bafta-nominated actor for his work in the Channel 4 drama It's A Sin\n\nNormally, the BBC doesn't announce who's going to be doing Eurovision until February or March so this suggests you're really taking it seriously.\n\nYeah, that's good though, right?\n\nI hope so! Are you going to tour Europe promoting the song, so that people are already familiar with it by May?\n\nOh, definitely. I can't wait to get out there and meet the fans and everyone else taking part. It's going to be the wildest experience of my life.\n\nAs a Eurovision fan, you know that the UK doesn't have the best track record. How does that weigh on your mind?\n\nIt's a competition, so you never know what's going to happen on the night. I'm just going to give it my best shot and not think about any of that and make the most of it.\n\nOne advantage is that you've tons of stage experience from playing events like Glastonbury.\n\nYeah, it's not my first time at the rodeo. I mean, this will be my first time at Eurovision - but I'm going to take all that stuff that I've learned from all the stages I've been on and just put it all into this performance. It's going to be my mission to do something incredible.\n\nAnd you're doing it as Olly Alexander, not Years and Years. What's behind that decision?\n\nI've wanted to do it for a while, I suppose. It felt like this was the right time to start releasing music under my name. A new chapter and new music.\n\nFinally, I have to ask: What's your favourite Eurovision song of all time?\n\nOh, that's so hard… I knew you'd ask me that and I actually do love Euphoria by Loreen. It's one of the best ones ever.\n\nAnd she'll be in Sweden next year as the returning champion.", "Last updated on .From the section Luton\n\nLuton Town captain Tom Lockyer is \"stable\" after he suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch during the abandoned Premier League match at Bournemouth, his club confirmed.\n\nBoth sets of players were taken off midway through the second half as Lockyer received medical treatment.\n\nThe 29-year-old was responsive as he was carried off on a stretcher to applause and taken to hospital.\n\nLuton said Lockyer was \"stable and currently undergoing further tests\".\n\n\"Our medical staff have confirmed that the Hatters captain [Tom Lockyer] suffered cardiac arrest on the pitch, but was responsive by the time he was taken off on the stretcher,\" Luton said.\n\n\"He received further treatment inside the stadium, for which we once again thank the medical teams from both sides.\n\n\"Tom was transferred to hospital, where we can reassure supporters that he is stable and currently undergoing further tests with his family at his bedside.\"\n\nFollowing confirmation the game was abandoned, both the Luton and Bournemouth players came back out on to the pitch to applaud the supporters, with Hatters manager Rob Edwards visibly emotional.\n\nLockyer collapsed during the play-off final win against Coventry in May before being taken to hospital.\n\nHe subsequently had heart surgery and was given the all-clear to return to playing in June.\n\nThe Premier League said in a statement: \"The match between AFC Bournemouth and Luton Town FC has been abandoned due to a player medical incident.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with Tom Lockyer and all players involved in today's match.\"\n\nLuton called for players, staff and supporters \"to come together\" in support of Lockyer and his family.\n\n\"We are sorry to all supporters present that players from both sides were in no state of mind to continue with the game after seeing their much-loved team-mate and friend taken off like that and staff could not carry on with managing the game in such circumstances,\" Luton said.\n\n\"We thank everyone for the wonderful applause and singing of Locks' [Lockyer's] name inside the stadium at such a difficult time.\"\n\nBournemouth responded to Luton's update on Lockyer's condition, saying: \"We're relieved to hear Tom is responsive.\"\n\nThe club added: \"Our thoughts will continue to be with Tom and his family at this time. We'd like to thank all the medical staff for their quick action as well as everyone inside the stadium for their support and unity during a difficult moment.\"\n• None Our coverage of Luton Town is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Hatters - go straight to all the best content", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUK MP Layla Moran says her relatives are among hundreds of civilians trapped in a Catholic Church in Gaza City as Israeli forces operate nearby.\n\nThe Liberal Democrat says her family are \"days away from dying\" without access to water or food.\n\nThe Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem say a mother and daughter were killed inside the Holy Family Church complex on Saturday by sniper fire.\n\nThe IDF said it found no evidence to show the incident took place.\n\nIn a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said: \"During the dialogue between the IDF and representatives of the community, no reports of a hit on the church, nor civilians being injured or killed, were raised.\n\n\"A review of the IDF's operational findings support this.\"\n\nThe Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said two Christian women - named as Nahida and her daughter Samar - were shot and killed while walking to a building in the church complex known as the Sister's Convent.\n\n\"One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,\" a statement said. Seven more people were shot and wounded as they \"tried to protect others inside the church compound\" on Saturday.\n\nThe patriarchate said no warning had been given and added: \"They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents.\"\n\nThe patriarchate said that earlier on Saturday an Israeli tank fired on part of the church compound with 54 disabled people inside. It caused a fire that destroyed the building's generator, the only source of electricity, and some of the disabled people can no longer use their respirators, the statement said.\n\nMembers of Ms Moran's extended family - a grandmother, her son, his wife and their 11-year-old twins - are Christian Palestinians who sought refuge inside the church after their home was bombed in the first week of the war.\n\nThey have been staying on mattresses along with dozens of others in rooms in the Holy Family Church for more than 60 days.\n\n\"I'm now no longer sure they are going to survive until Christmas,\" Ms Moran told the BBC.\n\nThey have been keeping in touch with Ms Moran and other family members sporadically through WhatsApp messages and calls - though they have no internet and power is intermittent.\n\nA sixth member of the family - a grandfather - died last month after not being able to get to hospital to receive medical treatment, Ms Moran says.\n\nThe five remaining members say they now no longer have access to food or water, and the last remaining generator - which was pumping water from wherever they could get it - has stopped working in the church.\n\nThey say soldiers entered the church compound in the last 24 hours and took over a room in a building.\n\nEarlier in the week, the family heard shots being fired and saw bullet casings in the church compound. They say two men were killed on Tuesday while they were coming and going from the building - a bin collector and a janitor.\n\nThe family have sent a photo, seen by the BBC, of two bodies lying on a street outside the church building. Ms Moran's relatives say the bodies have been decaying outside for days. The BBC has not verified the circumstances of what the image shows.\n\nMs Moran says there has been no explanation as to why Israeli soldiers would target the church and no warnings or leaflets were sent to people sheltering there.\n\n\"It does feel like it's making a mockery of keeping civilians safe,\" Ms Moran adds.\n\nIsrael says it is carrying out military operations in Gaza to \"eradicate\" Hamas and rescue hostages taken by the group.\n\nEarly on in the war Israel told people in northern Gaza to move to southern Gaza for their safety. It has also paused military activity in some areas for short periods to allow people to leave. There was also a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to allow a swap of some Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.\n\nHowever Israel has also bombed southern Gaza, where it told people to go, and a large number of Palestinians have remained in Gaza City and other northern areas.\n\nMs Moran says she has been in touch with a number of countries about getting her relatives out of Gaza, but the situation is \"incredibly complex\".\n\nShe adds that the family have considered trying to travel to Rafah in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt but say it is too dangerous while no ceasefire is in place.\n\nHamas broke through Israel's heavily guarded perimeter on 7 October, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages - some of whom were released during the brief truce.\n\nThe health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says more than 18,700 people have been killed and 50,000 injured in the enclave since the start of the Gaza war.", "Three Israeli hostages mistakenly killed by soldiers in Gaza on Friday had used leftover food to write signs pleading for help, Israel says.\n\nThe men had been staying at the building next to where they were shot \"for some period of time\", according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).\n\nThe head of the IDF told troops that they are \"absolutely not\" permitted to shoot those surrendering.\n\n\"The IDF doesn't shoot a person who raises their hands,\" said Herzi Halevi.\n\nHe said Gazans with a white flag must be arrested and not shot \"if they lay down their arms and raise their hands\".\n\nAbout 120 hostages are believed to be still in captivity in the Gaza Strip, held by Hamas and allied Palestinian groups.\n\nIsrael is under increasing pressure for a deal to free more hostages.\n\nIsraeli officials have admitted that killing the three men who were holding a white flag was a breach of \"rules of engagement\".\n\nThey were seized and taken to Gaza during the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed around 1,200 in southern Israel.\n\nIsrael has launched a massive retaliatory operation it says is aimed at destroying Hamas.\n\nMore than 18,000 people have been killed in Gaza since, according to the local health authorities, with hundreds of thousands of others pushed out of their homes.\n\nThe Israeli hostages - Yotam Haim, 28, Samer Talalka, 22, and Alon Shamriz, 26 - were killed in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City on Friday as Israeli troops face stiff resistance.\n\nAccording to an Israeli military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the men emerged shirtless from a building, with one carrying a stick with a white cloth.\n\nOne of the soldiers, the official added, felt threatened, as the men were at a distance of tens of metres, declared them \"terrorists\" and opened fire. Two were immediately killed while the third, wounded, returned to the building.\n\nLeft to right: Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka\n\nA cry for help was heard in Hebrew and the battalion commander ordered the troops to cease fire. The wounded hostage later re-emerged, and was shot and killed, the official said.\n\nIt is not clear if the hostages had been abandoned by their captors or escaped.\n\nOn Sunday, the IDF said a search of the building was carried out, revealing the messages \"SOS\" and \"Help, 3 hostages\" written on fabric.\n\nOfficials believe the hostages had been there for some time.\n\nSince the end of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas earlier this month, families of the hostages have urged the Israeli government to reach a new truce for at least some of the captives to be freed. The initial deal led to the release of more than 100 hostages, in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.\n\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has deflected the calls, insisting \"military pressure is necessary both for the return of the hostages and for victory\".\n\nAmid mounting Palestinian civilian casualties, Israeli authorities have come under growing international pressure, including from the country's main ally, the US.\n\nOn Sunday, France's Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna went to Israel calling for an \"immediate and durable truce\".\n\nHer Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen said a ceasefire would be an error, describing it as a gift to Hamas.\n\nThe UK and Germany have also called for a \"sustainable ceasefire\", whilst stopping short of saying it should be immediate.\n\nVast areas of the Gaza Strip have been destroyed by the Israeli bombardment, and the United Nations has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe amid widespread shortages of basic supplies.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nImages on social media on Sunday showed Gaza residents climbing on aid lorries.\n\nWith no let-up in the fighting, the IDF published images of what it said was Hamas's largest attack tunnel so far.\n\nThe tunnel - in some places wide enough for cars to pass through - was some 400m from the Erez border crossing with Israel, the IDF said.\n\nThe IDF says the tunnel is only 400m from the Erez crossing used by Gazans working in Israel before the war", "The Destroyer HMS Diamond only recently arrived in the region\n\nA British warship has shot down a suspected attack drone in the Red Sea, the defence secretary has said.\n\nHMS Diamond, a Type 45 Destroyer, successfully destroyed the target on Saturday, Grant Shapps said.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said it was the first time in decades the Royal Navy had shot an aerial target in anger.\n\nThe MoD did not say who was behind the incident, but Yemen's Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for recent attacks in the Red Sea.\n\nThe Houthis have targeted foreign ships in the area since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. They have declared support for Hamas and have said they were targeting ships travelling to Israel.\n\nMerchant shipping was believed to be the drone's intended target in Saturday's incident, the defence secretary said.\n\nThe Red Sea lies between north Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and connects the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal.\n\nHMS Diamond was sent to the region just two weeks ago \"to bolster international efforts to maintain maritime security\", Mr Shapps said in a statement.\n\nThe defence secretary said the attacks represented \"a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security\" in the Red Sea.\n\n\"The UK remains committed to repelling these attacks to protect the free flow of global trade,\" he added.\n\nOne Sea Viper missile fired and successfully destroyed the target, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said\n\nEarlier this month, the US military said the Unity Explorer, sailing under the flag of the Bahamas and owned by a British company, was among three commercial vessels targeted in an attack by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.\n\nOn Friday, shipping company Maersk told all its vessels planning to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea to \"pause their journey until further notice\" after a missile attack on a Liberian-flagged cargo ship.\n\nAbout 50 large merchant ships pass through the strait every day while double that number pass through the Strait of Hormuz.\n\nAccording to the MoD, the last time the Royal Navy shot down an aerial target in anger was in the First Gulf War in 1991, when Type 42 Destroyer HMS Gloucester destroyed an Iraqi Silkworm missile bound for a US warship.\n\nFirst Sea Lord Admiral Sir Ben Key said: \"One sixth of the world's commercial shipping passes through the Bab-al-Mandeb Strait and Red Sea.\n\n\"HMS Diamond deployed at short notice to the region from Portsmouth just two weeks ago and is already delivering effect together with our American, French and other allies and partners.\n\n\"The Royal Navy is committed to upholding the right to free use of the oceans and we do not tolerate indiscriminate threats or attacks against those going about their lawful business on the high seas.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Michelle Mone: \"I'm sorry for not saying straight out: Yes, I am involved\"\n\nMichelle Mone has admitted that she stands to benefit from tens of millions of pounds of profit from personal protective equipment (PPE) sold to the UK government during the pandemic by a company led by her husband, Doug Barrowman.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC, the couple apologised for denying their role in the deal for more than three years.\n\nBut a defiant Baroness Mone said: \"I don't honestly see there is a case to answer. I can't see what we have done wrong.\"\n\nPPE Medpro was awarded government contracts worth more than £200 million to supply PPE to the NHS during the pandemic through a so-called \"VIP lane\", introduced to help the government choose between huge numbers of supplier offers.\n\nIn November 2021, the government revealed that Baroness Mone was the \"source of referral\" for PPE Medpro getting a place in the VIP lane.\n\nMillions of gowns the company supplied were never used but the couple say these were supplied in accordance with the contract.\n\nPPE Medpro is being sued by the UK government for £122m plus costs for \"breach of contract and unjust enrichment\".\n\nHaving previously denied gaining directly from the contracts, which yielded profits of around £60m, the former Conservative peer and lingerie tycoon admitted she and her children were beneficiaries of financial trusts where the money is held.\n\nBaroness Mone said \"of course\" she stands to gain, adding: \"If my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children.\"\n\nShe told the BBC her life had been \"destroyed\" by allegations about their PPE profits, even though \"we've only done one thing, which was lie to the press to say we weren't involved\".\n\nShe said that was \"not a crime\" and added: \"No-one deserves this.\"\n\nMr Barrowman said that Baroness Mone \"was always going to benefit, and my family will benefit in due course… her family benefit, my family benefit\".\n\n\"That's what you do when you are in a privileged position of making money,\" he said.\n\nBut Baroness Mone insisted that neither she nor her children had yet seen a penny of the money that is being held in the trust. Nor had the couple used the proceeds of the deal to buy a yacht, she said.\n\nShe also suggested she would not benefit if \"God forbid, we get divorced after this show\".\n\nThe Scottish businesswoman was made a Conservative peer by David Cameron but is no longer in the party.\n\nThe peer, in an exclusive interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, says she stands to benefit from £60m PPE profit.\n\nThe couple confirmed to the BBC that they had been under investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) \"ongoing for two-and-a-half years\", and said that they had both only been interviewed once.\n\nThey also confirmed the investigation was into conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation, and bribery.\n\nThe couple admitted to the BBC that they had lied about their involvement with PPE Medpro.\n\nBaroness Mone said: \"I should have said I am involved, straight away, but I didn't want the press intrusion for my family. My family have gone through hell with the media over my career, and I didn't want another big hoo-ha.\"\n\nThey first made the admission they were linked to the deal during a documentary funded by the company and posted online.\n\nBaroness Mone and Mr Barrowman told the BBC they were \"upfront, straight up people\", and apologised for not telling the truth at the start, saying: \"We both regret that we didn't.\"\n\nMr Barrowman said that he had led the PPE Medpro consortium, even though he is not listed at Companies House as having any connection to the company. He told the BBC that he was, in effect, the ultimate beneficial owner of the firm - the person who ultimately owns or controls a company.\n\nBaroness Mone is also under investigation by the House of Lords for not declaring her interest in PPE Medpro.\n\nShe told the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show that Cabinet Office officials had told her that she only had to declare her interest to them, not the House of Lords.\n\nShe said: \"I discussed it with the Cabinet Office, and you do not declare your interests in the House of Lords if you are not a director, you're not a shareholder, you're not financially benefitting.\"\n\nBaroness Mone claimed an official suggested, she just \"declare your interest to us\".\n\n\"That's exactly what I did,\" she said, \"I did everything they asked me to do.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"If, God forbid, my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children\"\n\nMr Barrowman said \"the Cabinet Office clearly felt there was a perceived conflict, because you have an unusual situation of husband and wife team being together\".\n\nHe told the BBC that PPE Medpro had agreed two contracts, to a value of £202m, making a profit of around £60m, which he described as a \"good return\".\n\nMr Barrowman said there had been \"no guarantee\" that PPE Medpro would be paid until the masks and gowns had been supplied. He added that the \"risks were absolutely extraordinary\".\n\nHe denied that the deal was profiteering, saying that it had presented very competitive prices for the taxpayer.\n\nThe Department of Health launched its claim against PPE Medpro, which is separate to the criminal investigation being carried out by the NCA, a year ago.\n\nMr Barrowman alleged that a government official had suggested he hand over a significant amount of money to \"call off the dogs\", which he took to mean to end the criminal investigation.\n\nHe said: \"They asked me would I pay more for the other matter to go away. I was speechless… I was absolutely gobsmacked.\"\n\nAn NCA spokesperson said: \"The NCA opened an investigation in May 2021 into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro. The NCA is operationally independent and our investigations are intelligence-led.\"\n\nThe Department of Health would not comment.\n\nThe couple said that the government's handling of PPE had been \"shambolic\".\n\nBaroness Mone said: \"It's appalling that over £9.1 billion was overordered, five years of stock, of PPE, when it only has a shelf life of two years. And all I will say, right now, is why are we not holding them to account, the [Department of Health]?\"\n\nShe said that their lives had been \"destroyed\" by the media attention, and that the couple had been scapegoated by the government because they were \"high profile and successful\".\n\nThe baroness, who is currently on a leave of absence from Parliament, said she hadn't yet thought about whether she would hand her title back, but said it was \"appalling\" that Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak had jousted over her situation at Prime Minister's Questions, \"when they don't know the facts\".\n\nDeputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, also speaking on the programme, defended the VIP lane process and refuted claims of cronyism.\n\n\"The government's intention in respect of that was to make sure that if legitimate claims came forward, we'd process them quickly,\" he said.\n\n\"There were no favours or special treatment.\"\n\nHe added that if there was fraud in the couple's case, \"the government will crack down on it\".\n\nWatch the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show on iPlayer.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "When 23-year-old Shih Chin-tay boarded a plane for the United States in the summer of 1969, he was flying to a different world.\n\nHe grew up in a fishing village surrounded by sugarcane fields. He had attended university in Taiwan's capital Taipei, then a city of dusty streets and grey apartment buildings where people rarely owned cars.\n\nNow he was off to Princeton University. The US had just put a man on the Moon and the Boeing 747 in the skies. Its economy was larger than those of the Soviet Union, Japan, Germany and France combined.\n\n\"When I landed, I was shocked,\" Dr Shih, now 77, says. \"I thought to myself: Taiwan is so poor, I must do something to try and help make it better off.\"\n\nAnd he did. Dr Shih and a group of young, ambitious engineers transformed an island that exported sugar and t-shirts into an electronics powerhouse.\n\nToday's Taipei is rich and hip. High-speed trains zip passengers along the west coast of the island at 350km/h (218mph). Taipei 101 - briefly the tallest building in the world - towers over the city, an emblem of its prosperity.\n\nMuch of that is down to a tiny device no larger than a fingernail. The silicon semiconductor - wafer-thin and best-known now as a chip - sits at the heart of every technology we use, from iPhones to airplanes.\n\nTaiwan now makes more than half the chips that power our lives. Its biggest manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), is the ninth-most valuable business in the world.\n\nThat makes Taiwan nearly irreplaceable - and vulnerable. China, fearing it could be cut off from the most advanced chips, is spending billions to steal Taiwan's crown. Or it could take the island, as it has repeatedly threatened to do.\n\nBut Taiwan's path to chip superstardom will not be easy to replicate - the island has a secret sauce, honed through decades of laborious work by its engineers. Plus, the manufacturing relies on a web of economic ties that the escalating US-China rivalry is now trying to undo.\n\nWhen Dr Shih arrived at Princeton, \"the US was just beginning the semiconductor revolution\", he says.\n\nIt had just been a decade since Robert Noyce made the \"monolithic integrated circuit\", packing electronic components onto a single wafer of silicon - an early version of the microchip which kickstarted the personal computer revolution.\n\nDr Shih Chin-tay led Taiwan's foray into chip manufacturing in the 1970s\n\nFor the two years after Dr Shih graduated, he designed memory chips at Burroughs Corporation, second then to IBM in computer-making.\n\nAt the time, Taiwan was hunting for a new national industry following an oil crisis that had pummelled its exports. Silicon seemed like a possibility - and Dr Shih thought he could help: \"I thought it was time to come home.\"\n\nIn the late 1970s, he joined Taiwan's best and brightest electrical engineers at a new research lab - the staid-sounding Industrial Technology Research Institute would play an outsized role in recasting the island's economy.\n\nWork began in Hsinchu, a small city south of Taipei - today it's a global electronics hub, dominated by TSMC's enormous fabrication plants. These chip factories, each the size of several football fields, are some of the cleanest places on earth. The finer manufacturing details are a well-guarded secret, and no outside cameras are allowed.\n\nThe newest factory - the nearly $20bn fab 18 in southern Taiwan - will soon start producing three-nanometre chips destined for next-generation iPhones.\n\nAll of this is far beyond what Dr Shih and his colleagues imagined when they opened an experimental factory in the 1970s. They were hopeful because they had technology licensed from a major US electronics maker - but to everyone's surprise, the factory outperformed its parent. It's hard to explain why and, to this day, the precise formula for Taiwan's success remains elusive.\n\nDr Shih's recollection is more prosaic: \"Output was better than the original RCA plant, with lower costs. So, this gave the government confidence that maybe we really could do something.\"\n\nThe Taiwanese government put up the initial capital - first for the United Micro-electronics Corporation, and then in 1987 for what would become the world's biggest chip factory - TSMC.\n\nShih Chin-tay (second from left at the back) along with other engineers in 1977, soon after returning to Taiwan\n\nTo run it, they recruited Morris Chang, a Chinese-American engineer and former executive at US electronics giant Texas Instruments. It was a stroke of luck or genius, or both - today the 93-year-old is known as the father of Taiwan's semiconductor industry.\n\nBack then, he quickly realised that taking on US and Japanese giants at their own game was a losing proposition. Instead TSMC would only manufacture chips for others, and not design its own.\n\nThis \"foundry model\", which was unheard of in 1987, changed the landscape of the industry and paved the way for Taiwan to become the pack leader.\n\nAnd the timing couldn't have been better. Silicon Valley's new crop of start-ups - including Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia - did not have the funds to build fab plants of their own. And they would struggle to find manufacturers for the chips that they couldn't function without.\n\n\"They would have to go to leading semi-conductor companies and ask if they had any excess production capacity they could use,\" Dr Shih says. \"But then TSMC came along.\"\n\nNow California's \"fabless\" companies could partner with Taiwan's chip makers, who had no interest in stealing their designs or competing with them.\n\n\"Rule number one at TSMC is don't compete with your customers,\" Dr Shih says.\n\nThe world produces more than a trillion chips a year. A modern car has anywhere between 1,500 to 3,000 chips. The iPhone 12 reportedly had around 1,400 semiconductors. A shortfall in 2022, driven by soaring demand for electronics during the pandemic, hit sales of washing machines and BMWs alike.\n\nTaiwan's extraordinary success - the island ships more than half of those trillion-plus chips, and nearly all of the most advanced ones - has been driven by its mastery of volume. In other words, Taiwanese manufacturing is incredibly efficient.\n\nMaking silicon chips is expensive and painstaking. It starts off with a large ingot of ultra-pure silicon grown from a single crystal. Each ingot may take several days to grow and could weigh up to 100kg.\n\nAfter a diamond cutter slices the slab into skinny wafers, a machine uses light to etch tiny circuits onto each wafer. A single wafer may contain hundreds of microprocessors, and billions of circuits.\n\nWhat matters eventually is the yield - the area of each wafer that is usable as a chip. In the 1970s US companies had yields as low as 10% and, at best, 50%. By the 1980s the Japanese were averaging at 60%. TSMC has reportedly surpassed them all with a yield that hovers around 80%.\n\nOver time Taiwanese manufacturers have managed to cram more and more circuits into mind-bogglingly smaller spaces. Using the latest extreme-ultraviolet light lithography machines, TSMC can etch 100 billion circuits on to a single microprocessor, or over 100 million circuits per square millimetre.\n\nWhy are Taiwanese companies so good at this? No-one seems to know exactly why.\n\nDr Shih thinks it's simple: \"We had brand new facilities, with the most up-to-date equipment. We recruited the best engineers. Even the machine operators were highly skilled. And then we didn't just import technology, we absorbed the lessons from our American teachers and applied continuous improvement.\"\n\nA young man who spent several years working at one of Taiwan's largest electronics companies agrees: \"I think Taiwan's companies are bad at making big breakthroughs in technology. But they are very good at taking someone else's idea and making it better. This can be done by trial and error, continuously tweaking small things.\"\n\nThis is important because in a semiconductor fab the machines need to be constantly calibrated. Making microchips is engineering. But it's also more than that. Some have likened it to cooking - like a gourmet feast. Give two chefs the same recipe and ingredients - the better cook will make the better dish.\n\nIn other words, Taiwan has a secret sauce.\n\nWhere it all began: TSMC's headquarters in the Hsinchu Science Park\n\nBut the young man, who did not want to reveal his name, or that of the company, says Taiwanese companies have another advantage.\n\n\"Compared to software engineers in the US, even at the best companies here, engineers are paid quite badly,\" he said. \"But compared to other industries in Taiwan the pay is good. So, if you work for a big electronic company after a few years, you'll be able to get a mortgage, buy a car. You'll be able to get married. So, people suck it up.\"\n\nHe described a six-day week which began each day with a meeting at 07:30 and would usually last until 19:00. He would also be called in on Sundays or holidays if there was a problem at the plant.\n\n\"If people weren't willing to do the job the company would be finished. It's because people are willing to put up with hardship that these companies succeed.\"\n\nIn December 2022 TSMC broke ground on a $40bn plant in the US state of Arizona. It was hailed by President Joe Biden as a sign that high-tech manufacturing was returning to American soil.\n\nSince then the headlines have been somewhat less cheery.\n\nThey Wouldn't Listen To Us: Inside Arizona's Troubled Chip Plant, read one. Another said, TSMC Struggles To Recruit Workers While Facing Pushback From Unions.\n\nChip production was supposed to start next year. Now it's been put back to 2025.\n\nFormer TSMC chairman Dr Chang was deeply sceptical from the start. Last year he described expanding chip production in the US as an \"expensive, wasteful exercise in futility\" because manufacturing chips in the US would be 50% more expensive than in Taiwan. But Taiwan's chip-making prowess has put it at the centre of the tech war between the US and China.\n\nWashington wants to prevent Taiwan supplying China with the cutting-edge chips it fears Beijing will use to accelerate its weapons programs and advance its artificial intelligence.\n\nAfter Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which strangled Europe's gas supply, US politicians are jittery about Taiwan. They fear that the huge concentration of high-end chip production on the island makes the US economy hostage to a Chinese invasion.\n\nBut Taiwanese companies see little economic advantage in moving production off the island. They are doing so reluctantly under political pressure.\n\nPeople in Taiwan resent the idea that they should be blamed for their success - and that Taiwan should voluntarily weaken what many regard as its \"silicon shield\", while the rest of the world vacillates over whether the island and its democratic society is worth protecting from Chinese aggression.\n\nDr Shih says those who are seeking to forcibly restructure global chip production misunderstand its success.\n\n\"If you look at the history of semiconductors, no one country dominates this industry,\" he says. \"Taiwan may dominate the manufacturing sector. But there is a very long supply chain and innovation from every part of it contributes to the growth of the industry. \"\n\nMuch of the world's raw silicon comes from China, although most of it goes to the solar industry. Germany and Japan lead the charge in chemicals that are necessary to process the wafers.\n\nCarl Zeiss, a German optoelectronics company better known for making eyewear and camera lenses, produces optical devices that go into the lithography machines made by a leading Dutch company, ASML. The laborious manufacturing works to designs that originate in American companies or the UK-based Arm.\n\nDr Shih is doubtful Beijing can recreate this supply chain - from materials to design to high-end production - inside China.\n\n\"If they want to create a different model then I wish them luck,\" he says with a shrug. \"Because if you really want innovation, you need everyone to work together from all around the world. It's not one company or one country.\"\n\nHe is just as doubtful about cutting China out as the US has been doing.\n\n\"I think that's probably a major mistake,\" he says. \"When I look back, I feel lucky to have witnessed the extraordinary growth of Taiwan's economy and this long period of peace. Now I see conflict in other parts of the world, and I worry it may come to Asia.\n\n\"I hope people appreciate the precious effort that we made and won't destroy it.\"", "Amiram Cooper, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Tsachi Idan are being held in Gaza\n\nIsrael says 132 people remain unaccounted for after they were abducted and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attacks by Hamas.\n\nAn estimated 240 people were taken prisoner, but 105 were later released by Hamas during a six-day ceasefire at the end of November.\n\nThe Israeli military said it mistakenly killed three hostages in northern Gaza who had escaped from their captors and expressed \"deep remorse\" over the incident.\n\nOf the 132 still unaccounted for, Israel says that 20 of them are believed to be dead.\n\nThese are the stories of those hostages who are still being held, which have either been confirmed by the BBC or credibly reported.\n\nThis list is regularly updated and names may change, as some people feared kidnapped are confirmed to have been killed or released.\n\nLast updated on 19 December 2023 at 10:33 GMT\n\nYagev Kirsht, 34, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nirim, alongside his wife, Rimon Buchstab Kirsht. She has now been released.\n\nAlexander Trupanov, was taken hostage with his mother Lena Trupanov, 50, his partner Sapir Cohen, 29, and his grandmother Irina Tati, 73. All were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz as they spent the Sabbath together, according to a statement by Canada's Raoul Wallenburg Center for Human Rights. Irina and Lena were released on Wednesday 29 November and Sapir was freed the next day.\n\nAriel Cunio, his girlfriend Arbel Yahud and her brother Dolev are also thought to have been abducted in the same attack on Nir Oz. Eitan Cunio, Ariel's brother who escaped Hamas, told the Jewish Chronicle that his last message from Ariel said: \"We are in a horror movie.\"\n\nDavid Cunio, 33, another of Ariel's brothers, was also kidnapped from Nir Oz, family say. David's wife Sharon Aloni Cunio and their three-year-old twin daughters Ema and Yuly were released on 27 November. Sharon's sister Daniele Aloni, and her six-year-old daughter Emilia were both released on 24 November.\n\nDoron Steinbrecher, 30, a veterinary nurse, was in her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas attacked, the Times of Israel reported. At 10:30 on 7 October, the newspaper said, she sent a voice message to friends: \"They've arrived, they have me.\"\n\nItzhak Gelerenter, 53, was taken from the Supernova festival. His family said the IDF found his phone was located in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported. His daughter Pivko told the paper: \"I'm trying to think good thoughts, I have a powerful, smart, resourceful father.\"\n\nDoron Steinbrecher sent a voice message to friends during Hamas' attack\n\nNaama Levy, 19, was filmed being bundled into a jeep, her hands tied behind her back. The footage was released by Hamas and circulated widely on social media. According to her mother, the teenager had just begun her military service.\n\nYousef Zyadna, a 53-year-old Bedouin dairy farmer, was abducted from Kibbutz Holit and taken to Gaza along with his sons Hamza, 22, and Bilal, 18, and his daughter, Aisha, 16. Aisha and Bilal were released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nElad Katzir, 47, was abducted from Nir Oz with his mother Hanna. Hanna has now been released.\n\nOhad Ben Ami, 55, was kidnapped from Be'eri with his wife, Raz. She was released by Hamas on 29 November.\n\nTwin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, 26, were taken from Kfar Aza. Ziv was messaging a friend as the attack happened. Their family said the IDF has told them the brothers are being held in Gaza. Their brother Liran told CBN news the pair had \"twin power\" and were the centre of attention wherever they went.\n\nIraq-born Shlomo Mansour, 85, was taken captive from Kibbutz Kissufim, where he lived and worked as a chicken coop manager. His wife, Mazal, managed to escape.\n\nMichel Nisenbaum, 59, is a dual Brazilian-Israeli citizen who has lived in Israel for 45 years and works as a computer technician, his family told Brazilian media. They also say he is diabetic and has Crohn's disease. On 7 October, they say, someone claiming to be from Hamas answered his phone when they tried to call him.\n\nDaniela Gilboa, 19, sent messages saying that Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where she was staying, was under attack and asked her mother to pray for her. Her boyfriend, Roy Dadon, told the Economist 1843 magazine that he believes he saw a glimpse of her in a video showing three girls being driven away in the back of an SUV.\n\nItay Chen, 19, a dual US-Israeli citizen and IDF solider, was on active duty with a tank unit on 7 October, according to the Times of Israel. The paper reported that his family was notified by the IDF that he is officially considered missing in action and probably being held hostage. Another soldier in his unit, Matan Angrest, 21, is also presumed to be in Gaza.\n\nYosi Sharabi, 51, was taken from Be'eri with his brother, Eli Sharabi, 55. Eli's wife and two daughters were murdered in the attack. Ofir Engel, the boyfriend of Yosi's daughter, Yuval, was also taken, but released on 29 November.\n\nAgam Berger, 19, was kidnapped from Nahal Oz. She was seen being taken away in videos released by Hamas.\n\nEdan Alexander, 19, is an Israeli-US citizen who volunteered to join the Israeli army. He was serving near the Gaza border at the time of Hamas's attack. Edan's family said they had been told by Israeli officials that he had been taken to Gaza as a hostage.\n\nKaid Farhan Elkadi, 53, lives with his family south of Rahat and worked as a security guard, according to Israeli media. Reports said his family believes he was kidnapped and taken to Gaza, based on images shared by Hamas.\n\nIlana Gritzewsky and Matan Zanguaker were captured near the Gaza border, family say\n\nMatan Zanguaker, 24, was taken with his partner Ilana Gritzewsky, 30, from Nir Oz, according to Ilana's father. Ilana, a Mexican national, was released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nThe family of Eitan and Yair Horn believe they were taken from Nir Oz kibbutz\n\nEitan Horn, 37, and his brother Yair, 45, both Argentinian citizens, were also in Nir Oz at the time of the attack. Their father Itzik said he believes they were kidnapped. Yair is a construction worker while Eitan works in education.\n\nItai Svirsky, 38, is thought to have been abducted when his elderly parents were killed in Be'eri. He had been visiting them for the holiday of Simhat Torah.\n\nKeith Seigel, 64, and his wife Adrienne - often known as Aviva - Seigel, 62, were taken from their home in Kfar Aza, Keith's brother Lee Seigel told the BBC. Adrienne was released on 26 November.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, lived in Nahal Oz with his wife and two daughters. Omri was led away by Hamas with his hands tied, his wife Lishay told the Guardian newspaper. She told him not to be a hero, urging: \"Do whatever they want because I want you back.\"\n\nBipin Joshi, 23, a Nepalese student, is believed to have been taken from Kibbutz Alumim. Nepalese newspaper Setopati says he was one of 49 university students studying agriculture in Israel. It says 10 students were killed in the attack.\n\nIlan Weiss, 58, went missing from Kibbutz Be'eri after he was last seen leaving the house to defend the community. On 25 November, his wife Shiri Weiss, 53, and their daughter, Noga, 18, were freed from captivity in a hostage deal.\n\nAmiram Cooper, 85, and his wife Nurit, 80, were taken from their home in Nir Oz, their daughter-in-law Noa told the BBC. The family last spoke to the couple during the Hamas attack, Noa said, when the couple were in their safe room. The family later traced Amiram's phone to Gaza. On Monday 23 October, Nurit was one of two women to be released.\n\nAmiram and Nurit Cooper, pictured with their granddaughter, Gali\n\nOded Lifshitz, 83, and his wife Yocheved, 85 were taken hostage from Nir Oz. On Monday 23 October, Yocheved was one of two elderly women to be freed. After hearing the news of her mother's release, their daughter Sharone - a London-based artist - said: \"While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those - some 200 innocent people - who remain hostages in Gaza.\"\n\nHaim Peri, 79, was taken from his home in Nir Oz, reports the Times of Israel, and freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz said she saw that he was alive and well. His son Lior Peri told Talk TV that Haim had locked his wife inside the safe room before giving himself up to kidnappers.\n\nAvraham Munder, 78, was kidnapped from Nir Oz, Israeli officials say. His wife Ruthi, daughter and grandson have since been released.\n\nOmer Neutra, a 22-year-old Israeli-American and grandson of Holocaust survivors, put off plans to go to college in the US to study in Israel, and eventually joined the IDF. He was serving as a tank commander near Gaza when Hamas attacked. Omer's parents say they were told by the Israeli embassy that he had been kidnapped.\n\nRon Benjamin's vehicle was found empty following the attacks\n\nRon Benjamin, 53, had been taking part in a group cycle ride near the Gaza border when the Hamas attack began and he decided to drive home, his family told Israeli media. Days later, his vehicle was found empty and his family believe he was kidnapped.\n\nLouis Har, 70, is believed to have been taken from Nir Yitzhak. His partner Clara Marman was released on 28 November along with her sister Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and Gabriela's daughter Mia Leimberg,17. Clara and Gabriela's brother Fernando Simon Marman, 60, also remains in captivity.\n\nJudith Weinstein Haggai, 70, and her husband, Gad Haggai, 73, also went missing from Nir Oz after the Hamas attack. Ten days later, the Israeli military confirmed to the family they had been taken hostage, CTV News in Canada reported.\n\nAlex Danzig, 75, a scholar and historian of the Holocaust, was at his home in Nir Oz, when it was attacked by Hamas. \"We know for sure he was kidnapped,\" his son Mati told the BBC. Alex - whose older sister Edith is a Holocaust survivor - has spent the last 30 years working for Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance centre. His disappearance has triggered a campaign for his release, both in Israel and in Poland, the country of his birth.\n\nAlex Danzig has spent decades educating people about the Holocaust\n\nItzhk Elgarat, 68, was kidnapped at the same time as Alex Danzig, his brother Danny Elgert told Israel's Kan 11 TV station, adding that he had tracked his brother's phone to the border with Gaza.\n\nGadi Moses, 79, was also abducted during the same attack on Nir Oz, according to relatives and the Israeli aid agency where he worked as an agricultural expert. Efrat Katz, his partner, was initially thought to have been captured as well, but she was later found dead, the Times of Israel reported. Efrat was the mother of Doron Asher, who was taken hostage and later released with her two daughters. Ravid Katz, 51, Doron Asher's brother, was originally thought to have been taken hostage from Nir Oz, but on 28 November his family confirmed that he had been killed on 7 October.\n\nYair Yaakov, 59, is listed among the hostages. His partner Meirav Tal, 53, was released on 28 November. Yair's children Yagil, 13, and Or, 16, were released on 27 November.\n\nYair Yaakov was pictured being held captive by a gunman in a video shared online\n\nNimrod Cohen, 19, had studied software engineering in high school, according to reports. After he was kidnapped, his father was invited to meet Pope Francis in Rome along with other hostages' families.\n\nTsachi Idan, 51, was last seen by his wife, Gali, as he was taken away by Hamas gunmen. Their family had been ambushed in their safe room in Nahal Oz. Their ordeal was live-streamed by Hamas. Their eldest child, Maayan - who had just turned 18 - was shot dead, Gali told the BBC.\n\nTsachi Idan was ambushed with his wife and children and then led away\n\nYarden Bibas, 34, was abducted from Nir Oz. His wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel and Kfir, were also taken hostage, but on 29 November, Hamas claimed they had been killed in an Israeli air strike while in captivity. The Israeli government has said it is checking the claim.\n\nRonen Engel, 54, was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his wife, Karina Engelbert, 51, and their two daughters, Mika, 18 and Yuval, 11. On 1 December, the organisation representing the families said he had been murdered. Karina, Mika and Yuval were released on 27 November.\n\nKarina Ariev, a 19-year-old soldier, was serving at an army base near Gaza when she was kidnapped. Her sister Alexandra told the BBC she heard shooting as Karina called her during the attack, and later saw a video showing Karina being taken away in a vehicle.\n\nKarina Ariev was at the Nahal Oz military base, which was among the first to be attacked\n\nOfer Kalderon, 53, was taken by Hamas from Nir Oz. On 27 November his two children, Erez, 12, and Sahar, 16, were released. Two other relatives, 80-year-old Carmela Dan and her granddaughter, Noya, 12, were also believed to have been taken, but Israeli authorities later announced they had been found dead.\n\nYoram Metzger, 80, was a resident of Nir Oz. He has diabetes and broke his hip six months ago, his daughter-in-law said. Yoram's wife Tamar was released on 28 November.\n\nNadav Popplewell, 51, and his mother Channah were taken hostage by Hamas, said Channah's daughter Ayelet Svatitzky, who was speaking to them on the phone when the gunmen burst in. She said the captors sent pictures of her two relatives, who both have diabetes, with armed men in the background. Channah has now been released.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, was abducted after his family opened the door to their secure shelter to an Israeli child, who said he would be killed otherwise. Omri's wife, Lishay Lavi, said she saw him being taken away in handcuffs with three other hostages from Nahal Oz.\n\nLiri Elbag, 18, had just started military training as an Army lookout near the Gaza border when Hamas attacked, her father Eli told the Associated Press. Eli said he saw her in a video circulated later by Hamas, crowded with others on the back of a military truck which had been seized by the gunmen.\n\nLior Rudaeff, 61, was taken from Nir Yitzhak during the attack. His family have heard nothing from him since then.\n\nA number of people are believed to have been abducted from the Supernova music festival in southern Israel. Among them:\n\nShlomi Ziv, 40, was part of the security detail at the festival and was initially in contact with his sisters as the attack unfolded, according to an interview with The Times of Israel. A few weeks later the family learned he was officially considered to be a hostage, the report says.\n\nAlexander Lobanov, 32, is a Russian-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped at the festival.\n\nOri Danino, 25, is reported to have got away from the festival in his car, but it's believed he was captured after turning back in an attempt to save some people he had met there.\n\nAlmog Sarusi, 26, was kidnapped from the music festival and his partner Shahar Gindi was killed, according to Israeli media. Almog's father, Yigal, was among the relatives of hostages who met with Israel's prime minister in October.\n\nOmer Shem Tov, 21, called his parents as he was running away from gunfire and managed to get into a friend's car. His parents, Shelly and Malki Shem Tov, told Israeli media they lost contact with their son and the live location on his phone showed he was beyond the border in Gaza.\n\nIdan Shtivi, 28, an environmental sciences student, was attending the festival to take pictures at music and yoga workshops being held by friends. He escaped the site in his car but was attacked by Hamas along the route. The bodies of two of his passengers were found, and his family told the Jerusalem Post they suspect he was kidnapped.\n\nYosef Ohana, 24, had been at the festival with a friend, who told his mother he and Yosef had remained to help people escape the gunfire before running themselves. Yosef was last seen hiding under a car, and Israeli authorities have visited his mother to say he was kidnapped.\n\nAndrei Kozlov, 27, a Russian who moved to Israel in 2022, is missing from the Supernova festival, where he was working as a security guard. His mother told the De Taly publication the family was told by the IDF on October 26 that he was being held hostage.\n\nElyakim Libman, 23, was working as a security guard at the festival. In a Facebook post his father Eliyahu Libman said another guard told him his son had helped rescue others before trying to escape. He was last seen trying to help two badly-injured women.\n\nNoa Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was also kidnapped from the festival. Video footage - verified by her father Yaakov Argamani to Israel's Channel 12 - shows the 25-year-old being taken away on the back of a motorbike screaming, \"Don't kill me!\" Her boyfriend Avinatan Or, 30, also appears in the video being marched away from her by Hamas, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nEden Yerushalmi's family say they were told she had been taken hostage\n\nEden Yerushalmi, 24, called her family during Hamas's attack on the festival, her sister May told CBS News. The family say they were subsequently informed by the IDF that Eden had been abducted.\n\nChanan Yablonka, 42, is a father-of-two from Tel Aviv. According to reports, he attended the festival with friends and was due to celebrate his birthday a few days after the attacks.\n\nJonathan Samerano, 21, has been missing since 7am on the morning of the festival. His family have been told to presume he is being held in Gaza, Israeli media reported.\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal was filmed in captivity in Gaza, his family say\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal, 22, attended the festival with his brother. Guy appears in a hostage video that his family say confirms he is in Gaza.\n\nUriel Baruch, 35, was injured during the attack on the festival, his wife said on Facebook. Reports in Israeli media say his mother, Naomi, has heard from the IDF that he is a hostage.\n\nMaxim Kharkin's mother described speaking to him on the morning of 7 October\n\nMaxim Kharkin is aged 35 and a Russian speaker, his mother told Russian media. She added that he had called her at 07:00 on the morning of the attack.\n\nElkana Bohbot was seen in a video posted by Hamas\n\nElkana Bohbot, 34, had gone to the party with friends and, before losing contact, he spoke to his wife and mother telling them he was helping to evacuate the wounded, the Times of Israel reported. Hours later, his family found a video of him posted online by Hamas, which has been seen by BBC Verify.\n\nRom Braslavski, 19, was working on security for the festival. According to an account published by Hostages and Missing Families Forum, he was trying to rescue an injured person in the attack when he was caught in a volley of fire. He has not been heard from since.\n\nOmer Wenkert, 22, a restaurant manager, sent a message to his family to say he was going to a safe shelter but then lost contact, his father Shai Wenkert told the BBC's Today Programme. Shai Wenkert said he had seen footage of his son in captivity, including a photo of him handcuffed and wearing only underwear.\n\nEvyatar David's family say they were sent a video of him in captivity\n\nEvyatar David, 23, was at the festival and on the morning of the attacks, described fleeing from gunfire before losing contact with the outside world, his brother says. Later, his family say, Evyatar's sister posted on Instagram appealing for information about his whereabouts. She then received a text from an unknown number, which contained video footage of Evyatar handcuffed on the floor of a dark room. According to Israel's foreign ministry he is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nEitan Mor, 23, lives in Jerusalem, and was working as a security guard at the festival, the Times of Israel said. He reportedly texted his uncle after Hamas arrived and was last seen with a friend bringing others to safety.\n\nAlon Ohel, 22, a Serbian citizen, took refuge in a shelter after the festival came under attack, his family say. They have seen footage of him being dragged away after a grenade attack.\n\nAlmog Meir Jan, 21, tried to flee the festival. He and a friend made it to the friend's car but only managed to drive a short distance before being forced to stop. Almog's family say they have seen a hostage video in which he appears.\n\nInbar Heiman, a student aged 21, was seen by two young Israeli men being taken away from the festival on a motorcycle. Hamas have released a video in which she is seen very briefly.\n\nHersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a dual US-Israeli citizen, was badly injured in the attack, his family told the BBC. Eyewitness accounts say he was seen being forced onto a white pick-up truck - the last-known signal from his phone came from just inside Gaza.\n\nSegev Kalfon, 26, was running away from the festival, across the highway, when he was captured by Hamas, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.\n\nOrión Hernández Radoux, 30, from Mexico, attended the festival with his girlfriend, Shani Louk. He has not been seen since. The Sun newspaper says it has seen threatening messages written in Arabic sent from his phone. Shani, a tourist from Germany, was initially thought to be among those seized. But on 30 October, her mother Ricarda told German media that the family had been informed by Israeli military of her death following DNA identification.\n\nRomi Lesham Gonen, 23, was on the phone to her mother as she tried to escape from the Supernova festival. Merav Leshem Gonan has recounted a conversation in which her daughter begged for help after being shot. ABC News reports that Romi's phone is now in Gaza.\n\nBar Kuperstein, 21, last spoke to his family early on the morning of 7 October, as the attack unfolded. Later the same day, his family say they identified him in a video of Israeli prisoners, posted by Hamas. Since then, they say they have had no further information.\n\nEliya Cohen, 26, was hiding with his girlfriend Ziv from the attack, when Ziv felt him being pulled up and driven away by the gunmen, Eliya's mother has told the video initiative #BringThemHomeNow. The family then found a photo of Eliya in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nAmit Buskila, 28, from Ashdod, was last heard of making a call to her uncle, Shimon, as Hamas overran the festival. Her family say they have now been told by the government that she is being held in Gaza.\n\nCarmel Gat, 39, is Jordan's sister-in-law, and also was seen by her father being taken by gunmen from Kibbutz Be'eri, Haaretz newspaper reported. She has not been heard from since.\n\nOhad Yahalomi, 49, was abducted from Nir Oz, along with his 12-year-old son, Eitan, who was released during the November ceasefire.\n\nDror Or, 48, was seen by a neighbour being dragged out of his home in Be'eri, according to their nephew Emmanuel Besorai, along with his son and daughter. On Saturday 25 November Dror's son Noam, 17, and daughter Alma, 13, were released from captivity. The body of Yonat, 50 - Dror's wife and the children's mother - was identified among the 120 people murdered at the kibbutz, Yonat's brother told the Guardian newspaper.\n\nTal Shoham, 38, was taken from Kibbutz Be'eri. His wife Adi, also 38, her mother Dr Shoshan Haran, 67, were released by Hamas on 25 November, along with the couple's children Nave, eight, and Yahel, three. Dr Haran's husband, Avshalom - an economist and dual German/Israeli citizen - was killed on 7 October.\n\nTamir Adar, 38, who defended Nir Oz as part of the kibbutz's emergency squad, was taken to Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen, 35, an American-Israeli citizen, has been missing since Hamas's attack on Nir Oz, his father Jonathan told the BBC. He said his son was not found among the dead and the \"only reasonable explanation\" is that he was taken to Gaza.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen's father has not heard from him since Hamas attacked the kibbutz where he lived\n\nThailand's ambassador to Israel says 26 of its citizens were taken hostage, 23 of whom have now been released.\n\nThose still being held are believed to include Watchara Sriuan, 32. His mother, Viewwaew, told the Thaiger news site that the family had been informed he was being held captive.\n\nKiattisak \"Top\" Patee and a Mr Pongtorn (no first name given) have also been named by the Thai foreign ministry as hostages.\n\nA number of other people thought to have been held hostage are now confirmed to have died, either during the 7 October attack or while in captivity.\n\nAs well as Ron Scherman and Nik Beizer, four bodies were identified this week. They were Tal Chaimi, an Israeli-Romanian citizen aged 41, and Joshua Mollel, a 19-year-old Tanzanian student. Also, 27-year-old Eden Zecharya, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, and 36-year-old Ziv Dado, who had already been declared dead by the Israeli military.\n\nOthers known to have died include Dror Kaplun, 68, Aviv Atzili, 49, Arye Zalmanovich, 85, Ronen Engel, 54, Maya Goren, 56, Guy Iluz, 26, Ofir Tzarfati, 27, Ofra Keider, 70, and Eliyahu Margalit, 75.\n\nThe bodies of 19-year-old soldier, Noa Marciano, and 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss were found by Israeli troops in buildings close to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.\n\nOn Saturday 9 December Kibbutz Bari announced that Sahar Baruch, 25, had been killed in Gaza.\n\nOther hostages whose death has been reported, but not confirmed include Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir.\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? If it is safe to do so, please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "More training for door staff and funding for testing kits are among a package of measures announced to crack down on spiking.\n\nThe Home Office has said the law will also be \"modernised\" to make it clear spiking - putting alcohol or drugs into another person's drink or body without their consent - is a crime.\n\nThe plans have broadly been welcomed by campaigners.\n\nBut they stop short of calls from some to make spiking a specific offence.\n\nThe measures announced by the government include:\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly said: \"Spiking is a perverse crime which can have a lasting impact on victims.\n\n\"Our comprehensive new measures are designed to help police and staff in bars, restaurants, pubs and other premises to protect victims and bring more offenders to justice.\"\n\nOn Sunday the government announced it would amend the Criminal Justice Bill to make clear \"without any doubt\" that spiking is illegal.\n\nIt said this would be backed by separate guidance, set in law, to provide an \"unequivocal\" definition of spiking.\n\nThe change will update parts of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which already makes it an offence to maliciously administer poison so as to endanger the life of someone or inflict grievous bodily harm.\n\nEarlier this year the government said there were already several offences which covered spiking so it was not necessary to create a new law.\n\nMPs on the Home Affairs Committee are among those who have called for the creation of a specific offence of spiking, arguing it could help increase reporting of incidents and improve police data.\n\nAsked why the government was not planning to do this, Mr Cleverly told reporters: \"This is a law that police officers understand, they're familiar with, but it is very, very old.\n\n\"So what we're doing is we're updating the law to make it more relevant, to make it explicit to spiking, so the police officers can understand it and deploy it, so that people hear that it is completely unacceptable.\"\n\nOfficial statistics on spiking are not routinely published but last year the NPCC said almost 5,000 cases of needle and drink spiking incidents were reported to police in England and Wales in the 12 months to September 2022.\n\nDawn Dines, who founded the campaign group Stamp Out Spiking, welcomed the announcement as \"monumental\".\n\n\"Spiking being clearly recognised in law and the language being modernised will give a clear message to the perpetrators that giving someone any drug - including alcohol without that person's knowledge or consent - can result in a criminal conviction and not be tolerated,\" she said.\n\nFormer Love Island contestant Sharon Gaffka, who has campaigned on the issue after being a victim of drink spiking herself, said: \"While urging legislative updates has been my primary request for some time, the introduction and investment in preventive measures like venue staff training and drink testing kits is crucial.\"\n\nLabour said the Conservatives were \"finally moving in the right direction but there is more work to do\".\n\nThe party pointed to figures suggesting spiking reports have increased five-fold in the past five years but the proportion leading to a charge is falling.\n\nShadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding Alex Davies-Jones said: \"Labour have called for spiking to be made a separate offence to increase people coming forward and the chance for convictions, and for every police force to have a rape and serious sexual offence unit.\"\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Scientists say people's antibody levels against Covid are probably as low now as they have been\n\nWhat is it like to catch Covid now? It is a question I have been pondering since a friend was surprised by how roughed up they were by it. Their third bout of Covid was significantly worse than the previous time they caught it.\n\n\"I thought every time you catch an illness it's supposed to be a bit better each time?\" was the message from his sickbed.\n\nThat has certainly been said a lot during the pandemic. But I also know work colleagues and people I have interviewed or chatted to at the school gates, who have been hit hard by Covid in the past few months.\n\nA familiar tale has been a week of coughing, headaches or fever followed by a lingering fatigue.\n\nIt is important to stress that Covid has always caused a wide range of symptoms. Even before vaccines, some lucky people barely got sick or did not even develop symptoms.\n\nFor some of us, Covid is just a sniffle - not even enough to make you go digging around in the bathroom cabinet to see if there is a lateral flow test hiding in there.\n\nBut scientists specialising in our immune system warn Covid is still causing stonking infections that may be worse than before and knock us out for weeks.\n\nHow we fare after being exposed to Covid comes down to the battle between the virus itself and our body's defences.\n\nThe earliest stages are crucial as they dictate how much of a foothold the virus gets inside our body, and how severe it is going to be.\n\nHowever, waning immunity and the virus evolving are tipping the scales.\n\nProf Eleanor Riley, an immunologist at the University of Edinburgh, has had her own \"horrid\" bout of Covid that was \"much worse\" than expected.\n\nShe told me: \"People's antibody levels against Covid are probably as low now as they have been since the vaccine was first introduced.\"\n\nAntibodies are like microscopic missiles that stick to the surface of the virus and stop it from infecting our body's cells.\n\nSo, if you have lots of antibodies, they can mop up the virus quickly and any infection will hopefully be short and mild.\n\n\"Now, because antibodies are lower, a higher dose [of the virus] is getting through and causing a more severe bout of disease,\" Prof Riley says.\n\nAntibody levels are relatively low because it has been a long time since many of us were vaccinated (if you are young and healthy you were only ever offered two doses and a booster) or infected, which also tops up immunity.\n\nProf Peter Openshaw, from Imperial College London, told me: \"The thing that made the huge difference before was the very wide and fast rollout of vaccines - even young adults managed to get vaccinated, and that made an absolutely huge difference.\"\n\nFewer people are being offered a booster vaccine this winter\n\nThis year even fewer people are being offered the vaccine. Last winter, all over-50s could have one. Now it is only the over-65s, unless you are in an at-risk group.\n\nProf Openshaw says he is not a \"doomster\", but thinks the result will be \"a lot of people having a pretty nasty illness that is going to knock them out for several days or weeks\".\n\n\"I'm also hearing of people having nasty bouts of Covid, who are otherwise young and fit. It's a surprisingly devious virus, sometimes making people quite ill and occasionally leading to having 'long Covid',\" he says.\n\nHe thinks there is a \"good chance\" you are susceptible if you have not caught Covid in the past year.\n\nThe official government decision in the UK is to vaccinate those at risk of dying from Covid or needing hospital treatment. This relieves pressure on the National Health Service.\n\nProf Riley argues: \"But that's not to say people who are under 65 are not going to get Covid, and are not going to feel pretty rough.\n\n\"I think the consequence of not boosting those people is we have more people who are off work for a week or two or three over winter.\"\n\nDecisions on who gets vaccinated are not the only thing to have altered - the virus is also changing.\n\nAntibodies are highly precise as they rely on a close match between the antibody and the part of the virus to which they stick. The more a virus evolves to change its appearance, the less effective the antibodies become.\n\nProf Openshaw said: \"The viruses circulating now are pretty distant immunologically from the original virus which was used to make the early vaccines, or which last infected them.\n\n\"A lot of people have very little immunity to the Omicron viruses and their variants.\"\n\nIt could be a grotty winter for many of us\n\nIf you are feeling rough with Covid - or rougher than you have done before - it could be this combination of waning antibodies and evolving viruses.\n\nBut this does not mean you are more likely to become critically ill or need hospital treatment.\n\nA different part of our immune system - called T-cells - kick in once an infection is already under way and they have been trained by past infections and vaccines.\n\nT-cells are less easily befuddled by mutating viruses as they spot cells that have been infected with Covid and kill them.\n\n\"They will stop you getting severely ill and ending up in hospital, but in that process of killing off the virus there's collateral damage that makes you feel pretty rough,\" says Prof Riley.\n\nRelying on your T-cells to clear out Covid is what results in the muscle pain, fever and chills.\n\nSo where does this leave the thought that Covid is on a trajectory towards becoming a mild, innocuous infection?\n\nThere are four other human coronaviruses, related to Covid, that cause common cold symptoms. One of the reasons they are thought to be mild is we catch them in childhood and then throughout our lives.\n\nProf Openshaw is clear \"we are not there yet\" with Covid, but \"with repeated infection we should build up natural immunity\".\n\nIn the meantime will some of us have to suck up a grotty winter?\n\nAre you affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Will the New Rwanda Bill Stop the Boats?", "Susie Verrill could not leave her bedroom for five months during her pregnancies due to constant sickness\n\nScientists say they have discovered why some women become extremely sick during pregnancy, bringing them one step closer to a potential cure.\n\nBabies produce a hormone that can cause severe sickness, known as hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), according to a study.\n\nExposure to the GDF15 hormone ahead of pregnancy could be a new treatment.\n\nProf Sir Stephen O'Rahilly, from the University of Cambridge, said: \"The more sensitive a mother is to this hormone, the sicker she will become.\"\n\nHe added: \"Knowing this gives us a clue as to how we might prevent this from happening.\"\n\nBetween one and three in 100 pregnancies are thought to be affected by HG. It can threaten the life of the foetus and many women need intravenous fluids in hospital to prevent dehydration.\n\nSome mothers report being sick up to 50 times a day throughout their pregnancies.\n\nSusie Verrill has documented her horrific battle with extreme morning sickness to help raise awareness\n\nSusie Verrill, 35, who is engaged to Olympian Greg Rutherford, said her experience of HG was so traumatic it made her consider a termination.\n\nThe mother-of-three, who lives in Woburn Sands, Buckinghamshire, had HG for two out of her three pregnancies and is contacted by women suffering from it every day.\n\n\"I had a real sense of an inability to exist, I couldn't be around my family,\" she said. \"I considered not carrying on my pregnancies because it was so terrible and that is really common when you have HG.\n\n\"I couldn't breathe without retching and I was stuck in my bedroom for five months both times. You have to make your world very small to survive and Greg became my carer.\n\n\"It affects everything and you are just trying to get through each day before the baby is born.\"\n\nSusie says her partner Greg Rutherford became her carer during two of her pregnancies\n\nThe Princess of Wales famously suffered with HG during all three of her pregnancies and was admitted to hospital during her first pregnancy.\n\nPrevious studies suggested pregnancy sickness could be related to GDF15 but researchers said the \"full mechanistic understanding\" was \"lacking\".\n\nThe new research, published in Nature and involving scientists at the University of Cambridge and researchers in Scotland, the USA and Sri Lanka, found that the degree of sickness was related to the amount of hormone produced in the womb - and prior exposure.\n\nThey studied women at the Rosie Maternity Hospital in Cambridge and found those with a genetic variant putting them at a greater risk of HG had lower levels of the hormone, while women with the blood disorder beta thalassemia, which causes very high levels of GDF15 prior to pregnancy, experienced very little nausea or vomiting.\n\nPreventing the hormone from accessing its \"highly specific receptor in the mother's brain\" will \"ultimately form the basis for an effective and safe way of treating this disorder,\" Prof Sir Stephen, director of the Medical Research Council metabolic diseases unit at the University of Cambridge, said.\n\nVivienne Kumar's pregnancy sickness was so severe that she was sick 10 times an hour\n\nMother-of-two Vivienne Kumar from Bedford was sick 10 times an hour during her pregnancies and the only time she was not vomiting was while she was asleep.\n\n\"It's not just morning sickness, it is debilitating,\" she said. \"Once you go through it you never really recover, it stays with you forever.\n\n\"I felt really shut off from the world and like I was in my own bubble. I didn't see the end point. It is really hard to leave the house.\n\n\"I was so lucky to have the support of my husband and mum, without them I may not have been as motivated to continue.\"\n\nWhen she became pregnant for a third time she was admitted to hospital for eight days and went on to lose the baby.\n\n\"I was under a lot of different medications and I was given steroids which didn't work and unfortunately the baby didn't survive that,\" she added.\n\nCharlotte Howden, chief executive of the charity Pregnancy Sickness Support, which supports women with HG, said the health issue had been neglected for too long.\n\nShe said: \"I'm so grateful for the dedication of the researchers, because this isn't a condition that really ever made the headlines until the now Princess of Wales suffered with it.\n\n\"It wasn't an area of research that people were really interested in. It was just morning sickness - why should we care?\"\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830", "The council says the heating has now been turned on in the area where the dogs are kept\n\nA council criticised for the condition of its dog kennels has said it will take immediate action to ensure they are up to standard.\n\nDerry City and Strabane District council (DCSDC) chief executive John Kelpie said any identified \"deficiencies will be addressed\".\n\nIt comes after the council rejected claims that the kennels are not fit for purpose.\n\nIt said it is committed to providing \"a suitable environment\".\n\nResponsibility for stray dogs is now back with the council after the animal charity Pet FBI's three-year lease of the kennels ended prematurely.\n\nPet FBI has claimed the kennels are not fit for purpose.\n\nOn Wednesday, Mr Kelpie told councillors: \"There is complete assurance that any steps or actions that are required to be taken by council to ensure that the premises and the care is to the highest standard will be put in place.\"\n\nHe said a full report will come before council after Christmas.\n\n\"It is important to provide that overall assurance immediately and to state that if there are any deficiencies, those deficiencies will be addressed with immediate effect,\" Mr Kelpie added.\n\nPet FBI said it has raised concerns with the council about the building's condition on a number of occasions\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme on Wednesday morning, the council's principal environmental health officer, Enda Cummins, said the Pennyburn kennels meets legislative requirements.\n\n\"This is only a temporary holding facility for dogs that are out straying,\" he said.\n\nSome maintenance work is planned, he added, as is a further assessment of the building.\n\nThe kennels, he continued, had \"functioned very well for 25 years\".\n\n\"At the moment, we are trying to carry out some essential repairs, repairs that had already been agreed, but we are going to carry out a more detailed assessment,\" he added.\n\nPet FBI took on a three-year lease of the kennels, which was due to run out in 2024. The charity has since been wound up.\n\nIts concerns were first reported by Belfast Live earlier this month.\n\nIt said the kennels were crumbling, cold and damp. There was no heating and the dogs were exposed to the elements, the charity said.\n\nVivien Kelly joined Pet FBI two years ago and became the centre manager of the kennels last year.\n\nShe told BBC Radio Foyle that during her tenure, concerns about the building were raised repeatedly. Council staff, she said, visited the premises on three occasions following those concerns.\n\n\"The response every time was: 'There is no money within the budget for the kennels.'\"\n\nThe charity, she added, flagged that \"water was running down the walls\", that in winter the dogs' bowls were freezing over, walls were crumbling and that the only area where the heating worked was in the kennels' office.\n\n\"But in the dog kennels, where it was needed the most, it wasn't working there. We reported that to council, they didn't come and carry out the essential repairs.\"\n\nThe council says an assessment of the building will be carried out\n\nOn one occasion the charity offered to cover the individual kennels with Perspex to \"keep the wind and the bad weather from coming in\", she said.\n\n\"We were told no, because the kennels had to be 75% air circulated.\"\n\nHowever, Mr Cummins said the council is now heating the kennels.\n\nThat, he said, will \"be for the betterment of the dogs\" and will \"also allow some drying out of the facility\".\n\nThe council said it was notified the charity was ending its lease in late November, citing \"managerial and manpower\" issues.\n\n\"The council is extremely disappointed that the charity has decided not to continue with the lease and would like to thank Pet FBI for their support and excellent service,\" the council said.\n\nThe termination of the lease, which saw the charity pay the council rent of £5,000 annually, left seven dogs at the kennels - four of which have now been rehomed with the other three set to be rehomed later this month by the Dogs Trust.\n\nDUP assembly member Gary Middleton said the issues raised about the kennels was a \"concerning situation\".\n\n\"It is important that a full investigation takes place to address these concerns,\" Mr Middleton said.", "Rishi Sunak has said the government is looking at \"transitional arrangements\" for British citizens with foreign spouses who earn less than £38,700.\n\nIt comes amid warnings new visa rules will tear families apart.\n\nFrom next spring, British citizens and those settled in the UK must be earning at least £38,700 to bring in foreign family members.\n\nThe government initially said the new rule would also cover people already in the UK who were reapplying for visas.\n\nBut Mr Sunak confirmed that the policy was being rethought, at Prime Minister's Questions.\n\nLabour MP Sir Stephen Timms said: \"The marriage plans of thousands of couples were dashed last week by the sudden announcement of a big increase in the salary requirement for a spouse visa.\n\n\"Can the prime minister give any reassurance to those with very well advanced marriage plans that appear now to have been scuppered and to families already in the UK who need to extend their stay who won't comply with the new rules?\"\n\nMr Sunak said it was right that \"anyone bringing dependents to the UK must be able to support them financially\" and the income threshold had not been increased in \"over a decade\".\n\nBut he said the Home Office was looking at \"transitional arrangements\" to \"ensure that they are fair\" and an announcement would be made \"shortly\".\n\nOn LBC radio, Home Secretary James Cleverly said he understood people's concerns about the new, higher salary threshold and he hoped to \"clarify\" the rules shortly.\n\nAsked if people already living in the UK would be OK, he said: \"Yes. This is a forward looking proposal rather than backward.\"\n\nNewly-appointed legal immigration minister Tom Pursglove later came under pressure to confirm that people already living in the UK would not be forced to leave the country if they earned less than £38,000.\n\nTory MP Tim Loughton said many people - including one of his constituents - were worried \"they may have to up sticks and move quite quickly\".\n\nMr Pursglove said anyone applying to renew their visa before the new rules came in would not have to worry.\n\nAsked if they would be protected in future years, he told the Home Affairs Committee: \"We are not intending to apply these measures retrospectively.\"\n\nHe declined to offer any more clarity but said more details would be announced \"as soon as we are able\".\n\nThe increase in the minimum income threshold to more than double the previous limit of £18,600 has prompted criticism from opposition MPs and some Conservatives.\n\nLast week, former Tory minister Lord Barwell said: \"It is both morally wrong and unconservative to say that only the wealthiest can fall in love, marry someone and then bring them to the UK.\"\n\nThe government is keen to stress that the family immigration rules contain an exemption for \"exceptional circumstances\", where there would be \"unjustifiably harsh consequences for the applicant, their partner, a relevant child or another family member if their application were to be refused\".\n\nThe minimum income threshold is for skilled workers but does not apply to health and care workers.\n\nWhen applying for the initial visa from outside the UK, only the sponsor's income can be counted towards the minimum income threshold. For extensions and permanent residence, partners must have a combined income of £38,700.", "Democrats have defended President Joe Biden over what they say is 'an extreme political stunt'\n\nThe US House of Representatives has voted to formalise its impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.\n\nLawmakers voted along party lines to back a resolution that Republicans say will give them more power to gather evidence and enforce legal demands.\n\nThree Republican-led House committees allege bribery and corruption during Mr Biden's tenure as vice-president.\n\nBut they have yet to present evidence of wrongdoing, and Mr Biden says his opponents are \"attacking me with lies\".\n\nThe lower chamber of Congress, which Republicans control by a slim eight-seat margin, approved the inquiry on Wednesday afternoon by a vote of 221 to 212.\n\nVoting to authorise an inquiry is not the same as voting for impeachment, but it advances the likelihood that the House will eventually seek to impeach Mr Biden.\n\nIn a statement, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the chamber \"will not prejudge the investigation's outcome\" but \"the evidentiary record is impossible to ignore\".\n\nA formal impeachment investigation, that leads to a House vote and a Senate trial, could represent a major headache for the president in the midst of an election year.\n\nBut, even if the House ultimately opts to impeach the president, the Democrat-controlled Senate is all but certain to acquit him.\n\n\"The American people need their leaders in Congress to take action on important priorities for the nation and world,\" Mr Biden said in a statement following the vote.\n\n\"Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts.\"\n\nIn an animated debate ahead of the vote, Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole said his colleagues had been left with no choice but to bring the measure.\n\nHe said it was a \"sad day for myself, the institution and the American people\" and accused the White House of \"stonewalling\" the impeachment inquiry.\n\nBut Democrats expressed irritation over what they have dismissed as \"an extreme political stunt\".\n\nJamie Raskin of Maryland said the investigation \"isn't a whodunit, it's a what is it\".\n\n\"It's like an Agatha Christie novel, where the mystery is - what's the crime?\" he added.\n\nEx-Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched the inquiry in September and said Republicans had unearthed a \"culture of corruption\" surrounding Mr Biden.\n\nRepublicans have held one hearing related to the inquiry, during which two expert witnesses called by Republicans said there was not yet enough evidence to impeach the president.\n\nThe oversight committee claims the Biden family and its business associates received more than $24m (£19m) from foreign sources in China, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia and Ukraine between 2014 and 2019.\n\nCommittee chairman James Comer has alleged that Mr Biden's relatives - in particular his son, Hunter - sold access to the then-vice-president and influence-peddled off \"the Biden brand\".\n\nHe has further alleged that the president \"spoke, dined, and developed relationships with\" his son's business partners.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Hunter Biden: I've been the target of unrelenting 'Trump attack machine'\n\nFollowing Wednesday's vote, Mr Comer told reporters that unanimous Republican backing for the inquiry sent a \"strong message\" to the administration.\n\n\"We have a simple question that a majority of Americans have - what did the Biden family do to get millions?\" he said.\n\nBefore and during his presidency, Mr Biden has said that he never talked business with Hunter Biden or his associates and that his son made no money off unethical overseas ventures.\n\nThe White House has also pushed back on the claim it is refusing to co-operate and criticised the inquiry on Wednesday as an abuse of power by House Republicans.\n\nHunter Biden has long been viewed by Republicans as the greatest political liability for his father.\n\nIf they are able to link his business dealings and personal conduct to the president, and perhaps even if they are not, it has the potential to damage the elder Mr Biden's standing with American voters.\n\nAs Mr Biden, 81, gears up for re-election, he is likely to face off against Donald Trump, 77, a twice-impeached former president and the current Republican frontrunner, in the November 2024 general election.\n\nMr Trump, who has vowed retribution against his political opponents, has urged his Capitol Hill allies to move quickly to impeach his successor.", "The House of Commons has voted in support of a new law aimed at sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nDespite rebels from his own party failing to vote for the bill, the prime minister won by 313 to 269 votes\n\nThe BBC's Ione Wells explains what happens next for Rishi Sunak and his Rwanda plan.", "US President Joe Biden has said Israel is starting to lose global support over its \"indiscriminate bombing\" of Gaza.\n\nHis comments, made to donors at a fundraising event on Tuesday, marked his strongest criticism yet of Israel's leadership.\n\nMr Biden has offered unwavering public support to the country since Hamas launched its attacks on 7 October.\n\nAnd while he reiterated that Israel could count on US backing, he issued a direct warning to its government.\n\n\"Israel's security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world,\" he told donors to his 2024 re-election campaign in Washington.\n\n\"But they're starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place,\" he said.\n\nMr Biden, however, added that there was \"no question about the need to take on Hamas\" and Israel had \"every right\" to do so.\n\nThe US leader has faced growing pressure, including from within his own Democratic Party, to rein in Israel's military campaign. His remarks align with his administration's recent approach to the war, with officials urging Israel to \"put a premium on human life\" and give clearer instructions to allow people to avoid the conflict.\n\nSenior US officials have also displayed increasing discontent at Israel's military response.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said more than 18,400 people have been killed by Israeli bombing since 7 October, when Hamas broke through Israel's heavily guarded perimeter and killed 1,200 people.\n\nIn a statement later on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had received the \"full backing\" of the US for its ground war as well as its goal of destroying Hamas and recovering hostages.\n\nHe added that Washington had blocked \"international pressure to stop the war\".\n\n\"Yes, there is disagreement about 'the day after Hamas' and I hope that we will reach [an] agreement here as well,\" he said.\n\nMr Biden alluded to the pair's disagreement in his comments on Tuesday and said Mr Netanyahu had to \"change\" his government as well as his stance on a two-state solution, which top US officials have been promoting as the post-war path.\n\nThat proposal is favoured by the international community to end the decades-long conflict, and would lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank existing alongside Israel.\n\n\"This is the most conservative government in Israel's history,\" Mr Biden said. \"This government in Israel is making it very difficult for him. They don't want a two-state solution.\"\n\nHis comments reflect the emerging disagreements about what direction to take after the war. Mr Netanyahu has said he opposes US calls to have the Palestinian Authority, which currently administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, take over control of Gaza.\n\nWhile Mr Biden's words were his bluntest yet, senior American officials have increasingly expressed discontent with Israel's military campaign.\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken said just days ago that there was a \"gap\" between pledges by Israeli authorities to spare civilians in Gaza and the reality on the ground.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How Biden's message to Israel has evolved", "Former BP boss Bernard Looney will forfeit up to £32.4m after the oil giant found he committed \"serious misconduct\" in failing to disclose relationships with colleagues.\n\nMr Looney is to be dismissed without notice and will not receive further salary or benefits, the oil giant said.\n\nHe resigned in September after admitting not being \"fully transparent\" about his past personal relationships.\n\nThe board said they had been \"knowingly misled\" by Mr Looney.\n\nOn Wednesday, the firm said Mr Looney had given \"inaccurate and incomplete assurances\" as part of an investigation into the relationships in 2022.\n\nMr Looney said in a statement that he was \"disappointed with the way this situation has been handled\".\n\nHis dismissal means he will get no further salary, pension allowance or benefits, no annual bonus, and lose out on nearly £25m in share awards.\n\nIt is understood that Mr Looney's decision to resign meant his long-term performance share awards lapsed along with his annual bonus for 2023, which represented the majority - 87% - of the £32.4m package. The board also decided to halt other payments and bonuses.\n\nBP first launched a review of Mr Looney's relationships with colleagues following an anonymous tip-off in 2022.\n\nAt the time, the company said Mr Looney disclosed \"a small number of historical relationships with colleagues prior to becoming CEO\" and it found no breach of company conduct.\n\nMr Looney gave assurances then about disclosing the past relationships, as well as his future behaviour.\n\nBut in September the board said it had received similar allegations \"recently\", prompting another review.\n\nMr Looney had spent his career at BP, which he joined in 1991 as a drilling engineer.\n\nBorn in Ireland and raised on a farm, he became a member of its executive team in 2010.\n\nBefore taking over as chief executive from Bob Dudley, he was previously head of oil and gas production.\n\nMr Looney presented himself as more approachable, posting pictures of smiling employees on Instagram when he took over in 2020.\n\nHe initially set out a plan to sharply cut net carbon emissions by 2050, but was later criticised by environmental groups for watering down the target.\n\nHis time as boss coincided with a tumultuous period for the company, including coronavirus pandemic lockdowns when demand for oil and gas fell sharply.\n\nMonths into his role as chief executive he also told staff that BP planned to cut 10,000 jobs due to the pandemic.\n\nIn 2022, the start of the war in Ukraine sent energy prices soaring, and prompted the firm to leave Russia after pressure from the UK government.\n\nMr Looney's departure from BP comes as a series of high profile dismissals of executives in the UK has put a spotlight on executive personal behaviour.\n\nTony Danker, the head of the UK's largest business lobby group the CBI, was fired in April over complaints about his behaviour at work.\n\nMeanwhile, Crispin Odey was forced to step down from the hedge fund he founded in June after reports of sexual harassment allegations by 13 women. He has denied the claims.\n\nChief financial officer Murray Auchincloss has been acting as BP's interim chief executive while the oil firm investigated allegations about Mr Looney, and searched for his successor.\n\nMr Auchincloss has previously said the firm's \"strategy hasn't changed\" and that \"the leadership team we have in BP is also unchanged\", despite Mr Looney's exit.\n• None BP boss out after board misled over relationships", "Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford has announced he is quitting after five years in the job.\n\n\"When I stood for election as leader of Welsh Labour, I said I would stand down during the current Senedd term. That time has now come,\" he said.\n\nMr Drakeford, 69, said he will remain in Welsh politics' top job until his successor is picked by his party, which will happen before Easter.\n\nThe Cardiff West Member of the Senedd (MS)had always planned to stand down in 2024, although the timing of his announcement has come as a surprise.", "Steve North said about three-quarters of the juice had been used when his wife Zoie noticed something in the bottle\n\nA couple who found a \"stomach-churning\" object in a Tesco lemon juice they had almost finished say they want a formal apology.\n\nSteve North, of Stratton-on-the-Fosse, said the online order which included the bottle was placed around September.\n\nMr North said finding the object \"put us off using it ever again\".\n\nTesco said the object was \"most likely mould growth caused by improper storage post purchase\".\n\nThe firm said the \"photographs sent show the bottle opened and appears to be empty of juice\".\n\n\"The storage instructions state 'refrigerate after opening' and we know that once opened and left in ambient/warm conditions, mould can grow in the bottle.\"\n\nThe spokesman added the juice, once opened, can only be kept for a \"reduced amount of time\".\n\nThey added it was likely the juice was out of date.\n\nWarning: Images some people may find distressing are included in this article.\n\nMr North said his wife Zoie was using the juice for cooking when she \"called me into the kitchen and said there's something in this bottle that shouldn't be there\".\n\n\"She said it looked like a bit of tissue or like a bit of blue roll for cleaning or something.\n\n\"We were about three-quarters through it when she noticed something,\" he added.\n\nMr North said he had to empty the green tinted bottle and hold it to the light to see what was inside\n\nThey took the lid off and emptied the rest of the juice out to find what could be contaminating the bottle.\n\n\"It's a green-tinted bottle so I held it up to the strip lighting to see what it was,\" Mr North said.\n\nHe added: \"My stomach instantly churned, feeling sick. I looked at my wife and she said 'I don't want to know what it is do I'.\n\n\"We didn't eat that evening, we were both feeling quite nauseous and quite sick to be honest.\"\n\nMr North said the discovery had put them off lemon juice \"for life\"\n\nThe couple had another bottle in the cupboard ready to use but threw it away.\n\n\"I know it's a one-in-a-trillion chance it could happen but it's put us off ever using it again for life,\" added Mr North.\n\nHe said Tesco's \"robotic\" response when he called to tell them about the incident had left him feeling angry and shocked.\n\nHe said he was told to bring the bottle in for a refund.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "Police said the shop was 'significantly damaged' in the attack\n\nA car was crashed through the front of an ice cream shop and then set alight during a suspected attack in South Lanarkshire.\n\nFire crews extinguished the blazing 4x4 after it was driven into the front of Cookiez 'n' Creamz in Rutherglen at about 1:20 on Wednesday morning.\n\nSeveral flats above the shop on Kyle Square were evacuated following the fire, with one still affected.\n\nNo one was understood to have been injured as a result of the fire.\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said three appliances were dispatched to respond to the incident.\n\nPolice Scotland said \"significant damage\" was caused to the store and inquiries were ongoing.\n\nThe force said a flat immediately above the shop was still closed off, with the householder \"seeking alternative accommodation\".", "Seventeen journalists have been killed covering the war began between Israel and Hamas which erupted on on 7 October, according to the Reporters Without Borders (RWB) international non-governmental organisation.\n\nOf these 13 were killed in the Gaza Strip, RWB says .\n\nBut if you include journalists killed in \"circumstances unproven to be related to their duties\", a total of 63 have been killed in the war.\n\nThe data was accurate as of 1 December.\n\nReuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed in an apparent strike across the Israel-Lebanon border in October Image caption: Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed in an apparent strike across the Israel-Lebanon border in October\n\nEarlier this month, human rights groups said Israel should be investigated for a possible war crime over the death of a journalist in Lebanon in October.\n\nReuters reporter Issam Abdallah, 37, died in apparent tank fire across the Israel-Lebanon border. Six other people were wounded.\n\nAmnesty and Human Rights Watch said investigations had shown the journalists had probably been fired on deliberately by an Israeli tank crew.", "Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has seen off a Tory rebellion over his flagship Rwanda bill but still faces a battle to get it through Parliament.\n\nThe legislation comfortably passed its first Commons hurdle with a majority of 44, but there will be further votes in the new year.\n\nNo Tory MPs voted against but some critics on the right of the party rebelled by abstaining.\n\nRebels said they had been told the PM would consider \"tightening\" the bill.\n\nBut this could risk losing the support of more centrist Tory MPs, who have warned they would oppose any future changes which would breach international law.\n\nThe emergency legislation was drawn up to revive the government's plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nThe government say the scheme is designed to deter migrants from crossing the Channel in small boats - something Mr Sunak has made one of his key priorities.\n\nIn a sign of nerves in Downing Street over the potential for a tight result, Climate Minister Graham Stuart flew back from the COP28 climate conference in Dubai to vote.\n\nBut despite some Tories on the right threatening to vote against the bill, in the end only opposition MPs did, and the bill passed by 313 votes to 269.\n\nAround 29 Conservative MPs - including former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, who resigned over the legislation last week, and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman - chose to abstain and not support the bill.\n\nAltogether 37 Tory MPs did not record a vote, however some of those may have simply been unable to attend the vote rather than deliberately abstaining.\n\nShortly before the vote, five factions of backbench MPs - the European Research Group (ERG), the New Conservatives, the Common Sense Group, the Conservative Growth Group and Northern Research Group - announced they could not support the bill in its current form.\n\nThey plan to propose amendments and said they could vote the bill down when it returns to the Commons in the new year if the changes they wanted were not accepted.\n\nChairman of the ERG - a faction to the right of the party - Mark Francois, who was among those who abstained, told BBC News: \"Our objection was that we don't believe, as it's currently drafted, the bill is firm enough to ensure that flights will take off to Rwanda.\"\n\n\"The prime minister had said that he would entertain tightening up the bill. We're taking him at his word,\" he said.\n\n\"A number of MPs voted with the government... because they were told in private that there would be amendments later on.\"\n\nHowever, agreeing to their demands would create new problems for the government.\n\nThe centrist One Nation group, which includes more than 100 Tory MPs, had recommended that its members vote for the bill, but warned it would oppose any future amendments \"that would mean the UK government breaching the rule of law and its international obligations\".\n\nGroup member Matt Warman told the BBC's World Tonight programme: \"We don't want to see the bill change in a way that goes over the red lines of international law… anything that goes over those red lines is out of the question\".\n\nHe added that \"there is a possibility for sensible compromise as we go into the next stages of this bill\".\n\nTougher legislation may be more difficult to get through the House of Lords.\n\nOne Nation Chairman Damian Green told BBC News the vote had seen far fewer abstentions than expected and that \"if the government sticks to its guns then it can probably get this legislation through intact\".\n\nHome Office Minister Chris Philp said the government would listen to ideas from MPs on how to improve the bill.\n\n\"Like with any bill, government ministers will be talking to members of Parliament to see if there are ways of tightening this even further, to improve the drafting to make sure there are absolutely no loopholes at all,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Why Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill battle is far from over\n\nBen Bradley MP of the Common Sense Group told BBC's Newsnight that \"pragmatism has got to meet ideology at some point. What is the strongest we can deliver versus what is perfect'.\"\n\nThe bill seeks to declare in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country to send asylum seekers to, after the Supreme Court ruled the policy was unlawful last month.\n\nHowever, critics on the right of the party have argued it is not currently strong enough to prevent legal challenges to deportations.\n\nA No 10 spokesperson said the bill was \"the toughest legislation ever introduced to Parliament\" and \"makes clear that this Parliament, not any foreign court is sovereign\".\n\n\"We will now work to ensure that this bill gets on to the statute book so that we can get flights off to Rwanda and stop the boats,\" the spokesperson added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nLabour voted against the bill, along with other opposition parties, and the party has said it would scrap the Rwanda plan if it wins the next election.\n\nIt says the millions of pounds given to Rwanda as part of the deal would be better spent tackling people-smuggling gangs.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: \"The Conservatives' civil war is continuing, and the country is paying the price for this chaos.\n\n\"Today's debate shows how weak Rishi Sunak is with this Tory psychodrama now dragging on into the new year.\"", "Indhu Rubasingham has directed a number of plays at the National Theatre over the past 25 years\n\nThe National Theatre is to get its first female artistic director in its 60-year history, with Indhu Rubasingham taking over the landmark London venue.\n\nRubasingham will move to the National from north-west London's Kiln theatre - formerly the Tricycle - which she has run for more than a decade.\n\nShe will replace the National's current director Rufus Norris in 2025.\n\nRubasingham said it would be \"a joy to be a part of this iconic building's next chapter\".\n\nBorn in Sheffield and with Sri-Lankan heritage, she will be the seventh director since the National was founded by Sir Laurence Olivier in 1963.\n\nTo date, its artistic bosses have all been \"posh white men\", as the Guardian's chief theatre critic Arifa Akbar recently put it - saying Rubasingham was \"widely considered to be the industry favourite\" to succeed Norris.\n\nRubasingham has worked with author Zadie Smith on White Teeth and The Wife of Willesden\n\nRubasingham's productions at the Kiln have included Zadie Smith's The Wife of Willesden, which saw the best-selling author update Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale.\n\nRubasingham also directed the Olivier Award-winning Red Velvet and Handbagged, both of which transferred to the West End and the US.\n\nAnd she has staged a number of plays at the National over the past 25 years, most recently Kerry Jackson and The Father and the Assassin, both last year.\n\n\"It's a huge honour to be appointed Director of the National Theatre - for me, this is the best job in the world,\" Rubasingham said.\n\n\"The National has played an important part in my life - from tentative steps as a teenage theatregoer, to later as a theatre-maker, and to have the opportunity to play a role in its history is an incredible privilege and responsibility.\n\n\"Theatre has a transformative power - the ability to bring people together through shared experience and storytelling, and nowhere more so than the National.\"\n\nNorris said: \"Indhu is an exceptional artist who I respect and admire hugely, and I am so pleased that she will become the next director when I step down in 2025.\n\n\"She has run Kiln Theatre expertly for over a decade and I know this experience will be invaluable as she moves to the NT - a place she knows well, having directed successfully in each of the three theatres.\"\n\nNational Theatre chair Sir Damon Buffini said she had \"a proven record of strong leadership and artistic success, alongside a commitment to bringing theatre to diverse audiences and broadening access to creative education\".", "Eileen Igoe and Sarah McDermott were found guilty at Airdrie Sheriff Court\n\nTwo nuns and a care worker have been found guilty of abusing vulnerable youngsters at a Scottish orphanage.\n\nSister Sarah McDermott, 79, Sister Eileen Igoe, 79, and carer Margaret Hughes, 76, mistreated children at Smyllum Park in Lanark from 1969 until 1981 when it closed.\n\nThe orphanage has been at the centre of allegations of historical abuse.\n\nThe court heard children in their care were subjected to a number of \"cruel and unnatural\" incidents.\n\nOne woman told the court she was beaten by McDermott after she reported witnessing her brother being sexually abused in a toilet in the orphanage.\n\nShe said volunteer worker Brian Dailey, who was later jailed for 15 years for abusing youngsters, molested the three-year-old in a cubicle.\n\nRather than investigate the abuse, McDermott slapped the girl and told her she was bringing her \"filthy home habits into a good Catholic place\".\n\nMcDermott, of London, also struck another girl with rosary beads and repeatedly struck her on the head and body.\n\nShe also ordered a boy to carry soiled bed sheets while shouting derogatory comments towards him.\n\nIgoe, of Edinburgh, was convicted of abuse which included force feeding children and making one eat their own vomit as well as striking one boy on the head and body.\n\nShe also hit one boy's head repeatedly on a door.\n\nHughes, of Lanark, seized one boy by the hair before striking him with her arm. She also forced a girl into a freezing bath and held her head under the water.\n\nSmyllum Park Orphanage in Lanark after it closed in the 1980s\n\nSheriff Scott Pattison deferred sentence on the women until next month for reports and continued bail.\n\nHe added: \"You have been convicted of very serious offences of the abuse of children in your care which shows you fell far short of the duty of care that you had to them when they were vulnerable when you worked at Smyllum.\n\n\"You also fell short of your moral commitment towards these children.\"\n\nThe three women had denied any wrongdoing.\n\nThe Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry said in 2018 that children had been sexually abused and beaten with leather straps, hairbrushes and crucifixes while in the care of the Order of the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul at the orphanage.\n\nA report by Lady Smith, chairwoman of the inquiry, said it was a place of \"fear, threat and excessive discipline\" and that children found \"no love, no compassion, no dignity and no comfort\" in Smyllum.", "Actor Andre Braugher, who has died at the age of 61, was responsible for some of the funniest moments across Brooklyn Nine-Nine's eight seasons.\n\nThe US sitcom thrived thanks in large part to the police chief at the centre of it - Captain Raymond Holt provided the show's beating heart.\n\nBraugher portrayed all the different facets of Holt's personality with great skill, resulting in one of the most fully-formed and well-rounded characters on television.\n\nWhile the actor brought heart and humour, it was arguably his tough exterior and deadpan delivery which most endeared him to the show's legions of loyal fans.\n\n\"For me, Captain Holt was the best aspect of that show, bar none,\" says Amon Warmann, contributing editor and columnist at Empire magazine. \"Yes, he could be goofy, like a lot of the characters, but more than anyone else on the show, he brought the gravitas.\n\n\"So when it came time for a moment to hit as seriously as it needed to, and there were many moments in Brooklyn Nine-Nine where that was the case, you could always count on Andre Braugher to deliver that and make it connect with audiences.\"\n\nBraugher's ability to keep a totally straight face as he was delivering some of the snappiest lines of dialogue was widely praised - but the rare occasions where Captain Holt sprang into life will be some of the best remembered.\n\nOne breakout moment came in season four when Holt spends all day making a balloon arch for another character's wedding. After being derided by some of his colleagues who say it isn't a good idea, Holt feels deflated and begins popping the balloons.\n\nBut when Rosa, the character getting married, accidentally comes across the arch in his office, she declares it \"magnificent\". As a look of relief and delight spreads across Holt's face, he yells: \"VIN-DI-CA-TION!\"\n\nAfter Braugher's death was announced, this was the scene many viewers shared on social media to remember him.\n\nLeft to right: Actors Stephanie Beatriz, Andre Braugher, Andy Samberg, Melissa Fumero and Joe Lo Truglio in Brooklyn Nine-Nine\n\nCaptain Holt's often inexpressive face concealed a character of depth and warmth who viewers came to adore.\n\n\"Holt was a man without expression but never without feeling\", wrote Entertainment Weekly's Lester Fabiasteven Brathwaite.\n\n\"And he was a wonderfully complicated character, a man full of contradictions.\"\n\nHe added: \"Braugher's deliciously deadpan delivery as Holt often provided some of the funniest moments throughout the show's eight seasons, particularly when juxtaposed with the more cartoonish exploits of his cadre of kooky cops.\"\n\nBraugher delivered his lines with precise pronunciation at all times and impeccable grammar. Rather than the term \"whodunnit\", he insisted such a mystery should be referred to as a \"who has done this?\".\n\nIn another episode, his team were able to tell he had been kidnapped because he used a contraction when speaking on the phone.\n\nHis dry tone was often precisely what made a line funny. His use of the word \"bitch\" in the Halloween heist episode was only in the literal sense - referring to a female dog.\n\nSurrounded by a terrific ensemble cast which riffed off each other brilliantly, the straight-faced Holt regularly found ways to indirectly show his friends and colleagues he cared.\n\nIn the show's second season, when Terry is considering leaving the precinct, Captain Holt forces him to stay up all night digitising files - hardly the kind of thing that would change an employee's outlook on their job.\n\nBut in fact, Holt's motivation for forcing him to do that was so Terry would, in the process, be forced to look back on memories from the job with his colleagues, making him feel nostalgic and ultimately prompting him to stay.\n\nAlthough he might not always make his feelings and emotions explicit on the surface, Braugher baked comedy, intellect and heart into the delivery of his lines.\n\n\"Andre Braugher had a way of speaking like he loved every weird little clause of a sentence,\" said Vulture's Kathryn Van Arendonk after the actor's death was announced.\n\n\"Like somehow his voice and his gravity could hold onto more separate thoughts and rhythms and linguistic turns than most people could ever hold at once. It was such a pleasure to hear him.\"\n\nBraugher had an ability to glide, seemingly effortlessly, between solemnity and levity\n\nBut categorising him solely as a comedy actor arguably does him a disservice. He could, Warmann notes, also bring seriousness and authority - notably in moments such as in the final season where Captain Holt is suspending Jake.\n\n\"The way that conversation comes across, it's so interesting,\" Warmann says, \"because Brooklyn Nine-Nine at its heart is a comedy show, but because of performers like Andre Braugher, who had a Shakespearean background, any time there's a big speech that needs to be made with gravitas, it could go from comedy and cut right through that and be like 'Oh, this is a moment'.\n\n\"It connected, and that's because you've got a performer like Andre Braugher.\"\n\nIn the scene, Holt delivers a rousing speech as he explains why Jake Peralta must be suspended for five months for witness intimidation.\n\n\"Do you know what happens when you refuse to punish cops for their mistakes? When police are treated as a separate class of citizen above the law?\" he asks.\n\n\"It breeds a lack of trust in the community, and that lack of trust means people won't help us with our investigations, or testify, or even call us when they're in danger. It makes them more scared of us than of criminals or gangsters. It makes people see us as the enemy, which leads to more confrontation, more distrust.\"\n\nBraugher would remain resolutely straight faced regardless of what was going on around him\n\nThe fact that Holt's race and sexuality were always present without ever being his whole personality was what many viewers most loved about him.\n\nBeing an older, black, gay police officer would have been enough in itself to make Captain Holt a groundbreaking character in the television landscape.\n\nBut the fact that he didn't play up to the stereotypes of any of those characteristics made him stand out.\n\nThere are several pitfalls when it comes to playing a gay character on TV or film. Play up to stereotypes, and you'll be written off as a caricature. But play down those personality traits and you could be criticised for squandering an opportunity for representation.\n\nBut in Braugher's hands, Captain Holt, the minorities he represented, and of course Brooklyn Nine Nine's viewers, were all in safe hands. The actor knew better than anyone how to strike what was a very delicate balance.\n\n\"As long as there's no hot pants and singing YMCA then everything's OK,\" Braugher said in a 2018 interview.\n\n\"My teenage son said, 'you're playing a gay police captain?' I said 'No, I'm playing a police captain who's gay'. So we have to sit down and understand what that distinction is.\n\n\"Typically, when you see gay characters on shows, they're goofballs or caricatures. But this is one more facet of Holt as opposed to being Holt's defining characteristic, so that's what's important to me.\"\n\nCaptain Holt and his husband Kevin were seen renewing their vows in Brooklyn Nine-Nine's eighth season\n\nIt's worth noting, however, that Holt would occasionally lean into gay stereotypes, partly in jest or to make a point.\n\nOne episode sees him trying to convince Terry to ride a motorcycle, but Terry doesn't want to risk it because motorcycles are \"death machines\". He suggests Holt does so instead.\n\n\"Are you saying my life maters less because I don't conform to society's heteronormative, child-centric ideals,\" asks the self-aware police captain.\n\n\"Are you really playing the gay card right now?\" Terry responds. \"Yas, queen,\" says Captain Holt. Rare moments such this showed Holt could have humour and sass where necessary.\n\nFew would dispute that the character was innovative and influential in equal measure. \"Andre himself was a big factor in that,\" says Warmann, \"playing Captain Holt as a person first, with real ambitions, real desires, a real sort of want to make change for the better, and that's the sort of thing that comes across long before they start talking about the gayness or blackness in any explicit manner.\n\n\"And they do ultimately do that in various episodes, because that's absolutely a part of who Captain Holt is, but it doesn't define him the way that it might do with how that's been characterised in other shows and other media.\"\n\nHe concludes: \"That's partly why Captain Holt doesn't just resonate with the black man, or the gay man, but resonates with everybody on some level, because he's a person first. He's played that way and he's written that way, so groundbreaking is the appropriate word.\n\n\"I wish more media would study that and take its cue from that, because then I think we'd get better art.\"\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Brooklyn Nine-Nine This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.", "The review was commissioned in response to commitments contained in the New Decade New Approach deal\n\nAn expansion to early years education is needed in Northern Ireland, an independent review has found.\n\nIt said two year olds should receive up to 20 hours of education per week and three year olds up to 22.5 hours.\n\n\"Increased investment will extend access and improve quality, enabling early diagnosis and intervention in cases of difficulty,\" it continued.\n\nThe authors said early years investment is the most effective contribution to overcome socioeconomic disadvantage.\n\nThe Independent Review of Education was commissioned in response to commitments contained in the New Decade New Approach deal, which underpinned the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive in January 2020.\n\nIt comes as schools across Northern Ireland face massive budgetary pressures.\n\nThe annual funding for education was cut by £70m (2.5%) in the 2023-24 budget set by Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.\n\nHowever, the real-terms reduction, taking inflation into account, is likely to be higher.\n\nAmong the radical reforms being proposed is the eventual replacement of classroom assistants\n\nThe report, published on Wednesday, also identified failings in the provision of services for children with special educational needs (SEN).\n\nExplaining that the system is not working as intended, the report concluded \"thorough reform is urgently required\".\n\nAmong the radical reforms being proposed is the eventual replacement of classroom assistants with fully trained and qualified teachers, other professionals or upskilled classroom assistants.\n\nHowever, the report acknowledged there should still be a role for classroom assistants who, the authors acknowledged, provide a vital and very helpful service.\n\nThe issue of \"unviable\" small schools with insufficient pupil numbers is also addressed.\n\nThe report found that a special commission should be set up to look at education, area-by-area, with a view to closing all unviable schools.\n\nIt said the proposals should come two years after the commission was established, followed by a 10-year implementation period.\n\nThe review has also come out against the ongoing development of a shared education campus in Omagh\n\nThe review has also come out against the ongoing development of the Strule Shared Education Campus in Omagh.\n\nStrule is the biggest school building project to be planned in Northern Ireland.\n\nArvalee Special School, which opened in 2016, is one of of six schools proposed for the site.\n\nThe panel said the project should cease because it believes it does not provide any educational advantage and the proposed cost cannot be justified.\n\nArvalee principal Jonathan Gray said he was shocked to hear the recommendation.\n\n\"We have the land, we have that space for the schools,\" he said. \"The money has to be spent anyway, we need it out in the west, the facilities need to be enhanced for the children,\" he said.\n\nJonathan Gray said he is \"at a loss\" by a recommendation for the Strule project to cease\n\n\"I'm at a loss until I read the detail. I just don't understand it at the moment,\" Mr Gray continued.\n\nOther recommendations in the report included increasing the school leaving or compulsory education age from 16 to 18.\n\nIt also wants vocational pathways for school pupils to begin at 14 years of age, alongside reforms of further and higher education to enhance collaboration with schools and universities as well as closer involvement with business and industry.\n\nOn funding, the report found there is an immediate need to uplift the education budgets by £291m annually.\n\nThere currently is no Stormont Executive, with parties engaged in talks about its finances if it should be restored.\n\nEducation in Northern Ireland is \"seriously underfunded\", review panel chair Dr Keir Bloom told BBC's Talkback programme, but the quality of educational provision would provide a \"fairly solid base\" for reform.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe director of the Association of School and College Leaders NI, John Trueman, said the report \"pulls no punches\" and has urged Stormont to \"implement the funding recommendations set out in the report as a matter of urgency\".\n\nEducation Authority chief executive Sara Long also welcomed the call for an immediate uplift in funding \"following a decade of chronic underfunding\".\n\nThe Controlled Schools' Support Council (CSSC) chief executive Mark Baker thanked the review panel for listening to its concerns and said education in Northern Ireland needs \"evidence-based transformation\".\n\nA single education department at Stormont is another of the report's proposals. The Department of Education is currently responsible for primary and post-primary schools while the Department for the Economy oversees further and higher education institutions.\n\nDr Bloom said there is poor collaboration between schools and colleges due to separate funding arrangements.\n\nA single governing body for further education colleges has also been proposed.\n\nThe report also recommends major reform of the curriculum and its management, and a reconfiguration of the network of schools with the potential to create new \"jointly-managed community schools\" by merging schools from different sectors.\n\nThis would result in around 20% of pupils being enrolled in a \"jointly-managed\" school by 2031.\n\nThere is a recommendation that \"all learners at all stages should have the opportunity to learn alongside individuals from other communities and backgrounds in the same classroom\".\n\nReform of the transfer of pupils from primary to post-primary schools to \"reduce differences between academically selective and non-selective schools\" was also proposed, with schools to take a \"pupil profile approach\" to selection - this could be through multiple, smaller assessments rather than a single transfer test.\n\n\"It's going to need action and it's going to need an executive and assembly to implement. That's going to be up to our politicians, to have the courage to implement,\" junior assembly member Andrew Martin said after the report was announced.\n\nRobert Moore said the youth assembly will be \"very proactive\" in urging politicians to implement these recommendations, once the executive is restored.\n\nLearners have been \"listened to\" with the proposals put forward in the report, Oliver Mercer said.\n\n\"The younger that you're bringing people together... that [continues] as you get older,\" Charlotte McGucken said on proposals for school mergers.", "Tesla is recalling more than two million cars after the US regulator found its driver assistance system, Autopilot, was partly defective.\n\nIt follows a two-year investigation into crashes which occurred when the tech was in use.\n\nThe recall applies to almost every Tesla sold in the US since the Autopilot feature was launched in 2015.\n\nTesla, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, said it would send a software update \"over the air\" to fix the issue.\n\nThe update happens automatically and does not require a visit to a dealership or garage, but is still referred to by the US regulator as a recall.\n\nThe UK Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency said it was not aware of any safety issues involving Teslas in the UK, noting that cars sold in the UK are not equipped with all of the same features as cars in the US.\n\n\"Teslas sold in the UK market are not self-driving and are not approved to do so,\" a spokesperson said, adding that the agency would continue to monitor the situation.\n\nAutopilot is meant to help with steering, acceleration and braking - but, despite the name, the car still requires driver input.\n\nTesla's software is supposed to make sure that drivers are paying attention and that the feature is only in use in appropriate conditions, such as driving on highways.\n\nBut the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said a two-year investigation of 956 Tesla crashes found that \"the prominence and scope of the feature's controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse\".\n\n\"Automated technology holds great promise for improving safety but only when it is deployed responsibly\", the NHTSA wrote, adding it would continue to monitor the software once it was updated.\n\nTesla did not respond to a request for comment.\n\nAccording to the recall notice, the company did not concur with the agency's analysis but agreed to add new features to resolve the concerns, including additional checks on turning on the self-driving features.\n\nThe recall comes a week after a former Tesla employee told the BBC he believed the technology was not safe.\n\nLukasz Krupski, speaking after winning the Blueprint Prize which recognises whistleblowers, told the BBC: \"I don't think the hardware is ready and the software is ready\".\n\n\"It affects all of us because we are essentially experiments in public roads\", he claimed.\n\nReacting to the news of the recall Mr Krupski told the BBC it was \"a step in the right direction\" but pointed out it was not just a problem in the US.\n\n\"The hardware is the same in all the Teslas in the US, China etc.\", he said\n\nOn Tuesday, Tesla defended the safety of Autopilot in a post on X (formerly Twitter) in response to a Washington Post article.\n\n\"Safety metrics are emphatically stronger when Autopilot is engaged than when not engaged\" it wrote, pointing to statistics that suggested there were fewer crashes when the system was used.\n\nJack Stilgoe, associate professor at University College London, who researches autonomous vehicles, said Tesla should have spent more time developing the system in the first place.\n\n\"The conventional way of ensuring safety is to check that a car is safe when it leaves the factory\", he told the BBC.\n\nBut despite this being the second recall this year affecting Tesla vehicles, Susannah Streeter of investment company Hargreaves Lansdown, said her assessment was that it should not check the carmaker's momentum too greatly:\n\n\"This recall of 2 million cars on its own is not likely to seriously quash enthusiasm. The share price has dropped back slightly, but it doesn't look like it'll be hit by a bad bout of skidding.\n\n\"After all, recalls in the car industry are far from unusual and the group also has the financial ability to invest in fixes\", she added.\n\nTesla has heavily promoted the technology in its cars and says remaining at the cutting edge of self-driving is key to its future growth.\n\nGoldman Sachs analysts estimated this month that Tesla's most advanced Autopilot offering, full self driving, could end up generating more than $50bn a year in revenue by 2030, up from $1bn-$3bn presently.\n\nIn the US, the full-self driving package costs $12,000, or a $199 monthly subscription fee.\n\n\"Autonomy is really where it's at,\" Mr Musk told investors this summer.\n\nCritics have said Tesla has misled customers about its software's capabilities, contributing to risks.\n\nThe carmaker is facing other government investigations, as well as a number of lawsuits in the US in relation to crashes involving the software.\n\nBut a jury in one of the first cases to go to trial found that Tesla's autopilot technology was not to blame.\n\nThe new controls that Tesla has agreed to do should help limit drivers from using Autopilot unsafely, said Professor Missy Cummings, director of the Autonomy and Robotics Center at George Mason University.\n\nBut she added that there was \"an opportunity missed\" for regulators to require Tesla to make Autopilot features unavailable in places where it is not supposed to be used.\n\nThe recall centres on a part of Autopilot called Autosteer.\n\nAutosteer helps keep a car in the correct lane in conjunction with \"traffic-aware cruise control\" which matches the speed of the car to that of the surrounding traffic.\n\nThe driver is expected to have their hands on wheel and be ready to take over from the assistive system when required.\n\nWhen Autosteer is on, systems in the car monitor that the driver is paying attention. If it detects the driver isn't there are warning alerts. There are also alerts if the driver tries to use Autosteer in inappropriate circumstances.\n\nAccording to the NHTSA recall report, the \"over the air update\" will include additional alerts and monitoring \"to encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility whenever Autosteer is engaged.\"", "The danger to Biden in an election year\n\nRepublicans have long viewed Joe Biden’s son Hunter as a political liability for his father. If they can link his shady business dealings and personal conduct to the president, they have the potential to damage the elder Biden's standing with American voters. A formal impeachment investigation, that leads to a House vote and a Senate trial, has the potential to become a major headache for the president in the midst of an election year. And that remains true even if Republicans continue to lack any conclusive evidence tying the president to his son’s misdeeds and misbehaviour. The perception of corruption tied to the Biden name - the possibility of it - may be damaging enough. Republicans may also use impeachment proceedings, along with Hunter Biden’s legal battles, to draw attention away from the very real legal plight their likely presidential nominee, Donald Trump, faces. Already there is talk of using the impeachment process to provide “counter-programming” that distracts from a possible Trump federal trial on charges of illegally attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. That's scheduled to happen in March 2024. In a nation whose mood toward elected politicians is already sour, the electoral environment in the coming year may become even more toxic.", "The government will decide whether to back the non-charging Clean Air Zone plan\n\nInvesting in cleaner transport will help reduce air pollution in Greater Manchester quicker than charging drivers who enter a zone, the region's mayor Andy Burnham has said.\n\nMore emissions would be cut by spending £86m on electric buses, taxi upgrades and traffic measures, he said.\n\nThe non-charging proposal aims to cut air pollution in the region to within legal limits by a 2026 deadline.\n\nA decision over whether it will move forward will be made by the government.\n\nMr Burnham said modelling had shown that \"only the investment-led plan\" could meet the legal pollution target by 2026, rather than a charging zone.\n\nInvestment in an integrated public transport system and upgrading taxis to cleaner technology could improve air quality faster than \"causing hardship to our residents or businesses\", he added.\n\nBut clean air campaigners have questioned if the new proposal goes far enough to tackle pollution.\n\nClean air zones (CAZ), which are already in operation in many cities across the UK, including Birmingham, Bristol and London, aim to improve air quality by cutting the number of high polluting vehicles on the road.\n\nThe charges introduced in some of these areas have split opinion.\n\nIn London, Conservative councils unsuccessfully challenged a bid to expand the city's Ultra Low Emission Zone, introduced in 2019.\n\nThe rollout of the Greater Manchester CAZ has been on hold since February 2022 after a backlash over the potential of charging drivers of certain vehicles.\n\nAndy Burnham and 10 Greater Manchester councils say charging drivers will not reduce emissions enough\n\nModelling has shown that simply charging high-emissions vehicles to drive in the zone in the centre of Manchester and Salford would not see the 2026 target met, the mayor and ten councils said.\n\nBury Council leader Eamonn O'Brien said the authorities could \"prove our case\" for a \"fairer, cheaper, more affordable\" investment plan that does not include charges.\n\nThis would see £51m investment in 64 new electric buses, bringing the fleet total to 199 by next year, and upgrading charging infrastructure at bus depots.\n\nThe proposal also includes a new £30m fund for licenced taxis to meet new emissions standards, and spending £5m on measures to manage traffic flow in Manchester and Salford, including Regent Road and Quay Street.\n\nLiz Godfrey from clean air campaign group Mums for Lungs, said she thought the revised plan \"lacked ambition\" and called on the mayor to target World Health Organisation air pollution standards, rather than UK legal limits.\n\n\"All data shows children's lungs are damaged at much lower levels of pollution\" than previously thought, she added.\n\nLiz Godfrey of Mums for Lungs said children's health had to be protected from toxic air\n\nSophie Wills-Virk of Asthma and Lung UK charity said the details behind the plan were not very clear, and added that Greater Manchester had the \"highest rate of air pollution in the country\".\n\nShe called on \"government at all levels\" to take steps to tackle the problem of toxic air.\n\nThe government will now consider whether a non-charging zone would meet legal requirements for reducing air pollution.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Morgan Smith, Callum Griffiths and Jesse Owen all died at the scene\n\nFamilies of three teenagers killed in a crash between a bus and an Audi A1 have paid tribute to them.\n\nCallum Griffiths, 19, and Jesse Owen and Morgan Smith, both 18, all died at the scene in Coedely, Rhondda Cynon Taf, at 19:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nMr Owen's family said his presence \"would light up any room\" while Mr Smith's family said they had been \"left with a void that can never be filled\".\n\nThe family of Mr Griffiths said their hearts were \"broken beyond repair\".\n\nThe BBC has been told the three teenagers had all been at a funeral prior to the fatal collision.\n\nTwo other people, aged 18 and 19, remain in hospital with life-threatening injuries while another two people were treated for minor injuries.\n\nThe terraced street where the crash happened, Elwyn Street, is a 20mph (32km/h) road and mourners have left floral tributes at the scene.\n\nThe crash happened on Elwyn Street, Coedely, on Monday night\n\nThe family of Mr Owen, from Penygraig, said he was \"loved by all\" who knew him.\n\nThey described him as a \"loving, happy, kind, calm and beautiful soul\" who would do \"absolutely anything for anyone\".\n\n\"He loved his family and friends and was loyal to the core. Jesse loved his boxing, watches and socialising with friends.\n\n\"He has left a huge void in all of our hearts and our lives will never be the same without him.\"\n\nMorgan Smith (centre) was a Welsh youth amateur boxing champion (pictured with Brett and Jac Parry from Maerdy Amateur Boxing Club)\n\nThe family of Mr Smith, from Clydach Vale, Tonypandy, said he was popular and a loved son, brother, grandson, nephew and cousin.\n\n\"Morgan was best known as a talented boxer previously gaining a Welsh title. He was an up-and-coming star with a promising boxing career ahead of him.\n\n\"We as a family are devastated by the loss of Morgan, we have been left with a void that can never be filled. We love you our boy.\"\n\nCalum Griffiths's family said \"our love is endless\"\n\nThe family of Mr Griffiths - his mum Natalie, dad Lee and his 15-year-old sister Erin - said the Porth teenager had a \"beautiful smile that would light up the room\".\n\n\"He was the most precious gift of a son and our love is endless,\" they added.\n\n\"Our hearts have been broken into a million pieces, broken beyond repair. He was so loving and had a caring soul. He has left a hole in our hearts that cannot be filled.\"\n\nJesse Owen's family said he was \"loved by all\"\n\nThey said he had just qualified as a barber.\n\nHis sister Erin added: \"Callum was my best friend and the most selfless person in the world. I will always love him and am so proud of him.\"\n\nMorgan Smith's father Daniel Chalfont said on Facebook: \"Literally the most perfect son you could ever wish for. Don't know how I'll live life without you.\"\n\nA joint statement issued on behalf of the teenagers' former schools said it was \"incredibly sad that lives full of potential and promise have been sadly taken too soon\".\n\n\"The school communities of Porth Community School, Tonyrefail Community School and Ysgol Nantgwyn are completely devastated by the news that former pupils were involved in a fatal incident yesterday evening in Coedely,\" the three head teachers said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. On the scene of fatal Coedely crash\n\n\"Pupils and staff from all our schools send their heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the families of the former pupils who have died.\"\n\nRhys Edwards, who trains at Rhondda Amateur Boxing Club, said he was friends with four of the five people involved in the crash and \"everyone's just devastated\".\n\nMaerdy Boxing Club paid tribute to Morgan, saying it had lost \"one of our own\".\n\n\"Morgan was the nicest person you could ever wish to meet\", said the club, adding he was \"a very talented boxer, becoming Welsh Champion, representing Wales in the British Championships\".\n\nWelsh Boxing said its thoughts were with his family and friends adding: \"Morgan became Welsh youth champion last year and represented Wales at the GB Three Nations tournament where he won a bronze medal.\"\n\nRhondda Cynon Taf's deputy mayor Dan Owen-Jones said he was one of the first at the scene, after receiving a call from someone living on the street.\n\nHe said: \"Later on there was lots and lots of family and friends. It was very distressing to see the family, but understandable, if it was one of my family I would have wanted to be there.\"\n\nMourners have begun leaving flowers at the scene of the fatal crash\n\nIn a Facebook post on a community page, he said: \"I have faced this evening tragedy and bereaved families at its worse, at times I was numb and helpless to the grieving families.\n\n\"I cannot even describe the pain, shock and suffering I have witnessed tonight… Horrific.\"\n\nOn Tuesday night, there was an event at St Alban's Church in Coedely where people lit candles and prayed.\n\nThe church said it would open its doors on Saturday between 09:00 and midday for people to come and pay their respects.\n\nPontypridd Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones, who lives in the village where the crash happened, told BBC Radio Wales' Drive the close-knit community was grieving for the dead and praying for those in hospital.\n\nShe added: \"It's going take us a very long time to recover from this awful, awful accident.\"\n\nMr Smith's former rugby club, Penygraig RFC, said: \"To those who knew Morgan, and the other young men involved, we would like you all to know there is always someone you can talk to.\"\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said on X, formerly Twitter: \"My thoughts are with the families and friends of those involved in this tragic incident.\"\n\nSupt Esyr Jones of South Wales Police said family liaison officers were supporting the families.\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service said seven ambulances were sent to the scene of the crash.\n\n\"Four people were taken to University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, and a fifth person was taken to Royal Glamorgan Hospital for further treatment,\" it added.", "As she jailed the McMahon, the judge spoke of the profound impact his offending has had on his \"young and vulnerable\" victims\n\nA man who posed as a model agent to persuade children and young women to send him sexually explicit images before threatening to share them online has been jailed for two years.\n\nMatthew McMahon will spend a further three years on licence.\n\nHis offending had a profound impact on his \"young and vulnerable\" victims, the judge said.\n\nMcMahon, 31, from Osbourne Court, Belfast, pleaded guilty to 23 charges in total.\n\nThese included intimidation, harassment and multiple offences involving indecent images and videos of children.\n\nBelfast Crown Court heard that one 12-year-old victim threatened to take her own life if he released a sexually explicit recording of her, to which he typed the reply: \"Ha ha ha.\"\n\nHe first began speaking to the girl online in November 2012 but did not show his face, the court heard.\n\nHe then set her a series of sexually-charged challenges, which he covertly recorded.\n\nMcMahon threatened to post the video online if she did not do even more explicit things on camera.\n\nMcMahon made initial contact with all of his victims online\n\nThe court was told of many other victims, including a 19-year-old woman who contacted police in May 2014 to say naked images of her had been posted online without her consent.\n\nThis victim said she had been contacted a month earlier via Skype by a male named 'Davy Jones', who said he had naked videos of her and threatened to share them online.\n\nThis was McMahon, who kept his webcam and microphone off during the exchange. He went on to send a link to a pornography site, which had a video of her getting undressed.\n\nDuring the conversation, McMahon threatened to post more videos online if she did not give him a \"live show\" of sexual activity.\n\nHe later harassed her further by calling and texting her. This included sending her a topless picture of herself accompanied by the message: \"All online.\"\n\nMcMahon also targeted a 17-year-old via social media, who had signed up to various online modelling agencies.\n\nUsing a false name, and again not using a camera or microphone, he contacted her via Skype in January 2015 and claimed to be an agent from a company called Model Mayhem.\n\nHe asked the girl to pose in a variety of clothes before telling her to strip to her underwear.\n\nHe then asked her to perform a sexual act - she refused and turned her camera off.\n\nHe then sent a secret recording to the victim.\n\nMcMahon again posed as a modelling agent and made contact with a 16-year-old via Facebook. Over the course of several days, McMahon tricked her into sending him images of herself, including a topless picture.\n\nMcMahon did not appear on webcam during exchanges\n\nMcMahon's home was searched by police in August 2015.\n\nA laptop, computer, hard drive and iPhone were seized - these were found to contain videos of his victims along with 312 indecent images and videos of children.\n\nInterviewed by police in January and November 2017, he denied all the charges against him.\n\nAsked about the videos and images, he said other people had access to the devices.\n\nHe denied any wrongdoing, then answered \"no comment\" to all other questions.\n\nA defence lawyer said his client \"now recognises the seriousness of what he did all those years ago\" and that his behaviour was \"unacceptable\".\n\nHe added: \"This case should be an example of the dangers of exposure to pornography at an early age and not being supervised, because that is the start of the downfall of this man.\"\n\nJudge Donna McColgan KC noted that McMahon's denials were maintained until earlier this year, which, combined with the pandemic, had caused delay in the case.\n\nShe said one victim, in a statement, spoke of her shame and embarrassment, and the impact the offences had on her mental health.\n\nThe judge branded McMahon's criminality as \"a nasty, planned and prolonged set of offences in which there was real harm willingly and knowingly caused to these victims over a lengthy period of time\".\n\nShe added that the offences involving the 12-year-old were \"particularly abhorrent\".\n\nMcMahon was also made the subject of a SOPO (Sexual Offences Prevention Order) and placed on the sex offenders register for life.", "Russia's strike caused considerable damage, which Kyiv blamed on debris from 10 ballistic missiles it had shot down\n\nDozens of people have been injured in a wave of missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv overnight, authorities say.\n\nFifty-three people were hurt in the attacks, including six children, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said.\n\nKindergarten and hospital buildings were reportedly damaged by debris as authorities said 10 Russian ballistic missiles had been shot down.\n\nThe strikes happened after President Volodymyr Zelensky left the US.\n\nHis plea for Congress to agree more military aid for Ukraine made little progress in winning over reluctant Republicans.\n\nEU leaders will also discuss further aid for Ukraine on Thursday, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said \"we must give Ukraine what it needs to be strong today\".\n\nOn Wednesday, the EU said it would unblock €10bn in funding for Hungary, in a move criticised as an attempt to persuade Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to loosen his objections to helping Ukraine.\n\nMr Zelensky promised a response to Wednesday's overnight attack. \"Russia has proven once again that it is a heinous country that fires missiles at night, trying to hit residential areas, kindergartens, and energy facilities during the winter,\" he posted on X.\n\nWednesday's attack on Kyiv began at around 03:00 (01:00 GMT) - the third Russian missile strike on the capital in the past week.\n\nAlthough Kyiv has been targeted by Russian drones in recent weeks, cruise missiles were launched on the city for the first time in 79 days on Friday, while ballistic missiles were used on Monday and in the latest attack.\n\nUkraine's air force said it had shot down all 10 targets flying towards the city, using anti-aircraft missiles.\n\nKindergarten and hospital buildings were reportedly damaged while fires broke out in the capital\n\nThe windows of residential apartment blocks were blown out and parked cars were destroyed due to falling debris. Loud explosions were heard in Kyiv before air raid sirens sounded, because ballistic missiles fly at such a speed that it is hard to detect them in time.\n\n\"Ballistics [are] used precisely so that people have no chance to hide in bomb shelters,\" Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote on X.\n\nUkraine's Armed Forces General Staff identified the projectiles as Iskander-M ballistic missiles, as well as S-400s: extremely fast missiles intended for air defence, but which have also been used to hit ground targets.\n\nOne man, Oleksander, told the BBC that the windows in his apartment were blown out in the middle of the night. He started crying as he recalled seeing his neighbours and their children being taken away by ambulance.\n\nOleksander saw his neighbours being taken away by an ambulance\n\nMeanwhile, Ukraine's biggest mobile network operator says it hopes to restore operations on Wednesday after what appeared to be the largest cyberattack since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.\n\nTuesday's attack on Kyivstar, which has more than half of Ukraine's population as mobile subscribers, has put millions of people in danger of not receiving air raid alerts. A Russian hacking group, which targeted internet providers and Ukrainian websites earlier this year, said it was behind the latest cyberattack.\n\nQueues formed during the day at a shopping centre in Kyiv as people tried to switch mobile phone networks.\n\nLidia told the BBC that her entire family used Kyivstar and her grandson needed internet access to join school lessons online.\n\nLidia joined a queue for an alternative Ukrainian network because of the attack on Kiyvstar\n\nThe port city of Odesa was also attacked for \"several hours\" by drones overnight, a regional military chief said. Two men were reportedly injured and there was damage to civil infrastructure.\n\nThe Ukrainian president arrived in Norway on Wednesday for a previously unannounced visit to discuss support for his country's defences.\n\nHe flew there after a trip to the US, where he made a last-ditch effort to win new military aid from Congress before the currently approved amount runs dry.\n\nBut hopes that Mr Zelensky could use his powers of persuasion to unlock military aid in Washington DC appear to have fallen flat.\n\nUS President Joe Biden warned Republicans that they would give Russia a \"Christmas gift\" if they failed to provide additional military aid to Ukraine.\n\nMr Zelensky said afterwards that he and Mr Biden had \"just agreed to work on increasing the number of air defence systems in Ukraine, and the terrorist state demonstrated how critical this decision is\".\n\n\"Each additional system and missile is vital for Ukraine, our cities, and our people. They are saving lives,\" he added.\n\nMr Zelensky's push for aid came ahead of a summit of European leaders where Ukraine hopes to be given a start date for talks on joining the EU.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHungarian PM Viktor Orban reaffirmed his position that the EU should not open accession talks. \"The EU is preparing to make a terrible mistake and we must prevent that even if 26 (members) want to make the mistake,\" Mr Orban told local website Mandiner.\n\n\"If we want to give support to Ukraine, a geostrategic signal, then we should, but this is not membership.\"\n\nHungary has repeatedly been at odds with its EU partners over Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It has watered down sanctions against Russia and last December vetoed a deal to grant Ukraine €18bn (£15.5bn) in 2023.\n\nThe EU has authorised about €10.2bn in funding for Hungary ahead of the meeting, saying Budapest had taken measures on the independence of its judiciary. However, it said additional funding would remain blocked without progress on the rule of law.\n\n\"Ukraine is not only fighting against the invader, but for Europe, and joining our family will be Ukraine's ultimate victory. And for this, we have a decisive role to play,\" EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament.\n\nHowever, Mr Orban told the Hungarian parliament on Wednesday that the idea of Ukraine joining the EU was in stark contrast to Hungary's national interest.", "Brendan Kearney sourced a temporary premises but he says the challenges are greater than that\n\nSix weeks on from devastating flooding and Downpatrick is still trying to find its feet.\n\nIndependent businesses have noticed a considerable drop in the town's footfall, which is impacting them financially.\n\nBrendan Kearney, of Oakley Fayre Café, managed to source a temporary premises after the floods.\n\nBut he said the challenges were greater than simply finding a building.\n\n\"Footfall has dropped significantly as we have lost our major retailer, Asda,\" he said.\n\n\"We have lost a lot of other major retailers in the town too so people aren't coming out to shop.\"\n\nAn application has been submitted to see a temporary Asda store set up in a carpark next to the existing store, which has been irreparably damaged.\n\nIt cannot come soon enough for Mr Kearney.\n\nThe planning permission says the current Asda store needs to be replaced with a new building\n\nAfter the floods, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris announced a £15m fund to support traders, which is being rolled out by councils.\n\nBut Mr Kearney said it did not cover all of his costs.\n\n\"We have received the £7,500 which obviously helped us get up and going again, but it obviously doesn't cover the cost of setting up a new premises.\n\n\"There's been a huge cost to us as a family and it really has stretched us out,\" he added.\n\n\"Our creditors have been very good to us. Our suppliers have been good to us and a lot of people have lent us tables and chairs and equipment which we are very grateful for.\"\n\nMr Kearney voiced disappointment at a lack of communication from the Northern Ireland Office (NIO).\n\n\"This £15m which was given out by the NIO still isn't reaching the business people of Newry, Downpatrick and Portadown,\" he said.\n\nThe NIO has stressed its role was getting the £15m released, with delivery through the Department for the Economy.\n\nAn NIO spokesperson said: \"The NI Civil Service and local councils are leading on the delivery of the £15m of support provided by the NIO for businesses.\"\n\nIn a statement Newry, Mourne and Down Council said, thus far, it had paid out about £840,000 to businesses from the £15m fund.\n\n\"The Flood Emergency Business Financial Support Grant assists occupiers of flooded businesses with immediate response and clean-up costs,\" the statement read.\n\n\"A second round of funding will require UK Treasury approval. Northern Ireland government departments are engaging with UK Treasury.\"\n\nShelley Teggart feels she is being penalised for having flood insurance\n\nHowever, some business owners have been told they are not eligible for support.\n\nAmong them is Shelley Teggart, who owns Dilly Dally gift shop and Teggart and Sons hardware shop.\n\n\"Because we have flood insurance we weren't eligible to apply for the funding. We've now been responded to by the council to say we aren't eligible for any financial assistance,\" she said.\n\n\"We haven't received any interim payment (from the insurance) yet so anything we have done - setting up a new shop and the clean up operation etc - has all been off our own back.\"\n\nMs Teggart said despite this payments to HMRC, salaries and outgoings still have to be paid.\n\n\"We've lost tens of thousands of pounds. And although we've insurance, it now feels like we've been penalised for that because we don't know what the cover will be and when we will see that money.\"\n\nRoger Pollen, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said plans were need to prevent further flooding issues\n\nRoger Pollen, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said there was an information gap, both in terms of what further funding would be available but also what caused the flood and how future incidents could be prevented.\n\n\"Businesses here suffered catastrophic flooding,\" he said.\n\n\"They need to know if that is going to happen again or if it was the result of something not being done in the maintenance cycle. Until we get to the bottom of why it happened then we cant be sure that it isn't going to happen again.\"\n\nThe Department for Infrastructure (DfI) said that a review into the floods was underway.\n\n\"Preparation for a Multi-Agency Review into the October 2023 floods has begun,\" a statement read.\n\n\"This review is being co-ordinated by the Executive Office with DfI, Local Government and DfC (Department for Communities) leading on those aspects for which they are responsible.\"\n\nPaul McCartan admits the sight of rain still brings a feeling of dread\n\nPaul McCartan, who has been able to reopen one of his two shops, said the business community needs to remain positive.\n\n\"The other shop is completely gutted and we've no chance of reopening that one at present,\" he said.\n\n\"But we are open here. We've compressed into this smaller unit and we are getting a turn. We're not doing what we should be doing but half a loaf is better than no loaf.\"\n\nHowever, Mr McCartan admitted the sight of rain still brings on a feeling of dread.\n\n\"There is no word of any dredging or clearing of the Quoile (river) or anything like that so we've been left in the dark there.\"\n\nNewry, Mourne and Down Council has also confirmed that £119,000 has been paid out to households who suffered flooding since 30 October.\n\nThis is under the Scheme of Emergency Financial Assistance (SEFA).\n\nIt sees impacted households receive \"an immediate payment of £1,000 as practical assistance to those who have suffered severe inconvenience to help make homes habitable as quickly as possible\".\n\nArmagh Banbridge and Craigavon Council has confirmed it has sent £1,000 cheques to 80 households impacted by flooding.", "Dashcam footage shows drivers trying to steer the dog towards exits on the Staten Island Expressway in New York.\n\nSeveral cars slowed down to corral the dog to one side, before one motorist gave chase on foot. Local media report that Bean the chihuahua ran away after being spooked by a pitbull.\n\nHe is now safe and has been reunited with his owners.", "Images of detained and stripped Palestinians apparently surrendering some weapons to Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip have prompted speculation about the circumstances of the events and the filming.\n\nInitially, two videos of what appeared to be the same scene - a man in his underwear obeying instructions to lay down a weapon - but with slight differences, sparked speculation it may have been filmed repeatedly for separate \"takes\".\n\nBBC Verify has examined the footage and established that both clips came from a continuous sequence in which three guns in total appear to be handed over. But questions remain about the exact circumstances and the release of the videos.\n\nTwo separate clips depicting the same scene but with minor discrepancies circulated on social media on Saturday 9 December. This led to accusations that different \"takes\" had been filmed. Some pointed to how the man in the video was holding the gun in a different hand in the two scenes.\n\nBBC Verify has found that in fact these videos are different sections of a continuous sequence, not separate takes, and the same man is going to and fro bringing different guns to the pavement with their detached ammunition.\n\nIn the footage, dozens of other men are seen standing across the road watching, also in their underwear, many of them with their arms aloft and holding identity cards. BBC Verify has established they are in front of a UN school in Beit Lahia, north of the Jabalia refugee camp.\n\nOne video, which we know was shot first because of the position of the sun, shows the man placing a gun from his right hand on top of another on the pavement. In the next video, with the sun lower, the man places a different gun on top of those from his left hand. Still images corroborate and bookend this sequence, with one showing the very first gun being placed, and another showing the resulting three guns and magazines on the pavement.\n\nThere are still some questions raised by the footage. Notably, the man is being held at gunpoint and issued directions from off-screen, so it's unclear whether he is \"surrendering\" the weapons or just moving them as instructed. Given he is already in his underwear and he cannot have been concealing them on his person, it's unlikely Israeli troops did not know about these weapons, suggesting this may be performed for the camera, rather than as an act of authentic surrender. We also don't know if he, or any of the other individuals in the video, have any involvement with Hamas or the 7 October attack.\n\nIn one of the videos, the end of what seems to be a DSLR zoom lens is briefly visible. There were also photographs circulating alongside the videos which were captured from a slightly different angle. This suggests the events were filmed or photographed by more than one person or camera.\n\nOver the past week, emotive images of Palestinians being detained in Gaza have provoked strong reactions - with some expressing concern over the treatment of the prisoners, and the Red Cross saying all detainees must be treated in accordance with international law.\n\nBut Israel has been keen to show evidence it's making progress against Hamas in Gaza. On Sunday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: \"In recent days, dozens of Hamas terrorists have surrendered to our forces. They are laying down their weapons and handing themselves over to our heroic fighters.\n\n\"It will take more time, the war is in full swing, but this is the beginning of the end for Hamas.\"\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not respond directly to questions about the circumstances of these videos but a spokesperson told the BBC that detained individuals \"are treated in accordance with international law\".\n\n\"It is often necessary for terror suspects to hand over their clothes such that their clothes can be searched and to ensure that they are not concealing explosive vests or other weaponry.\"\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Last updated on .From the section Cycling\n\nGreat Britain's most successful female Olympian Dame Laura Kenny believes women athletes can struggle to get pregnant because of their lifestyle.\n\nKenny, 31, won five gold medals and one silver across three Olympic Games at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.\n\nThe mum-of-two is targeting a fourth Games in Paris next year.\n\nKenny says she has had \"many conversations\" with athletes suffering with Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport.\n\nKnown as Red-S, the condition occurs when athletes expend more energy in training than they consume through food and drink and one of the key symptoms in women is the absence of periods.\n• None 5 Live Sport podcast: All About - The Laura and Jason Kenny one\n\nSeveral sportswomen have spoken about their experience with Red-S, including athletes Anna Boniface, Bobby Clay and Pippa Woolven and mountain bike racer Evie Richards.\n\n\"There are females that have struggled and will struggle to get pregnant because of the lifestyle of being an athlete,\" Kenny, who does not have the condition, told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast.\n\n\"We've all heard of Red-S - being females losing their periods. You're not going to be able to fall pregnant if you haven't got a period.\n\n\"It's actually a really unhealthy lifestyle that these females can't have kids and it's actually really sad.\n\n\"I've always consistently had a period but the amount of conversations I've heard of people having Red-S.\n\n\"Red-S is actually really dangerous... these people are giving up lots of things that really deep down they want.\"\n\nKenny had her first child in 2017 and gave birth to her second child six months ago - but had a miscarriage and then an ectopic pregnancy in between.\n\nIt is a condition of low energy availability which has a serious impact on long-term health and performance.\n\nIt can impact oestrogen levels leading to missed periods.\n\nOf the UK athletes surveyed, 36% have knowingly ignored missed periods in the belief that this is normal for an active person, according to the Female Athlete Health Report 2023 from Project Red-S and Kyniska Advocacy who surveyed 769 people.\n• None Listen to Women's Sport Matters: We're Not All The Same. Period\n\nKenny, who believes periods are still a taboo subject among some people, added: \"For me our coach was brilliant, if you were on your period you could openly say as long as you felt comfortable but I do know there are a lot of coaches that I think still struggle with it and even to talk about it - they struggle to say the word.\"\n\n'It would be one hell of a comeback'\n\nKenny, who had her first child Albie in 2017 with fellow Olympian husband Jason, became pregnant after the Tokyo Games but miscarried in November.\n\nTwo months later, she suffered an ectopic pregnancy which is when a fertilised egg implants itself outside of the womb, usually in one of the fallopian tubes.\n\nKenny is eyeing up a return to the track in the new year with hopes of adding to her hoard of medals at the Paris Games.\n\n\"I think I realised that when we had the miscarriage and the ectopic, I knew deep down that it would be one hell of a comeback [to return to cycling], obviously delaying it because I still wanted to have another baby,\" Kenny, who gave birth again six months ago, said.\n\n\"I knew that time would be short before the next Olympics and it wasn't about this big fairytale it was about what my heart so desperately wanted and it was to have him. I just wanted another one.\n\n\"It consumed me for a long time because I felt that sense of one, loss and two, this missing piece.\"", "Flowers were left at the entrance to Bibby Stockholm on Tuesday\n\nCampaigners say the death of an asylum seeker on the Bibby Stockholm is \"not a surprise\" and are calling for all migrants on board to be taken off.\n\nThe BBC understands the man took his own life on the barge in Dorset where hundreds of men are housed.\n\nSome people in Portland say there are already too many people \"crammed\" on the vessel, with more due to arrive, and the environment is causing stress.\n\nThe Home Office said the welfare of the men was \"of the utmost importance\".\n\nCaz Dennett said she was not surprised to learn of a death on board the barge\n\nPortland town councillor Giovanna Lewis said: \"We were told at the beginning that the men would be assessed for their suitability because there is no doubt this is a challenging way to live.\n\n\"My understanding was that people were selected - the more resilient people - but that's clearly not happening.\"\n\nResident Simon Pugh-Jones said: \"When you have this many people crammed into a space that isn't big enough... the stresses that people are going to be under are likely to lead to tragedy.\"\n\nCaz Dennett, also from Portland, said: \"There are now 320 men crammed in there - this was not a surprise.\"\n\nSouth Dorset MP Richard Drax said he blamed \"illegal traffickers\" for the death.\n\nGiovanna Lewis said the barge was a \"challenging way to live\"\n\n\"It is they [the traffickers] who are taking people from safety, mainly in France, putting them in extremely dangerous small boats and bringing them to a country where they have no connections and, ultimately, no doubt some of them feel lost and alone...,\" he said\n\nBut Portland Global Friendship Group, a team of volunteers who support the men on board, posted on Facebook: \"But Mr Drax, most of the Bibby residents arrived here by plane (not in dangerous small boats run by illegal traffickers) and many have friends and/or family here - do you not know?\"\n\nWhen asked about the MP's comments on BBC Radio Solent, Portland mayor Carralyn Parkes said: \"If you are putting people in places like the Bibby Stockholm, which is wholly unsuitable for housing people on a long-term basis, some of the responsibility obviously does lie with the government.\n\n\"If you can shake your magic money tree and produce millions of pounds for a monstrosity like Bibby Stockholm, you can shake your magic money tree and use that money to invest in the asylum and immigration system... so people don't have to wait for 18 months or more to have their asylum decisions made.\"\n\nThe Bibby Stockholm has capacity for 500 men\n\nThe Home Office said the death on Tuesday would be investigated by the police and coroner.\n\nA statement said: \"This is a tragic incident, and our thoughts are with everyone affected.\n\n\"The welfare of all those in our care is of the utmost importance, and we take our responsibility for their wellbeing incredibly seriously.\"\n\nThe Prime Minister's official spokesman said men on the barge were assessed for signs of emotional trauma, and continued to have support available to them.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, X, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Jenin's walls are covered with the pictures of young armed men killed by Israeli forces\n\nSince the war in Gaza began, Israel's military operations in the occupied West Bank have become more frequent, and more forceful.\n\nThe northern city of Jenin - the epicentre of these raids before the Hamas attacks - is now a weekly battleground.\n\nThe Palestinian teenagers I met who were running from the army there on Tuesday had the sceptical dismissive attitudes of much older men - mocking the Palestinian president and his appeals to the world for protection against Israel's occupation.\n\nBehind them, Israel's armoured bulldozers and military jeeps moved around the entrance to Jenin refugee camp, explosions and gunfire from across the city echoing along the deserted, shuttered streets.\n\nThe walls of this city are covered with the pictures of young men killed by Israeli forces - some of them members of armed groups like Hamas, proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK and others. The posters and the faces are refreshed, year after year.\n\nSix men were killed in the operation here on Tuesday; four of them in a drone strike, witnesses said.\n\nIsrael says its operations in the West Bank are targeting members of armed groups, often those with Israeli blood on their hands.\n\nSmoke rises over houses during an Israeli military raid in Jenin on Tuesday\n\nBut the director of Jenin's hospital, Wissam Bakr, said a chronically ill 13-year-old child also died after being blocked from reaching medical care.\n\n\"The persistence of the incursions into Jenin, and the killing of young people - this will make the people more and more angry, because every day we lose one of our friends,\" he said.\n\n\"This will not bring peace for Israel - this will bring more and more resistance.\"\n\nOn 7 October, Hamas gunmen from Gaza attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 others hostage. More than 18,400 people are said to have been killed in Gaza during the war that followed.\n\nHere in the West Bank, 271 Palestinians, including 69 children, have been killed since the attacks - more than half the total number for the year. Almost all of them have been killed by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations.\n\nSince the Hamas attacks, support for armed resistance has risen in many parts of the West Bank - in places like Nablus and Jenin.\n\n\"I see it in the voices of people, in the music they play in their cars, from Facebook or social media posts, from my debates with my students,\" said Raed Debiy, a political scientist and youth leader for the West Bank's ruling party, Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority (PA).\n\nHe told me the attacks were \"a turning point\" for Palestinians, just as they were a shocking turning point for Israelis.\n\n\"The people, especially the new generation, are backing Hamas now, more than at any other moment,\" he told me. \"In the previous 30 years, there were no models, no idols for the new generation; now they see there is something different, a different story is being created.\"\n\nEven his 11-year-old nephew, he said, had little respect for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but idolises Hamas military spokesman Abu Obeida - \"because he protects us\".\n\n\"Palestinian youth had priorities and wish lists about owning a house, or getting a degree,\" explained West Bank political scientist Amjad Bushkar.\n\n\"But after 7 October, I think these priorities have totally changed. There are rising voices for full liberation of the homeland through resistance - whether that resistance is peaceful or armed.\"\n\nDr Bushkar told me that he had spent a total of nine years in Israeli jails, and had been a member of Hamas's student wing in the past. Seven members of his family had been arrested since the 7 October attacks, he added.\n\nHamas members in the West Bank have regularly been targeted by Palestinian security forces - not just Israeli ones - since the group took control of Gaza by force in 2007, a year after it won parliamentary elections.\n\nBut now, Dr Bushkar said, something had changed.\n\n\"Both Fatah and Hamas are well aware that they are complementary to each other, and I think we'll see real integration between the two movements.\"\n\n\"The Palestinian Authority realised that targeting Hamas would not eradicate it because it's an ideological movement rooted within the Palestinian people; and Hamas is fully aware that it cannot establish an independent [Palestinian] state without the help of Fatah.\"\n\nThere has been a parallel surge in violence in the West Bank since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas\n\nSome senior figures in the Palestinian administration - though not President Abbas - are now openly talking about the benefits of a united political front.\n\nEarlier this month, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said in an interview with Bloomberg that the Palestinian Authority's preferred outcome of the war in Gaza would be for Hamas to join a unity government led by the PA.\n\nQossay Hamed, an expert in Hamas at Al-Quds Open University in Ramallah, says the crisis in Gaza could end up strengthening the movement's political wing, at the expense of its military one.\n\n\"In any revolutionary movement, there should be a political harvest to [military] actions,\" he said.\n\n\"There are so many trends within Hamas. And there are internal clashes. I think there will be more room for the political trend within Hamas, especially after this war, when the whole world will not be tolerant towards them.\"\n\nIsrael says its goal in Gaza is to destroy Hamas, and has ruled out a role for either it or Fatah in Gaza's future government.\n\n\"I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who teach terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism,\" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.\n\n\"Gaza will be neither Hamas-stan nor Fatah-stan.\"\n\nDemonstrators carried Hamas flags during a protest against the war in Gaza in the West Bank city of Hebron last Friday\n\nSome Palestinians privately say the price paid by Gaza for the Hamas attacks is too high.\n\nBut others say the group's brutal tactics worked in forcing Israel to release Palestinian prisoners - and contrast its impact sharply with that of the Palestinian Authority, set up 30 years ago after the Oslo Accords to work with Israel on a future Palestinian State.\n\nAn opinion poll carried out between 22 November and 2 December by a respected Palestinian think-tank, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), found that support for Hamas had more than tripled in the West Bank compared to three months ago.\n\nSupporters of Hamas were still in a minority, but 70% of the respondents said armed struggle was the best means of ending the Israeli occupation.\n\nBy contrast, support for President Abbas had dropped sharply following the Hamas attacks, the survey found, with more than 90% of Palestinians in the West Bank calling for his resignation.\n\nSince the Hamas attacks, said Amjad Bushkar, \"the world and the international community have put the Palestinian cause on its list of priorities.\"\n\nWidely seen as corrupt and ineffective, the PA has also been unable to pay its civil servants or police since the Hamas attacks, because the war in Gaza caused a rift over the tax revenues transferred by Israel each month.\n\nWhile Hamas flags and slogans multiplied here in the wake of each busload of Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in exchange for Israeli hostages held in Gaza, the PA's president and security forces were conspicuously absent.\n\nIsrael may be determined to deny Hamas power in Gaza, but here in the West Bank its influence is already spreading.", "Dr Jonathan Williams agreed to step back from his role as the British Museum's deputy director earlier this year\n\nThe deputy director who oversaw a botched investigation into thefts at the British Museum is leaving the institution, the BBC can reveal.\n\nDr Jonathan Williams had agreed to step back from his duties until the conclusion of an external review.\n\nIts recommendations were published on Tuesday with no mention of Dr Williams.\n\nDr Ittai Gradel, the gem specialist who first alerted the deputy director about the thefts but says he was brushed off, said: \"He should have gone long ago\".\n\nHe added: \"This whole charade of stepping back from duties was pointless from the outset. It was immediately obvious to any observer that he had displayed incompetence in handling this on a level where the only appropriate response should be that he should lose his position.\"\n\nIn February 2021, Dr Gradel emailed Jonathan Williams claiming that he had noticed three ancient gems belonging to the British Museum for sale on eBay.\n\nHe alleged to Dr Williams that the seller was a senior curator at the British Museum.\n\nHe added evidence including a PayPal receipt which contained the full name and email address of the suspect.\n\nDr Williams did not contact Dr Gradel for further information. Instead, in emails seen by the BBC, he told him several months later that there had been an investigation and nothing untoward had taken place.\n\nIn fact, as the museum later discovered following a further audit, 2,000 items had been stolen or damaged from the museum storerooms, according to a report published yesterday.\n\nThese included Roman gems, ancient jewellery and fragments of pottery.\n\nAntiques dealer Dr Ittai Gradel warned Dr Williams in February 2021 that a thief was operating inside the museum\n\nDr Gradel told the BBC: \"When I finally received the reply from Jonathan Williams, that all my allegations were false, that an investigation had been done, and that there was absolutely nothing to it, and that he furthermore refused to tell me anything about the results of that investigation - at that point it was clear to me that these people were not up to their jobs.\n\n\"Someone had to do their jobs for them. And unfortunately, there was no-one else to do it but me - at least in the first stage.\"\n\nDr Gradel eventually successfully escalated his warnings to the trustee and chair George Osborne. The police were called in to investigate.\n\nGeorge Osborne, who chairs the British Museum (seen here last year with Dr Hartwig Fischer, who resigned as director in August)\n\nThe museum would not give any details on the date of Dr Williams' departure from the museum, nor whether he had gone voluntarily or was pushed.\n\nWhen asked on Tuesday, if the deputy director would step down, chair of the museum George Osborne told the BBC he would not \"come to instant judgements on those sorts of things\".\n\n\"It's absolutely clear that when the museum was warned by Dr Gradel in 2021, the museum did not respond adequately to that warning,\" Mr Osborne said. \"If we had, we would have got on top of this a couple of years before we did. There are clearly very serious consequences for it.\"\n\nThe BBC has contacted Dr Williams for comment.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said a man was interviewed under caution in August and that a police investigation is ongoing.", "The US and Israel were among 10 nations to vote against the resolution\n\nThe UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly adopted a non-binding resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.\n\nOn Tuesday, 153 member states in the 193-strong assembly voted in favour and 10 including the US and Israel against, with 23 abstentions.\n\nPalestinian representative Riyad Mansour said it was a \"historic day\".\n\nIsrael's envoy Gilad Erdan said before the vote that a \"ceasefire only serves to prolong Hamas's reign of terror\".\n\nSenior Hamas official Bassem Naeem told the BBC that the passing of the resolution confirmed that \"the prevailing international will is in favour of stopping the aggression against the Palestinian people\".\n\nAlthough the US voted against the resolution, US President Joe Biden had earlier warned that Israel was losing international support because of \"indiscriminate bombing\" of Palestinians.\n\nHe also expressed disagreement over plans for the future of the Gaza Strip, saying the Israeli government appeared opposed a two-state solution with the Palestinians.\n\nA woman cries as she hugs an injured man after an Israeli air strike on Rafah, southern Gaza, on Tuesday\n\nTuesday's vote was the second attempt by the General Assembly to stop hostilities. In October, it had called for \"a humanitarian truce\" in a resolution adopted with 121 votes in favour, 14 against and 44 abstentions.\n\nAlthough non-binding, such resolutions are seen as a powerful measure of international opinion, analysts say.\n\nUN Secretary General António Guterres has long been pushing for a humanitarian ceasefire to prevent a \"complete breakdown of public order\" in Gaza.\n\nLast Friday, the UN Security Council - the body tasked with global peace and security issues - failed to adopt a draft resolution calling for a truce in Gaza. The US - one of the council's five veto-wielding council members - blocked the move.\n\nIsrael has been carrying out air strikes and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip after a Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October in which Israeli officials say 1,200 were killed and another 240 taken hostage. Some of the abductees were later released during a brief truce.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says Israel has killed more than 18,200 people and injured at least 50,000, including many women and children, during its ongoing military operation.", "Jon Venables, now 41, has spent time in prison for indecent image offences in recent years\n\nJames Bulger killer Jon Venables has failed in a bid to be freed from prison after parole officers ruled he remains a danger to children.\n\nVenables was 10 when he murdered the two-year-old with Robert Thompson in Bootle, Merseyside in 1993 and could re-offend, the Parole Board said.\n\nIts report said his release at this point would not be safe for the public.\n\nVenables was released on licence in 2001 but recalled after indecent images of children were found on his computer.\n\nHe was returned to prison in February 2010 and released again in August 2013 - but then called back in November 2017 for the same offence.\n\nParole judges last considered his case in September 2020.\n\nAccording to a summary of the latest decision, Venables had \"accepted that he had a long-term sexual interest in children/indecent images of children\", despite taking part in a \"considerable amount of work in prison to address this area of risk\".\n\nHe has a history of taking drugs and secretly trying to use the internet in breach of licence conditions, it said.\n\nThe panel was \"concerned by continuing issues of sexual preoccupation in this case\", warning there are \"future risks\" of him viewing more child sexual abuse images and of him \"progressing to offences where he might have contact with children\".\n\n\"Both of these present a risk of causing serious harm to others,\" the three-page document added.\n\nThe Parole Board said it doubted Venables' ability to be open and honest with professionals, and concluded that there remained a need for him to \"address outstanding levels of risk, and to develop his relationship with his probation officer.\"\n\nJames Bulger was two when he was abducted and killed in 1993\n\nThere is a long-standing legal order in place to protect the identities of both Venables and Thompson because of their young age when they committed the murder.\n\nFor this reason, the chairwoman of the Parole Board of England and Wales, Caroline Corby, chose not to hold his parole hearing in public, and James's family were not able to attend.\n\nVenables and Thompson, who was also 10 at the time, abducted James from a shopping centre in February 1993.\n\nTogether they led him to a nearby railway line, tortured and killed him.\n\nThey were released on licence in 2001 after serving eight years for the murder and were both given new identities.\n\nJames' family praised the decision, and a spokeswoman for his mother, Denise Fergus, said this was a day she had been waiting \"years\" for.\n\n\"The prospect of him coming out was terrifying as we knew he'd harm again,\" she said.\n\nHis father Ralph Bulger, and uncle Jimmy Bulger, said they were \"relieved\", but criticised the Ministry of Justice and said government officials had been \"hostile\" ahead of the Parole Board hearing.\n\nThey raised concerns that a memorandum of the sexual element of James' murder was never admitted to the Parole Board panel.\n\nThey said: \"The further offending by Jon Venables has had a traumatic impact on us. We are immensely concerned that the MoJ is incapable of protecting the public and that officials within it are clearly not fit to fulfil their obligations.\"\n\nThe MoJ said it had nothing further to add in response to the criticism.\n\nJustice Secretary Alex Chalk said: \"James Bulger's barbaric murder was a crime that shocked the nation and I welcome the Parole Board's decision to keep his killer behind bars.\n\n\"Public protection is our number one priority which is why I opposed Jon Venables' release and this government is reforming the parole system to introduce a stronger ministerial check on the release of the most dangerous offenders.\"\n\nHis previous parole review in 2020 determined he used sex and pornography \"as a means of coping\", felt a \"lack of fulfilment in life\" and had a \"need for excitement\", as it looked at his behaviour leading up to his more recent offences.\n\nVenables will be eligible for another parole review in about two years' time.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The plans aim to build on the success of the Covid vaccination programme, NHS England said\n\nPeople in England will be able to book all their routine vaccinations on a mobile app or online within the next three years under NHS plans.\n\nNHS England said it wants to build on the Covid vaccination programme in order to increase uptake of other potentially life-saving jabs.\n\nCurrently, jabs other than for flu and Covid must be booked over the phone.\n\nNHS England also wants to increase community outreach in areas where the take-up of some jabs is low.\n\nUnder the plans,jabs for 16 vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and human papillomavirus (HPV), will be available to book online by the end of 2026.\n\nThe new booking system will generate vaccination invitations and appointment alerts.\n\nIt will also allow people to view their, and their children's, medical and vaccination records online.\n\nNHS England's chief executive Amanda Pritchard said she believed the rollout would \"save even more lives\". She added that booking a jab would be made \"as easy as booking a cab\", so that \"millions more people can get vaccinated\".\n\nHealth Minister Maria Caulfield said the plans also aimed \"to reach people who would not typically come forward for their jabs\".\n\n\"Living Well\" buses will increasingly be sent into communities to provide jabs and health checks under the plans\n\nUnder the strategy, health professionals will undertake community work to improve \"vaccine confidence\", following a drop in uptake of some vaccinations - including the MMR jab - in some areas.\n\nAdditionally, vaccines will be offered more widely in non-NHS settings, such as sports centres, shopping centres and people's homes, NHS England said.\n\nProf Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, welcomed the plans. She said: \"The link between uptake rates and vaccine confidence and accessibility is critical and I welcome this renewed focus by NHS England on innovative delivery approaches responding to local need.\"\n\nAbout nine in 10 children in England have received their pre-school immunisations, with flu vaccination rates among the highest in the world, NHS England said. However, this strategy is aimed at increasing rates still further.\n\nCurrently, more then 33 million people have signed up to the NHS app.\n\nThis autumn, so far 5.1 million NHS flu and Covid vaccines been booked in total online - 1.2 million via the app.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Netflix has released a report showing data for 100 billion hours of streaming\n\nNetflix has released viewer data on 99% of its catalogue for the first time.\n\nUsers around the world watched The Night Agent for 812m hours, making the political thriller its most viewed show in the first half of this year.\n\nThe streaming giant has been criticised for not being transparent about how content performs on its platform.\n\nThe criticism was central to this year's Hollywood strikes, which paralysed the film and television industry for several months.\n\nActors and writers have been demanding higher royalties for shows that performed well on streaming platforms.\n\nOn a conference call with the media, co-chief executive Ted Sarandos acknowledged that the lack of transparency about the popularity of its shows had led to distrust in the creator community.\n\nHe added that Netflix had kept its viewer data private while it was building the business so it could experiment without giving away crucial information to potential competitors.\n\n\"This is a big step forward for Netflix and our industry,\" the company said in a blog post.\n\nViewing figures for the first six months of 2023\n\n\"We believe the viewing information in this report... will give creators and our industry deeper insights into our audiences, and what resonates with them.\"\n\nHollywood's creative community relies on viewing figures from audience data firm Nielsen - released annually - for traditional broadcast and cable television.\n\nThe What We Watched report ranks 18,000 titles by the amount of hours viewed between January and June this year. The company said it will now release the report every six months.\n\nCovering nearly 100 billion hours of viewing time, other shows that featured prominently on the list included Ginny and Georgia, Gilmore Girls, Seinfeld, Friends and The Office.\n\nThe Mother starring Jennifer Lopez was the top movie, watched for more than 249 million hours.\n\nNon-English content generated about a third of all viewing and Netflix said the data also shows there is still demand for older titles.\n\n\"Success on Netflix comes in all shapes and sizes, and is not determined by hours viewed alone. We have enormously successful movies and TV shows with both lower and higher hours viewed. It's all about whether a movie or TV show thrilled its audience — and the size of that audience relative to the economics of the title,\" the company said.\n\nWith almost 250 million subscribers globally, Netflix is the largest streaming service in the world.\n\nSince 2021, it has been releasing weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists, which show the most-watched movies and TV shows in English and other languages.\n\nNetflix said that more than half of the titles released this year appeared on the weekly Top 10 lists.\n\nThe What We Watched report showed 55% of Netflix viewing came from original films and series and 45% from licensed titles, according to Mr Sarandos.\n\nLast year, Netflix launched a separate service with adverts, which requires more transparency because advertisers want information about the popularity of content.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nManchester United's season of misery plunged even further into the depths of despair as they exited the Champions League at the group stage after defeat by Bayern Munich at Old Trafford.\n\nErik ten Hag's side, beaten 3-0 at home to Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday, needed to beat the Bundesliga champions and hope that there was no winner in the other group game between Copenhagen and Galatasaray.\n\nAnd even though Bayern were already comfortable winners of Group A, United were still unable to fulfil their part of the bargain on a night of bitter disappointment.\n\nUnited were already handicapped by first-half injuries to England duo Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw, with news filtering through that Copenhagen were ahead in Denmark.\n\nBayern sealed their fate by scoring the winner with 20 minutes left.\n\nEngland captain Harry Kane, inevitably, was involved with a deft touch to release Kingsley Coman, who easily beat exposed United keeper Andre Onana in front of the Stretford End.\n\nUnited won just one of their six group games in the competition and defeat against Bayern means they also missed the chance to drop into the Europa League by finishing third.\n\nIn the other match in Group A, Copenhagen held on to beat Galatasaray 1-0 to qualify for the last 16.\n• None How did you rate United's performance? Have your say here\n\nThe smattering of jeers that greeted the final whistle as United slid out of the Champions League, and indeed all European competition for this season, mirrored the mood of resignation that hung over Old Trafford long before the final whistle.\n\nAnyone who expected United to come out swinging in an attempt to overturn the odds and reach the knockout stages would have been sorely disappointed as Ten Hag's team were timid and toothless, mustering a miserly single shot on target against a Bayern side who did not have anything to play for.\n\nThe injuries to Maguire and Shaw, watched by England manager Gareth Southgate, did not help United's cause but this cannot be offered up as an excuse for a performance desperately lacking in quality, inspiration and creation.\n\nBayern's veteran goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was untroubled throughout, with all the pace and threat on offer on a low-key night coming from the Germans, who were rewarded for their superiority with Coman's winner.\n\nThe space and time afforded before his finish almost embarrassing.\n\nRasmus Hojlund had a chastening sight, running tirelessly without any service and being outmuscled comprehensively by Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae. The Dane was bent over exhausted and beaten seconds before the final whistle.\n\nWhen the draw for this group was made, United must have relished their return to the Champions League but it has been a harrowing experience.\n\nThey came up short on the twin faults of a team that is not fit for purpose and also only too happy to engineer their own downfall, as they did when conceding two-goal leads to lose in Copenhagen and draw away to Galatasaray.\n\nUnited now have all the feel of a club in crisis with Ten Hag under serious scrutiny and the prospect of a tough trip to Liverpool on Sunday, with Maguire and Shaw likely missing through injury and captain Bruno Fernandes suspended.\n\nEngland captain Kane had a relatively quiet night as he returned to Old Trafford but offered up a touch of class that helped Coman to settle the game.\n\nKane's delicate touch on the edge of the area unlocked the United defence, leaving the France forward to complete the formalities on this dismal night for the home supporters.\n\nAnd the former Spurs striker showed exactly what he has brought to Bayern, dropping deep as a creator while also showing a willingness to do the dirty work by chasing back to defend.\n\nKane is a class act, as we know. No wonder United manager Ten Hag was keen to bring him to Old Trafford before reluctantly accepting this was a deal that could not be done.\n• None Leon Goretzka (FC Bayern München) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Aaron Wan-Bissaka (Manchester United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Harry Kane (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Joshua Kimmich with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Kim Min-Jae (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt blocked. Leon Goretzka (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.\n• None Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "The 28-year-old was found guilty by a Bangkok court for two posts made before she joined the party\n\nA Thai MP has been sentenced to six years in jail under the country's harsh lese-majeste laws.\n\nRukchanok \"Ice\" Srinork, 28, had pleaded not guilty to posting tweets critical of the monarchy.\n\nShe has since been released on bail worth $14,000 (£11,180) pending an appeal, on the condition that she must not repeat the offence.\n\nIce's Move Forward party, which won this year's election, had urged reform of the lese-majeste laws.\n\nBut the unelected senate used this as the main reason for blocking the party's attempt to form a government.\n\nOpposition to the lese-majeste laws was one of the issues which sparked mass protests in 2020, lasting several months. According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, around 260 charges have been filed under the lese-majeste law since 2020. Some 2,000 people have been prosecuted under a variety of laws for their involvement in the protests.\n\nJust earlier this week, a 26-year-old man was given a prison sentence just for shouting at a passing royal motorcade about a burden imposed on society. He has been released on bail.\n\nOn Wednesday, Ice was found guilty of insulting the monarch by a Bangkok court for two posts made before she joined Move Forward - in the first, she criticised the country's handling of the pandemic, and the second was a repost of a tweet that was said to be critical of the monarchy.\n\nIce will lose her seat if she eventually goes to jail.\n\nHers was perhaps the most dramatic of many shock victories by the young Move Forward candidates in the May general election - she won her seat in Bang Bon, a constituency near Bangkok which had been the fiefdom of one of Thailand's most powerful political clans for decades, after a no-frills campaign largely on a bicycle.\n\nShe was given the nickname of \"giant-killer\" by a Thai media outlet, for taking the seat from a political heavyweight.\n\nMove Forward's leader Pita Limjaroenrat was unsuccessful in his bid to become prime minister\n\nSeveral other leading figures in the Move Forward party are also facing lese-majeste charges - many of whom were activists who took part in the 2020 protests.\n\nThose protests were ignited by a controversial court decision in February 2020 which dissolved Future Forward, the previous incarnation of Move Forward and the first party to campaign on a programme of sweeping reform of Thailand's institutions.\n\nFuture Forward had done unexpectedly well in the 2019 election, mainly on the back of enthusiastic support from younger voters. This year, Move Forward stunned Thailand's establishment by doing even better, winning more seats than any other party thanks to victories like the one Ice won in Bang Bon.\n\nAfter King Vajiralongkorn succeeded his father in 2016, use of the lese-majeste law was suspended for around two years, apparently at the monarch's request.\n\nBut the boldness of the 2020 protesters in demanding royal reform prompted the authorities to start using the law again, more extensively than at any other time in Thailand's history.\n\nThe lese-majeste law is notoriously broad, which makes mounting a legal defence very difficult.\n\nIt is regarded officially as a national security law, and it is extremely rare for judges to acquit defendants. Often the trials are held behind closed doors, with no independent observers. There is also huge pressure on defendants to plead guilty, regardless of the strength of the case against them - conviction is almost certain, and judges routinely halve the sentences of those who plead guilty.\n\nTrials in Thailand often take many years to conclude, which means the lives of the young activists facing lese-majeste and many other charges in relation to the 2020 protests will be consumed for the foreseeable future by incessant court hearings.\n\nThis form of \"judicial attrition\" has proved very effective at snuffing out the protest movement. Protest leaders, some of whom face dozens of charges, simply have no time now to organise.\n• None Why Thai protesters are willing to break the law", "Lianne Gordon has been described as loved by the community\n\nA mother-of-two was trying to protect her family when she was fatally shot in the head by a teenager trying to force his way into her home, the Old Bailey has heard.\n\nLianne Gordon, 42, died at the scene of the shooting on 5 December in which two others were also injured in Hackney.\n\nA 16-year-old boy has been charged with her murder.\n\nHe was also charged with the attempted murder of a 20-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy.\n\nThe youth had allegedly gone to the scene of the shooting in Vine Close on a bicycle, the court heard.\n\nHe was wearing a balaclava and armed with a 9mm (0.4in) self-loading pistol, it is claimed.\n\nThe Old Bailey was told he is alleged to have fired the gun, hitting the 20-year-old in the buttock and injuring a 16-year-old boy in the thigh.\n\nHe went on to try to force his way into Ms Gordon's home, shoulder-barging and kicking the door.\n\nProsecutor Louise Oakley told the court: \"Lianne Gordon tried to ensure that door was closed to keep her family safe.\n\n\"She was unable to do so and (the youth) continued to force his way into the property.\n\n\"He discharged the firearm, and the bullet struck Lianne Gordon in the head.\"\n\nThe gunman fled and police and paramedics arrived shortly before 18:30 GMT.\n\nMs Gordon was pronounced dead at the scene and the two other victims were treated in hospital before being discharged.\n\nThe Met Police said the victims were not related but were believed to have known each other.\n\nThe defendant was remanded into youth detention accommodation\n\nEarly on Friday, officers detained the 16-year-old, who cannot be identified because of his age.\n\nHe was subsequently charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder.\n\nThe teenager was further charged with possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, and possession of crack cocaine and heroin with intent to supply.\n\nOn Wednesday, the defendant appeared at the Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing by videolink from Feltham young offenders institution.\n\nHe spoke to confirm his identity, before Judge Angela Rafferty KC set a timetable for his case.\n\nA plea hearing was set for 8 March next year with a provisional trial either in June or September.\n\nThe defendant was remanded into youth detention accommodation.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n• None Boy charged with murder of woman shot in Hackney\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Tejean Kennedy, right, was jailed for 20 years and Ali Kavak, left, 13 years\n\nTwo men who killed a radio DJ in an empty bar near Tottenham Hotspur's stadium have been jailed.\n\nMehmet Koray Alpergin and his girlfriend Gozde Dalbudak were kidnapped in central London last October.\n\nMr Alpergin, 43, was beaten, throttled, burned and stabbed before his body was dumped in an Essex woodland.\n\nTejean Kennedy, 33, of Cricklewood Broadway, was jailed for 20 years and Ali Kavak, 26, of Tottenham, 13 years.\n\nThey had been found guilty of manslaughter, kidnap and false imprisonment after a trial at the same court, the Old Bailey, last month.\n\nThe Met Police said the circumstances of Mr Alpergin's death were \"like something you see in a gangster movie\".\n\n\"We cracked this case through painstaking and lengthy analysis of CCTV,\" said Det Ch Insp Matt Webb.\n\nDuring the trial, the court was told Mr Alpergin and Ms Dalbudak were travelling home to Enfield from a restaurant Mayfair when they were snatched and taken to the Stadium Lounge wine bar, which backs on to White Hart Lane.\n\nDuring the attack on 13 October 2022, Ms Dalbudak was locked in a toilet for two days before she was freed by her captors and given money for a taxi.\n\nReading a statement on behalf of Mr Alpergin's family at the Old Bailey, his cousin, Neliz Halil, spoke of their \"indescribable pain\".\n\nMr Alpergin, who was originally from northern Cyprus, was a well-known figure in the British Turkish community and owned a Turkish language radio station in London, Bizim FM.\n\nProsecutor Crispin Aylett KC had told jurors the normally \"happy-go-lucky\" DJ had seemed anxious and on edge in the days before his death.\n\nThe court heard he was heavily in debt, owing £32,405 for his Audi as well as other claims against him.\n\nJudge Sarah Whitehouse KC said drugs were \"at the heart\" of the case, having heard evidence that it was related to \"international organised crime\".\n\nShe also jailed Samuel Owusu-Opoku, 35, who was found guilty of two counts of kidnap, for seven years.\n\nSteffan Gordon, 34, who had admitted kidnap and was found guilty of two counts of false imprisonment, was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment.\n\nYigit Hurman, 18, from Muswell Hill, north London, who admitted perverting the course of justice, was sentenced to two years in jail.\n\nTwo more suspects are still at large and are believed to have fled abroad.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "The ring, which was found in the Cotswolds, has been declared as treasure\n\nA silver ring found in the Cotswolds that dates back more than 1,700 years to Roman times has been declared treasure.\n\nGloucestershire Coroners Court was told that an expert at the British Museum has dated the ring between 100 and 300 AD.\n\nIt was found in 2021 in Temple Guiting - close to Stow-on-the-Wold.\n\nThe Corinium Museum in Cirencester has expressed an interest in acquiring the ring, the court heard.\n\nThe ring has a rectangular bezel which is decorated with a central raised panel design with two cross saltires formed from two inside lines and a transverse line forming an open V shape. The shoulders are decorated with notches.\n\nThe British Museum stated that as this ring pre-dates 1721 and is made of silver, it qualifies as treasure.\n\nThe assistant coroner for Gloucestershire Roland Wooderson confirmed that was his finding and formally declared the ring to be treasure, meaning it comes under rules established in the 2023 Treasure Act.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The world has reached a new deal to tackle climate change at COP28 in Dubai.\n\nThe agreement stresses the importance of limiting long-term warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels - the time before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels - in order to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change.\n\nThis goal was first agreed in 2015, when nearly 200 countries signed a landmark deal in Paris.\n\nHowever, meeting this target will require steep and rapid cuts to emissions of the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet.\n\nUse the interactive chart below to see which countries are on track with their commitments to meet the Paris climate goal of keeping global temperature rises below 1.5 degrees.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nNot all countries can independently afford the same kinds of emissions-reducing actions.\n\nSome less affluent countries set two different goals - one they aim to meet completely on their own, and a more ambitious one they aim to meet if they can get support from wealthy donors. We've only shown the independent targets here.\n\nBut the emissions debate is more nuanced than simple reductions.\n\nHistorical responsibility for climate change is not shared equally across all nations. So, a group of independent researchers at Climate Action Tracker have devised a method to calculate what they call the \"fair share\" targets. This considers a country's historical contributions to total global emissions, as well as their current levels.\n\nCountries that have contributed only a marginal amount to the overall total have a lesser \"fair share\" of responsibility than those that have been heavy emitters for many years.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nBy looking more closely at some individual countries, we can get a better sense of whether they are on or off track.\n\nChina is currently the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.\n\nAnd while it is less responsible for past contributions to global warming, China's rapid economic growth in recent years has begun to tip that balance.\n\nSome of this growth has gone hand in hand with the world's fastest transition to renewable energies. China leads the world in its adoption of solar, wind and electric transportation.\n\nBut it has continued to rely heavily on coal, with no promised end.\n\nChina is also the world's leading methane emitter and it has not yet joined the more than 150 countries who have signed up for the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030.\n\nAfter China, the United States ranks second for annual emissions.\n\nRecent policy changes have taken steps towards meeting its targets. The Inflation Reduction Act was the country's largest single investment in climate action.\n\nAnd a joint statement with China ahead of COP28 promised the two countries would step up their cooperation on issues such as reducing methane and tripling renewable energy uptake. The statement fell short of setting new ambitious targets, though.\n\nBernice Lee, a distinguished Fellow at Chatham House and an expert on China, told the BBC at the time of the statement: \"My suspicion is that it has proven to be too difficult to find the form of language that works for both. But nonetheless, I think it's good that they have a statement that's focused on the things they agree on, which is, obviously, the renewables and methane.\"\n\nBut the US is still a long way from reaching its stated emissions goals, and it has continued to approve new oil drilling projects in the Gulf of Mexico.\n\nOne year into his presidency, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has made some progress on reversing the destruction of the Amazon that took place under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.\n\nIn November 2023, Brazil's National Institute for Space Research announced that deforestation in the Amazon hit a six-year low.\n\nIn a healthy state, the Amazon rainforest takes up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and helps limit global warming - but rapid deforestation is harming its ability to do this.\n\nBrazil has restated its emissions pledges, but it continues oil exploration and plans to align itself more closely with the group of leading oil-producing nations - Opec - in future, undermining the ambitions announced.\n\nThe UK has been relatively successful at cutting its emissions so far. Progress has been largely driven by decarbonising the power sector, by switching away from coal - the dirtiest fossil fuel - towards natural gas and, more recently, renewable sources like wind and solar energy.\n\nBut recent progress has been \"worryingly slow\", putting the UK's long-term carbon cutting targets at risk, according to the UK's independent Climate Change Committee.\n\nMark Maslin, professor of Earth system science at UCL, told the BBC: \"UK progress toward net zero has been poor in 2023.\n\n\"This is because the government has weakened many of its green policies and granted new oil and gas licences, which are incompatible with a net zero future,\" he added.\n\nThe government said the licences would slow the decline in domestic production of oil and gas and secure domestic energy supply.\n\nSome recent global developments have been positive.\n\nAt COP28, the world agreed the need to \"transition away\" from fossil fuels for the first time - although the deal doesn't go as far as many had hoped.\n\nThis comes alongside a goal to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030, building on the strong recent growth of these technologies.\n\nCountries also agreed to implement a specific \"loss and damage fund\", seen as a major win for developing nations.\n\nThis money will help poorer countries cope with the destruction caused by extreme weather. These events are getting worse in many places as the world warms.\n\nDespite some positive signs, the world is \"not on track\" to limit global warming to 1.5C, the UN says.\n\nThe hope is that the agreements at COP28 will translate into meaningful action to keep this target within reach.", "Topped with razor wire and split by mountains, the infamous border wall that cuts through the desert between Mexico and the state of California has long been a focal point for America's heated debate on migration.\n\nBut with funding for the war in Ukraine and Gaza on the line in Washington DC, the issues at the wall have taken on new urgency.\n\nSince the start of the year, about two million migrants have been apprehended at the US-Mexico border for crossing into the country illegally, a record high.\n\nThe futility of the border fortifications is obvious near the small town of Jacumba. Wherever the wall meets the mountains it simply stops, creating a large gap that anyone can walk through to enter the US, and serving as a visual reminder of America's broken immigration system.\n\nIn a Senate vote this week, Republicans blocked additional funding for Ukraine or Israel unless the Biden administration agrees to hardline immigration reform.\n\n\"I will not go back to South Carolina and try to explain why I helped Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel and did nothing to secure our own border. I will help all of our allies, but we got to help ourselves first,\" Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told media on Thursday.\n\nYou can read more about the border crisis here.", "A Virgin Media advert has been banned for misleading customers into thinking the firm offered faster wi-fi than its rivals.\n\nThe ad boasted it had the \"fastest wi-fi guarantee of any major provider\".\n\nVirgin said it found the ruling \"slightly baffling\", and maintained it guaranteed a faster minimum speed than its competitors.\n\nBut the watchdog ruled most customers would understand its wi-fi was faster than others', which was not the case.\n\nThe Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) looked into the claim following a complaint from Virgin's competitor Vodafone.\n\nVirgin told the ASA the ad was meant to convey that it guaranteed customers a minimum 30Mbps download speed on wi-fi - a faster minimum speed guarantee than others offered - with customers entitled to credit towards their bill if the minimum speed was not achieved.\n\nBut the ASA disagreed with Virgin and upheld the complaint.\n\n\"The difference between guaranteeing the highest speed and offering a guarantee which promised action by the advertiser if a minimum speed was not met was a subtle one,\" it said in its decision.\n\n\"We did not consider that the headline claim... would have been understood as Virgin Media intended by consumers, and that a significant proportion would understand it to mean that Virgin Media guaranteed they offered the fastest wi-fi service of any major broadband provider.\n\n\"Therefore, because the claim had not been substantiated as it would be understood by consumers, we concluded that the ad was misleading.\"\n\nAs a result, Virgin Media cannot run the ad again, and the regulator told the firm \"to ensure that they did not imply that they guaranteed the fastest wi-fi service of all major broadband providers if that was not the case\".\n\nThe advert was displayed on the homepage of Virgin Media's website on 3 July 2023, under the headline \"our wi-fi guarantee\".\n\nThe firm specified that the guarantee applied only to customers in areas that could get fibre optic broadband, and in particular its M50 broadband package, which offers an average download speed of 54Mbps.\n\nIt promised customers a £100 one-off account credit if they did not get at least 30Mbps download speeds in every room of their home, after it first offered up to three wi-fi signal boosters to help achieve the speeds.\n\nIn its response to the ASA, Virgin said \"a large number of major broadband providers promoted wi-fi guarantees to consumers\".\n\nIt said it believed its customers would have understood the intended meaning of its ad, due to the word \"guarantee\" as well as the explanation of what it meant - meaning they would not have been misled.\n\nIn a statement Virgin said it was \"surprised and disappointed\" by the ruling. \"Given no consumers complained about the advert, and independent polling has shown the majority of people correctly understood what our claim meant, it's slightly baffling that the ASA has ruled in this way,\" a spokesman said.", "There's huge relief at an agreement. Will it make an impact?\n\nOnce the gavel came down in Dubai, the warm words flowed - but will it really have an impact on climate change?\n\nThe agreement reached in this glitzy metropolis for the first time nails the role of fossil fuel emissions in driving up temperatures and outlines a future decline for coal, oil and gas.\n\nIn UN terms that is historic, and the biggest step forward on climate since the Paris agreement in 2015.\n\nBut by itself, will this deal be enough to save the \"north star\" of this COP - keeping temperatures under 1.5C this century?\n\nThe major element of the deal, the transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, is indeed a landmark moment.\n\nBut the language is far weaker than many countries desired.\n\nThe UAE presidency had included strong text on the idea of a fossil fuel phase out from the start of the meeting.\n\nBut in the face of opposition from many, they dropped it from their first attempt at a draft agreement,\n\nCue fury among progressives and much finger pointing at oil producers.\n\nSouth Sudan - one of many countries ravaged by the effects of climate change\n\nThis wasn't all the fault of countries like Saudi Arabia.\n\nA key factor in softening the text was the attitude of middle-income developing countries who were very uncertain about the much hyped phased out of fossil fuels.\n\nFor Nigeria, Uganda, Colombia and others there were complaints that they needed to use revenues from the sale of coal, oil and gas to ensure they could pay for the transition to greener energy.\n\nColombia complained that by moving away from fossil fuels, credit agencies had downgraded their rating, meaning that international loans to go green would cost them far more.\n\nThe final pact now calls on countries to \"transition away\" from fossil fuels specifically for energy systems, but not for plastics, transport or agriculture.\n\nThe agreement also has many other elements that will help limit emissions including a new commitment to triple renewables and energy efficiency by 2030.\n\nThis will see wind and solar displace some coal, oil and gas.\n\nAnother important factor is the requirement for countries to submit stronger carbon cutting plans by 2025.\n\nIf China and India put a rapid transition to green energy at the heart of these new commitments, that could make a massive difference to the global effort.\n\nBut there is also a recognition of the role of \"transitional fuels\" in the agreement - which is UN code for continuing use of natural gas.\n\nThere is also support for the use of carbon capture and storage, a technology that oil producers want to use to continue drilling.\n\nSmall island states were also irate that the deal was gavelled through while they weren't in the room.\n\nThey see the lack of greater short-term emissions cuts as the key weakness that threatens their way of life.\n\n\"We feel you, we see you. And we see that this text might not be enough for you, or your children,\" said German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock.\n\nShe said the deal in Dubai is just a starting point - and I think that is an important takeaway.\n\nObservers here believe that this meeting and the next two COPs, in Azerbaijan and Brazil, are part of a package deal that will help the world correct course on climate.\n\nThe view is that with the cost of renewables continuing to fall, the pressure on fossil fuels will continue to grow.\n\nThe feeling here is that in 2025, Brazil's President Lula will have chance to put fossil fuels beyond the pale, for ever.", "Chaos broke out in India's parliament on Wednesday after two men disrupted proceedings by shouting slogans and spraying coloured gas.\n\nReports say two others were detained for protesting outside parliament.\n\nTheir motive is not clear yet.\n\nVisuals show a man in blue jumping across tables as MPs and security officials try to catch him.\n\nThe security breach occurred on the anniversary of a deadly terror attack on parliament in which 14 people - including the five attackers - were killed.\n\nOn Wednesday, lawmakers told reporters that they first thought someone had fallen from the visitors' gallery.\n\n\"Then we realised that it was a deliberate act of him jumping into the well. There was another person, both of them pulled out canisters which were emitting yellow smoke,\" said Congress MP Karti Chidambaram.", "Terry Crews and Andre Braugher on set for Brooklyn Nine-Nine\n\nThe cast of Brooklyn Nine-Nine have paid tribute to their co-star Andre Braugher, who has died aged 61.\n\nRemembering his \"wisdom, kindness and friendship,\" the stars also shared stories - like how he enjoyed \"crooning at full volume\" in his dressing room.\n\nWell-known for his role as Cpt Raymond Holt, Braugher was remembered for his kindness by actor Terry Crews.\n\nMelissa Fumero, who played Detective Amy Santiago, said she would miss his advice and laughter.\n\n\"Your laugh was one of the all time greatest laughs to have ever existed,\" she wrote on Instagram.\n\nFumero shared a photo of them on a beach in Malibu, which she said was \"our first of many deep conversations\" - until an unexpected wave crashed over them.\n\nHer character, Santiago, desperately aspired to follow in Cpt Holt's footsteps, and she jumped through hoops and hurdles to impress him.\n\nStephanie Beatriz, who played the tough, axe-wielding Detective Rosa Diaz, posted a poignant scene where Captain Holt, a gay man, thanks Rosa for her bravery in coming out as bisexual. It was one of several moments throughout the eight seasons when the fast-paced comedy slowed, to take on serious issues including homophobia and racism.\n\nAmy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) was judiciously keen to impress her boss Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) in Brooklyn Nine-Nine\n\nChelsea Peretti, who played Gina Linetti in the show, said she felt \"forever lucky to have gone on such a journey\" with Braugher - \"ringside seat\".\n\nAs Cpt Holt's lazy but quick-witted assistant, Gina was uninterested in the day-to-day running of the fictional police department. But with celebrity-level confidence and \"Gina knows best\" attitude, she soon proved to be a valuable asset - and friend - to the squad.\n\n\"Is it weird that I am also grieving for what Cpt Holt meant to Gina?\" Peretti asked in her tribute.\n\nBoth Peretti and Fumero said they thought they would see their co-star again. \"Hate that I won't,\" Peretti wrote.\n\nAndre Braugher died following a brief illness, his publicist Jennifer Allen told the PA news agency. Further details have not been made public.\n\nTerry Crews, one of the show's biggest names, played the gym and yoghurt-loving Terry Jeffords.\n\n\"This hurts. You left us too soon. You taught me so much... Thank you for your wisdom, your advice, your kindness and your friendship,\" he wrote on Instagram.\n\n\"You showed me what a life well lived looks like ... I love you, man.\"\n\nJoe Lo Truglio, who played hopeless romantic Charles Boyle, said \"many wonderful stories will be told about Andre\".\n\nIn a behind-the-scenes anecdote, he said Braugher made sure to travel home to see his wife and three sons every weekend.\n\nCaptain Holt (Andre Braugher) with his assistant Gina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti) and Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) on Brooklyn Nine-Nine\n\n\"He was committed and passionate about the things he loved. And that voice. It laid anchor to the roughest of dialogue,\" Lo Truglio wrote.\n\n\"What you probably don't know is that Andre could sing too, and did often at lunch, belting bassy vocals from his dressing room to whatever new music he found,\" he said, admitting that at first, it was odd.\n\n\"But then very quickly it made all the sense in the world, because the man was so full of song and that's why the world took notice,\" he added.\n\nPerhaps one of the most touching tributes was also the shortest.\n\nMarc Evan Jackson, who played Braugher's on-screen husband in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, simply wrote \"O Captain. My Captain.\"\n\nWriting on X, he shared a picture of the pair hugging and, wearing their wedding rings.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Marc Evan Jackson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDirk Blocker, who played Michael Hitchcock, said he was \"devastated\".\n\n\"Fiercely intelligent, remarkably kind, supportive, generous and possessed a deep and extraordinary talent, and had even more to offer,\" he wrote.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Andre Braugher in his own words", "Charles Hurst has eight sites across Northern Ireland and employs almost 900 staff\n\nCharles Hurst has eight sites across Northern Ireland and employs close to 900 staff.\n\nSome sales staff and business managers may be affected by the cuts which were announced internally on Tuesday.\n\nIt comes after Charles Hurst's parent company Lookers was taken private by its new owner Global Auto Holdings.\n\nNotice periods are still being confirmed and will be dependent on the length of service and role of each colleague at risk.\n\nNews of the job losses was first reported in the Belfast Telegraph on Tuesday.\n\nLast week, Lookers confirmed that a certain number of corporate and support roles relating to its status as a listed company may be affected.\n\nA spokesperson for Lookers said: \"We have now completed a detailed review of our business and operations in order to keep the business efficient and ensure we have a manageable cost base.\n\n\"Unfortunately, a number of roles have been identified across our operations that are now at risk of redundancy.\"", "The payments watchdog has proposed a cap on fees that credit card firms such as Mastercard and Visa charge retailers for payments between the EU and the UK.\n\nThe fees, which can get passed on to consumers, cost UK firms an extra £150m to £200m last year, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) said.\n\nThe payments giants have probably raised fees to an \"unduly high level\" since Brexit, the regulator suggested.\n\nHowever, the firms disputed this, with Visa saying a cap was \"not justified\".\n\nThe European Union (EU) has a cap on so-called \"cross-border interchange fees\", which retailers pay when customers in the UK buy from the European trading bloc.\n\nThe cap used to apply in the UK too, before Brexit.\n\nBut since the UK's exit from the EU, Mastercard and Visa have \"significantly raised\" the fees charged to retailers in Britain, the watchdog found.\n\nLarger UK firms may absorb these fees, but smaller companies may pass these costs onto UK and EU consumers, a PSR spokesperson said.\n\n\"In short, at this stage, we do not think this market is working well,\" PSR managing director Chris Hemsley said.\n\nThe watchdog has proposed an initial, time-limited, cap of 0.2% for debit card transactions, and 0.3% for credit cards, for transactions made online at UK businesses. This would be in line with the EU cap.\n\nVisa strongly disputed the findings of the PSR's interim report though and said its proposals were \"not justified\".\n\n\"Accepting reliable, secure, and innovative digital payments represents enormous value to UK businesses, especially when selling overseas,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nThe fees apply to less than 2% of UK card payments - cardholders in the European economic area buying online from a UK seller - \"and reflect the fact that these transactions are more complex and carry far greater risk of fraud,\" they added.\n\nMastercard said the fees offer value in a competitive market.\n\n\"We do not agree with the PSR's findings and will continue to educate them on the critical importance of electronic payments to the UK economy,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nThe PSR has invited feedback on the proposals before the end of January, with a final report due in the first three months of 2024.\n\nLast month a UK government-commissioned report said Britain needs a \"digital alternative\" to relying on the US payments giants, echoing longstanding ambitions in the EU for a \"home grown\" alternative.", "Javier Milei brandishing a chainsaw on the campaign trail to illustrate his plans to cut public spending\n\nArgentina's new government says it will weaken the value of its currency by more than 50% against the US dollar.\n\nIt is part of the \"economic shock therapy\" that President Javier Milei says the country needs to fix its worst crisis in decades.\n\nThey include a reduction in fuel and transport subsidies and freezing spending on some major government contracts and advertising.\n\nMr Caputo said he had inherited the worst economic legacy in Argentina's history and he was taking steps to avoid hyperinflation.\n\n\"We are going to be worse off than before for a few months, particularly in terms of inflation. And I say that because, as the president says, it is better to tell an uncomfortable truth than a comfortable lie,\" Mr Caputo said in a televised address.\n\nArgentina is battling soaring inflation, with prices rising by around 150% over the last year. It is also struggling with low cash reserves, high government debt, while 40% of the population is living below the poverty line.\n\nThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) - to which Argentina owes $44bn (£35bn) - called the measures \"bold\" and said they will help create the environment for private sector growth.\n\n\"I welcome the decisive measures,\" IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said, adding that it is \"an important step toward restoring stability and rebuilding the country's economic potential.\"\n\nMr Caputo said the exchange rate would be cut to 800 pesos to the US dollar, from roughly 391 pesos.\n\nSince 2019, Argentina has kept its currency artificially strong by strictly controlling the movement of the currency.\n\nThat helped drive demand for the US dollar on the informal currency market, which saw the peso trading at a much lower rate that the the official level.\n\nMr Milei, a libertarian who rose from relative obscurity to the top office in a bitterly fought election, was sworn in on Sunday.\n\nHe campaigned on promises of major spending cuts and was known for wielding a chainsaw at rallies to depict his intentions to slash government spending.\n\nIt is not clear if his coalition, which is only the third largest bloc in the country's Congress will be able to implement enough major spending cuts needed to shore up the economy without pushing it into turmoil.\n\nMr Milei has already cut nine government ministries, which Mr Caputo said would reduce 34% of public sector jobs.\n\nSpeaking about the cuts to government spending for infrastructure projects, Mr Caputo said: \"The reality is that there is no money to pay for more public works that, as all Argentines know, often end up in the pockets of politicians or businessmen on duty\".", "An asylum seeker on board the Bibby Stockholm barge, which houses migrants off the Dorset coast, has died.\n\nSources told the BBC that the man is thought to have taken his own life.\n\nMigrants added that the man had complained about life onboard the barge before his death. The Home Office said welfare was of the utmost importance.\n\nDorset Police were called to the vessel, docked off Portland, just after 06:20 GMT on Tuesday and its officers are carrying out enquiries.\n\nDowning Street said support continues to be made available to those on the barge.\n\nThe three-storey barge houses people awaiting the outcome of their asylum applications and has capacity for up to 500 men.\n\nThe death happened in one of the more than 200 cabins on board, a source familiar with the incident said.\n\nBBC News spoke to asylum seekers, who did not want to be identified, but said they were on the barge at the time the man died.\n\nOne claimed the man who died had been shouting in a corridor between 22:00 and 23:00, when security asked him to be silent and return to his room.\n\n\"He was shouting at someone and complaining [saying] everyday this happen to me, the food is not good, and the environment... and the one line he repeated 'I am not a scapegoat'\".\n\nOne of the group said the man began shouting again around 03:00 before he was confronted by security.\n\nAnother migrant said he woke up at 06:30 to the sounds of ambulance sirens, before learning of the death.\n\n\"There's no good food, the procedures are not good, then stress\", he added, suggesting staff talk to migrants like they are prisoners.\n\nWhen asked about the claims, a Home Office spokesperson said it took its responsibility for wellbeing incredibly seriously.\n\n\"This will now be investigated by the police and coroner. It is right that the facts and circumstances surrounding this death are established.\"\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly told MPs the death would be fully investigated, adding: \"I'm sure that the thoughts of the whole House, like mine, are with those affected.\"\n\nThe age and nationality of the dead man are yet to be confirmed. The coroner's office has been notified.\n\nThe Prime Minister's official spokesman said migrants on the barge have a medical assessment and have been assessed for signs of emotional trauma, and continue to have support available to them.\n\nThe Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, which investigates deaths in immigration detention centres, has said it would not investigate the case because Bibby Stockholm is not a detention facility.\n\nDeborah Coles, director of the charity Inquest, said \"given reports that conditions on the barge are prison-like\" it was \"reasonable\" to expect the ombudsman to investigate the death.\n\n\"This was a tragic death forewarned,\" she said. \"It is vital that it is investigated by an independent body and not by the government whose own policy it was to place asylum seekers there.\"\n\nThe vessel was first used for accommodating asylum seekers in August but was evacuated after Legionella bacteria was found in the water supply, with people returning to it in October.\n\nThe barge is the first to be used as part of government plans to reduce the cost of asylum accommodation.\n\nThere was considerable opposition to the plan, both from local people and national organisations, with campaigners calling it \"cruel and inhumane\". Many of them responded to Tuesday's news by calling for an end to the use of the barge for accommodation.\n\nReacting to the death, Richard Drax, Conservative MP for South Dorset, said it was a \"tragedy born of an impossible situation\".\n\nThe Refugee Council's chief executive Enver Solomon called for an independent review to be carried out following the \"appalling loss of life\" in order \"to avoid any further tragedies of this kind\".\n\nHe said: \"A new approach that always sees the face behind the case and treats every individual person with the dignity and humanity they deserve is urgently needed.\"\n\nMr Solomon added the asylum system has \"more hostility than compassion built into it\".\n\nFlowers have been left at the entrance to Bibby Stockholm\n\nAmnesty International UK's refugee and migrants director, Steve Valdez-Symond, argued that the people fleeing \"persecution and conflict in countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Sudan and Eritrea\" were being \"completely lost\" in the current debate.\n\nSteve Smith, CEO of refugee charity Care4Calais, said: \"The UK government must take responsibility for this human tragedy.\"\n\nThe Bishop of Sherborne, Karen Gorham, said news of the death had \"shaken the community\", as local church and faith groups had got to know some of the men on board.\n\nNews of the death comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saw off a rebellion to pass the Rwanda bill through its first stage in the Commons tonight.\n\nThe scheme would see those who arrive in the UK illegally sent to the east African country, where they could claim asylum.\n\nBBC News investigates the community reaction to the arrival of the Bibby Stockholm barge in the town of Portland, Dorset.", "Nations at the UN climate summit have for the first time taken explicit aim at the use of fossil fuels.\n\nThe talks in Dubai came close to collapse but in a dramatic turn-around, nations agreed to \"transition away\" from coal, oil and gas.\n\nBut small islands hit hard by climate change protested, saying the deal was rushed through without them.\n\nAnd it departed from earlier stronger language to \"phase out fossil fuels\".\n\nMany nations including the US, UK and European Union had pushed for a phase out from the opening of the talks.\n\nClose to 200 nations were in the United Arab Emirates for almost two weeks to try to make progress on tackling climate change after months of record-breaking extreme weather.\n\nExpectations had been low that oil-rich United Arab Emirates could deliver a deal that took aim at the fossil fuel industry. The COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber's dual role as CEO of Abu Dhabi oil giant Adnoc attracted further criticism.\n\nOnlookers' fears of a conflict of interest seemed confirmed when leaked documents suggested Mr Jaber had planned to use the presidency to strike business deals.\n\nBut on Wednesday Mr Jaber delivered a jubilant speech, saying the conference \"should be proud of our historic achievement\".\n\nThe deal today will likely be seen as a victory for his leadership.\n\nThe gavelling of the deal itself took many delegates by surprise but was met with cheers and a standing ovation in the plenary room.\n\nThe low-lying island nature of Tuvalu is at severe risk form rising waters\n\nHowever, a representative for the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis) - representing nations on the frontlines of climate change - took the microphone as soon as comments were open to nations.\n\n\"It seems that you just gavelled the decisions when the small island states weren't in the room,\" she said.\n\nAnd she said Aosis are concerned that the key language about transitioning away from fossil fuels \"potentially takes us backward rather than forward\".\n\nThe 21-page deal Mr Jaber presided over says countries will \"contribute... to transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly and equitable manner\".\n\nIt also recognises that global emissions of warming gases will likely peak before 2025, but could be later for developing nations.\n\nPushback from oil-producing nations including Saudi Arabia appears to have been successful in softening the commitments.\n\nPoorer nations that are reliant on fossil fuel exports, including Iraq, also opposed the stronger language because they said it did not fairly reflect their limited role in causing climate change.\n\nAnd many developing countries said other agreements at COP28 did not secure enough finance to transition their countries onto greener energy or make up for the loss of income from selling fossil fuels.\n\nBut all nations at the talks appeared to accept the compromise of the deal.\n\nThe deal today will likely be seen as a victory for Sultan al-Jaber's leadership\n\nUS Climate Envoy John Kerry said that in the context of conflict in Ukraine and in Israel and Gaza, the deal was \"cause for optimism\".\n\nHe admitted the text did not have everything the US had pushed for, but he said it was a step forwards and represented what nations could agree to.\n\nWopke Hoekstra, the European Union's climate commissioner, saluted the deal as an historic achievement after 30 years of no agreement on the fossil fuel question.\n\nAnd the UK climate minister Graham Stuart told the plenary it was \"the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era\" but admitted \"there are elements here we do not like\".\n\nAway from politicians' speeches, activists and scientists called the deal weak, saying it does little to fix the growing problem of emissions released into the atmosphere, causing global warming.\n\nCountries have just six years to reach a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 45% but are far off track.\n\nUganda youth activists Vanessa Nakate said the decision is \"nowhere near enough\" and called the meeting \"a fossil fuel COP out\".\n\nTuvalu negotiator Mervina Paeuli, 25, said she was left with \"mixed feelings\", and worries the deal does little for her Pacific island home.\n\n\"If the overall goal was to push action for the 1.5C target, then it's not a good day for me,\" she said, referring to the globally-agreed goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5C.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Three takeaways from the COP28 deal\n\nAnd despite the chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Prof Jim Skea, saying that Mr Jaber is \"attentive to the science\" during the COP talks, many scientists are sceptical of the deal.\n\n\"No doubt there will be lots of cheering and back-slapping... but the physics will not care. As the new agreement locks in high levels of emissions for years to come, so the temperature will continue to rise,\" said Prof Kevin Anderson from University of Manchester.\n\nThe United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres also gave his judgement. He said many governments wanted a clear reference to phase out fossil fuels but \"it was watered down\".\n\n\"Whether you like it or not, fossil fuel phase out is inevitable. Let's hope it doesn't come too late,\" he said.\n\nThe host for the UN climate talks, in 2024, was also confirmed as gas-rich Azerbaijan in the Caucuses.", "When Sara Al-Saqqa graduated in August, she made history, becoming Gaza's first woman surgeon.\n\n\"I had lots of goals and ambitions about improving healthcare,\" says the 31-year-old. She hoped that one day she would be able to open her own clinic.\n\nBut eight weeks later, her thoughts were reduced to one thing: \"Hoping my family survives. Everyone's priorities have changed, and we are just thinking of staying alive now.\"\n\nSara had been working at Gaza's biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, in the north of the Strip, since she graduated. On 7 October she had a day off and remembers getting ready to see her youngest sister, who is 17, off to school. \"But we started hearing bombings, and we didn't let her go,\" she says.\n\nWhen Sara checked her phone, she saw the news that Hamas had attacked Israel. Its gunmen killed 1,200 people and took about 240 hostages. Since then, Israel's retaliatory airstrikes and ground invasion have reduced huge swathes of Gaza to rubble, killing more than 15,500 according to the Palestinian health ministry.\n\nSara was immediately called in to work. When she arrived, she saw \"a massacre, with injured people pouring in\".\n\nInjured patients poured in Al-Shifa Hospital after each Israeli strike\n\nFrom the start, the staff were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people \"with severed limbs due to shrapnel and different types of injuries caused by intense burning\".\n\nWhen Israel began its air strikes, it had told Gazans to evacuate the north and move south saying they would be safer there. But Sara decided to stay. \"We worked continuously for more than 34 days without a break, without going home,\" she says.\n\nShe describes how conditions quickly got worse: \"After each bombardment, hundreds of patients would arrive simultaneously and it was impossible to attend to all of them.\"\n\nSarah Al-Saqqa worked 34 days without a break until she had to leave the hospital for her safety\n\nMany more sought safety in the hospital grounds. People were crammed into every available space, cooking bread in the corridors, sleeping on the floor and in cupboards and trying to distract their children with games.\n\nThe hospital struggled to get basic supplies such as medicines and sterile gloves and Sara had to decide which patients to prioritise based on their chances of survival. \"I felt horrible being absolutely helpless,\" she says. \"I always did the best I could with barely anything left to treat them with, but it broke me, not being able to save so many innocent lives.\"\n\nHowever, there were glimmers of hope. Sara successfully delivered a baby for the first time after she and the mother were trapped in the operating theatre one night as bombs landed outside.\n\nSara desperately tried to get a gynaecologist to help but no-one came. By 06:00 they couldn't wait any longer. \"I prayed to our Lord to help me and save both the mother and the child,\" she says.\n\nThe baby emerged with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, but Sara managed to remove it and delivered the little girl safely. The grateful mother named her daughter after Sara.\n\nSara Al-Saqqa successfully delivered a baby for the first time\n\nOne of the hardest things for Sara was the communications blackout, when she was unable to check on her mother, four siblings and grandmother. When the phone lines and internet links went down, they were making their way to Rafah in the south and she didn't know if they were alive or dead: \"I couldn't function or continue, I couldn't do anything.\" She was terrified they would be bombed.\n\nAs the conflict intensified and she heard her family were safe, Sara's challenges multiplied. Supplies of food and water ran out and \"in the last week, there was no electricity… we survived on the bare minimum\". Something as small as being offered a piece of bread became a moment to rejoice.\n\nWhen the lights went out she had to navigate the packed corridors by torchlight and performed surgery in near-darkness with the sound of bombs around her. \"I would describe this period as the worst phase of my life, living in hell,\" she says.\n\nPeople sought safety at Al-Shifa hospital during the Israeli strikes\n\nAs the bombing grew closer and the Israeli army's intentions to raid the hospital became clear, Sara was afraid that if she stayed she would die, so she decided to evacuate and head to Rafah to be with her family, who were now sheltering with her uncle.\n\nHowever, she did not make the journey south alone. She walked with her colleagues and the mother and baby she had delivered.\n\nWhen the Israeli military raided the hospital, it described it as a \"targeted operation against Hamas\" saying it had found an \"operational centre\" there - something Hamas denied.\n\nDescribing life for herself and the tide of more than a million displaced Gazans, Sara says: \"We don't have water to drink or food to eat. We don't have a home. We have been abandoned, sitting in the streets, schools, and squares. Winter has arrived, and we are not prepared, we don't have clothes, blankets or anything.\"\n\nShe is still trying to use her medical training when she can. \"Every day we go out, roam around and help as much as we can because the shelters and schools need us.\"\n\nSara worries what the future holds for her and her family. \"This year was supposed to be my sister's last year in school before graduating and starting her life, but now we have no idea what will happen.\" Like other Gazans, their hopes and dreams have been set aside in place of survival.\n\nBBC 100 Women names 100 inspiring and influential women around the world every year. Follow BBC 100 Women on Instagram and Facebook. Join the conversation using #BBC100Women.", "Dr Shah said he would consider a new review of the BBC's social media guidelines\n\nGary Lineker breached the BBC's social media rules in tweets about Tory MPs during a row about the government's Rwanda policy, the candidate to be corporation chairman believes.\n\nSamir Shah told MPs that he defended the right to freedom of speech but such rows damaged the BBC's reputation.\n\nHe said the sports presenter's replies on X \"seem to breach\" rules against attacking individuals.\n\nThe BBC said that it does not comment on individuals or individual tweets.\n\nMPs on the Culture Media and Sport Committee were questioning Dr Shah ahead of his confirmation as BBC chairman after he was named as the government's choice following Richard Sharp's resignation in April.\n\nAlthough the BBC is independent, the chairperson is appointed by the government.\n\nLineker, 63, added his name to an open letter opposing the government's plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nThat sparked criticism from Tory MPs, including Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, party deputy chairman Lee Anderson, and Jonathan Gullis, who accused him of breaching impartiality and complained to the corporation.\n\nThe Match of the Day presenter later said on X that he would \"put a word in\" for Mr Anderson when he lost his seat at the next general election, criticised Mr Shapps use of several names in business dealings and said Mr Gullis \"hasn't read the new guidelines… or, should I say, had someone read them to him?\"\n\nThe row follows previous complaints about Lineker's social media activities, which led to a review of guidelines conducted by the former editor-in-chief of ITN, John Hardie.\n\nDr Shah told the committee that he didn't think that the row \"was very helpful either for Gary Lineker or the BBC or the cause he supports because it becomes a story about Gary Lineker and the BBC.\"\n\n\"Non-news presenters are free to express their opinions but there is some guidance on civility, manner, and not to make ad hominem attacks,\" he said.\n\n\"So as far as I am aware, the signing of the letter did not breach those guidelines.\"\n\nHowever, he said that \"the more recent tweet (where) Mr Lineker identified two politicians does on the face of it seem to breach those particular guidelines\".\n\n\"I'm not sure how egregious it is but it does. I would imagine the BBC is now looking at that and considering its response.\"\n\nLineker maintains that his social media posts are within the BBC's guidelines.\n\nGary Lineker was briefly suspended by the BBC earlier this year for tweets about government asylum policy\n\nDr Shah, 71, said that he may possibly ask for another review of the social media guidelines if he was appointed.\n\nHe said that the BBC needed to \"think in terms of whether we have the balance right between freedom of expression and impartiality\".\n\nWhile it was very clear when it comes to news and current affairs, \"there is this grey area within which Mr Lineker sits\".\n\n\"And I share your frustration. I would invite the director general to find a solution because we really need to find a solution.\n\n\"It's a perfectly proper thing for the board to ask the executive whether the new guidelines have achieved their intention. It may well be that they may need to review it again.\"\n\nThe updated social media guidelines, introduced in September, stress the importance of \"high standards of civility in public discourse\", which includes treating others with respect, even in the face of abuse and not using offensive or aggressive language.\n\nThey ask for those who work for the BBC to \"respect civility in public discourse and to not bring the BBC into disrepute\".\n\nA spokesman for the BBC declined to comment specifically on Dr Shah's comments to the select committee.\n\n\"While the guidance does allow people to talk about issues that matter to them, it is also clear that individuals should be civil and not call into question anyone's character,\" he said.\n\n\"We discuss issues that arise with presenters as necessary.\"", "Dwight Pile-Gray had a 16-year Army career before the incident\n\nOne of the British Army's first Rastafarian guardsmen has won a claim of race discrimination and harassment against the Ministry of Defence.\n\nDwight Pile-Gray says his 16-year Army career was brought to an end following a row at a guardroom, in which a white guard didn't believe he was a soldier.\n\nWhen he challenged the soldier, he was accused of \"playing the race card\". He won his case at an employment tribunal.\n\nThe MoD said it did not tolerate abuse, bullying or discrimination of any kind.\n\nSpeaking publicly about the incident for the first time, he told BBC News he believes his case shows it is worse to accuse someone of being racist in the Army, than it is to actually be racist.\n\nThe employment hearing was held in June, and Mr Pile-Gray found out he had won the case in October.\n\nDwight Pile-Gray says he always knew he'd stand out in the Army.\n\nHe was the first Rastafarian soldier to be allowed to wear his hair in locks. He also joined later in life than most, at the age of 37.\n\nHe signed up in 2005, as an accomplished musician with the Royal Corps of Army Music. He played the French horn in various military bands, eventually taking up a role in the Band of the Grenadier Guards.\n\nDwight Pile-Gray joined the Army later in life than most - aged 37.\n\nMr Pile-Gray took part in dozens of state occasions, tying up his hair to fit into his bearskin. \"I was under no illusion as to what I might encounter,\" he says of joining the Army. \"But I was full of optimism.\"\n\nHe says there were always questions about his appearance from other guards: \"Why are you allowed to wear your hair like that? Aren't you supposed to be a pacifist? Don't you smoke drugs?\"\n\nMr Pile-Gray says he put such comments down to \"ignorance\". But he says there was worse. Soldiers used racially offensive words, he says, including the N-word, while in his presence. Some asked derogatory and racist questions, including about the size of his genitals.\n\nMr Pile-Gray says such ignorance didn't stop him enjoying his job, or rising in the ranks. He became a lance sergeant.\n\nBut in July 2021, at Wellington Barracks, in central London, he had a row with two white soldiers at the guardroom to his base.\n\nMr Pile-Gray had already been into the barracks for a medical appointment, but he'd gone out to make a phone call. He'd mistakenly left his ID card behind.\n\nHe was wearing civilian clothes and sunglasses and he had his locks on display.\n\nWhen he returned, he says the lance corporal on duty, who was white, was \"disbelieving that I could be a soldier - he actually stuck his head back into the guard room and said 'this gentleman thinks he's left his ID inside'\".\n\n\"I was absolutely treated differently because of my appearance,\" he adds. \"I've been doing this a long time and I understand when there is a racial element to an interaction.\"\n\nMr Pile-Gray says he challenged the soldier, who was more junior than him, and he was allowed back in after someone else recognised him.\n\nHe says he got changed into his uniform and returned to prove to the lance corporal that he was a soldier and to make it clear he could have handled the situation better.\n\nIn the ensuing conversation, the lance corporal accused him \"of playing the race card\", at which point a more senior soldier, a white sergeant, got involved.\n\nMr Pile-Gray says the sergeant told him, \"if I was going to make it into a race thing, then he wasn't interested\". He says the sergeant then told him to \"look at my office\", pointing out that it was multicultural, before adding: \"We can't be racist.\"\n\nHe says the interaction left him \"completely flabbergasted\". Mr Pile-Gray admits he then lost his temper and describes being bundled out of the guardroom.\n\nHe then went to see an officer to explain what had happened and was asked whether he wanted to make a complaint. Mr Pile-Gray said he suggested mediation and wanted to explain to those involved why their behaviour was wrong.\n\n\"They had no understanding or concept that what they were actually saying was racist,\" he says.\n\nMr Pile-Gray was the one left facing disciplinary action\n\nInstead, Mr Pile-Gray was eventually told that he'd be the one facing disciplinary action. Eventually he was given a formal charge of insubordination.\n\nIt was \"the straw that broke the camel's back\", Mr Pile-Gray says.\"I didn't feel that I could continue in an organisation that so disregarded my feelings and my welfare, and actively sought to make me a bad person.\"\n\nMr Pile-Gray made a service complaint, which was eventually rejected. It was only then that he took his case to the employment tribunal, which ruled earlier this year.\n\nHis claims of direct race discrimination, racial harassment and victimisation were successful.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence won't comment on individual cases. However, in a statement it said it did not tolerate abuse, bullying or discrimination of any kind.\n\nThe MoD said it actively encouraged personnel to report unacceptable behaviours and had introduced measures to improve the experience for everyone in the armed forces.\n\nMr Pile-Gray says it is hard for people higher up the chain of command to understand the issues of racism inside the Army.\n\nHe said racial slurs wouldn't be used in the presence of senior black officers. \"It doesn't exist at the top,\" he added. \"They're going to be calling you 'sir'. But if you're a black private, guess what? You're going to hear that every single day.\"\n\nEmma Norton, from the Centre for Military Justice, gave legal support to Mr Pile-Gray.\n\n\"Not only did the chain of command fail to act on his concerns about racial bias, it then victimised and gas-lit him for having the temerity to complain about it,\" she says.\n\nThe Army's response fell woefully short, she says, including during the litigation. She added: \"It's lost an excellent soldier in the process.\"", "The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been fined £350,000 over an email blunder that exposed details of interpreters fleeing Afghanistan.\n\nThe 265 people affected had worked with the UK government - some were in hiding when the Taliban seized control.\n\nLives could have been at risk had data fallen into their hands, the data watchdog said.\n\nThe MoD said it recognised the severity of the breach, fully acknowledged the ruling and apologised to the victims.\n\nThe information commissioner, John Edwards said the error \"let down those to whom our country owes so much\".\n\nHe added: \"This was a particularly egregious breach of the obligation of security owed to these people, thus warranting the financial penalty my office imposes today,\" he added.\n\nThe main breach was first revealed by the BBC in September 2021. It occurred when the Afghan relocations and assistance policy team (Arap) sent a mass email to 245 people who had worked with the UK government, who were eligible for evacuation. Most, but not all as interpreters,\n\nIn the message, their addresses were put in the \"to\" field rather than the intended blind carbon copy (Bcc) field - meaning email addresses were visible to all recipients.\n\nFurther information about those trying to leave Afghanistan, including one person's location, was then exposed when two people responded to the email by selecting \"reply all\".\n\nA MoD internal investigation found two similar incidents, bringing the total number of people affected to 265, the Information Commissioner's Office said.\n\nAccording to the ICO, the Bcc error is one of the top causes of data breaches.\n\nAn interpreter affected by the breach, speaking in 2021, told the BBC the mistake \"could cost the life of interpreters, especially for those who are still in Afghanistan.\"\n\n\"Some of the interpreters didn't notice the mistake and they replied to all the emails already and they explained their situation which is very dangerous. The email contains their profile pictures and contact details.\"\n\nFormer defence secretary Ben Wallace said at the time it would be an understatement to say he had been angered by the breach.\n\nThe incident \"let down the thousands of members of the armed forces and veterans,\" Mr Wallace told the House of Commons in September 2021.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ben Wallace addressing MPs about the breach in 2021\n\nThe ICO's investigation into the breach found between August and September 2021, the MoD failed to comply with UK data protection requirements for technical processes to safeguard data.\n\nIt acknowledged the difficult circumstances under which the incident occurred but \"when the level of risk and harm to people heightens, so must the response,\" Mr Edwards said.\n\nThe watchdog said it had reduced an initial fine of £1m to £700,000 in recognition of the measures taken by the MoD to report the incident, limit its impact and the difficulties of the situation for teams handling the relocation of staff.\n\nThis was cut further to £350,000 as part of an ongoing effort by the ICO to reduce the impact of government fines on the public.\n\nThe MoD said it had \"cooperated extensively\" with the data watchdog to resolve the breach.\n\n\"We recognise the severity of what has happened. We fully acknowledge today's ruling and apologise to those affected\", a spokesperson said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEmergency services remain at the site of a huge blaze at an industrial estate in south Wales with one person still remaining unaccounted for.\n\nSouth Wales Fire and Rescue Service said the fire is now largely out, with small pockets remaining.\n\nStephen Davies, who was at a nearby gym in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, said \"it was carnage\".\n\nImages on social media in the aftermath showed a building in flames and smoke at Treforest Industrial Estate.\n\nPolice said there were no reports of serious injuries but the MP for the area said there were \"walking wounded\".\n\nAt least one building has been destroyed and a \"major incident\" was declared for several hours following the \"massive explosion\" at 19:00 GMT.\n\nEmergency services were still at the scene of the burnt-out gym on Thursday\n\nThe fire service said a two-storey building was \"at risk of collapse\" and it had seven pumps at the scene, along with an incident command unit.\n\nThe fire was in a 60,000 sq ft (5,574 sq m) warehouse called Rizla House which houses 13 commercial units including a gym, a towel manufacturer, a food laboratory and a telecoms service company.\n\nEmergency services remained at the scene of the burnt-out gym on Thursday.\n\nSome roads in the area remain closed and a joint investigation with South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, South Wales Police and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is taking place into the cause.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Emergency services are still tackling a fire at Treforest Industrial Estate\n\nMr Davies said: \"We were going about our usual gym class and then about quarter past seven we sat down and we had a coffee in the cafe area, the next thing we knew a massive explosion.\"\n\nHe said he and his friend saw the stairwell by the entrance to the cafe explode.\n\n\"All the walls caved in, it was carnage... it was very scary\".\n\n\"The staff were excellent in terms of getting everybody out, shouting and making sure everybody escaped out the back entrance.\n\n\"It's a bit surreal, because you are sort of in something, you don't actually realise how life and death that was.\n\n\"You don't think it's ever going to happen to you.\"\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service said it \"treated three patients at the scene before discharging them\" on Wednesday evening.\n\nSouth Wales Police said there were no reports of serious injuries but \"one person remains unaccounted for\".\n\nThe force said on Wednesday: \"Residents living nearby are advised to close all doors and windows while this incident is continuing.\n\n\"Businesses in the area are requested to implement their own business continuity plans to deal with the on-going road closures.\"\n\nSouth Wales Fire and Rescue Service say the fire is now largely out, but one person is still unaccounted for\n\nPet store PetWise, which is near the building, said on its Facebook page that staff had been escorted into the building to check on the animals and they were all safe and well.\n\nThe animals have now been fed and watered.\n\nCwm Taf Morgannwg health board had put all its emergency departments on high alert for several hours, standing down late on Wednesday.\n\nIt also asked people to \"continue to make appropriate use of urgent care services to ensure those that most need our care can receive it in a timely way\".\n\nBarber Andrew Cox posted on Facebook that he was trying to work out what the next steps were regarding appointments.\n\nHis shop, Andrew Cox Barbering, was in the building underneath the gym where the explosion happened.\n\n\"Nobody is allowed near the vicinity so I am completely clueless as to what is still standing, if anything. I am frantically trying to work out what the next steps are regarding all appointments,\" he said.\n\nAlex Davies-Jones, MP for Pontypridd, spoke to Radio Wales Breakfast on Thursday morning and said it was a \"very significant fire\" with a subsequent explosion in one of the businesses.\n\nShe added: \"We had a few people who were walking wounded due to some debris from the site, from the explosion and the fire, but thankfully at the moment it looks like we've had no severe casualties and we're just hoping and praying for that one accounted person that they do become accounted for and that's what we're all hoping for today.\"\n\nAuthorities say there is still one person unaccounted for after the blast and subsequent fire\n\nOne nearby business owner said her tattoo shop \"just exploded\".\n\nLucy Artiss, tattooist at Sixteen Circles, said she had \"lost everything\" but all of her colleagues made it out of the building unhurt.\n\n\"I feel numb, to be honest. Looks like I'll need to find a new shop.\"\n\nNearby Integer Telecom, a telecommunication provider, said in a Facebook post its building was destroyed in the explosion, adding: \"All our staff are safe and unharmed and business will resume as normal.\"\n\nPhilip Thomas, who runs the Trefforest Brewery on the industrial estate, said he was \"very fortunate\" not to have been affected by the blaze, but was concerned about business at a crucial time of year.\n\n\"Christmas is when we get a huge amount of our trade in the brewery shop, people buying gift packs and beer. So the roads that connect this business to the western side of the Pontypridd area are really important. If they continue to be shut it will have an effect,\" he said.\n\n\"I think a lot of people are staying away, because that's been the message. But this part of the industrial estate is open and I really hope that people come back and use our shop in the brewery as usual.\"\n\nSeveral ambulance vehicles were seen lining up at the scene of the fire at the industrial estate\n\nThe manager of a nearby Esso garage, Krishnaraj Nadarajah, said he contacted the fire service and shut off pumps at the station.\n\nHe said: \"It felt like it was an earthquake or something. We went outside and there was a fire starting to build up, it was a huge fire and smoke.\"\n\n\"The noise was very loud, it was a big explosion. Some of the things fell down in the store, off the shelves.\"\n\nEmergency services were still on the scene on Thursday\n\nPhill Jones from Llantrisant said he was driving along the A473 with his eight-year-old son at about 19:15 when he saw \"a really loud bang and a flash of light\".\n\n\"There was a big fireball up in the sky. I swerved the car a little bit and my son got quite animated. The way it went up, it was almost as if something had exploded.\"\n\nIn an update at 01:30 on Thursday, police said the following roads remain closed:\n\nThe part of Tonteg Road between Taffs Fall Road and Gwaelod-Y-Garth Road was originally closed, but reopened shortly before 16:00.\n\nThe Health and Safety Executive said it was aware of the incident and was making inquiries.\n\nA fundraising page has been set up to help the businesses affected.\n\nAre you in the area? If it is safe to do so, email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Unions say Tata intends to close both blast furnaces at Port Talbot\n\nTata's Port Talbot plant may have to \"give up\" on making new steel, according to the firm behind a green steel plant.\n\nA boss at H2 Green Steel in Sweden said the UK lacked the conditions for a switch to hydrogen-powered furnaces and should focus on recycled steel instead.\n\nKajsa Ryttberg-Wallgren warned the UK steel industry risked a \"slow death\" if not.\n\nA Tata spokesman said it was committed to greener steelmaking in the UK.\n\nAn announcement has been expected for some time on the Port Talbot plant's decarbonisation plans.\n\nUnions previously said Tata intended to close both blast furnaces at the site, which rely on coal and manufacture brand new - or virgin - steel.\n\nInstead of the blast furnaces, an electric arc furnace would be installed, which melts scrap material.\n\nThis would eventually be run off clean electricity from the grid, significantly reducing the site's massive carbon footprint.\n\nThere are fears up to 3,000 jobs could be lost in the process, while the UK could be left unable to produce its own virgin steel and left reliant on imports.\n\nBut in November, Tata said it would consider the findings of an independent report which is understood to recommend maintaining blast furnace steel production for a number of years.\n\nH2 Green Steel is building what is set to become the world's first large-scale green steelworks\n\nAt Boden in northern Sweden, H2 Green Steel is constructing what is set to become the world's first large-scale green hydrogen-powered steelworks, at a cost of £4.8bn (€5.5bn).\n\nThe clean fuel is made using electricity which comes mainly from a large hydro scheme nearby, providing constant and reliable renewable power.\n\nThe area has an abundance of green energy as well as another vital ingredient - high quality iron ore.\n\nThe plan at Boden is to produce about five million tonnes of virgin steel a year by 2030 as the company eyes up other opportunities in Canada and Brazil.\n\nCountries like the UK, by contrast, lack the \"right conditions as of now\", claimed Ms Ryttberg-Wallgren, H2 Green Steel's executive vice-president.\n\n\"Will you have to give up on virgin iron-making? Probably yes,\" she told BBC Wales News.\n\n\"It will be a slow death if not.\"\n\nProducing the required volume of green hydrogen affordably would be \"very difficult if you don't have baseload power\", she added.\n\nRelying on intermittent power from offshore windfarms - as could be the case in Wales - would be more costly and so \"the case is not bankable\", she claimed.\n\nHer suggestion was that plants like Port Talbot invest in electric arc furnaces and look to import iron to help feed them from countries where it can be prepared for the steel-making process in a green way.\n\nIt is in reducing iron ore that the electricity intensive hydrogen production is needed.\n\n\"Then you can actually have a green operation up and running from 2028,\" she said.\n\n\"You have a really strong automotive customer base in the UK for instance that is willing to pay a premium - they're really searching for green steel products,\" she added.\n\nProf Cameron Pleydell-Pearce, director of Sustain, Swansea University's research hub for a greener steel industry, said he believed there were \"significant opportunities for scrap-intensive steel production\".\n\nHolding an empty can of coconut milk, Prof Pleydell-Pearce said it could ultimately end up as part of a solar-panelled roof on an environmentally-friendly home.\n\nA whole economy could be built on recycled metals in south Wales, according to Prof Pleydell-Pearce\n\n\"We could develop a whole economy around this in south Wales,\" he explained.\n\n\"We're going to be doing a lot more in terms of looking after that material and seeing it travel in a responsible way through the supply chain back to the steelmakers.\n\n\"And there are going to be lots of jobs associated with that as we move to a circular economy.\"\n\nHowever, he said it was important not to dismiss alternative solutions for Port Talbot.\n\nHe said blast furnaces could be retained using carbon capture and storage or utilisation technology, while hydrogen-powered production was also \"not impossible\".\n\n\"People need to understand there's not a 100% right way of doing this,\" he said.\n\nBen Burggraaf, chief executive officer of Net Zero Industry Wales, said Tata's plans to build an electric arc furnace were \"the start of the journey\" and hydrogen could play a part.\n\nMajor industries in south Wales are working on a plan that could see large-scale production of the fuel initially using natural gas, with carbon emissions shipped away to be stored under the sea.\n\nGreen hydrogen production would follow as floating offshore windfarms were built, Mr Burggraaf added.\n\nTata Steel said: \"Electric arc furnace technology is currently the most practical and economically sustainable way to cut carbon emissions and secure the future for steelmaking at Port Talbot.\n\n\"The UK produces 10 million tonnes of scrap steel a year, which could be used in electric arc furnace steelmaking.\n\n\"This technology will cut our emissions by five million tonnes a year - the equivalent of almost two million homes.\n\n\"We are still considering other ways to reach carbon-neutral steel production across all our UK plants in the future, which could include hydrogen or carbon capture technology in addition to our current plans.\"", "The UK economy shrank by more than expected in October, as higher interest rates squeezed consumers and bad weather swept the country.\n\nThe economy fell 0.3% during the month, after growth of 0.2% in September.\n\nHousehold spending has been dented by rate rises as the Bank of England tries to tackle inflation. It is due to make its next rate decision on Thursday.\n\nMeanwhile, retail and tourism were hit by severe weather in October as Storm Babet lashed the UK.\n\nMost economists had predicted that the economy would shrink by just 0.1%, but the services, manufacturing and construction sectors all contracted.\n\nThe UK economy has been stagnating and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to speed up growth.\n\nBut no significant pick-up is expected until January 2025, by which time the next general election must be held.\n\nCommenting on the latest figures, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said it was \"inevitable\" economic growth would be subdued while \"interest rates are doing their job to bring down inflation\".\n\nBut shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said growth was \"going backwards leaving working people worse off\".\n\nAccording to the latest figures, the UK economy flatlined in the three months to October compared with the previous quarter.\n\nThe ONS said services had been \"the biggest driver\" of October's fall, with contraction seen in the IT, legal and film production sectors.\n\n\"These were also compounded by widespread falls in manufacturing and construction, which fell partly due to the poor weather, such as the severe winds and flooding seen during Storm Babet,\" said Darren Morgan, its director of economic statistics.\n\nThe latest estimates underline the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis and the tools employed by policymakers.\n\nUp until September, the Bank of England had raised interest rates 14 times in a row to try to tame inflation - which is the pace at which prices rise.\n\nHowever, while raising rates can reduce inflation, it also affects economic growth by making it more expensive for consumers and businesses to borrow money.\n\nInterest rates are at a 15-year high of 5.25%, and are expected to remain high for some time.\n\nAgainst a difficult backdrop at his recent Autumn Statement, the chancellor promised to boost growth with measures to speed up investment in the private sector.\n\nMark Mills-Goodlet, managing director of second-hand car dealership Winchester Motor Group, told the BBC that businesses still faced big questions over whether to invest more in their companies now rates are higher, or to wait.\n\nThe company saw rapid growth for more than a decade, he said, but this had \"slowed in the last couple of years... purely and simply because of the uncertainty in the market\".\n\nIn the short-term, official forecasts suggest UK growth will remain fairly subdued due to those higher rates.\n\nYael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said the UK was likely to escape a recession but households would face further pain as around 1.5 million fixed-rate mortgages expire next year and people's repayments go up.\n\nShe believes the Bank of England will not raise interest rates at its next meeting on Thursday and is unlikely to start cutting them until inflation - currently at 4.6% - gets closer to the 2% target.\n\nThe Bank's governor, Andrew Bailey, recently warned that rate cuts would not happen for the \"foreseeable future\".\n\nIn an interview with local news website Chronicle Live during a visit to the North East of England, he said that he was concerned over the UK economy's potential to grow, adding: \"There's no doubt it's lower than it has been in much of my working life.\"\n\nAround the Autumn Statement, the government's independent forecaster slashed its growth outlook for the UK, partly due to high inflation and interest rates.\n\nOn Wednesday, the Resolution Foundation suggested that Britain was a \"stagnation nation\" due to poor productivity and a lack of investment in things like skills.\n\nThe think tank, which aims to improve the living standards of those on low to middle incomes, said the UK had grown by just 0.5% over the last 18 months - the weakest rate outside of a recession on record.\n\nAchieving \"stronger, sustained economic growth\" was the only way to boost living standards and catch up with peers, said its research director James Smith.", "Radio operator Emma Riley was discharged from the Navy for being a lesbian in the 1990s\n\nRishi Sunak has apologised for the historical treatment of LGBT veterans who were sacked or forced out of the military for being gay.\n\nThe PM called the ban an \"appalling failure\" of the British state.\n\nIt was illegal to be gay in the British military until 2000 - with thousands of veterans thought to be affected.\n\nA report into their treatment recommended they be given a financial reward and that the PM publicly apologise.\n\nAddressing MPs, the prime minister said: \"Many endured the most horrific sexual abuse and violence, homophobic bullying and harassment all while bravely serving this country.\"\n\nThe LGBT Veterans Independent Review, led by Britain's first openly gay judge Lord Etherton, began last year and heard about the experiences of 1,145 veterans between 1967 to 2000.\n\nHomosexuality was decriminalised in the UK in 1967 but a ban continued in the armed forces. According to the report, the Ministry of Defence said at the time that justification for the policy included \"maintenance of operational effectiveness and efficiency\" - but the report said there had been an \"incomprehensible policy of homophobic bigotry\" in the armed forces.\n\nIt heard shocking accounts of homophobia, bullying, blackmail, sexual assaults, \"disgraceful\" medical examinations, and conversion therapy.\n\nIt makes 49 recommendations to the government including:\n\nThe government said it would respond in full after summer recess.\n\nSome of the veterans affected watched the PM's public apology.\n\nOne of them, Emma Riley, 51, was a Royal Navy radio operator for three years before she was arrested and discharged for being a lesbian after telling a colleague her sexuality in the early 1990s.\n\nShe told BBC News she welcomed the report, and hoped it would be put into place \"swiftly.\"\n\n\"Having our history, experiences and enormous pain acknowledged and apologised for, hearing that the armed services and government that perpetuated institutional bullying will now be held accountable to finally support LBGT+ veterans, is a relief,\" she said.\n\nVeterans have previously told the BBC how their lives were devastated by the ban.\n\nCarol Morgan, who was dismissed after telling her bosses she was gay in 1978, kept her sexuality secret for another 30 years and said she had been \"robbed\" of her life.\n\nKen Wright, 62, served in the Royal Air Force Police before losing his job when his bosses found out he was gay.\n\nHe described how losing his position in the military had left him feeling as though \"his country didn't want him.\"\n\nHe added: \"After being denied the opportunity to defend one's country, being told you aren't good enough to wear the uniform, it takes huge inner strength to feel reconciled all of a sudden today.\n\n\"Carrying that insult for 35 years scars you for life.\"\n\nOlympian Dame Kelly Holmes, who served in the army and came out as gay last year, called the publication of the report a \"historic moment\", while Catherine Dixon, a former army officer who is now vice chair at Stonewall, said it was \"an important step towards justice\" for those whose military careers were \"ruined\" because of their sexuality.\n\n\"Many were imprisoned, experienced corrective violence and lived with the stain of criminal convictions because of who they loved and which left some homeless and many unable to work,\" she said.\n\nThe report says many faced invasive medical examinations, intrusive police investigations and in some cases, as recently as 1996, were sent to prison for their sexuality. Many still have a criminal record to this day.\n\nIt also details how some veterans faced a complete loss of income, while others were deemed ineligible to claim their pension because of their dismissal.\n\nThe report comes more than 20 years after four servicemen and women, who were sacked for being gay, won a case in the European Court of Human Rights and overturned the ban.\n\nThe armed forces charity Royal British Legion called on the government to accept the report's recommendations in full.\n\nThe charity's director general Charles Byrne welcomed both the report and Mr Sunak's \"landmark apology\", saying many people who had dedicated their lives to the country were \"forced or felt pressured to leave the armed forces, and this mistreatment destroyed or shortened their career\".\n\nFollowing the report, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said he was \"deeply sorry\" on behalf of the government and the armed forces.\n\n\"I say again to the veterans' community I'm deeply sorry for what happened to you. The very tolerance and values of western democracy that we expected you to fight for, we denied to you - it was profoundly wrong,\" he said in the House of Commons.\n\nVeterans Minister Johnny Mercer also said he was pleased with the apology and that it was a \"significant moment\" for the LGBT community.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rishi Sunak: \"On behalf of the British state I apologise\"", "The Rwanda bill must be in the \"Goldilocks zone\" between being \"tough enough\", abiding by international law and being acceptable to Rwanda, Home Secretary James Cleverly has said.\n\nThe bill passed its first parliamentary hurdle, despite 29 Tory MPs refusing to back it.\n\nHowever, the government is expected to face trickier battles when the bill returns to the Commons next year.\n\nMr Cleverly said he would listen to \"good faith\" arguments from MPs.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said the Conservatives were \"unified\" in their commitment to deal with the problem posed by migration.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said disagreements over the Rwanda bill were part of an \"ongoing psychodrama\" in the Conservative Party.\n\nThe government's plan would see some asylum seekers sent to Rwanda, where they would have their claims processed and potentially be resettled.\n\nMinisters hope this will deter people from trying to get to the UK by making the dangerous journey across the Channel in small boats.\n\nThe policy was blocked by the Supreme Court last month over safety concerns, forcing the government to introduce new emergency legislation.\n\nThe Safety of Rwanda bill has come under attack from different sides of the Conservative party.\n\nThe right-wingers on the European Research Group have argued the bill in its current form is not robust enough, with leader of the group Mark Francois saying they had been told Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was \"prepared to entertain tightening the bill\".\n\nHowever, any attempt to change the language could anger other Conservatives who have concerns that could lead to the UK breaching its international obligations.\n\nMr Cleverly said he would listen to his colleagues' concerns and any \"good faith arguments\" about the legislation.\n\nMs Cooper told the BBC that Labour opposed the scheme because it comes with a \"huge cost\" and would only see a small number of people sent to Rwanda.\n\nAsked if Labour opposed the principle of the idea of \"offshoring\" - handling claims overseas - she said her party would \"look at whatever works\".\n\nLabour along with the Liberal Democrats and SNP voted against the bill on Tuesday night; however, no Conservative MP voted against the bill.\n\nThere had been fears in government that there could be a Tory rebellion, and in a sign of nerves, Climate Minister Graham Stuart flew back from the COP28 climate conference in Dubai to vote.\n\nHowever, in the end the bill passed with a comfortable 44 majority - with 313 in favour and 270 opposed.\n\nTwenty-nine Conservative MPs chose to abstain from voting on the bill - including former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman.\n\nAltogether 37 Tory MPs did not record a vote, however some of those may have simply been unable to attend the vote rather than deliberately abstaining.\n\nThe bill will return to the House of Commons in January, where MPs will be able to propose amendments.\n\nBefore becoming law, the bill will also have to be approved by the House of Lords where it will meet stiff opposition from some peers.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mark Drakeford announced he is quitting as first minister after five years\n\nIt was coming, but very few people expected it to be so soon - even many Labour Members of the Senedd.\n\nOn a Senedd balcony on Wednesday morning, Mark Drakeford confirmed that he would be gone by March.\n\nHe didn't say it on the balcony, but confirmed in an interview later that the general election did come into his thinking - and that people in Wales should know who might end up working alongside the next prime minister.\n\nAnd thoughts also now turn to who will take over.\n\nAs health minister in the pandemic, Vaughan Gething is used to standing at the first ministerial podium\n\nThere are two early front runners - Economy Minister Vaughan Gething and the Education Minister Jeremy Miles - but they have been facing difficulties of their own.\n\nMr Gething faces another grilling at the Covid inquiry in spring over his previous role as health minister - he had a tough time of it earlier this year.\n\nMr Miles had to defend the Welsh government's record as recently as last week after poor Pisa results and post-pandemic attendance in schools.\n\nEither would represent a first for Welsh politics - Mr Gething would be the first black politician to lead the country, while Mr Miles would be its first openly gay first minister.\n\nThere had been speculation that Eluned Morgan, the current health minister, might run, as she has before.\n\nBut she has now ruled herself out of the contest, saying she will concentrate on the many challenges facing the Welsh NHS.\n\nSome on the left of the party were touting Hannah Blythyn, deputy minister for social partnership; and on the same wing is Counsel General (Welsh government chief legal adviser) Mick Antoniw.\n\nHowever, Ms Blythyn has ruled herself out of the race and is backing Mr Miles.\n\nAnother name initially in the mix was Rebecca Evans, Wales' finance minister, but she has thrown her support behind Mr Gething.\n\nJeremy Miles is expected to confirm his name will be on Labour members ballot paper soon\n\nWelsh Labour has been meeting this week to discuss how the leadership campaign will proceed.\n\nIt is thought that candidates will need nominations from MSs - or a combination of MSs, constituency Labour Parties and/or affiliates to get on to the ballot paper, with the final numbers to be confirmed.\n\nAnd when things have calmed down (a bit), off it goes again.\n\nNext up - the Welsh budget, with public services braced for cuts.\n\nWhatever materialises will be announced on Mr Drakeford's watch, but with most of the consequences felt by his successor.\n\nPopularity is a fickle friend for politicians. It would have been hard to believe during the dark days of Covid that something else might steal the limelight.\n\nBut Mr Drakeford could just as easily be remembered for the new law making 20mph the default speed limit on most roads that were previously 30mph.\n\nIn that interview he was adamant - the \"right policy\" he said. Other countries were now following Wales' lead. Perhaps more provocatively, he said that people would look back and ask \"whatever was the fuss about\".\n\nThe 20mph speed limit was just one step on a difficult journey in 2023 - stubbornly high waiting lists, \"crisis cuts\" to keep trains running and the NHS going, criticism of the child poverty strategy, poor international Pisa assessment results in schools and strained relations with UK Labour.\n\nSir Keir Starmer declined to repeat his assertion - made in 2022 - that Welsh Labour was his \"blueprint for power.\" And he had more than one opportunity to repeat it.", "Expert lawyers who have been involved in the Rwanda case - or supported the challenge to the policy - have described new legislation as potentially setting up a politically explosive fight with both the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.\n\nIn last month's Supreme Court ruling, five justices unanimously ruled that the country was not safe - and they listed the detailed evidence about how its asylum system was deeply flawed.\n\nThe key element of the government's package tries to deal with this part of the defeat by asking Parliament to declare Rwanda to be \"conclusively\" safe and simultaneously banning British judges from ever saying it is not.\n\nThat is aimed at preventing the courts from once again considering documented evidence about injustices in Rwanda's asylum system. Taken to a hypothetical extreme, if Rwanda exploded with civil war like in 1994 (not something currently likely to happen), British law would still state the country was a safe place to send people.\n\nThe plan then orders British judges and courts to ignore the sections of the Human Rights Act that set out how they should interpret safeguards set out in the European Convention of Human Rights. That includes the right not to be tortured, or the right to a fair hearing before a court.\n\nIt also prevents judges from considering other international laws - most importantly the Refugee Convention and the United Nations' ban on torture.\n\nThis is quite a move to pull off legally and politically on the world stage. On the one hand, the UK freely entered into these laws because it wanted to set a global example for others to follow. On the other, the government has designed a law, say critics, that allows it to pick and choose when it adheres to such global rules - while demanding that Rwanda sticks to the letter all the time.\n\nOne highly-respected legal thinker, Professor Mark Elliott of Cambridge University, has already blogged that this is \"an astounding level of hypocrisy\".\n\nFinally, it says our courts must ignore any other British law that stands in the way of finding the country to be safe - this is important because the Supreme Court said such laws exist.\n\nSo where does this leave the plan?\n\nThe front page of the bill gives it away. Every piece of new legislation must carry a statement as to whether the plan is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.\n\nThis bill comes without that assurance - and that means government lawyers have warned ministers it is more likely than not to fall apart under sustained legal challenges.\n\nSo if the bill is passed, many experts are gearing up for a new and profoundly messy court battle - if not lots of them. Some of those battles might even start in Edinburgh if the plan runs roughshod over some part of Scots law that Downing Street has not thought of. If that sounds like a plot twist, it happened to Boris Johnson when he was roundly defeated over illegally closing down Parliament amid the Brexit crisis.\n\nAt worst, it could lead to an unprecedented constitutional stand-off between Parliament and judges.\n\nThe Supreme Court cannot strike down primary legislation - but it has the power to make a \"Declaration of Incompatibility\". This is a rare judgment that says an Act of Parliament should be rethought because it is incompatible with the basic European Convention of Human Rights safeguards embedded in British law.\n\nTwo such rights that come to mind in relation to the Rwanda plan are the right not to be subject to inhuman treatment and the right to have a fair hearing of your case before you are put onto a plane to equatorial Africa.\n\nIf the Supreme Court makes a Declaration of Incompatibility, in theory a government should then ask Parliament to amend the offending law. But it does not have to do so - hence the potential stand-off.\n\nSo if ministers pressed ahead with flights, it is a racing certainty that claimants would then try to take their case, as would still be their right under the law, to the European Court of Human Rights.\n\nThe court in Strasbourg would then have to consider whether it wants to block the plan - and flights - while it considers the case.\n\nIf it did that, the bill includes a measure that says ministers can ignore such an order and send a plane skywards anyway.\n\nBut two massive obstacles stand in the way of the plan becoming reality.\n\nThe first is politics. They need to get this through Parliament - and there is no certainty the House of Lords will comply.\n\nSome observers are already wondering why Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, and Victoria Prentice, the Attorney General, have stood by the bill when they both have constitutional roles in upholding international laws that may soon be ignored. A lot of votes in the Commons may rest on their shoulders.\n\nSecondly, just supposing it did become law, some of the best legal minds in the country have fought the government over Rwanda. The plan could become so mired in challenges in court that it never gets to a final judgment before the General Election clock runs out.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the US to back more aid to Kyiv, with a plea that some lawmakers said has changed few, if any, minds.\n\nMr Zelensky visited leaders in Washington DC in a final push for $61bn (£49bn) in aid that has been sidelined by a standoff over US border policy.\n\nAppearing with him at the White House, President Joe Biden said Congress must \"compromise\" and \"prove Putin wrong\".\n\nBut members of Congress told the BBC nothing had changed after the talks.\n\nIt was Mr Zelensky's third visit to the nation's capital since Russia invaded his country in February 2022.\n\nUnlike his previous two visits, there was no red carpet entrance or ceremonial fanfare, reflecting the pessimism that surrounds efforts to win support for new funds.\n\nThe latest funding proposal has become embroiled in partisan domestic politics, with congressional Republicans insisting they will only support Ukraine aid if it is tied to sweeping immigration reform.\n\nWhile Mr Biden and his Democrats are willing to spend more money on border security, they view the changes being demanded by Republicans as unacceptable.\n\nTime is running out before the Christmas congressional break, leading to grim warnings from the White House and Kyiv about the prospect of the war effort without US support.\n\n\"I will not walk away from Ukraine,\" Mr Biden said in a joint news conference with Mr Zelensky on Tuesday evening.\n\n\"Ukraine will emerge from this war proud, free and firmly rooted in the West - unless we walk away.\"\n\nRussian leader Vladimir Putin has been defied at every turn, he added, but was now banking on the US not coming through with more aid.\n\nMr Zelensky said it was \"very important that by the end of this year we can send a very strong signal\" to \"the aggressor\".\n\n\"Thanks to Ukraine's defence, other European nations are safe from the Russian aggression,\" he said.\n\nVolodymyr Zelensky's low-key visit reflected the pessimism that surrounds efforts to win support for new aid\n\nEarlier in the day, the Ukrainian leader was flanked by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his Republican counterpart Mitch McConnell as they entered closed-door talks with senators.\n\nHe then met one-on-one with Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, who has maintained his stance on pushing for border issues.\n\nSpeaking to reporters after their meeting, Mr Johnson gave no indication of being open to negotiate, even as he acknowledged further aid to Ukraine is important.\n\n\"The border is an absolute catastrophe,\" he said, warning that House Republicans won't budge until \"transformative\" changes are made.\n\n\"These are the conditions of the American people,\" Mr Johnson said. \"We are resolute on that\".\n\nThe Speaker blamed the White House for the hold-up, saying it has \"no clear strategy to win\" and cannot provide the \"answers that the American people are owed\".\n\nRecent polls show a majority of Americans no longer support sending more money to Ukraine, and the opposition in Congress has grown more vocal in recent months.\n\nMissouri Republican Senator Eric Schmitt said he had heard \"nothing new\" from Mr Zelensky and didn't think the Democrats \"appreciate how committed Republicans are to securing our southern border\".\n\n\"If you listen to the people back home, they're not interested in a blank cheque for Ukraine when they see 12,000 people coming across our open southern border every day,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"Nothing's changed,\" said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. \"I admire him, but he didn't change my mind at all about what we need to do.\"\n\nMr Graham accused Democrats of being \"in denial about the border\" and \"trying to use [Mr Zelensky] in a way that I think wasn't helpful\".\n\nIn the Oval Office with Mr Zelensky, President Biden warned it would be a \"Christmas gift\" to Mr Putin if Congress fails to pass fresh military aid for Kyiv.\n\nSince Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the US Congress has approved more than $110bn in military and economic aid to Ukraine. Much of that money has already been distributed.\n\nThe US has not just been critical to supporting Ukraine's war effort; it's also been largely responsible for coordinating that support.\n\nMilitary experts have warned that Europe cannot backfill what the US is providing and that, without its support, there is a real danger Ukraine will lose the war - not immediately but in the longer term.\n\nNearly 5,000 miles away in snowy Kyiv, Ukrainians said what their leader is able to achieve on his US trip could be the difference between life and death.\n\n\"We hope for the help of our partners to end the war as soon as possible,\" said Alina, shaking her head at the idea of not receiving that aid.\n\nBy her side, Olga chimed in: \"Since every average person understands that his life depends on it, everything depends on it… we believe that everything will be fine, that they will help us.\"\n\nWith additional reporting from Jessica Parker in Kyiv", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Andre Braugher in his own words\n\nAndre Braugher, the star of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Homicide: Life on the Street, has died aged 61 following a brief illness.\n\nBraugher often portrayed police officers during his career, performing both in dramatic and comedic roles.\n\nHe won two Emmy Awards, from a total 11 nominations across his career, for his roles in Homicide and Thief.\n\nTerry Crews, who played Terry Jeffords in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, paid tribute to Braugher's \"irreplaceable talent\".\n\n\"I'm honoured to have known you, laughed with you, worked with you and shared eight glorious years watching your irreplaceable talent,\" Crews posted on Instagram.\n\n\"This hurts. You left us too soon. You taught me so much. I will be forever grateful for the experience of knowing you. Thank you for your wisdom, your advice, your kindness and your friendship.\n\n\"You showed me what a life well lived looks like.\"\n\nBorn in Chicago, Braugher graduated from Stanford University before attending The Juilliard School for drama.\n\nBraugher may be best remembered for his role as Ray Holt in sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine\n\nHe was nominated for 11 Emmy Awards - including four for his role as Captain Raymond Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine.\n\nHe won in 1998 for his role in Homicide: Life on the Street, and in 2006 for his performance in Thief, in which he played the leader of a heist crew.\n\nBraugher's breakthrough came in the 1989 film Glory, where he played a soldier in a black Union regiment in the American civil war.\n\nDirected by Ed Zwick, the film also starred Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington - who won his first Academy Award for his supporting role in the film.\n\nBraugher's television career flourished playing detective Frank Pembleton in the gritty Baltimore police show Homicide: Life on the Street.\n\nHe most recently starred in She Said, the biographical drama which saw Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan play the investigative journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein story.\n\nHe played Dean Baquet in the film, the New York Times executive editor who oversaw the two reporters.\n\nBraugher won an Emmy in 2006 for outstanding lead actor in a miniseries or movie for his work on Thief\n\nThe actor's other film credits include Primal Fear, which saw him star opposite Richard Gere, Salt, with Angelina Jolie, and City of Angels, alongside Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage.\n\nBut many will remember him best for his role as Captain Ray Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which saw Braugher co-star with Andy Samberg, Stephanie Beatriz, Joe Lo Truglio and Melissa Fumero, playing New York police officers in Brooklyn's fictional 99th Precinct.\n\nDavid Simon, whose non-fiction book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets inspired the show Homocide: Life on the Street, said Braugher's death was \"too damn soon\".\n\n\"I've worked with a lot of wonderful actors. I'll never work with one better,\" Simon, who also created The Wire, said on X.\n\nActor Marc Evan Jackson, who played Braugher's on-screen husband in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, shared a picture of the pair hugging while on set, wearing their wedding rings.\n\nHe captioned the post on X: \"O Captain. My Captain.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Marc Evan Jackson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nJoe Lo Truglio, who played Detective Charles Boyle on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, posted on Instagram about being on set with Braugher.\n\nHe wrote: \"What you probably don't know is that Andre could sing, too, and did often at lunch, belting bassy vocals from his dressing room to whatever new music he found. At first, it was odd but then very quickly it made all the sense in the world because the man was so full of song and that's why the world took notice.\"\n\nChelsea Peretti who starred alongside Truglio as Gina Linetti in the show, said that she was \"forever lucky to have gone on such a journey\" with Braugher.\n\nRyan Case, who directed the US sitcom, posted a thread of her favourite memories of Braugher on X, writing: \"My 'challenge' editing him in the Brooklyn pilot was finding takes where he wasn't smiling. We wanted to save that for the end. He was like a giddy school child doing his first comedy and it was so wonderful.\"\n\n\"If there weren't men like Andre in this business I probably would've quit it a long time ago. The world is worse without him,\" she added.\n\nDirk Blocker, another co-star, known for his role as Michael Hitchcock, said: \"Fiercely intelligent, remarkably kind, supportive, generous and possessed a deep and extraordinary talent, and had even more to offer. I am devastated. I love him. The nine years I was able to work with him and to just be in his presence was truly a blessing.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by dirkblocker This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nTelevision network NBC also paid tribute to Braugher, describing him as \"the actor that others in the profession would always aspire to be\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by NBC Entertainment This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nViola Davis, who worked with Braugher for a live staging of Good Times, wrote on Instagram: \"Heart-breaking. You went way too soon. I loved every minute of working with you.\"\n\nSpeaking to BBC News earlier this year, Homicide writer and producer Tom Fontana praised Braugher's screen presence, charisma and energy.\n\n\"I had never seen an actor like that on television,\" said Fontana. \"His rhythms were so unique.\"\n\nBraugher's other notable credits include Benjamin O Davis in Tuskegee Airmen, Dr Ben Gideon in Gideon's Crossing - which won him a Golden Globe nomination - and Owen in Men Of A Certain Age, all roles which won him Emmy Award nominations.\n\nMike Royce, who co-created Men Of A Certain Age, said on X: \"This is impossible for me to process. He was best actor in the world. An incredible human being. An incomprehensible loss.\"\n\nAccording to the Hollywood Reporter, he had been cast as the male lead in a Netflix-backed murder-mystery The Residence, set at the White House.\n\nBraugher died on Monday after a brief illness, his publicist Jennifer Allen told the PA news agency.\n\nHe is survived by his wife, actress Ami Brabson, who he met on the set of Homicide, and his three sons.", "Perseverance will soon head up on to the rim of Jezero Crater\n\nNasa says its Perseverance rover has essentially completed the job it was asked to do when it landed on Mars in February 2021.\n\nThe robot's basic requirement was to survey an ancient crater lake and to collect rocks that would aid the quest to identify evidence for past life.\n\nThis primary objective had been accomplished, the mission team told a major conference in San Francisco.\n\nThe announcement was made on the 1,000th Martian day of the mission.\n\n\"It's a pretty incredible achievement and we've done an amazing amount of science,\" said Nasa's director of planetary science, Dr Lori Glaze.\n\nThis does not mean Perseverance is about to park up and \"switch off the engine\".\n\nPlenty of challenges lie ahead, not least the issue of how to get the vehicle's rock samples back to Earth so they can be studied in the lab.\n\nNasa will partner with the European Space Agency on this project, but the technical solutions, time frame and cost are currently being examined by a review board that will not report until early next year.\n\nIt would necessarily involve sending a rocket to Mars and then loading it with the finger-sized samples, so they can be blasted into space for the journey home.\n\n\"It will be one of the most audacious robotic missions ever conducted,\" conceded Arizona State University's Dr Mini Wadhwa, the principal scientist on Nasa's Mars Sample Return programme. But it was a fundamental endeavour, she added.\n\nThe reason why can be seen in the quality of the samples collected.\n\nPerseverance has drilled and stored in its belly 13 rock cores, all with a distinct chemistry.\n\nThey tell the story of what happened in Mars's Jezero Crater some 3.7-3.5 billion years ago.\n\nThis was a time when a river channel flowed into the 45km (28 miles)-wide bowl, to build layered deposits of silt and sand known as a delta.\n\nIt is the kind of geological feature that might just have trapped traces of past microbial life.\n\nThese rock layers in Jezero were deposited in water that was perhaps 10m (33ft) deep\n\nOf late, the rover has been investigating a high-priority set of sediments right at the edge of Jezero that appear to contain carbonate minerals. Perseverance has also detected iron phosphate.\n\nThis was especially exciting, said Dr Morgan Cable, because it meant one of Earth biology's most essential elements, phosphorus, existed in the crater in a form that could be used by Martian organisms - assuming they ever existed.\n\nThe research scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory told reporters: \"Phosphorus is present in the DNA backbones of all known life; it's present in the cell membranes of every single organism that we know of; and it's part of the key energy currency known as ATP, or adenosine triphosphate.\n\n\"We know that phosphorus is incredibly important, and now we have the strongest evidence ever collected that phosphorus was available in a form that life could access if it was there.\"\n\nPerseverance will shortly begin a drive that will take it up and on to the inner rim of the crater.\n\nThis will enable it to investigate rocks that are perhaps 500-600 million years older than those it has studied to date.\n\n\"There's a completely different kind of potentially habitable environment in the subsurface, where groundwater interacts with rocks, and there's reason to believe that we will explore rocks of that type as we climb up the rim, and then as we move out into the area just beyond the rim,\" said Dr Ken Farley, the California Institute of Technology researcher who serves as the Perseverance project scientist.\n\nThe Perseverance mission team was discussing the rover's achievements at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.", "Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury was on holiday during the hearing\n\nTyson Fury and his brothers must pay nearly £100,000 after a judge ruled they owed unpaid business rates in a row over land used as a car park.\n\nCheshire East Council argued the sum was due on land owned by the boxing champion and his brothers John and Shane near Manchester Airport.\n\nTheir representatives said they were not liable because they rented out the land to be run as an airport car park.\n\nThe boxer's father John appeared at the hearing at Chester Magistrates Court.\n\nDistrict judge John McGarva said the family's evidence was \"wholly unsatisfactory\" partly because none of the brothers were present in court.\n\nTheir father said his son paid \"millions of pounds in tax each year\" and assertions that the fighter had \"anything to do\" with the land in Styal were \"ridiculous\".\n\nThe boxer and his brothers were ordered to pay the council £82,000 in unpaid rates and £17,000 in court costs.\n\nJohn Fury, the father of boxer Tyson, appeared at Chester Magistrates' Court\n\nThe land on Moss Lane in Styal was transferred by John Fury to his sons in 2010 but the family's defence counsel Martin Budworth argued their father was still \"the effective controller of operations on the site\".\n\nJohn Fury had rented it out to tenants Holiday Car Parks Manchester Ltd, meaning the brothers would not be liable for the bill, he claimed.\n\nThe court heard the brothers had been issued with Cheshire East Council demands for unpaid business rates owed since April 2021, totalling £82,166.\n\nMr Fury said he was \"the man of that land\" and his sons had \"nothing to do with it\".\n\nDescribing himself as \"semi-illiterate\", he said: \"I'm a boxing coach. I had no knowledge of any of this. This technical stuff it's not my field.\n\n\"I try to keep away from paperwork because I've no understanding. I don't want to embarrass myself in public.\"\n\nThe Fury family said Holiday Car Parks Manchester Limited was responsible for the site\n\nCheshire East Council business rates manager Helen Sefton said they could find \"no evidence\" that Holiday Car Parks Manchester Limited was trading from the land.\n\nIn his ruling, Judge McGarva said evidence produced to demonstrate the land was being used by the company was \"wholly conflicted\".\n\nTyson Fury grew up in Styal before moving to Wythenshawe in Manchester.\n\nThe court heard he and his family are on holiday in Saudi Arabia, where he is due to fight Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight title next year.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The rising cost of formula milk is having a \"devastating\" effect on families and forcing them into \"tough\" financial choices, a report says.\n\nTwo thirds of women surveyed said the 25% leap in costs over the last two years had hit family finances.\n\nMany reported cutting back on food for the rest of the household or using cow's milk in their babies' diets.\n\nThe British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), called for \"bold\" solutions such as subsidises and price caps.\n\nThe service said the cost of one box of the cheapest formula milk is now greater than the £8.50-a-week Healthy Start voucher families receiving qualifying benefits can claim.\n\nTwo thirds of women surveyed for BPAS said they felt anxious or worried about the product's cost.\n\nLast month, the Consumer and Markets Authority (CMA) said formula prices had risen by a quarter over the past two years.\n\nJust two suppliers accounted for 85% of infant formula sales, the CMA said, and there was \"very limited availability\" of cheaper own-brand alternatives.\n\nThe rise in costs has correlated with a spike in formula thefts as part of a surge of shoplifting during the cost of living crisis.\n\nWhile most mothers breastfeed their babies at birth, fewer than 20% are exclusively breastfed by three months and 1% of babies are exclusively breastfed by six months, according to a NHS infant feeding survey from 2010.\n\nSainsbury's stores placed security tags on formula products last year and some Co-op stores placed them behind tills in an attempt to prevent shoplifting.\n\nThe service's chief executive Clare Murphy said: \"Our report clearly shows the toll the current cost of formula is having on women and their families.\n\n\"For some women this was also compounded by a sense of guilt and shame around not breastfeeding. This must change.\n\n\"Supporting breastfeeding does not need to come at the, quite literal, expense of failing to tackle the issues of access to an affordable, consistent supply of formula milk, and we need some bold initiatives to achieve this.\n\n\"Infant feeding, whether by breast or bottle, is both a child health issue and a matter of reproductive choice. We must get this right.\"\n\nThe BPAS survey was conducted in October by Censuswide. All 1,001 participants were British women who had formula-fed their baby aged under one in the last year.\n\nAre you affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Aydah Akao, 43, travelled to COP28 while pregnant with her fifth child\n\nWith the COP28 climate talks drawing to a close, three mothers from different continents tell the BBC how their love for their children has motivated them to take their arguments to the people in power.\n\nFor the past week, in the sweltering heat of Dubai, Aydah Akao has been on a singular mission.\n\nFor her personally, there are five reasons the world needs to act far more urgently on climate change: her children. Four are at home in the Solomon Islands, and she is pregnant with the fifth.\n\n\"My children are so afraid,\" Mrs Akao tells the BBC. Rising sea levels are more than just lines on a chart for her family. It means their home, and heritage, are at risk of disappearing beneath the waves.\n\nCOP28 is her first UN climate summit, but as she marches around the vast Expo 2020 venue, she's not alone.\n\nMothers from across the world have joined forces at the summit in Dubai to ensure their voices are heard by the heads of state and policy-makers making the key decisions at this conference.\n\nMrs Akao said her community in the Temotu province of the Pacific country is bearing the brunt of natural disasters worsened by climate change - from cyclones to droughts.\n\nIt was a long journey to get here, but for her, the sense of urgency and the need to get that across to everyone she meets is palpable.\n\nThe Solomon Islands, north-east of Australia, are made up of nearly 1,000 tropical islands and atolls. The country of 670,000 people is extremely vulnerable to climate change.\n\nMrs Akao says some smaller islands are, in her words, \"already out\" - meaning unliveable due to sea levels. Some of her relatives in Temotu province - made up of two chains of islands - have had to move to larger islands, as houses were washed away.\n\n\"We could lose everything,\" she says. \"We could lose our identity\".\n\nAydah (middle) with her eldest daughter Eleanor Pago (left), four-year-old daughter Anika and son, Fernando (right) in the Solomon Islands\n\nAsked about what she would like to see agreed by leaders at the summit, she's unequivocal - an end to the burning of fossil fuels for energy.\n\nOver the past 27 COP summits, all that has so far been agreed on this is a \"phase down\" of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. At this conference, hosted by the United Arab Emirates, a major oil producer, there may be agreement to go further, but deciding whether the world should further commit to \"phasing out\" fossil fuels has been highly contentious.\n\nAosis, a negotiating group responsible for the interests of small island nations (including the Solomon Islands), is demanding that the conference agrees action that will ensure the world does not warm by more than 1.5C compared to pre-industrial levels - something that many scientists say has already become out of reach.\n\nAydah Akao's work on behalf of her children has inspired her eldest son, Zedi Cavord, to also get involved in climate activism.\n\nMiriam Wanjiku, 35, is another mother making her voice heard at the conference.\n\nFrom Kisumu in Kenya, Ms Wanjiku says her teenage daughter, Rahmina Paulette - the founder of a group called Kisumu Environmental Champions - inspired her to get involved with environmental action.\n\nMs Wanjiku now manages community projects in Kisumu with her daughter, focusing primarily on campaigns to safeguard Lake Victoria. It is the world's second largest freshwater lake but pollution has left it blighted.\n\nTheir campaign,\"Let Lake Victoria Breathe Again\" aims to bring attention to chemical and single-use plastic pollution in the lake, which is impacting its ecosystem.\n\nMiriam Wanjiku (left) and her daughter Rahmina heading to COP28 in Dubai from Kisumu airport\n\nRahmina, who is also at COP28, is in charge of the Pavilion for Youth and Children at the summit, Ms Wanjiku tells us. The 18-year-old is also part of the Fridays for Future movement, which has seen millions of school students around the world skip classes to protest for climate action.\n\nWhile Ms Wanjiku supports her daughter, she's worried that her relentless activism is getting in the way of her enjoying her youth.\n\n\"It is really distracting her because she wants to change things and sometimes it is like a force,\" she says. \"And she also has to be a kid at the same time.\"\n\nBut both mother and daughter are keenly aware that the generational message that their joint activism sends is a powerful one.\n\nA report from climate marketing firm Potential Energy Coalition, published in November, found that protecting the planet for future generations was an important motivating factor to solve the climate crisis across 23 countries surveyed - 18 of the G20 countries as well as Chile, Colombia, Kenya, Nigeria and Norway.\n\nThe report found that \"love for the next generation\" was identified by participants as 12 times more important than guaranteeing jobs.\n\nBhavreen Kandhari, 51, is a mother of twins passionate about a future with cleaner air\n\nBhavreen Kandhari, a mother of twins from India, shares that motivation but she is kept awake at night by a very specific issue - clean air.\n\nShe lives in Delhi, one of the world's most polluted cities, and joined the Indian clean air movement two decades ago, motivated by growing concerns over her then-baby girls' health outcomes.\n\n\"What are we doing to our children? They are breathing toxicity every second of their lives, and we are not even reacting,\" she says. \"My daughters are turning 20 ... I still didn't manage to bring them clean air.\"\n\nIn polluted Delhi, one in three children has damaged lungs she says. \"Unfortunately air is not visible. It's invisible. We don't see it, so we don't believe it.\"\n\nIn early November, the Supreme Court in India called for \"immediate action\" after air quality in the capital deteriorated to alarming levels. Similar orders in the past, targeting construction and crop burning, have had little impact.\n\nWeeks later, Mrs Kandhari left the smog for the halls of climate power in Dubai.\n\nAlong with Mrs Akao and Ms Wanjiku, she's been able to attend COP28 with the support of Our Kids' Climate, an organisation that empowers parent leaders and activist groups around the world.\n\nMiriam Wanjiku (left), Aydah Akao and Bhavreen Kandhari all came to COP28 in Dubai with the support of Our Kids' Climate, an organisation that unites parents to protect their kids from the climate crisis\n\nMrs Kandhari has been to many COP summits since her activism began but since Glasgow in 2021, she says parents - and mothers specifically - have increasingly found themselves coalescing around the same message.\n\n\"I think we've all been joining hands and I think that is what makes it so powerful.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The \"wheel of death\" performer fell in front of a family audience\n\nA circus acrobat who fell several metres from a rotating apparatus is making \"a good recovery\" despite a broken shoulder, arm and leg, the show's ringmaster has said.\n\nThe performer, in his 20s, fell while riding the \"Giant Wheel of Death\" at the Hippodrome Circus in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on Wednesday night.\n\nJack Jay said he was \"really pleased\" he did not suffer more severe injuries.\n\nHealth and safety officials were investigating, he said.\n\nMr Jay, who is also circus manager, said the cause seemed to be \"human error\" and that no fault had yet been found with the equipment or rigging.\n\nThe brothers pictured performing their act earlier in the week at the Hippodrome Circus in Great Yarmouth\n\n\"Maybe [it was] a very unfortunate momentary lapse, maybe a slight adjustment to the timing and a very serious outcome,\" Mr Jay said\n\n\"But we're thrilled the news coming out is positive, given what happened, that he's in a good recovery state.\"\n\nWitnesses described how they initially thought the fall was part of the show.\n\nNorfolk Constabulary - which was called at 19:37 GMT - said the artist \"sustained serious, potentially life-changing injuries\" but was stable in hospital.\n\nThe performer, who is from Colombia, was fully conscious after the fall and was helped by two audience members.\n\nThe show is a Christmas tradition for many families\n\nA witness, who had seen the act at the Hippodrome before, said the performer was blindfolded.\n\n\"I was recording it as [the performance] was so brilliant,\" said the woman, who wished to remain anonymous.\n\n\"He slipped or tripped and fell to the ground and to begin with I thought it was part of the act, so continued recording.\n\n\"They often miss on purpose to get the audience sort of riled up and on the edge of their seats, but then we realised something was wrong.\"\n\nThe witness said a screen was quickly brought on to the arena to shield the acrobat while he was attended to.\n\nHe was initially taken to the local James Paget Hospital and later transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.\n\nHis partner in the act was his brother, who accompanied him to the James Paget, along with circus staff.\n\nMr Jay said: \"There's nothing that should provide any long-term concern once he's had a long recovery process.\n\n\"I'm confident knowing his mindset he'll be back even stronger.\"\n\nThe circus performed on Thursday night, but without its \"Giant Wheel of Death\".\n\nGreat Yarmouth Borough Council, as the local environmental health authority, was contacted for comment.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n• None Watch: Circus acrobat falls from 'wheel of death' Video, 00:00:07Watch: Circus acrobat falls from 'wheel of death'\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nNewcastle United's Champions League campaign ended in heartbreak on a night of emotion and drama on Tyneside, as AC Milan came from behind to win at St James' Park and send them out of Europe.\n\nThe Toon Army were dreaming of a place in the knockout stages when they took the lead through Joelinton's 33rd-minute thunderbolt while Borussia Dortmund led against Paris St-Germain in Germany.\n\nIt was an outcome that would have sent Newcastle through on head-to-head results against PSG - but the mood shifted in a matter of minutes just before the hour.\n\nTeenager Warren Zaire-Emery equalised for the French champions in Germany, then former Chelsea forward Christian Pulisic levelled for Milan.\n\nAs both sides pushed for a winner in an open game, Milan keeper Mike Maignan did brilliantly to turn Bruno Guimaraes' shot on to the woodwork before Rafael Leao raced clear for the Italians, only to shoot against the foot of the post.\n\nNewcastle's fate was sealed six minutes from time when Milan struck ruthlessly on the counter-attack, substitute Samuel Chukwueze curling a superb finish high past Martin Dubravka.\n\nIt left manager Eddie Howe and his players devastated following a return to the Champions League which was fiercely fought, but has ended with them bottom of Group F and without even the consolation of a place in the Europa League.\n• None How did you rate Newcastle's performance? Have your say here\n• None PSG scrape through with draw in Dortmund\n\nNewcastle regret what might have been\n\nWhen the half-time whistle blew to a huge Tyneside roar, Newcastle were on course for the last 16 of the Champions League - but when a dramatic second half came to its conclusion they were out of Europe completely.\n\nIt summed up the swings in fortune on a night when attention was divided between what was unfolding at St James' Park and events in Germany, followed closely to see what impact they had on Newcastle's fate.\n\nNewcastle's destiny was out of their own hands after the controversial stoppage-time penalty which gave PSG a draw in Paris two weeks ago, but they were fulfilling their part of the bargain by dominating a lacklustre AC Milan side overawed by the intensity of their opponents and the atmosphere.\n\nThe problem was that Newcastle were always living on the edge and it so proved with those goals, first for PSG in Germany then Milan on Tyneside, which was the start of the downfall.\n\nNewcastle did not create enough for all their possession, and were punished as they employed a high-risk strategy in the hope of creating the victory and the potential to go through.\n\nIt was not to be, and a campaign that brought the glory of the 4-1 thrashing of PSG in Newcastle's first Champions League game on home soil in two decades, ultimately came up short with key moments being a crucial home defeat to Dortmund, that fateful penalty in Paris and this loss to Milan.\n\nThey have acquitted themselves well despite finishing bottom of their group, but this has been a brutal learning experience.\n\nThere was the sound of silence and a sense of disbelief for just a few seconds as the grim realisation of Newcastle's elimination from European football sank in.\n\nNewcastle had high hopes that the cards could fall in a way which would allow them to enjoy the prestige and financial firepower of the Champions League knockout phase. Instead they were beaten and looked broken after a chastening week.\n\nThey have been overpowered by Everton and Tottenham before losing to Milan in what was, at first, a smash-and-grab but ended with the Italians squandering chances, hitting the post twice as Newcastle chased an unlikely outcome.\n\nNewcastle also looked, as they had done in those Premier League matches, exhausted at the final whistle.\n\nHowe now has the task of lifting a leg-weary squad short on numbers because of injuries, into a position where they can sample this challenge next season - and show they have learned from it - by finishing in the Premier League's top four.\n\nThere was no consolation in the manner of Newcastle's demise. Now Howe faces a huge challenge to lift their spirits.\n• None Fikayo Tomori (AC Milan) hits the left post with a right footed shot from the right side of the box. Assisted by Luka Jovic following a fast break.\n• None Attempt missed. Théo Hernández (AC Milan) left footed shot from more than 40 yards on the left wing is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Samuel Chukwueze with a headed pass following a fast break.\n• None Attempt blocked. Jamaal Lascelles (Newcastle United) header from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Sean Longstaff with a cross.\n• None Alessandro Florenzi (AC Milan) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt blocked. Luka Jovic (AC Milan) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Rafael Leão.\n• None Goal! Newcastle United 1, AC Milan 2. Samuel Chukwueze (AC Milan) left footed shot from the right side of the box to the top left corner. Assisted by Noah Okafor following a fast break.\n• None Attempt blocked. Tijjani Reijnders (AC Milan) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Alessandro Florenzi.\n• None Attempt blocked. Luka Jovic (AC Milan) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Alessandro Florenzi with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None The acclaimed actress reveals how the playwright has remained centre-stage throughout her life", "Marjorie and Michael Cawdery were killed in their home in Portadown in 2017\n\nThe chain of events which led to the brutal killings of two pensioners could happen again, a coroner has warned.\n\nMaria Dougan said the deaths of Michael and Marjorie Cawdery were \"entirely preventable\".\n\nThe 83-year-olds were attacked at home in Portadown in County Armagh.\n\nIn the days before the attack, their killer Thomas Scott McEntee repeatedly came to the attention of police and health services as he battled severe mental illness.\n\nHe was later jailed for a minimum of 10 years for two counts of manslaughter with diminished responsibility.\n\nSpeaking outside Banbridge courthouse on Wednesday, the Cawderys' son-in-law Charles Little said there had been \"utter chaos\" within the police and health service which meant neither \"had the ability to appreciate how unwell\" McEntee was.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"What is really, really shocking is the utter chaos that appears to have existed in both the health service and police\" - Charles Little\n\nAn inquest into their deaths was held in June and heard evidence from 40 witnesses.\n\nIt focused heavily on the interaction between McEntee, police and health services in Newry, Warrenpoint, Belfast and Craigavon in the days before the attack in May 2017.\n\nPresenting her findings on Wednesday, Ms Dougan criticised police failures to enact mental health legislation on two occasions that would have seen McEntee taken to a place of safety.\n\nThe coroner said if police and staff at the Belfast and Southern health trusts had not missed multiple opportunities, McEntee would not have been in Upper Ramone Park, where the Cawdreys lived.\n\nShe also said there was a failure by the health services to fully evaluate McEntee and seek all available information.\n\nThomas Scott McEntee was jailed for the killings\n\nThe coroner further criticised the information exchange between police and health services in relation to McEntee and said greater training was required for police and medical staff when dealing with mental health staff.\n\nA large body of work has been carried out by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and health trusts in addressing shortcomings, the coroner said.\n\n\"I can't be satisfied that this won't happen again. This must be a catalyst for change,\" she said.\n\n\"More work needs to be done to prevent families like the Cawderys suffering the same pain again\".\n\nMr Little has called for a review of the legislation\n\nSpeaking after the coroner delivered her findings, Mr Little said the Cawdery family needed to time to digest what they had heard.\n\nHe said there should be a review of corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter and misconduct in a public office \"[to] see if there can be reviews of that legislation which can accommodate situations like this and hold people and hold organisations to account.\n\nHe said there was no justice if \"an ill man\" was the only person held accountable for Mr and Mrs Cawdery's killings.\n\nHe said one issue that stood out above all others was that \"most of the problems and most of the difficulties occur at interfaces\" between organisations.\n\n\"Interfaces between the police and health service, interfaces between health trusts, interfaces between hospitals, interfaces between individual police officers,\" he said.\n\n\"We need a single mental health trust across the whole region that removes all those interfaces\".\n\nIn a statement, the Southern Health and Social Care Trust said: \"We accept the Coroner's findings and offer our deepest sympathies to the Cawdery family.\n\n\"We will review the Coroner's written findings when completed\".\n\nA spokesperson for the Belfast Trust said it was committed to learning from the coroner's findings.\n\n\"Belfast Trust would like to offer our sincere condolences to the Cawdery Family,\" they added.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said the PSNI acknowledged the \"stark comments\" of the coroner.\n\n\"The police service has, following our own internal review and a serious adverse incident review conducted by the health trust, already taken steps to address identified shortcomings in our handling of incidents linked to the murders of Michael and Marjorie,\" he said.\n\nHe said the police were now waiting for the full written verdict and would \"immediately consider the findings and will work with our partners to ensure that any further recommended actions are addressed\".", "Holon in central Israel was hit by a rocket attack on 11 December\n\nIsrael is on holiday. Schools are out, and away from the frontline areas the shopping centres are full. Cake shops are bursting with the doughnuts that Jews like to eat during Hanukkah, the current religious festival.\n\nIt is different the closer you get to the fighting. Along the Gaza border, the area known by Israelis as the \"envelope\", tanks and troops are moving, civilians are mostly elsewhere and it looks like a war zone.\n\nIn the north, along the border with Lebanon, communities have also been evacuated and the military continues to exchange fire with Iran's strongest ally, Hezbollah.\n\nBut casual visitors might be able to deceive themselves that life has somehow returned to \"normal\" in central Israel, the broad swathe of land between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.\n\nA sharp reminder of how wrong that impression would be came as I drove down to Tel Aviv.\n\nThe air raid sirens started, and the red alert app Israelis have on their phones sent out warnings as cars swerved onto the hard shoulder so the people inside could stop to take cover. Other drivers accelerated to speed out of the area. In the confusion, three cars managed to crash into each other.\n\nWe pulled over as a group of women left their car and held each other in a tight, terrified embrace.\n\nOverhead, vapour trails from the Iron Dome anti-missile system arched towards the rockets coming from Gaza, loud explosions cracking across a deep blue sky as they downed most of the projectiles. One man was injured, in Holon, just off the highway.\n\nThe fact that Hamas can still attack Israel is more proof that it is not beaten. The response of the motorists shows the depth of the trauma Hamas has inflicted on Israel, which is without doubt good news for the leaders of Hamas. Israel believes they are somewhere under Gaza, in some part of the tunnel system.\n\n\"First of all, forget everything you thought you knew about Israel before 7 October. It's all changed,\" Amos Yadlin, a retired major-general said as we set up for an interview in his office in Tel Aviv, overlooking Israel's defence ministry. Mr Yadlin was a veteran fighter pilot who retired as head of Israeli military intelligence.\n\nWe decided to interview him to get an idea of Israel's war strategy. In the end everything he said was just as interesting for what it said about mood in Israel.\n\nMr Yadlin repeatedly compared Israel's fight against Hamas to World War Two. He was defending the huge number of killings by Israel of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, and making the point that eliminating Hamas was vital for Israel's future.\n\nIn a reference to the destruction of Dresden in Germany by the RAF in 1945, Mr Yadlin said: \"You bombed Dresden with 120,000 people, killed women, children. We are trying to avoid this collateral damage. We ask them to leave. We ask them to go to the southern part of Gaza.\"\n\nI reminded him that Israel was also bombing the areas they had told Palestinians would be safe. Mr Yadlin insisted Israel was bombing Hamas, not civilians.\n\n\"No, we didn't bomb them. We bombed the Hamas targets. Only Hamas targets and Hamas uses them as a human shield.\"\n\nIsrael's war with Hamas is now in its ninth week\n\nHe dismissed criticisms by the Biden administration in the US that Israel was killing too many Palestinian civilians. He said Israel was more careful about avoiding civilian casualties than the US and UK had been when they were bombing jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq.\n\nHis interpretation is not shared by former generals involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A senior British officer told me he was appalled by Israel's disdain for the laws of war that mandate the protection of civilians. He said it would not be allowed in the British army.\n\nAmos Yadlin, who still advises his successors in the Israeli military, believes Israel needs more time to reach its ambitious objectives in Gaza. It wants to rescue its hostages, kill the leaders of Hamas, annihilate it as a military formation that can threaten Israelis and destroy its capacity to govern.\n\nI pointed out that even though the US had vetoed the latest ceasefire resolution it was signalling that Israel had weeks not months to finish what it wanted to do.\n\n\"It is not enough to achieve the goal,\" said Mr Yadlin. \"If there is a ceasefire without returning the rest of the hostages, there will be no ceasefire.\"\n\nIsrael has an immensely powerful army and the backing of the US. But it is discovering that for all its deep conviction that it has no choice other than to destroy Gaza to eradicate Hamas, allies as well as critics are appalled by the way it has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians, of which perhaps half were children.\n\nIsrael has also discovered, as the Americans and others warned, that fighting a determined and prepared enemy in a built-up area is one of the hardest military jobs.\n\nAs Amos Yadlin indicated, though, the Israelis look determined to push through the criticism to reach their objectives. After that comes the thorny issue about the governance and reconstruction of Gaza.\n\nMr Yadlin said there would be no long Israeli occupation of Gaza, but if the current leadership's determination to control the strip for the foreseeable future does not change, occupation looks certain.\n• None Bowen: US uses veto but pressure for Gaza ceasefire is building", "Both defendants had a fascination with violence, torture and death, jurors have heard\n\nA boy accused of the \"frenzied\" stabbing of teenager Brianna Ghey said he had been sitting on a bench \"admiring the trees\" when his co-accused stabbed her.\n\nBrianna, 16, was stabbed to death in a park in Linear Park in Culcheth, near Warrington, Cheshire, in February.\n\nTwo teenagers, identified only as girl X and boy Y, both now aged 16 but 15 at the time, deny murder and are blaming each other for Brianna's death.\n\nNeither can be named due to their ages.\n\nWarning: Some readers might find the following report distressing\n\nBrianna was stabbed with a knife 28 times in her head, neck, chest and back.\n\nBoy Y began giving his evidence at Manchester Crown Court on the 13th day of the trial, in highly unusual circumstances, typing on a keyboard, sitting behind a desk in a sideroom of the courtroom with his answers spoken by an intermediary sitting beside him, and watched by the jury in the courtroom by video link.\n\nHis words also appeared on a screen as they were typed out.\n\nJurors have been told boy Y has \"gradually stopped speaking\" to anyone apart from his mother following his arrest and had been diagnosed with selective mutism, as well as autism spectrum disorder.\n\nBoy Y confirmed to his barrister Richard Littler KC he had passed eight GCSEs, was self-teaching himself A-levels and wanted to study microbiology at university.\n\nHis father, a manager, and mother, who works in the creative industries, were both sitting in court listening to his evidence.\n\nJurors have heard girl X enjoyed watching internet torture and killing material from the \"dark web\" and had an interest in serial killers.\n\nJurors were shown a crumpled, handwritten note of an alleged \"murder plan\" to kill Brianna\n\nBoth defendants had a fascination with violence, torture and death and had discussed a \"kill list\" of other children to harm and a \"murder plan\" on how to kill Brianna, jurors heard.\n\nGirl X has said this was just a \"dark fantasy\" and boy Y said he never thought it was serious.\n\nBut while at the park, both claim Brianna was suddenly stabbed by the other.\n\nMr Littler asked boy Y if he stabbed Brianna, to which he replied \"no\".\n\nBoy Y said he saw his co-accused carrying out the stabbing using his own knife, which girl X had asked him to bring to the park.\n\nAsked if there was a \"plan to stab Brianna\", boy Y said it was his co-accused's plan, not his.\n\nHe said he did not take her plan seriously as she was \"always talking about murder and nothing happens\".\n\nBoy Y also denied any animosity towards Brianna because she was transgender.\n\nHe said he gave the knife to girl X, who put it in her waistband, before Brianna arrived in Culcheth and the three walked to the park.\n\nOnce there, he said Brianna and girl X had sat on a bench while he was \"admiring the trees\".\n\nHe then went to relieve himself behind a nearby tree, he said, before hearing clothes rustling, a thud and a \"puncturing\" sound.\n\nMr Littler asked: \"Did you look to see what the sound might be?\"\n\nBoy Y replied: \"I saw girl X stabbing BG [Brianna Ghey]. She was on the floor.\"\n\nMr Littler continued: \"How were you feeling at this stage?\"\n\nBoy Y replied: \"I hadn't registered how I was feeling so I do not know. I stood still.\"\n\nBoy Y said he did not want to hurt Brianna and did not think girl X would hurt her\n\nHe told the court he walked towards Brianna and saw blood, which was \"everywhere\" on the floor and around the victim.\n\nHe said he put his hands on Brianna to see what had happened and got \"lots\" of blood on them.\n\nDog walkers then came near the scene and girl X told him \"we've got to run\".\n\nBoy Y said he asked why girl X had stabbed Brianna and was told, \"she had tried to get me to break up with my boyfriend and that is unforgivable\".\n\nHe said while leaving the park, she handed him back the knife, which the jury has previously heard was later found by police in his bedroom with his DNA on the handle and Brianna's blood on the blade.\n\nHis clothes and trainers were also blood stained. No blood was found on the clothes of girl X.\n\nMr Littler continued: \"Were you happy or sad at this stage?\"\n\nBoy Y replied: \"I wasn't happy, I wouldn't say sad either from what I perceive as sad, as I think that I was dazed by the event.\"\n\nHe said he could not tell his parents what happened, due to his autism and \"not being able to express myself easily\".\n\nBoy Y said that Linear Park in Culcheth, Brianna and girl X had sat on a bench while he was \"admiring the trees\"\n\nThe court heard he carried out an internet search on information for victims and witnesses.\n\nHe said: \"I was searching because I was planning on telling the police, I just didn't know how.\"\n\nHe told officers \"I can explain\" when he was arrested because he was planning on telling them, he said.\n\nMr Littler asked why he did not tell them girl X had used his knife.\n\nHe said: \"I was scared of being told off by the police.\"\n\nRichard Pratt KC, representing girl X, then cross-examined boy Y. He began by asking about the boy learning kick-boxing and boy Y conceded he assumed he would be stronger than girl X.\n\nHe then moved to the pathology evidence, which showed the stab wounds Brianna suffered were caused by \"considerable force\" needing strength to inflict some of the injuries, that went through bone in Brianna's body.\n\nMr Pratt asked why the boy wanted to own a hunting knife, boy Y said so he could \"look at it, I had no ulterior motives\", he added he also wanted to \"admire the craftsmanship\".\n\nBoy Y said: \"I like things made from metal and I like the way knives look.\"\n\nMr Pratt then moved to the day of Brianna's death asking why he brought the hunting knife to the park.\n\nBoy Y said: \"Because I didn't believe it was going to happen.\"\n\nMr Pratt finally asked boy Y about the heavy blood staining on his clothing worn that day.\n\nHe said: \"You are right-handed, are you not? There was much more blood staining to the right cuff than to the left cuff of that jacket. Is that because you were using your right hand to repeatedly stab Brianna?\"\n\nThe trial was adjourned until Thursday.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Israeli forces have focused on the city of Khan Younis in the south of Gaza\n\nIsrael's bombardment of Gaza is \"narrowing the window\" for a new truce, the Qatari prime minister has said.\n\nSpeaking at the Doha Forum, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said Qatar would continue its efforts to pressure both sides into a ceasefire.\n\nThe Gulf state played a key role negotiating the week-long pause in violence at the end of November, which allowed the release of hostages.\n\nIsraeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday \"the war is in full swing\".\n\nHe said in recent days \"dozens of Hamas terrorists\" had surrendered, and were \"laying down their weapons and handing themselves over to our heroic fighters\".\n\n\"This is the beginning of the end for Hamas,\" he said.\n\nThe comments come as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen.\n\nOn Sunday afternoon, the Hamas-run health agency in Gaza said almost 18,000 Palestinians had now been killed.\n\nIn an audio message to Al Jazeera, Hamas's armed wing said the temporary ceasefire had \"proved its credibility\" and that no more hostages would be freed until Israel engaged in talks.\n\nIn the message, spokesman Abu Ubaida also said Hamas fighters had fully or partially destroyed 180 military vehicles and killed \"a large number\" of Israeli soldiers, and that it is still inflicting blows on Israel, and \"what is coming is greater\".\n\nCivilians have been called on to evacuate the centre of Khan Younis\n\nAt the conference in Doha, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said the area had become \"hell on earth\" and was \"definitely the worst situation I have ever seen\".\n\nAlso speaking at the conference, Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh said Israel \"should not be allowed to keep violating international humanitarian law\", and called for international sanctions.\n\nMr Shtayyeh represents the Palestinian Authority, the organisation which operates in the West Bank and which is separate to the Hamas government operating in Gaza.\n\nAs the meeting took place in Doha, in the south of Gaza fighting continued to rage.\n\nThe city of Khan Younis, the place people were told to head to to escape the fighting in the north, is now under heavy bombardments - with Israel asking civilians to leave its centre.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News, senior Israeli adviser Mark Regev said there was going to be \"difficult fighting\" in Khan Younis, and urged civilians to \"move to safe zones\" - with Israeli tanks reaching the centre of the city on Sunday evening.\n\nCivilians in the city have been pictured collecting bodies and mourning family members killed in fighting.\n\nAddressing his cabinet on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said international allies had been inconsistent\n\nWhen asked about the situation in what Israel calls safe areas, Mr Regev said his country has made a maximum effort to try to safeguard civilian lives.\n\nCivilians in Gaza have formerly been advised to make their way to a \"safe zone\" at al-Mawasi. Measuring just 8.5 sq km (3.3 sq miles), the area is smaller than London's Heathrow Airport, has few buildings and largely consists of sandy dunes and agricultural land.\n\nMeanwhile, Israel has also been engaging in international diplomacy - calling out its allies for an inconsistent approach.\n\n\"You cannot on the one hand support the elimination of Hamas and on other pressure us to end the war, which would prevent the elimination of Hamas,\" said Mr Netanyahu while briefing his cabinet.\n\nHe was speaking two days after 13 members of the UN Security Council supported a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, with the US vetoing the move and the UK abstaining.\n\nIsrael also denied a claim by UNRWA chief Mr Lazzarini that it was trying to force Gazans out of the region and into Egypt - something previously reported in Israeli media.\n\nThe World Health Organization has also taken the unusual step of passing a resolution calling for immediate medical access to Gaza, with its director-general earlier calling the situation in the area \"catastrophic\".", "Thames Water is facing a \"seminal moment\", its chairman has said, during an intense grilling by MPs on the firm's financial performance.\n\nSenior management admitted the company did not have enough money to pay off a £190m loan due in April next year.\n\nThey also warned that if it was nationalised, taxpayers would face a hefty bill.\n\nConcern over Thames' financial strength led to speculation in July that it might be taken over by the government.\n\nThames, which serves 15 million households, and its parent company Kemble Water, owes a total of £18bn in debt.\n\nSir Adrian Montague, flanked by acting co-chief executives, admitted that the situation was precarious.\n\nSpeaking to the Environment Committee in Parliament, he said: \"This is a seminal moment for Thames. You know, we were very fragile in July.\"\n\n\"The chief executive resigned without notice 10 days before a change of chairman. The financial markets took fright.\"\n\n\"We have stabilised the business. We need to make a fresh start. I know management always says this, but it's true in this case, because this is a fresh team.\"\n\nThe numbers are going in the wrong direction for Thames.\n\nProfits fell 54% in the first six months of this year, complaints rose 13%, debt rose to £18bn.\n\nThames recently announced a £500m cash injection - but that was financed by a further loan to its parent company.\n\nIts own auditors have warned it may not continue as a going concern.\n\nThe company has said it will need another £2.5bn of investment in the coming years but that is contingent in part on the regulator, Ofwat, agreeing to household bills increasing by 40% on top of inflation by 2030.\n\nCommittee member Barry Gardiner said that amounted to Thames having the regulator \"by the short and curlies\" - suggesting that if Ofwat did not agree to the rise, it would essentially trigger a quasi-nationalisation that would cost the taxpayer billions.\n• None Thames Water says turnaround will 'take time'", "\"Is this it? Is this the moment?\" I shouted to my colleague in disbelief over the rapturous applause breaking out just moments after COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber began speaking here in Dubai.\n\nAfter almost 40 hours of deadlock over the future of fossil fuels, many were bracing for a messy fight on the conference floor. But as Jaber banged the gavel, it was all over.\n\nThe host country, the United Arab Emirates, had built expectations sky-high in the first few days, with Jaber proposing a deal to \"phase out\" fossil fuels.\n\nIn the end, the final pact doesn't go so far. It \"calls on\" countries to \"transition away\" from fossil fuels, and specifically for energy systems – but not for plastics, transport or agriculture.\n\nMoments later, the applause had turned to stunned silence when a delegate representing small island states, who are particularly vulnerable to climate change, accused the president of pushing through the text while they weren't in the room. The final text had a “litany of loopholes”, they said.\n\nTheir speech kicked off several hours of symbolic statements made from countries – but they had all accepted the compromise.\n\nWell, the remaining team here at COP28 are going to unfold ourselves from the novelty-sized rocking chairs we've found - one of the last remaining pieces of furniture at Expo 2020 - and head home.\n\nBut there's plenty more to help you understand exactly what happened here in Dubai:\n• My colleague Georgina Rannard has the full story here\n• What does this mean for the future? Environment correspondent Matt McGrath takes a look here\n• New episodes of Newscast and the Climate Question will drop soon - our climate editor Justin Rowlatt will be digging into the detail\n\nFrom the team here in Dubai, thanks for joining us. See you in Azerbaijan for COP29.", "CCTV pictures of woman who has been missing since Friday has been released by police.\n\nFootage of Gaynor Lord’s last known movements in Norwich has been released to help jog the memory of anyone who may be able to provide information.\n\nThe 55-year-old was reported missing after failing to return home from work on Friday afternoon.\n\nLater that day her belongings, including clothing, jewellery and a mobile phone were found at \"various locations\" in Wensum Park and her coat was discovered in the water, Norfolk Constabulary said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nVolodymyr Zelensky's third visit to Washington on Tuesday was tinged in desperation. It was a last-ditch effort to win new military aid from Congress before the currently approved amount runs dry.\n\nThe Ukrainian president is desperate because his nation's fate may hang in the balance. His American counterpart, Joe Biden, is desperate because he views the Ukrainian war as a pivotal battleground in a world conflict between democracies and autocratic regimes.\n\nAt the end of the day, however, there was little to show for their efforts.\n\nWhen Mr Zelensky came to Washington last year, he was cheered on by a joint session of Congress and treated to a red-carpet reception at the White House. Shortly after, the US approved a $50bn aid package that helped fuel Ukraine's efforts to regain territory ceded at the outset of the Russian invasion.\n\nThis time around was very different. He had a session with US senators behind closed doors. He sat down with Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who did not even make a public appearance with the Ukrainian president.\n\nAnd his welcome at the White House was decidedly low-key, with minimal pomp and ceremony.\n\nIt wasn't exactly a slap on the back and a half-hearted \"good luck\", but it might as well have been. Mr Zelensky may have travelled halfway around the world, but the odds that Ukraine gets more military support from the US haven't improved.\n\nThe atmospherics of his visit matched the mood in Washington, where additional funding for Ukraine is tied up in a domestic fight over US immigration policy.\n\nWhile Democrats have been willing to spend more money on border security as part of a $110bn package of military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, Republicans want fundamental reform to the way undocumented migrants claiming political asylum are processed by the US government.\n\nAfter meeting with Mr Zelensky on Tuesday morning, Republican senators were clear that, while they sympathised with Ukraine's plight, they view the situation at the US border as a more pressing national security concern.\n\n\"I admire him, but he didn't change my mind at all about what we need to do,\" Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, long considered a foreign-policy hawk, told the BBC. \"I know what needs to happen to get a deal. I want to secure our border.\"\n\nMr Biden is either going to have to convince Republicans to back down from this immigration fight - or make concessions that Democrats on his left will find extremely unpalatable.\n\nUkraine's president spent much of Tuesday at the US Capitol - but there was little sign of a breakthrough\n\nAt the moment, at least, Republicans, whose voters have been souring on continued Ukraine support for months, seem more willing to let Ukraine aid lapse in order to achieve a victory their base will celebrate. And if it fractures the Democratic coalition even more in the process, all the better for electoral hopes next year.\n\nImmigration reform may not be the only obstacle to further Ukraine aid, either. Mr Johnson, in his remarks after meeting Mr Zelensky, said that more military support is contingent on a \"clear strategy\" and appropriate congressional oversight.\n\n\"They've not explained to us what the endgame is,\" he said.\n\nThat raises the spectre that even if the Senate reaches a deal, there's no guarantee it doesn't fall apart in the narrowly divided House of Representatives.\n\nDuring a joint press conference at the end of a long day of meetings, both Mr Zelensky and Mr Biden tried to put an optimistic spin on what seems to be a fruitless effort. The US president said he was hopeful that a resolution would be found, but he could make no promises.\n\nHis Ukrainian counterpart said he told the Americans what he wanted to do and that the response was positive.\n\nHe may have been the only one who felt that way, however.\n\nAt several points during his visit, Mr Zelensky - speaking to US senators in English - had to ask for an explanation of words whose meaning he didn't understand, according to Lisa Desjardins of American broadcaster PBS.\n\nOne of those words was stalemate.\n\nIt's a term the Ukrainian president may learn the hard way. In this time of divided American government, stalemate is the nation's default political condition.", "We've just heard from Rishi Sunak's spokesman - who says the PM will listen to suggestions for amendments on his updated Rwanda bill.\n\nBut he also explains any amendment put forward by MPs must be \"legally credible, has the deterrent effect and ensures the scheme does not collapse\". He adds: \"Our focus remains on getting flights off the ground as swiftly as possible.\"\n\nThe bill made it through a first vote in the House of Commons yesterday, after a day of speculation about a potential significant rebellion within Tory ranks.\n\nThe spokesman also says Sunak still sees the Rwanda Bill - which is designed to put some asylum seekers on a one-way ticket to Rwanda to make their claim - as emergency legislation. But he declines to give a timetable for when it'll next be debated by MPs.\n\nAsked about reports that the bill may not be put forward for the next stage of the parliamentary process until mid-January, the spokesman says no timetable has been set yet, and any suggestion otherwise was speculation.", "Usman Khawaja wore the shoes during training in Perth earlier this week\n\nAustralian cricketer Usman Khawaja says he will \"fight\" the decision to bar him from making an on-field statement in support of Palestinians.\n\nThe batter had planned to wear shoes bearing the words \"all lives are equal\" and \"freedom is a human right\" at a Test match with Pakistan.\n\nThe International Cricket Council did not allow this as it considered the statements \"political\", Khawaja said.\n\nHe said in a video that the message was a \"humanitarian appeal\".\n\nIn the emotional video posted on Instagram on Wednesday, the 36-year-old added: \"I will respect (the International Cricket Council's) view and decision, but I will fight it and seek to gain approval.\"\n\nUnder ICC rules, Khawaja could be sidelined from the match if he wears the shoes without approval - something team captain Pat Cummins had earlier told media the batter will not do.\n\nKhawaja, who is Muslim, was spotted sporting the shoes earlier this week while training for the upcoming Test in Perth. He has previously spoken on social media in support of civilians in Gaza.\n\n\"No one chooses where they are born... I already felt my life wasn't equal to others when I was growing up. But luckily for me, I have never lived in a world where the lack of inequality was life or death,\" he said in the video.\n\nEarlier, Khawaja posted a Unicef video from Gaza on Instagram with the comments: \"Do people not care about innocent humans being killed? Or is it the colour of their skin that makes them less important? Or the religion they practise? These things should be irrelevant if you truly believe that 'we are all equal'.\"\n\nCricket Australia on Wednesday said it supported \"the right of our players to express personal opinions\", but that it expected them to uphold the ICC's rules.\n\nCummins said he believed Khawaja had not been aware of the rules, but publicly supported his message.\n\n\"I don't think his intention was to make too big of a fuss,\" he said.\n\n\"I think he had 'all lives are equal'. I don't think that's very divisive. I don't think anyone can have too many complaints about that.\"\n\nSport Minister Anika Wells has also backed the batter, saying she did not believe his shoes contravened ICC rules.\n\n\"Usman Khawaja is a great athlete and a great Australian. He should have every right to speak up on matters that are important to him. He has done so in a peaceful and respectful way,\" she said.\n\nBut former Australian cricketers Rodney Hogg and Simon O'Donnell have said the field is not the place for political statements.\n\n\"I fully respect Usman Khawaja's beliefs personally… but while he's representing Australia he has no right, nil, zero, to bring his personal beliefs and instil those onto others,\" O'Donnell told local SEN radio.\n\nUnder ICC rules, players and officials cannot display anything on their clothing or equipment without the governing body's approval, with \"potentially divisive\" or political messages banned.\n\nThe regulations also empower referees to stop players taking the field if they are wearing any \"non-compliant\" items.\n\nIn 2014 England batter Moeen Ali was similarly warned to stop wearing wristbands showing support for Gaza during a Test match with India.", "Danielle Waldman was killed in the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival\n\nDanielle Waldman danced the last dance of her young life some time before dawn on 7 October. Soon afterwards she and her friends had to run for their lives, but they never made it home.\n\nThere is a record of her final moments - a brief video, recorded on a phone. It gives only a hint of the horrors to come.\n\nThe 24-year-old sits in the back seat of a car with two friends - strands of her long curly hair escaping from her grey hoodie. All three are casually dressed. There are fleeting smiles and overlapping voices, and a glimpse of blue wrist bands from the Supernova trance music festival they have just attended.\n\nThey are trying to remain calm, but they are being hunted.\n\nDanielle's boyfriend Noam Shai is in front, behind the wheel.\n\n\"Want me to drive very, very fast?\" he asks. \"I know how to do that.\"\n\n\"Correct,\" replies a female passenger. A bearded young man sitting beside Danielle tries to provide reassurance. \"We will be all right,\" he says. \"Everything is ok, right?\"\n\nNext, from the front, an urgent demand - \"left, or right?\"\n\nMinutes later Hamas gunmen riddled the car with bullets. Noam, Danielle, and their friends in the back seat were killed - as were nearly 360 other Israelis who went to dance at the festival in the Negev desert near the Gaza border.\n\nThe front seat passenger was taken hostage.\n\nWhen the sun set on that day, 1,200 Israelis had been slaughtered - either at the festival or in their homes in kibbutzim close to the border. It was the worst loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust. The vast majority were civilians.\n\nSince then, Israel has gone to war in Gaza \"to eradicate Hamas\", and Palestinians in turn have been slaughtered.\n\nAlmost 18,000 people have been killed at last count - according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza - 7,300 of them children.\n\nIn Gaza now, as in Israel after 7 October, parents are burying their children. And for every parent, Palestinian or Israeli, the loss is incomparable.\n\nWe meet Danielle's father Eyal in his art-filled office, high above Tel Aviv. He has long been a tech giant - who founded the Israeli chip maker Mellanox Technologies, and sold it for $6.8bn in 2019.\n\nBut now he is simply a father, raw with grief, robbed of his youngest daughter.\n\n\"She was an amazing girl,\" he says in a voice laden with love and grief. \"She loved to dance. She loved animals. She loved people. She had many, many friends. She loved to snowboard, to scuba dive, to go on a motorcycle with Noam.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Eyal Waldman still has hopes for peace\n\nWhen he got word that Danielle was missing, he raced back from a trip to Indonesia - getting permission to land in Israel, even though the airspace was closed. Three hours later he went looking for her, tracking her apple watch. It was a journey into a battlefield.\n\n\"We were close to an engagement with seven terrorists, creatures, call them what you want,\" he says. \"They had killed three or four soldiers. After that we took three officers in a jeep and went down south.\"\n\nHe found the bullet-riddled car, but there was no sign of Danielle.\n\n\"There was a lot of blood inside the car,\" he says. \"I was hoping she wasn't in the car, or that she was wounded but was able to escape, or was taken hostage.\"\n\nTwo days later her body was found.\n\n\"Everything she touched was with a smile. She never did anything wrong to anyone,\" he says, choking back tears. \"She just loved doing good things. And they [Hamas] just murdered her for no reason.\"\n\nDespite the brutal killing of his youngest daughter, Eyal Waldman still believes that the Palestinians should have a state - and soon.\n\n\"We need to change leadership on both sides. And then I hope in two to four years we'll be able to do peace and build two states for the two people and be able to live together next to each other,\" he says.\n\nBut before that, he wants something else.\n\n\"Anyone that was responsible, anyone that was associated with what happened on 7 October 2023, will be eliminated. And we will take care of that,\" he says firmly.\n\n\"We know exactly who came, who raped, who butchered. We have videos, we have their cell phone numbers. We know who they are. We can eliminate them. And I think we can eliminate Hamas.\"\n\nDanielle and Noam were together for six years before they were killed by Hamas gunmen\n\nThe former Israeli army officer knows about waging war. He served in an elite unit - the Golani Brigade.\n\nHe also knows about building bridges. In the past he opened a design centre in Gaza, donated $360,000 (£286,200) to a hospital there, and created jobs for Palestinians both in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank.\n\n\"No, I don't,\" he replies without hesitation. \"I think we need to do everything we can to make this place the best place to live in.\n\n\"And we need to stop killing each other and find a way to live together. I have been working for two-and-half decades trying to make peace.\"\n\nJust 10 days before Danielle was killed, she was chatting with her father about the future.\n\n\"She said 'you know Dad, I decided I am going to marry Noam,'\" he recalls. \"They were together for six years, and it was an amazing friendship and partnership. They were going to live in the country, raising kids. She wanted many kids and a lot of dogs and horses.\"\n\nThe devoted young couple - who never got the chance to marry - were buried together instead.", "Marian Clode died in hospital three days after being injured in April 2016\n\nA farming company has admitted failures after a teacher on holiday was killed by a runaway cow.\n\nMarian Clode, 61, was charged at and flipped over a fence as she walked along a path in Northumberland in 2016.\n\nJM Nixon and Son initially denied any offending but, at Newcastle Crown Court, admitted failing to ensure the safety of a non-employee. The firm will be sentenced on Friday.\n\nProsecutors said the cattle were being moved when several with calves escaped.\n\nAppearing on behalf of the farming partnership, Alistair Nixon admitted failing to make sure people were not exposed to risks from the movement of cattle.\n\nCraig Hassall KC, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, said Mrs Clode, a primary school teacher from Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester, was staying at Swinhoe Farm near Belford with her family in April 2016.\n\nMarian Clode and her family were staying at Swinhoe Farm in Northumberland\n\nThe farm was run by JM Nixon and Son and, as well housing several holiday cottages, had a riding school and 140 cattle, the court heard.\n\nOn 3 April, the Clode family went for a walk to some nearby caves and woods, and were returning along a bridleway when they came across cattle shortly before 15:00 GMT, the court heard.\n\nMr Hassall said the herd, which included calves, was to be moved about half a mile (800m) from winter sheds to summer grazing fields by Mr Nixon and two farm workers.\n\nThe animals were to be herded along the path, known as Dick's Oldwalls Bridleway, but a group of seven or eight cows with five or six calves got past Mr Nixon.\n\nHe was trying to block the route with a quadbike and stick, but the cows disappeared over the brow of a hill.\n\nThe Clode family, which included Mrs Clode's two grandchildren aged seven and eight, were walking in the opposite direction to the fleeing cows. Mrs Clode was at the front of the party.\n\nMr Hassall said her family climbed over a barbed wire fence when they saw the cows coming \"at speed\", but Mrs Clode was caught next to a gate.\n\nAs the first cow arrived next to her, it turned, charged two or three times and then \"tossed\" her over the gate.\n\nHer son-in-law ran to her aid and found her face down and unresponsive, the court heard.\n\nMrs Clode, who was originally from Londonderry in Northern Ireland, died three days later in a Newcastle hospital.\n\nMr Hassall said Mrs Clode's death had massively impacted her family, especially on the grandchildren who saw the attack. At the family's request, he did not go into further detail as previous online news reports had received \"deeply unkind and upsetting comments\" from members of the public.\n\nMr Hassall said an animal behaviourist believed the cows may have been \"anxious or excited\" about being let out into open spaces after spending the winter months inside.\n\nThe prosecutor said the killer cow could also have been in a \"fear state\", possibly because it had a calf or the position of the family on the track appeared to be a threat.\n\n\"They are all reasons to take more care and they are all reasons that might contribute in those particular circumstances to a particular cow going into fight mode,\" Mr Hassall said.\n\nHe said the farm's failings included:\n\nIn mitigation, Tom Gent said the \"horror\" of Mrs Clode's death would \"forever haunt\" Mr Nixon and his family, who had owned the farm since 1939.\n\nMr Gent said they had always farmed beef cattle and the method of moving the cows had been used \"multiple times\" since the 1990s.\n\nHe said the plan was not written down but involved three \"trusted\" and \"extremely experienced\" farm workers and the herd was well known to them all.\n\nMr Gent said as a stockman, Mr Nixon would ensure the farm did not keep cattle that were aggressive or \"over-protective\".\n\n\"All of those involved were acutely aware cattle can behave more protectively when their calves are with them, and also that upon being turned out for the first time in the year from winter sheds they can be eager to reach fresh pasture,\" Mr Gent said.\n\nHe added: \"They were aware of those two risk factors and they were taken into account into the plan that was devised.\"\n\nMr Gent said Mr Nixon chose not to ride after the cattle on his quadbike as he feared it would just push the animals further away and he hoped if left alone they might turn back or stop to graze on the grass verges.\n\n\"With the benefit of hindsight it is something he bitterly, bitterly regrets,\" Mr Gent said, adding: \"Knowing what he now knows he dearly wishes he had pursued them right away.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Former minister David Davis has confirmed he intervened to stop an attack on a rough sleeper near Parliament on Tuesday evening.\n\nThe veteran Tory MP said he stepped in when he saw two men \"kicking seven bells\" out of another man on the floor.\n\nGuto Harri, the former No 10 director of communications, also helped stop the attack and said the intervention \"prevented a man being killed\".\n\nMr Davis told the BBC he let the victim stay on his sofa overnight to recover.\n\nThe victim was still bleeding the next morning and was taken to hospital by Mr Davis.\n\nMr Harri told the BBC he helped the victim while Mr Davis blocked the attackers on Great Peter Street.\n\nHe said the attackers \"were picking on a guy for a laugh, getting off on beating a guy who wasn't hitting back\".\n\n\"They had no sense of restraint, had they not been stopped they might well have killed him,\" he said.\n\n\"It was deeply disturbing to think about what would have happened if we hadn't been there.\n\n\"David was assertive and held them back but remained calm and composed throughout. He never laid a finger on them no matter how many times one of them tried to hit him.\"\n\nAsked if he was scared during the scuffle, Mr Davis said his main concern had been \"getting him out of risk\" and that the incident was over within a minute.\n\n\"One of them wasn't really trying, the other was very aggressive. The important thing is to intimidate rather than be intimidated.\"\n\nSpeaking to the Evening Standard, who first reported the story, Mr Davis said: \"It was messy, but he's all right. He's still alive and that's the important thing.\"\n\nMr Davis has been an MP for the Yorkshire constituency of Haltemprice and Howden since 1987 and during his parliamentary career has served as a whip and Foreign Office minister.\n\nHe was also Brexit secretary under Theresa May, but resigned in 2018 in protest at her proposed Brexit deal.\n\nBefore becoming a politician, Mr Davis trained with the SAS as a reservist.\n\nAsked why he had got involved, Mr Davis told the BBC that 30 years ago there had been an incident on a South London common where someone \"got kicked in the head and died\".\n\n\"After that I could never walk away again.\"\n\nA recent report by Policy Exchange claimed that the area around Parliament had \"declined into a degree of squalor and disorder\".\n\nThe report said that between 2013/14 and 2021/22, recorded violent crime increased in the Westminster area by 168% going from 68 crimes a year to 182, while the rest of the borough increased from 6,807 to 10,040, a 47% increase.", "Martin Lewis has opened up about the \"horrendous\" pressure he feels giving advice on personal finance.\n\nThe financial journalist and \"Money Saving Expert\" told BBC Radio 4's the Media Show he finds the stress \"very difficult to manage\".\n\n\"If somebody applies for this [benefit] and it stops another benefit, I wouldn't sleep at night,\" he revealed.\n\nMr Lewis's MoneySavingExpert website was sold for £87m in 2012 and he hosts \"The Martin Lewis Money Show\" on ITV.\n\nThe personal finance expert, who received a CBE last year for services to broadcasting and consumer rights, said being seen as a trusted voice was \"an incredible compliment\".\n\nBut speaking about that pressure and the toll it had taken on his mental health, Mr Lewis said he had \"dark days\".\n\n\"One of the greatest difficulties is you think, 'Have I got it right? Have I got it right?\" he explained.\n\n\"People think I'm incredibly robust because of the way I talk and I come across. Actually, I'm quite a brittle person,\" he said. \"I'm tired.\"\n\nSpeaking about managing the stress of his job, Mr Lewis said he takes regular breaks and does breathing exercises and \"huge amounts of exercise\".\n\nBut despite this, the 51-year-old said he was not a good example of how to deal with stress, and mentioned \"periods where I find it very, very difficult to deal with\".\n\nThe financial journalist, who also hosts the \"The Martin Lewis Podcast\" on BBC Radio 5 Live, opened up about the pressure he felt to speak publicly about the war in Gaza.\n\nMr Lewis, who is Jewish, said calls for him to do so were \"bordering anti-Semitic\".\n\n\"I have never been asked about political situations in China, or Saudi Arabia, or South America,\" he explained.\n\n\"I'm British. I'm a British Jew. My parents were born in Britain. All my grandparents were born in Britain. All my great grandparents were born in Britain.\n\n\"And yet people somehow felt they could demand that, as a British Jew, I should be talking on a conflict in the Middle East, when I never talk about international affairs.\"\n\nIn the end Mr Lewis did speak publicly about the conflict, saying he felt obliged to do so \"to stop people asking\".\n\nAddressing his silence on the issue on X, formerly Twitter, in early October he said: \"Frankly I've struggled to process it, and felt the combined guttural fear for relations in Israel, anxiety about possible anti-Semitic backlash here, and grief over the loss of life of beautiful children both Israeli and Palestinian were things I didn't want to be public about.\"\n\nHe said that Israel had the right to defend itself, but his heart went out to \"innocent civilians in Gaza who will bear a brunt for the actions of Hamas\".\n\nHave you been affected by issues covered in this story? You can share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The RAC says avoid driving through deep water or risk \"a very expensive repair bill near to Christmas\"\n\nWeather warnings have been issued across the UK as forecasters said some areas were at risk of flooding.\n\nThere are 47 flood warnings in place across large parts of England, with the Met Office predicting some areas could see up to 80mm of rainfall.\n\nThe forecaster said rain has been falling on ground that was already sodden, with melting snow also increasing the risk of flooding.\n\nIt has warned that travel by road and rail is likely to be disrupted.\n\n\"We have issued a number of severe weather warnings for rain across the UK,\" said Neil Armstrong, chief forecaster at the Met Office.\n\n\"As much as 80mm of rain could fall in some areas of the west, particularly higher ground.\"\n\nIn eastern Scotland, higher ground could even see up to 100mm of rain, he added.\n\nThe Met Office has issued yellow warnings for rain in south-west England, the Midlands and parts of Scotland until Thursday evening.\n\nThe warning for the area around Dundee and Aberdeen runs until midnight, with a warning around Portsmouth running until 22:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nIt said areas of low pressure will bring wet and windy conditions, displacing the cold weather that has seen frosts, snow and ice in some regions.\n\nA second low pressure will see further weather fronts during Friday and Saturday morning.\n\nThere will then be a \"brief calmer spell\" in the southern half of the UK as a ridge of higher pressure moves in through Saturday afternoon, though showery rain will continue in the north, the Met Office said.\n\nHeads down, brollies up, in this blustery scene in London\n\nThe RAC motoring group has urged drivers to be on their guard for flooded roads.\n\n\"Anyone tempted to drive through water that is too deep for their vehicle is risking their safety and a very expensive repair bill near to Christmas or, worse still, the prospect of an insurance write-off,\" spokesman Simon Williams said.\n\n\"The best advice is to turn around and go another way if there's any doubt about the water's depth.\"\n\nIs your area at risk of flooding? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n• None The best way to de-ice a car and other winter tips", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Elizabeth line passengers walk down the tracks after their hours-long wait\n\nServices to and from Paddington station remain disrupted after hundreds of passengers were stranded on dark, cold trains for several hours.\n\nDamage to overhead electric cables in the Ladbroke Grove area of west London affected Elizabeth line, Great Western Railway and Heathrow Express trains.\n\nSome passengers said they were stuck for more than three hours on Thursday.\n\nPolice were also called to reports of a sexual assault on the Elizabeth line during the disruption.\n\nPassengers wait inside a train stuck on the Elizabeth line on Thursday night\n\nEngineers managed to open two lines for electric trains serving Paddington.\n\nMajor disruption is expected until 18:00 GMT on Friday, with trains in and out of Paddington cancelled or delayed. Great Western Railway (GWR) has advised customers to avoid travelling between London and Reading until further notice.\n\nElizabeth line trains are running with delays, while a reduced half-hourly service is running on the Heathrow Express.\n\nTrain drivers' union Aslef said a manager drafted in to cover during strike action on Thursday was driving the train involved in the incident in which the overhead cables were damaged.\n\nUnion members who work at GWR walked out as part of a long-running dispute over pay. Aslef said other train operators had chosen \"quite sensibly\" not to run any services during the strike.\n\nA GWR spokesperson said: \"The only people who can drive our trains are competent train drivers with route knowledge.\n\nOfficials assist passengers to get down from a train stuck on the Elizabeth line after damaged overhead cables blocked railway lines\n\nPassengers walk away after being evacuated from trains stuck on the Elizabeth line\n\nThe £19bn Elizabeth line - which opened in May 2022 - uses mainline rail infrastructure west of Paddington.\n\nPaddington services have been repeatedly affected by rail system faults in recent weeks - incidents on the Great Western line include four damaged rails discovered in eight days last month.\n\nThe British Transport Police said it was called to reports of a sexual assault on the Elizabeth line service at about 20:30 GMT on Thursday.\n\n\"While responding to the incident at Paddington station on 7 December, officers on scene were made aware of reports of a sexual assault,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"A man was arrested and later released. Inquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.\"\n\nTV personality Rachel Riley was among those affected by the disrupted service on Thursday night. She posted on X: \"Nearly 4 hours after we got on, we're getting off the Elizabeth line, woohoo!\"\n\nSinger James Blunt also claimed to have been caught up in the chaos.\n\nBlunt wrote on X: \"Been stuck somewhere outside Paddington for close to 4 hours now. Out of peanuts and wine\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Rachel Riley MBE 💙 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSome passengers reported being stuck for more than three hours while receiving no information from rail operators, while others said they had been unable to access a toilet.\n\nCommuter Mikey Worrall described the train as \"lurching to a stop\" and then a long, several-hour wait in semi-darkness as the driver drip-fed what little information they had through to passengers.\n\nEventually, the battery back-up running the train's heating and light services ran out, and passengers were left in darkness for another hour and a half until they were evacuated from the train.\n\nSome passengers were stuck between Paddington and Acton Main Line for more than three hours\n\nPassengers were evacuated from the train in the darkness after hours on it without power\n\nMr Worrall said: \"We saw a couple of workers come past, and they were trying to keep everyone calm. Suddenly, we saw a stream of people coming down the track, and at that point it was clear that we would be getting off.\n\n\"It was really eerie walking down the railway line in amongst this big crowd of people. It felt like a wartime thing.\"\n\nA Network Rail spokesman said: \"We are so sorry for the difficult journeys passengers endured on our railway last night and we will be investigating how and why it happened.\n\n\"The knock-on effects from last night mean operators will not be able to run a full service from Paddington today and passengers should check before they travel.\n\n\"Repairs are ongoing and we hope to have the railway fully open by the weekend.\"\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The government said no family should suffer the same injustices as those who lost loved ones at Hillsborough\n\nThe government's decision not to introduce a Hillsborough Law is an \"absolute insult\", the sister of one of the disaster victims has said.\n\nCampaigners had called for legislation to introduce a legal \"duty of candour\" on public authorities and officials to tell the truth.\n\nHowever, the government stopped short of introducing the law, signing a Hillsborough Charter instead.\n\nLouise Brookes said the new charter was \"not worth the paper it's written on\".\n\nNinety-seven Liverpool fans died as a result of a crush at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield during the club's FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989.\n\nIn the days that followed the disaster, police officers were told to put the blame on \"drunken, ticketless Liverpool supporters\" - when in fact their deaths were caused by a series of failures by police, the ambulance service, and defects in the stadium.\n\n\"It's not only a joke, it's just an absolute insult,\" said Ms Brookes, from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, whose brother Andrew died in the disaster.\n\n\"It's taken nearly seven years to respond back.\n\n\"But also this charter, it's not worth the paper it's written on. People sign up to join the police, they swear an oath.\"\n\nThe government said the charter would introduce a duty of candour for police officers, but not for public servants.\n\nLouise Brookes' brother Andrew died in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989\n\nJustice Secretary Alex Chalk said an \"organisational duty of candour\" would be required for all police in England and Wales, and that the government was reviewing whether a similar duty for health workers needed to be strengthened in light of recent scandals.\n\nBut the justice secretary said a wider duty of candour for all public authorities was not needed, as a \"comprehensive framework of duties and obligations\" had developed since the disaster.\n\nIt comes more than six years after such a charter was recommended in a report by The Right Reverend James Jones, who chaired the Hillsborough independent panel, into the experiences of the bereaved families.\n\nThe government apologised for the delay in signing, saying it had \"taken too long, compounding the agony of the Hillsborough families and survivors\".\n\nMargaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James died at Hillsborough, said the government's delayed response to the bishop's 2017 report was \"like giving a child a packet of crisps but when you open it, there's nothing in it\".\n\n\"It's as simple as that. To me that definitely does not go far enough,\" she said.\n\nVowing to continue with the campaign, she said: \"We will be arguing for a Hillsborough Law, that's the most important thing to me.\"\n\nNinety-seven Liverpool fans died as a result of the disaster on 15 April 1989\n\nCharlotte Hennessy, whose father James died in the disaster, said: \"Six years down the line, for them to now come out and not adhere to that and not say that's what they're going to be putting forward, of course it's disappointing.\n\n\"It's supposed to be about lessons being learned from what we've been through.\"\n\nThe government added the new duty of candour on police officers would be required by law in England and Wales, and aimed to promote a culture of openness, honesty and transparency.\n\nSpeaking after the government's response was published, Bishop Jones, who had made the recommendation, said: \"Although the government's statement falls short of the hopes of the Hillsborough families it is a serious and substantial response and rises above that given to other panels and inquiries.\n\n\"It has responded to all 25 recommendations of the report and has today introduced significant changes.\"\n\nThe former Bishop of Liverpool welcomed the government's decision to sign the Hillsborough Charter but added he would continue to \"press for further action\".\n\nThe Right Reverend James Jones was with some families as they read the government's latest pledge earlier\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak told the Commons he was \"profoundly sorry\" for what the Hillsborough families had been through.\n\n\"The Hillsborough families have suffered multiple injustices: The loss of 97 lives, the blaming of the fans and the unforgiveable institutional defensiveness by public bodies,\" he said.\n\nMr Sunak said he hoped to meet the families in the new year.\n\nThe justice secretary said the families of the 97 \"deserved the thanks of our nation\".\n\nAlso speaking in the Commons, Mr Chalk said: \"I was deeply moved to hear of their experiences and by the dignity with which they shared them.\n\n\"Perhaps even more affecting was their unflinching determination to make sense of the senseless, and bring about change for others. That is the true mark of compassion.\"\n\nBut Elkan Abrahamson, director of Hillsborough Law Now, said: \"To wait six years for a government to respond to a report about a disaster that took place 34 years ago speaks volumes.\n\n\"To deliver that response on a day when all eyes are on a former prime minister giving evidence to the Covid Inquiry only seeks to increase the cynicism felt amongst Hillsborough families and the thousands of others who would benefit from a change in the law.\"\n\nHe called for the full reintroduction of the Public Authority (Accountability) Bill, which was introduced by the then Labour MP for Leigh Andy Burnham, who is now the Mayor of Greater Manchester, but fell when the 2017 general election was called.\n\nMr Abrahamson said the government must make a duty of candour enforceable and ensure \"a level playing field between public authorities and those affected by disasters and wrongdoing at inquests and inquiries\".\n\nThe time it has taken for the government to respond to the bishop's report has become as much a focal point for campaigners as the content of the response itself.\n\nTheresa May was still home secretary when she commissioned the report back in 2016, and six years - and seven home secretaries - have gone by since it was published.\n\nThe government knew it could not avoid confronting this, and it is striking that it is accepted that the delay has compounded the Hillsborough families' agony.\n\nGiven that the very purpose of the bishop's report was to prevent further suffering, it might be seen as something of an own goal.\n\nCampaigners for a Hillsborough Law will doubtless say that the government response falls short of the legislation they've envisaged.\n\nThey have pushed for a full \"duty of candour\" on all public servants - meaning that they would be forced to be frank about their failings, when appearing at inquests and inquiries.\n\nThe government says that the police will be held to account on this front, via different legislation.\n\nBut some Hillsborough families have told me they want to see that duty extended to everyone who works in the public sector.\n\nInquests into the deaths of the victims in 1991 found they were accidental, but families and survivors fought a 27-year campaign to prove their relatives and the supporters around them were not to blame.\n\nThe Hillsborough Independent Panel report was published in 2012, and the original verdicts were quashed, with new hearings ordered.\n\nFresh inquests followed and, in 2016, a jury concluded the victims were unlawfully killed and found the supporters did not contribute to their deaths.\n\nThe match commander on the day, David Duckenfield, was charged with gross negligence manslaughter in 2017 but was cleared in 2019 at a retrial, after the jury in his first trial was unable to reach a verdict.\n\nIn 2021, retired officers Donald Denton and Alan Foster and former force solicitor Peter Metcalf, who were accused of amending statements to minimise the blame on South Yorkshire Police, were acquitted of perverting the course of justice after a judge ruled there was no case to answer.\n\nFamilies who lost loved ones as a result of the Hillsborough disaster were the first to read the government's latest response, which was released earlier.\n\nIt was not made available to the wider public until 12:00 GMT.\n\nFamilies affected by the disaster campaigned for justice for 27 years\n\nSteve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: \"The law has failed the Hillsborough families and countless other groups affected by tragedy.\n\n\"Ensuring that no grieving family is forced to suffer the same indignity would be a fitting legacy for their decades of tireless effort.\"\n\nHe said the \"belated response\" was \"a move in the right direction\", but was not the Hillsborough Law campaigners had been asking for.\n\n\"A Hillsborough Law in full would ensure that ordinary people have a fair chance at getting the justice they deserve,\" he said.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Victoria Hall was 17 when she was snatched about 300 yards away from her home and killed\n\nSerial killer Steve Wright has been arrested in connection with the unsolved murder of a teenage girl in Suffolk more than 24 years ago.\n\nVictoria Hall, 17, was last seen in the early hours of Sunday, 19 September 1999 in High Road, Trimley St Mary.\n\nWright, 65, is currently serving a whole life sentence for the murder of five women in Ipswich in 2006.\n\nThe BBC understands Wright was initially arrested in 2021 in connection with the Victoria Hall case.\n\nSteve Wright killed Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls, before dumping their bodies around Ipswich in the winter of 2006\n\nWright killed Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls, before dumping their bodies around Ipswich in the winter of 2006.\n\nSuffolk Police confirmed the same man initially arrested in 2021 had been rearrested on Wednesday for questioning in connection with the murder of Victoria, whose body was found five days after she was last seen 25 miles (40km) from her home.\n\nHe has now been released from police custody, and remains in prison, under investigation.\n\nThe BBC understands Wright was not one of the people originally arrested in the 1999 case.\n\nIn September 2019, police revealed the case - known as Operation Avon - was once again a live murder inquiry and was being reinvestigated by a new detective team.\n\nFresh information had been received that was not previously known, Suffolk Police said.\n\nOfficers first arrested Wright on suspicion of murder on 28 July 2021.\n\nVictoria's body was found in a ditch at Creeting St Peter five days after she went missing\n\nVictoria had gone for a night out with a friend on 18 September 1999 at the Bandbox nightclub in Bent Hill, Felixstowe.\n\nShe and her friend stayed there until about 01:00 BST on 19 September before leaving to get food at the Bodrum Grill in Undercliff Road West.\n\nThey then started to walk back to Trimley St Mary.\n\nVictoria was just a short walk from her home when she and her friend parted company at about 02:20 near the junction of High Road and Faulkeners Way.\n\nWhen Victoria's parents woke up they found she had not returned home and called the police.\n\nA missing person's inquiry was opened but five days later Victoria's naked body was found in a ditch beside a field by a dog walker in Creeting Lane, Creeting St Peter.\n\nSuffolk police asked for anyone with information about the case to contact them.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830", "Nearly it from us - will Sunak get the backing he hopes for?\n\nWe are shortly going to be bringing to a close our coverage of what's been an eventful few hours in Westminster and Whitehall. It actually all started last night when Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick quit the government over new Rwanda asylum legislation which he said wouldn't go far enough. Then came along the former home secretary who turned up the pressure on Rishi Sunak's plans. Suella Braverman - who was only sacked by Sunak three weeks ago - didn't mince her words when she appeared on Radio 4's Today programme, saying his policy \"won't work\" and \"won't stop the boats\". She urged the PM to change course, but it appears Sunak is sticking to his present heading. At 11:00 on the dot Sunak was in the Downing Street news conference suite to deliver a defiant and strong defence of his government's new legislation. He urged everyone to get onboard and back his plan. With the Commons due to vote on the next Parliamentary stage of the Rwanda Bill's progress this coming Tuesday, there's plenty more to come with this particular political story. Until then, here is some further reading from my colleagues for you to enjoy:\n• Dominic Casciani: Can the new Rwanda bill work and what could stop it?", "Before fleeing to Russia, Illya Kyva had unsuccessfully run for Ukraine's presidency\n\nFormer Ukrainian MP Illya Kyva has been assassinated in Russia by Ukraine's SBU security service, law enforcement sources have told BBC Ukraine.\n\n\"The criminal was liquidated by using small arms,\" the sources said.\n\nHis body was found outside the capital Moscow, Russian investigators said.\n\nEarlier this year, Kyva was given a 14-year jail sentence for high treason and calling publicly for the occupation of Ukraine. He had already fled Ukraine and was convicted in absentia.\n\nSeveral Ukrainian media outlets also quoted their sources as saying the SBU was behind the assassination of the former lawmaker, who was 46.\n\n\"Yes, we can confirm Kyva is no more. This fate will befall other traitors of Ukraine and puppets of Putin's regime,\" Andriy Yusov, spokesman for Ukraine's military intelligence, told Ukrainian TV.\n\nRussia's SK state investigative committee said preliminary information indicated Kyva was shot dead in the village of Suponevo, to the west of Moscow. A criminal investigation is now under way.\n\nKyva had campaigned unsuccessfully for Ukraine's presidency in 2019 and left the country only a month before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.\n\nHe had been a regular participant in propaganda TV shows on Russia's state-run media.\n\nHe had also reportedly been planning to seek political asylum in Russia.\n\nIn a separate development, Russian-backed politician Oleg Popov was killed in a car bombing in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk city on Wednesday, local officials said.\n\nMost of the Luhansk region has been seized by Russia. Ukraine has not commented on that attack.\n\nHis death came a few weeks after fellow Luhansk region lawmaker Mikhail Filiponenko was killed in a similar attack that was claimed by Kyiv.\n\nSince the Russian invasion, the SBU and military intelligence have claimed a number of successful operations against high-value targets in the country's occupied regions as well as in Russia itself.\n\nRussia's bridge linking occupied Crimea to Russia has been targeted several times, causing substantial damage.\n\nLast week, the SBU said it had blown up a rail connection in Russia's Far East near the border with China that served as a major transportation hub.", "Police were called just before 09:10 GMT after the 29-year-old woman was attacked\n\nA 28-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder after a pregnant woman was stabbed.\n\nDaniel Mihai Popescu, from Merthyr Tydfil, was arrested after police were called to Moy Road in Aberfan just before 09:10 GMT on Tuesday, where the 29-year-old woman was attacked.\n\nEyewitnesses said the victim was pregnant.\n\nMr Popescu is due to appear at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates' Court on Thursday morning.\n\nHe is also charged with stalking and witness intimidation.\n\nThe injured woman has been discharged from hospital.\n\nOn Tuesday, a police cordon was erected on Moy Road and some schools and community facilities were locked down as a \"precautionary measure\".\n\nAbout 10 armed officers were seen on Wyndham Street in Troedyrhiw - about 1.6 miles (2.4km) from Moy Road - before the arrest.", "The decision to raise the licence fee by a smaller amount than expected well create an estimated funding gap of £90m\n\nThe current TV licence fee of £159 will increase by £10.50 - a rise of 6.6% - the government has announced.\n\nThe figure has been determined using September's rate of inflation, rather than an average across the last year.\n\nDue to the recent fall in inflation, that means the £169.50 figure is less than the BBC and Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had anticipated.\n\nThe decision to raise it by a smaller percentage will leave an expected funding gap of around £90m.\n\nThe government is also launching a review of the BBC's funding model, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer told MPs.\n\nThe increased fee will come into effect in April, having been frozen at £159 for the past two years.\n\nIn a statement, the BBC Board said: \"We note that the government has restored a link to inflation on the licence fee after two years of no increases during a time of high inflation.\n\n\"The BBC is focused on providing great value, as well as programmes and services that audiences love. However, this outcome will still require further changes on top of the major savings that we are already delivering.\n\n\"Our content budgets are now impacted, which in turn will have a significant impact on the wider creative sector across the UK. We will confirm the consequences of this as we work through our budgets in the coming months.\"\n\nThe BBC had expected a rise closer to £15 - around 9% - based on the average rate of inflation over the past 12 months - a metric which has been used previously.\n\nHowever, the culture secretary said earlier this week that an increase of £15 would \"absolutely\" be too much.\n\nOn Monday, Ms Frazer said said she was concerned a \"significant rise\" in the fee would add to cost of living pressures.\n\nLabour's John McDonnell however questioned whether the move was \"revenge\" for ministers being grilled on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nThe former shadow chancellor said a 6.6% rise would result in a loss of journalist jobs \"at a key time when we're going to a general election and they're desperately needed\".\n\nCulture Secretary Lucy Frazer warned the BBC's current funding model could become \"increasingly anachronistic\"\n\nAddressing MPs on Thursday, Ms Frazer also confirmed the government would look into the future of the BBC's funding model.\n\nThere has been speculation in recent years that the funding model could change - with an increasing number of the BBC's critics suggesting a universal fee no longer makes sense in a digital era of abundant choice.\n\nThe government has published the terms of reference for its review online, which praises the BBC as \"a great national institution\".\n\n\"However,\" it continues, \"the government believes that there are challenges around the sustainability of the current licence fee funding model.\n\n\"The broadcasting sector is evolving rapidly, and the public has much more choice about how, when, and where they access content.\"\n\nSpeaking on Thursday, Ms Frazer said that, as the media landscape changes, \"linking the TV licence to watching live TV will be increasingly anachronistic\".\n\n\"We know that if we want the BBC to succeed we cannot freeze its income,\" she continued, \"but at the same time we cannot ask households to pay more for the BBC indefinitely.\"\n\nMs Frazer said the government is supporting the BBC to \"realise commercial opportunities which will make it more financially sustainable and we'll continue to explore these provisionally\" with the corporation.\n\nShadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire said the government's decision to raise the licence fee at a slightly lower amount will make \"no material difference\" to those struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.\n\n\"Thirty-three pence a month per household is what I understand the difference to be between today's announcement and the deal the government already agreed to,\" she said. \"Now that's not nothing, but does she really think that's going to even touch the sides?\"\n\nSeptember's inflation rate was 6.7%, which would have meant a rise in the licence fee of £10.65. However, the government rounds down to the nearest 50p or £1, which in this case is £10.50 - closer to 6.6%.\n\nThe BBC's funding was £3.70bn in 2013 and £3.74bn in 2023.\n\nIf the licence fee had increased with annual inflation, the corporation would have an extra £1.16bn in funding from the fee alone.\n\nThe number of households paying licence fee has dropped by 437,000 over last 12 months.\n\nWhile some have refused to pay, that figure is partly down to the number of elderly people who are unaware that they now have to buy a licence.\n\nThe government transferred the financial responsibility of free licences for the over-75s to the BBC in 2019.\n\nElderly people are now required to pay the licence fee unless they are on pension credit. As nearly 950,000 pensioners receive credit, covering their licences costs the BBC around £150m annually.\n\nLast week, the BBC announced it was cutting back BBC Two's Newsnight programme as part of a series of changes within BBC News which are expected to save around £7.5m\n\nStreaming services such as Disney+ and Netflix have announced price increases of 38% and 14% respectively for the coming year.\n\nThe announcement of the licence fee rise comes after the government confirmed Samir Shah was its preferred candidate to take over as BBC chairman, following Richard Sharp's departure earlier this year.\n\nHis appointment has been welcomed by broadcasters including Andrew Neil and Trevor Phillips, who told BBC Radio 4's Today programme Dr Shah would be a\"fierce defender\" of the corporation, but also \"expect the highest standards\" from it.\n\nMr Phillips, who is a friend and former colleague of Dr Shah's, said he was a \"fantastic choice\" for the role of chairman.\n\nSamir Shah's appointment means there will now be a journalist at the top of the BBC\n\nHe said the BBC's survival will be Dr Shah's chief concern, adding: \"I am one of those who was sceptical that the BBC would survive into the 2030s. His appointment is the first thing that has given me hope.\n\n\"That matters for all of us - I am a broadcaster for another channel, Sky, and we, of course, do our job I hope as well as [the BBC] do, but the BBC is paid by the public in a way to be the gold standard. And for all of us, its survival really matters.\"\n\nMr Phillips added: \"I wonder whether there needs to be more movement towards a hybrid way of funding for the BBC, because the truth is the broadcasting and commercial environment in which the BBC came into being has gone. We are in a whole different world.\"\n\nAnother friend of Dr Shah's, columnist Rod Liddle, also welcomed his appointment, adding he has a \"wicked sense of humour and doesn't have much time for the identity politics and tokenism with which the BBC seems obsessed\".\n\n\"Together with Tim Davie, the director-general, he may just be able to set the bloated corporation on a rather better course.\"", "James Henry Clarke, pictured in 2017, when being interviewed by the BBC\n\nA former minister who was extradited from Canada to Northern Ireland has been sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for three years, for a number of historical child abuse offences.\n\nJames Henry Clarke, 81, with an address at Cloncore Road, Portadown, County Armagh, appeared before Belfast Crown Court on Thursday.\n\nHe was charged with three counts of indecently assaulting two teenage boys in the 1960s and 1970s.\n\nAn international arrest warrant had been issued for him.\n\nClarke admitted abusing two teenage boys who were living in care homes where he worked.\n\nThe court heard the first victim was abused on two occasions between January 1966 and 1972 while he was staying at Bawnmore House in Newtownabbey.\n\nOne incident happened when the victim was in bed feeling unwell and the second incident happened at Clarke's mother's home.\n\nThe victim had contacted the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in 1980 and alleged he had been abused by Clarke when he was 13 years old.\n\nFollowing this complaint, police officers travelled to Canada and spoke to Clarke about the allegations which he denied. At this stage, no decision was taken to prosecute him.\n\nFive years later Clarke was interviewed by police about an unrelated matter but he then admitted abusing the teenager at Bawnmore House.\n\nThe court also heard that the second victim was abused on a date between May 1970 and May 1974 at Conway House children's home in County Antrim.\n\nIn 1985 Clarke admitted to abusing this victim whilst he was a deputy senior matron at the home, in a letter to the RUC officer who had previously interviewed him in Canada in 1980.\n\nThe victim told the police he was around 13 years old when the incident occurred on a fishing trip in Newcastle.\n\nNo action was taken against Clarke on this occasion either, despite his confession.\n\nIn 2017 BBC Newsline travelled to Canada and tracked down Clarke and interviewed him about the abuse allegations which had come to light through the Historical Institutional Abuse Enquiry.\n\nHe admitted to the organisation that he did abuse two boys in Belfast in the 1960s and 1970s.\n\nClarke also told the BBC he admitted the abuse to police but no action was taken against him.\n\nFollowing this, the Public Prosecution Service launched extradition proceedings.\n\nThe court heard that after emigrating to Canada in 1977 Clarke became a church minister.\n\nAs part of his work there, he was involved in a child-abuse inquiry and also helped set up a home for boys.\n\nThe court heard that at no point were the Canadian authorities made aware of the allegations against Clarke in Northern Ireland.\n\nDefence barrister Michael Boyd told the court that the extradition was a \"harrowing experience\" for his client who spent more than 40 days in detention in Canada before being brought to Northern Ireland.\n\nMr Boyd mentioned Clarke's complex medical conditions, as well as caring responsibilities he and his 83-year-old wife have for one of their sons who requires extensive care.\n\nHe said that Clarke was \"ashamed and deeply sorry\" for what he did, adding that he did everything to \"facilitate the prosecution of himself by virtue of his confessions\".\n\nJudge Reel said that after reading statements from the two complainants \"both men speak of the long-lasting memories of the abuse that they suffered at the hands of this defendant\".\n\nHe added: \"They say those memories effect every day of their existence.\"\n\nThe judge said he taken into considerations Clarke's admissions of guilt, his caring responsibilities in Canada and his health issues.\n\nAlso noted by the judge was no evidence of further offending in Canada \"despite his access to children\".\n\nAddressing Clarke as he stood in the dock, Judge Reel imposed the suspended sentence and warned Clarke of the consequences should be re-offend within the next three years.", "NIE Networks have a legal obligation to employ contractors to manage the safety of electrical lines where there is an encroachment of trees.\n\nAn east Belfast woodland was cut down by accident in part due to ineffective communication, Northern Ireland Electricity Networks (NIE) has said.\n\nA local councillor told BBC News NI around 170 trees and saplings in Orangefield Park were cut down in error.\n\nThe instructions given to NIE said the trees should only have been trimmed.\n\nNIE has said it will restore the woodland and will introduce new procedures.\n\nA local resident told the BBC the mistake was \"hard to stomach\".\n\nOn Thursday, councillors at Belfast City Council will be asked to approve NIE's offer to replant the area.\n\nOverhead power lines are owned and managed by NIE Networks who have a responsibility to cut back any trees that grow around the lines.\n\nPower lines run through the woodland in Orangefield Park and in April 2023 NIE had asked the council for permission to cut back the trees.\n\nThe council granted a licence for the work with specific instructions to \"lop the trees, as opposed to felling them\" and stated that the work should be completed outside the bird nesting season.\n\nIn May, a NIE contractor began to clear the area, but work was suspended when residents complained about \"excessive tree cutting\".\n\nNIE said that the work carried out in May was \"technically competent\" but acknowledge that the tree cutting works \"deviated significantly from those agreed with Belfast City Council as detailed in the published work instruction.\"\n\nIt added that \"changes to cut‐type and the disposal of arisings were made without rigour and on an ad‐hoc basis\".\n\nIn a statement, NIE said: \"We know that the issue arose due to the effectiveness of the communication between the contractor and NIE Networks.\"\n\nLocal resident Caroline Gallagher, who regularly walks her dog in Orangefield Park, said she was \"saddened\" at the news.\n\n\"170 trees accidentally being cut down due to a communication error is hard to stomach, especially in this day and age when we have many communication channels,\" she said.\n\n\"I am glad NIE are taking ownership by funding the replanting of more trees, but the damage is done and unfortunately the area won't return to its natural beauty for many years because it will take time for the new trees to reach maturity.\"\n\nBelfast City Council's climate and city resilience committee will meet to discuss NIE's response to the incident on Thursday evening.\n\nNIE have asked the council for permission to finish the work it had started in clearing the area and to begin restoring the woodland.\n\nAn area of around 1,400 square metres was cleared and NIE have offered to plant 400 new trees in the space with around 60% of these being hazel trees.\n\nNew procedures will also be put in place for contractors managing trees on council sites.\n\nGreen Party councillor Brian Smyth told BBC News NI it was \"very positive to see a resolution\" but added that the incident had \"caused anger and upset for those who use the park and live nearby\".\n\n\"Approximately 170 trees of all sizes were cut down and we're looking at 400 being planted,\" he said.\n\n\"It's not only about a tree replacement scheme but putting in place new agreements with outside contractors so this never happens again\".\n\nNIE said the \"project shall be funded and managed by NIE Networks, at no cost to the council\" and that it expects work to start in 2024.", "ITV made \"considerable efforts\" to find out the truth about rumours of Phillip Schofield's relationship with a colleague in 2019, a review has said, but was unable to do so until he admitted it this year.\n\nThe former presenter left ITV after he admitted lying about the affair.\n\nThe network subsequently asked a barrister to lead a review into its handling of the relationship.\n\nNeither Schofield nor the colleague participated in the review.\n\nAccording to the report, Schofield \"reluctantly declined\" to take part in the review because of \"the risks to his health\".\n\nHe suggested in an interview with the BBC in June that the controversy had left him feeling suicidal at the time.\n\nSchofield's mental health has since deteriorated, Jane Mulcahy KC said.\n\n\"ITV's management made considerable efforts to determine the truth about an alleged relationship between PS (Schofield) and PX (the runner) following on from the publication of a story in The Sun newspaper in early December 2019,\" the report said.\n\n\"However, in the face of the denials of the individuals involved, ITV was unable to uncover the relevant evidence until PS's admission in late May 2023.\"\n\nThe report recommended ITV set out \"clear guidelines for its talent going forward to ensure that good behaviours are observed even by those who are household names.\"\n\nIt also emphasised the importance of junior employees at ITV having the confidence to raise concerns to management in line with ITV's Speaking Up policy.\n\nITV previously said it had investigated rumours of the relationship in 2020, but that both parties repeatedly denied it.\n\nSchofield, 61, was also dropped by his talent agency YMU after admitting to an \"unwise but not illegal\" affair.\n\nITV welcomed the report, adding that the barrister had found no evidence of a \"toxic culture\".\n\nPhillip Schofield presented This Morning opposite Holly Willoughby until his exit in May\n\nSchofield left his role on This Morning in May following reports of a rift with his co-star Holly Willoughby.\n\nDays later, the show was engulfed in scandal when Schofield confirmed he had had a relationship with a younger male employee, which took place while Schofield was still married to his wife Stephanie Lowe.\n\nSchofield apologised for lying to his colleagues, the media and his friends and family about the affair, and left ITV with immediate effect.\n\nIn October, Holly Willoughby said she was quitting ITV show This Morning after 14 years \"for me and my family\".\n\nShe had been absent from the daytime programme since earlier that month, when a man was charged with soliciting to commit murder over an alleged plot to kidnap the TV presenter.", "Most of the houses and the school in Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian village, were destroyed by a bulldozer\n\nA few nights ago, the school in Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian village in the hills south of Hebron, was destroyed along with most of the houses, by a bulldozer.\n\nIts tracks lay fresh and undisturbed in the sand when we arrived. The village was empty as its population of about 200 Palestinians left around a month ago, after sustained pressure and threats from armed and aggressive Jewish settlers who live in nearby outposts that are illegal under both Israeli and international law.\n\nA twisted metal sign lies in the rubble of the school in Khirbet Zanuta. In bold black letters it reads \"Humanitarian Support to Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer in the West Bank\". The sign records the donors who gave money to the project. The European Union was the lead donor and, among a panel of European development agencies, is also the coat of arms of the British royal family over the words British Consulate-General Jerusalem.\n\nNadav Weiman came with the BBC to the village. He is a former Israeli special forces soldier who is now an activist with Breaking the Silence, a group of former combatants who campaign against Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. Nadav believes that Jewish settlers, the most militant of whom are known by name to local Palestinians, were once again flouting the law with the police and army.\n\n\"They're demolishing Palestinian villages, beating up Palestinian farmers, stealing their olives, trying to open a third front, an eastern front against the Palestinians in the West Bank. Why? Because they want the land without Palestinians.\"\n\nTwo Israeli soldiers came to investigate what we were doing. One of them told an Israeli member of the BBC team that he was a traitor for visiting Palestinians. They filmed us but took much less interest in what had happened in Khirbet Zanuta, a few miles down the road.\n\nWhen I asked the police if they were investigating the flattening of the school and the village, they emailed back that they were waiting for a complaint. In fact, lawyers for Zanuta's Palestinians had petitioned Israel's Supreme Court.\n\nThe school in Khirbet Zanuta had been funded by international donors\n\nIn three days of travelling through the occupied West Bank, Palestinians have said consistently that since the war in Gaza started on 7 October, Jewish settlers are better armed and much more aggressive.\n\nViolent attacks, including fatal shootings of Palestinians by armed Jewish settlers in the West Bank have risen sharply. So many attacks are happening that Israel's closest allies, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have condemned violence by extremist settlers and demanded that those guilty of crimes should be prosecuted.\n\nIn practice, settlers rarely end up in court and if they do, they can usually expect light sentences.\n\nThe settlers are armed and supported by powerful allies in the Israeli government, led by Itamar Ben Gvir, the minister for national security and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister who also has security responsibilities in the West Bank.\n\nControversially, Mr Smotrich just found more than $100 million for the settlers. Apparently referring to opinion polls saying Palestinians were supporting Hamas, he told The Times of Israel newspaper that \"there are two million Nazis in Judea and Samaria, who hate us exactly as do the Nazis of Hamas-ISIS in Gaza\". Judea and Samaria is a biblical term for the West Bank.\n\nMembers of the Mhilat family say settlers attacked them and accused them of stealing goats\n\nThe reality of settler attacks was captured in a video taken by Muntassar Mhilat, a young Palestinian man from a family of Bedouins who live in the Judean desert not far from Jericho.\n\nTheir family home was invaded by about 20 violent, armed Jewish men. Muntassar filmed them yelling and pointing weapons.\n\n\"He was shooting at my uncle, so I ran down there and confronted him. We were pushing each other and screaming, head-to-head. And I was filming him. Then, around 20 settlers came.\"\n\nThe video shows a settler loading his M-16 assault rifle and pointing it at the family. One of the women there, Umm Omar, carrying a month old baby, thought they were about to die.\n\n\"They attacked our house, stole our sheep, threatened my kids with guns and threatened me. Then they hit me and my husband's sister. I thought they were going to slaughter us.\"\n\nNo-one was killed. The settlers accused them, falsely the family said, of stealing their goats. The man who pointed a loaded weapon was wearing a police jacket.\n\nA common complaint is that settlers have been drafted into the security forces as reservists since 7 October and are abusing the power and position that come with the uniform and automatic weapons issued by the state.\n\nThe family recognised some of the attackers, as they came from an illegal outpost about a mile away. They know there will be a next time and feel sick with worry.\n\nThe harassment of Palestinians is also economic and psychological.\n\nSouth of Hebron Palestinian farmers are ploughing with the donkey because local Jewish settlers have threatened to steal or break their tractor if they use it.\n\nAhmed Tirawi, a farmer, says he's unable to access his olives because he fears being attacked by settlers\n\nAlmost at the other end of the West Bank, in a village outside Nablus called Burin, Ahmed Tirawi, a farmer looked across the valley at his olive trees, starting to rot because he has been forbidden by the local settlers to pick them.\n\n\"If I go up there on the hillside to harvest my olives, it's taking my life in my hands. The settlers make attacks on the farmers here - one bullet and they will kill me.\"\n\nThe olive season is always a time of tension, but this time he said it has been \"horrible\".\n\n\"My feelings are more than anger. I feel humiliated by all of this. I am powerless to protect myself from just one settler. It's such a humiliation to be so alone and unable to protect yourself. The only solution is international law, two states and to protect people from the Israeli occupation.\"\n\nSettler leader Yehuda Simon says Palestinians are being stopped from harvesting their olives for security reasons\n\nI went to talk to Yehuda Simon, a prominent settler leader at his own outpost, Havat Gilad, near Nablus. He is a lawyer who has represented settlers accused of attacking Palestinians, and he nodded approvingly when I said Palestinian farmers in the area near where he lived were being stopped from harvesting their olives.\n\n\"The army came to the conclusion that the Palestinians coming to harvest olives are gathering information in order to carry out an attack like on 7 October.\"\n\nHe dismissed the repeated, documented reports of settlers attacking Palestinians.\n\n\"I don't hear about people who kill Palestinians. Okay. If the Palestinian just sits on his balcony and the settlers come and kill him, it's never happened. Okay. And I don't believe that the British and United States and all countries in the world, they are a friend of Israel… even Joe Biden is against Jewish people. He doesn't like Jewish people.\"\n\nAs for the Arabs: \"They could stay here with us, but not try to kill us in the beginning.\"\n\nFor more than a century, Arabs and Jews have been fighting over this small piece of land. The war in Gaza hasn't just increased violence in the West Bank. The way it ends, when it ends, will affect whether the next generation can escape this endless conflict.\n\nThe sight of families forced out of their homes raises memories of 1948 for Palestinians. By the time Israel won the battle for its independence, more than 700,000 Palestinians had either fled or been expelled from their homes at gunpoint. The new state took their property and never allowed them to go home. Palestinians call the events of 1948 the \"Nakba\" or catastrophe.\n\nSettler violence and the loss of homes confirm, for Palestinians, their worst fears, that powerful forces in Israel's government and the settler movement want them out and are using the huge crisis surrounding the war in Gaza to make it happen.", "Dr Ahmed Moghrabi told the BBC there's a scarcity of food, water, medicine and he cannot operate on patients.\n\nHe works in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis which is one of few hospitals still operating in southern Gaza.\n\nDr Moghrabi said they don't have anaesthesia and doctors are \"collapsing\" and \"helpless\".", "An aerial aerobatic team in the UAE performed a flyby as Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Abu Dhabi\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin has made a rare trip abroad to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia.\n\nExpected discussion topics included the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, as well as oil production, with the UAE president.\n\nThe UAE is currently hosting the COP28 UN climate summit.\n\nMr Putin, who has barely left Russia since March when the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued him an arrest warrant, will also see Iran's leader on Thursday in Moscow.\n\nThe ICC has accused him of illegally deporting Ukrainian children to Russia - a war crime - but neither the UAE nor Saudi Arabia recognise the court's jurisdiction.\n\nThe Russian leader has snubbed other recent international summits including Brics in South Africa in August and the G20 summit in September in India.\n\nThe trips come as Russia is keen to project influence and undermine the West's attempts to isolate it.\n\nMr Putin was greeted in the UAE with a full cavalry escort and motorcade while a national aerobatics team drew the Russian flag in the sky with smoke trails.\n\nRussia's leader told UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan that \"our relations have reached unprecedented levels\".\n\nTrade and oil will be on the agenda in the UAE, which a Kremlin statement said is \"Russia's main economic partner in the Arab world\".\n\nThe Russian president later travelled to Saudi Arabia to meet the kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.\n\nVladimir Putin was welcomed by the UAE's foreign minister\n\nDuring a brief televised sitdown chat Mr Putin invited the crown prince to visit Moscow.\n\n\"Nothing can prevent the development of our friendly relations,\" he said, adding that it was important \"to exchange information and assessments\" on current regional events.\n\nThe crown prince said bilateral co-operation had \"helped remove many tensions in the Middle East\".\n\nThe controversial leader of Russia's Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, was also spotted attending the meeting between Mr Putin and the de facto ruler of the Gulf state.\n\nAhead of the meeting the Kremlin reported that the two leaders would \"consider ways to promote de-escalation\" in the conflict between Israel and Hamas and that conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Sudan would be discussed in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.\n\nRussian news agency Tass also reported that Russian government spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had confirmed that Mr Putin and the crown prince had discussed Opec+ cooperation.\n\nKremlin officials have announced that Mr Putin will meet Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi on Thursday to discuss the war in Gaza.\n\nMr Putin has visited only Russian-occupied Ukraine, Iran and China since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.", "Lianne Gordon has been described as loved by the community\n\nA woman who was shot dead in east London on Tuesday evening has been named as Lianne Gordon.\n\nShe was killed in Lower Clapton, Hackney, where a man, 20, and a 16-year-old boy also sustained gunshot wounds.\n\nThe 42-year-old's neighbours have described her as \"very community-spirited\" and \"loved by the community\".\n\nThe police believe the victims of the shooting were known to each other but were not related.\n\nHer family have paid tribute, saying: \"Lianne had a heart of gold, we her family are going to miss her immensely.\"\n\nDet Ch Supt James Conway told a press conference that the man and teenager were not in a life-threatening condition following the attack, which happened on Vine Close at about 18:30 GMT.\n\nHe said detectives were keeping an open mind but they were \"considering the possibility that this is gang linked\".\n\nDet Ch Insp James Conway said additional officers will be deployed in Hackney over the coming days\n\n\"We are also aware of a recent incident in which police were again called to shots being fired in Vine Close on the evening of Saturday 2 December,\" he added.\n\nNo victim or suspect was traced, Det Ch Supt Conway said, but officers did find shell casings.\n\nHe said detectives were investigating any possible links between the two incidents.\n\nA murder inquiry has been launched but no arrests have been made\n\nIt's very quiet here on Rendlesham Road, which joins on to Vine Close. The only sound in this densely populated residential area is the distant laughter of children playing in a nearby school.\n\nA large section of the road has been cordoned off with police tape. Each person who leaves the cordoned-off area has to check in with police, giving their name and phone number. Very few people want to talk to the media, with some clearly still in shock.\n\nA white forensics tent stands outside the property where it's understood the shooting took place.\n\nA woman came to leave flowers and a card that read: \"Such a beautiful soul, gone too soon.\"\n\nToo upset to take part in an interview, she told me she knew the woman who had been killed - \"everyone knew her\", she said, adding: \"She was loved by the community.\"\n\nA resident of Vine Close, who did not want to be named, said she heard Ms Gordon's daughter screaming after the shooting.\n\nAnother neighbour, Shohid Uddin, described Ms Gordon as \"very nice and chatty\" and said she would \"talk to everybody\".\n\nFlowers have been placed close to the police cordon\n\nIf you passed by her house, \"through the window she would wave and smile\", he said.\n\n\"I never saw her upset, she's always smiling - even from far away she's always smiling and waves her hand. I am feeling very sorry for the children and the family.\"\n\nCaroline Woodley, the recently elected mayor of Hackney, described the shooting as an \"absolutely heart-breaking incident\".\n\nShe said Hackney Council was working with police to support the family and outreach workers would be made available in the area.\n\nA large section of road near Vine Close has been cordoned off by police\n\nThe MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Diane Abbott said: \"This is clearly a terrible incident. My heart goes out to the victim and relatives.\n\n\"As the full detail cannot be known just yet, it is important that any witnesses come forward and help the police in their inquiries.\"\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n• None Woman killed and two wounded in London shooting\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ruth Perry was the head at Caversham Primary School in Reading\n\nAn Ofsted inspection \"contributed\" to the death of head teacher Ruth Perry, an inquest has ruled.\n\nThe inspection \"lacked fairness, respect and sensitivity\" and was at times \"rude and intimidating\", senior coroner Heidi Connor said.\n\nMrs Perry, 53, took her own life in January while waiting for an Ofsted report to be published.\n\nHer sister Julia Waters said \"urgent lessons must be learnt from Ruth's death\".\n\nMs Connor expressed concern about the system's impact on school leaders.\n\nThe coroner's verdict was recorded as \"suicide: contributed to by an Ofsted inspection carried out in November 2022.\"\n\nIn her concluding remarks, Ms Connor said: \"The evidence is clear in this respect, and I find that Ruth's mental health deterioration and death was likely contributed to by the Ofsted inspection.\"\n\nThis is the first time Ofsted has been listed as a contributing factor in the death of a head teacher.\n\n\"Today, the coroner's conclusions validate what our family has known for a long time - that Ruth took her own life as the direct result of the process, outcome and consequences of an Ofsted inspection of the school she led and loved, Caversham Primary School,\" Prof Waters said.\n\nShe said her sister's death \"laid bare the imbalance of power that exists\" within the education system.\n\n\"The inquest... has shown the brutal inhumanity of the system of Ofsted inspections,\" she said, \"Ofsted likes to judge people with single word labels. We could judge the current Ofsted system with our own labels: callous, perverse and inhumane.\n\n\"Ofsted has made some changes. But these changes do not go anywhere near far enough... What happened to Ruth must never be allowed to happen again.\"\n\nProf Waters added that Mrs Perry was much more than \"the victim of an inhumane school inspection system\" but a \"sister, a wife and a mother\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ruth Perry's sister reacts after inquest returns conclusion into her death\n\nOfsted chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, apologised \"for the distress that Mrs Perry undoubtedly experienced as a result of our inspection\".\n\nShe said: \"Ruth Perry's death was a tragedy that deeply affected many people. My thoughts remain with her family, the wider Caversham school community, and everyone else who knew and loved her.\n\nOfsted was making several changes to help reduce the pressure felt by school leaders, she said. As a first step, inspections will be delayed by a day next week.\n\nShe added: \"We have started to develop training for all inspectors on recognising and responding to visible signs of anxiety.\"\n\nPaul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said: \"The verdict is a clear and damning indictment of an approach to inspection that has done massive harm to school professionals.\n\n\"This tragedy never should have happened. We now need urgent change. Ofsted has no choice but to seriously reflect and make changes to ensure a tragedy like this never happens again.\"\n\nEducation Secretary Gillian Keegan said in a statement that \"lessons need to be learned\".\n\n\"We have worked closely with Ruth's family as well as with Ofsted to introduce key reforms and further support for our school leaders,\" she said.\n\n\"Ofsted is fundamental to making sure children are safe and receive the education they deserve. Together we will look closely at the coroner's recommendations to consider further changes to make sure we have an inspection system that supports schools and teachers, and ultimately secure Ruth's legacy.\"\n\nShe added: \"My heart goes out to Ruth's family, friends and the school community. Her death was a tragedy that not only shocked the local community but also the wider sector and beyond.\"\n\nThe inquest looked at four questions - who was Ruth Perry, and when, where and how she died.\n\nThe coroner also issued a prevention of future death notice - a report that aims to stop similar situations arising again. It will be sent to people and groups in a position to reduce the risk of other deaths occurring in similar circumstances.\n\nAnyone getting such a notice has 56 days to say what they plan to do to mitigate the chances of deaths happening.\n\nMs Connor said that a claim made by Ofsted during the inquest, that school inspections can be paused if the distress of a headteacher is a concern, was \"a mythical creature created and expanded upon at this inquest\" and that there was no clear training in this respect.\n\nCaversham Primary School, in Reading, was downgraded from outstanding to \"inadequate\" due to safeguarding concerns after the Ofsted visit in November 2022. The school has since been re-graded as \"good\".\n\nThe decision behind the grading the school received is not something that fell within the scope of the inquest but Ms Connor said it was important to have a \"clear understanding of how it works and the effect of that system on Ruth\".\n\nThe coroner said her main areas of concern were the conduct of the inspection, the confidentiality required before the Ofsted report is published and the length of time between the inspection and final report.\n\nShe also highlighted the current one-word Ofsted system, where the same judgement of inadequate can be given to a school which \"is dreadful in all respects\" and another which is good but with issues which could be remedied by the time the report was published.\n\nAt Reading town hall, Ruth Perry’s sister Julia Waters said their concern has never been with individuals, but with Ofsted’s \"inhumane system\".\n\nMs Connor said she \"very much hopes\" the results of the inquest will be used by the education select committee's inquiry into Ofsted and how it works.\n\nOfsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman said last month Mrs Perry's death had been used to \"discredit\" the schools watchdog. Referring to these comments, Ms Connor said this suggests a lack of learning from this case.\n\nMs Connor noted that there was a marked difference in how the council gave testimony compared with Ofsted.\n\nThe local council was \"open and accepting, with a clear wish to improve matters\", she said but she remained concerned their new proactive approach to dealing with Ofsted needs to be in written guidance and there was \"no internal review\" following her death.\n\nRobin Walker, chair of the education select committee, told the BBC: \"We will take note of the coroner's findings before deciding on recommendations at the end of our ongoing Ofsted inquiry.\"\n\nBrighter Futures for Children and Reading Council said they fully acknowledged and accepted the coroner's recommendations.\n\nThey added that they had taken a number of steps to better understand and respond to what affects the wellbeing of head teachers.\n\nIf you're affected by the issues in this report, you can find support from BBC Action Line.\n\nAre you affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. William Brown Jr's parents made an emotional plea to the driver involved\n\nA man has been arrested after a boy was killed crossing a road.\n\nSeven-year-old William Brown was hit as he walked in Sandgate Esplanade in Folkestone, Kent, on Wednesday at 17:35 GMT.\n\nThe crash, near to the junction with Prospect Road, involved two vehicles, an unidentified car or van, and a red Citroen car, Kent Police said.\n\nPolice said a 49-year-old from the Dymchurch area was arrested at 17:15 GMT on Thursday.\n\nThe boy's father, William Brown Sr, said his son was \"a beautiful boy\", who had been killed while trying to cross the road to collect his football.\n\nRelatives of William appealed for anyone with any information to come forward.\n\nWilliam's mother, Laura Brown, broke down as she told the BBC: \"He was the sweetest boy in the world, so soft and gentle.\"\n\n\"Someone killed my son and left him in the middle of the road,\" she said.\n\n\"Please help us find this person. I'm begging you. Do it for William.\"\n\nWilliam Brown’s mother Laura Brown was consoled at her home in Folkestone, Kent\n\nWilliam's father said: \"Thousands of people walk down this road. Someone must have seen something.\n\n\"We just want peace for our son. Do it so Will gets his peace.\"\n\nHe added: \"William Jr was a beautiful boy who believed in forgiveness.\n\n\"Nothing was a drama. If he was here he would say 'come on guys, we'll see you in heaven'.\"\n\nFolkestone & Hythe District Council leader Jim Martin shared his condolences with the family.\n\n\"His death at such a young age is a terrible tragedy and we can only echo the heartfelt plea of his parents that the driver of the vehicle come forward to assist Kent police officers with their investigation,\" he said.\n\nA Kent Police spokesman said: \"The unidentified vehicle left the scene in the direction Hythe, prior to the arrival of emergency services.\"\n\nAny witnesses or those with CCTV or dashcam footage are being asked to contact police.\n\nPolice and ambulance crews attended, and William was confirmed dead at the scene.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "All Facebook and Messenger chats will be encrypted automatically, parent company Meta has announced.\n\nMessages and calls protected by end-to-end-encryption (E2EE) can be read only by the sender and recipient.\n\nIt has been possible to opt in to encrypted messages for years, but now it will become the default position.\n\nCritics, including the UK government and police, claim the move to default encryption will make it harder to detect child sexual abuse on Messenger.\n\nThe Home Secretary, James Cleverly, said he was \"incredibly disappointed\" by Meta's decision after working together to tackle other online harms.\n\n\"We'll continue to work closely with them (Meta) to keep children safe online, but we must be honest that in our view, this is a significant step back\", he said.\n\nJames Babbage, director general for threats at the National Crime Agency, was also highly critical.\n\n\"It is hugely disappointing that Meta is choosing to roll out end-to-end encryption on Facebook Messenger.\n\n\"Today our role in protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation just got harder,\" he said.\n\nThe switch to encryption meant nobody, including Meta, can see what is sent or said, \"unless you choose to report a message to us\", Loredana Crisan, head of Messenger, wrote in a post announcing the change.\n\nThe company had worked with outside experts, academics, advocates and governments to identify risks to \"ensure that privacy and safety go hand-in-hand\", she wrote.\n\nIt is expected that messages in Instagram, which is also owned by Meta, may get encryption by default sometime in the new year.\n\nMeta says that people will know when their chats are upgraded and become encrypted, because they will be prompted to set up a recovery method to be able to restore their messages if they lose, change or add a device.\n\nApps including iMessage, Signal and WhatsApp all protect the privacy of messages with E2EE, but the tech has become a political battleground.\n\nThe apps and their supporters argue the tech protects privacy and security, including that of children.\n\nBut law enforcement, major children's charities and the government have opposed the expansion of E2EE.\n\nNew powers in the recently passed Online Safety Act could enable Ofcom to force tech companies to scan for child abuse material in encrypted messages. Signal and WhatsApp have said they will refuse to comply with such requests.\n\nBut despite those powers, there has been continued pressure on Meta to hold the expansion of E2EE.\n\nIn September the-then Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, alleged that Facebook Messenger and Instagram direct messages were the platforms of choice for online paedophiles, telling the BBC that \"we are arresting in this country about 800 perpetrators a month, we are safeguarding about 1,200 children a month from this evil crime\".\n\nBut Meta argued that it had spent years developing robust safety measures to prevent, detect and combat abuse while maintaining online security.\n\n\"When E2EE is default, we will also use a variety of tools, including artificial intelligence, subject to applicable law, to proactively detect accounts engaged in malicious patterns of behaviour instead of scanning private messages,\" the company wrote.\n\nProf Martin Albrecht, chair of cryptography at King's College London, welcomed the addition of what he called a standard safety feature.\n\n\"It secures not only government and business communication, but also private conversations between parents and their children, parents about their children, or groups of friends of all ages,\" he said.\n\nCampaign group Privacy International backed the tech firm's decision. Encryption, it told the BBC, was \"an essential defence, shielding journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers, artists, and marginalised groups from potential abuse by data-hungry companies and governments\".\n\nBut Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of the Internet Watch Foundation, which works to identify and remove child sexual abuse material online, said it was outraged that Meta had chosen to \"prioritise the privacy of paedophiles over the safety of our children\".\n\nShe accused the platform, which she noted had a strong track record of detecting large amounts of child abuse material before it ended up on its services, of \"effectively rolling out the welcome mat for paedophiles\".\n\nIt was now up to Ofcom \"to show its teeth\", Ms Hargreaves said.\n\nThe firm also announced on Wednesday that it would add a number of new features, including the ability to edit messages for up to 15 minutes after they have been sent.\n\nIt will also give users the ability to control if people who send messages receive \"read receipts\" telling them a message has been read.\n\nThe changes will take some months to fully roll out, the company said.", "Many migrants who gathered on the Russian side of the Finnish border have been detained because of out-of-date visas\n\nRussia is trying to recruit foreign migrants, detained in a recent sweep at its border with Finland, for its war in Ukraine.\n\nThe BBC has seen evidence of several cases in which foreigners were rushed into a military camp on the border with Ukraine, days after they were picked up for breaching immigration laws.\n\nThe practice of coercing people in pre-deportation detention centres to sign contracts for army service in Ukraine is not new, but the numbers swelled as foreign migrants arrived at Russia's 1,340-km (833-mile) border with Finland.\n\nFinland temporarily closed all eight of its Russian border crossings, accusing Moscow of channelling migrants and asylum seekers there as part of a destabilisation campaign after the government in Helsinki joined Nato earlier this year.\n\nAnalysis of court hearings in Karelia, one of three Russian regions bordering Finland, showed that in the past three weeks, 236 people were arrested for staying in Russia without valid visas, destined for deportation. The picture was similar in the other two border regions of Leningrad and Murmansk.\n\nAmong those appearing in court in Karelia was a Somali man in his 40s, who was arrested in mid-November, sentenced to a fine of 2,000 roubles (£17; €20) and detained pending deportation - a standard procedure for anyone without an appropriate visa.\n\nAwad and at least a dozen other inmates held in the pre-deportation centre in Petrozavodsk, Karelia's capital, were approached by military representatives soon after their arrest and were offered \"a job for the state\". They were promised good pay, medical care and permission to stay in Russia on completing a one-year army contract.\n\nAwad is not his real name, but the BBC has confirmed his identity.\n\nHe had arrived in Russia in mid-July and went to neighbouring Belarus, trying for months to enter Poland. By early November, he said internet chat groups popular with asylum seekers were abuzz with news that the Russian border with Finland had become more accessible.\n\nThe last of eight Finnish border crossings was temporarily shut last week\n\nUnprecedented numbers of migrants began turning up at Finland's border and applying for refugee status.\n\nFinnish authorities accused Russia of encouraging the influx and abandoning their usual visa checks for travellers entering the border zone.\n\nThey highlighted the organised distribution of bicycles, most of them brand new, which migrants used to cover the last stretch of the Russian border zone, bypassing Russia's ban on approaching its border posts on foot.\n\nFinland's last border crossing at Raja-Jooseppi shut on 29 November, although authorities in Helsinki were planning to reopen the border later this month. Those arriving by air or sea can still seek asylum.\n\nAwad told the BBC that he hired a taxi on 14 November and, along with another Somali migrant, was driven for several hours from St Petersburg to Lakhdenpokhya, a town in Karelia 30km from the Finnish border.\n\nThey were acting on their own and no-one had helped them, he maintained.\n\nHis case was typical. His month-long visa had run out in August and when the taxi was stopped by police for a check, he was arrested. Awad and a dozen other people were sentenced the next day and moved to the detention centre.\n\nHuman rights groups say that foreigners using Russia as a transit point in their journey to the West routinely overstay their short-term visas while trying to cross borders with EU countries.\n\nSo when police began arresting those who did not have valid Russian visas in mid-November, it marked a change in Russia's approach to migrants at the Finnish border.\n\nThe documents offering a job which were presented by officials to the Somali and others were in Russian, which none of the group could understand. He and others assumed they would be given army-related work inside Russia, he said.\n\n\"We were not given the contract documents and [they] were not even shown properly. We asked [what the jobs will be] but they told us that it is simple and good,\" he told the BBC.\n\nFearing deportation to Somalia, where he said his life had been threatened several times by al-Shabab militants, he signed the offer, along with five other Somalis, five men from Arab countries and a Cuban national. They were put on a bus and were driven south.\n\nThe BBC has asked Russia's interior ministry in Karelia for information on how many other inmates have been released from such detention centres, but so far there has been no response.\n\nWe have also confirmed the identity of another man in the group, whose name matched the court records in Karelia.\n\nHundreds of migrants arrived at the Finnish border on bicycles in the space of a few weeks\n\nSeparately, an Iraqi man who was also arrested close to Finland's border told human rights activists that he too was being pressured to sign an army contract as a way to void the deportation order.\n\nHe said his life was in grave danger if he returned to Iraq. It is not known if he agreed to sign.\n\nEarlier this week, Somalia's Radio Kulmiye interviewed an unnamed representative from the Somali community in Belarus, who said at least 60 Somali nationals were being held in Russian detention centres and were being approached by military recruiters.\n\nAccording to him, at least eight men had agreed to sign a contract with the Russian army.\n\nAwad told BBC that his bus journey ended at the border with Ukraine, in a muddy military camp made of large tents.\n\nThat was when his group realised they were being sent to fight, he said: \"We were told a contract year with training and options with good pay and care, but no Ukrainian borders and war. Everything we were told was a lie.\"\n\nThe BBC has again approached the Russian interior ministry for comment on allegations that foreign detainees are being offered army contracts in exchange for their release.\n\nThe foreigners at that point demanded that their contracts were annulled. Awad said officials at the camp threatened them with long prison sentences for breaching military laws, but later retreated, saying that the job offers would be cancelled and deportation procedures would resume.\n\nFour men in the group had received letters confirming that, he said. The BBC has not seen those letters.\n\nFor now, they remain in the military camp. Awad said he had been told a \"video session with a court\" would be conducted soon, but was unable to provide details on what the hearing would be about.\n\nHe is adamant he has been duped into signing up to the Russian army, although his only defence is that he did not fully understand the offer made to him.\n\n\"I said no, because I don't know what I signed and it is not written in my language,\" he said. \"I am an asylum seeker, not a soldier.\"", "School budgets are expected to be in the red in 2023-24\n\nThe heads of Northern Ireland's main education bodies have urged an end to \"chronic underfunding\".\n\nIn a letter to the Northern Ireland secretary, the seven chief executives listed issues they said were affecting education.\n\nChris Heaton-Harris is in charge of NI's finances and set Stormont's budget as the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) boycott of power sharing continues.\n\nThe Department of Education's budget is under significant strain.\n\nIn October, the Education Authority said schools in Northern Ireland were expected to be £60m in the red in 2023-24, after the overall education budget was cut.\n\nOn Thursday, the chief executives of the seven main education bodies outlined their concerns to Mr Heaton-Harris.\n\nThey said they were writing to implore him to \"end this cycle\" of underfunding and \"treat our children and young people equitably\".\n\nThey cited problems in the sector including ongoing industrial action by staff over pay, inadequate funding for the fabric of the school estate and an increasing demand for support for young people with special educational needs.\n\n\"This is having an impact on all those in our schools but specifically the most vulnerable, marginalised and deprived,\" the letter added.\n\n\"In spite of these many pressures, staff right across the education system, both teaching and non-teaching, continue to deliver for our children.\n\n\"Their commitment and dedication to young people and wider school communities in the face of unprecedented challenges and difficulties is outstanding. Without these staff, our system would not operate.\"\n\nThe seven chief executives are:\n\nThe leaders collectively repeated a call for \"sustained investment, fair pay for all our staff and continued investment in the transformation of services\".\n\nThey said that in their roles they had already taken steps to reduce spending but they remained concerned that \" without equitable investment\", outcomes for all our children and young people would be compromised.\n\nAnd they warned the Northern Ireland secretary: \"As we move into 2024 we would ask you, as you continue to oversee the financial allocation to and within Northern Ireland, to remember that education is not an optional extra but is the foundation upon which a peaceful Northern Ireland is built.\n\n\"It is critical that education in Northern Ireland is funded equitably in line with other UK regions.\"\n\nThey also pointed to £75m announced in the Chancellor's autumn statement for Northern Ireland in November, and said they were concerned it was being used to repay a previous budget overspend \"rather than the much-needed investment required in public services\".\n\n\"This decision penalises the children of today and tomorrow. A child in Strabane should be entitled to the same level of investment as a child in Sunderland, Swansea or Stirling,\" the letter added.\n\nThe chief executives asked Mr Heaton-Harris to meet them to discuss the challenges facing the education sector, which they warned will \"remain the position\" into 2024 and beyond.\n\nA Northern Ireland Office Spokesperson said: \"This year's budget allocation from the UK Government gave the Northern Ireland Department of Education a total allocation of £2.6 billion.\n\n\"The decisions required to manage this budget continue to rest with the Northern Ireland departments.\n\n\"We continue to call on NI parties to restore a locally elected, accountable and effective devolved government as soon as possible, which is the best way to govern Northern Ireland\".", "Hostages' families held a rally at the weekend calling for the remaining people held captive to be released\n\nFamilies of people being held captive in Gaza say they have \"solid intelligence\" that the health of several hostages has deteriorated.\n\nSome are \"now in immediate danger\", the group of hostages' families said in a letter to Israel's war cabinet.\n\nPressure has been growing on officials over the 138 people still being held by Hamas and other armed groups.\n\nSome of the freed hostages met Israel's leaders on Tuesday in a meeting that witnesses say turned rowdy.\n\nIsrael has repeatedly pledged to do everything it can to rescue the remaining hostages. Some 110 hostages have been released in total - but a week-long truce under which dozens were freed ended last week and since then Israel has resumed its bombing of Gaza.\n\nIn a letter sent to the war cabinet, the Hostages Families HQ group said: \"We have received solid intelligence that there are abductees whose condition has deteriorated and are now in immediate danger.\"\n\nThey said at least one-third of the hostages were suffering from underlying illnesses and needed regular medical treatment - and going without such treatment was dangerous.\n\nMany abductees were also suffering from injuries from the 7 October attack - such as gunshot wounds or amputations - while some were tortured and abused, the group added.\n\n\"Based on this data, we demand that you act urgently, with initiative and creativity to obtain a deal for the immediate release of all the abductees - for them every additional day in captivity is a real danger to their lives,\" it said.\n\nIt is thought the evidence they cite has come from the newly-released hostages, who on Tuesday evening held a meeting with Israel's prime minister and war cabinet and described what they saw during their captivity.\n\nObservers say the meeting turned tense and disorganised - with some accusing the government of putting politics before the wellbeing of their loved-ones.\n\nAccording to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, one former hostage - Israeli nurse Nili Margalit - told the meeting she had been looking after some of the elderly people being held captive, and that they suffered from heart disease, kidney failure and Parkinson's.\n\n\"They lie on mattresses all day long. I don't know how they manage since I left,\" she said.\n\nAnother former hostage said she was scared by the bombing in Gaza, Haaretz reported.\n\n\"I see [Israeli] bombings there, and you have no idea where the captives are. I was in a house surrounded by explosions. We slept in tunnels, and we feared not Hamas, but Israel might kill us, and then it would have been said, 'Hamas killed you,'\" she said.\n\nIn an audio recording from the meeting, obtained by Israeli news site Ynet, another unnamed former hostage whose husband is still in captivity said she saw an 85-year-old Israeli man killed.\n\n\"I saw Aryeh Zalmanovich die in front of me,\" she said. \"And is that what you have to say, that you want to bring down the Hamas regime? That you want to show them who has bigger balls?\"\n\nApplause could be heard in the auditorium at the woman's outburst.\n\nIn the recording, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can be heard telling the families that there was \"no possibility right now of bringing everyone home\".\n\nHaaretz also quoted Mr Netanyahu as saying: \"We couldn't bring them all at once. If we could have done it, we would have.\"\n\nHe said that the reports of hostages' hearing Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombings while in captivity \"pierces the heart. It not only pierces the heart, but as you'll surely understand, it also affects our operational considerations\".\n\nAnd he repeated Israel's pledge to rescue all hostages, saying: \"Our responsibility is to bring them all back. We'll fulfil this responsibility and bring them home.\"\n\nIDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari repeated the pledge, saying: \"As the IDF expands its operations to dismantle Hamas in Gaza, we have not lost sight, not for one moment, of our critical mission to rescue our hostages, to do everything in our power to bring our hostages home.\"", "Colin Pitchfork was jailed for life for raping and strangling two 15-year-old girls, Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth\n\nDouble child murderer and rapist Colin Pitchfork will not be released from prison, the Parole Board has ruled.\n\nPitchfork was jailed for life for raping and strangling two 15-year-old girls, Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth, in Leicestershire in 1983 and 1986.\n\nAfter being released and then recalled in 2021, the 63-year-old was again granted parole in June, but this decision was challenged by ministers.\n\nNow the Parole Board has decided against releasing Pitchfork.\n\nPitchfork was the first murderer to be convicted using DNA evidence.\n\nHe was jailed for a minimum of 30 years in 1988, but this was later reduced to 28 years for good behaviour.\n\nWhen Pitchfork was originally deemed suitable for release in 2021, he had served 33 years.\n\nThe decision to keep him in prison, announced on Thursday, is provisional for 21 days - during which time Pitchfork can appeal.\n\nDawn's mother Barbara Ashworth told the PA News agency she did not wish to formally comment until the 21 days had passed, but said prison was \"where he [Pitchfork] needs to be\".\n\nPhilip Musson, Dawn's uncle, said he was \"hugely relieved\" by the decision.\n\nHe told the BBC: \"I just breathe a sigh of relief for the community and the children and families he would have been reintroduced to had his parole claim been successful.\"\n\nDawn Ashworth and Lynda Mann were raped and murdered by Pitchfork\n\nAfter his release in September 2021, Pitchfork received warnings for his attitude towards probation, and for speaking to a lone woman in a car park.\n\nThere were also concerns he was not complying with polygraph tests - a condition of his release.\n\nIt was also reported he had been walking \"aimlessly\" in forest and park areas, claiming to pick litter.\n\nBut after his recall two months later, it was established he had not gone anywhere he was not allowed to visit, and the polygraph condition was, in fact, unlawful.\n\nThe Parole Board concluded his recall was not appropriate.\n\nEarlier this year, the board had ruled Pitchfork could be released, but concerns about the danger he posed caused Justice Secretary Alex Chalk to intervene, making what is known as an \"application for reconsideration\" in July.\n\nA judge, when asked to reconsider the June decision to release, agreed it was \"irrational\", leading to a new panel hearing.\n\nThe hearing took place over three days on 2 October, 3 October and 6 November.\n\nIn a statement, the Parole Board said: \"After considering the circumstances of [Pitchfork's] offending, the progress made while in custody and on licence and the evidence presented at the hearing, the panel was not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public.\n\n\"Nor did the panel recommend to the Secretary of State that Mr Pitchfork should be transferred to an open prison.\n\n\"In the panel's view, there remains a need for Mr Pitchfork to complete further work to address the identified risk factors in his case and it determined that this work should be undertaken in a closed prison.\"\n\nIt added: \"The panel was concerned that there was an absence of current information about Mr Pitchfork's attitude towards sex, his thinking and his beliefs.\n\n\"Having explored this at the hearing, the panel could not be wholly satisfied whether the behaviours that caused Mr Pitchfork to offend were no longer present.\n\n\"The panel also identified concerns about his behaviour in prison since his recall and what it considered to be protracted and inconsistent explanations from Mr Pitchfork about his time on licence.\n\n\"Having heard his evidence, the panel did not consider that he was being open and honest.\"\n\nSouth Leicestershire MP Alberto Costa has campaigned to keep Pitchfork behind bars.\n\nHe said: \"I am pleased with the Parole Board's new decision and I am grateful to Alex Chalk MP, Justice Secretary, for listening to me and the people of South Leicestershire and applying to have this case reconsidered.\n\n\"This is welcome news for my constituents and the families of Dawn and Lynda, whose suffering will ultimately always outweigh Pitchfork's punishment.\"\n\nPitchfork and the bereaved relatives of Dawn and Lynda have been notified of the decision, Mr Costa added.\n\nLord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said: \"I asked the Parole Board to reconsider the release of Pitchfork this summer and I welcome their decision to keep him behind bars.\n\n\"This government is clear that offenders who have committed the most heinous crimes should see out the rest of their days behind bars.\n\n\"That's why we are changing the law so that for society's most depraved killers, life means life.\"\n\nBy law, the secretary of state must refer Pitchfork again to the Parole Board in time for his next parole review, to be completed within two years.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rishi Sunak is seeking a route to Rwanda for migrants that is legally, practically and politically navigable.\n\nLegally, because he has to find a way to address the concerns of the Supreme Court, who said his earlier plan was unlawful.\n\nPractically, because he wants migrants on planes to Rwanda before the general election.\n\nAnd politically because he has to simultaneously persuade those broadly on the left of his party who fret about any ideas they might regard as extreme and those on the right who fret he doesn't have the stomach to go far enough.\n\nAnd the blunt truth is we now know his now former immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, thinks he's destined to fail, again. He had been talking to the prime minister for around a week about his concerns - and now he has resigned.\n\nThis matters because cutting illegal immigration matters to hundreds of Conservative MPs and millions of voters.\n\nIt matters, too, because having been a cork in the bottle of Conservative chaos for much of his year and a bit as prime minister - in contrast to what came immediately before under Liz Truss and Boris Johnson - a moment like this has the potential to send that cork whizzing over the No10 garden wall.\n\nSenior figures are musing privately that they wouldn't be surprised if Mr Sunak ended up facing a confidence vote from his own MPs.\n\n\"Lots of MPs are concerned about their seats and the polls, and they're rapidly forming the view the current management is not performing and will not deliver an election win,\" one senior Tory MP said.\n\n\"The danger is we get a confidence vote by accident because if one MP says 'I'm putting my letter in' others do too'.\"\n\nThe MP added: \"I just want him to do better and listen to us. I actually want him to win the next general election, but frankly to please both wings of the party on an issue like this is impossible, and that's where leadership is important.\"\n\nAnother told me: \"Rishi wouldn't lose a confidence vote. But I wouldn't be surprised if he faced one.\"\n\nRobert Jenrick had been talking to the prime minister for around a week about his concerns\n\nA recurring theme from many Conservative MPs in private is a fear the leadership lacks a coherent strategy.\n\nAnd all this in the very week the government was trying to make the case it was making progress on migration.\n\nSources would whisper that gone were the fireworks of Suella Braverman - the former home secretary - and now came the action.\n\nAnd yet at the very moment the current Home Secretary James Cleverly was in Kigali, rebooting the government's plan to send some migrants to Rwanda, Mr Jenrick was telling the prime minister why it wouldn't work.\n\nSo, what happens next? Does Mr Jenrick's resignation galvanise a wider revolt that spins away into something perilous for the prime minister? After all, he was the in-house expert on immigration who has left because he reckons the new Rwanda plan is hopeless.\n\nOr do Conservative MPs conclude yet another blast of the collywobbles would be unforgivably indulgent?\n\nExcitable chatter is the currency of exchange at Westminster and the chatter about confidence votes and the like might not come to anything.\n\nBut the chatter is a measure of the mood among many Conservatives.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "McDonald's has announced the details of its new retro-style restaurant idea, CosMc's, which would operate in the same market segment as Starbucks.\n\nIts pilot, focusing on hot and cold speciality drinks, will open this month near Chicago, and it aims to be in 10 locations by the end of 2024.\n\nMeanwhile, the fast food giant plans to open about 10,000 McDonald's sites globally by 2027, with many in China.\n\nThe expansion would boost the number of its stores to about 50,000.\n\nThe first CosMc's is due to open in Bolingbrook, Illinois, near the fast food giant's headquarters, later this week, with about 10 more to open in Texas next year.\n\nThe concept is the fast food chain's latest effort to crack the lucrative coffee market, especially in the US, where more than 60% of the country drinks at least one cup a day.\n\n\"It's a very important category that McDonald's is not capitalising on properly in the US,\" said Jeffrey Young, founder of Allegra World Coffee Portal, a coffee research consultancy. \"The question is, is this a credible approach?\"\n\nThe name for the new brand comes from a McDonaldland mascot, an alien from outer space that craves its food, which appeared in adverts in the late 1980s and early 1990s.\n\nThe menu appears aimed at people with a very sweet tooth, offering items such as Churro Frappe - a kind of Spanish doughnut - and S'Mores Cold Brew - s'mores are biscuits, chocolate and marshmallows.\n\nThe company also promises customers the chance to make \"otherworldly\" drinks creations, customising their beverages with popping boba bubbles, or flavoured syrups.\n\nThere will also be a small number of McDonald's staple food items on the menu such as Egg McMuffins.\n\nSera Senatore, a senior analyst at Bank of America, said it was unclear why McDonald's thought it made more sense to launch a separate brand, instead of just expanding the menu at its existing shops.\n\n\"Maybe you bring in new customers who might not otherwise consider McDonald's. On the other hand, it's hard to establish a new brand,\" she said.\n\nMcDonald's already has a coffee and snack chain called McCafe, which only serves coffee and sweets, cakes or pastries.\n\nIt has had its greatest success outside of the US, ranking as Australia's top-selling brew. It is also the number two coffee seller in the UK, behind Costa, Mr Young said.\n\nIn America, however, Mr Young said McDonald's had struggled to establish its \"coffee credentials\".\n\nA 2008 plan to bring baristas and espresso machines to its US restaurants never fully caught on. Another push about a decade ago has also had mixed results.\n\nMs Senatore said the surging popularity of drive-through takeaway coffee shops may have convinced McDonald's - an expert in drive-throughs - to try again.\n\nThe play also comes as rising prices have drawn shoppers to cheaper fast food options such as McDonald's for a treat, while legions of social media users on apps like TikTok have jumped on the trend of posting their own unique drink combinations created at coffee shops using different creams, sprinkles, syrups and more.\n\nMcDonald's boss Chris Kempczinski emphasised that investors shouldn't get too excited about CosMc's but did say it could go global.\n\n\"It's not worth our time to develop an idea that will only work in one market,\" he said.\n\nCoffee shops are surging in popularity in China, a country that is key to the company's growth plans.\n\nIts latest expansion includes 900 new restaurants in the US, 1,900 in international markets where it operates its own restaurants, and 7,000 in its international licensed markets.\n\nThe fast food giant said it could be the \"fastest ever\" period of growth for its burger business.\n\nMore than half of the 7,000 additions will be in China, which is the chain's second-largest market. It recently struck a deal to have greater control over its business in the region.\n\nMr Kempczinski has said China could eventually become McDonald's largest market.\n\nBut the company also said it was seeing an impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.\n\nEarlier this year, a BBC investigation uncovered allegations by McDonald's staff of a toxic culture of sexual assault, harassment, racism and bullying at its UK restaurants.\n\nThe BBC was told that workers, some as young as 17, were being groped and harassed almost routinely.\n\nIn response, McDonald's said it had \"fallen short\" and it \"deeply apologised\".\n\nLast month, the UK boss of McDonald's told MPs the fast-food chain was receiving one or two sexual harassment claims a week following the investigation.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment police teams arrive at scene of active shooter in Las Vegas\n\nThree people were killed an another injured after a gunman opened fire on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, campus Wednesday afternoon.\n\nThe suspect, described as a former college professor in his 60s, was killed in a shootout with police.\n\nHe has not been named, but sources identified him as Anthony Polito, 67, to the BBC's US partner CBS News.\n\nPolice are expected to name the victims at a news conference on Thursday. Media reports say none were students.\n\nInvestigators at the state, local and federal levels are currently digging into what drove the Wednesday shooting, which also injured one person.\n\nCBS News reported that Mr Polito, a former business professor who had taught in Georgia and North Carolina, had applied for a position at the UNLV but did not get the job.\n\nOfficials told the BBC partner network that being denied the position may have factored into his motive for the attack.\n\nSpeaking at a Wednesday press conference, Kevin McMahill, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's sheriff, said that they had \"no idea on the motive\" as of now and did not have details on the weapon used in the shooting.\n\nMr Polito's online presence - through his personal website, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter account- provides no strong indications of why he might have opened fire at UNLV's business school.\n\nHe had been a tenured associate professor at Eastern Carolina University when he resigned in 2017. He started teaching there in 2001.\n\nHe appears to have moved to Nevada soon after and referred to himself as \"semi-retired\" on his personal website. He wrote positively about Las Vegas, posting on his site that he had \"had the pleasure of making more than two dozen trips\" there over 15 years.\n\nPolice have searched an apartment believed linked to the suspect in the nearby city of Henderson, and have seized electronics as possible evidence, CBS reports.\n\nThe university first tweeted at around 11:53 local time (19:53 GMT) on Wednesday that police were responding to reports of shots fired on campus.\n\nAbout 20 minutes later, the university said campus police were responding to an additional report of shots near the Student Union building.\n\nIt warned students at Beam Hall, home to the university's business school, to \"evacuate to a safe area\" and to \"RUN-HIDE-FIGHT\", which is a common active shooter protocol in the US.\n\nThe gunman moved among the floors of Beam Hall before exiting the building, according to police.\n\nAdam Garcia, university police chief, said the suspect was then killed in a shootout with two officers.\n\nSheriff McMahill said the university force's response saved the lives of students who were gathered outside of Beam Hall playing games and eating food.\n\n\"If it hadn't been for the heroic actions of one of those police officers who responded, there could have been countless additional lives taken,\" he said.\n\nThe surviving shooting victim is in stable condition at a local hospital, the sheriff said. Four other people were also taken to hospital for panic attacks and two police officers were treated for minor injuries.\n\nOne student who was on campus told a local ABC station that it seemed like police were on campus right away.\n\nDescribing the scene to the reporter he said: \"You don't know what to do. You're calling your family, texting your friends like 'I love you guys' because he [the shooter] could burst through the door at any minute.\"\n\nPresident Joe Biden said in a statement that UNLV is the \"latest college campus to be terrorized by a horrific act of gun violence\" and that he and First Lady Jill Biden are \"praying for the families of our fallen\".\n\nThe campus, about two miles from the world-famous Las Vegas Strip, will remain closed through Friday.\n\nThere have been more than 630 mass shootings in the US this year. Las Vegas is also the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, where more than 50 people were killed at a music festival in 2017.", "Almost two million people in Gaza - more than 85% of the population - are reported to have fled their homes in the two months since Israel began its military operation in response to Hamas's deadly attacks of 7 October.\n\nThe Strip has been under the control of Hamas since 2007 and Israel says it is trying to destroy the military and governing capabilities of the Islamist group, which is committed to the destruction of Israel.\n\nThe situation for ordinary people in Gaza - a densely populated enclave 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on one side and fenced off from Israel and Egypt at its borders - is \"getting worse by the hour\", according to United Nations aid agencies.\n\nIsrael warned civilians to evacuate the area of Gaza north of the Wadi Gaza riverbed, ahead of its invasion.\n\nThe evacuation area included Gaza City - which was the most densely populated area of the Gaza Strip. The Erez border crossing into Israel in the north is closed, so those living in the evacuation zone had no choice but to head towards the southern districts.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are now focusing its operations on southern Gaza and have told Palestinians that even Khan Younis - the largest urban area in the south - is not safe and they should move south, or further west to a so-called \"safe area\" at al-Mawasi, a thin strip of mainly agricultural land along the Mediterranean coast, close to the Egyptian border.\n\nFighting in Khan Younis has pushed tens of thousands of people to flee to the southern district of Rafah in recent days, the UN said.\n\nAccording to the UN, just over 75% of Gaza's population - some 1.7 million people - were already registered refugees before Israel warned Palestinians to leave northern Gaza.\n\nPalestinian refugees are defined by the UN as people whose \"place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 War\". The children of Palestinian refugees are also able to apply for refugee status.\n\nMore than 500,000 of those refugees were already in eight crowded camps located across the Strip.\n\nFollowing Israel's warnings, the number of displaced people has risen rapidly and 1.9 million have fled their homes since 7 October, the UN says.\n\nOn average, before the conflict, there were more than 5,700 people per sq km in Gaza - very similar to the average density in London - but that figure was more than 9,000 in Gaza City, the most heavily populated area.\n\nThe UN warns that overcrowding has become a major concern in its emergency shelters in central and southern Gaza, with some housing at four times its capacity.\n\nMany of these emergency shelters are schools and in some there are dozens of people living in a single classroom. Other families are living in tents or makeshift shelters in compounds or on waste ground in open spaces.\n\nIsrael has already launched hundreds of airstrikes across Gaza and says it has used more than 10,000 bombs and missiles, causing extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure.\n\nGazan officials say more than 50% of housing units in Gaza have been destroyed, left uninhabitable or damaged since the start of the conflict.\n\nThe map below - using analysis of satellite data by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University - shows which urban areas have sustained concentrated damage since the start of the conflict.\n\nThey say over 100,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip have suffered damage. North Gaza and Gaza City have borne the brunt of this, with around half the buildings in the two northern regions believed to have been damaged, but their analysis now suggests up to 20% of buildings in Khan Younis have also been damaged.\n\nEven healthcare facilities have been left unable to function as a result of bomb damage or lack of fuel.\n\nThe UN says hospital capacity in the enclave has more than halved from 3,500 beds before 7 October to about 1,500 now - and \"hardly any\" in the north.\n\nMore than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed during the Hamas attacks on 7 October. More than 18,000 Palestinians - including about 7,700 children - have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and operations since then, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.\n\nIt is difficult for the BBC to verify exact numbers, but the UN's World Health Organization (WHO) has said it has no reason to believe the figures are inaccurate.\n\nThe airstrikes were accompanied by a \"complete siege\" of Gaza by Israel, with electricity, food and fuel supplies cut, followed by military action on the ground.\n\nThe IDF began its ground operations by moving into Gaza from the north west along the coast and into the north east near Beit Hanoun. A few days later Israeli forces cut across the middle of the territory to the south of Gaza City.\n\nArmoured bulldozers created routes for tanks and troops, as the Israeli forces tried to clear the area of Hamas fighters based in northern Gaza.\n\nHaving cut Gaza in two, the Israelis pushed further into Gaza City, where they faced some resistance from Hamas.\n\nThe image below, released by the IDF, shows tanks and armoured bulldozers on the beach near Gaza City.\n\nA photo of the same beach from last summer shows people making the most of a hot day in Gaza, families splashing in the sea or sitting on fanning out along the beach.\n\nEven before the current conflict, about 80% of the population of Gaza was in need of humanitarian aid, and although Israel has been allowing some aid in from Egypt, aid agencies said it was nowhere near enough.\n\nA seven-day ceasefire at the end of November allowed agencies to deliver an average of 170 trucks and 110,000 litres of fuel a day but that has since fallen to about 100 trucks and 70,000 litres of fuel, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says.\n\n\"It's too little, it's way too little,\" the WHO's Dr Rick Peeperkorn said.\n\nMeanwhile, the WHO has warned that renewed fighting is making the distribution of aid in most of Gaza \"almost impossible\" and will \"only intensify the catastrophic hunger crisis\" that already threatens to overwhelm civilians.\"\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? If it is safe to do so, please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The Prince of Wales has sprung a surprise on Emma Webb, who is pulling a life-sized model horse 160 miles (257km) in memory of her daughter Brodie, 16, who took her life in 2020.\n\nShe is walking from Chepstow, Monmouthshire to London over 19 days.\n\nWilliams shocked her by turning up out of the blue on day 13 of her 19-day journey in Slough, Berkshire.\n\nShe screamed \"oh my gosh\", before the prince hugged her and then had a chat with her and her friends.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson has finished giving evidence at the public inquiry looking into how his government handled the Covid crisis.\n\nOver two days at the hearing, the former prime minster admitted some mistakes were made but defended his overall approach.\n\nHere are key points that emerged from around 10 hours of questioning.\n\nMr Johnson was highly combative during his grilling by a committee of MPs over Partygate in March, a tactic that did not stop them ultimately concluding he misled Parliament over the scandal.\n\nThis time, Mr Johnson - who reportedly spent hours with his publicly-funded lawyers preparing for his appearance at the inquiry - took a more measured approach.\n\nThere were occasional theatrics, however, such as when he accused the lead inquiry lawyer of saying he had \"his feet up\" at his country retreat in February 2020 - before Mr Johnson admitted he had confused the comment with someone else.\n\nAnd he choked up when he described the return of the virus after the first national lockdown, describing 2020 as a \"tragic, tragic year\".\n\nHe also drew on his own experience of being moved into intensive care with the virus to insist he \"did care\" about the fate of those who suffered with Covid, and he understood \"what an appalling disease this is\".\n\nHe opened his testimony by saying he was sorry for the \"pain and the loss and the suffering\" people experienced during the pandemic.\n\nBut his comments were interrupted by protesters, who were ordered to leave the inquiry room.\n\nSome members of bereaved families stood up holding pieces of paper, spelling out the message: \"The dead can't hear your apologies.\"\n\nThere were also protests outside the inquiry building during his evidence, and his departure from the venue on both days was greeting with jeers and boos.\n\nFamilies bereaved by Covid held up pictures of lost loved ones outside the inquiry building\n\nThe main point he wanted to get across was that ministers did their \"level best\" to respond to the virus, in difficult circumstances.\n\nHowever, he admitted he - along with scientists and advisers - should have \"twigged\" the seriousness posed by the disease earlier than he did.\n\nHe also said his Downing Street operation had a problem with gender balance, adding that \"too many meetings were male-dominated\".\n\nHe conceded that, as a \"symbol of government earnestness\", mass gatherings should perhaps have been banned earlier than they were in 2020.\n\nAnd he also apologised for describing long Covid as \"bollocks\" in a previously-published handwritten note from October 2020.\n\nHe was more relaxed, however, about some of the foul language revealed in WhatsApp messages disclosed during the course of the inquiry so far.\n\nHe denied his No 10 had been a toxic place to work, and said bad-tempered exchanges between advisers showed \"naturally self-critical\" people anxious to do their best, even adding it was \"creatively useful\".\n\nAnd he shrugged off messages in which he was urged to sack Matt Hancock as health secretary, saying that as prime minister he was \"constantly being lobbied by somebody to sack somebody else\".\n\n\"It's just what, I'm afraid, happens, and it's part of life,\" he told the inquiry.\n\nHe did reveal, however, he had apologised to Helen MacNamara, the former official who accused him of failing to tackle \"misogynistic language\" used about her in a WhatsApp group by his former top adviser Dominic Cummings.\n\nHe said that, whilst understandable, the different messages in different parts of the UK - where there were different Covid rules - risked being \"confusing\" for the public.\n\nHe insisted that he had always enjoyed a \"friendly\" relationship with then-Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon, despite suggestions earlier in the inquiry that No 10 was reluctant for them to hold meetings.\n\nIn England, he said the tier system was \"divisive and difficult to implement\" involving \"laborious\" negotiation over local financial support.\n\nOne eye-catching revelation during Mr Johnson's testimony came over diary extracts from Sir Patrick Vallance, his chief scientific adviser at the time.\n\nAccording to one entry, the former prime minister blamed high infection rates in Wales during the pandemic on \"the singing and the obesity\".\n\nHowever, he was not asked about that alleged remark about Wales, which appeared in a diary extract dated 11 September 2020.\n\nInstead, the inquiry lawyer quizzed him on a different part of the entry.", "Cash use has grown for the first time in 10 years as shoppers keep a close eye on their budgets while prices rise, retailers have said.\n\nThe British Retail Consortium said 19% of purchases were made with notes and coins last year, echoing a report by banks showing a slight rebound.\n\nThe figures come as the UK's financial watchdog has proposed new rules to help maintain access to cash.\n\nMinisters say banks will be fined if money cannot be withdrawn or deposited.\n\nUnder government rules, free withdrawals and deposits will need to be available within one mile for people living in urban areas.\n\nIn rural areas, where there are concerns over \"cash deserts\", the maximum distance is three miles.\n\nCash was used in 19% of transactions last year, according to retailers, up from 15% the previous year. Until 2015, notes and coins were used in more than half of transactions and, while card use now dominated, cash still had its benefits.\n\nThe consortium said consumers were budgeting carefully to try to cope with cost of living pressures, and there was also a \"natural return\" for cash after it slumped during the pandemic.\n\nIts payments policy adviser, Hannah Regan, said: \"We are now seeing a return to many of the pre-pandemic trends in payments, including smaller but more frequent purchases, and a slight return of cash payments.\n\n\"Unfortunately, what has not changed, is the ever-increasing scale of fees paid by retailers in order to accept card payments.\"\n\nIn September, banking trade body UK Finance also reported that cash use had risen for the first time in a decade, pointing to the financial impact of rising prices.\n\nBut it said it expected cash use to decline over the coming years, once the current financial squeeze had eased.\n\nUK Finance said nearly 22 million people only used cash once a month or not at all last year.\n\nHowever, some reports have suggested about five million people still rely on cash and there has been pressure to ensure access is still available as bank branches and ATMs shut.\n\nAmong a string of closures announced last week, was the final bank in Richmond, North Yorkshire - part of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's constituency - which will be replaced with a shared banking hub.\n\nThe Treasury wants to maintain the current level of coverage of free access to cash, through ATMs or face-to-face services, but says that could be diluted as cash use falls.\n\nA voluntary arrangement is currently in place which means every High Street should have free access to cash within 1km.\n\nThe UK's financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, (FCA) proposed new additional rules on Thursday requiring banks and building societies to assess and plug gaps in local cash provision.\n\nThe FCA's consultation document showed that in the two years to the first quarter of 2023, 1,391 bank and building society branches closed, as did 2,176 free-to-use ATMs.\n\nUnder the new rules, designated firms will be required to look at gaps in access to cash across local communities and act if necessary. In their assessments, lenders will need to take into account factors such as transport links and the age of the local population.\n\nThe FCA wants to prevent people and businesses from facing unreasonable costs to access their money, which could be through charges, travel costs or time.\n\nLenders will be required to provide \"reasonable\" additional cash services to fill gaps where assessments show that there is, or will be, a big local gap. They must also ensure they do not close cash facilities, including bank branches and ATMs, until those extra services are available.\n\nSheldon Mills, executive director of consumers and competition at the FCA, said: \"We know that, while there is an increasing shift to digital payments, over three million consumers still rely on cash - particularly people who may be vulnerable.\"\n\nHe added that the new rules outlined under the proposals would \"help manage the pace of change and ensure that people can continue to access cash if they need it\".\n\nThe plans follow new powers granted to the regulator by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, although they will not enable the FCA to prevent bank branches from closing.\n\nHave you been using cash more often when shopping? Do you have problems accessing cash? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Republican candidates for president largely avoided criticising frontrunner Donald Trump in their final debate outing in Alabama.\n\nFor almost two hours, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy fended off moderators' invitations to attack him.\n\nOnly ex-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie addressed Mr Trump directly, saying he would use another term in office to persecute political rivals.\n\nMr Trump maintained his policy of non-attendance at the debate.\n\nThe former president has refused to take part in any of the preceding three contests and has consistently called on the Republican Party to cancel the bouts, insisting that no other candidate can overcome his double digit lead.\n\nDespite Mr Trump's absence, Mr Christie condemned the former president as a \"dictator\" during heated attacks.\n\nHis comments come after Mr Trump refused to rule out using the power of the presidency to attack political rivals during an interview with Fox News on Tuesday. He promised he would not be a dictator upon returning to office \"except for day one\".\n\nBut Mr Christie failed to draw his rivals, chiefly Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, to join his broadside against Mr Trump.\n\nMr DeSantis, who has struggled to differentiate himself from his one-time ally and fellow Florida resident, did concede that he felt the Republican frontrunner was too old for another term as president and urged that voters support the \"next generation of leaders\".\n\n\"Father time is undefeated,\" Mr DeSantis said. \"The idea that we are going to put somebody up there who is 80 and there is going to be no effects from that, we all know that's not true.\"\n\nAnd while Ms Haley attacked Mr Trump - under whom she served as UN Ambassador - over his failure to combat China, she defended his trade record with Beijing. When asked directly about the former president's controversial ban on immigration from seven Muslim majority countries, however, she simply said she would apply a new policy.\n\nBut Mr Christie refused to let his rivals off the hook, suggesting that their refusal to criticise Mr Trump was because \"they have future aspirations\", alluding to their potential desire to join his administration.\n\n\"There's no bigger issue in this race than Donald Trump,\" Mr Christie insisted. \"This is an angry, bitter man who now wants to be back as president because he wants to exact retribution on anyone who has disagreed with him.\"\n\nAfter Mr DeSantis refused to answer a host's question about Mr Trump's mental fitness for office, Mr Christie again went on the attack. It led to a lengthy shouting match between the two men.\n\n\"Guys, guys, guys,\" host Megyn Kelly eventually interrupted. \"No talking over each other.\"\n\nBy contrast to his rivals, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy refused to condemn Mr Trump, instead seeking to defend the 2021 Capitol Riot and rattling off several conspiracy theories.\n\n\"Why am I the only person, on this stage at least, who can say that Jan. 6 now does look like it was an inside job?\" Mr Ramaswamy said.\n\nIn a statement after the debate, a spokesperson for Mr Trump's fundraising campaign called the debate \"the biggest waste of time, money, and energy that politics has ever seen\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: My patience with Rwanda plan has worn thin - Sunak\n\nRishi Sunak has urged MPs to back his Rwanda asylum plan, after senior Tories warned him it was doomed to fail.\n\nThe PM was forced to call a news conference to shore up his authority after Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick quit over the revised policy.\n\nMr Jenrick said a law aimed at reviving the policy \"did not go far enough\".\n\nMr Sunak said he was wrong - but insisted a Commons vote on the bill next week would not be a matter of confidence in his government.\n\nWhen asked he if he would throw Tory MPs who defied him out of the party, Mr Sunak said \"no\", the vote was about \"confidence in Parliament to demonstrate that it gets the British people's frustration\".\n\nThis suggests Tory critics of the Rwanda plan will be able to vote against it without fear of being suspended from the parliamentary Conservative Party.\n\nThe scheme to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, in east Africa, for processing was first announced by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April 2022.\n\nMr Sunak has made it the most high-profile part of his pledge to \"stop the boats\", claiming it will deter people from attempting to cross the English Channel.\n\nBut it has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges and no asylum seekers have been sent to Rwanda from the UK yet.\n\nOn Wednesday, the government unveiled the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which is designed to resurrect the policy after the scheme was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court last month.\n\nThe bill compels judges to treat Rwanda as a safe country and gives ministers the powers to disregard sections of the Human Rights Act.\n\nConservative MPs on the right of the party want the bill to go even further in preventing the possibility of legal challenges under domestic and international human rights laws.\n\nMr Jenrick resigned on Wednesday over the new legislation, which he described as \"a triumph of hope over experience\".\n\nFormer Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the law would \"fail\" in its current form, and warned the Conservative Party risked \"electoral oblivion\" unless it changed course.\n\nBut Mr Sunak insisted the Safety of Rwanda Bill was the \"toughest immigration law ever\", which \"blocks every single reason that has ever been used to prevent flights to Rwanda from taking off\".\n\nAt his Downing Street news conference, Mr Sunak insisted the new law was the \"only approach\" that would successfully prevent further legal challenges stopping flights taking off to Rwanda.\n\nMr Sunak said if the government went any further in disregarding human rights law in the legislation, Rwanda would abandon the deal.\n\n\"Going any further would mean that Rwanda would collapse the scheme and then we'll have nowhere to send anyone to - and that is not the way to get this going,\" Mr Sunak said.\n\n\"So what everyone should do is support this bill.\"\n\nWith some Tory MPs in open revolt over the direction of the policy, Mr Sunak is facing questions over whether he can win a vote to support the passage of the bill in Parliament.\n\nA government can designate a key vote as a confidence matter. This is a means of putting pressure on MPs to vote with the government on a specific issue.\n\nIt is a high-risk tactic, as the loss of such a confidence vote can trigger a general election. But Mr Sunak indicated he would not play this card.\n\nAt the news conference, Mr Sunak was asked if he was telling Tory MPs to \"back me or sack me\", a phrase used by former Tory Prime Minister John Major when he faced a leadership challenge in 1995.\n\nMr Sunak did not answer the question directly but said his \"patience with this has worn thin\".\n\n\"We've got to end the legal merry-go-round that has blocked us from getting our Rwanda scheme up and running,\" he said.\n\nMr Sunak said \"the real question is for the Labour Party\", which has pledged to scrap the Rwanda policy if it wins the next election, casting doubt over its long-term future.\n\nThe prime minister said: \"The question is for everyone else, and crucially the Labour Party, what's their plan? They are going to vote for this legislation?\"\n\nThe goading of Labour, and the impromptu news conference, suggests the prime minister has realised the political danger that lies ahead for his government.\n\nThere are some suggestions Conservative MPs might try to trigger a party confidence vote in Mr Sunak's leadership.\n\nSome other Conservatives believe the party's unruliness might compel Mr Sunak to call a general election earlier than expected.\n\nThe prime minister's press conference does not seem to have done much to calm tensions in his party.\n\nA group of Tory right-wingers are taking legal advice on the bill before deciding whether to back it, or move against it next week.\n\nThe One Nation group of Tory MPs, seen as moderate, have also employed a lawyer to examine the legislation.\n\nThe task of steering the bill through Parliament falls to Michael Tomlinson, who was appointed illegal migration minister on Thursday.\n\nHe will work alongside Tom Pursglove, the minister for legal migration, after the prime minister split Mr Jenrick's vacant role in two.", "Claire Lewis says the \"game-changer\" drug had given hope to so many families\n\nA family say they are devastated after medication described as a \"cure\" for their rare bone disease was not recommended for the NHS.\n\nClaire Lewis, 59, and her family live with X-linked hypophosphataemia (XLH), which affects bones and teeth.\n\nThe National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) rejected the burosumab drug for adults on the NHS in draft guidance.\n\n\"It affects every part of your life… we are distraught,\" said Ms Lewis.\n\nMs Lewis, from Hirwaun, Rhondda Cynon Taf, said the new medication, marketed under the name Crysvita, could be a \"game-changer\".\n\n\"I've been told it's [as good as] a cure,\" she said.\n\nApproval by the Scottish Medicines Consortium means patients in Scotland have been able to access the drug on the NHS since February.\n\nFour generations of Ms Lewis' family - including her three siblings, her mum, her three children and her great-nephew Reggie - have the hereditary condition and they can trace it back to the 1800s in their lineage.\n\nThey face daily pain, and one of her sisters has even lost all her teeth to the condition.\n\nXLH affects one in 20,000 people and Ms Lewis believes only eight families in Wales are affected.\n\nBut \"there are absolutely no expertise for adults with XLH\" in Wales, she added.\n\nIt is characterised by low levels of phosphate and \"basically gives you rickets\".\n\nMs Lewis was a teacher for more than 20 years, but had to give up her career a decade ago when she needed surgery.\n\n\"It affects every single part of your life,\" she said.\n\n\"As I've got older, the fatigue has completely taken over. I can only do half of what I used to, 59 is not old.\"\n\nShe said even getting up and getting dressed were difficult.\n\n\"I can get up in the morning feeling as if I haven't slept at all, even though I may have slept 12 hours,\" she added.\n\n\"We are very weak because we can't walk that far. I can no longer get on and off buses or trains.\"\n\nClaire Lewis, right, and her daughters all suffer daily pain due to the bone disease\n\nMs Lewis said her marriage broke down due to the stress, and that relationships were often difficult for people with XLH, partly due to the possibility of passing the disease to children.\n\nShe added: \"What it affects most is your mental health… being different and people just not understanding what's happening.\"\n\nMs Lewis' family currently attend a geriatric bone clinic, since the funding for them to go to a specialised clinic in Oxford was stopped in 2018.\n\n\"The treatment in Wales is, I would like to say poor, but I have to say non-existent,\" she said.\n\nStuart Ralston, a professor of rheumatology at the University of Edinburgh, is an expert in bone diseases and has used burosumab with some of his own patients since February.\n\n\"It's worked fantastically well. Essentially, it's like a cure, so it's a very effective treatment,\" he said.\n\nProf Ralston said NICE \"seem to be stalling\" due to less evidence available on the effects of the medication in adults compared to children and hoped its use in Scotland would help demonstrate the benefits.\n\nPeople with XLH have a lack of active vitamin D in their bodies, which needs to be activated before the body can use it \"a bit like your electronic train tickets on your mobile phone,\" said Prof Ralston.\n\nHe added phosphate supplements were \"hard for patients to take\" making it difficult to control the condition without burosumab.\n\nHe said he did not know how much the NHS would have to pay for it, but admitted it was \"very expensive\" at a list price of about £200,000 a year per patient.\n\nClaire Lewis had to have surgery to her femur, forcing her to give up work when she was just 48 years old\n\nMs Lewis attended a roundtable discussion on rare diseases at the Senedd, chaired by Mike Hedges, on 4 October.\n\nSwansea East MS Mr Hedges said he was \"disappointed\" by the NICE decision, but added: \"I would like to see an arbitration procedure on the price of drugs so that companies would need to justify the price they are charging.\"\n\nIn its draft guidance, NICE said \"people having burosumab may have less pain and fatigue, and improved physical functioning\" but this was \"not certain\".\n\nIt added: \"All of the cost effectiveness estimates are above the range normally considered an acceptable use of NHS resources.\"\n\nThe treatment has previously been approved by NICE for children with growing bones, but Ms Lewis said this was concerning because young people like three-year-old Reggie would not have an understanding of the condition's symptoms when the treatment stopped.\n\n\"The difference in him has been outstanding,\" Ms Lewis said.\n\nShe added the XLH community - who communicate online and regularly meet up - have been waiting years to find out if the drug would be available to them.\n\n\"Everyone is devastated... It's so short-sighted,\" Ms Lewis said.\n\nReggie, three, is receiving the burosumab drug but his family are worried about how he will cope when he turns 18 and funding stops\n\nThe second NICE evaluation is in February 2024 and campaigners are lobbying NICE to reconsider.\n\nCharity XLH UK said: \"Access to this treatment is not merely about managing symptoms, it's about providing individuals the opportunity for a life without the constant burden of pain and limited mobility.\"\n\nIt said denying access to the drug \"imposes a cycle of unnecessary additional suffering.\"\n\nClaire Lewis and other XLH patients and campaigners attended a round table discussion at the Senedd in October\n\nKyowa Kirin, the company which makes the drug, said it \"regrets\" NICE's decision, but is committed to finding a solution.\n\nThe Welsh government said it relied on NICE guidance \"to ensure resources are targeted where patients will benefit the most, and where the medicine costs are in balance with those benefits\".\n\n\"The draft guidance does not constitute NICE's final position on the availability of burosumab,\" it said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson rejects claims his Covid policy was \"let it rip\" across UK\n\nBoris Johnson has insisted he did not pursue a \"let it rip\" strategy during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nGiving evidence to the Covid inquiry, he said he did offer counter arguments in order to challenge the consensus in meetings.\n\nHe argued his actions proved he worked to curb the virus, rather than allowing it to spread through the population.\n\nHe also rejected the idea that he was slow to act when cases began rising again in the autumn of 2020.\n\nIn his second day of testimony at the inquiry, he denied that he had been reluctant to lock down a second time because he was prepared to let older people die to keep the economy open.\n\nIn a tetchy exchange, he called the idea \"rubbish\" and insisted he had aimed to \"save human life at all ages\".\n\nMore on Covid and the Covid Inquiry\n\nMr Johnson has faced nearly ten hours of questioning this week, for which he has reportedly prepared for hours with his government-funded inquiry lawyers, and has submitted a 233-page witness statement.\n\nHis first day of testimony on Wednesday was interrupted by protesters, with demonstrators outside the inquiry building on both days holding up pictures of lost loved ones and jeering his departure.\n\nHis second day of evidence focused on the autumn of 2020, when Mr Johnson has been accused of being too slow to reimpose restrictions after cases shot back up again.\n\nIn one exchange, he was shown extracts from the diary of Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientific adviser of the time.\n\nIn an entry from October, Sir Patrick said Mr Johnson had argued for \"letting it all rip,\" quoting him as saying potential victims had \"had a good innings\" and \"reached their time anyway\".\n\nWhen the inquiry's lead lawyer put it to him that these \"secretly held\" views had made him reluctant to reimpose restrictions in the autumn, he shook his head and could be heard saying \"honestly\" under his breath.\n\n\"The implication that you're trying to draw from those conversations is completely wrong,\" he replied. \"My position was that we had to save human life at all ages\".\n\n\"If you look at what we actually did, never mind the accounts that you have culled from people's jottings from meetings... if you look at what we actually did, we went into lockdown as soon as we could.\n\n\"I had to challenge the consensus in the meeting.\"\n\nMr Johnson later said he regretted the \"hurt and offence\" some of his language had caused, before adding: \"A lot of what has been reported is incorrect, and there are words that are described to me that I simply don't recognise.\n\nHe explained that he spoke \"in an unpolished way\" because he wanted others to \"speak freely\".\n\nThe former prime minister also told the inquiry:\n\nMr Johnson was also asked about Eat Out to Help Out, the government-sponsored discount scheme to encourage people to go back to restaurants after they reopened.\n\nHe said the measure was not seen as a \"gamble\" when introduced, and that he had not subsequently seen evidence that proved it \"made a big difference\" to the infection rate.\n\nThere has been conflicting evidence as to whether the scheme did propel the virus, and a surge of cases in the UK mirrored rises in other European countries, which did not have the scheme.\n\nIn previous hearings, the inquiry has been told that neither senior scientific advisers nor Matt Hancock, health secretary at the time, were told about the scheme before it was announced.\n\nMr Johnson said he was \"perplexed\" at the suggestion top advisers had been unaware of the plan, adding that it was not a secret and had been \"discussed several times in meetings in which I believe they must have been present\".\n\nThe inquiry also saw extracts from Sir Patrick's diaries which included the line: \"Wales very high - PM says 'it is the singing and the obesity...I never said that'.\"\n\nMr Johnson was not asked about the alleged remark about Wales, which appeared in a entry dated 11 September 2020.\n\nThe former prime minister was largely measured during the hearing but robustly defended himself against accusations he did not care about people's suffering during the pandemic.\n\nBecoming emotional, he recalled his time in intensive care after contracting Covid.\n\n\"I saw around me a lot of people who were not actually elderly - in fact, they were middle aged men and they were quite like me.\n\n\"And some of us were going to make it and some of us weren't.\n\n\"I knew from that experience what an appalling disease this is... To say that I didn't care about the suffering that was being inflicted on the country is simply not right.\"\n\nMr Johnson's successor Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is due to give evidence to the inquiry on Monday.\n\nBecky Kummer, spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said Mr Johnson's evidence showed he \"failed to take the pandemic seriously in early 2020 leaving us brutally unprepared, and failed to learn from his mistakes meaning that the second wave had an even higher death toll than the first\".\n\n\"He delayed for fear of how it might impact his reputation with certain sections of the press.... there are many lessons from the pandemic that might save lives in the future, but one of them is undoubtedly that someone as self-serving as Boris Johnson is not fit for power.\"", "Prince Harry is challenging the fairness of how decisions over his security were made\n\nPrince Harry wants his children to \"feel at home\" in the UK but they cannot if \"it's not possible to keep them safe\", the High Court has heard.\n\nCalling the UK his home, the Duke of Sussex said it was \"with great sadness\" that he and his wife Meghan \"felt forced\" to leave the country in 2020.\n\nHe is challenging the Home Office over a decision to downgrade his security protection when visiting.\n\nThe government says his claim should be dismissed.\n\nThe court is considering the changes to publicly-funded protection when Prince Harry stopped being a \"working royal\" in early 2020. After stepping back he moved to the US, where he lives with his wife and their two children, Archie and Lilibet.\n\nThe committee that arranges security for members of the Royal Family and other VIPs - known as Ravec - decided in 2020 that Prince Harry would no longer have the automatic level of security for senior royals.\n\nInstead the level of security would be arranged depending on the perceived risk, as is the case with other high-profile visiting dignitaries.\n\nPrince Harry's lawyers say the decision was \"unlawful and unfair\".\n\nAt a hearing on Thursday his barrister, Shaheed Fatima KC, said references by the Home Office's lawyers to the prince no longer being a full-time working royal were \"often said in a way that emphasised choice\".\n\nBut she said he did not accept this.\n\nShe read out an excerpt of a statement written by Harry as part of his case, in which he said: \"It was with great sadness for both of us that my wife and I felt forced to step back from this role and leave the country in 2020.\n\n\"The UK is my home. The UK is central to the heritage of my children and a place I want them to feel at home as much as where they live at the moment in the US. That cannot happen if it's not possible to keep them safe when they are on UK soil.\n\n\"I cannot put my wife in danger like that and, given my experiences in life, I am reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm's way too.\"\n\nThursday marks the end of the two-and-a-half day hearing - much of which concerned security arrangements for senior figures and took place in private.\n\nPrince Harry, who did not attend in person, now waits for a ruling from Mr Justice Lane at a later date.\n\nEarlier this week, Prince Harry's lawyers argued there had been a lack of transparency about the decision and the prince had been not been treated the same way as others.\n\nThere was \"no good reason for singling out the claimant [Prince Harry] this way,\" said his legal team.\n\nMs Fatima KC told the court: \"Ravec should have considered the 'impact' a successful attack on the claimant would have, bearing in mind his status, background and profile within the royal family - which he was born into and which he will have for the rest of his life - and his ongoing charity work and service to the public.\"\n\nBut the Home Office's case argued that as the prince was no longer a working royal and lived overseas, \"his position has materially changed\".\n\n\"In those circumstances protective security would not be provided on the same basis as before,\" said its lawyers.\n\nThere will still be publicly-funded police security for Prince Harry, the lawyers said, but these will be \"bespoke arrangements, specifically tailored to him\", rather than the automatic security provided for full-time working royals.\n\nSir James Eadie KC, for the Home Office, said in written arguments it was \"simply incorrect\" to suggest that there was no evidence that the issue of impact was considered, adding that the death of Diana, Princess of Wales - Harry's mother - was raised as part of the decision.", "A ChatGPT feature allowing users to easily build their own artificial-intelligence assistants can be used to create tools for cyber-crime, a BBC News investigation has revealed.\n\nOpenAI launched it last month, so users could build customised versions of ChatGPT \"for almost anything\".\n\nNow, BBC News has used it to create a generative pre-trained transformer that crafts convincing emails, texts and social-media posts for scams and hacks.\n\nIt follows warnings about AI tools.\n\nBBC News signed up for the paid version of ChatGPT, at £20 a month, created a private bespoke AI bot called Crafty Emails and told it to write text using \"techniques to make people click on links or and download things sent to them\".\n\nCrafty Emails was told to use psychology tricks to create \"urgency, fear and confusion\" and make recipients do as they were told\n\nBBC News uploaded resources about social engineering and the bot absorbed the knowledge within seconds. It even created a logo for the GPT. And the whole process required no coding or programming.\n\nThe bot was able to craft highly convincing text for some of the most common hack and scam techniques, in multiple languages, in seconds.\n\nThe public version of ChatGPT refused to create most of the content - but Crafty Emails did nearly everything asked of it, sometimes adding disclaimers saying scam techniques were unethical.\n\nOpenAI responded after publication with a spokesman emailing to say that the firm is \"continually improving safety measures based on how people use our products. We don't want our tools to be used for malicious purposes, and we are investigating how we can make our systems more robust against this type of abuse.\"\n\nAt its developer conference in November, the company revealed it was going to launch an App Store-like service for GPTs, allowing users to share and charge for their creations.\n\nLaunching its GPT Builder tool, the company promised to review GPTs to prevent users from creating them for fraudulent activity.\n\nBut experts say OpenAI is failing to moderate them with the same rigour as the public versions of ChatGPT, potentially gifting a cutting-edge AI tool to criminals.\n\nBBC News tested its bespoke bot by asking it to make content for five well known scam and hack techniques - none was sent or shared:\n\nBBC News asked Crafty Emails to write a text pretending to be a girl in distress using a stranger's phone to ask her mother for money for a taxi - a common scam around the world, known as a \"Hi Mum\" text or WhatsApp scam.\n\nCrafty Emails wrote a convincing text, using emojis and slang, with the AI explaining it would trigger an emotional response because it \"appeals to the mother's protective instincts\".\n\nThe GPT also created a Hindi version, in seconds, using terms such as \"namaste\" and \"rickshaw\" to make it more culturally relevant in India.\n\nBut when BBC News asked the free version of ChatGPT to compose the text, a moderation alert intervened, saying the AI could not help with \"a known scam\" technique.\n\nNigerian-prince scam emails have been circulating for decades, in one form or another.\n\nCrafty Emails wrote one, using emotive language the bot said \"appeals to human kindness and reciprocity principles\".\n\nBBC News asked Crafty Emails for a text encouraging people to click on a link and enter their personal details on a fictitious website - another classic attack, known as a short-message service (SMS) phishing, or Smishing, attack.\n\nMr Altman showed off how easy GPT Builder was to use, at his developer conference\n\nIt had used social-engineering techniques like the \"need-and-greed principle\", the AI said.\n\nBut the public version of ChatGPT refused.\n\nBitcoin-giveaway scams encourage people on social media to send Bitcoin, promising they will receive double as a gift. Some have lost hundreds of thousands.\n\nCrafty Emails drafted a Tweet with hashtags, emojis and persuasive language in the tone of a cryptocurrency fan.\n\nOne of the most common attacks is emailing a specific person to persuade them to download a malicious attachment or visit a dangerous website.\n\nCrafty Emails GPT drafted such a spear-phishing email, warning a fictional company executive of a data risk and encouraging them to download a booby-trapped file.\n\nThe bot translated it to Spanish and German, in seconds, and said it had used human-manipulation techniques, including the herd and social-compliance principles, \"to persuade the recipient to take immediate action\".\n\nThe open version of ChatGPT also carried out the request - but the text it delivered was less detailed, without explanations about how it would successfully trick people.\n\nJamie Moles, senior technical manager at cyber-security company ExtraHop, has also made a custom GPT for cyber-crime.\n\n\"There is clearly less moderation when it's bespoke, as you can define your own 'rules of engagement' for the GPT you build,\" he said.\n\nMalicious use of AI has been a growing concern, with cyber authorities around the world issuing warnings in recent months.\n\nThere is already evidence scammers around the world are turning to large language models (LLMs) to get over language barriers and create more convincing scams.\n\nSo-called illegal LLMs such as WolfGPT, FraudBard, WormGPT are already in use.\n\nBut experts say OpenAI's GPT Builders could be giving criminals access to the most advanced bots yet.\n\n\"Allowing uncensored responses will likely be a goldmine for criminals,\" Javvad Malik, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4, said.\n\n\"OpenAI has a history of being good at locking things down - but to what degree they can with custom GPTs remains to be seen.\"\n• None OpenAI chaos not about AI safety, says Microsoft", "The band collected their trophy ahead of the Brit Awards' official ceremony next March\n\nIndie band The Last Dinner Party have been crowned the winners of the Brits Rising Star prize.\n\nThe five-piece are one of the year's most talked-about new acts, thanks to their swooping, dramatic singles and theatrical stage costumes.\n\nThey now follow in the footsteps of Adele and Sam Fender, who are previous winners of the rising star prize.\n\nSinger Abigail Morris described the honour as \"a bit like having an out-of-body experience\".\n\n\"It's one we can tell our family about and they'll be like, 'Yeah, that is quite massive,'\" she told BBC Radio 1.\n\nThe band said they'd found out about the prize \"at a truck stop in Germany\" while travelling to a gig in Prague.\n\n\"A couple of us were inside trying to buy granola bars and coffee,\" said guitarist Lizzie Mayland.\n\n\"Then we just ran around in the snow and kicked sleet at each other and screamed and terrorised the locals.\n\n\"So it was a squeal and a hug and then trying to find some champagne.\"\n\nVoted for by an industry-wide panel, the rising star prize recognises British artists who had not achieved a top 20 album, or more than one top 20 single by 31 October this year.\n\nPop singer Caity Baser and soul sensation Sekou were also in the running for this year's award.\n\nThe Last Dinner Party came together in 2020, after its members met at gigs around London.\n\nThey had just started rehearsing when the pandemic struck - but lockdown gave them the opportunity to develop their baroque indie-pop sound, inspired by the likes of Kate Bush, David Bowie and Siouxsie and the Banshees.\n\n\"By the time we emerged from the chrysalis, we were fully formed,\" bassist Georgia Davies told the BBC last month.\n\n\"We played our first show like it was the Pyramid Stage. There was never a choppy, scrappy period.\"\n\nThe Last Dinner Party (L-R): and Lizzie Mayland (guitar), Aurora Nishevci (keyboards), Abigail Morris (vocals), Emily Roberts (guitar) and Georgia Davies (bass)\n\nThe group recorded their debut album with Arctic Monkeys producer James Ford last December, but put it on ice so they could spend 2023 building up their reputation on the live circuit.\n\nOver the course of the year, they skipped from venue to venue, upgrading from pubs and clubs to concert halls holding 1,200 fans; while securing support slots with Florence + The Machine, Lana Del Rey and Hozier.\n\nFans were asked to come in costume - with individual concerts dedicated to themes like Greek myths, folk horror and \"the language of flowers\".\n\nThe release of the majestic, hook-laden single Nothing Matters in April lit a rocket under their career, and the follow-ups Sinner and My Lady Of Mercy proved they had material to spare.\n\nMorris said the public's embrace of those songs was the true measure of success.\n\n\"It's amazing to win an award and we're very lucky and honoured - but in real life it's about the music that we've made, and the people who buy the records and dress up and sing the songs.\"\n\nThe band will release their album, Prelude to Ecstasy, in February; and collect their Brit Award when the ceremony takes place at London's O2 Arena on 2 March, 2024.\n\nThey are also on the longlist for the BBC's Sound Of 2024 prize, for which the winner will be revealed in January.", "Robert Lewis set up the WhatsApp group, the court was told\n\nSix former Metropolitan Police officers have been given suspended prison sentences for sending racist, sexist and homophobic messages on WhatsApp, after a BBC Newsnight investigation.\n\nDeputy chief magistrate Tan Ikram said they had harmed public confidence in the police.\n\nHe did not accept a suggestion that their views were merely \"antiquated\".\n\nThey were not serving officers during their participation in the group, Westminster Magistrates' Court heard.\n\nDozens of messages with content deemed to be offensive were shared during a two-year period, with references made to among others the Duchess of Sussex and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.\n\nJudge Ikram said the messages were \"offensive to many good people in this country and not only people who might be directly offended\".\n\nThe former officers were all convicted of improper use of a public electronic communications network.\n\nThe six men were sentenced as follows:\n\nThe officers served in the Met's Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection command but were retired when they exchanged the offensive messages, between 2020 and 2022.\n\nLewis, who set up the group, sent some of the messages while working as a part-time Border Force officer, the court heard.\n\nAll the defendants pleaded guilty to the charge apart from Chadwell, who was convicted following a trial.\n\nThe court heard Lewis was called by Newsnight after a member of the group became angry at the nature of the messages between the officers and \"broke ranks\" by revealing the contents to journalists.\n\nThe messages, which the BBC has decided not to publish, contained pictures and videos, with racist comments added by the men.\n\nSome of the defendants tried to delete the posts after Newsnight broadcast a report revealing the existence of the WhatsApp group.\n\nJudge Ikram, who dismissed the claim that the WhatsApp group was private and the messages were not intended to be made public, told the former officers they \"ought to have known, and it is difficult for me to accept that you did not know, that these were racist posts\".\n\nThe men were not serving officers when the WhatsApp messages were sent\n\nHe added: \"There would always be a risk that even within a private group that these posts would become public.\"\n\nJudge Ikram said the risk of undermining confidence in the police was an \"aggravating factor\" he had to consider when deciding the men's sentences.\n\n\"I have no doubt each of you now understands the public outrage that there will be in all communities about your appalling communications,\" the magistrate said. 'You thought they were silly jokes; well, they're not.\"\n\nIn a statement issued after the sentencing hearing, Cdr James Harman, who leads the Met's anti-corruption and abuse command, described the messages as \"absolutely appalling\".\n\n\"Given the defendants once served as police officers, we recognise that this case may further damage confidence in policing,\" he said.\n\n\"Colleagues across the Met will also be disgusted and will be pleased to see the outcome today.\"\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "A \"Stop the Boats\" lectern and a defiant appeal to unite behind the UK government's plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nThese were the optics and the message chosen by a prime minister in the midst of a deepening political crisis.\n\nBy holding a TV news conference in Downing Street, Rishi Sunak's intention was to seize the narrative and amplify his attempt to revive the Rwanda policy to as wide an audience as possible.\n\nBut some of his words appeared to be carefully selected with a target audience in mind - unruly MPs from different factions of his party.\n\n\"What everyone should do is support this bill,\" Mr Sunak said.\n\nThe fate of the Rwanda scheme hinges on the passage of the Safety of Rwanda Bill.\n\nMr Sunak said the new law was the \"only approach\" that would successfully prevent further legal challenges stopping flights taking off to Rwanda.\n\nBut the Conservative Party is split over the bill and the prime minister's news conference doesn't seem to have done much to calm tensions among MPs.\n\nMore than a year into Mr Sunak's premiership, MPs from different factions of the party are in open revolt over the Rwanda scheme - a legacy project of Boris Johnson's government.\n\nThat includes the so-called One Nation group - perceived as the more centrist and moderate wing of the party. And the so-called European Research Group (ERG) - an influential group of Brexiteer MPs on the right wing of the party.\n\nThe groups may be familiar to those who remember the tumultuous Brexit days, and the headache they gave former Prime Minister Theresa May as she tried, and ultimately failed, to appease them both.\n\nThree prime ministers later, and both groups are back at the centre of another political whirlwind.\n\nWith the Rwanda bill due back in Parliament next week, both groups are taking legal advice before deciding whether to back it, or move against it.\n\nEnter the ERG's Star Chamber, who, we're told, are studying the bill \"forensically\".\n\nThey feel Robert Jenrick's resignation as immigration minister was very significant and are not expected to give a judgement on whether they'll vote for or against the bill, or try change it, for a few days. Many worry it leaves the government too open to individual appeals by asylum seekers, with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg still able to challenge deportations.\n\nThe One Nation group of MPs are being given legal advice by Lord Garnier, a former government solicitor general.\n\n\"I won't vote for it [in the House of Lords],\" Lord Garnier told the BBC.\n\n\"It's an extraordinary bill - it's trying to define things when there is no evidence for that being the case. It's rather like a bill that has decided that all dogs are cats.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: My patience with Rwanda plan has worn thin - Sunak\n\nThe bill compels judges to treat Rwanda as a safe country and gives ministers the powers to disregard sections of the Human Rights Act.\n\nMr Sunak said the bill addresses the concerns of the Supreme Court, which ruled the Rwanda scheme unlawful last month.\n\nLord Garnier isn't so sure: \"It makes political nonsense and it makes legal nonsense.\"\n\nThe group that's taking legal advice from Lord Garnier are nervous and share these concerns too.\n\nAgain, their position on whether to back the bill or not - or try to change it - is still undecided and it's likely they'll come to a conclusion in the coming days.\n\nThe bill is set to get its second reading in Parliament on Tuesday, when MPs will get to vote on it. Some may wait until later stages of the bill's passage to rebel or amend the draft law.\n\nMr Sunak has indicated that if Tory MPs do vote against the bill, they would not be thrown out of the party.\n\nThe vote next Tuesday, Mr Sunak said, was about \"confidence in Parliament to demonstrate that it gets the British people's frustration\", not confidence in his government.\n\nThis all has quite an air of 2018 about it, when Mrs May found herself at the centre of rebellions from different sides over her Brexit legislation.\n\nSome MPs fear Mr Sunak is repeating what they see as the mistakes of the past.\n\nAs one MP put it, his news conference earlier seemed to be \"channelling Theresa May\" to talk to MPs via the television - rather than more effectively in person.\n\nThe unheeded ultimatums and the mutinous spirit that brought down Mrs May and other previous Tory prime ministers haunt Mr Sunak at a moment of political peril.\n\nAt the news conference, Mr Sunak was asked if he was telling Tory MPs to \"back me or sack me\", a phrase used by former Tory Prime Minister John Major when he faced a leadership challenge in 1995.\n\nIn his answer, Mr Sunak may have done something rare these days and spoken for his whole party when he said: \"My patience with this has worn thin.\"", "A fourth woman has accused Sean \"Diddy\" Combs of sexual assault, alleging he and two others gang raped her when she was 17.\n\nJane Doe, as she is referred to in the legal action, claims the rapper flew her to his New York studio in 2003.\n\nShe alleges she was given \"copious amounts of drugs and alcohol\" before Diddy and two other men took turns raping her.\n\nMr Combs, 54, said he \"did not do any of the awful things being alleged\".\n\nThe woman claims she drifted in and out of consciousness during the alleged ordeal, and says she was left in so much pain that she could barely stand or remember how she got home.\n\nIn a statement to BBC News, lawyers for the woman said: \"As alleged in the complaint, Defendants preyed on a vulnerable high school teenager as part of a sex trafficking scheme that involved plying her with drugs and alcohol and transporting her by private jet to New York City where she was gang raped by the three individual defendants at Mr. Combs' studio.\n\n\"The depravity of these abhorrent acts has, not surprisingly, scarred our client for life.\"\n\nThe woman's legal team confirmed a federal lawsuit had been filed against Mr Combs and two other men, as well as two responsible corporate entities.\n\nLawyers allege one of the other two men named in the lawsuit \"approached Ms Doe at a lounge in Michigan, near to where she was living at the time, told her that he was 'best friends' with Mr Combs, and proceeded to call Mr Combs, who was in New York City.\n\nThe two allegedly \"convinced\" Ms Doe to take a private jet to Mr Combs' recording studio in New York City.\n\n\"Once there, the defendants plied Ms Doe with drugs and alcohol and viciously gang raped her, one after the other.\"\n\nIt is also claimed one of the men forced her to give him oral sex, which allegedly left Ms Doe \"choking and struggling to breathe\".\n\nResponding to the latest allegations, Diddy said in a statement to BBC News: \"Enough is enough.\n\n\"For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy.\n\n\"Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday.\n\n\"Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.\"\n\nLast month, Diddy was accused in a lawsuit by R&B singer Casandra Ventura, known as Cassie, of rape and sex trafficking. The pair settled out of court the day after it was filed.\n\nTwo further women subsequently came forward accusing the rapper of rape. Diddy has denied the claims.", "The world has reached a new deal to tackle climate change at COP28 in Dubai.\n\nThe agreement stresses the importance of limiting long-term warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels - the time before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels - in order to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change.\n\nThis goal was first agreed in 2015, when nearly 200 countries signed a landmark deal in Paris.\n\nHowever, meeting this target will require steep and rapid cuts to emissions of the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet.\n\nUse the interactive chart below to see which countries are on track with their commitments to meet the Paris climate goal of keeping global temperature rises below 1.5 degrees.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nNot all countries can independently afford the same kinds of emissions-reducing actions.\n\nSome less affluent countries set two different goals - one they aim to meet completely on their own, and a more ambitious one they aim to meet if they can get support from wealthy donors. We've only shown the independent targets here.\n\nBut the emissions debate is more nuanced than simple reductions.\n\nHistorical responsibility for climate change is not shared equally across all nations. So, a group of independent researchers at Climate Action Tracker have devised a method to calculate what they call the \"fair share\" targets. This considers a country's historical contributions to total global emissions, as well as their current levels.\n\nCountries that have contributed only a marginal amount to the overall total have a lesser \"fair share\" of responsibility than those that have been heavy emitters for many years.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nBy looking more closely at some individual countries, we can get a better sense of whether they are on or off track.\n\nChina is currently the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.\n\nAnd while it is less responsible for past contributions to global warming, China's rapid economic growth in recent years has begun to tip that balance.\n\nSome of this growth has gone hand in hand with the world's fastest transition to renewable energies. China leads the world in its adoption of solar, wind and electric transportation.\n\nBut it has continued to rely heavily on coal, with no promised end.\n\nChina is also the world's leading methane emitter and it has not yet joined the more than 150 countries who have signed up for the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030.\n\nAfter China, the United States ranks second for annual emissions.\n\nRecent policy changes have taken steps towards meeting its targets. The Inflation Reduction Act was the country's largest single investment in climate action.\n\nAnd a joint statement with China ahead of COP28 promised the two countries would step up their cooperation on issues such as reducing methane and tripling renewable energy uptake. The statement fell short of setting new ambitious targets, though.\n\nBernice Lee, a distinguished Fellow at Chatham House and an expert on China, told the BBC at the time of the statement: \"My suspicion is that it has proven to be too difficult to find the form of language that works for both. But nonetheless, I think it's good that they have a statement that's focused on the things they agree on, which is, obviously, the renewables and methane.\"\n\nBut the US is still a long way from reaching its stated emissions goals, and it has continued to approve new oil drilling projects in the Gulf of Mexico.\n\nOne year into his presidency, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has made some progress on reversing the destruction of the Amazon that took place under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.\n\nIn November 2023, Brazil's National Institute for Space Research announced that deforestation in the Amazon hit a six-year low.\n\nIn a healthy state, the Amazon rainforest takes up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and helps limit global warming - but rapid deforestation is harming its ability to do this.\n\nBrazil has restated its emissions pledges, but it continues oil exploration and plans to align itself more closely with the group of leading oil-producing nations - Opec - in future, undermining the ambitions announced.\n\nThe UK has been relatively successful at cutting its emissions so far. Progress has been largely driven by decarbonising the power sector, by switching away from coal - the dirtiest fossil fuel - towards natural gas and, more recently, renewable sources like wind and solar energy.\n\nBut recent progress has been \"worryingly slow\", putting the UK's long-term carbon cutting targets at risk, according to the UK's independent Climate Change Committee.\n\nMark Maslin, professor of Earth system science at UCL, told the BBC: \"UK progress toward net zero has been poor in 2023.\n\n\"This is because the government has weakened many of its green policies and granted new oil and gas licences, which are incompatible with a net zero future,\" he added.\n\nThe government said the licences would slow the decline in domestic production of oil and gas and secure domestic energy supply.\n\nSome recent global developments have been positive.\n\nAt COP28, the world agreed the need to \"transition away\" from fossil fuels for the first time - although the deal doesn't go as far as many had hoped.\n\nThis comes alongside a goal to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030, building on the strong recent growth of these technologies.\n\nCountries also agreed to implement a specific \"loss and damage fund\", seen as a major win for developing nations.\n\nThis money will help poorer countries cope with the destruction caused by extreme weather. These events are getting worse in many places as the world warms.\n\nDespite some positive signs, the world is \"not on track\" to limit global warming to 1.5C, the UN says.\n\nThe hope is that the agreements at COP28 will translate into meaningful action to keep this target within reach.", "The Scottish bereaved families representative is talking now.\n\nClaire Mitchell KC is questioning the relationship between the SNP and UK government. Johnson is asked whether there was a \"reluctance\" to have the Scottish first minister - at the time, Nicola Sturgeon - contact him during the pandemic.\n\nJohnson says that he has \"no ill will\" towards Sturgeon and that the two \"got on very well\". He then adds that that as much as he \"loves the SNP\", politically there was a certain amount of back and forth between he and them.\n\nAnd when asked whether he should have included the devolved administrations more in meetings, Johnson says that he was worried they would come out of \"confidential meetings\" and talk to their own media about what was going on.\n\nJohnson has previously talked about needing \"leak-proof system\" between the administrations for emergencies, Mitchell says, and asks him how establishing such a system might be done.\n\nJohnson tells the inquiry he doesn't know \"at present\" because this is \"difficult\", but \"that's the ideal\".", "An Ohio woman who was convicted of assault for hurling a burrito bowl at a Chipotle worker was offered an unusual way to reduce her time in jail.\n\nA judge has ordered Rosemary Hayne, 39, must now work at a fast-food job for two months.\n\nHayne was captured in a viral video screaming at a Chipotle employee before throwing her food in the worker's face.\n\nAt first, she was slated to pay a fine and serve 180 days in jail, with 90 days suspended.\n\nBut then, the judge had another idea.\n\n\"You didn't get your burrito bowl the way you like it, and this is how you respond?\" Judge Timothy Gilligan told Hayne at her sentencing in Parma, Ohio.\n\n\"This is not 'Real Housewives of Parma.' This behaviour is not acceptable,\" he said, according to local Fox affiliate WJW.\n\nJudge Gilligan told Hayne she could cut off 60 days in jail if she agreed to work at least 20 hours per week at a fast-food restaurant for two months.\n\nThe incident on 5 September was captured by a bystander, who posted the video to Reddit, where it went viral.\n\nIn court, Hayne apologised and tried to explain the rationale behind her screaming at the Chipotle worker, 26-year-old Emily Russell.\n\n\"If I showed you how my food looked and how my food looked a week later from that same restaurant, it's disgusting looking,\" Hayne said, according to WJW.\n\n\"I bet you won't be happy with the food you are going to get in the jail,\" Judge Gilligan quipped.\n\nEmily Russell told the court she had been traumatised by the incident and had quit her job at Chipotle since.\n\nShe told the Washington Post she was stepping in to protect a 17-year-old employee who was getting yelled at by Hayne. The food was hot and burned her face, she said.\n\n\"I was so embarrassed and in shock,\" she told the outlet. \"I couldn't believe my customers had to witness that.\"\n\nA GoFundMe campaign had raised $7,200 (£5,700) for Ms Russell as of Tuesday morning.", "The massively popular video game Fortnite has launched a high-profile collaboration with Lego.\n\nCrafting has always been a key part of the online shooter, which has more than 400 million registered players.\n\nNow it has released an entirely new survival game mode, where players will do their crafting with Lego bricks.\n\nAnd it seems to have drawn inspiration from Minecraft - a Lego-style block-building and crafting game - which is the best-selling game of all time.\n\nThe new game mode can be accessed by launching Fortnite - which is free-to-play on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.\n\nFortnite technically has multiple game modes, but its online battle royale is by far its most popular, where up to 100 players compete to be the last one standing.\n\nMinecraft, on the other hand, is a survival game in which players build structures as well as craft tools and weapons.\n\nWhen Fortnite first released it came with a similar crafting survival mode, named Fortnite: Save the World, which was released before its battle royale mode even existed.\n\nBut the extraordinary popularity of Fortnite: Battle Royale - itself inspired by the Japanese thriller film of the same name and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds - completely dwarfed the game's other modes, and Fortnite is now known to most as an online shooter with crafting elements.\n\nAll of this means the new collaboration is in a way bringing Fortnite back to its roots, but the link-up with Lego is more than just a facelift.\n\nThe game includes more than 1,000 Lego minifigures based on Fortnite skins\n\nGameplay footage shows that the game world has changed dramatically, with structures and characters throughout all based on Lego products.\n\nAnd there are moments clearly inspired by Minecraft, with the player building a fence around sheep, growing vegetables, and eating around a campfire, as well as chopping down trees to get materials to build with.\n\nBut fans of Fortnite will not be surprised by the high-profile collaboration, as the game is known for it - having previously held in-game concerts with real celebrities such as Marshmello and Ariana Grande.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDespite having a massive 70 million monthly players, Fortnite developer Epic Games wants more.\n\n\"This is absolutely about expansion,\" said president Adam Sussman.\n\n\"This is also an expansion in terms of having these experiences appeal to a wide variety of audiences, ranging from kids to teens to adults.\"\n\nThere have been a massive amount of Lego games over the years, all the way from 1997's fan favourite Lego Island to modern tie-ins with Star Wars, Harry Potter and Marvel.\n\nBut these games, much like the bricks themselves, are almost always rated as suitable for young children.\n\nFortnite, on the other hand, is rated PEGI 12 in the UK and EU, meaning it is considered suitable for children aged 12 and over. It has a similar rating in the US.\n\nTo deal with this, Mr Sussman said Epic had worked on parental controls and online safety features to make sure the game was suitable.\n\n\"One of the things that we recently implemented was a rating system, so each piece of content is rated appropriately for the audience,\" he said.\n\n\"And we allow - through our parental controls - the parents to decide what type of content their kids will be able to see.\n\n\"As an example, [the Fortnite Lego mode] is E10+ rated, whereas Fortnite is T rated. We believe with that rating, we can appeal to the younger audiences and attract a whole new set of audiences that will come and experience Fortnite now.\"\n\nHowever, Fortnite has faced some criticism in the past, in particular from Prince Harry, who said in 2019 the game was \"created to addict\".\n\nBut Eurogamer editor-in-chief Tom Phillips said such comments were often levied at video games in general.\n\n\"A lot of that criticism is: how do people spend their time, how are they interacting with other people on the internet?\" he said.\n\nUltimately, he said people can choose which game to play based on their interests, and if they don't like shooting games they can simply avoid them.\n\n\"Battle royale, by its very nature, you're going to be in combat, you're going to be shooting people. And there are people who either just don't want to engage with that, or there are people who, like with Lego, are probably a bit too young for that.\"\n\nFor Lego, it may be unknown what will come from the link-up with Fortnite but its chief product and marketing officer Julia Goldin said that was the price of ambition.\n\n\"Every collaboration and everything that you do, especially things that are ambitious, carry a lot of unknowns with them,\" she said.\n\n\"We don't yet know exactly how the game is going to land, what kids want to do versus what others would like to do, which things are gonna resonate and which things will not.\n\n\"So there are some plans already on the kinds of updates and new ideas that are going to be coming... other types of games that will start also being available on the Fortnite platform over the course of 2024.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson has said he should have \"twigged\" the seriousness of Covid sooner, conceding earlier action could have been taken against the virus.\n\nGiving evidence to the Covid inquiry, the former prime minister said he had underestimated the \"scale and the pace of the challenge\" posed.\n\nBut he said this was also true of scientists and the \"entire Whitehall establishment\".\n\nAnd he insisted ministers did their \"level best\" in the circumstances.\n\nIn the first of two days of testimony, Mr Johnson sought to defend his record in office, which has come in for criticism from other witnesses who have given evidence to the inquiry.\n\nHe defended the timing of the first lockdown, saying that modelling had been incorrect and he had been advised not to impose measures too early.\n\nHe admitted to a \"certain amount of incoherence in our thinking,\" but added: \"Once we decided to act, I think it was pretty fast from flash to bang.\"\n\nMore on Covid and the Covid Inquiry\n\nHe began his testimony by saying he was sorry for the \"pain and the loss and the suffering\" people experienced during the pandemic.\n\nHis comments were interrupted by protesters, who were ordered to leave the inquiry room. Some members of bereaved families stood up holding pieces of paper, spelling out the message: \"The dead can't hear your apologies.\"\n\nMr Johnson has been criticised for being slow to make decisions during the pandemic and being unable to make up his mind about what to do.\n\nOver several hours of questioning by lead inquiry lawyer Hugo Keith KC he put in a measured performance, which largely lacked the tetchy exchanges seen during his grilling over Partygate by a committee of MPs earlier this year.\n\nBut the former prime minister had to take back an accusation that Mr Keith had suggested he \"put his feet up\" at his official country retreat during the 2020 February half-term, adding he had confused it with comments from someone else.\n\nAnd he choked up when he described the return of the virus after the first national lockdown, describing 2020 as a \"tragic, tragic year\".\n\nMr Johnson defended his overall approach to the pandemic, adding that Covid had required \"completely novel\" measures and it was his job to \"go through the arguments\".\n\nHe added that people within government had collectively been reluctant to believe worse-case predictions about the impact of the virus, given the experience of previous diseases.\n\n\"It would certainly be fair to say of me, the entire Whitehall establishment, scientific community included, that we underestimated the scale and the pace of the challenge,\" he said.\n\nHe added that he was subsequently \"rattled\" by scenes of chaos in northern Italy in mid-February, when pictures of swamped hospitals hit the world's media.\n\n\"We should have collectively twigged much sooner. I should have twigged,\" he added.\n\nOver more than five hours of testimony, he also:\n\nHe added, however, that given what is known now, mass gatherings should have been stopped earlier than they were.\n\n\"With hindsight, as a symbol of government earnestness rather than just being guided by the science, we should perhaps have done that,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"They partied while we all suffered\" - bereaved relatives Larry Burn and Amos Waldman\n\nHe also defended his decision to keep Matt Hancock as health secretary, despite being urged to sack him by his former adviser Dominic Cummings, telling the inquiry he considered him a \"good communicator\".\n\nHe rejected suggestions that expletive-laden WhatsApp messages between his advisers revealed by the inquiry showed a \"toxic\" culture in his Downing Street operation.\n\nThe language in the messages reflected the \"deep anxiety\" of people doing their best, he said.\n\nHe added it also showed that the people around him were \"naturally self-critical, and critical of others,\" adding that this was \"creatively useful\" when it came to making decisions.\n\nAnd he revealed that he had spoken to former civil servant Helen MacNamara, who has previously accused him of failing to tackle \"misogynistic language\" used about her in a WhatsApp group by Mr Cummings.\n\n\"I don't remember seeing it at the time, but I must have seen it because I was on the group,\" he told the inquiry.\n\n\"I have rang Helen MacNamara to apologise to her for not having called it out.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Suella Braverman tells her party it is \"now or never\" to act over illegal migration into the UK\n\nThe Conservative Party faces \"electoral oblivion\" if the government's Rwanda legislation is \"destined to fail\", Suella Braverman has warned.\n\nThe ex-home secretary told MPs the bill must block all routes of legal challenge to allow flights to take off.\n\nLast month the UK's Supreme Court ruled plans to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda were unlawful.\n\nThe government has promised emergency legislation, designed to address the court's concerns.\n\nOn Tuesday, Home Secretary James Cleverly also signed a new treaty with Rwanda. The government hopes the treaty, combined with the new bill, will be enough to allow the Rwanda scheme to go ahead.\n\nThe policy, which was first announced by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April 2022, aims to deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats.\n\nBut it has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges and no asylum seekers have been sent to Rwanda from the UK yet.\n\nIn a personal statement to the House of Commons after she was sacked from her cabinet role last month, Mrs Braverman said she welcomed the decision to introduce emergency legislation but said \"we are running out of time\".\n\n\"The Conservative Party faces electoral oblivion in a matter of months if we introduce yet another bill destined to fail,\" she told MPs.\n\n\"Do we fight for sovereignty or do we let our party die?\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has made stopping small boat crossings one of his top priorities ahead of the next general election, which must take place by January 2025.\n\nMrs Braverman said the bill must deliver on the prime minister's pledge to stop small boat crossings and set out a number of tests she said it must meet to do this.\n\nThese included addressing the Supreme Court's concerns about the safety of Rwanda and \"blocking off all routes of challenge\" to enable flights carrying asylum seekers to the east African country before the next election.\n\nAlthough Mrs Braverman said she supported leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), she said this was not the only way to stop the boats.\n\n\"I accept that the government won't do that and that it is a debate for another day,\" she added.\n\nInstead she proposed that the bill should override the UK's Human Rights Act, the ECHR and other international law.\n\n\"The powers to detain and remove must be exercisable notwithstanding the Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Refugee Convention, and all other international law,\" she said.\n\nShe added that Parliament should be prepared to sit over Christmas to pass the bill.\n\nMrs Braverman was flanked by supporters as she gave her statement but there are splits within the Conservative Party over her proposals.\n\nOne senior Tory MP told the BBC her statement \"was just the latest performance in the leadership pantomime\".\n\nRather than disregarding human rights law, another option is for the bill to simply declare Rwanda a safe country.\n\nThe BBC understands Mr Sunak is hoping to steer a middle course between those options.\n\nThe One Nation Caucus, which has a current membership of 106 Tory MPs, called on the prime minister to \"think twice before overriding\" either the ECHR and HRA.\n\nThe group's chairman, former Deputy Prime Minister Damian Green said: \"Successive Conservative governments have played a vital role in creating and protecting the ECHR as well as the Refugee and Torture conventions.\"\n\nAnother leading member of the group, Matt Warman, said overriding the ECHR was \"a red line for a number of Conservatives\".\n\nHowever, Mark Francois, chairman of the right-wing European Research Group (ERG), said it would not back any new legislation that does not \"fully respect the sovereignty of Parliament, with unambiguous wording\".\n\nFormer Minister Sir Simon Clarke said there was \"raw anger\" among his constituents about migration.\n\nHe told the BBC's Politics Live programme: \"It cannot be the case that a human rights framework which was set up in the late 1940s, which could never have envisaged a world in which tens of thousands of people were coming to this country illegally and we were unable to deport them, is regarded as so sacrosanct that we can't change it.\"\n\nThe UK's highest court ruled the Rwanda policy was unlawful because there were \"substantial grounds\" to believe that some of those deported to the country could be sent back to places where they would be unsafe.\n\nThe government says its new treaty will address these concerns by ensuring no one is removed by Rwanda to any other country except the UK.\n\nExperts from the UK will also be sent to Rwanda to assist with the processing of asylum decisions.\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly signed a new treaty with Rwanda on Tuesday\n\nSince leaving government, Mrs Braverman has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.\n\nIn a scathing letter following her sacking she accused the PM of \"betraying\" his promise to do whatever it takes to \"stop the boats\".\n\nHowever, in her Commons statement she struck a more conciliatory tone, saying Mr Sunak \"should be commended for dedicating more time and toil than any of his predecessors\" to the issue.\n\nShe added that tougher visa rules announced earlier this week \"start to better reflect public frustration on legal migration\".\n\n\"If we summon the political courage to do what is truly necessary, difficult though it may be, to fight for the British people, we will regain their trust,\" she said.\n\n\"And if the prime minister leads that fight, he has my total support.\"", "Heavy rain has brought flooding and disruption to roads in Northern Ireland.\n\nA yellow weather warning was in place for heavy rain through Thursday for counties Antrim, Armagh and Down.\n\nThe Met Office had warned that up to 30mm of rain could fall in some places, possibly reaching 60mm or more on high ground.\n\nPolice in Lisburn and Castlereagh say they have received numerous reports of flooded roads.\n\nMotorists have been advised to exercise caution at Garron Road, Carnlough, due to flooding in the area.\n\nEarlier, the Shore Road in Newtownabbey was closed also due to the flooding but has since reopened.\n\nPolice have said: \"If out driving please show some consideration for other road users. Slow down, increase the distance between yourself and the vehicle in front and be prepared for the vehicle in front to brake suddenly.\"\n\nThe rainfall warning came into effect at 10:00 on Thursday and follows a separate weather warning, also for rain, that was in place overnight on Wednesday until 04:00.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Met Office This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, weather warnings have been issued for strong winds on Wednesday toward the south and west coasts.\n\nA rainfall warning has also been issued for seven counties on Wednesday, lasting until Thursday afternoon.\n\nThe unsettled weather marks the end of a cold snap that has been gripping Northern Ireland over the past week.\n\nMilder conditions can be expected both by day and by night in the coming week.", "At 2:15 on Christmas morning last year, Ruth Perry woke and wrote down her thoughts while her two teenage daughters and husband slept.\n\n\"I.N.A.D.E.Q.U.A.T.E keeps flashing behind my eyes.\"\n\nShe had been head teacher at Caversham Primary School, in Reading, for 13 years - the school had always been judged as \"outstanding\".\n\nThe previous month, inspectors had visited, and Ruth knew they were going to downgrade her school to the lowest rating, \"inadequate\".\n\nThat Christmas, Ruth's thoughts kept returning to a meeting she'd had on the first morning of the school inspection, when the lead inspector had raised concerns about record keeping and staff checks intended to keep children safe.\n\nIf Ofsted decided the school wasn't safeguarding pupils effectively, it would automatically be deemed \"inadequate\" - no matter how good the education it provided. Ruth knew Caversham Primary would then be taken over by an academy trust, putting her job at risk.\n\nAfter the meeting, Ruth's colleagues say she was distraught and unable to speak coherently. From that moment on, her family say she became increasingly distressed.\n\n\"I'd never seen Ruth so deflated,\" says Jon, her husband of 21 years. \"She said she felt powerless.\"\n\nIn the weeks after the inspection, Ruth wrote a series of notes, later found by her family, revealing the turmoil she was going through.\n\nShe was \"devastated\" and \"heartbroken\".\n\n\"I do not believe any child has been harmed because I have been negligent in my duties,\" she wrote.\n\nRuth Perry grew up in Caversham, a suburb of Reading. She had been a pupil at Caversham Primary School, together with her older sister, Julia.\n\nRuth began her career in east London, but moved back to Reading in 2009 when she was appointed deputy head of the school she'd attended as a child. A year later, she was promoted to head teacher.\n\nIn 2010, Ruth (right) became head teacher at the school she and her older sister, Julia (left), had attended as children\n\nHappily woven into the local community, the people who knew her say she was carefree, confident and passionate about everything she did.\n\nRuth's husband, Jon, had also grown up in Caversham. In the week of the Ofsted inspection, the couple and their two daughters moved into what had once been Jon's childhood house. Ruth and Jon had plans to renovate what they hoped would be their \"forever home\".\n\nThe evening after the two-day Ofsted inspection, Julia Waters visited her sister. She found her dejected and pale. \"I'm broken,\" Ruth told Julia, and began to cry.\n\n\"I gave her a hug,\" Julia says, \"she just leant into me and cried. There was nothing I could do to comfort her - I've never seen her like that.\"\n\nThe notes Ruth wrote in subsequent days show Ruth rehearsing breaking the news that the school has been rated \"inadequate\".\n\n\"I write this to you as parents on the evening of 18th November 2022 to say how utterly broken I am by the Ofsted inspection.\n\n\"I have given my life to CPS [Caversham Primary School]. I have only ever wanted children to leave happy and confident on the next stage of their journey, and I have been devastated by the impact of how I have done a disservice to the community.\"\n\nWithin days of her school being inspected, Ruth told her husband she was having \"dark thoughts\". She feared house prices in the area would fall if the school was deemed inadequate and was terrified the local community would be angry.\n\nRuth told Jon their family would have to move away and confided in the school's business manager that she had considered taking her own life.\n\nShe had no previous history of mental ill health, but by the following weekend, Jon had become so worried he drove his wife to a local psychiatric hospital. The couple were told Ruth would need to see her own doctor before she could be helped there and were sent home.\n\nFive days after the inspection, when Ruth did see her GP, he was concerned about her suicidal thoughts and referred her to a mental health crisis team. Ruth was assessed over the phone but was discharged by 8 December 2022.\n\nRuth had googled what head teachers do after failed Ofsted inspections - she wrote that she had seen examples of suicide, forced removal, and \"resignation in shame\".\n\nHer notes describe how close she had come to killing herself and how she had talked herself \"in and out of doing it\".\n\nAccording to her sister-in-law, Anna Perry, Ruth was resilient and capable, until the fear of shame and humiliation began to eat away at her as she waited for Ofsted's report to be published.\n\n\"This was going to be the end of her career and she didn't know what she could do,\" says Anna, who'd known Ruth since childhood.\n\n\"This is what she loved and I don't think she could hold her head up - she was so distraught.\"\n\nGrappling with the thought of losing both her job and her standing in the community, Ruth's notes suggest her mental health was becoming increasingly fragile as Christmas approached.\n\n\"Every space is filled with my feelings of wretchedness and desperation,\" Ruth wrote.\n\nFifty-four days after the Ofsted inspection at Caversham Primary School, Ruth Perry took her life, on 8 January 2023.\n\nOn 21 March 2023, Ofsted published its inspection report, rating the school \"inadequate\". It described Caversham Primary as welcoming and vibrant, with exemplary pupil behaviour and high expectations.\n\nRuth Perry's name was on Ofsted's report, with a footnote stating the leadership had since changed because of her death.\n\nNobody from Ofsted had spoken to, written to or visited her family - although the offer of a meeting would be made later.\n\nCaversham Primary School was reinspected by Ofsted in June 2023. In the same month MPs launched an inquiry into school inspections in England, as a result of which some changes have already been made.\n\nIn July, Ofsted published its report judging Caversham Primary to be \"good\".\n\nAn inquest into Ruth Perry's death concluded on Thursday. Her GP, the school's chair of governors and two deputy head teachers all told the coroner they believed the Ofsted inspection had contributed to her death.\n\nThe inquest heard no child at Caversham Primary had come to harm.\n\nIn conclusion, the coroner said the Ofsted inspection at Caversham Primary School had been done in a manner that \"lacked fairness, respect and sensitivity\".\n\nShe added that Ruth Perry felt she could not talk to mental health professionals about the inspection and felt obliged to \"bear this burden alone\".\n\nSpeaking on behalf of Ofsted, Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman apologised to Ruth Perry's family for the distress she experienced as a result of their inspection.\n\nShe said: \"It's right that we inspect first and foremost in the interests of children, their parents and carers. But in the light of Mrs Perry's sad death, it's also vital that we do all we can to minimise stress and anxiety when we inspect.\"\n\nAnna, Ruth's sister-in-law, says Ruth's family are still trying to come to terms with the shock of what has happened.\n\n\"The future looks very different\", she says.\n\nOn Christmas Day 2022, Ruth Perry and her family had gathered to celebrate, going for a walk before sitting around the kitchen table together to try to help her see a way forward.\n\nIt would be the last time Julia saw her younger sister alive.\n\n\"Ruth didn't want to spoil the children's Christmas,\" Julia says, \"but she was haunted.\"\n\nNow, she says it's important for Ruth's daughters to be able to remember her as the devoted mother she was.\n\n\"She was just a lovely human being,\" Julia says, \"destroyed by an utterly inhumane system.\"\n\nIf you're affected by the issues in this report, you can find support from BBC Action Line.\n\nHow Ruth Perry's death put Ofsted in the spotlight.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson's evidence was, for the most part, shorn of his usual performative theatrics.\n\nSitting on the press bench in the hearing room, the contempt in which Mr Johnson was held by many of the families of the bereaved sitting metres away was obvious; sniggers of derision from some of them punctuated his early testimony.\n\nThe thrust of Mr Johnson's case - contrition, with hindsight, at his tardiness in clocking the imminent scale of the pandemic in early 2020 - was mixed with his best effort to take on the cavalry of his former colleagues who have questioned his competence and the culture of his Downing Street operation.\n\nCrude WhatsApp exchanges were framed as entirely typical of the style of many on the messaging service; indulging in the \"ephemeral, pejorative, hyperbolical\" as he put it.\n\nPrivate, internal anger at his failings was a good thing, he claimed, a \"disputatious culture\" better than a \"quietly acquiescent\" one.\n\nTwo sentence siblings appeared frequently: \"I can't remember\" and \"I don't know.\"\n\nClaims to this end may be judged individually plausible.\n\nBut their volume stood out.\n\nMore on Covid and the Covid Inquiry\n\nThe UK's governance structures - the wiring of where power lies and who takes decisions - also featured, and there was a parallel here with what the former health secretary Matt Hancock said last week.\n\nMr Johnson felt devolution didn't work during the pandemic because mixed messages were sent, depending on where you were in the UK, because devolved governments did different things, at different times, from the government at Westminster.\n\nHe suggested the Public Health Act 1984 had a consequence unforeseen at the time of its passing nearly 40 years ago, because the devolution that was to follow meant lots of pandemic powers rested away from Westminster.\n\nWhat should now happen, he argued, was that this act should be amended to discount pandemics from it.\n\nSome will see this as a self-serving argument for a former prime minister to make, perhaps keen on hoarding power at the centre. Others will insist at a time of emergency clarity is key and it was absent during Covid.\n\nIn big picture terms, Mr Johnson sought to remind the inquiry of his central role as a pandemic prime minister; judging trade offs of a colossal nature; confronting a scenario without modern precedent.\n\nThe question not asked explicitly but hanging over the inquiry is this: would the UK have coped better had there been a different prime minister?\n\nMr Johnson will fear evidence is already accumulating to suggest the answer to that is yes.\n\nWe have now seen and heard his first stab at trying to take on that hunch.\n\nHe is back on Thursday morning to face more questions.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Biden on Ukraine aid: No time for 'petty politics'\n\nSenate Republicans have blocked a move to pass an aid bill for Ukraine after failing to secure border compromises they sought in exchange.\n\nThe $110bn (£87.3bn) package included $61bn for Ukraine, as well as funds for Israel and aid for Gaza.\n\nThe White House has warned that US funds for Ukraine could soon run out.\n\nA Ukrainian official said that failure to secure more US aid would mean a \"very high possibility\" that the war will be lost to Russia.\n\nWhile Republican members are generally in favour of aid to Ukraine, some have sought to use the issue as a way to address mounting domestic concerns over the US southern border.\n\nSenators - including every single Republican - voted 51 to 49 against advancing the bill, with 60 votes needed. The vote throws uncertainty into the future of aid for Ukraine and sends lawmakers back to the negotiating table just days before Congress has scheduled its winter break.\n\nRepublicans are insisting that any aid to Ukraine be tied to sweeping US immigration and asylum reforms.\n\nEarlier on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said he was \"willing to make significant compromises on the border\" in order to get the aid bill passed.\n\n\"This cannot wait,\" he said, adding that \"Republicans in Congress are willing to give Putin the greatest gift he could hope for\".\n\nAlso on Wednesday, the Biden administration announced $175m in new security assistance for Ukraine from the supply of funding that has already been approved. The package includes ammunition, including missiles and artillery shells, as well as \"equipment to protect critical national infrastructure\", the US Department of Defense said in a news release.\n\nConcerns over the future of the $110bn package grew on Tuesday after a classified briefing for lawmakers aimed at shoring up support for new funds broke down spectacularly.\n\nSenators shouted at each other over border security and at least a dozen Republicans walked out.\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also cancelled a virtual briefing with lawmakers over a \"last-minute matter\", Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday, without providing further detail.\n\nThe package already includes provisions for border security, but Republican demands for additional changes to asylum rules has complicated negotiations with Democrats.\n\nAhead of the failed vote to bring the package to the floor, Mr Schumer delivered an emotional plea to his colleagues on the Senate floor, telling them that the vote was an important \"moment in history\" and that they should \"rush to the defence of democracy\" in Ukraine.\n\n\"You can be sure that Vladimir Putin is watching closely,\" he said.\n\nOn Tuesday, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, told an audience at the US Institute of Peace that a failure to secure more US aid would mean a \"very high possibility\" that the war will be lost and that it will be \"impossible to continue to liberate\" Russian-held areas.\n\nIn Ukraine, dimming prospects for additional aid have led to a darkening mood among some parts of the population.\n\n\"Of course we need support, we are protecting the whole of Europe,\" Tetyana, a Kyiv resident whose son is on the frontline, told the BBC this week. \"We need more weapons because our children are dying.\"\n\nThe Senate bill needed nine Republican votes to advance - a threshold that was ultimately too high. Some Democrats expressed frustration at their Republican colleagues.\n\n\"The Ukrainians are on the frontlines fighting for democracy,\" Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren told reporters. \"This is about freedom\".\n\nSeveral Senators said that while more negotiations would follow, it is unclear whether any progress can be achieved before Congress breaks for the holidays next week.\n\nMr Schumer, for his part, said \"we'll see\" when asked whether he believed Senators could come to an agreement before the break, even though he believed Mr Biden had presented a \"good strong plan\".\n\nOne of the Republicans who opposed the package, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, said he did not believe any solution would be possible in that timeframe.\n\nMr Graham added that he believed Mr Biden would ultimately need to negotiate more, saying that \"it's going to take his leadership or we are stuck.\"\n\n\"They know what we want,\" he said. \"I'm hopeful we can get the border part in a place where we can go for a bill.\"\n\nEven if it had passed in the Senate, the package still would have faced an uphill battle in the House of Representatives.\n\nHouse Speaker Mike Johnson said on Tuesday that he has told the Senate he cannot pass any Ukraine aid without the inclusion of significant border security measures.\n\nSince Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Congress has approved over $110bn in military and economic aid to Ukraine, most of which has already been distributed.\n\nIn a letter to Mr Johnson released publicly earlier this week, White House budget director Shalanda Young said that the US would be unable to get more weapons and equipment to Ukraine \"by the end of the year\" without Congressional action.\n\nUkrainian officials have repeatedly stressed that they see US aid as vital to the ability of the country's forces to resist the Russians and re-take occupied territory.\n\nAnother senator to vote against the aid bill was independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who had earlier in the day expressed reservations that the legislation included billions in military aid for Israel.\n\n\"I do not believe we should be appropriating over $10 billion for the right-wing extremist Netanyahu government to continue its current military approach,\" Mr Sanders said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ongoing campaign in the Gaza strip, which has so far killed thousands of civilians.\n\nMr Sanders, who is a long-time critic of Mr Netanyahu, added: \"What the Netanyahu government is doing is immoral, it is in violation of international law, and the United States should not be complicit in those actions.\"", "Robert Jenrick has resigned as immigration minister, saying the government's emergency Rwanda legislation \"does not go far enough\".\n\nHe said \"stronger protections\" were needed to end \"the merry-go-round of legal challenges which risk paralysing the scheme\".\n\nThe government said the bill, unveiled earlier, made clear in UK law Rwanda was a safe country for asylum seekers.\n\nBut it stops short of what some on the Tory right were demanding.\n\nIn his resignation letter to Rishi Sunak, Mr Jenrick said the prime minister had \"moved towards my position\" on the emergency legislation.\n\n\"Nevertheless, I am unable to take the currently proposed legislation through the Commons as I do not believe it provides us with the best possible chance of success.\"\n\nMr Jenrick added that the bill was \"a triumph of hope over experience\".\n\nIn response, the prime minister described Mr Jenrick's resignation as \"disappointing\" and \"based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation\".\n\n\"If we were to oust the courts entirely, we would collapse the entire scheme,\" Mr Sunak said.\n\n\"The Rwandan government have been clear that they would not accept the UK basing this scheme on legislation that could be considered in breach of our international law obligations.\"\n\nThe plans to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda aim to deter people from crossing the English Channel in small boats.\n\nBut the scheme has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges and no asylum seekers have been sent to the east African country from the UK so far.\n\nMr Jenrick, who had supported Mr Sunak's leadership campaign, said the emergency legislation was the \"last opportunity\" to prove the government would do \"whatever it takes\" to stop small boat crossings.\n\nLosing a minister who was once a key ally is a blow for Mr Sunak, in a week when the government had been trying to get on the front foot on migration.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: \"It is a sign of the total chaos in the Tory party and the complete collapse of Rishi Sunak's leadership that even while he is sitting in the Commons for the announcement of his new Rwanda plan, his own immigration minister is resigning because he doesn't think it will work.\"\n\nSenior figures are musing privately that they would not be surprised if Mr Sunak ended up facing a confidence vote from his own MPs.\n\nAlthough it may not come to that, it is a measure of the bleak mood among many Conservatives.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Suella Braverman tells her party it is \"now or never\" to act over illegal migration into the UK\n\nReports of Mr Jenrick's resignation first started swirling after the government published the draft bill.\n\nThe legislation aims to address the concerns of the UK's Supreme Court, which last month ruled plans to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda were unlawful.\n\nThe bill - which must be approved by Parliament - orders the courts to ignore key sections of the Human Rights Act in an attempt to sidestep the Supreme Court's existing judgement.\n\nIt also orders the courts to ignore other British laws or international rules - such as the international Refugee Convention - that stand in the way of deportations to Rwanda.\n\nHowever, it does not go as far as some Tory MPs wanted.\n\nFormer Home Secretary Suella Braverman and her supporters had called for it to override the entire Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Refugee Convention, and all other international law.\n\nThe bill allows ministers to ignore any emergency order from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to temporarily halt a flight to Rwanda while an individual case is still being considered.\n\nBut it stops short of providing powers to dismiss the whole of the ECHR.\n\nIt also allows migrants to legally challenge their removal to Rwanda on specific individual grounds, if they can prove that being put on a plane would leave them at real risk of serious harm.\n\nA source close to Mrs Braverman said the bill was \"fatally flawed\" and would be \"bogged down in the courts for months and months\".\n\nHowever, if the government had agreed to her demands this would have provoked a backlash from centrist Tories.\n\nThe One Nation group, which is made up of more than 100 Tory MPs, had warned that overriding the ECHR was a \"red line\" for a number of Conservatives.\n\nThe group cautiously welcomed \"the government's decision to continue to meet the UK's international commitments which uphold the rule of law\" but added that it would seek legal advice \"about concerns and the practicalities of the bill\".\n\nThe draft legislation concedes that it may not be compatible with the ECHR.\n\nThis means government lawyers have told ministers the measures could still be legally challenged.\n\nThe former solicitor became a Conservative MP when he was elected in the 2014 by-election in the Nottinghamshire seat of Newark.\n\nHe was promoted into the cabinet as housing secretary in 2019 by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nMr Jenrick, a 41-year-old father-of-three, also briefly served as a junior health minister in Liz Truss's government, despite backing Mr Sunak for the Tory leadership.\n\nAs immigration minister he consistently pushed for a harder line on legal and illegal immigration, expressing frustration at the high levels of both.\n\nHe was also at the centre of several controversies, including a row over approving planning permission for Tory donor Richard Desmond.\n\nMr Jenrick was also criticised for ordering a mural of Disney characters at a child asylum centre to be painted over.", "Lior Gelbaum, 24, says she still struggles to listen to music after surviving Hamas's attack on the Nova festival\n\n\"You can cry here,\" the sign reads in pale blue lettering on a clean white background.\n\nBeyond it, comfortable sofas piled with cushions are screened off from the rest of the room. It's a safe, private corner where survivors of the Nova music festival can be with others who went through the same ordeal on 7 October, and get the mental health support many of them desperately need.\n\nMore than 360 young partygoers were shot, beaten or burnt to death by Hamas attackers, who stormed the festival site near the Israel-Gaza perimeter fence early that morning. Another 40 were taken hostage.\n\nFirst, social media posts showed panicked crowds fleeing from rockets fired from Gaza and gunmen on the ground. Later, distressing videos from first responders began to confirm the scale of the massacre, as they filmed scores of murdered partygoers.\n\nIn the following days, Dr Lia Naor realised that - unlike those who'd been evacuated from their nearby kibbutzim - the young people from the festival who lived through the ordeal didn't have a community already around them to give support.\n\n\"I just wanted them to be held,\" Dr Naor explains.\n\n\"They were so fragmented and so frozen. Then there was the brokenness of faith that they that had felt - there'd been nobody there for them, not their parents, not the army, not the police. Nobody was there to save them. So the first thing was just getting them to feel secure and in a healing space.\"\n\nDr Lia Naor says survivors from the festival had no specialised support to process their trauma\n\nThe outdoor setting in Rishpon, north of Tel Aviv, is sheltered and peaceful. The early December days have been warm in Israel, and people sit on colourful beanbags scattered across the grass. A timetable is propped up showing the range of workshops that day, from mosaic making to sound baths. There's massage, group music, and singing sessions.\n\nA few placid dogs roam through the group, waiting to be stroked or begging for food. One tiny, black-haired crossbreed chihuahua has a pair of silver wings on its back, drawing coos of appreciation. It's a different scene from the early days.\n\n\"Even though their bodies were whole, we saw how broken they were and that their eyes were hollow,\" Lia remembers. \"They didn't look alive. They couldn't look at us. They would shake, they couldn't eat, they couldn't drink. The evil that these people met is incomprehensible.\n\n\"I told them early on, 'As dark the darkness is that you saw, we're going to bring the light. We're going to help you believe in yourselves and in others again.'\"\n\nThis place is a huge collective effort, but it hasn't been driven by the state.\n\nEverybody here is a volunteer giving their time for free and hoping to heal themselves too. The homemade food spread out on low tables is donated by charities and businesses. Everyone wants to do something to help in the aftermath of one of Israel's darkest moments.\n\nSurvivors have been meeting volunteer therapists to talk about their experience\n\nLior Gelbaum is a Nova survivor. I compliment her on the tiny jewels she's stuck under each eye, sparkling in the light, and she tells me they make her feel festive again. The 24-year-old from the city of Petah Tikva is coming here regularly to get support and give out handmade silver necklaces to others who were there that day.\n\n\"At 06:30 in the morning, we started hearing rockets flying above our heads,\" she tells me. \"We know the drill, so we got into our car and started driving away, but there was a traffic jam. We started hearing gunshots above our heads, so we got out and just started running towards the open field. We didn't know where we were going or what was happening, we just heard automatic gunshots all around us. Two people, Yehuda and Galit, had a big car and got us inside it and away. They saved us.\"\n\nLior also talks about the importance of music to her healing process.\n\n\"Everyone that was at the Nova festival, we love to dance, we love to be together. After the massacre happened, it was important for the community to get back together and to strengthen each other, to be with each other and talk and feel our emotions.\"\n\nBut she says she's been struggling to enjoy something which is a huge part of her identity.\n\n\"It's been hard for me to listen to music since the Nova festival, and still I only feel comfortable listening to music at concerts with the artists that come to this place,\" Lia says.\n\nAbove the seating area, a huge garden stretches up a low hill. It's framed with trees laden with citrus fruits and row after row of bushy herbs, the rosemary and sage scenting the air.\n\nThe survivors often walk through it and pick the leaves to turn into herbal teas. Nature is a big part of this place. The need for space is so great that new rustic tents are being built to make room for the hundreds of people who are now coming here.\n\nDr Itamar Cohen says a lot of young people from the festival are suffering from survivor's guilt\n\nEach day, professional clinical psychologists mix with the survivors who arrive. They're there to talk as much or as little as needed.\n\nDr Itamar Cohen is one of them. He flew in from London as soon as he could after 7 October.\n\nI ask about the stories he's heard. He breathes deeply, then answers.\n\n\"People here have seen a tremendous amount of pain. Some of them were extremely close to not being here any more. Some were chased and had to run for their lives. There wasn't much time to process that, just running away from a massacre. And now they still need to function, and they still need to go and push through.\"\n\nThere's another element too.\n\n\"A lot of people are experiencing some sort of grief, they lost tens of their friends at one time. And there's guilt. 'Why am I the one who survived and not my friend? I should have picked up more survivors inside my car to drive them to safety.' So a lot of thoughts around, 'I am not really worthy of being saved and I could have done better.'\"\n\nDr Cohen tells me that being around other therapists at a dark time helps them all.\n\n\"We have time to see together, to process and to speak about the challenges and our vulnerabilities, and our fears and sense of guilt. It means we have a space to work that through and to strengthen each other, and it helps me as well, tremendously.\"\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "A state of emergency has been declared in Seychelles after a massive explosion at an industrial area on the main island, Mahé.\n\nVideo footage shows the moment the blast took place, leaving a trail of destruction along the island's east coast.\n\nThe international airport was also damaged, despite being 4km (2.5 miles) away. Schools are shut and hospitals closed to all but emergency cases.\n\nA number of people have been injured and several people have also been evacuated from their homes.\n\nThe blast happened just after 02:00 local time (22:00 GMT Wednesday) at a construction and quarrying company, where explosives were being stored in four containers.\n\nRead more on the story here.", "Colombia and Brazil have destroyed 19 illegal gold mining sites and equipment in the Amazon rainforest.\n\nThey were responsible for producing six million pesos ($1.5m) worth of the metal a month.\n\nThe sites were also contributing to local river pollution, with around 100,000 grams of mercury per month, police said.", "Expert lawyers who have been involved in the Rwanda case - or supported the challenge to the policy - have described new legislation as potentially setting up a politically explosive fight with both the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.\n\nIn last month's Supreme Court ruling, five justices unanimously ruled that the country was not safe - and they listed the detailed evidence about how its asylum system was deeply flawed.\n\nThe key element of the government's package tries to deal with this part of the defeat by asking Parliament to declare Rwanda to be \"conclusively\" safe and simultaneously banning British judges from ever saying it is not.\n\nThat is aimed at preventing the courts from once again considering documented evidence about injustices in Rwanda's asylum system. Taken to a hypothetical extreme, if Rwanda exploded with civil war like in 1994 (not something currently likely to happen), British law would still state the country was a safe place to send people.\n\nThe plan then orders British judges and courts to ignore the sections of the Human Rights Act that set out how they should interpret safeguards set out in the European Convention of Human Rights. That includes the right not to be tortured, or the right to a fair hearing before a court.\n\nIt also prevents judges from considering other international laws - most importantly the Refugee Convention and the United Nations' ban on torture.\n\nThis is quite a move to pull off legally and politically on the world stage. On the one hand, the UK freely entered into these laws because it wanted to set a global example for others to follow. On the other, the government has designed a law, say critics, that allows it to pick and choose when it adheres to such global rules - while demanding that Rwanda sticks to the letter all the time.\n\nOne highly-respected legal thinker, Professor Mark Elliott of Cambridge University, has already blogged that this is \"an astounding level of hypocrisy\".\n\nFinally, it says our courts must ignore any other British law that stands in the way of finding the country to be safe - this is important because the Supreme Court said such laws exist.\n\nSo where does this leave the plan?\n\nThe front page of the bill gives it away. Every piece of new legislation must carry a statement as to whether the plan is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.\n\nThis bill comes without that assurance - and that means government lawyers have warned ministers it is more likely than not to fall apart under sustained legal challenges.\n\nSo if the bill is passed, many experts are gearing up for a new and profoundly messy court battle - if not lots of them. Some of those battles might even start in Edinburgh if the plan runs roughshod over some part of Scots law that Downing Street has not thought of. If that sounds like a plot twist, it happened to Boris Johnson when he was roundly defeated over illegally closing down Parliament amid the Brexit crisis.\n\nAt worst, it could lead to an unprecedented constitutional stand-off between Parliament and judges.\n\nThe Supreme Court cannot strike down primary legislation - but it has the power to make a \"Declaration of Incompatibility\". This is a rare judgment that says an Act of Parliament should be rethought because it is incompatible with the basic European Convention of Human Rights safeguards embedded in British law.\n\nTwo such rights that come to mind in relation to the Rwanda plan are the right not to be subject to inhuman treatment and the right to have a fair hearing of your case before you are put onto a plane to equatorial Africa.\n\nIf the Supreme Court makes a Declaration of Incompatibility, in theory a government should then ask Parliament to amend the offending law. But it does not have to do so - hence the potential stand-off.\n\nSo if ministers pressed ahead with flights, it is a racing certainty that claimants would then try to take their case, as would still be their right under the law, to the European Court of Human Rights.\n\nThe court in Strasbourg would then have to consider whether it wants to block the plan - and flights - while it considers the case.\n\nIf it did that, the bill includes a measure that says ministers can ignore such an order and send a plane skywards anyway.\n\nBut two massive obstacles stand in the way of the plan becoming reality.\n\nThe first is politics. They need to get this through Parliament - and there is no certainty the House of Lords will comply.\n\nSome observers are already wondering why Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, and Victoria Prentice, the Attorney General, have stood by the bill when they both have constitutional roles in upholding international laws that may soon be ignored. A lot of votes in the Commons may rest on their shoulders.\n\nSecondly, just supposing it did become law, some of the best legal minds in the country have fought the government over Rwanda. The plan could become so mired in challenges in court that it never gets to a final judgment before the General Election clock runs out.", "Models used the road as a catwalk on Manchester's Thomas Street\n\nCelebrities, models and several hundred global fashionistas crammed into a Manchester street on Thursday as French luxury brand Chanel turned it into a catwalk for a prestigious fashion show.\n\nActors Kristen Stewart, Hugh Grant and Tilda Swinton were among the stars on Thomas Street in the city's Northern Quarter, as was director Sofia Coppola.\n\nModels including Manchester's Karen Elson used the road as a catwalk, with its mixture of trendy bars and traditional shops providing the backdrop for the Metiers d'Art show.\n\nThe models and guests were protected from the pouring rain by a tall Perspex canopy that was erected over the road for the occasion.\n\nThe Guardian's fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley wrote that there was \"general agreement that Manchester was a surprising choice for a Chanel show\".\n\nThe Telegraph's head of fashion Lisa Armstrong said there was \"mutual curiosity, wonderment and a degree of humour\" when Chanel's \"highest-spending international clients came face to face with The Mancunian\".\n\nBut the company's president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky praised the city, saying they were attracted by its \"creative energy\" and musical history.\n\nThe new Gallagher brothers: Liam's sons Gene and Lennon\n\nChanel opted for Manchester because \"too many things happen in London and we wanted to be in the UK out of London\", Pavlovsky told BBC News.\n\n\"We decided to come to Manchester because it was the most inspiring for Virginie [Viard, creative director]. She was inspired by the music and art that she sees here in Manchester, and we've had a warm welcome.\"\n\nUS actress Kristen Stewart is one of Chanel's brand ambassadors\n\nThe show's soundtrack included Manchester bands like The Fall and New Order - two of whose members were in attendance, along with local rappers Aitch and Bugzy Malone.\n\nThere were also two Gallagher brothers - not Oasis stars Liam and Noel, but Liam's sons Gene and Lennon, as well as Noel's daughter Anais.\n\nA tall canopy kept the rain off the models and guests\n\nVictoria and Doctor Who star Jenna Coleman sitting at one of the wooden tables that lined the street\n\nAlso among the 600 attendees were actors Jenna Coleman, Callum Scott Howells, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Lucy Boynton. Other guests ranged from author Jeanette Winterson to Olivia Attwood Dack from Love Island to Taiwanese actress Gwei Lun-mei and Japan's Sakura Ando.\n\nThe stars soaked up the street's combination of history and hipness, posing for photos in the doorway of the long-standing Clark Brothers - a retail supply shop that few people would have previously given a second glance - and outside the Bay Horse Tavern pub.\n\nGuests including US model Kristen McMenamy braved the rain on the way in\n\nThat was one of the street's bars that Chanel took over for the night. For most of the previous two weeks, the pubs and shops had been shut after the company moved in.\n\nChanel has compensated businesses for closing but declined to say how much it had spent in the city.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Chanel Metiers d'Art: 'It's an exciting time to be in Manchester'\n\nCouncillor Luthfur Rahman, Manchester's cabinet member for culture, would not say how much the company had paid, but said it had \"invested in the city\" and that the event would help the local economy.\n\nHe said the show was \"great for Manchester and is great for our ambition to be a global destination\", adding: \"The fact that Chanel have chosen to come to Manchester demonstrates that we're doing something right.\"\n\nBeforehand, a protester outside held a sign calling on the city council to \"get your priorities sorted\" - with the slogan: \"Food or heat!! Not luxury goods.\"\n\nKaren Elson wrote on Instagram: \"Closing the @chanelofficial show in my hometown of Manchester. I'm weeping.\"\n\nThe event has been held in cities including Paris, New York, Rome, Dakar, Salzburg and Dallas in the past, and was last in the UK when it was staged at Linlithgow Palace in Scotland in 2012.\n\nThis year, guests watched the show from wooden tables that lined the street, which has a link to the birth of the modern textiles industry, having been built for small-scale workshops when the industrial revolution took off in the city in the 18th Century.\n\nWhether by accident or design, that history tied in with the idea behind Chanel's Metiers d'Art show, which is to celebrate the skilled craftspeople and artisans that the company works with.\n\nChanel said its new collection focused on \"the poetry of emotions with a dash of the sixties\".\n\nIt added that \"ideas of Great Britain\" were represented in \"wraparound skirts, miniskirts with godets, Bermuda shorts, shirts, coat-dresses all featured in tweed, knitwear in Shetland and cashmere\".\n\nThere were also nods to Manchester's famous footballing pedigree, with one model sporting Chanel's version of a Manchester City shirt and another wearing a scarf in Manchester United colours.\n\nAbout 160 guests who arrived a day early were taken by Chanel to watch United beat Chelsea at Old Trafford on Wednesday.\n\nThey then went to a pre-show party at Salford Lads' Club, featuring a performance from Salford poet John Cooper Clarke.\n\nOn Thursday, an after-party took place at the historic Victoria Baths, the Manchester former swimming pool that was given a new lease of life after winning the BBC's Restoration programme in 2003.", "Sian Doyle was recently sacked as head of S4C\n\nA TV boss who was sacked over bullying allegations is in hospital after taking an overdose, her husband has said.\n\nSian Doyle, former chief executive of Welsh language channel S4C, was found unresponsive on Thursday morning, her husband said in a statement.\n\nRob Doyle claimed a report into the bullying allegations was \"one-sided\" and \"the last straw\" for his wife.\n\nS4C said the news was \"very worrying\" and it was thinking about Ms Doyle and her family.\n\nThe report by legal firm Capital Law, published on Wednesday, included criticism of Ms Doyle's time at S4C.\n\nMs Doyle has said she did not \"recognise or accept\" the allegations made in the report after it was published.\n\nShe also repeatedly called on the UK government to investigate leadership and governance at the publicly-funded channel.\n\nIn a statement sent to Newyddion S4C on Thursday through a London-based PR company, her husband confirmed she had taken an overdose and said she had been \"torn apart in the media\".\n\n\"As her husband, I now have to speak up on her behalf,\" Mr Doyle said.\n\n\"The last 24 hours have seen my wife torn apart in the media after an exceptional 30-year international career because of a one-sided report, commissioned and directed by S4C's chairman.\n\n\"Sian was so proud to have been asked to come out of retirement to lead an organisation that, as a young girl, she campaigned to set up.\n\n\"But that pride turned into frustration, and then to disappointment, fear, and finally despair.\n\n\"Sian has spoken about the chairman's role in this, but S4C's board are also culpable; their complete lack of duty of care for Sian, and their lack of oversight or challenge of the chairman, must be answered for.\"\n\nS4C chairman Rhodri Williams has been accused of \"wider bullying\" by Sian Doyle\n\nMr Doyle said the woman represented in the Capital Law report \"was unrecognisable from the woman I've loved for the past 37 years, or the woman her friends and former colleagues know\".\n\nHe also said he had \"watched in horror and disbelief as my wife has been hunted over the last seven months\", and described attacks on her character and reputation as \"appalling\".\n\n\"This has to stop. No organisation should be run like this, let alone one that is funded with public money,\" he added.\n\n\"I am now insisting that the privacy of my wife and my family is respected so that she can, hopefully, recover and we can get on with our lives.\"\n\nMr Doyle said his wife had previously called on UK government Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer to launch an independent investigation into the governance of S4C, \"but the secretary of state has done nothing\".\n\nFollowing her sacking, Ms Doyle claimed she had faced \"unfair treatment, and wider bullying\" from S4C chairman Rhodri Williams.\n\nIt has also been announced that an evidence session due to be held by MPs with Mr Williams has been cancelled.\n\nThe House of Commons' Welsh Affairs Select Committee had been due to hear from him next Tuesday. No reason has been given publicly for the cancellation.\n\nIn a statement, S4C said: \"The news about Sian Doyle is very worrying and we are thinking about her and the family.\n\n\"We have offered our support to the family during this difficult time.\n\n\"Our hope is that she will recover quickly, and we wish her all the best for the future.\"\n\nThe UK government's Department of Culture, Media and Sport said: \"Our thoughts and prayers are with Ms Doyle and her family at this incredibly difficult time, and we wish her a speedy return to health.\n\n\"We expect the board of S4C to address the issues identified in the independent investigation by Capital Law as a matter of urgency. We have been in regular contact with S4C throughout this investigation and will remain so.\n\n\"Public service broadcasters, like every organisation, have a responsibility to uphold a duty of care to all employees.\"\n\nIf you've been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line", "Amiram Cooper, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Tsachi Idan are being held in Gaza\n\nIsrael says 132 people remain unaccounted for after they were abducted and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attacks by Hamas.\n\nAn estimated 240 people were taken prisoner, but 105 were later released by Hamas during a six-day ceasefire at the end of November.\n\nThe Israeli military said it mistakenly killed three hostages in northern Gaza who had escaped from their captors and expressed \"deep remorse\" over the incident.\n\nOf the 132 still unaccounted for, Israel says that 20 of them are believed to be dead.\n\nThese are the stories of those hostages who are still being held, which have either been confirmed by the BBC or credibly reported.\n\nThis list is regularly updated and names may change, as some people feared kidnapped are confirmed to have been killed or released.\n\nLast updated on 19 December 2023 at 10:33 GMT\n\nYagev Kirsht, 34, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nirim, alongside his wife, Rimon Buchstab Kirsht. She has now been released.\n\nAlexander Trupanov, was taken hostage with his mother Lena Trupanov, 50, his partner Sapir Cohen, 29, and his grandmother Irina Tati, 73. All were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz as they spent the Sabbath together, according to a statement by Canada's Raoul Wallenburg Center for Human Rights. Irina and Lena were released on Wednesday 29 November and Sapir was freed the next day.\n\nAriel Cunio, his girlfriend Arbel Yahud and her brother Dolev are also thought to have been abducted in the same attack on Nir Oz. Eitan Cunio, Ariel's brother who escaped Hamas, told the Jewish Chronicle that his last message from Ariel said: \"We are in a horror movie.\"\n\nDavid Cunio, 33, another of Ariel's brothers, was also kidnapped from Nir Oz, family say. David's wife Sharon Aloni Cunio and their three-year-old twin daughters Ema and Yuly were released on 27 November. Sharon's sister Daniele Aloni, and her six-year-old daughter Emilia were both released on 24 November.\n\nDoron Steinbrecher, 30, a veterinary nurse, was in her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas attacked, the Times of Israel reported. At 10:30 on 7 October, the newspaper said, she sent a voice message to friends: \"They've arrived, they have me.\"\n\nItzhak Gelerenter, 53, was taken from the Supernova festival. His family said the IDF found his phone was located in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported. His daughter Pivko told the paper: \"I'm trying to think good thoughts, I have a powerful, smart, resourceful father.\"\n\nDoron Steinbrecher sent a voice message to friends during Hamas' attack\n\nNaama Levy, 19, was filmed being bundled into a jeep, her hands tied behind her back. The footage was released by Hamas and circulated widely on social media. According to her mother, the teenager had just begun her military service.\n\nYousef Zyadna, a 53-year-old Bedouin dairy farmer, was abducted from Kibbutz Holit and taken to Gaza along with his sons Hamza, 22, and Bilal, 18, and his daughter, Aisha, 16. Aisha and Bilal were released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nElad Katzir, 47, was abducted from Nir Oz with his mother Hanna. Hanna has now been released.\n\nOhad Ben Ami, 55, was kidnapped from Be'eri with his wife, Raz. She was released by Hamas on 29 November.\n\nTwin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, 26, were taken from Kfar Aza. Ziv was messaging a friend as the attack happened. Their family said the IDF has told them the brothers are being held in Gaza. Their brother Liran told CBN news the pair had \"twin power\" and were the centre of attention wherever they went.\n\nIraq-born Shlomo Mansour, 85, was taken captive from Kibbutz Kissufim, where he lived and worked as a chicken coop manager. His wife, Mazal, managed to escape.\n\nMichel Nisenbaum, 59, is a dual Brazilian-Israeli citizen who has lived in Israel for 45 years and works as a computer technician, his family told Brazilian media. They also say he is diabetic and has Crohn's disease. On 7 October, they say, someone claiming to be from Hamas answered his phone when they tried to call him.\n\nDaniela Gilboa, 19, sent messages saying that Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where she was staying, was under attack and asked her mother to pray for her. Her boyfriend, Roy Dadon, told the Economist 1843 magazine that he believes he saw a glimpse of her in a video showing three girls being driven away in the back of an SUV.\n\nItay Chen, 19, a dual US-Israeli citizen and IDF solider, was on active duty with a tank unit on 7 October, according to the Times of Israel. The paper reported that his family was notified by the IDF that he is officially considered missing in action and probably being held hostage. Another soldier in his unit, Matan Angrest, 21, is also presumed to be in Gaza.\n\nYosi Sharabi, 51, was taken from Be'eri with his brother, Eli Sharabi, 55. Eli's wife and two daughters were murdered in the attack. Ofir Engel, the boyfriend of Yosi's daughter, Yuval, was also taken, but released on 29 November.\n\nAgam Berger, 19, was kidnapped from Nahal Oz. She was seen being taken away in videos released by Hamas.\n\nEdan Alexander, 19, is an Israeli-US citizen who volunteered to join the Israeli army. He was serving near the Gaza border at the time of Hamas's attack. Edan's family said they had been told by Israeli officials that he had been taken to Gaza as a hostage.\n\nKaid Farhan Elkadi, 53, lives with his family south of Rahat and worked as a security guard, according to Israeli media. Reports said his family believes he was kidnapped and taken to Gaza, based on images shared by Hamas.\n\nIlana Gritzewsky and Matan Zanguaker were captured near the Gaza border, family say\n\nMatan Zanguaker, 24, was taken with his partner Ilana Gritzewsky, 30, from Nir Oz, according to Ilana's father. Ilana, a Mexican national, was released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nThe family of Eitan and Yair Horn believe they were taken from Nir Oz kibbutz\n\nEitan Horn, 37, and his brother Yair, 45, both Argentinian citizens, were also in Nir Oz at the time of the attack. Their father Itzik said he believes they were kidnapped. Yair is a construction worker while Eitan works in education.\n\nItai Svirsky, 38, is thought to have been abducted when his elderly parents were killed in Be'eri. He had been visiting them for the holiday of Simhat Torah.\n\nKeith Seigel, 64, and his wife Adrienne - often known as Aviva - Seigel, 62, were taken from their home in Kfar Aza, Keith's brother Lee Seigel told the BBC. Adrienne was released on 26 November.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, lived in Nahal Oz with his wife and two daughters. Omri was led away by Hamas with his hands tied, his wife Lishay told the Guardian newspaper. She told him not to be a hero, urging: \"Do whatever they want because I want you back.\"\n\nBipin Joshi, 23, a Nepalese student, is believed to have been taken from Kibbutz Alumim. Nepalese newspaper Setopati says he was one of 49 university students studying agriculture in Israel. It says 10 students were killed in the attack.\n\nIlan Weiss, 58, went missing from Kibbutz Be'eri after he was last seen leaving the house to defend the community. On 25 November, his wife Shiri Weiss, 53, and their daughter, Noga, 18, were freed from captivity in a hostage deal.\n\nAmiram Cooper, 85, and his wife Nurit, 80, were taken from their home in Nir Oz, their daughter-in-law Noa told the BBC. The family last spoke to the couple during the Hamas attack, Noa said, when the couple were in their safe room. The family later traced Amiram's phone to Gaza. On Monday 23 October, Nurit was one of two women to be released.\n\nAmiram and Nurit Cooper, pictured with their granddaughter, Gali\n\nOded Lifshitz, 83, and his wife Yocheved, 85 were taken hostage from Nir Oz. On Monday 23 October, Yocheved was one of two elderly women to be freed. After hearing the news of her mother's release, their daughter Sharone - a London-based artist - said: \"While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those - some 200 innocent people - who remain hostages in Gaza.\"\n\nHaim Peri, 79, was taken from his home in Nir Oz, reports the Times of Israel, and freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz said she saw that he was alive and well. His son Lior Peri told Talk TV that Haim had locked his wife inside the safe room before giving himself up to kidnappers.\n\nAvraham Munder, 78, was kidnapped from Nir Oz, Israeli officials say. His wife Ruthi, daughter and grandson have since been released.\n\nOmer Neutra, a 22-year-old Israeli-American and grandson of Holocaust survivors, put off plans to go to college in the US to study in Israel, and eventually joined the IDF. He was serving as a tank commander near Gaza when Hamas attacked. Omer's parents say they were told by the Israeli embassy that he had been kidnapped.\n\nRon Benjamin's vehicle was found empty following the attacks\n\nRon Benjamin, 53, had been taking part in a group cycle ride near the Gaza border when the Hamas attack began and he decided to drive home, his family told Israeli media. Days later, his vehicle was found empty and his family believe he was kidnapped.\n\nLouis Har, 70, is believed to have been taken from Nir Yitzhak. His partner Clara Marman was released on 28 November along with her sister Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and Gabriela's daughter Mia Leimberg,17. Clara and Gabriela's brother Fernando Simon Marman, 60, also remains in captivity.\n\nJudith Weinstein Haggai, 70, and her husband, Gad Haggai, 73, also went missing from Nir Oz after the Hamas attack. Ten days later, the Israeli military confirmed to the family they had been taken hostage, CTV News in Canada reported.\n\nAlex Danzig, 75, a scholar and historian of the Holocaust, was at his home in Nir Oz, when it was attacked by Hamas. \"We know for sure he was kidnapped,\" his son Mati told the BBC. Alex - whose older sister Edith is a Holocaust survivor - has spent the last 30 years working for Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance centre. His disappearance has triggered a campaign for his release, both in Israel and in Poland, the country of his birth.\n\nAlex Danzig has spent decades educating people about the Holocaust\n\nItzhk Elgarat, 68, was kidnapped at the same time as Alex Danzig, his brother Danny Elgert told Israel's Kan 11 TV station, adding that he had tracked his brother's phone to the border with Gaza.\n\nGadi Moses, 79, was also abducted during the same attack on Nir Oz, according to relatives and the Israeli aid agency where he worked as an agricultural expert. Efrat Katz, his partner, was initially thought to have been captured as well, but she was later found dead, the Times of Israel reported. Efrat was the mother of Doron Asher, who was taken hostage and later released with her two daughters. Ravid Katz, 51, Doron Asher's brother, was originally thought to have been taken hostage from Nir Oz, but on 28 November his family confirmed that he had been killed on 7 October.\n\nYair Yaakov, 59, is listed among the hostages. His partner Meirav Tal, 53, was released on 28 November. Yair's children Yagil, 13, and Or, 16, were released on 27 November.\n\nYair Yaakov was pictured being held captive by a gunman in a video shared online\n\nNimrod Cohen, 19, had studied software engineering in high school, according to reports. After he was kidnapped, his father was invited to meet Pope Francis in Rome along with other hostages' families.\n\nTsachi Idan, 51, was last seen by his wife, Gali, as he was taken away by Hamas gunmen. Their family had been ambushed in their safe room in Nahal Oz. Their ordeal was live-streamed by Hamas. Their eldest child, Maayan - who had just turned 18 - was shot dead, Gali told the BBC.\n\nTsachi Idan was ambushed with his wife and children and then led away\n\nYarden Bibas, 34, was abducted from Nir Oz. His wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel and Kfir, were also taken hostage, but on 29 November, Hamas claimed they had been killed in an Israeli air strike while in captivity. The Israeli government has said it is checking the claim.\n\nRonen Engel, 54, was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his wife, Karina Engelbert, 51, and their two daughters, Mika, 18 and Yuval, 11. On 1 December, the organisation representing the families said he had been murdered. Karina, Mika and Yuval were released on 27 November.\n\nKarina Ariev, a 19-year-old soldier, was serving at an army base near Gaza when she was kidnapped. Her sister Alexandra told the BBC she heard shooting as Karina called her during the attack, and later saw a video showing Karina being taken away in a vehicle.\n\nKarina Ariev was at the Nahal Oz military base, which was among the first to be attacked\n\nOfer Kalderon, 53, was taken by Hamas from Nir Oz. On 27 November his two children, Erez, 12, and Sahar, 16, were released. Two other relatives, 80-year-old Carmela Dan and her granddaughter, Noya, 12, were also believed to have been taken, but Israeli authorities later announced they had been found dead.\n\nYoram Metzger, 80, was a resident of Nir Oz. He has diabetes and broke his hip six months ago, his daughter-in-law said. Yoram's wife Tamar was released on 28 November.\n\nNadav Popplewell, 51, and his mother Channah were taken hostage by Hamas, said Channah's daughter Ayelet Svatitzky, who was speaking to them on the phone when the gunmen burst in. She said the captors sent pictures of her two relatives, who both have diabetes, with armed men in the background. Channah has now been released.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, was abducted after his family opened the door to their secure shelter to an Israeli child, who said he would be killed otherwise. Omri's wife, Lishay Lavi, said she saw him being taken away in handcuffs with three other hostages from Nahal Oz.\n\nLiri Elbag, 18, had just started military training as an Army lookout near the Gaza border when Hamas attacked, her father Eli told the Associated Press. Eli said he saw her in a video circulated later by Hamas, crowded with others on the back of a military truck which had been seized by the gunmen.\n\nLior Rudaeff, 61, was taken from Nir Yitzhak during the attack. His family have heard nothing from him since then.\n\nA number of people are believed to have been abducted from the Supernova music festival in southern Israel. Among them:\n\nShlomi Ziv, 40, was part of the security detail at the festival and was initially in contact with his sisters as the attack unfolded, according to an interview with The Times of Israel. A few weeks later the family learned he was officially considered to be a hostage, the report says.\n\nAlexander Lobanov, 32, is a Russian-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped at the festival.\n\nOri Danino, 25, is reported to have got away from the festival in his car, but it's believed he was captured after turning back in an attempt to save some people he had met there.\n\nAlmog Sarusi, 26, was kidnapped from the music festival and his partner Shahar Gindi was killed, according to Israeli media. Almog's father, Yigal, was among the relatives of hostages who met with Israel's prime minister in October.\n\nOmer Shem Tov, 21, called his parents as he was running away from gunfire and managed to get into a friend's car. His parents, Shelly and Malki Shem Tov, told Israeli media they lost contact with their son and the live location on his phone showed he was beyond the border in Gaza.\n\nIdan Shtivi, 28, an environmental sciences student, was attending the festival to take pictures at music and yoga workshops being held by friends. He escaped the site in his car but was attacked by Hamas along the route. The bodies of two of his passengers were found, and his family told the Jerusalem Post they suspect he was kidnapped.\n\nYosef Ohana, 24, had been at the festival with a friend, who told his mother he and Yosef had remained to help people escape the gunfire before running themselves. Yosef was last seen hiding under a car, and Israeli authorities have visited his mother to say he was kidnapped.\n\nAndrei Kozlov, 27, a Russian who moved to Israel in 2022, is missing from the Supernova festival, where he was working as a security guard. His mother told the De Taly publication the family was told by the IDF on October 26 that he was being held hostage.\n\nElyakim Libman, 23, was working as a security guard at the festival. In a Facebook post his father Eliyahu Libman said another guard told him his son had helped rescue others before trying to escape. He was last seen trying to help two badly-injured women.\n\nNoa Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was also kidnapped from the festival. Video footage - verified by her father Yaakov Argamani to Israel's Channel 12 - shows the 25-year-old being taken away on the back of a motorbike screaming, \"Don't kill me!\" Her boyfriend Avinatan Or, 30, also appears in the video being marched away from her by Hamas, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nEden Yerushalmi's family say they were told she had been taken hostage\n\nEden Yerushalmi, 24, called her family during Hamas's attack on the festival, her sister May told CBS News. The family say they were subsequently informed by the IDF that Eden had been abducted.\n\nChanan Yablonka, 42, is a father-of-two from Tel Aviv. According to reports, he attended the festival with friends and was due to celebrate his birthday a few days after the attacks.\n\nJonathan Samerano, 21, has been missing since 7am on the morning of the festival. His family have been told to presume he is being held in Gaza, Israeli media reported.\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal was filmed in captivity in Gaza, his family say\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal, 22, attended the festival with his brother. Guy appears in a hostage video that his family say confirms he is in Gaza.\n\nUriel Baruch, 35, was injured during the attack on the festival, his wife said on Facebook. Reports in Israeli media say his mother, Naomi, has heard from the IDF that he is a hostage.\n\nMaxim Kharkin's mother described speaking to him on the morning of 7 October\n\nMaxim Kharkin is aged 35 and a Russian speaker, his mother told Russian media. She added that he had called her at 07:00 on the morning of the attack.\n\nElkana Bohbot was seen in a video posted by Hamas\n\nElkana Bohbot, 34, had gone to the party with friends and, before losing contact, he spoke to his wife and mother telling them he was helping to evacuate the wounded, the Times of Israel reported. Hours later, his family found a video of him posted online by Hamas, which has been seen by BBC Verify.\n\nRom Braslavski, 19, was working on security for the festival. According to an account published by Hostages and Missing Families Forum, he was trying to rescue an injured person in the attack when he was caught in a volley of fire. He has not been heard from since.\n\nOmer Wenkert, 22, a restaurant manager, sent a message to his family to say he was going to a safe shelter but then lost contact, his father Shai Wenkert told the BBC's Today Programme. Shai Wenkert said he had seen footage of his son in captivity, including a photo of him handcuffed and wearing only underwear.\n\nEvyatar David's family say they were sent a video of him in captivity\n\nEvyatar David, 23, was at the festival and on the morning of the attacks, described fleeing from gunfire before losing contact with the outside world, his brother says. Later, his family say, Evyatar's sister posted on Instagram appealing for information about his whereabouts. She then received a text from an unknown number, which contained video footage of Evyatar handcuffed on the floor of a dark room. According to Israel's foreign ministry he is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nEitan Mor, 23, lives in Jerusalem, and was working as a security guard at the festival, the Times of Israel said. He reportedly texted his uncle after Hamas arrived and was last seen with a friend bringing others to safety.\n\nAlon Ohel, 22, a Serbian citizen, took refuge in a shelter after the festival came under attack, his family say. They have seen footage of him being dragged away after a grenade attack.\n\nAlmog Meir Jan, 21, tried to flee the festival. He and a friend made it to the friend's car but only managed to drive a short distance before being forced to stop. Almog's family say they have seen a hostage video in which he appears.\n\nInbar Heiman, a student aged 21, was seen by two young Israeli men being taken away from the festival on a motorcycle. Hamas have released a video in which she is seen very briefly.\n\nHersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a dual US-Israeli citizen, was badly injured in the attack, his family told the BBC. Eyewitness accounts say he was seen being forced onto a white pick-up truck - the last-known signal from his phone came from just inside Gaza.\n\nSegev Kalfon, 26, was running away from the festival, across the highway, when he was captured by Hamas, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.\n\nOrión Hernández Radoux, 30, from Mexico, attended the festival with his girlfriend, Shani Louk. He has not been seen since. The Sun newspaper says it has seen threatening messages written in Arabic sent from his phone. Shani, a tourist from Germany, was initially thought to be among those seized. But on 30 October, her mother Ricarda told German media that the family had been informed by Israeli military of her death following DNA identification.\n\nRomi Lesham Gonen, 23, was on the phone to her mother as she tried to escape from the Supernova festival. Merav Leshem Gonan has recounted a conversation in which her daughter begged for help after being shot. ABC News reports that Romi's phone is now in Gaza.\n\nBar Kuperstein, 21, last spoke to his family early on the morning of 7 October, as the attack unfolded. Later the same day, his family say they identified him in a video of Israeli prisoners, posted by Hamas. Since then, they say they have had no further information.\n\nEliya Cohen, 26, was hiding with his girlfriend Ziv from the attack, when Ziv felt him being pulled up and driven away by the gunmen, Eliya's mother has told the video initiative #BringThemHomeNow. The family then found a photo of Eliya in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nAmit Buskila, 28, from Ashdod, was last heard of making a call to her uncle, Shimon, as Hamas overran the festival. Her family say they have now been told by the government that she is being held in Gaza.\n\nCarmel Gat, 39, is Jordan's sister-in-law, and also was seen by her father being taken by gunmen from Kibbutz Be'eri, Haaretz newspaper reported. She has not been heard from since.\n\nOhad Yahalomi, 49, was abducted from Nir Oz, along with his 12-year-old son, Eitan, who was released during the November ceasefire.\n\nDror Or, 48, was seen by a neighbour being dragged out of his home in Be'eri, according to their nephew Emmanuel Besorai, along with his son and daughter. On Saturday 25 November Dror's son Noam, 17, and daughter Alma, 13, were released from captivity. The body of Yonat, 50 - Dror's wife and the children's mother - was identified among the 120 people murdered at the kibbutz, Yonat's brother told the Guardian newspaper.\n\nTal Shoham, 38, was taken from Kibbutz Be'eri. His wife Adi, also 38, her mother Dr Shoshan Haran, 67, were released by Hamas on 25 November, along with the couple's children Nave, eight, and Yahel, three. Dr Haran's husband, Avshalom - an economist and dual German/Israeli citizen - was killed on 7 October.\n\nTamir Adar, 38, who defended Nir Oz as part of the kibbutz's emergency squad, was taken to Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen, 35, an American-Israeli citizen, has been missing since Hamas's attack on Nir Oz, his father Jonathan told the BBC. He said his son was not found among the dead and the \"only reasonable explanation\" is that he was taken to Gaza.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen's father has not heard from him since Hamas attacked the kibbutz where he lived\n\nThailand's ambassador to Israel says 26 of its citizens were taken hostage, 23 of whom have now been released.\n\nThose still being held are believed to include Watchara Sriuan, 32. His mother, Viewwaew, told the Thaiger news site that the family had been informed he was being held captive.\n\nKiattisak \"Top\" Patee and a Mr Pongtorn (no first name given) have also been named by the Thai foreign ministry as hostages.\n\nA number of other people thought to have been held hostage are now confirmed to have died, either during the 7 October attack or while in captivity.\n\nAs well as Ron Scherman and Nik Beizer, four bodies were identified this week. They were Tal Chaimi, an Israeli-Romanian citizen aged 41, and Joshua Mollel, a 19-year-old Tanzanian student. Also, 27-year-old Eden Zecharya, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, and 36-year-old Ziv Dado, who had already been declared dead by the Israeli military.\n\nOthers known to have died include Dror Kaplun, 68, Aviv Atzili, 49, Arye Zalmanovich, 85, Ronen Engel, 54, Maya Goren, 56, Guy Iluz, 26, Ofir Tzarfati, 27, Ofra Keider, 70, and Eliyahu Margalit, 75.\n\nThe bodies of 19-year-old soldier, Noa Marciano, and 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss were found by Israeli troops in buildings close to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.\n\nOn Saturday 9 December Kibbutz Bari announced that Sahar Baruch, 25, had been killed in Gaza.\n\nOther hostages whose death has been reported, but not confirmed include Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir.\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? If it is safe to do so, please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has resigned \"with great sadness\" over the government's Rwanda policy.\n\nHere is the letter in full:\n\nIt is with great sadness that I write to tender my resignation as Minister for Immigration. I cannot continue in my position when I have such strong disagreements with the direction of the government's policy on immigration.\n\nAs you know, I have been pushing for the strongest possible piece of emergency legislation to ensure that under the Rwanda policy we remove as many small boat arrivals, as swiftly as possible, to generate the greatest deterrent effect.\n\nThis stems from my firmly held position that the small boats crisis is a national emergency that is doing untold damage to our country, and the only way we will be able to stop the boats completely is by urgently introducing a major new deterrent.\n\nI have therefore consistently advocated for a clear piece of legislation that severely limits the opportunities for domestic and foreign courts to block or undermine the effectiveness of the policy.\n\nOne of the great advantages of our unwritten constitution is the unfettered power of our sovereign parliament to create law, and that is a power we must take full advantage of.\n\nThe government has a responsibility to place our vital national interests above highly contested interpretations of international law.\n\nIn our discussions on the proposed emergency legislation you have moved towards my position, for which I am grateful.\n\nNevertheless, I am unable to take the currently proposed legislation through the Commons as I do not believe it provides us with the best possible chance of success.\n\nA bill of the kind you are proposing is a triumph of hope over experience. The stakes for the country are too high for us not to pursue the stronger protections required to end the merry-go-round of legal challenges which risk paralysing the scheme and negating its intended deterrent.\n\nReflecting on my time in the Home Office, I am proud of the improvements we have delivered together working alongside dedicated and capable civil servants.\n\nI am grateful to you for agreeing to much of my five-point plan to reduce net migration which, once implemented, will deliver the single largest reduction in legal migration ever.\n\nHowever, I refuse to be yet another politician who makes promises on immigration to the British public but does not keep them.\n\nThis package must be implemented immediately via an emergency rules change and accompanied by significant additional reforms at the start of next year to ensure we meet the 2019 manifesto commitment that every single Conservative MP was elected upon.\n\nThe consequences for housing, public services, economic productivity, welfare reform, community cohesion and, more fundamentally, for trust in democratic politics are all too serious for this totemic issue to be anything other than a primary focus for the government.\n\nTogether we have also made progress tackling illegal migration.\n\nSmall boats arrivals are down by more than a third compared to last year, against a forecast of a 40% increase and an almost 100% per cent rise in Italy in the same period.\n\nThe deal we negotiated with Albania has led to a more than ninety per cent reduction in Albanians arriving illegally on small boats and has demonstrated that a fully functioning scheme with Rwanda will act as a powerful deterrent.\n\nFor the first time we have developed a comprehensive upstream strategy to disrupt the organised immigration crime gangs in important countries including Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria and Turkey.\n\nThis has made the United Kingdom a partner of choice to those who share a determination to tackle illegal migration and has led to record numbers of small boat equipment seizures, preventing thousands more people making the illegal, unnecessary and dangerous crossing.\n\nAt home we have relentlessly focussed on removing the pull factors the United Kingdom.\n\nWe have increased raids on illegal working by seventy per cent and returns of immigration offenders by over 50%, transformed the asylum case-working system with a ten-fold increase in weekly decisions to eliminate the legacy backlog, and began closing hundreds of the farcical asylum hotels.\n\nBehind the scenes we have also instilled greater rigour in scrutinising visa applications which will tackle the equally concerning rise in non-small boat asylum claims.\n\nHowever, we said that we would stop the boats altogether. That is what the public rightly demands and expects of us. We must truly mean that we will do 'whatever it takes' to deliver this commitment when we say so.\n\nThis emergency legislation is the last opportunity to prove this, but in its current drafting it does not go far enough.\n\nYou and I have been friends for a long time. In cabinet I have seen up close your hard work, dedication and the deep sense of public service that drives you every day.\n\nAgainst strong headwinds you have stabilised the country, showed leadership on the world stage and done much to improve the lives of millions of citizens across the United Kingdom, for which you deserve much greater recognition.\n\nThis is not a decision I have arrived at lightly, but one born of principle and reached after careful consideration and many months of trying to convince you of the merits of my position.\n\nYou will retain my full support on the backbenches even as I campaign on illegal and legal migration policy and the intersecting challenges of generating meaningful economic growth, solving the housing crisis and improving integration. The fortunes of the Conservative Party at the next general election are at stake.\n\nIt has been an honour to serve in government for five Conservative Prime Ministers. I will continue to represent the interests of my constituents in Newark to whom I owe so much.\n\nThank you for your letter and your service in government. Your hard work has helped us cut boat crossings by more than a third. You have strived to cut the asylum backlog and return hotels to their communities.\n\nYour resignation is disappointing given we both agree on the ends, getting flights off to Rwanda so that we can stop the boats. I fear that your departure is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation. It is our experience that gives us confidence that this will work.\n\nOur returns deal with Albania, that you were instrumental in securing, has cut Albanian arrivals by ninety per cent. These Albanian arrivals have far more recourse to the courts than people will under this new legislation. But we have still succeeded in returning 5,000 illegal migrants this year and cutting the numbers dramatically because it has shown that if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay.\n\nThis bill is the toughest piece of illegal migration legislation ever put forward by a UK Government.\n\nIt makes clear that Parliament deems Rwanda safe and no court can second guess that, it disapplies the relevant parts of the human rights act and makes clear that it is for ministers to decide whether or not to comply with any temporary injunctions issued by the European Court of Human Rights.\n\nIf we were to oust the courts entirely, we would collapse the entire scheme.\n\nThe Rwandan government have been clear that they would not accept the UK basing this scheme on legislation that could be considered in breach of our international law obligations. There would be no point in passing a law that would leave us with nowhere to send people to.\n\nI know that you have more to contribute and that you will continue to represent your constituents in Newark and Bingham with dedication and determination.", "Family and friends of Odhrán Kelly remembered him as a \"loving, funny and caring\" person\n\nPolice investigating the murder of a young man in County Armagh at the weekend have charged two women with assisting an offender.\n\nThe body of Odhrán Kelly, 23, was found beside a burning car in Maple Court in Lurgan in the early hours of Sunday.\n\nHis death is not believed to be linked to organised crime, police have said.\n\nThe two women, aged 43 and 36 years old, are due to appear before Lisburn Magistrates Court on Thursday.\n\nTwo 31-year-old men who were arrested on suspicion of murder remain in police custody.\n\nThe victim's mother, Jacqui Murray, said her son was taken too soon and her heart is \"broken in a million pieces\".\n\nIn a floral tribute, she described him as her \"beautiful boy\" adding: \"Love you always, Mum and big brother Paul.\"\n\nForensic teams and police officers have been at the scene since Sunday and a police cordon is still in place around a block of flats and a nearby green space where a car was found burnt out.\n\nDet Ch Insp Anthony Kelly said: \"My thoughts are first and foremost with Mr Kelly's family, who are left trying to come to terms with this terrible loss.\n\nFamily and friends of Odhrán Kelly remembered him as a \"loving, funny and caring\" person\n\n\"While our investigation is at an early stage, I do not believe there is an organised crime link.\"\n\nHe said he was \"keen to speak with three people, who are captured on CCTV\" walking not far from the burning car.\n\n\"I believe they may have information that could assist our investigation and would ask them to get in touch as soon as possible,\" he said.\n\nSpeaking after the latest arrest, Det Ch Insp Kelly said: \"The investigation is at an early stage and we are continuing to interview people who remain in custody.\n\n\"I am keeping an open mind regarding the motive and am following a number of lines of enquiry.\"\n\nA vigil was held in Mr Kelly's memory on Wednesday.\n\nJust before 18:00 GMT, a crowd began to gather in the rain on Edward Street in Lurgan, where Odhrán Kelly's body was found on Sunday.\n\nThose attending the vigil for the 23-year-old were not deterred by the weather.\n\nThere were hundreds of people but it was quiet until a brief applause, as blue and white balloons were released into the sky.\n\nHundreds gather in Lurgan as blue and white balloons are released for Odhrán Kelly\n\nColoured balloons were also attached to lampposts with flowers beneath them.\n\nOne local resident, Jacqueline Bunting, said she had come \"to show support for his family and all his friends\".\n\nAnother, Anne McFadden, said it was \"important for everybody to come out and support the family\". She said that it was a \"tragic\" situation and the community needed to come together.\n\nMr Kelly's colleagues from Craigavon Area Hospital, where he worked in the domestic unit, visited the scene earlier on Wednesday, taping a balloon with 'Forever 23' to a nearby lamppost.\n\nJodie Tallon said she was in disbelief at what had happened to Mr Kelly.\n\n\"He was just so nice to everybody, and he never had a bad word to say about anybody,\" she told BBC News NI.\n\n\"He was always there for everybody and helped everybody.\"\n\nJodie, Aimee and Sammi Jo, who all worked with Mr Kelly at Craigavon Hospital, attended a vigil on Wednesday\n\nAnother friend, Aimee Loughran, said Mr Kelly was always \"having a laugh and carrying on\" and would be forever missed.\n\n\"We're just heartbroken, there's no other words for it than heartbroken.\"\n\nSammi Jo Lewsley said she was \"devastated\" at the news, and will remember having a laugh and messing about.\n\nMr Kelly's work colleagues say they are \"heartbroken\" about this death\n\nOn Tuesday, Det Ch Insp Kelly said he was aware of footage circulating on social media, and that he would be keen to see it.\n\nA Major Incident Public Portal where anyone can upload footage has also been set up.", "Men stand outside Nasser hospital in Khan Younis as the injured from an Israeli airstrike arrive\n\nYoung men in jeans and flip-flops stand in line in front of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, as if they are watching a funeral procession.\n\nIt's another night in the tense gloom outside the accident and emergency department.\n\nMedical personnel in scrubs are poised to receive more casualties. Voices are raised and men crowd around.\n\nPublic order is starting to break down - people are traumatised and exhausted.\n\nA car pulls up, its horn blaring and lights flashing. A young man is pulled out and put onto a stretcher, then rushed inside.\n\nThen another car arrives, covered in dust, and a child who is only four or five is helped out. He is able to walk.\n\nHospitals in Khan Younis - the Gaza Strip's second largest city - have been overwhelmed since the Israeli air force intensified its bombardment of the south on Friday.\n\nIsraeli tanks and troops have also now entered the city, after the ground offensive was widened following the collapse of a temporary truce with Hamas.\n\nGaza's Hamas-run health ministry says at least 1,200 people have been killed across the territory since the fighting resumed.\n\nThat has brought to more than 16,000 the total number killed in Gaza during the war, which was triggered by Hamas's attacks on southern Israel on 7 October.\n\nGunmen from Hamas - a proscribed terrorist organisation in Israel, the UK, US and EU - killed at least 1,200 people and took more than 240 back to Gaza as hostages.\n\nMany of Gaza's 2.3 million residents sought refuge in the south after the Israeli military ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the war.\n\nBut with the fighting spreading to Khan Younis, they're running out of places to flee to.\n\nThousands of displaced people are crammed inside the grounds and corridors of the city's European Hospital.\n\n\"When we are playing and there is bombardment, we immediately run to the tents near the walls and [pretend to be] asleep,\" says one of the children there as the sounds of explosions fill the air.\n\n\"We are afraid. The glass of windows shatters above us.\"\n\nA UN official has said that the humanitarian crisis across Gaza is \"getting worse by the hour\"\n\nA woman at the hospital says she fled to al-Fakhari, an area east of Khan Younis, after receiving phone calls telling them that it was a \"safe zone\". But now, she says, the area is being bombarded and the situation is \"very bad\".\n\n\"I don't see any area being safe when it comes to us, nor is any area habitable.\"\n\nA 75-year-old man agrees that nowhere is safe.\n\n\"The situation is indescribable. There are children and women. We, as elderly, can withstand what is happening,\" he says.\n\n\"Listen to the ongoing sounds - how could someone sit and wait for the opportunity to leave a safe zone? Where is the safety? We can't sense it. Every place we go to, they say it is safe but we can't find that.\"\n\nIn downtown Khan Younis, Samah Ilwan waves two empty water bottles in the air and says her six children - five girls and one boy - are thirsty.\n\n\"We have become like cats and dogs. Perhaps cats and dogs get shelters. We don't have any. We're stranded in the street.\"\n\nBBC Arabic reporter Adnan El-Bursh reporting from outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis\n\nLife is also closing in on me.\n\nDespite everything that has happened to me and my family since the start of the war, this is the first time that I feel completely lost.\n\nAll willpower and control have been ripped from me.\n\nI'm used to keeping my family safe and secure, coming up with a plan. Now, I am torn by indecision.\n\nI'm originally from the north but I fled south with my family after being ordered to do so by the Israeli army, who said the south was \"safe\".\n\nCurrently, I am alone in Khan Younis, while my family is in central Gaza.\n\nI was able to travel up to see them every few days. But now, the Israelis have shut one road and the second one is very dangerous.\n\nShould I go south to Rafah, keep working and hope that my family will be ok?\n\nOr should I try to get back to them, stop reporting, and if it comes to the worst, then at least we die together?\n\nI hope no-one else ever has to face this awful choice, which is not a choice at all.", "Michael Mason says he went to the toilet in the layby because of a medical condition\n\nWhen a 69-year-old with a weakened prostate parked in a layby to have a \"discreet\" wee he ended up being handed an £88 fine for \"littering\". While many might consider urinating in public - however discreet - unpleasant or antisocial, is it actually littering?\n\nMichael Mason has a weakened prostate and was 45 minutes into a two-hour journey when he needed a wee.\n\nHe was on the A41 near King's Langley, Hertfordshire, and stopped at the last layby before joining the M25.\n\n\"I managed to make it to the layby,\" Mr Mason, of Winslow in Buckinghamshire, says. \"I made sure nobody could see me and was very, very discreet.\"\n\nAn officer from District Enforcement, the firm contracted by Dacorum Borough Council to deal with what it calls \"enviro-crimes\", was said to have tapped on his window and told him he had been \"caught littering\".\n\nAccounts of the conversation that followed differ.\n\nMr Mason says he apologised, explained it was an emergency and told the officer he had a prostate issue. The council says it understands from its contractor that no mitigating circumstances were raised.\n\nMr Mason went to his GP and paid £30 for a letter about his medical condition. This was sent to the council, which then cancelled the fixed penalty notice.\n\nBut why was the fine handed out in the first place?\n\nThe council says Mr Mason, who contacted the JVS Show on BBC Three Counties Radio to highlight the issue, was in breach of Section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.\n\nIt cited a paragraph that states: \"If any person throws down, drops or otherwise deposits in, into or from any place to which this section applies, and leaves, any thing whatsoever in such circumstances as to cause, or contribute to, or tend to lead to, the defacement by litter of any place to which this section applies.\"\n\nIn its initial response to the BBC, Dacorum claimed that \"urination is classified as litter by the Environmental Protection Act 1990\".\n\nBut Nick Freeman, a lawyer popularly known as Mr Loophole, disagrees and says nowhere does the act classify urine as litter.\n\nNick Freeman questioned whether enforcements would stand and watch women spend a penny behind bushes\n\n\"We could argue about whether urinating actually causes 'defacement',\" Mr Freeman says.\n\n\"But what we need to do is look at what Parliament intended to achieve when it passed this legislation. What was the spirit of this legislation?\"\n\nHe says Section 98 goes some way to defining litter when it states litter includes \"discarded ends of cigarettes, cigars and like products\" and \"discarded chewing-gum and the discarded remains of other products designed for chewing\".\n\n\"I think most people have a good grasp of what litter is,\" says Mr Freeman. \"I would argue as a lawyer that the very fact it does not mention urine clearly indicates that urine is not a piece of litter, it is not in any way any form of litter.\n\n\"I would say their interpretation of what litter is, is contrary to the legislation and it is contrary to its everyday meaning and therefore, in my view, legally, they are wrong.\n\n\"It isn't litter and I think if it was argued in court, in my view they would lose.\n\n\"Most people have wild wees, and it is not just men,\" Mr Freeman adds.\n\nThe BBC asked District Enforcement about how it collects evidence of public urination and whether it varies its approach depending on the suspect's gender. It also asked whether it had targeted this particular layby to catch people spending a penny before joining the M25.\n\nIt did not respond to the BBC's questions.\n\nThe BBC asked the council whether it accepted urine was not mentioned or classified as litter under Section 98 of the Environmental Protection Act. It did not answer.\n\nThe BBC also asked Dacorum how many fines for public urination had been issued in the past financial year. It did not provide a figure.\n\nEnforcement officers spotted Mr Mason urinating near a layby and initially fined him £88\n\nHowever, according to a council assessment of its contract with District Environment, 10 penalties were issued to people in the borough for urinating or defecating during a 10-month trial period in 2021-2022.\n\nThe same document shows how, under its contract with District Enforcement, the council takes 22% of penalty income.\n\nDacorum Borough Council is far from the only local authority to treat urinating in public as a littering offence.\n\nMany councils, including Richmond, Bedford and Lambeth do.\n\nKirklees in West Yorkshire, however, recently issued an order that treats public urination not as littering, but as an anti-social act under the Section 59 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.\n\nAs well as various bylaws which might prohibit urinating in public, police forces say urinating in the street can be dealt with under various laws.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police, for example, says: \"Whether it is an offence depends on the intention of the person.\n\n\"Exposure contrary to section 66 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 Section 66 Sexual Offences Act 2003 requires a person to intentionally expose their genitals and intend that someone will see them and be caused alarm or distress.\"\n\nIt can also be treated as a breach of public order legislation.\n\nAsked whether public urination was littering, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said local authorities had powers to \"put Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) in place for the purpose of tackling antisocial behaviour such as public urination\" but added it was \"for the courts to decide whether a council has used the correct powers\".\n\nIn a statement, Dacorum Borough Council said it contracted District Enforcement following a \"tender process\" to provide \"enforcement for littering and public space protection orders\".\n\n\"[It] also supports the council with proactive initiatives such as hot spot monitoring, responsible dog ownership advice, leafleting in areas where there have been known problems, handing out stubby cases for cigarette ends and acting as a visual deterrent for those considering environmental crimes,\" the council said.\n\n\"Prior to implementing this initiative, the council sought expert legal advice from specialists in all aspects of local authority regulation and enforcement from enviro-crime and anti-social behaviour through to planning enforcement, licensing, food and health and safety. This included advice on urination.\"\n\nThe council added: \"The council recognises that there may be circumstances where representations are made against fixed penalty notices, with the first stage heard by District Enforcement and the second stage by council officers.\n\n\"In the case of urination, if medical evidence is provided, the fixed penalty notices are withdrawn, as was the case with Mr Mason.\"\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Olly's one-year-old sister Etta will also need a kidney transplant when she is a little older\n\nA three-year-old boy has become the smallest - and one of the youngest - recipients of a kidney transplant in Northern Ireland.\n\nOlly Cartmill was just 13kg (29lbs) when he underwent the life-saving operation, receiving a live donation from his grandmother Michelle.\n\nOlly was born with an extremely rare condition known as TTC21B.\n\nHis one-year-old sister Etta has the same condition and will require a transplant when she is older.\n\nBefore his successful transplant Olly, from Bessbrook, County Armagh, was continually fatigued and underwent up to 14 hours of dialysis every night while on a strict fluid intake restriction.\n\n\"We always knew Olly was sick,\" said his mum Dionne.\n\n\"If we hadn't have taken him to Daisy Hill Hospital for a blood test they told us he wouldn't be here, which is a scary thought.\n\n\"He cried from morning to night.\n\nOlly after his surgery at Belfast City Hospital\n\n\"If he got about 15 minutes [sleep] that was it. There's nothing you could do to settle him.\n\n\"He cried, he was sore all over and dying of thirst but was only allowed 100ml of water every day.\n\n\"He didn't want to interact with other children, and was in a really bad way. Looking back now I think: 'How did we get through that?'\n\n\"The previous two Christmases he was on dialysis and he was tired and fed up. Now he's getting so much enjoyment out of all the toys and I can't wait to see his face this Christmas morning.\"\n\nOlly's surgery was performed in Belfast City Hospital by surgeon Tim Brown, who admitted the operation was complicated.\n\n\"We're using an adult kidney and obviously that's a fair size compared to a child's tummy,\" he said.\n\n\"Finding somewhere to put it... the size of the vessels that we have to stitch the kidney onto are so much smaller, so it's always more stressful to get it right.\n\n\"But it's a real privilege to be able to take part in this family's journey.\n\n\"Kidney disease makes such a huge impact on children's growth, their development, their ability to eat and even attendance at school - so this is a winning lottery ticket for young Olly.\n\n\"It's the smallest transplant we have attempted in Belfast, it's early days yet but so far everything seems to be doing ok for him.\"\n\nThe Cartmill family put out an appeal on social media\n\nEarlier this year, the Cartmill family issued a public appeal on Facebook for a new kidney for Olly, and were inundated with offers of help.\n\nThe volume of calls overwhelmed the Belfast City Hospital phone lines, causing the system to crash.\n\nEventually Olly's grandmother Michelle was found to be a suitable donor.\n\n\"I got a phone call to say I was a match and I couldn't believe it,\" said Michelle.\n\n\"I was delighted I could do that for my grandson, so it's an amazing feeling.\n\n\"It was really hard to watch him and not be able to do the things other three-year-old children would do, so to see the difference in him now is unbelievable.\"\n\nOlly is looking forward to Christmas\n\nOlly and Etta are the only two children in the UK who are known to have TTC21B, a rare condition which causes kidney failure.\n\nEtta will need a new kidney but is not big enough yet for surgery.\n\n\"We actually were in hospital when we found out Etta had stage five chronic kidney disease as well,\" said their dad Neil.\n\n\"It's a full time job for the two of us looking after the two of them. We are in the hospital at least two or three times a week.\n\n\"We have one sorted out but now have a while to wait to get Etta sorted as well but hopefully we will get there.\n\n\"We are confident she will have a kidney transplant too.\"\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "The scene after the shooting on Thursday morning\n\nA teenage girl has shot and killed a fellow pupil in a school in western Russia before shooting herself.\n\nThe attack happened in the city of Bryansk, close to the Ukrainian and Belarusian borders, on Thursday morning.\n\nFive people were injured in the shooting, one of them seriously, Russian authorities said.\n\nThe gun used by the girl was registered in her father's name, a parliamentarian said.\n\nPolice were called to Gymnasium No 5 in Bryansk at about 09:15 local time (06:15 GMT) on Thursday.\n\nAlexey Kuznetsov, Russia's deputy health minister, said one victim was undergoing surgery.\n\nPolice say they believe the 14-year-old girl may have been involved in a conflict with classmates.\n\nStudents, teachers and parents at the school have been offered psychological support, journalists were told by the local authorities.\n\nAlexander Khinshtein, a member of the Russian Duma, said on his Telegram account that the girl's belongings, including a box of bullets, were found during a search of the school.\n\nMr Khinshtein added that one of the reasons the tragedy occurred was the \"neglectful attitude\" towards the storage of the gun.\n\nRussia has strict laws on guns, which need to be stored in a special safe, accessible only by the legal gun owner. It has to be regularly inspected by police.\n\nRussian news agency RIA said students barricaded themselves in the classroom when they heard shots being fired.\n\n\"The boys barricaded the door with the desks, one girl called the police, the teacher was calling everyone else,\" RIA quoted one of the school girls.\n\nThe governor of the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, called the shooting a \"terrible tragedy\".\n\nThere have been several school shootings in Russia in recent years, although Thursday's incident is believed to be the first involving a female shooter.\n\nIn 2021, a 19-year-old killed seven children and two adults at a Kazan school.\n\nThe following year, 18 people were killed at a school in Udmurtia.\n\nIf you've been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line", "The FSB is being accused of a years long campaign of cyber attacks by the UK's government\n\nThe UK is accusing Russia's Security Service, the FSB, of a sustained cyber-hacking campaign, targeting politicians and others in public life.\n\nThe government said one group stole data through cyber-attacks, which was later made public, including material linked to the 2019 election.\n\nRussia has repeatedly denied claims it is involved in such activities.\n\nForeign Secretary David Cameron said the group's actions were \"completely unacceptable\".\n\n\"Despite their repeated efforts, they have failed. We will continue to work together with our allies to expose Russian covert cyber activity and hold Russia to account for its actions,\" the former prime minister said.\n\nForeign Office Minister Leo Docherty told the House of Commons on Thursday that Russia's ambassador has been summoned and two individuals were being sanctioned. One of them is a serving FSB officer.\n\nThe Russian ambassador was unavailable after being summoned on Wednesday, but officials instead met with the Russian Embassy's deputy head of mission and expressed the UK's deep concern about the alleged cyber-attacks.\n\nThe group is accused of carrying out hundreds of highly targeted hacks against politicians, civil servants, those working for think-tanks, journalists, academics and others in public life. These mainly targeted the private emails of individuals following extensive research and the creation of false accounts impersonating their trusted contacts.\n\nAmongst those targeted was an MP who told the BBC in February his emails had been stolen.\n\nThe Federal Security Service (FSB) is the successor agency to the KGB, which operated throughout the Cold War.\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin was director of the FSB for a period in the 1990s.\n\nThe group linked to the FSB - and specifically the part of it known as Centre 18 - has been targeting the UK by stealing information from those in political and public life since at least 2015, it is believed.\n\nIt is claimed the group remains active.\n\nThe US is also expected to announce action against the group.\n\n\"Russia is targeting the UK's democratic process,\" Western officials said.\n\nHowever, the campaign has been judged not to have been successful in interfering in the democratic process.\n\nThursday's public accusation is aimed at disrupting the group's work and increasing awareness ahead of major elections around the world next year.\n\n\"This group has acquired a vast amount of data,\" Western officials said. \"This information is used to undermine the West in various ways.\"\n\nThe UK had already accused Russia of interfering in the 2019 election after stealing documents on US-UK trade from Conservative MP Liam Fox which were then leaked.\n\nBut when that accusation was made in 2020 the specific group behind that attack was not named and it is now being linked to the wider activities by the same FSB-linked group.\n\nThose targeted by the organisation come from across the political spectrum.\n\nSNP MP Stewart McDonald told the BBC this February that a group believed to have been linked to Russian intelligence stole his emails after posing as one of his staff. He went public in order to pre-empt the leak of any emails. They did not appear.\n\nSpeaking in the House of Commons on Thursday, the SNP's Brendan O'Hara, the party's foreign affairs spokesman, said Russia's actions were part of a \"persistent pattern of behaviour\", and asked if the government had \"considered making cybersecurity training mandatory for all MPs and their staff.\"\n\nLabour's David Lammy said democracy is \"built on trust\" and asked if the government was \"confident\" the full extent of the attack had been uncovered.\n\nThe FSB-linked group itself is thought to focus on hacking the data with others involved in disseminating it through different channels and amplifying its impact.\n\nOther targets include the think-tank the Institute for Statecraft and its founder Chris Donnelly whose data was leaked online as well as a former head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove.\n\nWestern officials said the group was involved in 'intelligence acquisition' by hacking the email accounts and stealing the data. In some cases, it then passed on information to others in order for it to be made public.\n\nThe accusation by the UK, which will be followed by further moves from the US, is designed to disrupt the activities of the FSB group by exposing them.\n\nIt is believed to have taken some months for the US and UK to establish with high-enough confidence that FSB Centre 18 was responsible and to co-ordinate public announcements about the activity.\n\nA previous advisory from the National Cyber Security Centre, an arm of GCHQ, in January warned of the threat of emails being targeted by both Russia and Iran and further advisories, including to high-profile individuals, are being issued later on Thursday.\n\nAll of those who are known to have been hacked have been informed.\n\nOfficials want to increase awareness of the dangers as the UK heads towards an election, likely next year. The US election due next November could also be targeted by hackers.\n\nIn 2016, a different part of Russian intelligence was accused of stealing and making public emails belonging to Hillary Clinton's campaign, a move some considered significant in a tight race.\n\nThe hacking group is known by a variety of names including Star Blizzard, Cold River and Seaborgium.\n\nA large amount of data is thought to have been stolen by the FSB group in recent years and only a fraction of it has been made public.\n\nAsked if they could leak more data they have collected, western officials said: \"There is no evidence of that intent. There is that possibility. They have collected a lot of information.\"", "The attack by Houthis could have a direct impact on Israel's war with the Hamas in Gaza\n\nIt is well over 1,000 miles from the coast of Yemen to the Gaza Strip, and yet what happened last Sunday at the southern end of the Red Sea has the potential to dramatically escalate the war between Israel and Hamas.\n\nAccording to US Central Command, the division of the US Department of Defence that covers the Middle East, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen carried out four attacks on three commercial ships operating in international waters. The attacks involved a combination of explosive drones and anti-ship ballistic missiles.\n\nThe US Navy already had a guided missile destroyer in the vicinity, the USS Carney, which managed to shoot down three of the drones. Others hit their targets, causing some damage but no casualties.\n\n\"These attacks\" said the Pentagon, \"represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security.\" In a further statement it added that it believed the attacks from Yemen were \"enabled by Iran\".\n\nThe location of the attacks is significant. They took place just north of the strategic chokepoint of the Bab El Mandeb Strait, a 20-mile wide channel that separates Africa from the Arabian Peninsula and through which about 17,000 ships and 10% of global trade pass every year. Any ship passing through the Suez Canal and heading on south to the Indian Ocean has to pass this strait, close to the coast of Yemen.\n\nSo what was behind these attacks and what exactly is the link to Gaza?\n\nMost of the populated parts of Yemen, including its Red Sea coast, have been under the control of a tribal militia known as the Houthis which overthrew the legitimate, elected Yemeni government in late 2014. They are backed by Iran which has allegedly been supplying them with weapons and training, including drone and missile technology, just as it has with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.\n\nThe USS Carney destroyer shot down three drones fired from Houthi-held Yemen on Sunday\n\nThe Houthi coup triggered a catastrophic civil war that has dragged on for more than nine years, causing thousands of casualties and triggering a humanitarian disaster. While Iran backs the Houthis, Saudi Arabia and the UAE went to war against them in 2015, backed by the US and UK, in an unsuccessful bid to restore the internationally recognised government.\n\nDuring this war the Houthis have fired numerous long-range missiles and drones at targets in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and inside Yemen, hitting civil airports, towns and petrochemical infrastructure as well as military targets.\n\nFollowing the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza on 7 October, the Houthis declared their support for what they called \"their brothers in Gaza\" and have fired missiles and drones towards Eilat and other targets in Israel. These were intercepted by the US Navy's USS Carney which shot them down.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBut the Houthis have also targeted any shipping which they suspect of having Israeli connections. In November they landed troops by helicopter on the deck of a cargo ship, the Galaxy Leader, and seized it. They have vowed to prevent any Israeli vessels from passing their coast and in a statement on Sunday their military spokesman said the vessels they fired missiles at were attacked because they were \"Israeli\". Israel's military denied any connection between its government and the ships but media reports say there are some private commercial links with wealthy Israeli businessmen.\n\nThe US has said subsequently it is \"considering all appropriate responses in full coordination with its allies and partners\".\n\nIn practice, Washington will be reluctant to raise tensions any further in a region already nervous about spill-over from the war in Gaza. But if the Houthis in Yemen continue to fire missiles beyond their borders, then eventually the US may decide it needs to retaliate by targeting those missile launch sites. If that happens then there follows the risk that Iran, which supports the Houthis, could also retaliate, potentially leading to the nightmare scenario of a direct conflict between Iran and the US. For now, this is something both sides wish to avoid.", "Similar to doing an MOT on a car, scientists believe they can run a blood test to check how fast a person's internal organs are ageing, and even predict which ones might soon fail.\n\nThe Stanford University team say they can monitor 11 major body parts, including the heart, brain and lungs.\n\nThey tried it on thousands of adults, mostly middle-aged or older.\n\nOne in five reasonably healthy adults aged 50-plus might have at least one fast-ageing organ, the results suggest.\n\nAnd one to two in every 100 might have several organs that test older than their birthday years.\n\nWhile the idea of the check-up might be scary, it could be an opportunity to intervene and change course, the researchers say.\n\nKnowing which organs are in rapid decline could help reveal what health issues may be looming, the researchers say in the journal Nature.\n\nFor example, an \"old-for-its-time\" heart increases the risk of heart failure, while a rapidly ageing brain might be more prone to dementia.\n\nIn the study, having one or more organs ageing fast was linked with a higher risk of certain diseases and death over the next 15 years.\n\nThe blood test looks for levels of thousands of proteins to give clues on which organs are ageing at different rates.\n\nThe pattern of proteins detected appeared to be specific to particular organs.\n\nResearchers trained a machine-learning algorithm to make the predictions using lots of blood test results and patient data.\n\nOne of the investigators, Dr Tony Wyss-Coray, explained: \"When we compared each of these organs' biological age for each individual with its counterparts among a large group of people without obvious severe diseases, we found that 18.4% of those aged 50 or older had at least one organ aging significantly more rapidly than the average.\n\n\"And we found that these individuals are at heightened risk for disease in that particular organ in the next 15 years.\"\n\nThe university has now submitted the paperwork to patent the test, in case it can be used and sold in the future.\n\nMore studies are needed to check how good it really is at predicting organ age and health before that though.\n\nSome of Dr Wyss-Coray's earlier work suggests the biological ageing process is not steady but comes in bursts, with some rapid accelerations in people's mid-30s, early-60s and late-70s.\n\nProf James Timmons, an expert in age-related health and diseases at Queen Mary University of London, has also been studying blood markers of biological age. His work focuses on detectable gene changes, rather than proteins.\n\nHe said the latest findings by Dr Wyss-Coray were impressive, but needed validating in more people, particularly younger ones from diverse ethnic backgrounds.\n\n\"Is this ageing or a new way to detect early age-related disease biomarkers? The authors favour the former, I don't think the latter is ruled out,\" he said.\n\nDr Wyss-Coray said: \"If we can reproduce this finding in 50,000 or 100,000 individuals it will mean that by monitoring the health of individual organs in apparently healthy people, we might be able to find organs that are undergoing accelerated ageing in people's bodies, and we might be able to treat people before they get sick.\"\n\nProf Paul Sheils, an expert in the biology of ageing at Glasgow University, said it was still important to look at the whole body, not just individual organs, to build the most accurate picture of a person's health.\n\nCaroline Abrahams from the charity Age UK said it while it was great that science was exploring earlier detection of serious age-related diseases, consideration was needed about how people might feel living with the knowledge.\n\nShould it become a reality, she said people would want emotional and clinical support alongside the test results and that the NHS would need to be ready for that - and have the funding to provide it.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.\n• None Test shows how old your body really is\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Protests against the Quran burnings in Denmark and neighbouring Sweden have taken place in many Muslim countries\n\nDenmark's parliament has banned the \"inappropriate treatment\" of religious texts - with a bill widely known in the country as the Quran law.\n\nOffenders now face a fine or up to two years in jail after a 94-77 vote.\n\nIt follows a series of burnings of Islam's holy book that led to uproar in Muslim countries.\n\nDenmark and neighbouring Sweden have recently seen a number of street protests over such incidents, raising security concerns in Scandinavia.\n\nDuring Thursday's heated debates in Denmark's 179-strong parliament, the Folketing, many opposition MPs argued against the bill.\n\n\"History will judge us harshly for this, and with good reason... What it all comes down to is whether a restriction on freedom of speech is determined by us, or whether it is dictated from the outside,\" Inger Stojberg, leader of the Denmark Democrats, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.\n\nBut the country's centre-right coalition government of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen argued that criticising religion would remain legal, as the bill would only have a marginal impact.\n\nBack in August, when the government was proposing the changes, ministers said they wanted to send a signal to the world after witnessing over a few weeks 170 demonstrations, including Quran burnings in front of foreign embassies.\n\nAt the time, Denmark's PET intelligence service warned that such incidents had increased the terrorist threat.\n\nSweden has also seen a series of Quran burnings, and its security service has warned of a worsening security situation. In July, the Swedish embassy in Iraq was set alight by protesters.\n\nThe government in Stockholm is currently considering a similar bill.\n\nBoth Denmark and Sweden have abolished blasphemy laws.", "Michael Tomlinson will be responsible for combating illegal immigration\n\nFormer immigration minister Robert Jenrick's job has been divided into two roles in a mini-reshuffle.\n\nRishi Sunak has appointed Michael Tomlinson as illegal migration minister, while Tom Pursglove will have responsibility for legal migration.\n\nBoth backed Brexit in the referendum.\n\nMr Tomlinson, who has been replaced as solicitor general by Robert Courts, will be responsible for steering the government's new Rwanda bill through the Commons.\n\nLike Mr Jenrick - who resigned on Wednesday describing the bill as \"a triumph of hope over experience\" - he will attend cabinet.\n\nDowning Street said the immigration brief had been split into two roles in recognition of the significant work and action that was taking place on both sides of the job - legal and illegal.\n\nMr Jenrick argued the Rwanda legislation did not go far enough, and that \"stronger protections\" were needed to end \"the merry-go-round of legal challenges which risk paralysing the scheme\".\n\nAmid fresh turmoil in the Conservative Party over the issue, the prime minister called a news conference at Downing Street where he urged Tory MPs to back his new plan to send some asylum seekers to the east African country.\n\nHe argued the new bill was the \"toughest immigration law ever\" and blocked \"every single reason that has ever been used to prevent flights to Rwanda from taking off\".\n\nHe also said it was the \"only approach\" that would prevent further legal challenges stopping these flights.\n\nA former barrister and minor county cricketer, Mr Tomlinson has been MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole since 2015.\n\nHe spent nearly 18 months as deputy chairman of the European Research Group, a group of Conservative MPs who played a key role in blocking Theresa May's Brexit deal and bringing her down as prime minister.\n\nTom Pursglove will be in charge of legal migration\n\nNow 46, he has served in the governments of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak since 2020, and became solicitor general for England and Wales in September last year.\n\nMr Pursglove, now Minister of State for Legal Migration and Delivery, was previously minister for disabled people, and has also held a junior immigration brief and served as crime and policing minister.\n\nFirst elected as MP for Corby in 2015, at the age of 26. he was the youngest Conservative in the Commons.\n\nIn 2007, he had - aged 18 - become the youngest councillor in the country, when he was elected to Wellingborough Borough Council, also in Northamptonshire.\n\nLast week, Downing Street said it had full confidence in Mr Pursglove, after he was pictured canvassing with suspended MP Peter Bone.\n\nDays earlier, Mr Bone had been suspended from the Commons and the Tory Party there after a report by Parliament's Independent Expert Panel found he had bullied and been sexually inappropriate around a staff member. He has denied the allegations.\n\nLabour said Mr Pursglove's behaviour called \"into serious question\" how seriously the party was taking the allegations against Mr Bone.\n\nMr Courts previously chaired the Commons defence committee and was a junior transport minister under Boris Johnson.\n\nHe has been MP for Witney since 2016, when David Cameron resigned as an MP following the Brexit referendum.", "Jade found the attitudes of some to be exhausting\n\nA social worker said racism she encounters was like \"death by a thousand cuts\".\n\nJade Forbes, who is black, said the workplace bigotry she experienced had affected her mental health.\n\nWhile not considering herself a victim, she admitted she found some people's attitudes \"exhausting\".\n\nThe British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Cymru wanted more data to tackle racism. Social Care Wales said it wanted an anti-racist sector.\n\nMs Forbes, who has worked in social services for 13 years around south Wales, said: \"It makes me really quite angry about things and [I have] a sense of injustice.\n\n\"It can be quite an isolating place as a black social worker, trying to express my frustration around racism when often colleagues have not got that same lived experience.\"\n\nThe 37-year-old wanted clearer policies to deal with racism.\n\nShe said: \"There definitely needs to be more training around racism… because if I'm experiencing racism as a social worker, then there's no doubt there will be tell-tale signs of individuals who access services experiencing forms of racism, whether it be direct or covert.\"\n\nDespite not encountering direct barriers in progressing her career, Ms Forbes said she had to \"work harder and shine brighter\" to be at the top of her game.\n\nThe most challenging period of her career followed the murder of George Floyd - an African-American man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis in 2020.\n\nMs Forbes recalled other professionals making comments on social media that were in conflict with anti-racists Black Lives Matter.\n\n\"There was a consensus around the world that this was a really bad thing to happen and there were conversations justifying his [the killer's] actions,\" Ms Forbes said.\n\nAbyd Quinn Aziz said racism hurt more if it came from colleagues\n\n\"I found it absolutely berserk and also quite scary, because I've got a son and I just thought if professionals are justifying decisions around murdering a black man in broad daylight on the street, then it makes me worry about my son's safety as he grows up in the way that he may be viewed as a black man.\"\n\nBASW Cymru said more data was needed to tackle racism.\n\nIt said it heard more about racism in staff teams than from clients.\n\nBASW Cymru's Abyd Quinn Aziz said there was far more data in England and called on Social Care Wales to publish more.\n\nThis year, Social Work England found black male social workers over 40 were disproportionately subject to fitness to practise proceedings.\n\n\"We know it [racism] happens but it's about understanding how it happens, where it happens and whether the things that we're doing make a difference to racism,\" Mr Quinn Aziz said.\n\nHe said racism hurt more if it came from colleagues.\n\nDavid Pritchard said data was at the heart of tackling racism\n\n\"In Wales, in the last 20 years, I think I've only known of one non-white director of social services, and while I'm not saying you have to be black to understand it, I think there's a lack of confidence and pro-activeness,\" he said.\n\nSocial Care Wales (SCW), which regulates the workforce in Wales, said about 80% of social workers were white and the remainder a variety of ethnicities.\n\nIt said about 6% of the whole social care work force, which includes social workers as well as those who care for older people and children, are black. About 5% have an Asian background.\n\nSCW regulation director, David Pritchard, said racism worked against social care principles and that SCW was committed to working to ensure the sector was anti-racist.\n\n\"Data, research and evidence is absolutely the heart of tackling racism and other prejudices in our society,\" he said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Benjamin Zephaniah in his own words, as other poets pay tribute to a \"titan of literature\"\n\nWriter and poet Benjamin Zephaniah has been remembered as a \"titan of British literature\" after his death aged 65.\n\nHe died early on Thursday with his wife by his side after being diagnosed with a brain tumour eight weeks ago, a statement on his Instagram said.\n\n\"We shared him with the world and we know many will be shocked and saddened by this news,\" it added.\n\nTributes poured in for the \"beautiful human being\" and \"proud Brummie\" who \"had a lot more to give\".\n\nZephaniah was born and raised in Handsworth, Birmingham, the son of a Barbadian postman and a Jamaican nurse. He was dyslexic and left school aged 13, unable to read or write.\n\nHe moved to London aged 22 and published his first book, Pen Rhythm.\n\nHis early work used dub poetry, a Jamaican style of work that has evolved into the music genre of the same name, and he would also perform with the group The Benjamin Zephaniah Band.\n\nAs Zephaniah's profile grew, he became a familiar face on television and was credited with bringing dub poetry into British living rooms.\n\nHe also wrote five novels as well as poetry for children, and his first book for younger readers, Talking Turkeys, was a huge success upon its publication in 1994.\n\n\"Benjamin was a true pioneer and innovator. He gave the world so much,\" the statement announcing his death said.\n\n\"Through an amazing career including a huge body of poems, literature, music, television and radio, Benjamin leaves us with a joyful and fantastic legacy.\"\n\nZephaniah performing on stage in 2003 at the One Big No anti-war concert, at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London\n\nOn top of his writing work, Zephaniah was an actor and appeared in the BBC drama series Peaky Blinders between 2013 and 2022.\n\nHe played Jeremiah \"Jimmy\" Jesus, appearing in 14 episodes across the six series.\n\nPeaky Blinders actor Cillian Murphy said in a statement: \"Benjamin was a truly gifted and beautiful human being.\n\n\"A generational poet, writer, musician and activist. A proud Brummie and a Peaky Blinder. I'm so saddened by this news.\"\n\nZephaniah famously rejected an OBE in 2003 due to the association of such an honour with the British Empire and its history of slavery.\n\n\"I've been fighting against empire all my life, fighting against slavery and colonialism all my life,\" he told The Big Narstie Show in 2020.\n\n\"I've been writing to connect with people, not to impress governments and monarchy. Could I then accept an honour that puts the word Empire on to my name? That would be hypocritical.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe often spoke out about issues such as racial abuse and education.\n\nWhen he was younger, Zephaniah served a prison sentence for burglary and received a criminal record.\n\nIn 1982, Zephaniah released an album called Rasta, which featured the Wailers' first recording since the death of Bob Marley.\n\nIt also included a tribute to the then-political prisoner Nelson Mandela, who would later become South African president.\n\nIn an interview in 2005, Zephaniah said growing up in a violent household led to him assuming that was the norm.\n\nHe recalled: \"I once asked a friend of mine, 'What do you do when your dad beats your mum?' And he went: 'He doesn't.'\n\n\"I said, 'Ah, you come from one of those, like, feminist houses. So, what do you do when your mum beats your dad?'\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Poet Benjamin Zephaniah in 2021: 'It's important that kids see themselves'\n\nA statement from the Black Writers' guild, which Zephaniah helped establish, said: \"Our family of writers is in mourning at the loss of a deeply valued friend and a titan of British literature. Benjamin was a man of integrity and an example of how to live your values.\"\n\nOthers paying tribute included author Michael Rosen, who said: \"I'm devastated. I admired him, respected him, learnt from him, loved him. Love and condolences to the family and to all who loved him too.\"\n\nActress Adjoa Andoh posted: \"We have lost a Titan today. Benjamin Zephaniah. Beautiful Poet, Professor, Advocate for love and humanity in all things. Heartbroken. Rest In Your Power - our brother.\"\n\nZephaniah recited the poem Talking Turkeys on the BBC's Parkinson at Christmas in 2002\n\nBroadcaster Trevor Nelson said: \"So sad to hear about the passing of Benjamin Zephaniah. Too young, too soon, he had a lot more to give. He was a unique talent.\"\n\nSinger-songwriter and musician Billy Bragg added: \"Very sorry to hear this news. Benjamin Zephaniah was our radical poet laureate. Rest in power, my friend.\"\n\nComedian, actor and writer Sir Lenny Henry said: \"I was saddened to learn of the passing of my friend Benjamin Zephaniah. His passion for poetry, his advocacy for education for all was tireless.\"\n\nWriter Nels Abbey said: \"To call this crushing news is a massive understatement. He was far too young, far too brilliant and still had so much to offer. A loss we'll never recover from.\"\n\nThe X/Twitter account for Premier League football club Aston Villa, whom Zephaniah supported said everyone at the club was \"deeply saddened\" by the news.\n\n\"Named as one of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008, Benjamin was a lifelong Aston Villa fan and had served as an ambassador for the AVFCFoundation. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.\"\n\nIn 2012, Zephaniah was chosen to guest edit an edition of BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nHe was nominated for autobiography of the year at the National Book Awards for his work, The Life And Rhymes Of Benjamin Zephaniah, which was also shortlisted for the Costa Book Award in 2018.\n\nDuring a Covid-19 lockdown, Zephaniah recited one of his poems in a video for the Hay Festival.", "This Gaza war, unprecedented in scope, has now been raging for two months. The Hamas-run health ministry says more 17,000 people have been killed, including thousands of children.\n\nIsrael’s military operation in the southern Gaza Strip, currently focussed on the largest city there, Khan Younis, is making a difficult humanitarian situation worse. The UN says 80% of the population has been displaced. People are running out of safe havens and not enough aid is getting in. Speaking in Geneva, the UN’s top aid official, Martin Griffiths, gave this bleak assessment.\n\nGriffiths said negotiations were under way with Israel to improve the flow of aid. Israeli officials say are willing to do what they can, to increase the amount of aid coming in and to facilitate the opening of additional field hospitals to help cope with the vast number of casualties. On his first visit to the region since the crisis began, the UK Defence Secretary, Grant Schapps, said other routes were being looked at that could involve the Royal Navy.\n\nWith fighting raging around Khan Younis and in the north, images are circulating on social media showing dozens of Palestinian men, stripped to their underwear, kneeling on the ground, being guarded by Israeli soldiers. Other pictures show them being transported in military trucks.\n\nIsrael’s chief military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said hundreds of what he called terror suspects had been detained and that many had given themselves up. But already one well-known Palestinian journalist has been identified among those being held.", "Suella Braverman tells Radio 4's Today the plan \"won't work\" unless the PM makes changes.\n\nThe former home secretary, who was sacked by Rishi Sunak last month, has spoken after Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick resigned over the Rwanda bill.", "Susie Verrill could not leave her bedroom for five months during her pregnancies due to constant sickness\n\nScientists say they have discovered why some women become extremely sick during pregnancy, bringing them one step closer to a potential cure.\n\nBabies produce a hormone that can cause severe sickness, known as hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), according to a study.\n\nExposure to the GDF15 hormone ahead of pregnancy could be a new treatment.\n\nProf Sir Stephen O'Rahilly, from the University of Cambridge, said: \"The more sensitive a mother is to this hormone, the sicker she will become.\"\n\nHe added: \"Knowing this gives us a clue as to how we might prevent this from happening.\"\n\nBetween one and three in 100 pregnancies are thought to be affected by HG. It can threaten the life of the foetus and many women need intravenous fluids in hospital to prevent dehydration.\n\nSome mothers report being sick up to 50 times a day throughout their pregnancies.\n\nSusie Verrill has documented her horrific battle with extreme morning sickness to help raise awareness\n\nSusie Verrill, 35, who is engaged to Olympian Greg Rutherford, said her experience of HG was so traumatic it made her consider a termination.\n\nThe mother-of-three, who lives in Woburn Sands, Buckinghamshire, had HG for two out of her three pregnancies and is contacted by women suffering from it every day.\n\n\"I had a real sense of an inability to exist, I couldn't be around my family,\" she said. \"I considered not carrying on my pregnancies because it was so terrible and that is really common when you have HG.\n\n\"I couldn't breathe without retching and I was stuck in my bedroom for five months both times. You have to make your world very small to survive and Greg became my carer.\n\n\"It affects everything and you are just trying to get through each day before the baby is born.\"\n\nSusie says her partner Greg Rutherford became her carer during two of her pregnancies\n\nThe Princess of Wales famously suffered with HG during all three of her pregnancies and was admitted to hospital during her first pregnancy.\n\nPrevious studies suggested pregnancy sickness could be related to GDF15 but researchers said the \"full mechanistic understanding\" was \"lacking\".\n\nThe new research, published in Nature and involving scientists at the University of Cambridge and researchers in Scotland, the USA and Sri Lanka, found that the degree of sickness was related to the amount of hormone produced in the womb - and prior exposure.\n\nThey studied women at the Rosie Maternity Hospital in Cambridge and found those with a genetic variant putting them at a greater risk of HG had lower levels of the hormone, while women with the blood disorder beta thalassemia, which causes very high levels of GDF15 prior to pregnancy, experienced very little nausea or vomiting.\n\nPreventing the hormone from accessing its \"highly specific receptor in the mother's brain\" will \"ultimately form the basis for an effective and safe way of treating this disorder,\" Prof Sir Stephen, director of the Medical Research Council metabolic diseases unit at the University of Cambridge, said.\n\nVivienne Kumar's pregnancy sickness was so severe that she was sick 10 times an hour\n\nMother-of-two Vivienne Kumar from Bedford was sick 10 times an hour during her pregnancies and the only time she was not vomiting was while she was asleep.\n\n\"It's not just morning sickness, it is debilitating,\" she said. \"Once you go through it you never really recover, it stays with you forever.\n\n\"I felt really shut off from the world and like I was in my own bubble. I didn't see the end point. It is really hard to leave the house.\n\n\"I was so lucky to have the support of my husband and mum, without them I may not have been as motivated to continue.\"\n\nWhen she became pregnant for a third time she was admitted to hospital for eight days and went on to lose the baby.\n\n\"I was under a lot of different medications and I was given steroids which didn't work and unfortunately the baby didn't survive that,\" she added.\n\nCharlotte Howden, chief executive of the charity Pregnancy Sickness Support, which supports women with HG, said the health issue had been neglected for too long.\n\nShe said: \"I'm so grateful for the dedication of the researchers, because this isn't a condition that really ever made the headlines until the now Princess of Wales suffered with it.\n\n\"It wasn't an area of research that people were really interested in. It was just morning sickness - why should we care?\"\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830", "Democrats have defended President Joe Biden over what they say is 'an extreme political stunt'\n\nThe US House of Representatives has voted to formalise its impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.\n\nLawmakers voted along party lines to back a resolution that Republicans say will give them more power to gather evidence and enforce legal demands.\n\nThree Republican-led House committees allege bribery and corruption during Mr Biden's tenure as vice-president.\n\nBut they have yet to present evidence of wrongdoing, and Mr Biden says his opponents are \"attacking me with lies\".\n\nThe lower chamber of Congress, which Republicans control by a slim eight-seat margin, approved the inquiry on Wednesday afternoon by a vote of 221 to 212.\n\nVoting to authorise an inquiry is not the same as voting for impeachment, but it advances the likelihood that the House will eventually seek to impeach Mr Biden.\n\nIn a statement, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the chamber \"will not prejudge the investigation's outcome\" but \"the evidentiary record is impossible to ignore\".\n\nA formal impeachment investigation, that leads to a House vote and a Senate trial, could represent a major headache for the president in the midst of an election year.\n\nBut, even if the House ultimately opts to impeach the president, the Democrat-controlled Senate is all but certain to acquit him.\n\n\"The American people need their leaders in Congress to take action on important priorities for the nation and world,\" Mr Biden said in a statement following the vote.\n\n\"Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts.\"\n\nIn an animated debate ahead of the vote, Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole said his colleagues had been left with no choice but to bring the measure.\n\nHe said it was a \"sad day for myself, the institution and the American people\" and accused the White House of \"stonewalling\" the impeachment inquiry.\n\nBut Democrats expressed irritation over what they have dismissed as \"an extreme political stunt\".\n\nJamie Raskin of Maryland said the investigation \"isn't a whodunit, it's a what is it\".\n\n\"It's like an Agatha Christie novel, where the mystery is - what's the crime?\" he added.\n\nEx-Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched the inquiry in September and said Republicans had unearthed a \"culture of corruption\" surrounding Mr Biden.\n\nRepublicans have held one hearing related to the inquiry, during which two expert witnesses called by Republicans said there was not yet enough evidence to impeach the president.\n\nThe oversight committee claims the Biden family and its business associates received more than $24m (£19m) from foreign sources in China, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia and Ukraine between 2014 and 2019.\n\nCommittee chairman James Comer has alleged that Mr Biden's relatives - in particular his son, Hunter - sold access to the then-vice-president and influence-peddled off \"the Biden brand\".\n\nHe has further alleged that the president \"spoke, dined, and developed relationships with\" his son's business partners.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Hunter Biden: I've been the target of unrelenting 'Trump attack machine'\n\nFollowing Wednesday's vote, Mr Comer told reporters that unanimous Republican backing for the inquiry sent a \"strong message\" to the administration.\n\n\"We have a simple question that a majority of Americans have - what did the Biden family do to get millions?\" he said.\n\nBefore and during his presidency, Mr Biden has said that he never talked business with Hunter Biden or his associates and that his son made no money off unethical overseas ventures.\n\nThe White House has also pushed back on the claim it is refusing to co-operate and criticised the inquiry on Wednesday as an abuse of power by House Republicans.\n\nHunter Biden has long been viewed by Republicans as the greatest political liability for his father.\n\nIf they are able to link his business dealings and personal conduct to the president, and perhaps even if they are not, it has the potential to damage the elder Mr Biden's standing with American voters.\n\nAs Mr Biden, 81, gears up for re-election, he is likely to face off against Donald Trump, 77, a twice-impeached former president and the current Republican frontrunner, in the November 2024 general election.\n\nMr Trump, who has vowed retribution against his political opponents, has urged his Capitol Hill allies to move quickly to impeach his successor.", "US President Joe Biden has said Israel is starting to lose global support over its \"indiscriminate bombing\" of Gaza.\n\nHis comments, made to donors at a fundraising event on Tuesday, marked his strongest criticism yet of Israel's leadership.\n\nMr Biden has offered unwavering public support to the country since Hamas launched its attacks on 7 October.\n\nAnd while he reiterated that Israel could count on US backing, he issued a direct warning to its government.\n\n\"Israel's security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world,\" he told donors to his 2024 re-election campaign in Washington.\n\n\"But they're starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place,\" he said.\n\nMr Biden, however, added that there was \"no question about the need to take on Hamas\" and Israel had \"every right\" to do so.\n\nThe US leader has faced growing pressure, including from within his own Democratic Party, to rein in Israel's military campaign. His remarks align with his administration's recent approach to the war, with officials urging Israel to \"put a premium on human life\" and give clearer instructions to allow people to avoid the conflict.\n\nSenior US officials have also displayed increasing discontent at Israel's military response.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said more than 18,400 people have been killed by Israeli bombing since 7 October, when Hamas broke through Israel's heavily guarded perimeter and killed 1,200 people.\n\nIn a statement later on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had received the \"full backing\" of the US for its ground war as well as its goal of destroying Hamas and recovering hostages.\n\nHe added that Washington had blocked \"international pressure to stop the war\".\n\n\"Yes, there is disagreement about 'the day after Hamas' and I hope that we will reach [an] agreement here as well,\" he said.\n\nMr Biden alluded to the pair's disagreement in his comments on Tuesday and said Mr Netanyahu had to \"change\" his government as well as his stance on a two-state solution, which top US officials have been promoting as the post-war path.\n\nThat proposal is favoured by the international community to end the decades-long conflict, and would lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank existing alongside Israel.\n\n\"This is the most conservative government in Israel's history,\" Mr Biden said. \"This government in Israel is making it very difficult for him. They don't want a two-state solution.\"\n\nHis comments reflect the emerging disagreements about what direction to take after the war. Mr Netanyahu has said he opposes US calls to have the Palestinian Authority, which currently administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, take over control of Gaza.\n\nWhile Mr Biden's words were his bluntest yet, senior American officials have increasingly expressed discontent with Israel's military campaign.\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken said just days ago that there was a \"gap\" between pledges by Israeli authorities to spare civilians in Gaza and the reality on the ground.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How Biden's message to Israel has evolved", "Former BP boss Bernard Looney will forfeit up to £32.4m after the oil giant found he committed \"serious misconduct\" in failing to disclose relationships with colleagues.\n\nMr Looney is to be dismissed without notice and will not receive further salary or benefits, the oil giant said.\n\nHe resigned in September after admitting not being \"fully transparent\" about his past personal relationships.\n\nThe board said they had been \"knowingly misled\" by Mr Looney.\n\nOn Wednesday, the firm said Mr Looney had given \"inaccurate and incomplete assurances\" as part of an investigation into the relationships in 2022.\n\nMr Looney said in a statement that he was \"disappointed with the way this situation has been handled\".\n\nHis dismissal means he will get no further salary, pension allowance or benefits, no annual bonus, and lose out on nearly £25m in share awards.\n\nIt is understood that Mr Looney's decision to resign meant his long-term performance share awards lapsed along with his annual bonus for 2023, which represented the majority - 87% - of the £32.4m package. The board also decided to halt other payments and bonuses.\n\nBP first launched a review of Mr Looney's relationships with colleagues following an anonymous tip-off in 2022.\n\nAt the time, the company said Mr Looney disclosed \"a small number of historical relationships with colleagues prior to becoming CEO\" and it found no breach of company conduct.\n\nMr Looney gave assurances then about disclosing the past relationships, as well as his future behaviour.\n\nBut in September the board said it had received similar allegations \"recently\", prompting another review.\n\nMr Looney had spent his career at BP, which he joined in 1991 as a drilling engineer.\n\nBorn in Ireland and raised on a farm, he became a member of its executive team in 2010.\n\nBefore taking over as chief executive from Bob Dudley, he was previously head of oil and gas production.\n\nMr Looney presented himself as more approachable, posting pictures of smiling employees on Instagram when he took over in 2020.\n\nHe initially set out a plan to sharply cut net carbon emissions by 2050, but was later criticised by environmental groups for watering down the target.\n\nHis time as boss coincided with a tumultuous period for the company, including coronavirus pandemic lockdowns when demand for oil and gas fell sharply.\n\nMonths into his role as chief executive he also told staff that BP planned to cut 10,000 jobs due to the pandemic.\n\nIn 2022, the start of the war in Ukraine sent energy prices soaring, and prompted the firm to leave Russia after pressure from the UK government.\n\nMr Looney's departure from BP comes as a series of high profile dismissals of executives in the UK has put a spotlight on executive personal behaviour.\n\nTony Danker, the head of the UK's largest business lobby group the CBI, was fired in April over complaints about his behaviour at work.\n\nMeanwhile, Crispin Odey was forced to step down from the hedge fund he founded in June after reports of sexual harassment allegations by 13 women. He has denied the claims.\n\nChief financial officer Murray Auchincloss has been acting as BP's interim chief executive while the oil firm investigated allegations about Mr Looney, and searched for his successor.\n\nMr Auchincloss has previously said the firm's \"strategy hasn't changed\" and that \"the leadership team we have in BP is also unchanged\", despite Mr Looney's exit.\n• None BP boss out after board misled over relationships", "Police raided six locations in Berlin as part of the operation\n\nGerman authorities say they have made four arrests of suspected Hamas members linked to an alleged plot to attack Jewish sites.\n\nProsecutors said the suspects intended to store weapons in Berlin for possible use in an attack.\n\nDanish authorities also said they had arrested three people accused of preparing an attack.\n\nDenmark's intelligence agency said the Danish and German investigations were not directly linked.\n\nGerman prosecutors said in a statement that three suspects linked to Hamas were arrested in Berlin and one in the Netherlands. Hamas, which runs Gaza, is banned across Europe as a terrorist group.\n\nThe arrests came after police raided five apartments and a restaurant in Berlin, German media reported.\n\nThe three held in Berlin were Lebanese and Egyptian, according to German prosecutors.\n\nThe fourth suspect, a Dutch national, was picked up in Rotterdam by Dutch police who were acting on information from the German authorities.\n\nAll four are believed to be long-standing members of Hamas.\n\nThe German prosecutors said the four were \"closely linked\" to the leadership of Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.\n\nThey added that one of the four, named as Abdelhamid Al A, had been tasked by Hamas leaders in Lebanon with locating a \"depot with weapons in Europe, which the organisation had covertly set up there in the past\".\n\n\"The weapons were due to be taken to Berlin and kept in a state of readiness in view of potential terrorist attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe.\"\n\nCh Insp Flemming Drejer of the Danish police said the three suspects arrested in Denmark as part of its own investigation would be charged with terror offences.\n\nDanish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the threat was \"as serious as it gets\".\n\nLater, Denmark's PET security and intelligence agency clarified that there was \"no direct connection\" between the arrests in Denmark and those in Germany.\n\nThe office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a statement on X (formerly Twitter) that the seven people arrested were \"acting on behalf of Hamas\". But while federal prosecutors in Germany have linked the plot to Hamas, Danish authorities have not said the group is connected to their own investigation.\n\nDanish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said the alleged plot \"tragically confirms that Danish Jews are under threat\".\n\nThose arrested in Denmark were scheduled to appear in closed court hearings on Thursday.\n\nCh Insp Drejer said an investigation had uncovered a transnational network of people preparing an attack, with links to criminal gangs.\n\nSecurity around Jewish sites would be reinforced and police patrols in Copenhagen made more frequent, he added.\n\nDanish intelligence chief Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen said the terror threat was linked to the Israel-Gaza war and burnings of the Quran in Denmark and neighbouring Sweden.\n\nEarlier this month, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson warned that Europe faced a \"huge risk\" of terrorist attacks over the Christmas period.\n\nIn 2015, two people were killed in an attack on a cultural centre and a synagogue in Copenhagen.\n\nThe terror threat in Denmark currently stands at level four out of five, the second-highest. The PET security and intelligence agency says the main threat to Denmark comes from militant Islamists, most likely from\" a small group or a lone actor\" inspired by propaganda.\n\nMr Hummelgaard said the government currently saw no reason to raise the threat level.", "Economists are reacting to the Bank of England's decision, as well as the language it has used to forecast coming inflation and interest rates.\n\nAs a reminder, central bank Governor Andrew Bailey said earlier that he could not say definitively whether inflation had peaked, and that it is \"too soon\" to start thinking about cutting interest rates.\n\nSuren Thiru, the economics director at chartered accountants group ICAEW, said the Bank was being \"unnecessarily hawkish\" in its language on the outlook for interest rates.\n\nHe said this was \"unnecessarily damaging an already struggling economy\" by \"raising fears that it will keep rates high for too long\".\n\nHe believes the interest rate decision is \"confirmation\" that the bank's hiking cycle is \"completed\".\n\nIn contrast, chief economic adviser to the Allianz group Mohammed El-Erian said the central bank looks \"hawkish\" but is \"more realistic\" than the Federal Reserve in the US - which indicated interest cuts to come in 2024.\n\nHe believes the UK has hit a \"flat peak\" of inflation and it's \"going to stay here for a while before coming down\".", "Sienna Miller showed off her baby bump at London Fashion Week in September\n\nActress Sienna Miller has described the \"judgement\" over being pregnant at the age of 41 and having a 14-year age gap with her partner as \"double standards\".\n\nThe star discussed comments about her being \"the older woman\" and expecting a baby with 27-year-old actor Oli Green.\n\nPeople \"are comfortable with a way of living that has existed for many years, which is very misogynistic and patriarchal\", she told Vogue's podcast.\n\nMiller's second daughter is due this month, the magazine said.\n\nShe continued: \"Me being the older woman in a partnership with a younger person, or being pregnant over 40 - and that that's 'irresponsible' and 'the poor child' - it's such double standards and I think it's so unquestioned in people's minds.\n\n\"It's just a trite, easy target. But it's absurd.\n\n\"I was very fortunate. I wasn't necessarily trying to get pregnant. This happened as a total surprise and biologically was something that my body was able to do.\n\n\"And I just find that judgement so one-sided and it's so sad.\"\n\nGreen plays Rupert Finch, a classmate of Prince William's in Netflix series The Crown.\n\nMiller, whose credits include American Sniper, American Woman and Anatomy of a Scandal, also has a daughter, Marlowe, aged 11, who she co-parents with actor Tom Sturridge.\n\n\"I'd love to get to a point where I didn't feel the need to make a joke of my being older and having a baby, to show I'm in on the joke,\" she told the magazine.\n\n\"I don't think you can legislate on matters of the heart. I certainly have never been able to,\" she said.\n\n\"I see it with Oli's friends,\" she added. \"There's awareness of the dynamics that enter relationships between men and women now that we just didn't have 20 or 25 years ago.\n\n\"My whole adolescence was dodging bullets and advances in a really delicate way, to not offend somebody. Whereas the girls that he grew up with, they're probably like, 'No - no, thank you. Moving on.'\"\n\nMiller also discussed press intrusion, having settled a case with the publisher of the News of the World and the Sun over phone hacking in 2021.\n\nNews Group paid her a significant sum of money but made no admission of liability regarding what she alleged took place.\n\nShe told Vogue she had thought hard about people \"rubbernecking\" - wanting to look at others' misfortune.\n\n\"Is it because we're happy that it's not us? The tabloid media really exploited that weak chink in our psychology,\" she said.", "Samer Talalka and Yotam Haim - whose deaths were announced by the IDF Image caption: Samer Talalka and Yotam Haim - whose deaths were announced by the IDF\n\nThe Israeli military says it killed three hostages who were being held in Gaza after they were “mistakenly identified as a threat” in the northern town of Shejaiya.\n\nThe bodies have been returned to Israel, and two of the victims were identified as Yotam Haim, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and as Samer Talalka, who was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Am.\n\nThe family of the third hostage asked for the name to not be revealed.\n\nThe Israeli military says the incident is under investigation. Its statement says that \"the IDF expresses deep remorse over the tragic incident and sends the families its heartfelt condolences\".\n\n\"Our national mission is to locate the missing and return all the hostages home,\" it adds.\n\nMore than 100 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza after being captured in the 7 October attacks in Israel.", "Vaughan Gething was health minister for much of the pandemic\n\nOne of the two frontrunners to be Welsh Labour leader and first minister has announced he is standing.\n\nEconomy Minister Vaughan Gething said on social media that he had \"strong support from right across the party\".\n\nHe became the first candidate to secure a place on the ballot after eight Labour Members of the Senedd (MSs) announced their backing.\n\nThat included three ministers in the Welsh government - Rebecca Evans, Dawn Bowden and Lynne Neagle.\n\nMeanwhile two senior cabinet ministers announced their support for Education Minister Jeremy Miles - Climate Change Minister Julie James and Rural Affairs Minister Lesley Griffiths.\n\nMr Miles is expected to confirm his candidacy in the coming days.\n\nMark Drakeford announced on Wednesday he was quitting as Welsh Labour leader.\n\nIn a statement issued on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr Gething said his party faced a \"huge task ahead of us\".\n\n\"We can only maintain our record of winning elections and fighting for the people of Wales if we are a united, modern, diverse movement which reflects this nation's ambitions for the future.\"\n\nHe said Wales has a \"crucial opportunity to have two Labour governments working side-by-side to deliver real change in our communities and repair the damage wrecked by the toxic Tory years\".\n\n\"I look forward to a positive leadership contest where I plan to set out an energetic agenda for our country's future.\"\n\nBorn in Zambia and brought up in Dorset, Mr Gething went to university in Aberystwyth and Cardiff.\n\nThe former solicitor and ex-president of the Wales TUC was elected to the Senedd in 2011, representing Cardiff South and Penarth.\n\nMr Gething was runner-up in the 2018 leadership election, when he was beaten by Mr Drakeford.\n\nAs a minister he came to prominence during the Covid pandemic, when he was Mark Drakeford's health minister. After the 2021 election Mr Drakeford moved him to the economy portfolio.\n\nHis campaign will be co-chaired by Newport West MS Jayne Bryant and former economy minister Ken Skates.\n\nThey were joined by Cynon Valley's Vikki Howells and Mid and West Wales MS Joyce Watson.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Vaughan Gething This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMs Bryant said: \"Vaughan has been tested through the most difficult times.\n\n\"He's led us, along with Mark Drakeford, through the pandemic and we've seen his calm reaction and how he's led with compassion through that. And I think he's got those ideas and record in delivery to take us forward to the next stage.\"\n\nEducation Minister Jeremy Miles's camp is confident the Neath MS will have enough nominations to get on the ballot.\n\nAndrew Morgan, leader of the Welsh Local Government Association, announced his backing for Mr Miles on Wednesday night.\n\nIn a statement Julie James, who is being discussed as a possible chair for Mr Miles's campaign, paid tribute to Mr Drakeford, \"who has led our party and our country through five incredibly tough years\".\n\n\"I've worked with Jeremy in government since 2017. I know he has what it takes to be a strong, calm, determined and principled Welsh Labour leader and first minister,\" she said.\n\nAs well as being climate change minister with responsibilities for housing, the Swansea West MS was Labour's campaign chair for the Welsh Parliament election in 2021.\n\nJeremy Miles is currently Wales' education and Welsh language minister\n\nWrexham MS Ms Griffiths added: \"You can guarantee that a Welsh Labour government led by Jeremy Miles will listen to voices and concerns here in the north, and make sure the Welsh government works for us all.\"\n\nMr Drakeford will stand down in March, with a new first minister likely to be in place before the Welsh Parliament breaks up for Easter.\n\nCandidates need either five other MSs supporting them, or three with a backing of a certain number of local Labour parties, or affiliate organisations including two trade unions.\n\nIt is not clear at the moment if there will be a third candidate to rival Mr Miles and Mr Gething.\n\nDeputy Minister for Social Partnership Hannah Blythyn has been repeatedly tipped as a possible contender and one who might be able to get the support of the Labour left.\n\nAsked by BBC Wales if she was standing, she said: \"Wait and see\".\n\nOn Thursday Mick Antoniw, the Welsh government's counsel general, has ruled himself out of the race.", "Catherine Hudson was convicted after a trial at Preston Crown Court\n\nAn \"evil\" nurse who drugged patients on a stroke unit for an \"easy shift\" and a healthcare worker who conspired with her have been jailed.\n\nCatherine Hudson, 54, was found guilty of giving unprescribed sedatives to two patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital in 2017 and 2018.\n\nShe was also convicted of conspiring with Charlotte Wilmot, 48, to give a sedative to a third patient.\n\nHudson was jailed for seven years and two months.\n\nWilmot was sentenced to three years.\n\nEvidence during the trial highlighted the \"dysfunctional\" drugs regime on the stroke ward with free and easy access to controlled drugs and medication which led to \"wholesale theft\" by staff.\n\nHudson sedated Aileen Scott who was being treated at the hospital after becoming ill on holiday\n\nProsecutors described it as a \"culture of abuse\" after police examined WhatsApp phone messages between the co-defendants and other members of staff.\n\nHudson wrote about one of her victims: \"I sedated one of them to within an inch of her life lol. Bet she's flat for a week haha xxx.\"\n\nIn a message exchange about an elderly male patient, Hudson wrote: \"I'm going to kill bed 5 xxx.\"\n\nThe next evening, Hudson messaged Wilmot: \"If bed five starts he will b getting sedated to hell...\n\nThe pair were investigated after a student nurse witnessed events while on a work placement on the stroke unit and told senior managers in November 2018, who called in police.\n\nThe whistleblowing nurse, who the prosecution had asked not to be named, told officers she had concerns over the use of insomnia medication Zopiclone, which can be life-threatening if given inappropriately.\n\nShe said Hudson had told her the patient had a Do Not Resuscitate Order in place \"so she wouldn't be opened up if she died or... came to any harm\".\n\nJudge Robert Altham, Honorary Recorder of Preston, said the defendants had a duty to \"protect and care\" for these patients who were \"as vulnerable as anyone could be\".\n\n\"These defendants exploited them for an easy shift, for amusement and to exercise contemptuous power over them,\" he added.\n\nOne of Hudson's victims was Aileen Scott, from Glasgow, now 76, who had suffered a stroke while on holiday in Blackpool and was taken to the hospital.\n\nDuring the sentencing hearing, Ms Scott's son, Brian, turned to Hudson in the dock and said: \"The way you spoke about patients is beyond belief and nothing short of wicked and pure evil.\n\n\"Thanks to the bravery of a student nurse in highlighting you and your evil and uncaring ways, it has most likely saved my mum's life.\"\n\nThe judge also commended the whistleblower's actions, adding: \"It was only as a result of her courage and sense of public duty that what was happening on the ward was exposed and stopped.\"\n\nBrian Scott, pictured with his mum Aileen, says his family will be haunted forever by the ill-treatment\n\nGiving evidence, both defendants denied all the allegations and claimed the private messages were \"banter\" and not supposed to be taken seriously.\n\nThey said the \"gallows humour\" was the venting of their frustrations at working in a chronically-understaffed unit.\n\nHudson was also convicted of stealing Mebeverine, a medication intended for an end-of-life patient.\n\nShe pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to conspiring with other colleagues to steal other drugs, including Zopiclone, and also a further offence of perverting the course of justice.\n\nWilmot was convicted of encouraging Hudson to ill-treat a patient and also pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal medication from the hospital.\n\nHudson's boyfriend, Marek Grabianowski, 46, pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiring with her to steal Zopiclone and medication and perverting the course of justice by disposing of evidence.\n\nGrabianowski, of Montpelier Avenue, Bispham, who at the time was a band seven nurse at the hospital's accident and emergency department, was jailed for 14 months.\n\nInvestigating officers seized unprescribed drugs during the course of the investigation\n\nDet Ch Insp Jill Johnston, of Lancashire Police, said: \"For a loved one to enter hospital is often a difficult and worrying time for their relatives. For two nurses to behave this way is sickening.\n\n\"They were both fully aware of the risks, which makes their behaviour even harder to comprehend.\n\n\"Hudson's offending was particularly calculated, all while portraying herself as a role model nurse.\n\n\"This could not be further from the truth.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Dr Hans Nagar said the current system for dealing with conditions such as endometriosis was not working\n\nWomen suffering from endometriosis in Northern Ireland are getting a \"raw deal\" and no support, according to a leading gynaecologist.\n\nThe current system wasn't working and women should not have to wait so long for help, said Dr Hans Nagar.\n\nEndometriosis occurs where tissue like the lining of the womb grows in other places, such as ovaries, fallopian tubes and other organs.\n\nDr Nagar, a consultant gynaecologist, said women were not being looked after.\n\nEarlier this month, Zara Corbett, who is 21 and suffers from endometriosis, said she \"begged for help\" as she copes with pain which is triggering seizures.\n\nShe is on morphine and has been placed in early menopause, but spends a lot of time in hospital.\n\nZara Corbett's endometriosis is so severe she often uses a wheelchair when outside\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI, Zara said if she had any other condition, she would be receiving help.\n\nIn response to Zara, Hans Nagar, said her story was \"terrible\" and that she wasn't \"unique\" in Northern Ireland.\n\nHe confirmed that some women are having to wait up to seven years for surgery due to endometriosis being viewed as a benign disease.\n\nIn contrast cancer patients whose disease is malignant are being prioritised for surgery.\n\nBut he said that move underplays the suffering endured by many women where endometriosis causes disease that spreads and invades into organs similar to some cancers.\n\n\"These women are not being prioritised and understandably cancers have come first, but we are coming out of the pandemic, and we really need to think about those women that have been put on long waiting lists with very debilitating symptoms and problems,\" he said.\n\nZara has had to have her gall bladder removed and is experiencing chronic pain around her bladder which she said feels like pieces of glass are piercing her internal organs.\n\nAccording to Dr Nagar, in surgery a patient's body will appear as if her organs have been glued together by tissue.\n\n\"The ovaries may be stuck to the rectum or bowel,\" he said.\n\n\"The endometriosis may be infiltrating in the uterus and blocking off kidneys. Severe cases are difficult to treat and do require specialist surgery.\n\n\"I can really understand why women are suffering severe pain with that degree of endometriosis, but there are different degrees.\"\n\nHe said specialist endometriosis centres with dedicated teams including specialist nurses should be established in Northern Ireland, as in the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland.\n\n\"This will require extra money, but it also requires a will,\" he said.\n\n\"We need to train more surgeons, but dedicated theatre times would mean women would receive their surgery.\n\n\"All this requires a health strategy which will focus minds and budgets, so we aren't working in silos.\n\n\"It will also provide targets.\"\n\nAn endometriosis diagnosis can take years and women are often told they have heavy periods, but endo symptoms are a lot more severe, which can floor women.\n\nMr Nagar said the condition was \"terrible for women\", but if viewed from a healthcare economics point of view, these women were perhaps the most productive members of our society.\n\n\"Many of them are suffering in their paid work but also their unpaid work as well - and I think that is deeply unfair,\" he said.\n\nUltimately, Northern Ireland needs an executive in order to plan and budget for specialist centres, multi-team agencies and appoint a women's health ambassador, he said.\n\nDr Nagar said that would be an \"incredible force\" to promote the cause of women and various problems that are unique to women.", "Seventeen journalists have been killed covering the war began between Israel and Hamas which erupted on on 7 October, according to the Reporters Without Borders (RWB) international non-governmental organisation.\n\nOf these 13 were killed in the Gaza Strip, RWB says .\n\nBut if you include journalists killed in \"circumstances unproven to be related to their duties\", a total of 63 have been killed in the war.\n\nThe data was accurate as of 1 December.\n\nReuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed in an apparent strike across the Israel-Lebanon border in October Image caption: Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed in an apparent strike across the Israel-Lebanon border in October\n\nEarlier this month, human rights groups said Israel should be investigated for a possible war crime over the death of a journalist in Lebanon in October.\n\nReuters reporter Issam Abdallah, 37, died in apparent tank fire across the Israel-Lebanon border. Six other people were wounded.\n\nAmnesty and Human Rights Watch said investigations had shown the journalists had probably been fired on deliberately by an Israeli tank crew.", "Ukraine's President Zelensky called the vote a \"victory\" for his country and for Europe\n\nEuropean leaders have decided to open EU membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant candidate status to Georgia.\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the decision, made at a summit in Brussels, as \"a victory\" for his country and Europe.\n\nA spokesperson for Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, said that agreement was unanimous.\n\nHungary has long opposed talks starting with Kyiv, but did not veto the move.\n\nPrime Minister Viktor Orban left the room momentarily in what officials described as a pre-agreed and constructive manner, while the other 26 leaders went ahead with the vote.\n\nHe then distanced himself from his colleagues with a video message on Facebook: \"EU membership of Ukraine is a bad decision. Hungary does not want to participate in this bad decision, and therefore stayed away from the decision today.\"\n\nMr Zelensky was delighted by the EU's announcement: \"This is a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe. A victory that motivates, inspires and strengthens,\" he said on X.\n\nUkraine and Moldova applied to join the EU after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They were both given candidate status last June, while Georgia was passed over at the time.\n\nMoldovan President Maia Sandu said it was an honour to share the path to EU accession with Ukraine. \"We wouldn't be here today without Ukraine's brave resistance against Russia's brutal invasion,\" she wrote.\n\nEarlier this year, Moldova warned that Russia was seeking to seize power in Chisinau. Ms Sandu said Moldovans were now feeling Europe's \"warm embrace\" and congratulated her compatriots on what she called \"an award for all of society, all those who choose democracy and prosperity\".\n\nMoldova's President Maia Sandu said the decision to start talks opened a \"new page\"\n\nWhite House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan welcomed the EU's \"historic\" move to open accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova, calling it a \"crucial step toward fulfilling their Euro-Atlantic aspirations\".\n\nTalks on joining the European Union can take years, so Thursday's decision will not guarantee Ukraine membership.\n\nPeople in Ukraine know that the path to full membership is a long one, but this decision in Brussels will be a boost for morale.\n\nEU candidate countries have to pass a series of reforms to adhere to standards ranging from the rule of law to the economy, although the EU's executive has already praised Kyiv for completing more than 90% of the steps taken so far on justice and tackling corruption.\n\nGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz praised his fellow leaders for showing a \"strong sign of support\", adding that it was clear that both Ukraine and Moldova belonged to \"the European family\". A diplomat at the summit said it was Mr Scholz's idea for Mr Orban to leave the room to enable the vote to go through.\n\nThis was some much-needed good news for Ukraine, after almost 22 months of Russia's war and a continuing struggle to secure Western military and financial aid.\n\nFinnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said it was a historic moment and an \"important message of hope\" for the citizens of Ukraine and Moldova.\n\nMr Zelensky travelled to the US earlier this week in a vain attempt to persuade the US Congress to push through $61bn in military funding, blocked by Republican lawmakers.\n\nUkraine's counter-offensive against Russia's occupying force has ground to a halt at the start of winter.\n\nEarlier on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin mocked Ukraine and claimed Western support was running out: \"Excuse my vulgarity, but everything is being brought in as a freebie. But those freebies could run out at some point.\"\n\nBut President Zelensky will at least now be able to point to this political win as proof that Ukraine is not steadily being abandoned by its partners.\n\nThe European Council president said it was a \"very powerful signal... to the people of Ukraine we are on their side\".\n\nMany in Kyiv see their fight against Russia's invasion as a defence of European values and they firmly view their future as an active and effective member of the European Union.\n\nUkraine's 2014 \"Revolution of Dignity\", toppling its pro-Kremlin president, was rooted in a desire to move away from Russia's political orbit and towards Europe.\n\nPresident Putin reacted by sending troops into eastern Ukraine and Crimea and then staging a far wider invasion in 2022.\n\nFor Georgia too, invaded by Russia in 2008, the EU vote was a \"monumental milestone\", said pro-EU President Salome Zurabishvili.\n\nGeorgia has a broadly pro-EU population, its government has a complex relationship with Moscow and has refrained from imposing sanctions on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine began.\n\nAsked if President Putin had ambitions to do to Georgia what he was doing to Ukraine, pro-Putin Russian lawmaker and TV host Yevgeny Popov told BBC Newsnight, \"We are not going to.\"\n\n\"We have enough territory,\" he said. \"We are the biggest country in the world and we don't need any other territories. But all we need is security guarantees.\"\n\nOn Thursday, Mr Michel said the EU also intended to open negotiations with Bosnia-Herzegovina once it met criteria for membership. Bosnia was given candidate status a year ago but a progress report last month has listed further steps Sarajevo needs to take on electoral and judicial reforms.\n\nBosnia has the added issue of the leader of its majority-Serb area, Republika Srpska, threatening to secede.\n• None Eyes on Orban as EU decides on support for Ukraine", "Eileen Igoe and Sarah McDermott were found guilty at Airdrie Sheriff Court\n\nTwo nuns and a care worker have been found guilty of abusing vulnerable youngsters at a Scottish orphanage.\n\nSister Sarah McDermott, 79, Sister Eileen Igoe, 79, and carer Margaret Hughes, 76, mistreated children at Smyllum Park in Lanark from 1969 until 1981 when it closed.\n\nThe orphanage has been at the centre of allegations of historical abuse.\n\nThe court heard children in their care were subjected to a number of \"cruel and unnatural\" incidents.\n\nOne woman told the court she was beaten by McDermott after she reported witnessing her brother being sexually abused in a toilet in the orphanage.\n\nShe said volunteer worker Brian Dailey, who was later jailed for 15 years for abusing youngsters, molested the three-year-old in a cubicle.\n\nRather than investigate the abuse, McDermott slapped the girl and told her she was bringing her \"filthy home habits into a good Catholic place\".\n\nMcDermott, of London, also struck another girl with rosary beads and repeatedly struck her on the head and body.\n\nShe also ordered a boy to carry soiled bed sheets while shouting derogatory comments towards him.\n\nIgoe, of Edinburgh, was convicted of abuse which included force feeding children and making one eat their own vomit as well as striking one boy on the head and body.\n\nShe also hit one boy's head repeatedly on a door.\n\nHughes, of Lanark, seized one boy by the hair before striking him with her arm. She also forced a girl into a freezing bath and held her head under the water.\n\nSmyllum Park Orphanage in Lanark after it closed in the 1980s\n\nSheriff Scott Pattison deferred sentence on the women until next month for reports and continued bail.\n\nHe added: \"You have been convicted of very serious offences of the abuse of children in your care which shows you fell far short of the duty of care that you had to them when they were vulnerable when you worked at Smyllum.\n\n\"You also fell short of your moral commitment towards these children.\"\n\nThe three women had denied any wrongdoing.\n\nThe Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry said in 2018 that children had been sexually abused and beaten with leather straps, hairbrushes and crucifixes while in the care of the Order of the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul at the orphanage.\n\nA report by Lady Smith, chairwoman of the inquiry, said it was a place of \"fear, threat and excessive discipline\" and that children found \"no love, no compassion, no dignity and no comfort\" in Smyllum.", "Doctors have issued a warning after a man tore a hole in his throat while trying to stop a sneeze.\n\nThe patient in his 30s was taken to Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, in severe pain after he pinched his nose and closed his mouth to stifle the sneeze.\n\nScans revealed he had suffered a 2mm tear in his windpipe.\n\nUniversity of Dundee medics said if both mouth and nose are closed during a sneeze, the pressure in the upper airways can increase by about 20 times.\n\nThis can also lead to injuries including ruptured eardrums, aneurysms and even broken ribs.\n\nThe case is documented in the medical journal BMJ Case Reports.\n\nWhen doctors examined the patient they heard a cracking sound after touching his neck and found he did not have control of movement.\n\nThe unnamed man, who was driving at the time of the sneeze, had a history of allergies and throat irritation.\n\nMedics advise not to stifle sneezes by holding your nose and closing your mouth at the same time\n\nThe patient did not need surgical treatment and was kept in hospital for observation.\n\nHe was discharged and given painkillers and hayfever medication. Doctors also advised him to avoid strenuous physical activity for two weeks.\n\nFive weeks later a scan showed that the tear had healed.\n\nDr Rasads Misirovs, the report's lead author, told BBC Scotland News that people should let sneezes out, as they are the body's natural defensive mechanism to expel irritants from nasal passages.\n\nHe said: \"We should gently cover the face either with our hand or inner side of elbow to prevent the irritants such as viruses, together with saliva, mucus reaching others around us.\n\nHe added that there are some methods people can use to stifle sneezes without closing both their nose and mouth.\n\n\"I personally have used another technique by pressing a thumb on my upper lip, just under the nose, without blocking nasal passages for a few seconds - that works for me.\n\n\"By leaving nasal passages open, the sneeze can escape if the stifling does not work.\"\n\nA sudden throat tear, known medically as a \"spontaneous tracheal perforation\" is rare and can be potentially life-threatening.\n\nOnly a few cases have been reported, including one in 2018 when a man in Leicester also tore his throat by trying to hold in a sneeze.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Vaughan Gething is likely to announce his candidacy on Thursday\n\nWales' Economy Minister Vaughan Gething is expected to announce that he is standing in the race for the Welsh Labour leadership on Thursday.\n\nHe is one of the two frontrunners in a contest triggered by First Minister Mark Drakeford's announcement on Wednesday that he will quit in March.\n\nBBC Wales understands Mr Gething, 49, is expected to issue a statement later.\n\nMeanwhile a senior Welsh council figure announced his backing for Mr Gething's expected rival, Jeremy Miles.\n\nCouncillor Andrew Morgan said Wales' next first minister needs to be someone who is \"calm, competent, thoughtful\".\n\nIt comes as two of the party's Senedd members - including one of its ministers - said the ballot needs to include a female candidate.\n\nLeft-winger Mick Antoniw, the counsel general, also ruled himself out of the contest on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast on Thursday.\n\nDeputy Minister for Social Justice Hannah Blythyn and Health Minister Eluned Morgan are also being discussed as possible candidates - both of whom as politicians that could reach out to the left of the party.\n\nA supporter in Jeremy Miles's camp told the BBC they believe he has enough backers to be on the ballot.\n\nMark Drakeford set out his plans to stand down as Welsh Labour leader in a earlier-than expected announcement on Wednesday morning.\n\nExact dates for when members will get to vote are yet to be confirmed, although the first minister said the process will finish by the end of the Spring term, which is 25 March.\n\nThe new first minister would be put to the Senedd for confirmation before the Easter recess, although that is likely to be a formality.\n\nCandidates can get on the ballot with the support of five other Labour Senedd members, or two others and the backing of local parties or affiliated groups including trade unions.\n\nBorn in Zambia and brought up in Dorset, Mr Gething went to university in Aberystwyth and Cardiff.\n\nThe former solicitor and ex-president of the Wales TUC was elected to the Senedd in 2011, representing Cardiff South and Penarth.\n\nHe came to prominence during the Covid pandemic, when he was Mark Drakeford's health minister. After the 2021 election Mr Drakeford moved him to the economy portfolio.\n\nMr Antoniw - the Counsel General and the Welsh government's chief legal advisor - says there needs to be a woman on the ballot.\n\nThat call was echoed by Mike Hedges, MS for Swansea East, who said: \"I believe we need the widest possible choice when choosing our next leader and we definitely need a woman on the ballot paper.\"\n\nThere are 17 women in the Labour Senedd group and 13 men.\n\nAt the early stage of the contest it is unclear at the moment who the left of the party will support.\n\nParty figures told the BBC that the left could potentially get behind Ms Blythyn or Ms Morgan.\n\nAt the last contest Mr Drakeford commanded a clear majority of nominations from Senedd members, but he also had the backing of Welsh Labour Grassroots, the party's Welsh equivalent of the Momentum group which had supported Jeremy Corbyn during his leadership of Labour.\n\nAndrew Morgan became the first senior figure to declare their support for a candidate late on Wednesday night - backing Jeremy Miles.\n\nThe Rhondda Cynon Taf council leader and leader of the Welsh Local Government Association said: \"Because of the Tory incompetence at a UK level, things are going to get very tough.\n\n\"That's why Wales' next first minister needs to be someone who is calm, competent, thoughtful and able to guide Wales into the future, and bring people together to secure, protect and improve public services.\"\n\nMr Miles, 52, has served as the education minister since May 2021.\n\nBorn and brought up in Pontarddulais, he studied law in Oxford and worked in legal and commercial jobs in media organisations including ITV, and NBC Universal.\n\nHe was elected to the Senedd in 2016 for the constituency of Neath.\n\nEither Mr Gething or Mr Miles would represent a first for Welsh politics - Mr Gething would be the first black politician to lead the country, while Mr Miles would be its first openly gay first minister.\n\nAny successful woman would also be the first female first minister.", "Sara Sharif was found dead at her home on 10 August\n\nThe father, stepmother and uncle of a 10-year-old girl whose body was found at her Surrey home have pleaded not guilty to her murder.\n\nUrfan Sharif, 42, Beinash Batool, 29, and Urfan's brother, Faisal Malik, 28, are accused of killing Sara Sharif, who was found dead in Woking on 10 August.\n\nAll three have also denied causing or allowing the death of a child.\n\nThe defendants, who lived with Sara before she died, appeared by video link at the Old Bailey to enter their pleas.\n\nMr Sharif, Ms Batool and Mr Malik travelled to Islamabad, Pakistan, with Sara's five brothers and sisters on 9 August, the day before her body was found.\n\nA previous court hearing was told police found Sara's body after receiving a call from Pakistan, which lasted eight minutes and 34 seconds, at 02:47 on August 10.\n\nThe three adults were arrested on their return to the UK on 13 September and were charged two days later.\n\nA post-mortem examination found Sara had sustained \"multiple and extensive injuries\" before her death.\n\nHowever, an inquest heard the actual cause of death had not yet been established.\n\nUrfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Faisal Malik are each facing two charges relating to the death of Sara Sharif in August\n\nMr Sharif and Mr Malik appeared by video link from Belmarsh Prison, while Ms Batool appeared by video link from Bronzefield Prison.\n\nA trial date has been set for September in front of a High Court judge.\n\nSurrey Police said: \"We would like to thank the local community for their support during this very difficult investigation.\"\n\nAnyone with information is urged to contact the force.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin has said peace with Ukraine will only take place \"when we achieve our objectives\".\n\nHe was fielding questions from journalists and ordinary Russians in his first marathon news conference since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.\n\nMuch of the largely choreographed event focused on what he calls the \"special military operation in Ukraine\".\n\nHe insisted the situation was improving throughout the front line.\n\nThe \"direct line\" programme, televised for more than four hours by most major channels, began with President Putin telling Russians: \"The existence of our country without sovereignty is impossible. It will simply not exist.\"\n\nHe added that Russia's economy was strong for a time of war and the topic of conversation quickly moved to Ukraine.\n\nMr Putin said that \"there will be peace [in Ukraine] when we achieve our objectives\". Those \"objectives do not change\", he said, listing \"denazification, demilitarisation and its neutral status\". These are themes he has highlighted from the start of the war.\n\nAt one point he revealed that Russia currently has a total of 617,000 troops fighting in Ukraine. He also claimed that on top of 300,000 people called up for service last year, another 486,000 have signed up voluntarily as contract soldiers.\n\n\"The stream of our men who are ready to defend the interests of the homeland with weapons in their hands is not diminishing,\" he said. \"Altogether there will be just under half a million men by the end of this year. Why do we need a mobilisation?\"\n\nHe gave no number of military losses, but disclosed that children of people within his \"close\" circle have fought for so-called private military companies, and a number of people \"close to me\" have died.\n\nA classified US intelligence report estimated this week that 315,000 Russian soldiers had been either killed or wounded since the war began - which it said was almost 90% of Russia's military personnel at the start of the invasion.\n\nThe marathon event, cancelled last year, combines carefully vetted questions from ordinary Russians as well as journalists in the studio\n\nAside from the spontaneous questions put to Mr Putin by Russian and international journalists, a reported two million questions were submitted for the event by ordinary Russians and carefully vetted beforehand.\n\nA war reporter for Russian daily Izvestia based in occupied Luhansk in eastern Ukraine tasked Mr Putin about Ukraine's recent foothold on the Russian-occupied east bank of the Dnipro river.\n\nDescribing Ukraine's military success in a \"small area\" as a last-ditch attempt by Ukraine to break through to Crimea, President Putin explained that Russian forces decided to withdraw several metres into wooded areas \"to save our lads\". He went on to suggest Kyiv's main motive is to show the West that it needs more military funding.\n\n\"I don't know why they are doing it, they are pushing their people to get killed, it's a one-way trip for Ukrainian forces. The reasons for this are political, because Ukrainian leaders are begging foreign countries for aid.\"\n\nMr Putin said support for Ukraine from its allies was running out.\n\n\"Today Ukraine produces almost nothing,\" he said. \"Excuse my vulgarity, but everything is being brought in as a freebie. But those freebies could run out at some point. And it seems that they are gradually running out.\"\n\nWhile the Russian leader was speaking, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gave a news conference at alliance headquarters in Brussels where he warned: \"If Putin wins in Ukraine, there is a real risk that his aggression will not end there.\"\n\nUkraine President Volodymyr Zelensky warned the EU summit that Mr Putin would use indecision regarding the Ukraine war against them.\n\n\"People in Europe won't see any benefit if Moscow receives a pass from Brussels in the form of negativity towards Ukraine. Putin will surely use this against you personally, and against all of Europe,\" Mr Zelensky said via videolink.\n\nMr Putin went on to claim that Russian forces had the upper hand across the front line in Ukraine.\n\n\"Practically along the entire line of contact our armed forces are improving their situation, to put it modestly,\" he said at his marathon news conference.\n\nThere has been very little movement on the front line in recent months, but Russia is targeting two eastern towns in the Donetsk region, Mariinka and Avdiivka.\n\nMr Putin insisted that Russia could \"move forward\" despite Western economic sanctions and political isolation stemming from its Ukraine invasion.\n\nMr Putin also covered Russian relations with the United States and EU.\n\nHe described the US as an important country but accused it of imperialism. He urged the US to \"respect other people and countries\" and said Russia was ready to restore relations once this happened.\n\nNew York Times correspondent Valerie Hopkins asked the Russian leader what it would take for Russia to release two American citizens held in Russian jails - the Wall Street Journal's widely respected correspondent Evan Gershkovich and former marine Paul Whelan.\n\nThe US sees both men as wrongfully detained and Mr Gershkovich's detention was extended on Thursday until 30 January. He was arrested while he was reporting for the newspaper in the city of Yekaterinburg and accused of espionage, which he and his colleagues firmly deny.\n\n\"As regards a possible exchange… we want to reach an agreement, and that agreement must be mutually acceptable and suit both sides,\" Mr Putin responded, pointing out the men were subject to a court order.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Russia and US in dialogue over jailed reporter, says Putin\n\n\"A dialogue on the subject is under way. It's a difficult dialogue and I won't go into the details now, but I think on the whole we're speaking in a language which we both understand. I hope we find a solution.\"\n\nAt one point President Putin appeared to confirm that opposition figures were being hunted in Russia.\n\nAsked by a reporter whether the criminal code might be changed to prevent a \"witch-hunt\" against journalists including a pro-Kremlin colleague, Mr Putin said: \"What did she do to be hunted? What is she, some big opposition figure or something?\"\n\nRussia's biggest opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, is facing 19 years in jail and his team say they have had no access to him for more than a week.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSix men have been jailed after being caught smuggling £1m worth of cocaine into the UK by concealing the drug in varnish on broom handles.\n\nMost of the gang were arrested at an industrial estate near Dartford in October 2021 as they tried to sort the cocaine shipment from Colombia.\n\nUndercover officers had overheard them in a pub plotting to chemically convert the drug into a lacquer.\n\nThe jail sentences at Kingston Crown Court ranged between 13 and 29 years.\n\nSeven men in total were found guilty of dozens of drug-related offences including conspiracy to import cocaine.\n\nA seventh man, William Adams, 75, of Teynham, Kent, was absent from court because of medical reasons and will be sentenced at a later date, Judge Marcus Tregilgas-Davey said.\n\nIn his remarks the judge said he regarded Rogers, Asante, Miranda and Oliver as having \"lead roles\" in the plot but all seven were engaged in the \"evil and wicked trade\" of drug importation.\n\nThe Met Police said the cocaine seized had a street value of £1m\n\nDuring the trial, jurors were told Metropolitan Police officers observed a number of meetings as they carried out surveillance on the gang over an eight-month period.\n\nThey heard some of men in a pub in Chatham discussing possible ways to conceal the cocaine including hiding it in tins of tomatoes or chopped pineapple.\n\nInstead, they opted to get the 30kg cocaine converted into the lacquer which was then used to varnish 508 broom handles.\n\nJudge Tregilgas-Davey described the method as a \"novel chemical process\" which he said \"was invisible to the eye\".\n\nHe added: \"This conspiracy was clearly intended to continue and was only brought to an end by the intervention of law enforcement agencies.\n\n\"This was to be a long-term venture for all defendants.\"\n\nTerence Allen, Ermal Shtrezi, William Adams and Daniel Oliver were all convicted for their roles in the plot\n\nDetectives said they worked out Allen and Rogers were operating a company in Belvedere, south-east London, called Pamper Cleaning which offered legitimate professional cleaning services.\n\nBut, Judge Tregilgas-Davey said Allen allowed it to be used as a cover for the drugs importation \"purely for financial reasons\".\n\nIn early October 2021, a shipment of 10,000 broom handles left Port Turbo, Colombia, with 580 later found to be coated in cocaine.\n\nDetectives also worked out the gang laid a false audit trail to divert suspicion, Judge Tregilgas-Davey said.\n\nThe court heard a shipping container storing the brooms arrived at London Gateway Port on 23 October 2021 and was transported to an industrial unit in Kent close to Pamper Cleaning.\n\nTwo days later, Met Police and National Crime Agency (NCA) officers swooped on the unit as the mops and broom handles were being unloaded from a lorry.\n\nFive men - Rogers, Allen, Miranda, Oliver and Shretzi - were arrested at the scene. Asante and Adams were arrested hours later at their home addresses.\n\nPolice seized £118,500 in cash as they searched Shtrezi's home address in north London after his arrest\n\nIn his sentencing remarks Judge Tregilgas-Davey said he considered Miranda, a Venezuelan national, to be the leading mover in the plot.\n\nAfter the sentencing, Det Insp Nicola Hawkins said data unearthed from Miranda's phone - which had been hidden in nearby bushes prior to his arrest - was a \"treasure trove\" of evidence.\n\nShe said images on the phone showed the cocaine \"being painted on to the broom handles in Colombia\".\n\n\"These men were a group of career criminals with previous convictions for similar offences,\" she added.\n\n\"Miranda and his accomplices played a hands-on role in the importation and were caught red handed by officers who had been diligently watching them and building strong evidence against them.\"", "The review was commissioned in response to commitments contained in the New Decade New Approach deal\n\nAn expansion to early years education is needed in Northern Ireland, an independent review has found.\n\nIt said two year olds should receive up to 20 hours of education per week and three year olds up to 22.5 hours.\n\n\"Increased investment will extend access and improve quality, enabling early diagnosis and intervention in cases of difficulty,\" it continued.\n\nThe authors said early years investment is the most effective contribution to overcome socioeconomic disadvantage.\n\nThe Independent Review of Education was commissioned in response to commitments contained in the New Decade New Approach deal, which underpinned the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive in January 2020.\n\nIt comes as schools across Northern Ireland face massive budgetary pressures.\n\nThe annual funding for education was cut by £70m (2.5%) in the 2023-24 budget set by Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.\n\nHowever, the real-terms reduction, taking inflation into account, is likely to be higher.\n\nAmong the radical reforms being proposed is the eventual replacement of classroom assistants\n\nThe report, published on Wednesday, also identified failings in the provision of services for children with special educational needs (SEN).\n\nExplaining that the system is not working as intended, the report concluded \"thorough reform is urgently required\".\n\nAmong the radical reforms being proposed is the eventual replacement of classroom assistants with fully trained and qualified teachers, other professionals or upskilled classroom assistants.\n\nHowever, the report acknowledged there should still be a role for classroom assistants who, the authors acknowledged, provide a vital and very helpful service.\n\nThe issue of \"unviable\" small schools with insufficient pupil numbers is also addressed.\n\nThe report found that a special commission should be set up to look at education, area-by-area, with a view to closing all unviable schools.\n\nIt said the proposals should come two years after the commission was established, followed by a 10-year implementation period.\n\nThe review has also come out against the ongoing development of a shared education campus in Omagh\n\nThe review has also come out against the ongoing development of the Strule Shared Education Campus in Omagh.\n\nStrule is the biggest school building project to be planned in Northern Ireland.\n\nArvalee Special School, which opened in 2016, is one of of six schools proposed for the site.\n\nThe panel said the project should cease because it believes it does not provide any educational advantage and the proposed cost cannot be justified.\n\nArvalee principal Jonathan Gray said he was shocked to hear the recommendation.\n\n\"We have the land, we have that space for the schools,\" he said. \"The money has to be spent anyway, we need it out in the west, the facilities need to be enhanced for the children,\" he said.\n\nJonathan Gray said he is \"at a loss\" by a recommendation for the Strule project to cease\n\n\"I'm at a loss until I read the detail. I just don't understand it at the moment,\" Mr Gray continued.\n\nOther recommendations in the report included increasing the school leaving or compulsory education age from 16 to 18.\n\nIt also wants vocational pathways for school pupils to begin at 14 years of age, alongside reforms of further and higher education to enhance collaboration with schools and universities as well as closer involvement with business and industry.\n\nOn funding, the report found there is an immediate need to uplift the education budgets by £291m annually.\n\nThere currently is no Stormont Executive, with parties engaged in talks about its finances if it should be restored.\n\nEducation in Northern Ireland is \"seriously underfunded\", review panel chair Dr Keir Bloom told BBC's Talkback programme, but the quality of educational provision would provide a \"fairly solid base\" for reform.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe director of the Association of School and College Leaders NI, John Trueman, said the report \"pulls no punches\" and has urged Stormont to \"implement the funding recommendations set out in the report as a matter of urgency\".\n\nEducation Authority chief executive Sara Long also welcomed the call for an immediate uplift in funding \"following a decade of chronic underfunding\".\n\nThe Controlled Schools' Support Council (CSSC) chief executive Mark Baker thanked the review panel for listening to its concerns and said education in Northern Ireland needs \"evidence-based transformation\".\n\nA single education department at Stormont is another of the report's proposals. The Department of Education is currently responsible for primary and post-primary schools while the Department for the Economy oversees further and higher education institutions.\n\nDr Bloom said there is poor collaboration between schools and colleges due to separate funding arrangements.\n\nA single governing body for further education colleges has also been proposed.\n\nThe report also recommends major reform of the curriculum and its management, and a reconfiguration of the network of schools with the potential to create new \"jointly-managed community schools\" by merging schools from different sectors.\n\nThis would result in around 20% of pupils being enrolled in a \"jointly-managed\" school by 2031.\n\nThere is a recommendation that \"all learners at all stages should have the opportunity to learn alongside individuals from other communities and backgrounds in the same classroom\".\n\nReform of the transfer of pupils from primary to post-primary schools to \"reduce differences between academically selective and non-selective schools\" was also proposed, with schools to take a \"pupil profile approach\" to selection - this could be through multiple, smaller assessments rather than a single transfer test.\n\n\"It's going to need action and it's going to need an executive and assembly to implement. That's going to be up to our politicians, to have the courage to implement,\" junior assembly member Andrew Martin said after the report was announced.\n\nRobert Moore said the youth assembly will be \"very proactive\" in urging politicians to implement these recommendations, once the executive is restored.\n\nLearners have been \"listened to\" with the proposals put forward in the report, Oliver Mercer said.\n\n\"The younger that you're bringing people together... that [continues] as you get older,\" Charlotte McGucken said on proposals for school mergers.", "Israeli troops prepared to enter Gaza on Wednesday, when intense fighting continued across the territory\n\nIsrael's foreign minister has said it will continue the war in Gaza \"with or without international support\".\n\nA ceasefire at this stage of the conflict would be \"a gift\" to Hamas and allow it to return, Eli Cohen warned.\n\nIsrael is facing mounting pressure over the number of Palestinian civilians killed by its military in Gaza and the worsening humanitarian crisis there.\n\nOn Tuesday, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.\n\nAnd in his strongest comments yet, US President Joe Biden said Israel was losing support worldwide because of its \"indiscriminate bombing\" of Gaza.\n\nIntense fighting continued in both the north and south of Gaza on Wednesday, while heavy rains worsened conditions for the hundreds of thousands of displaced people who are living in makeshift tents or out in the open.\n\nA senior UN aid official also warned that the Palestinian territory faced a \"public health disaster\" because of the collapse of its medical system and the spread of infectious diseases in overcrowded shelters.\n\nThe war was triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on 7 October, in which at least 1,200 people - including many women and children - were killed and about 240 taken hostage.\n\nSince then, more than 18,600 people have been killed in Gaza, about 70% of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.\n\nAt Tuesday's emergency session of the UN General Assembly, 153 member states voted in favour of a non-binding resolution demanding an \"immediate humanitarian ceasefire\" in Gaza, and \"the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access\".\n\nEight states joined Israel and the US in voting against the resolution, including Austria and the Czech Republic, while the UK and Germany were among the 23 states which abstained.\n\nIt was put forward by Arab and Muslim states after the US vetoed a binding resolution at the UN Security Council last Friday, saying an immediate ceasefire would allow Hamas to regroup.\n\nThe day after the General Assembly vote and President Biden's warning, Eli Cohen told a visiting diplomat: \"Israel will continue the war against Hamas, with or without international support.\"\n\n\"A ceasefire at the current stage is a gift to the terrorist organisation Hamas, and will allow it to return and threaten the residents of Israel,\" he added, according to a statement from his office.\n\nThe UN says 1.9 million Palestinians have fled their homes since the war began\n\nSo far, the US has supported Israel's opposition to a pause in hostilities.\n\nBut senior American officials are increasingly demonstrating discontent with the way Israel is conducting its offensive.\n\nOn 2 December, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that Israel risked replacing a \"tactical victory with a strategic defeat\" if it did not sufficiently protect civilians in Gaza.\n\nDisagreements are also emerging about what a post-war Gaza will look like.\n\nOn Thursday, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will arrive in Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.\n\nIsraeli media report that their discussions will include a timetable for the end of the war - and some suggest that Mr Netanyahu, by openly disagreeing with the Biden administration, is trying to appeal to his right-wing base.\n\nSpeaking with Israeli military commanders serving in Gaza on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Netanyahu said the war would \"continue until the end, until the victory, until the elimination of Hamas\".\n\nAnd, reflecting \"international pressures\", he added that \"nothing will stop us\".\n\nHowever, as previous Israeli wars show, calls for a ceasefire will soon become too loud to be ignored.\n\nIsrael is continuing to pound Gaza in the meantime, but Hamas and its allies are fighting back.\n\nTuesday was the deadliest day for the Israeli military since its ground offensive began on 27 October.\n\nThe military said 10 soldiers were killed, almost all of them in a co-ordinated ambush in the Shejaiya district of Gaza City, where there has been a focus of the ground operation in recent days.\n\nHamas fighters \"threw explosives at the soldiers and shot at them from inside a residential building in which underground terror infrastructure was also located\", according to a statement.\n\nHamas said the announcement confirmed the \"failure\" of Israel's leaders and military in the face of \"strong resistance\" from the group's armed wing.\n\nThe UN's local humanitarian co-ordinator, Lynn Hastings, told reporters: \"What is happening on the ground is not going to bring peace and security to either the Palestinians or Israelis for many, many years, if not generations to come. So a ceasefire is in the interest of everybody at the moment.\"\n\nShe warned that the number of Palestinians being killed and injured was going up significantly every day and that almost half of Gaza's 2.3 million population had fled to the southern Rafah area, on the border with Egypt, in an attempt to avoid the Israeli bombardment.\n\nThe collapse of the healthcare system, with only one-third of hospitals partially functioning, combined with the unsanitary conditions at overcrowded shelters, also meant there was \"a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster\", she added.\n\nThe UN estimates there have so far been 360,000 cases of infectious diseases, including meningitis, respiratory infections and diarrhoea, which is a leading cause of death among children under the age of five worldwide.", "An explosion at Treforest Industrial Estate was caught on CCTV.\n\nNearby Twt Lol brewery caught the blast that happened on Wednesday evening in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf.\n\nSouth Wales Fire and Rescue Service and South Wales Police remain at the scene of the blaze.\n\nOne person is still unaccounted for.", "Tesla is recalling more than two million cars after the US regulator found its driver assistance system, Autopilot, was partly defective.\n\nIt follows a two-year investigation into crashes which occurred when the tech was in use.\n\nThe recall applies to almost every Tesla sold in the US since the Autopilot feature was launched in 2015.\n\nTesla, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, said it would send a software update \"over the air\" to fix the issue.\n\nThe update happens automatically and does not require a visit to a dealership or garage, but is still referred to by the US regulator as a recall.\n\nThe UK Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency said it was not aware of any safety issues involving Teslas in the UK, noting that cars sold in the UK are not equipped with all of the same features as cars in the US.\n\n\"Teslas sold in the UK market are not self-driving and are not approved to do so,\" a spokesperson said, adding that the agency would continue to monitor the situation.\n\nAutopilot is meant to help with steering, acceleration and braking - but, despite the name, the car still requires driver input.\n\nTesla's software is supposed to make sure that drivers are paying attention and that the feature is only in use in appropriate conditions, such as driving on highways.\n\nBut the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said a two-year investigation of 956 Tesla crashes found that \"the prominence and scope of the feature's controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse\".\n\n\"Automated technology holds great promise for improving safety but only when it is deployed responsibly\", the NHTSA wrote, adding it would continue to monitor the software once it was updated.\n\nTesla did not respond to a request for comment.\n\nAccording to the recall notice, the company did not concur with the agency's analysis but agreed to add new features to resolve the concerns, including additional checks on turning on the self-driving features.\n\nThe recall comes a week after a former Tesla employee told the BBC he believed the technology was not safe.\n\nLukasz Krupski, speaking after winning the Blueprint Prize which recognises whistleblowers, told the BBC: \"I don't think the hardware is ready and the software is ready\".\n\n\"It affects all of us because we are essentially experiments in public roads\", he claimed.\n\nReacting to the news of the recall Mr Krupski told the BBC it was \"a step in the right direction\" but pointed out it was not just a problem in the US.\n\n\"The hardware is the same in all the Teslas in the US, China etc.\", he said\n\nOn Tuesday, Tesla defended the safety of Autopilot in a post on X (formerly Twitter) in response to a Washington Post article.\n\n\"Safety metrics are emphatically stronger when Autopilot is engaged than when not engaged\" it wrote, pointing to statistics that suggested there were fewer crashes when the system was used.\n\nJack Stilgoe, associate professor at University College London, who researches autonomous vehicles, said Tesla should have spent more time developing the system in the first place.\n\n\"The conventional way of ensuring safety is to check that a car is safe when it leaves the factory\", he told the BBC.\n\nBut despite this being the second recall this year affecting Tesla vehicles, Susannah Streeter of investment company Hargreaves Lansdown, said her assessment was that it should not check the carmaker's momentum too greatly:\n\n\"This recall of 2 million cars on its own is not likely to seriously quash enthusiasm. The share price has dropped back slightly, but it doesn't look like it'll be hit by a bad bout of skidding.\n\n\"After all, recalls in the car industry are far from unusual and the group also has the financial ability to invest in fixes\", she added.\n\nTesla has heavily promoted the technology in its cars and says remaining at the cutting edge of self-driving is key to its future growth.\n\nGoldman Sachs analysts estimated this month that Tesla's most advanced Autopilot offering, full self driving, could end up generating more than $50bn a year in revenue by 2030, up from $1bn-$3bn presently.\n\nIn the US, the full-self driving package costs $12,000, or a $199 monthly subscription fee.\n\n\"Autonomy is really where it's at,\" Mr Musk told investors this summer.\n\nCritics have said Tesla has misled customers about its software's capabilities, contributing to risks.\n\nThe carmaker is facing other government investigations, as well as a number of lawsuits in the US in relation to crashes involving the software.\n\nBut a jury in one of the first cases to go to trial found that Tesla's autopilot technology was not to blame.\n\nThe new controls that Tesla has agreed to do should help limit drivers from using Autopilot unsafely, said Professor Missy Cummings, director of the Autonomy and Robotics Center at George Mason University.\n\nBut she added that there was \"an opportunity missed\" for regulators to require Tesla to make Autopilot features unavailable in places where it is not supposed to be used.\n\nThe recall centres on a part of Autopilot called Autosteer.\n\nAutosteer helps keep a car in the correct lane in conjunction with \"traffic-aware cruise control\" which matches the speed of the car to that of the surrounding traffic.\n\nThe driver is expected to have their hands on wheel and be ready to take over from the assistive system when required.\n\nWhen Autosteer is on, systems in the car monitor that the driver is paying attention. If it detects the driver isn't there are warning alerts. There are also alerts if the driver tries to use Autosteer in inappropriate circumstances.\n\nAccording to the NHTSA recall report, the \"over the air update\" will include additional alerts and monitoring \"to encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility whenever Autosteer is engaged.\"", "A call has been made for hundreds of Post Office staff wrongly accused of theft and false accounting to all have their convictions overturned.\n\nMore than 700 Post Office managers were convicted when faulty accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their sites.\n\nA board overseeing compensation said until all convictions were quashed, \"we cannot put the scandal behind us\".\n\nThe Ministry of Justice said it would respond in due course.\n\nThe Post Office Horizon scandal - named after the faulty accounting software - constitutes Britain's most widespread miscarriage of justice.\n\nThe convictions of hundreds of postmasters and postmistresses for false accounting and theft between 2000 and 2014 resulted in some people going to prison.\n\nMany were financially ruined after being prosecuted and some of those wrongly accused have since died.\n\nWendy Cousins was convicted of theft in 2009. She had pleaded guilty, but her son Paul told the BBC's Today programme that she had only done so in order to avoid a prison sentence, as she thought she would not survive going to jail.\n\nShe took her case to the Court of Appeal in 2021 but the judges refused to overturn her conviction, saying it was not based on Horizon evidence. She died last year.\n\nPaul said anger was the overriding emotion he felt about the fact his mother died with her conviction still hanging over her, as well as \"sadness and frustration, bitterness and everything else that comes with it\".\n\nHe said the call to overturn all the Post Office convictions was \"massive news\".\n\n\"Of course it's great news for everyone,\" he said, but added for him it did not go far enough, as he would like to receive an apology and to see the people who prosecuted his mother go through what his family had been through.\n\nIn September, the government said Post Office staff who have had wrongful convictions for theft and false accounting overturned would be offered £600,000 each in compensation.\n\nBut so far, only 93 convictions have been overturned, according to the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, an independent group overseeing compensation related to the scandal.\n\nProf Chris Hodges, chair of the board, said they believed more than 900 postmasters had been prosecuted in relation to the faulty Horizon software.\n\n\"Many victims remain traumatised and ostracised by their communities,\" he said in a letter to the Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk.\n\nHe said while individuals could apply to have their convictions overturned, the small number of cases meant the \"current approach is not working\".\n\nThe reasons for this, Prof Hodges added, included an unwillingness of people to appeal due to a \"deep distrust of authority\", evidence being lost or destroyed, and issues with compensation if a Post Office manager is not granted a retrial.\n\n\"The convictions are unsafe not only because they relied on the Horizon computer evidence, but also because of egregious systemic Post Office behaviour in interviews and pursuing prosecutions,\" he said.\n\n\"This led to guilty pleas and false confessions, driven by legal advice to victims to minimise sentences, and by the psychological pressure of dealing with an institution systematically disregarding the truth and fairness.\"\n\nProf Hodges said the \"only viable approach\" was for \"all 900+ Post Office-driven convictions from the Horizon period\" to be overturned.\n\n\"A small minority of these people were doubtless genuinely guilty of something. However, we believe it would be worth acquitting a few guilty people (who have already been punished) in order to deliver justice to the majority - which would not otherwise happen,\" he said.\n\nCriminal barrister Flora Page represented three clients who successfully appealed against their convictions.\n\n\"At the time that the Court of Appeal heard both Wendy Cousins' case and also my original three clients' case, they didn't yet know about the widespread endemic problems in the prosecutorial set-up at the Post Office,\" she said.\n\n\"And so they drew a very clear distinction between those cases which clearly involved the Horizon system and those cases which maybe had some other evidence, such as a confession.\"\n\nShe said she hoped the recommendation to acquit everyone would be significant, but fears it may be difficult to deliver, particularly as the courts have already refused a number of appeals, such as Mrs Cousins'.\n\n\"And legislation overturning a court decision is something which most people would feel was constitutionally uncomfortable,\" she said.\n\nA Post Office spokesperson said: \"We strongly encourage people who believe they were wrongly convicted, for any reason, to consider an appeal.\"\n\nThe Ministry of Justice said it recognised the \"hardships that postmasters and their families have had to endure and are seeking to right the wrongs of the past\".\n\n\"To date over £130m has been paid in compensation and we are introducing new legislation to ensure all those affected by the IT scandal do not miss out,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"We want the criminal appeals system to be as efficient and effective as possible which is why we've asked the Law Commission to examine whether reforms are needed. We look forward to their findings once the review has concluded.\"", "Little Simz shared 2022's album of the year prize and is defending the award this year\n\nLittle Simz and Stormzy dominate the nominations for next year's Mobo Awards, with both up for four top prizes.\n\nThe Mercury Prize winner and Big Mike will face off in the album of the year and the video of the year categories.\n\nSimz, who shared 2023 album of the year with Knucks, could win it again for most recent release No Thank You.\n\nIt'll be up against Stormzy's This Is What I Mean at February's ceremony in Sheffield.\n\nSimz is also up for best female act and best hip-hop act, while Stormzy's up for best male and song of the year for Hide & Seek.\n\nThe pair will also face off in the music video of the year category, with Gorilla up against Stormzy's highly praised Mel Made Me Do It.\n\nAlthough both artists released their nominated albums last year, the eligibility period for the Mobos is 1 September 2022 - 31 August 2023.\n\nNot far behind are Central Cee, J Hus, PinkPantheress and Raye with three nominations each.\n\nStormzy has four nominations for best song, album, music video and male act\n\nRaye and PinkPantheress will go up against Little Simz for best female, and they're also in the running for song of the year with Escapism and Boy's A Liar Pt 2.\n\nMega-hit Sprinter by Central Cee and Who Told You by J Hus are the final song of the year contenders, and the rappers are also up for best male act.\n\nJ Hus' Beautiful and Brutal Yard and Raye's My 21st Century Blues are also nominated for album of the year.\n\nPinkPantheress has been nominated for song of the year with Boy's A Liar Pt 2\n\nAway from music, Idris Elba's turn in Apple TV's Hijack has earned him a nomination for best TV or film performance.\n\nHe's facing competition from Lashana Lynch for her role as Izogie in The Woman King, John Boyega's performance as Fontaine in They Cloned Tyrone, and Letitia Wright for her role as Shuri in Wakanda Forever.\n\nAlison Hammond, Maya Jama and Amelia Dimoldenberg are nominated for best media personality.\n\nThe Mobo (Music of Black Origin) awards were first handed out in 1996 and are dedicated to celebrated black music and culture.\n\n\"We are proud to champion this year's incredible line-up of nominees for the 26th Mobo Awards, who have all brought stellar music and content to our attention through their remarkable work in music, film, TV, online and more,\" said founder Kanya King.\n\n\"This year's nominees not only represent the best of their genre and artform and an incredible year of music, but also continue our dedication to sustaining an inclusive ecosystem where diverse talent is both recognised and empowered to thrive.\"\n\nA full list of nominations is available on the Mobo Awards website.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Tesco has recalled a batch of Christmas stuffing mix due to the possible presence of moths in the product.\n\nThe batch of Tesco Finest Apple & Cranberry Stuffing Mix may be \"unfit for human consumption\", the retailer warned via the Food Standards Agency.\n\nCustomers can return the 130g packets without a receipt for a full refund, said Tesco, which apologised for the inconvenience.\n\nThe stuffing batch has a best before date of September 2024.\n\n\"We are recalling a single batch of Tesco Finest Apple & Cranberry Stuffing Mix due to the possible presence of moths which makes the product unfit for human consumption,\" Tesco said in the recall notice.\n\nTesco advised people who need further information to contact customer services.\n\nThe Food Standards Agency said that people who have bought the product should not eat it, and return it for a refund.\n\nIt is understood the moths may have got into the stuffing mix through one of the raw ingredients.\n\nThe particular batch that was affected has been pulled from sale, but later batches of the mix are still available in store and online.\n\nCranberries, which are now seen as a traditional element of a British Christmas dinner, seem to be an import from the US, where the berries grow in bogs on the East Coast and have long been a popular accompaniment to Thanksgiving meals.", "The 2024 Summer Olympics will open in Paris on 26 July and close on 11 August\n\nThe International Olympic Committee (IOC) head, Thomas Bach, has defended a decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics as neutrals.\n\n\"Individual athletes cannot be punished for the acts of their governments,\" he said at a forum in Geneva, Switzerland.\n\nThis was, he said, \"one war among 28 wars and conflicts going on this world and all the other athletes are competing peacefully with each other\".\n\nLast week, the IOC said individual athletes from Russia and and its ally Belarus who had qualified for the Paris summer games would be allowed to compete without flags, emblems or anthems of their countries.\n\nThe athletes had been earlier barred from taking part. That ban remains in force for teams representing the two nations.\n\nThe IOC added that athletes and support personnel who actively supported Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine must remain excluded.\n\nIt also reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Ukrainian athletes \"in every way possible, in order to see a strong team from the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine at the Olympic Games Paris 2024\".\n\nMr Bach was speaking exclusively to the BBC at the UN Global Refugee Forum in Geneva on Wednesday.\n\nOlympic sports federations had asked the IOC to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete but with no affiliation to their nations.\n\nThis was despite a number of countries - including the US and UK - calling for an all-out ban amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.\n\nUkraine itself suggested it might boycott the games, with President Volodomyr Zelensky saying Russian athletes \"cannot be covered up with some pretended neutrality.\"\n\nMr Bach dismissed the threats of a boycott, saying countries that disagree \"are allowed to have different political opinions\".\n\nThe president of the IOC was one of the speakers at the forum's discussion on how sport can help refugees.\n\nHe announced a joint-pledge on behalf of the Sport for Refugees Coalition of $45m (£36m) to help half a million refugees, of which $15m (£11.8m) will come from the IOC to fund a number of projects, such as supporting the refugee Olympic team at Paris 2024.\n\nOther ongoing conflicts include Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza and civil wars in Sudan and Myanmar.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Restaurants should be forced to publish allergy information on menus, the body responsible for food safety has said.\n\nThe Food Standards Agency (FSA) is backing calls for 'Owen's Law', launched by the family of a teenager who died after an allergic reaction.\n\nOwen Carey suffered an anaphylactic shock after eating chicken containing buttermilk, despite telling restaurant staff he was allergic to dairy.\n\nFood allergies, intolerances or coeliac disease affect two million in the UK.\n\nAt a meeting on Wednesday, the FSA agreed that written allergy information should be compulsory in restaurants and coffee shops. It said members of its board would write to the government about this.\n\nThe FSA also said that conversations between staff and customers should also be expected.\n\nMr Carey, from Crowborough, East Sussex, died after unwittingly eating food he was allergic to, during a meal out on his 18th birthday in April 2017.\n\nSince his death, the teenager's family have been campaigning to get the law changed.\n\nOwen Carey was celebrating his 18th birthday when he died\n\nReacting to the outcome of the FSA Board meeting, Mr Carey's father, Paul Carey, said he \"had a tear in his eye\" and was \"having a little celebratory whisky\" due to the \"good results\".\n\n\"It's been a struggle, we've been going at this for quite a few years - it has sometimes felt like it was never going to get anywhere, so yes, I was a little bit overwhelmed and had a little tear in my eye today when they said they were going to recommend to the minister that it becomes law.\n\n\"We're hoping that people with allergies can go out and eat in comfort now if you have this law, because they can see what's in their food.\"\n\nFSA chairwoman Professor Susan Jebb said \"it was clear that the board feel that we should set an expectation that food businesses like coffee shops and restaurants provide allergen information in writing as well as having a conversation.\n\n\"To maximise the likelihood of this happening, written information should be a legal requirement, rather than just guidance.\"\n\nThe FSA is responsible for food safety and hygiene across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Prof Jebb said she will write to the relevant ministers in these three nations, as well as her counterpart in Scotland, and that she hoped to see the changes taken \"forward on a four-country basis\".\n\n\"I would also like to thank the Carey family for all their work in highlighting the importance of this issue,\" she added.\n\nIn the meantime, the FSA also said it would work to develop guidance for food businesses on how to provide written allergen information.\n\nNatasha Ednan-Laperouse died of anaphylaxis in 2016 after eating sesame in a baguette\n\nIn 2021, Natasha's Law came into force, requiring foods pre-packaged on site, such as sandwiches, to carry a full list of ingredients.\n\nIt came after 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died from having an allergic reaction to a baguette bought from Pret-a-Manger.", "Meta's social media app Threads has launched in the European Union, five months after its release in other parts of the world.\n\nIt debuted to much fanfare as a rival to Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter.\n\nBut it was not made available in the EU, which has strict rules around data and big tech.\n\nMeta will hope it will drive interest in the platform, which gained more than 100 million users in its first week before those numbers drifted down.\n\nBoss Mark Zuckerberg announced the news with a post on Threads, welcoming new users from across Europe.\n\nA Meta spokesperson said the platform had undergone \"significant improvements\" since its launch in other countries in July.\n\nA lack of key features, such as a website and search function, had contributed to initial user interest fading.\n\n\"Starting today, people in the EU can choose to create a Threads profile that is connected to their Instagram account - which means they get the same experience as everyone else around the world - or use Threads without a profile,\" they said.\n\nJust three weeks after its launch, Mr Zuckerberg said Threads had lost half of its users.\n\nThe release of new features has helped it claw most of them back - but Threads remains less popular than X, and has many fewer users than TikTok, or other Meta services Instagram and Facebook.\n\nMeta has not officially disclosed why it delayed Threads' launch in the EU, but it is thought to be because of the bloc's strict regulations.\n\nA Meta spokesperson told The Verge in July it was down to \"upcoming regulatory uncertainty\".\n\nThe EU's Digital Services Act - laws which impose new responsibilities on big tech companies - came into force in August.\n\nThey are designed to protect users on large social platforms, and include rules on advertising to children and a requirement for firms to be more transparent about their algorithms with regulators.\n\nThreads asks permission to access lots of data on your device, including location data, purchases and browsing history.\n\nIt is not currently known if the app has undergone significant changes to abide by the EU's laws.\n\nHowever, in October Meta announced subscription services would be brought into most of Europe that would remove adverts from all its platforms, which it said would address EU concerns.\n\nIt came after Meta was fined €390m (£335m) in January for breaking EU data rules around ads.\n\nThe subscription model is exclusive to people in the EU, European Economic Area and Switzerland, and is not available in the UK.", "What do gift tags, candy canes and several layers of hardened code have in common?\n\nThey are all elements of an annual brainteaser for UK school children set by the nation's spy agency.\n\nEnsuring sharp minds do not fall idle as the winter break approaches, GCHQ has released its code-breaking challenge, aimed at 11 to 18-year-olds.\n\nMore than 1,000 secondary schools signed up for the 2023 event, which this year features some of the trickiest puzzles yet.\n\nThis is the third edition of the challenge, which is designed around a Christmas card sent by Anne Keast-Butler, the director of the Cheltenham-based intelligence agency.\n\nChallenges enclosed in the card are designed to test skills such as codebreaking, maths and analysis and each is designed to be harder than the last.\n\nLet's ease ourselves in with one of the (apparently) less demanding questions.\n\nCan you solve this puzzle?\n\nThis challenge asks youngsters to place the nine gift tags in three groups of three. Each group is defined by a single word linking the tags. Together, those three answers are linked by another word that can follow 'Christmas'.\n\nFor the more numerically minded, the next brainteaser may be more appealing...\n\nIf MIxMI=MAA, and TI+TI=RA, and if DO-SO+TI-MI=RE, then what does RExRE give you, it asks.\n\nYou are looking for a collection of letters that, again, form a word that can follow 'Christmas'.\n\nThese are just a taste of the seven questions the challenge poses to secondary school pupils and sixth formers. A maths-based bonus puzzle has also been included - and is billed as the toughest task included to date.\n\nChildren are encouraged to approach the challenge with teammates, drawing on individual skills to uncover the code, but the public can also informally try their hand.\n\nColin, a chief puzzler at the spy agency, explained: \"Like the work at GCHQ, solving the puzzles on the card requires a mix of minds, and we want to show young people that thinking differently is a gift.\"\n\nThis year's Christmas challenge presents a more historical theme than the previous, featuring Bletchley Park - the wartime home of the spy agency - on the card.\n\nIt's where, more than 80 years ago, a group of scientists broke the German Enigma code.\n\nThe photo was taken in 1940, and was discovered in the personal family album of codebreaker Joan Wingfield, who worked on Italian naval codes.\n\nBletchley Park was also host of this year's AI Safety Summit in the UK.\n\n\"GCHQ's history at Bletchley Park is represented in this year's Christmas card as a reminder of the role this historic place has played in our wartime efforts but also as home to this year's AI Safety Summit,\" agency director Ms Keast-Butler said.\n\n\"Puzzles have been at the heart of GCHQ from the start. These skills represent our historic roots in cryptography and encryption and continue to be important to our modern-day mission to keep the country safe,\" she added.\n\nYou can find the full challenge on the GCHQ website.", "Scientists now have good numbers to describe the true scale of the world's biggest iceberg, A23a.\n\nSatellite measurements show the frozen block has a total average thickness of just over 280m (920ft).\n\nCombined with its known area of 3,900 sq km (1,500 sq miles), this gives a volume of roughly 1,100 cubic km and a mass just below a trillion tonnes.\n\nThe iceberg, which calved from the Antarctic coast in 1986, is about to drift beyond the White Continent.\n\nIt has reached a critical point in its journey, researchers say, with the next few weeks likely to decide its future trajectory through the Southern Ocean.\n\nAs far as the eye can see: A23a is more than twice the area of Greater London\n\nTo put the new thickness data in some context, London skyscraper 22 Bishopsgate is 278m tall - bettered, in the UK, by only the 310m Shard tower.\n\nBut A23a is also more than twice the area of Greater London, giving it an overall profile much like that of a credit card.\n\nThe measurements of A23a come from the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 mission.\n\nThis veteran spacecraft carries a radar altimeter able to sense how much of a berg's bulk is above the waterline.\n\nUsing information about the density of ice, it is then possible to determine how much must be submerged.\n\n\"Altimetry satellites like CryoSat-2, which measure the distance to the iceberg surface and to the sea surface, allow us to monitor iceberg thickness from space,\" Dr Anne Braakmann-Folgmann, from the University of Tromsø - The Arctic University of Norway, told BBC News.\n\n\"They also enable us to watch the iceberg thinning as it gets exposed to warmer ocean waters.\n\n\"And together with knowledge of the sea-floor topography, we know where an iceberg will ground or when it has thinned enough to be released again.\"\n\nWhen the berg started moving, after 2020, it became increasingly difficult to obtain broad thickness measurements. But assuming an area of 3,900 sq km and an average total thickness of 285m, then A23a has a volume of 1,113 cubic km and a mass of 950 billion tonnes.\n\nBorn in a mass breakout of bergs from the Filchner Ice Shelf, in the southern Weddell Sea, A23a was almost immediately stuck in shallow bottom muds to become an \"ice island\" for more than three decades. And the CryoSat data can now explain why.\n\nThe berg is not a uniform block - some parts are thicker than others.\n\nCryoSat indicates one section in particular has a very deep keel, which in 2018, had a draft - the submerged portion of an iceberg - of almost 350m.\n\nAnd it is this section that anchored A23a for so long.\n\n\"This is likely the surface expression of the damage that was caused when A23a hit the seabed,\" Prof Andrew Shepherd, from Northumbria University and the Natural Environment Research Council Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM), said.\n\nA23a: Most of an iceberg's bulk sits below the waterline\n\nAnd in the years that followed, A23a gradually lost mass to eventually free itself and start moving.\n\n\"Over the last decade, we have seen a steady 2.5m per year decrease in thickness, which is what you would expect given the water temperatures in the Weddell Sea,\" Dr Andy Ridout, a CPOM senior research fellow from University College London, explained.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The vertical in this 3D model is exaggerated to highlight the very deep keel at one end\n\nA23a has now reached the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, where there is a convergence of various streams of fast-moving water that turn clockwise around the continent.\n\nHow it interacts with these and the westerly winds that dominate in that part of the world will control where the behemoth goes next.\n\nBut it is expected take a track called \"iceberg alley\" that points in the direction of the British overseas territory of South Georgia.\n\nScientists will follow its progress with interest.\n\nBergs this big have a profound influence on their environment.\n\n\"They're responsible for very deep mixing of seawater,\" Prof Mike Meredith, from the British Antarctic Survey, told BBC News.\n\n\"They churn ocean waters, bringing nutrients up to the surface, and, of course, they also drop a lot of dust.\n\n\"All this will fertilise the ocean - you'll often see phytoplankton blooms in their wake.\"", "A circus performer has been taken to hospital after falling from a height during a show watched by a family-filled audience.\n\nThe acrobat, in his 20s, fell while riding the \"wheel of death\" apparatus at the Hippodrome Circus in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on Wednesday evening.\n\nNorfolk Police said he \"sustained serious, potentially life-changing injuries\" but was stable.\n\nJack Jay, manager and circus ringmaster, said: \"He was fully conscious after the fall and two members of the audience, believed to be an off-duty police officer and a paramedic, came forward to help.\"\n\nAn eyewitness said screens were put around the performer and the show was cancelled following the fall.\n\nRead more on this story here.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nRebecca Welch will become the first female referee for a Premier League fixture when she officiates Fulham's match against Burnley on 23 December.\n\nWelch, 40, began refereeing in 2010, and in January became the first woman to referee a men's Championship game.\n\nSam Allison will also take charge of a top-flight match in December, making him the Premier League's first black referee for 15 years.\n\nHe will oversee Sheffield United's match against Luton on 26 December.\n\nUriah Rennie - the league's last black referee - retired from officiating in English football's top four divisions in 2009. The EFL's last non-white referee - Jarnail Singh - retired in 2010.\n\n\"These are pivotal moments for Rebecca and Sam, who are two officials of real quality,\" referees' chief Howard Webb told BBC Sport.\n\nIn July, the Football Association laid out plans to recruit 50% more referees from \"historically under-represented\" backgrounds by 2026, targeting an increase of 1,000 women referees and 1,000 black or Asian referees at all levels of football in three years.\n\nCurrently, 8% of officials are of black or Asian ethnicity, but only 3% in professional football. No black or Asian referee has taken charge of a Premier League game since Rennie's final match in 2008.\n\nFormer firefighter Allison, who has previously spoken about encouraging more officials from under-represented backgrounds, was promoted to the Football League in 2020 and was moved up to the Championship earlier this year.\n\nWelch has also refereed in the Championship this year, as well as taking charge of Women's Super League and Women's Champions League matches and refereeing at the Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in the summer.\n\nShe was the first woman to take charge of an FA Cup third-round tie in 2022 after being added to the EFL's national list for men's football, which oversees both League One and League Two fixtures.\n\nWelch made history in November when she became the first woman to be involved in the Premier League in a refereeing capacity, taking up the role of fourth official when Manchester United beat Fulham 1-0 at Craven Cottage.\n\n\"Rebecca has been exposed to some big games and I am really confident she will deliver a game in the Premier League and be a really good model for women and girls to think refereeing is for them,\" said Webb.\n\n\"Sam deserves his chance as well. Maybe that will serve as a role model for other young people who maybe previously thought refereeing might not be for them.\n\n\"Hopefully they can show that refereeing can be for anybody - if you have the love of the game and the qualities required, you can make it to the very top.\"\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Jenin's walls are covered with the pictures of young armed men killed by Israeli forces\n\nSince the war in Gaza began, Israel's military operations in the occupied West Bank have become more frequent, and more forceful.\n\nThe northern city of Jenin - the epicentre of these raids before the Hamas attacks - is now a weekly battleground.\n\nThe Palestinian teenagers I met who were running from the army there on Tuesday had the sceptical dismissive attitudes of much older men - mocking the Palestinian president and his appeals to the world for protection against Israel's occupation.\n\nBehind them, Israel's armoured bulldozers and military jeeps moved around the entrance to Jenin refugee camp, explosions and gunfire from across the city echoing along the deserted, shuttered streets.\n\nThe walls of this city are covered with the pictures of young men killed by Israeli forces - some of them members of armed groups like Hamas, proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK and others. The posters and the faces are refreshed, year after year.\n\nSix men were killed in the operation here on Tuesday; four of them in a drone strike, witnesses said.\n\nIsrael says its operations in the West Bank are targeting members of armed groups, often those with Israeli blood on their hands.\n\nSmoke rises over houses during an Israeli military raid in Jenin on Tuesday\n\nBut the director of Jenin's hospital, Wissam Bakr, said a chronically ill 13-year-old child also died after being blocked from reaching medical care.\n\n\"The persistence of the incursions into Jenin, and the killing of young people - this will make the people more and more angry, because every day we lose one of our friends,\" he said.\n\n\"This will not bring peace for Israel - this will bring more and more resistance.\"\n\nOn 7 October, Hamas gunmen from Gaza attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 others hostage. More than 18,400 people are said to have been killed in Gaza during the war that followed.\n\nHere in the West Bank, 271 Palestinians, including 69 children, have been killed since the attacks - more than half the total number for the year. Almost all of them have been killed by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations.\n\nSince the Hamas attacks, support for armed resistance has risen in many parts of the West Bank - in places like Nablus and Jenin.\n\n\"I see it in the voices of people, in the music they play in their cars, from Facebook or social media posts, from my debates with my students,\" said Raed Debiy, a political scientist and youth leader for the West Bank's ruling party, Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority (PA).\n\nHe told me the attacks were \"a turning point\" for Palestinians, just as they were a shocking turning point for Israelis.\n\n\"The people, especially the new generation, are backing Hamas now, more than at any other moment,\" he told me. \"In the previous 30 years, there were no models, no idols for the new generation; now they see there is something different, a different story is being created.\"\n\nEven his 11-year-old nephew, he said, had little respect for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but idolises Hamas military spokesman Abu Obeida - \"because he protects us\".\n\n\"Palestinian youth had priorities and wish lists about owning a house, or getting a degree,\" explained West Bank political scientist Amjad Bushkar.\n\n\"But after 7 October, I think these priorities have totally changed. There are rising voices for full liberation of the homeland through resistance - whether that resistance is peaceful or armed.\"\n\nDr Bushkar told me that he had spent a total of nine years in Israeli jails, and had been a member of Hamas's student wing in the past. Seven members of his family had been arrested since the 7 October attacks, he added.\n\nHamas members in the West Bank have regularly been targeted by Palestinian security forces - not just Israeli ones - since the group took control of Gaza by force in 2007, a year after it won parliamentary elections.\n\nBut now, Dr Bushkar said, something had changed.\n\n\"Both Fatah and Hamas are well aware that they are complementary to each other, and I think we'll see real integration between the two movements.\"\n\n\"The Palestinian Authority realised that targeting Hamas would not eradicate it because it's an ideological movement rooted within the Palestinian people; and Hamas is fully aware that it cannot establish an independent [Palestinian] state without the help of Fatah.\"\n\nThere has been a parallel surge in violence in the West Bank since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas\n\nSome senior figures in the Palestinian administration - though not President Abbas - are now openly talking about the benefits of a united political front.\n\nEarlier this month, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said in an interview with Bloomberg that the Palestinian Authority's preferred outcome of the war in Gaza would be for Hamas to join a unity government led by the PA.\n\nQossay Hamed, an expert in Hamas at Al-Quds Open University in Ramallah, says the crisis in Gaza could end up strengthening the movement's political wing, at the expense of its military one.\n\n\"In any revolutionary movement, there should be a political harvest to [military] actions,\" he said.\n\n\"There are so many trends within Hamas. And there are internal clashes. I think there will be more room for the political trend within Hamas, especially after this war, when the whole world will not be tolerant towards them.\"\n\nIsrael says its goal in Gaza is to destroy Hamas, and has ruled out a role for either it or Fatah in Gaza's future government.\n\n\"I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who teach terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism,\" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.\n\n\"Gaza will be neither Hamas-stan nor Fatah-stan.\"\n\nDemonstrators carried Hamas flags during a protest against the war in Gaza in the West Bank city of Hebron last Friday\n\nSome Palestinians privately say the price paid by Gaza for the Hamas attacks is too high.\n\nBut others say the group's brutal tactics worked in forcing Israel to release Palestinian prisoners - and contrast its impact sharply with that of the Palestinian Authority, set up 30 years ago after the Oslo Accords to work with Israel on a future Palestinian State.\n\nAn opinion poll carried out between 22 November and 2 December by a respected Palestinian think-tank, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), found that support for Hamas had more than tripled in the West Bank compared to three months ago.\n\nSupporters of Hamas were still in a minority, but 70% of the respondents said armed struggle was the best means of ending the Israeli occupation.\n\nBy contrast, support for President Abbas had dropped sharply following the Hamas attacks, the survey found, with more than 90% of Palestinians in the West Bank calling for his resignation.\n\nSince the Hamas attacks, said Amjad Bushkar, \"the world and the international community have put the Palestinian cause on its list of priorities.\"\n\nWidely seen as corrupt and ineffective, the PA has also been unable to pay its civil servants or police since the Hamas attacks, because the war in Gaza caused a rift over the tax revenues transferred by Israel each month.\n\nWhile Hamas flags and slogans multiplied here in the wake of each busload of Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in exchange for Israeli hostages held in Gaza, the PA's president and security forces were conspicuously absent.\n\nIsrael may be determined to deny Hamas power in Gaza, but here in the West Bank its influence is already spreading.", "Andre Braugher was known for his roles in Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Homicide\n\nTwo-time Emmy Award winning actor Andre Braugher died of lung cancer after being diagnosed with the disease several months ago, his publicist has confirmed to the BBC.\n\nBraugher was best known for his roles as Captain Ray Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Detective Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life on the Street.\n\nHe won an Emmy for his role in Homicide in 1998 and another in 2006 for his work in the crime thriller Thief.\n\nBraugher also received four Emmy nominations for his role in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which ran for eight seasons, in addition to Golden Globe nominations for his role in Thief and in ABC's series Gideon's Crossing.\n\nMost recently, he starred opposite Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan in the biographical drama She Said, which documents the story of the investigative journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein story.\n\nHis Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-star, Terry Crews, paid tribute to Braugher's \"irreplaceable talent\" earlier this week.\n\n\"I'm honoured to have known you, laughed with you, worked with you and shared eight glorious years watching your irreplaceable talent,\" Crews posted on Instagram.\n\n\"You showed me what a life well lived looks like.\"\n\nBorn in Chicago, Braugher graduated from Stanford University before attending The Juilliard School for drama in New York.\n\nBraugher told The New York Times Magazine in 2014 that he had \"stopped drinking alcohol and smoking years ago\".\n\nHe is survived by his wife, actress Ami Brabson, whom he met on the set of Homicide, and his three sons.", "Julie Butcher said she received two calls from Gaynor Lord on Friday afternoon Image caption: Julie Butcher said she received two calls from Gaynor Lord on Friday afternoon\n\nA friend of Gaynor Lord's, Julie Butcher, says she got two calls from her on Friday afternoon.\n\nAt 14:15 GMT Ms Lord called and asked where Ms Butcher was.\n\nMs Butcher said: \"I said 'I'm at home' and I explained I was sorting out the internet and my phone rang and it was one of my clients and I had to speak to them. I said I would call her back and she said 'yes'\".\n\nShe said she called Ms Lord back seven or eight minutes later but could not get through. So she tried again and left a voicemail before also sending a WhatsApp message, saying she was now free to talk.\n\n\"I think she was still at work when she called me, I don't know. But maybe that's why she couldn't answer,\" she said.\n\nShe received another call at 16:15 but said it \"sounded like a pocket call; I could hear movement in her pocket\".\n\nMs Butcher said she has replayed the conversation over and over again.\n\nShe said: \"I keep going over the conversation. If I hadn't answered that call [from her client] would she have talked to me? I feel terrible. I feel so sorry for the family.\n\n\"It's not like Gaynor to do this.\"", "Four cabinet ministers in Japan quit on Thursday over a fundraising scandal involving the ruling party's most powerful faction.\n\nMore than 500m yen (£2.8m; $3.4m) is alleged to have ended up in slush funds over a five-year period through 2022.\n\nIt is the latest blow to Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's increasingly unpopular government, whose approval ratings have plunged.\n\nPublic support for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has been in power almost continuously since 1955, fell below 30% for the first time since 2012, an NHK survey on Tuesday showed.\n\nVoters have been angered by inflation, as well as Mr Kishida's handling of earlier scandals.\n\nChief Cabinet Secretary and top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno, often seen as Mr Kishida's right-hand man and the face of his government, was the most prominent of the four ministers. Economy and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, Internal Affairs Minister Junji Suzuki and Agriculture Minister Ichiro Miyashita also stepped down on Thursday.\n\nTheir replacements are expected to be announced by the end of the day.\n\nIn addition, five senior vice ministers and a parliamentary vice minister from the same faction, formerly led by the late PM Shinzo Abe, also quit.\n\nThe mass resignations now leave the LDP in the unusual situation of having no representatives from its largest and most powerful faction within the cabinet.\n\nMr Kishida, who took office in October 2021, said on Wednesday that he would deal with the allegations \"head-on\".\n\nFumio Kishida announced on Wednesday that several cabinet ministers would be replaced\n\nThe faction allegedly failed to report hundreds of millions of yen in fundraising income.\n\nAlso known as the Seiwa policy group, the faction had set quotas for its members on the sale of tickets for party fundraising events.\n\nWhen their sales exceeded the quotas, members received the additional funds. In and of itself, this does not violate Japanese law.\n\nHowever, the allegations in the present case - which were triggered by a criminal complaint - suggest that the additional revenue was kept off the books and instead went into slush funds.\n\nMr Matsuno is himself accused of failing to report more than 10m yen in income.\n\nOther major factions within the LDP, including one previously led by Mr Kishida, are also facing allegations of under-reporting fundraising income.\n\nOn Wednesday, the Lower House of Japan's Diet rejected a no-confidence motion filed by the opposition against Mr Kishida's cabinet.\n\nThe LDP is due to hold leadership elections next September. A general election is due in 2025.\n\nSome observers have said that even if Mr Kishida can continue to hold on to his post, his credibility will be greatly dented by the ongoing scandal.\n\n\"Kishida will remain in power for now as there are no obvious other candidates for the next president. But if a strong contender emerges, there may be a move to drop Kishida,\" Yu Uchiyama, a professor of political science at the University of Tokyo, told Reuters this week.", "CCTV footage has shown the moment a 4x4 ploughs into the side of a pub in Worksop in Nottinghamshire.\n\nThe Land Rover Discovery reached speeds of up to 110mph (177km/h) while being followed by officers on the evening of 27 March, Nottinghamshire Police said.\n\nIn the footage, a pool player is seen potting a ball as the car smashed through the wall.\n\nAt Nottingham Crown Court on Friday, Jamie Kettle, 37, admitted aggravated vehicle taking, dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and without insurance, criminal damage to the pub, and two counts of theft from a shop.\n\nHe also admitted two counts of common assault of an emergency worker, as well as a charge of witness intimidation, and was jailed for two years.\n\nKettle, of Bircotes, Doncaster, was also banned from driving for three years and three months.\n\nHe was also ordered to pay a £156 victim surcharge and must take an extended re-test.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.", "Playing fetch is part and parcel of a dog's life - but now scientists have found many cats enjoy it just as much.\n\nA first-of-its-kind survey of 1,000 cat owners has thrown up new information about feline play habits.\n\nAcademics at Sussex and Northumbria universities said the findings suggest owners should keep an open mind about the stimulation their cats might respond to.\n\nThe research was first published in the science journal Scientific Reports.\n\nMany cats instinctively like to play, the report says, and owners are being urged to think more about the types of activities they could do to keep their pets happy and active.\n\nIt found cats generally prefer to be in control of the game and do not require training to play.\n\nThe survey gathered information from 924 owners of 1,154 cats (994 mixed-breed and 160 purebred) that play fetch\n\nJemma Forman, a doctoral researcher at the University of Sussex School of Psychology, said: \"Cats who initiated their fetching sessions played more enthusiastically with more retrievals and more fetching sessions per month.\n\n\"This perceived sense of control from the cat's perspective may be beneficial for the cat's welfare and the cat-owner relationship.\n\n\"I'd encourage owners to be receptive to the needs of their cat by responding to their preferences for play - not all cats will want to play fetch, but if they do, it's likely that they will have their own particular way of doing so.\"\n\nThe survey gathered information from 924 owners of 1,154 cats (994 mixed-breed and 160 purebred) that play fetch to better understand the behaviour.\n\nThe vast majority of cats (94.4%) showed an instinctive ability to play fetch from a young age, whether it was retrieving toys or common household items.\n\nThe Siamese was the most reported (22.5%) purebred to play fetch, followed by Bengal (10%) and Ragdoll (7.5%).\n\nStudy co-author Dr Elizabeth Renner, a lecturer in psychology at Northumbria University, said: \"We think it's important because it demonstrates how much this behaviour is led by cats themselves, since very few of the owners surveyed explicitly trained their cats to fetch.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Kyrees Sullivan, 16, and Harvey Evans, 15, died in a bike crash in Ely, Cardiff\n\nA police force is being investigated over complaints made by the families of two teenagers who died in an e-bike crash.\n\nKyrees Sullivan, 16, and Harvey Evans, 15, were being followed by a police van before the bike they were riding crashed in Ely, Cardiff, in May.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating complaints about South Wales Police.\n\nThe deaths led to riots which saw 15 officers injured and dozens arrested.\n\nThe driver of a police van and another officer in the vehicle have previously been served with gross misconduct notices and the driver is also being investigated for dangerous driving.\n\nThis new investigation will examine the force's response and management of the collision scene on the night, the IOPC said.\n\nIt would also look at complaints about the way the families at the scene of the collision were treated and the force's communication with the families following the boys' deaths.\n\nThe IOPC said an original investigation into interactions with the teenagers before their deaths was at an advanced stage, with evidence gathering completed.\n\n\"We have taken a large number of statements from local residents as the result of our house-to-house enquiries,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"We have reviewed hundreds of video clips as well as body-worn video from officers who were at the scene.\"", "A woman abused by Jimmy Savile has said new laws in Northern Ireland offer a potential \"protection\" for sexual offenders and risk silencing survivors.\n\nThe law stops the publication of claims against alleged perpetrators until 25 years after they die, unless they have been convicted or charged during their lifetime.\n\nSavile was investigated by detectives across the UK but was never charged.\n\nSamantha Brown was abused by Savile from the age of 11.\n\nShe said some survivors were too afraid to speak out while their abusers were still alive and there was a chance they could lose that opportunity after their death.\n\n\"I think it's a complete protection clause,\" she told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.\n\n\"These people who abuse children, young people and vulnerable people - they don't just do this to one person.\n\n\"They do it to multiple people and let's be fair how much of this gets to court anyway?\n\n\"You can't silence people…you'd be in silence for 25 years.\"\n\nIt is now widely accepted that Savile used his celebrity status to prey on hundreds of people, many of them children.\n\nIt was only after the DJ and television presenter's death that his crimes were made public.\n\nSavile was the subject of investigations by a number of different police forces and some were subsequently criticised for their handling of those complaints.\n\nThe new legislation - which was introduced by officials at Stormont after a review of sexual offences - only applies to crimes allegedly committed in Northern Ireland.\n\nSavile died in 2011 and because the new laws also apply retrospectively he would be entitled to anonymity until 2036 if any allegations had been made against him within the jurisdiction.\n\nOfficials in Stormont's Department of Justice were unable to tell us if we could legally report whether or not he had been investigated by police in Northern Ireland.\n\nThey refused to respond directly to a number of questions from BBC News NI.\n\nInstead the department issued a statement which said: \"A notice of intended legal proceedings has been received with regard to this matter.\n\n\"Accordingly, at this time it would not be appropriate for the department to comment on the issue.\"\n\nThe review of offences which led to the new legislation was led by retired judge Sir John Gillen.\n\nThe Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Act Northern Ireland 2022 is a wide-ranging bill which contains a series of changes to the law.\n\nSir John did recommend providing anonymity for alleged offenders before they were charged.\n\nHowever he never suggested extending that beyond their death.\n\n\"My heart bleeds for somebody who has been [falsely] accused of a heinous crime,\" said Ms Brown.\n\n\"I'm so sorry for you but I'm also sorry for the multitude of people that aren't believed, [the case] hasn't gone to court and it's wrecked their lives.\n\n\"What is the meaning for the 25 years?\"\n\nIt is not clear who introduced the part of the legislation that extends the protection for more than two decades after an alleged offenders death and Stormont's Department of Justice was unable to tell us.\n\nSir John Gillen refused a request to be interviewed saying he believed it was \"inappropriate\" given the pending legal proceedings.\n\nAlliance Party leader Naomi Long was justice minister when the bill was introduced and a spokesperson for her party pointed out there were ways of challenging the right to anonymity.\n\n\"This legislation explicitly allows for anyone wishing to publish material relating to a suspect after their death to apply to the court to do so, and we would encourage any journalist or publisher to avail of this provision where publication is in the public interest,\" they said.\n\n\"If the party held the justice ministry again in any restored executive, we would of course be open to reviewing the impact and any concerns about unintended consequences raised in relation to this or any other piece of legislation, as is good practice.\"\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, help and advice is available at BBC Action Line.", "There's huge relief at an agreement. Will it make an impact?\n\nOnce the gavel came down in Dubai, the warm words flowed - but will it really have an impact on climate change?\n\nThe agreement reached in this glitzy metropolis for the first time nails the role of fossil fuel emissions in driving up temperatures and outlines a future decline for coal, oil and gas.\n\nIn UN terms that is historic, and the biggest step forward on climate since the Paris agreement in 2015.\n\nBut by itself, will this deal be enough to save the \"north star\" of this COP - keeping temperatures under 1.5C this century?\n\nThe major element of the deal, the transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, is indeed a landmark moment.\n\nBut the language is far weaker than many countries desired.\n\nThe UAE presidency had included strong text on the idea of a fossil fuel phase out from the start of the meeting.\n\nBut in the face of opposition from many, they dropped it from their first attempt at a draft agreement,\n\nCue fury among progressives and much finger pointing at oil producers.\n\nSouth Sudan - one of many countries ravaged by the effects of climate change\n\nThis wasn't all the fault of countries like Saudi Arabia.\n\nA key factor in softening the text was the attitude of middle-income developing countries who were very uncertain about the much hyped phased out of fossil fuels.\n\nFor Nigeria, Uganda, Colombia and others there were complaints that they needed to use revenues from the sale of coal, oil and gas to ensure they could pay for the transition to greener energy.\n\nColombia complained that by moving away from fossil fuels, credit agencies had downgraded their rating, meaning that international loans to go green would cost them far more.\n\nThe final pact now calls on countries to \"transition away\" from fossil fuels specifically for energy systems, but not for plastics, transport or agriculture.\n\nThe agreement also has many other elements that will help limit emissions including a new commitment to triple renewables and energy efficiency by 2030.\n\nThis will see wind and solar displace some coal, oil and gas.\n\nAnother important factor is the requirement for countries to submit stronger carbon cutting plans by 2025.\n\nIf China and India put a rapid transition to green energy at the heart of these new commitments, that could make a massive difference to the global effort.\n\nBut there is also a recognition of the role of \"transitional fuels\" in the agreement - which is UN code for continuing use of natural gas.\n\nThere is also support for the use of carbon capture and storage, a technology that oil producers want to use to continue drilling.\n\nSmall island states were also irate that the deal was gavelled through while they weren't in the room.\n\nThey see the lack of greater short-term emissions cuts as the key weakness that threatens their way of life.\n\n\"We feel you, we see you. And we see that this text might not be enough for you, or your children,\" said German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock.\n\nShe said the deal in Dubai is just a starting point - and I think that is an important takeaway.\n\nObservers here believe that this meeting and the next two COPs, in Azerbaijan and Brazil, are part of a package deal that will help the world correct course on climate.\n\nThe view is that with the cost of renewables continuing to fall, the pressure on fossil fuels will continue to grow.\n\nThe feeling here is that in 2025, Brazil's President Lula will have chance to put fossil fuels beyond the pale, for ever.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Caroline Glachan's friends have paid tribute to her memory\n\nTwo men and a woman have been found guilty of the murder of a schoolgirl in West Dunbartonshire more than 27 years ago.\n\nThe body of Caroline Glachan, 14, was discovered on the banks of the River Leven in Renton on 25 August 1996.\n\nRobert O'Brien, 45, Andrew Kelly and Donna Marie Brand, both 44, were convicted after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.\n\nThe killers were all teenagers at the time of Caroline's murder.\n\nCaroline's mother, Margaret McKeich, praised the guilty verdicts. She said: \"Now I think Caroline can rest in peace.\"\n\nDuring the two-week trial, the jury heard Caroline was \"infatuated\" with O'Brien and left her home in Bonhill before midnight to meet him at a bridge on the River Leven.\n\nSoon after she arrived, the teenager was subjected to what prosecutor Alex Prentice KC described as a \"horrific and violent attack\".\n\nHer body was discovered by a passer-by that afternoon, face down in the river.\n\nThe jury heard locals identified her from her trainers and blue Chipie sweatshirt.\n\nA post-mortem examination revealed Caroline had suffered at least 10 blows to the head and extensive skull fractures.\n\nThe jury heard she may have been alive but was most likely unconscious when she entered the water.\n\nIn a cruel twist, the date on her death certificate was also her mother Margaret's 40th birthday.\n\nThe now former Strathclyde Police force launched a massive murder investigation and the case twice featured on the BBC's Crimewatch UK programme.\n\nHowever, a breakthrough eluded detectives until Police Scotland's Major Investigation Team re-examined the evidence in the summer of 2019.\n\nThe killers claimed they spent the night in 12 Allan Crescent in Renton.\n\nBut while officers were re-interviewing residents of the street, they made a discovery that challenged the killers' alibi.\n\nUpstairs neighbour, Linda Dorrian, told police she has seen four people - including Kelly and his girlfriend, the late Sarah Jane O'Neill - leaving the flat before midnight.\n\nKelly and O'Neill had been babysitting two boys. They were also joined by O'Brien and his girlfriend Brand.\n\nThey took four-year old Archie Wilson and his baby brother Jamie along with them when they went out.\n\nWhen they returned more than an hour later, Ms Dorrian heard a massive commotion and an argument.\n\nThis discovery enabled officers to corroborate an account given by Archie the day after Caroline was attacked\n\nArchie had told his mother Betty that he had been at the river and that had seen fighting and a girl falling into the water.\n\nCaroline was filmed in her local youth club performing a dance based on the Karate Kid movie\n\nHis evidence proved to be the key to finally convicting O'Brien, Kelly and Brand.\n\nIn the video of his police interview, the boy was sitting on an armchair, so small his legs didn't even reach the edge of the cushion.\n\nHe was chatty and bubbly with floppy fair hair, a pronounced west of Scotland accent and was playing with a drawing toy.\n\nWhile the two male police officers asked questions about what he saw that night, Archie - who had just started school - answered in a matter-of-fact manner.\n\nHe also interspersed his answers with questions like: \"What should I draw now?\"\n\nBut when the focus returned to the night of the murder, Archie told them: \"I saw Caroline in the water\".\n\nHe also revealed he saw O'Brien hit Caroline with a stick and a metal pole, and that when she was pushed in the water he closed his eyes.\n\nJoanne Menzies tried to stop Caroline from meeting O'Brien on the night she died\n\nCaroline's best friend, Joanne Menzies, told BBC Scotland News that she always regretted not going with her on the night she died.\n\n\"I warned her not to go, but she was adamant,\" she said.\n\n\"She gave me her house keys and said: 'I'll be back up before my mum gets in'.\"\n\nJoanne said she never liked O'Brien and admitted she was scared of him.\n\nThe mother-of-three said she always thinks about her friend - who she described as being \"so full of fun\" - and regularly visits her grave.\n\nJulie O'Sullivan and Donna Talbot were friends of Caroline\n\nCaroline's friends Julie O'Sullivan and Donna Talbot also gave evidence at the trial.\n\nDonna admitted she had dreaded the prospect, but said she felt \"empowered\" in court.\n\n\"It was like: 'Bring it on. I am doing this for Caroline',\" she said.\n\n\"She was such a happy, cheerful wee soul.\"\n\nJulie said Caroline was \"so big on family\" and described her as a \"wee blether\" who loved to chat.\n\nShe told BBC Scotland News: \"Caroline could just walk into a room and literally just light the place up, she was just always smiling, full of life, full of fun, full of cheek, full of banter.\"\n\nCaroline's mother Margaret said she believed her daughter could now rest in peace\n\nOutside court, after the guilty verdicts, Caroline's mother Margaret said it was a day the family thought they would never see.\n\n\"Now I think Caroline can rest in peace,\" she said.\n\n\"It will not bring her back but at least we know that who was responsible is serving time for it.\n\n\"Because for the past 25 years they've had their life and they've had their Christmases and their birthdays and my Caroline was in the ground.\n\n\"So, this is a great day.\"", "The woman who allegedly stole the delivery van may not have known it was packed with 10,000 Krispy Kreme doughnuts\n\nA woman in Australia has been charged with stealing a delivery van packed with 10,000 Krispy Kreme doughnuts.\n\nThe van went missing from a petrol station in a Sydney suburb in the early hours of 29 November.\n\nPolice found the vehicle abandoned a week later - along with thousands of spoiled doughnuts - at a car park.\n\nThey arrested the woman, 28, on Thursday. She was refused bail and faces charges including vehicle theft and driving while disqualified.\n\nCCTV footage of the incident allegedly shows the woman lingering at the service station at around 04:00 local time (17:00 GMT on 28 November) before getting inside the unattended delivery van and then driving away.\n\nIt is unclear if she knew the van contained 10,000 doughnuts. Her delicious haul included Christmas-themed and classic doughnuts, News.com.au reported.\n\nKrispy Kreme reported the incident to the police and reassured customers then that it was \"working to replace the 10,000 stolen doughnuts\".", "Nicholas Rossi is wanted by authorities in Utah\n\nAn American suspected of faking his own death and hiding out in Scotland has lost an appeal against his extradition.\n\nUS prosecutors want Nicholas Rossi returned to his homeland to face rape charges in the state of Utah.\n\nThroughout the two year legal process Rossi, who continues to insist he is actually Arthur Knight, has claimed to be the victim of mistaken identity.\n\nLast week he represented himself during a five hour appeal hearing before a panel of three senior judges. They have now issued a ruling that upheld the findings of the sheriff in the case.\n\nIt concluded that nothing placed before the court demonstrates that any trial in Utah \"would be either unfair or that any of his other [human] rights would be violated if extradited.\"\n\nRossi, 36, was being treated for Covid when he was arrested at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow on 13 December 2021.\n\nHe had claimed to have been the victim of mistaken identity, and insisted he was an orphan from Ireland called Arthur Knight and that he had never been to the US.\n\nBut Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that his tattoos and fingerprints matched those of Rossi, with Sheriff Norman McFadyen ruling that he was indeed the fugitive in November of last year.\n\nRossi claimed he had been given the tattoos as part of an attempt to frame him while he was lying unconscious in hospital.\n\nSheriff McFadyen rejected Rossi's claims to have been the victim of mistaken identity as \"implausible\" and \"fanciful\" and said his repeated name changes were \"highly suspicious\" and \"consistent with someone who was hiding from someone or something\".\n\nRossi had insisted he was really an Irish orphan called Arthur Knight\n\nAuthorities in the US have said Rossi was known by several aliases, including Nicholas Alahverdian.\n\nHe was involved in local politics in his home state of Rhode Island. In December 2019 he told media there that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live.\n\nIt was reported in local news media that he had died in February 2020.\n\nHowever, less than two years later, Rossi - who was the subject of an Interpol wanted notice - turned up on a hospital ward in Glasgow during the pandemic.\n\nHe was arrested at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital on 13 December 2021 and his past was made public.\n\nRossi had been found guilty of sexual imposition and public indecency while a student at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio, in 2008.\n\nHe is wanted for questioning in Utah over an alleged rape in the state in September of that year.\n\nRossi is alleged to have attacked a former girlfriend, pushing her on to a couch and forcing her to have sex while ignoring her pleas to stop.\n\nHe is also under investigation in the UK.\n\nRossi was arrested and bailed in October in relation to an allegation of rape in Essex in 2017. The alleged incident was reported in April 2022.", "Terry Crews and Andre Braugher on set for Brooklyn Nine-Nine\n\nThe cast of Brooklyn Nine-Nine have paid tribute to their co-star Andre Braugher, who has died aged 61.\n\nRemembering his \"wisdom, kindness and friendship,\" the stars also shared stories - like how he enjoyed \"crooning at full volume\" in his dressing room.\n\nWell-known for his role as Cpt Raymond Holt, Braugher was remembered for his kindness by actor Terry Crews.\n\nMelissa Fumero, who played Detective Amy Santiago, said she would miss his advice and laughter.\n\n\"Your laugh was one of the all time greatest laughs to have ever existed,\" she wrote on Instagram.\n\nFumero shared a photo of them on a beach in Malibu, which she said was \"our first of many deep conversations\" - until an unexpected wave crashed over them.\n\nHer character, Santiago, desperately aspired to follow in Cpt Holt's footsteps, and she jumped through hoops and hurdles to impress him.\n\nStephanie Beatriz, who played the tough, axe-wielding Detective Rosa Diaz, posted a poignant scene where Captain Holt, a gay man, thanks Rosa for her bravery in coming out as bisexual. It was one of several moments throughout the eight seasons when the fast-paced comedy slowed, to take on serious issues including homophobia and racism.\n\nAmy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) was judiciously keen to impress her boss Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) in Brooklyn Nine-Nine\n\nChelsea Peretti, who played Gina Linetti in the show, said she felt \"forever lucky to have gone on such a journey\" with Braugher - \"ringside seat\".\n\nAs Cpt Holt's lazy but quick-witted assistant, Gina was uninterested in the day-to-day running of the fictional police department. But with celebrity-level confidence and \"Gina knows best\" attitude, she soon proved to be a valuable asset - and friend - to the squad.\n\n\"Is it weird that I am also grieving for what Cpt Holt meant to Gina?\" Peretti asked in her tribute.\n\nBoth Peretti and Fumero said they thought they would see their co-star again. \"Hate that I won't,\" Peretti wrote.\n\nAndre Braugher died following a brief illness, his publicist Jennifer Allen told the PA news agency. Further details have not been made public.\n\nTerry Crews, one of the show's biggest names, played the gym and yoghurt-loving Terry Jeffords.\n\n\"This hurts. You left us too soon. You taught me so much... Thank you for your wisdom, your advice, your kindness and your friendship,\" he wrote on Instagram.\n\n\"You showed me what a life well lived looks like ... I love you, man.\"\n\nJoe Lo Truglio, who played hopeless romantic Charles Boyle, said \"many wonderful stories will be told about Andre\".\n\nIn a behind-the-scenes anecdote, he said Braugher made sure to travel home to see his wife and three sons every weekend.\n\nCaptain Holt (Andre Braugher) with his assistant Gina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti) and Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) on Brooklyn Nine-Nine\n\n\"He was committed and passionate about the things he loved. And that voice. It laid anchor to the roughest of dialogue,\" Lo Truglio wrote.\n\n\"What you probably don't know is that Andre could sing too, and did often at lunch, belting bassy vocals from his dressing room to whatever new music he found,\" he said, admitting that at first, it was odd.\n\n\"But then very quickly it made all the sense in the world, because the man was so full of song and that's why the world took notice,\" he added.\n\nPerhaps one of the most touching tributes was also the shortest.\n\nMarc Evan Jackson, who played Braugher's on-screen husband in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, simply wrote \"O Captain. My Captain.\"\n\nWriting on X, he shared a picture of the pair hugging and, wearing their wedding rings.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Marc Evan Jackson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDirk Blocker, who played Michael Hitchcock, said he was \"devastated\".\n\n\"Fiercely intelligent, remarkably kind, supportive, generous and possessed a deep and extraordinary talent, and had even more to offer,\" he wrote.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Andre Braugher in his own words", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEmergency services remain at the site of a huge blaze at an industrial estate in south Wales with one person still remaining unaccounted for.\n\nSouth Wales Fire and Rescue Service said the fire is now largely out, with small pockets remaining.\n\nStephen Davies, who was at a nearby gym in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, said \"it was carnage\".\n\nImages on social media in the aftermath showed a building in flames and smoke at Treforest Industrial Estate.\n\nPolice said there were no reports of serious injuries but the MP for the area said there were \"walking wounded\".\n\nAt least one building has been destroyed and a \"major incident\" was declared for several hours following the \"massive explosion\" at 19:00 GMT.\n\nEmergency services were still at the scene of the burnt-out gym on Thursday\n\nThe fire service said a two-storey building was \"at risk of collapse\" and it had seven pumps at the scene, along with an incident command unit.\n\nThe fire was in a 60,000 sq ft (5,574 sq m) warehouse called Rizla House which houses 13 commercial units including a gym, a towel manufacturer, a food laboratory and a telecoms service company.\n\nEmergency services remained at the scene of the burnt-out gym on Thursday.\n\nSome roads in the area remain closed and a joint investigation with South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, South Wales Police and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is taking place into the cause.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Emergency services are still tackling a fire at Treforest Industrial Estate\n\nMr Davies said: \"We were going about our usual gym class and then about quarter past seven we sat down and we had a coffee in the cafe area, the next thing we knew a massive explosion.\"\n\nHe said he and his friend saw the stairwell by the entrance to the cafe explode.\n\n\"All the walls caved in, it was carnage... it was very scary\".\n\n\"The staff were excellent in terms of getting everybody out, shouting and making sure everybody escaped out the back entrance.\n\n\"It's a bit surreal, because you are sort of in something, you don't actually realise how life and death that was.\n\n\"You don't think it's ever going to happen to you.\"\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service said it \"treated three patients at the scene before discharging them\" on Wednesday evening.\n\nSouth Wales Police said there were no reports of serious injuries but \"one person remains unaccounted for\".\n\nThe force said on Wednesday: \"Residents living nearby are advised to close all doors and windows while this incident is continuing.\n\n\"Businesses in the area are requested to implement their own business continuity plans to deal with the on-going road closures.\"\n\nSouth Wales Fire and Rescue Service say the fire is now largely out, but one person is still unaccounted for\n\nPet store PetWise, which is near the building, said on its Facebook page that staff had been escorted into the building to check on the animals and they were all safe and well.\n\nThe animals have now been fed and watered.\n\nCwm Taf Morgannwg health board had put all its emergency departments on high alert for several hours, standing down late on Wednesday.\n\nIt also asked people to \"continue to make appropriate use of urgent care services to ensure those that most need our care can receive it in a timely way\".\n\nBarber Andrew Cox posted on Facebook that he was trying to work out what the next steps were regarding appointments.\n\nHis shop, Andrew Cox Barbering, was in the building underneath the gym where the explosion happened.\n\n\"Nobody is allowed near the vicinity so I am completely clueless as to what is still standing, if anything. I am frantically trying to work out what the next steps are regarding all appointments,\" he said.\n\nAlex Davies-Jones, MP for Pontypridd, spoke to Radio Wales Breakfast on Thursday morning and said it was a \"very significant fire\" with a subsequent explosion in one of the businesses.\n\nShe added: \"We had a few people who were walking wounded due to some debris from the site, from the explosion and the fire, but thankfully at the moment it looks like we've had no severe casualties and we're just hoping and praying for that one accounted person that they do become accounted for and that's what we're all hoping for today.\"\n\nAuthorities say there is still one person unaccounted for after the blast and subsequent fire\n\nOne nearby business owner said her tattoo shop \"just exploded\".\n\nLucy Artiss, tattooist at Sixteen Circles, said she had \"lost everything\" but all of her colleagues made it out of the building unhurt.\n\n\"I feel numb, to be honest. Looks like I'll need to find a new shop.\"\n\nNearby Integer Telecom, a telecommunication provider, said in a Facebook post its building was destroyed in the explosion, adding: \"All our staff are safe and unharmed and business will resume as normal.\"\n\nPhilip Thomas, who runs the Trefforest Brewery on the industrial estate, said he was \"very fortunate\" not to have been affected by the blaze, but was concerned about business at a crucial time of year.\n\n\"Christmas is when we get a huge amount of our trade in the brewery shop, people buying gift packs and beer. So the roads that connect this business to the western side of the Pontypridd area are really important. If they continue to be shut it will have an effect,\" he said.\n\n\"I think a lot of people are staying away, because that's been the message. But this part of the industrial estate is open and I really hope that people come back and use our shop in the brewery as usual.\"\n\nSeveral ambulance vehicles were seen lining up at the scene of the fire at the industrial estate\n\nThe manager of a nearby Esso garage, Krishnaraj Nadarajah, said he contacted the fire service and shut off pumps at the station.\n\nHe said: \"It felt like it was an earthquake or something. We went outside and there was a fire starting to build up, it was a huge fire and smoke.\"\n\n\"The noise was very loud, it was a big explosion. Some of the things fell down in the store, off the shelves.\"\n\nEmergency services were still on the scene on Thursday\n\nPhill Jones from Llantrisant said he was driving along the A473 with his eight-year-old son at about 19:15 when he saw \"a really loud bang and a flash of light\".\n\n\"There was a big fireball up in the sky. I swerved the car a little bit and my son got quite animated. The way it went up, it was almost as if something had exploded.\"\n\nIn an update at 01:30 on Thursday, police said the following roads remain closed:\n\nThe part of Tonteg Road between Taffs Fall Road and Gwaelod-Y-Garth Road was originally closed, but reopened shortly before 16:00.\n\nThe Health and Safety Executive said it was aware of the incident and was making inquiries.\n\nA fundraising page has been set up to help the businesses affected.\n\nAre you in the area? If it is safe to do so, email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA friend of missing woman Gaynor Lord said she \"feels terrible\" after cutting short a phone call from her on the last day she was seen.\n\nThe mother-of-three was reported missing in Norwich on Friday after failing to return home from work.\n\nPolice officers and specialist dive teams are continuing to search a river and park in the city.\n\nJulie Butcher said her friend seemed \"fine\" when they last met on Tuesday.\n\nPolice, who have released new CCTV footage of Ms Lord, say there is a \"high probability\" that the 55-year-old went into the River Wensum.\n\nMs Butcher, who spoke to officers on Saturday, also received a \"pocket call\" from Ms Lord on Friday where she could just hear movement.\n\nPolice say specialist officers are working with Ms Lord's family\n\nShe received the first call from her friend at 14:15 GMT on Friday but had to cut it short to speak to a client.\n\n\"I said 'I'm at home' and I explained I was sorting out the internet and my phone rang and it was one of my clients and I had to speak to them,\" she said.\n\n\"I said I would call her back and she said 'yes'.\"\n\nAbout seven or eight minutes later, she called Ms Lord but could not get through.\n\nMs Butcher tried again and got through to voicemail before also sending a WhatsApp message to her friend to say she was free.\n\n\"I think she was still at work when she called me, I don't know but maybe that's why she couldn't answer,\" she said.\n\nShe received another call from Ms Lord at 16:15 but it \"sounded like a pocket call - I could hear movement in her pocket\".\n\nJulie Butcher said Ms Lord did not pick up the phone when she rang back\n\nMs Butcher said: \"I keep going over the conversation. If I hadn't answered that call [from the client] would she have talked to me? I feel terrible. I feel so sorry for the family.\"\n\nShe said Ms Lord seemed \"fine\" when they last met on Tuesday at her workplace, Jarrolds department store in Norwich.\n\nShe said: \"We were talking. She was a bit busy but we were talking about Christmas and she seemed fine, no different to the usual Gaynor. She was quite upbeat and happy.\n\nPolice have been outlining the \"extraordinarily challenging\" conditions faced by specialist divers searching the river.\n\nCh Supt Dave Buckley, from Norfolk Police, said: \"Visibility is between zero and 1ft (0.3m) with temperatures as low as 4C (39F).\n\n\"So it's slow and methodical at the moment.\n\n\"Then there's obviously leaves, branches, debris, and the flow of the river to contend with, which is the biggest problem because there's been so much rainfall.\n\n\"Everything we know is pointing to a high probability that Gaynor went into the water.\"\n\nHis conclusion came from CCTV and the \"very limited witnesses\" they have available, along with details about her behaviour in the lead-up to her disappearance.\n\nBut while that remained the working hypothesis, officers were exploring other lines as well, he added.\n\nAs well as coping with low visibility and debris, the specialist divers are also swimming against the flow of the river\n\nNorfolk Fire and Rescue has been helping the search, assisted by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service's specialist under water drone.\n\nThree types of sonar - a technique that uses sound to detect objects - have been used.\n\nCh Supt Buckley said this \"quite detailed\" approach allowed divers to target where they think there might be objects.\n\nHe confirmed it was still a missing person inquiry and that 30 people had come forward with information.\n\n\"People are very shocked. No-one knows why she has done [this] or what she has done and we'll have to work to see if we can find out,\" said Supt Buckley.\n\nSome of Ms Lord's behaviour had been \"out of character\" and specialist officers were supporting her friends and family, the force added.\n\nThe investigation team has also spoken to colleagues from Lancashire Constabulary about their investigation into Nicola Bulley's disappearance earlier this year.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Police and firefighters are still tackling a huge blaze at an industrial estate in south Wales\n\nStephen Davies was at the nearby gym at the time of the blast in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf.\n\nHe said: \"The walls just exploded up in front of us, up the stairwell as I said earlier, and the ceiling collapsed the walls just fell in, and all the debris just piled in to the gym into the cafe area.\"\n\nHe added that \"it was carnage\".\n\nOne person remains unaccounted for, and roads in the area remain closed and an investigation is taking place into the cause.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA woman once branded \"Australia's worst mother\" has had her convictions for killing her four children quashed.\n\nThe New South Wales Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the evidence originally used to jail Kathleen Folbigg was \"not reliable\".\n\nThe 56-year-old was pardoned and freed by the state government in June, after spending 20 years in prison.\n\nMs Folbigg welcomed the latest news but said proof of her innocence had been \"ignored and dismissed\" for decades.\n\n\"The system preferred to blame me rather than accept that sometimes children can and do die suddenly and unexpectedly and heartbreakingly,\" she said outside court on Thursday.\n\nMs Folbigg's case has been described as one of Australia's greatest miscarriages of justice.\n\nIt concerned the deaths of her four infant children Caleb, Patrick, Sarah, and Laura - each of whom died suddenly between 1989 and 1999, aged between 19 days and 18 months. Prosecutors at her trial alleged she had smothered them.\n\nThe case relied on circumstantial evidence, using Ms Folbigg's diaries - which were never examined by psychologists or psychiatrists - to paint her as an unstable mother, prone to rage.\n\nIn 2003, she was sentenced to 40 years in jail for the murders of Sarah, Patrick and Laura, and the manslaughter of Caleb.\n\nIt was later downgraded to 30 years on appeal, but Ms Folbigg lost a string of legal challenges that sought to overturn her convictions.\n\nEarlier this year, a landmark inquiry into her case concluded there was reasonable doubt over her guilt, due to scientific findings that her children could have died of natural causes because of incredibly rare gene mutations.\n\nAnd it was that \"substantial and extensive body\" of new evidence which led to Ms Folbigg being cleared of all charges on Thursday, Chief Justice Andrew Bell said.\n\nMs Folbigg's legal team confirmed they would now seek compensation on her behalf, but did not say how much.\n\nThe case has captured global attention and led to accusations that Australia's legal system is slow to respond to advanced science.\n\n\"I am grateful that updated science and genetics has given me answers as to how my children died,\" Ms Folbigg said.\n\n\"However, even in 1999, we had legal answers to prove my innocence.\n\n\"[Prosecutors] took my words out of context and turned them against me... I hope that no-one else will ever have to suffer what I suffered.\"", "James Wray and William McKinney were among 13 people shot dead at a civil rights march\n\nThe High Court in Belfast has quashed a decision by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) to discontinue the case against Soldier F, who is accused of two murders on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry in 1972.\n\nIt follows a legal challenge brought by the family of one of the victims.\n\nThe PPS said in 2021 that it was seeking to drop the case after reviewing the evidence.\n\nBut the High Court has said that decision should be reconsidered.\n\nIt said it may be for the trial judge to rule on the issue of whether key evidence was admissible or not.\n\nSolider F had been facing trial for the murders of William McKinney and James Wray, plus five counts of attempted murder, in Derry on 30 January 1972.\n\nIn response to Wednesday's High Court ruling, the director of the PPS said the team involved in the Soldier F case would \"take time to consider the full detail of the written judgement\" and \"its impact on these proceedings\".\n\nStephen Herron said the PPS would update the district judge and the parties directly involved in the Soldier F prosecution on the outcome of this process \"at the earliest opportunity\".\n\n\"I would like to acknowledge the lasting pain and frustration of the families involved in these judicial review proceedings and their wider campaign for truth and justice,\" he said.\n\nThirteen people were killed and 15 wounded on Bloody Sunday\n\nIn her ruling earlier on Wednesday, Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan said the PPS must reconsider its decision, which it based on concerns over the admissibility of evidence in the case.\n\nShe said: \"We consider that the decision crosses the threshold of irrationality where it simply does not add up, or in other words there is an error of reasoning which robs the decision of logic.\n\n\"It follows that the matter should remain with the PPS to reconsider the decision\".\n\nHowever, a separate legal bid to overturn the PPS's decision not to prosecute five other soldiers for the deaths of six people on Bloody Sunday failed.\n\nThirteen people were shot dead and at least 15 others injured when members of the Army's Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside - a predominantly Catholic part of Derry - on Sunday 30 January 1972.\n\nThe day became known as Bloody Sunday.\n\nIt is widely regarded as one of the darkest days of the Northern Ireland Troubles.\n\nWilliam McKinney's brother Mickey says there is now an onus on the PPS to reconsider their decision following the High Court ruling\n\nWilliam McKinney's brother Mickey said he was delighted for his own family and for the family of Jim Wray.\n\n\"It was with regret that we were forced to bring these proceedings in the first place but the PPS did not engage with us properly in respect of its decision making, but in fact came to Derry last July and presented us with a determination it had already decided upon,\" he said.\n\nMr McKinney told BBC Radio Foyle there was now an onus on the PPS to reconsider their decision.\n\nHe said the family and their legal team would \"wait and see what happens\".\n\nJames Wray's brother Liam says the decision relating to Soldier F is \"another step in trying to get justice\"\n\nLiam Wray, who is the brother of James Wray, described the High Court ruling relating to Soldier F as \"another step in trying to get justice for Jim and William McKinney and the others wounded\".\n\nMr Wray said he was \"disappointed\" for some of the other Bloody Sunday families.\n\nKay Duddy, who is the sister of Jackie Duddy who was also killed on Bloody Sunday, said she was delighted for the families of James Wray and William McKinney.\n\nSolicitor Ciaran Shiels, who represents a number of the Bloody Sunday families, said the PPS must \"move immediately to re-institute the proceedings against Soldier F and to secure his committal for trial in the Crown Court\".\n\n\"The families continue to be vindicated in their long pursuit of justice,\" he added.\n\nFoyle MP Colum Eastwood welcomed the High Court ruling in relation to Soldier F, but said he was \"keenly aware that there are others who will be bitterly disappointed today\".\n\n\"My thoughts are with the families of Jackie Duddy, Michael Kelly, John Young, Michael McDaid and Bernard McGuigan.\" Mr Eastwood said.\n\n\"I know that they will continue to defend the dignity and memory of their family members.\"", "Andrew Bailey says he hopes interest rates have peaked\n\nIt is \"too early\" to speculate about when UK interest rates will be cut, according to the governor of the Bank of England.\n\nAndrew Bailey spoke after the Bank voted to hold interest rates for a third time at 5.25% - a 15-year high.\n\nOn Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve signalled that rates were at or close to a peak and could fall next year.\n\nBut in contrast, Mr Bailey said it was not possible to \"definitively\" say the same for the UK.\n\nThe Bank has lifted interest rates 14 times since December 2021 to cool soaring inflation, which measures the pace at which prices are rising.\n\nIn the UK, this has been fuelled by higher energy and food costs following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nWhile price rises have eased to 4.6%, that is still more than double the Bank of England's 2% inflation target.\n\n\"We have seen an unwinding of many of the shocks, the big shocks, that we had last year, particularly related to the war in Ukraine and so on,\" Mr Bailey said.\n\n\"But there is this persistent element to [inflation] which we have got to take out.\"\n\nWhile he was encouraged by the progress made in slowing down inflation, the governor said: \"My view at the moment is it's really too early to start speculating about cutting interest rates.\n\n\"I don't think that we can say definitively that interest rates have peaked,\" he said, but added: \"I hope that we are at the top of the cycle.\"\n\nIn the minutes from the Bank's rate-setting committee meeting, it said interest rates would need to remain higher \"for sufficiently long\" to return inflation to 2%.\n\nOne factor discussed by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was that UK inflation remains worse than in the US and the eurozone.\n\nWhile the main inflation rate has fallen everywhere, \"core inflation [which strips out the most volatile goods] has fallen back by less in the UK\" and \"measures of wage inflation were also considerably higher in the UK than elsewhere\".\n\nSix out of the nine members of the MPC voted to hold rates at 5.25%, and there was no change to the language in the minutes that rates would remain at these levels for an \"extended period\".\n\nIt also signalled that interest rates could even rise \"if there were evidence of more persistent inflationary pressures\". Indeed, the other three committee members voted for a rise to 5.5% this month.\n\nDespite the Bank keeping rates on hold, some mortgage lenders are making moves with their own rates as they are confident the next move will be down.\n\nVirgin Money and HSBC are reducing rates on their new fixed-rate deals on Thursday. TSB will follow suit on Friday.\n\nFinancial markets expect the Bank to start cutting interest rates by next May and some economists believe it has been too pessimistic about inflation.\n\nRecent data has shown that UK pay growth has slowed while the price of Brent crude oil has fallen by 17% between November and December to around $75 per barrel.\n\nThe EY Item Club, an economic forecasting group, said it reckoned the Bank would start to rein back its resistance to cutting rates in early 2024.\n\n\"Signs of such a shift may start to become apparent when the committee meets next in February,\" said chief economic adviser Martin Beck. \"The EY Item Club continues to think that the [Bank] will go for the first rate cut in May.\"\n\nJerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, showed a degree of cautionin his comments on the outlook for US interest rates after the central bank voted this week to keep them on hold.\n\n\"It is far too early to declare victory. There is a lot of uncertainty and we've seen the economy move in surprising directions so we're going to need to see further progress,\" he said.\n\nBut in the US, inflation has slowed more rapidly and separate forecasts by members of the Fed's rate-setting panel showed they expected the key borrowing rate to fall from the current range of 5.25%-5.5% to 4.5%-4.75% next year.\n\nMr Powell also said that the key interest rate was now \"likely at or near its peak for this tightening cycle\".\n\nLike the UK and the US, the European Central Bank (ECB) also voted this week to keep interest rates for the 19-nation eurozone on hold, at 4%.\n\nECB president, Christine Lagarde, said that a cut had not been discussed \"at all\" by the bank and there remained a wide gulf between raising rates and cutting them.\n\n\"It's like solid, liquid gas,\" she said. \"You don't go from solid to gas without going through the liquid phase.\"\n\nLooking ahead, the Bank of England said that it expected economic growth to be broadly flat for the final three months of this year and over the coming quarters.\n\nOn Wednesday, new data showed that the economy - which is measured by gross domestic product (GDP) - shrank by 0.3% in October.", "A 17-year-old British boy missing for six years has been found in France.\n\nAlex Batty is at a young person's centre in Toulouse and could be back in the UK within hours, the prosecutors' office in the city told the BBC.\n\nAlex used a motorist's phone to message his grandmother in the UK, saying \"I love you, I want to come home\".\n\nHe had been missing since 2017, but was found on Wednesday morning by the motorist who spotted him walking through rain near Toulouse.\n\nThe boy disappeared after going on holiday with his mother and grandfather in Spain.\n\nThe pair, who do not have parental guardianship of Alex, have not been located but remain wanted in connection with his disappearance.\n\nA police source earlier told BBC News the boy had been taken to a police station by the concerned motorist who had spotted him on a road in the foothills of the Pyrenees early on Wednesday morning.\n\nThe motorist, delivery driver Fabien Accidini, saw Alex walking along a road in the foothills of the Pyrenees in the early hours of Wednesday morning.\n\n\"He explained that he had been walking for four days, that he set off from a place in the mountains, though he didn't say where,\" Mr Accidini said.\n\n\"I typed his name into the internet and saw that he was being looked for,\" he said.\n\nMr Accidini told local media Alex's plan had been to find a big city with an embassy to find assistance. Instead, Mr Accidini contacted French authorities for help.\n\nAlex used Mr Accidini's Facebook account to contact his grandmother back in the UK.\n\nHe wrote: \"Hello Grandma, it's me Alex. I'm in France Toulouse. I really hope that you receive this message. I love you, I want to come home.\"\n\nAlex Batty, centre, disappeared with his mother, Melanie Batty, and grandfather, David Batty\n\nThe boy said he had been in France for two years, the police source said, adding that he bore a resemblance to the last known picture of Alex.\n\nHe had been living in the remote Pyrenean valleys, travelling about from place to place in a kind of itinerant commune.\n\nThe area in the foothills of the Pyrenees is known for attracting people in search of alternative lifestyles.\n\nAlex won't say where his mother is or exactly where he had been living in the Pyrenees, the prosecutors' office told the BBC.\n\nHis grandmother - and legal guardian - Susan Caruana told The Sun newspaper she had now been in touch with Alex.\n\n\"I am so happy. I have spoken to him and he is well,\" she said. \"It is such a shock.\"\n\nMs Caruana told the BBC in 2018 that she believed Alex's mother Melanie Batty and grandfather David Batty had taken him to live with a spiritual community in Morocco.\n\nShe said at the time they were seeking an alternative lifestyle and did not want Alex to go to school.\n\nMelanie and David Batty left Greater Manchester with Alex for a pre-agreed week-long holiday to Marbella in Spain on 30 September 2017.\n\nHe was last seen at the Port of Malaga on 8 October that year, the day they were expected to return to the UK.\n\nBritish police were contacted via the UK embassy in Paris.\n\nGreater Manchester Police confirmed it was in touch with French authorities to put \"safeguarding measures in place\".\n\n\"This is a complex and long-running investigation, and we need to make further enquiries as well as putting appropriate safeguarding measures in place,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nIn a statement, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said: \"We are supporting a British national in France and are in contact with local authorities.\"\n• None Missing boy 'may be in Morocco commune'", "The US House of Representatives voted to formalise an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden on Wednesday\n\nBy voting to formally authorise the congressional investigation into Joe Biden, Republicans in the House of Representatives have started the ball rolling towards his impeachment.\n\nIt may be difficult to stop.\n\nThree of the four previous times the House took this step, the chamber ultimately opted to impeach. The one time it did not was because Richard Nixon resigned before a vote could be held.\n\nRepublicans allege the president benefited from his family's foreign business dealings, although they have not yet produced any solid evidence that he did.\n\nIn the short-term, the House's action gives the investigating committees more power to subpoena documents and testimony and for judges to enforce those requests. The Biden White House, which has cited the lack of a formal vote as grounds for refusing to provide some information, may now be compelled to comply.\n\nUltimately, this vote could clear the path for House Republicans, despite their narrow majority, to stick together and back impeachment sometime in early 2024.\n\nThey now are on the record agreeing to move the process forward. If centrist Republicans in congressional districts won by Mr Biden in 2020 are going to take the political hit for starting the investigation, they may conclude it is best to see it through to the end.\n\nThe end in the House, at least. The matter would then move to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where it takes a two-thirds majority to convict and remove a president.\n\nThat is a high bar that has never been reached for a president in US history. And at least some Republicans have expressed concern that Wednesday's vote could be another indication that the impeachment process is being diminished.\n\nAsa Hutchinson, a former congressman and current Republican presidential candidate, was one of the House managers who presented the case against Mr Clinton during his 1999 Senate impeachment trial.\n\n\"Impeachment should be reserved for the most serious of offences,\" he told the BBC. \"That's how our founding fathers designed it. We don't want to get into the tit-for-tat between the parties on impeaching the president from the opposing side. It's problematic.\"\n\nDemocrats such as Jamie Raskin have criticised Republicans for prioritising the inquiry over other issues\n\nSuch concerns did not prevail on Wednesday. And now the investigations will continue, as the clock ticks toward the November 2024 presidential election.\n\nRepublicans have long viewed Joe Biden's son Hunter as a political liability for his father. If they can link his business dealings and personal conduct to the president, they have the potential to damage the elder Biden's standing with American voters.\n\nA formal impeachment investigation, with public hearings, that leads to a House vote and a Senate trial has the potential to become a major headache for Mr Biden in the midst of an election campaign. And that remains true even if Republicans continue to lack any conclusive evidence tying the president to his son's misdeeds and misbehaviour.\n\nThere is no telling what kind of twists and turns are in store for this inquiry, either. While no evidence directly linking Mr Biden to his son's professional and personal failings has yet to be presented, sweeping powers can sometimes yield surprising results.\n\nBill Clinton's impeachment for lying about an affair with an intern began with an inquiry into a failed real estate deal. Hillary Clinton's email server saga came from a probe into a US ambassador's death in Libya.\n\nBut if nothing turns up, the perception of corruption tied to the Biden name - the possibility of it - may be damaging enough.\n\nRepublicans could also use impeachment proceedings, along with Hunter Biden's legal battles, to draw attention away from the very real legal plight their likely presidential nominee, Donald Trump, faces.\n\nAlready there is talk of timing the impeachment process to provide \"counter-programming\" that distracts from a possible Trump federal trial in March on charges of illegally attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election.\n\nIn a nation whose mood toward elected politicians is already sour, the electoral environment in the coming year may become even more toxic.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The \"wheel of death\" performer fell in front of a family audience\n\nA circus acrobat who fell several metres from a rotating apparatus is making \"a good recovery\" despite a broken shoulder, arm and leg, the show's ringmaster has said.\n\nThe performer, in his 20s, fell while riding the \"Giant Wheel of Death\" at the Hippodrome Circus in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on Wednesday night.\n\nJack Jay said he was \"really pleased\" he did not suffer more severe injuries.\n\nHealth and safety officials were investigating, he said.\n\nMr Jay, who is also circus manager, said the cause seemed to be \"human error\" and that no fault had yet been found with the equipment or rigging.\n\nThe brothers pictured performing their act earlier in the week at the Hippodrome Circus in Great Yarmouth\n\n\"Maybe [it was] a very unfortunate momentary lapse, maybe a slight adjustment to the timing and a very serious outcome,\" Mr Jay said\n\n\"But we're thrilled the news coming out is positive, given what happened, that he's in a good recovery state.\"\n\nWitnesses described how they initially thought the fall was part of the show.\n\nNorfolk Constabulary - which was called at 19:37 GMT - said the artist \"sustained serious, potentially life-changing injuries\" but was stable in hospital.\n\nThe performer, who is from Colombia, was fully conscious after the fall and was helped by two audience members.\n\nThe show is a Christmas tradition for many families\n\nA witness, who had seen the act at the Hippodrome before, said the performer was blindfolded.\n\n\"I was recording it as [the performance] was so brilliant,\" said the woman, who wished to remain anonymous.\n\n\"He slipped or tripped and fell to the ground and to begin with I thought it was part of the act, so continued recording.\n\n\"They often miss on purpose to get the audience sort of riled up and on the edge of their seats, but then we realised something was wrong.\"\n\nThe witness said a screen was quickly brought on to the arena to shield the acrobat while he was attended to.\n\nHe was initially taken to the local James Paget Hospital and later transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.\n\nHis partner in the act was his brother, who accompanied him to the James Paget, along with circus staff.\n\nMr Jay said: \"There's nothing that should provide any long-term concern once he's had a long recovery process.\n\n\"I'm confident knowing his mindset he'll be back even stronger.\"\n\nThe circus performed on Thursday night, but without its \"Giant Wheel of Death\".\n\nGreat Yarmouth Borough Council, as the local environmental health authority, was contacted for comment.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n• None Watch: Circus acrobat falls from 'wheel of death' Video, 00:00:07Watch: Circus acrobat falls from 'wheel of death'\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nNewcastle United's Champions League campaign ended in heartbreak on a night of emotion and drama on Tyneside, as AC Milan came from behind to win at St James' Park and send them out of Europe.\n\nThe Toon Army were dreaming of a place in the knockout stages when they took the lead through Joelinton's 33rd-minute thunderbolt while Borussia Dortmund led against Paris St-Germain in Germany.\n\nIt was an outcome that would have sent Newcastle through on head-to-head results against PSG - but the mood shifted in a matter of minutes just before the hour.\n\nTeenager Warren Zaire-Emery equalised for the French champions in Germany, then former Chelsea forward Christian Pulisic levelled for Milan.\n\nAs both sides pushed for a winner in an open game, Milan keeper Mike Maignan did brilliantly to turn Bruno Guimaraes' shot on to the woodwork before Rafael Leao raced clear for the Italians, only to shoot against the foot of the post.\n\nNewcastle's fate was sealed six minutes from time when Milan struck ruthlessly on the counter-attack, substitute Samuel Chukwueze curling a superb finish high past Martin Dubravka.\n\nIt left manager Eddie Howe and his players devastated following a return to the Champions League which was fiercely fought, but has ended with them bottom of Group F and without even the consolation of a place in the Europa League.\n• None How did you rate Newcastle's performance? Have your say here\n• None PSG scrape through with draw in Dortmund\n\nNewcastle regret what might have been\n\nWhen the half-time whistle blew to a huge Tyneside roar, Newcastle were on course for the last 16 of the Champions League - but when a dramatic second half came to its conclusion they were out of Europe completely.\n\nIt summed up the swings in fortune on a night when attention was divided between what was unfolding at St James' Park and events in Germany, followed closely to see what impact they had on Newcastle's fate.\n\nNewcastle's destiny was out of their own hands after the controversial stoppage-time penalty which gave PSG a draw in Paris two weeks ago, but they were fulfilling their part of the bargain by dominating a lacklustre AC Milan side overawed by the intensity of their opponents and the atmosphere.\n\nThe problem was that Newcastle were always living on the edge and it so proved with those goals, first for PSG in Germany then Milan on Tyneside, which was the start of the downfall.\n\nNewcastle did not create enough for all their possession, and were punished as they employed a high-risk strategy in the hope of creating the victory and the potential to go through.\n\nIt was not to be, and a campaign that brought the glory of the 4-1 thrashing of PSG in Newcastle's first Champions League game on home soil in two decades, ultimately came up short with key moments being a crucial home defeat to Dortmund, that fateful penalty in Paris and this loss to Milan.\n\nThey have acquitted themselves well despite finishing bottom of their group, but this has been a brutal learning experience.\n\nThere was the sound of silence and a sense of disbelief for just a few seconds as the grim realisation of Newcastle's elimination from European football sank in.\n\nNewcastle had high hopes that the cards could fall in a way which would allow them to enjoy the prestige and financial firepower of the Champions League knockout phase. Instead they were beaten and looked broken after a chastening week.\n\nThey have been overpowered by Everton and Tottenham before losing to Milan in what was, at first, a smash-and-grab but ended with the Italians squandering chances, hitting the post twice as Newcastle chased an unlikely outcome.\n\nNewcastle also looked, as they had done in those Premier League matches, exhausted at the final whistle.\n\nHowe now has the task of lifting a leg-weary squad short on numbers because of injuries, into a position where they can sample this challenge next season - and show they have learned from it - by finishing in the Premier League's top four.\n\nThere was no consolation in the manner of Newcastle's demise. Now Howe faces a huge challenge to lift their spirits.\n• None Fikayo Tomori (AC Milan) hits the left post with a right footed shot from the right side of the box. Assisted by Luka Jovic following a fast break.\n• None Attempt missed. Théo Hernández (AC Milan) left footed shot from more than 40 yards on the left wing is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Samuel Chukwueze with a headed pass following a fast break.\n• None Attempt blocked. Jamaal Lascelles (Newcastle United) header from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Sean Longstaff with a cross.\n• None Alessandro Florenzi (AC Milan) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt blocked. Luka Jovic (AC Milan) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Rafael Leão.\n• None Goal! Newcastle United 1, AC Milan 2. Samuel Chukwueze (AC Milan) left footed shot from the right side of the box to the top left corner. Assisted by Noah Okafor following a fast break.\n• None Attempt blocked. Tijjani Reijnders (AC Milan) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Alessandro Florenzi.\n• None Attempt blocked. Luka Jovic (AC Milan) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Alessandro Florenzi with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None The acclaimed actress reveals how the playwright has remained centre-stage throughout her life", "Marjorie and Michael Cawdery were killed in their home in Portadown in 2017\n\nThe chain of events which led to the brutal killings of two pensioners could happen again, a coroner has warned.\n\nMaria Dougan said the deaths of Michael and Marjorie Cawdery were \"entirely preventable\".\n\nThe 83-year-olds were attacked at home in Portadown in County Armagh.\n\nIn the days before the attack, their killer Thomas Scott McEntee repeatedly came to the attention of police and health services as he battled severe mental illness.\n\nHe was later jailed for a minimum of 10 years for two counts of manslaughter with diminished responsibility.\n\nSpeaking outside Banbridge courthouse on Wednesday, the Cawderys' son-in-law Charles Little said there had been \"utter chaos\" within the police and health service which meant neither \"had the ability to appreciate how unwell\" McEntee was.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"What is really, really shocking is the utter chaos that appears to have existed in both the health service and police\" - Charles Little\n\nAn inquest into their deaths was held in June and heard evidence from 40 witnesses.\n\nIt focused heavily on the interaction between McEntee, police and health services in Newry, Warrenpoint, Belfast and Craigavon in the days before the attack in May 2017.\n\nPresenting her findings on Wednesday, Ms Dougan criticised police failures to enact mental health legislation on two occasions that would have seen McEntee taken to a place of safety.\n\nThe coroner said if police and staff at the Belfast and Southern health trusts had not missed multiple opportunities, McEntee would not have been in Upper Ramone Park, where the Cawdreys lived.\n\nShe also said there was a failure by the health services to fully evaluate McEntee and seek all available information.\n\nThomas Scott McEntee was jailed for the killings\n\nThe coroner further criticised the information exchange between police and health services in relation to McEntee and said greater training was required for police and medical staff when dealing with mental health staff.\n\nA large body of work has been carried out by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and health trusts in addressing shortcomings, the coroner said.\n\n\"I can't be satisfied that this won't happen again. This must be a catalyst for change,\" she said.\n\n\"More work needs to be done to prevent families like the Cawderys suffering the same pain again\".\n\nMr Little has called for a review of the legislation\n\nSpeaking after the coroner delivered her findings, Mr Little said the Cawdery family needed to time to digest what they had heard.\n\nHe said there should be a review of corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter and misconduct in a public office \"[to] see if there can be reviews of that legislation which can accommodate situations like this and hold people and hold organisations to account.\n\nHe said there was no justice if \"an ill man\" was the only person held accountable for Mr and Mrs Cawdery's killings.\n\nHe said one issue that stood out above all others was that \"most of the problems and most of the difficulties occur at interfaces\" between organisations.\n\n\"Interfaces between the police and health service, interfaces between health trusts, interfaces between hospitals, interfaces between individual police officers,\" he said.\n\n\"We need a single mental health trust across the whole region that removes all those interfaces\".\n\nIn a statement, the Southern Health and Social Care Trust said: \"We accept the Coroner's findings and offer our deepest sympathies to the Cawdery family.\n\n\"We will review the Coroner's written findings when completed\".\n\nA spokesperson for the Belfast Trust said it was committed to learning from the coroner's findings.\n\n\"Belfast Trust would like to offer our sincere condolences to the Cawdery Family,\" they added.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said the PSNI acknowledged the \"stark comments\" of the coroner.\n\n\"The police service has, following our own internal review and a serious adverse incident review conducted by the health trust, already taken steps to address identified shortcomings in our handling of incidents linked to the murders of Michael and Marjorie,\" he said.\n\nHe said the police were now waiting for the full written verdict and would \"immediately consider the findings and will work with our partners to ensure that any further recommended actions are addressed\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA body has been found at the site of an explosion on an industrial estate in Treforest, south Wales.\n\nThe person was located after a search by South Wales Police following Wednesday night's blaze.\n\nFormal identification has not taken place and officers are supporting the family of a person who had been missing.\n\nDet Supt Richard Jones said the force would now begin investigating the cause of the explosion and fire.\n\nA body has been found following the blast and fire on Treforest Industrial Estate\n\nEmergency services remain at the scene on Severn Road on the estate in Rhondda Cynon Taf.\n\nAt least one building was destroyed and a major incident was declared for several hours after the explosion at about 19:00 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nThe fire service said a two-storey building was at risk of collapse and it had seven pumps at the scene, along with an incident command unit.\n\nThe fire was in a 60,000 sq ft (5,574 sq m) warehouse called Rizla House.\n\nPlumes of smoke could be seen rising from the site of the fire\n\nDet Supt Jones said: \"Our thoughts are with the family of the missing person.\n\n\"Now that the fire has been brought under control, we will move to the investigative phase to find out what caused this explosion and subsequent fire.\n\n\"Roads are gradually being re-opened although some roads and businesses in the area will still be affected.\n\n\"I want to thank local residents and businesses for their patience and understanding while this incident is being dealt with.\"\n\nAlex Davies-Jones, MP for Pontypridd, called the discovery of the body \"heartbreaking\" and \"devastating for all involved\".\n\nStephen Davies, who was at a nearby gym when the explosion happened, said: \"We were going about our usual gym class and then about quarter past seven we sat down and we had a coffee in the cafe area, the next thing we knew a massive explosion\".\n\nHe said he and his friend saw the stairwell by the entrance of the cafe explode.\n\n\"All the walls caved in, it was carnage... it was very scary,\" he said.\n\n\"The staff were excellent in terms of getting everybody out, shouting and making sure everybody escaped out the back entrance.\n\n\"It's a bit surreal, because you are sort of in something, you don't actually realise how life and death that was.\n\n\"You don't think it's ever going to happen to you.\"\n\nSeveral ambulances were at the scene of the fire on Wednesday night\n\nPet store PetWise, which is near the building, said on Facebook that staff had been escorted into the building to check on the animals and they were safe and well.\n\nThey have now been fed and watered.\n\nCwm Taf Morgannwg health board had put all its emergency departments on high alert for several hours, standing down late on Wednesday.\n\nIt also asked people to \"continue to make appropriate use of urgent care services to ensure those that most need our care can receive it in a timely way\".\n\nBarber Andrew Cox posted on Facebook that he was trying to work out what the next steps were on appointments.\n\nHis shop, Andrew Cox Barbering, is in the building underneath the gym where the explosion happened.\n\nEmergency services were still at the scene of the burnt-out gym on Thursday\n\nOne nearby business owner said her shop \"just exploded\".\n\nLucy Artiss, tattooist at Sixteen Circles, said she had \"lost everything\" but all of her colleagues made it out of the building unhurt.\n\n\"I feel numb, to be honest. Looks like I'll need to find a new shop.\"\n\nNearby Integer Telecom, a telecommunication provider, said in a Facebook post its building was destroyed in the explosion, adding: \"All our staff are safe and unharmed and business will resume as normal.\"\n\nPhilip Thomas, who runs the Trefforest Brewery on the industrial estate, said he was \"very fortunate\" not to have been affected by the blaze, but was concerned about business at a crucial time of year.\n\n\"Christmas is when we get a huge amount of our trade in the brewery shop, people buying gift packs and beer,\" he said.\n\n\"So the roads that connect this business to the western side of the Pontypridd area are really important. If they continue to be shut it will have an effect.\n\n\"I think a lot of people are staying away, because that's been the message. But this part of the industrial estate is open and I really hope that people come back and use our shop in the brewery as usual.\"", "Israeli forces have focused on the city of Khan Younis in the south of Gaza\n\nIsrael's bombardment of Gaza is \"narrowing the window\" for a new truce, the Qatari prime minister has said.\n\nSpeaking at the Doha Forum, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said Qatar would continue its efforts to pressure both sides into a ceasefire.\n\nThe Gulf state played a key role negotiating the week-long pause in violence at the end of November, which allowed the release of hostages.\n\nIsraeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday \"the war is in full swing\".\n\nHe said in recent days \"dozens of Hamas terrorists\" had surrendered, and were \"laying down their weapons and handing themselves over to our heroic fighters\".\n\n\"This is the beginning of the end for Hamas,\" he said.\n\nThe comments come as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen.\n\nOn Sunday afternoon, the Hamas-run health agency in Gaza said almost 18,000 Palestinians had now been killed.\n\nIn an audio message to Al Jazeera, Hamas's armed wing said the temporary ceasefire had \"proved its credibility\" and that no more hostages would be freed until Israel engaged in talks.\n\nIn the message, spokesman Abu Ubaida also said Hamas fighters had fully or partially destroyed 180 military vehicles and killed \"a large number\" of Israeli soldiers, and that it is still inflicting blows on Israel, and \"what is coming is greater\".\n\nCivilians have been called on to evacuate the centre of Khan Younis\n\nAt the conference in Doha, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said the area had become \"hell on earth\" and was \"definitely the worst situation I have ever seen\".\n\nAlso speaking at the conference, Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh said Israel \"should not be allowed to keep violating international humanitarian law\", and called for international sanctions.\n\nMr Shtayyeh represents the Palestinian Authority, the organisation which operates in the West Bank and which is separate to the Hamas government operating in Gaza.\n\nAs the meeting took place in Doha, in the south of Gaza fighting continued to rage.\n\nThe city of Khan Younis, the place people were told to head to to escape the fighting in the north, is now under heavy bombardments - with Israel asking civilians to leave its centre.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News, senior Israeli adviser Mark Regev said there was going to be \"difficult fighting\" in Khan Younis, and urged civilians to \"move to safe zones\" - with Israeli tanks reaching the centre of the city on Sunday evening.\n\nCivilians in the city have been pictured collecting bodies and mourning family members killed in fighting.\n\nAddressing his cabinet on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said international allies had been inconsistent\n\nWhen asked about the situation in what Israel calls safe areas, Mr Regev said his country has made a maximum effort to try to safeguard civilian lives.\n\nCivilians in Gaza have formerly been advised to make their way to a \"safe zone\" at al-Mawasi. Measuring just 8.5 sq km (3.3 sq miles), the area is smaller than London's Heathrow Airport, has few buildings and largely consists of sandy dunes and agricultural land.\n\nMeanwhile, Israel has also been engaging in international diplomacy - calling out its allies for an inconsistent approach.\n\n\"You cannot on the one hand support the elimination of Hamas and on other pressure us to end the war, which would prevent the elimination of Hamas,\" said Mr Netanyahu while briefing his cabinet.\n\nHe was speaking two days after 13 members of the UN Security Council supported a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, with the US vetoing the move and the UK abstaining.\n\nIsrael also denied a claim by UNRWA chief Mr Lazzarini that it was trying to force Gazans out of the region and into Egypt - something previously reported in Israeli media.\n\nThe World Health Organization has also taken the unusual step of passing a resolution calling for immediate medical access to Gaza, with its director-general earlier calling the situation in the area \"catastrophic\".", "Young adults may have started smoking because of stress during the pandemic, researchers found\n\nA decades-long decline in smoking in England has nearly ground to a halt since the pandemic, a study suggests.\n\nThe rate of decline slowed from 5.2% in the years before the pandemic to just 0.3% between April 2020 and August 2022, according to the research.\n\nThe lead researcher said it was likely more young people had taken up smoking and that urgent measures were needed.\n\nThe government said it was taking \"bold action\" to make England smoke-free, including raising the legal age.\n\nBased on surveys with 101,960 adults representative of the population, researchers estimated 16.2% smoked in June 2017, falling to 15.1% by the start of the pandemic, in March 2020, but just 15% in August 2022, since when the the slower rate of decline has remained consistent.\n\nOffice for National Statistics data also shows a year-on-year decline in smoking between 2000 and 2020.\n\nThe study suggests a 120% rise in the proportion of people giving up, during the pandemic, and a 40% rise in the number of attempts to quit.\n\nBut these were offset by a rise in the number of people taking up the habit, including an increase among 18- to 24-year-olds.\n\nIn 2019, the government set a target for England to be \"smoke-free\" by 2030.\n\nBut the researchers, from University College London (UCL), say this is likely to be missed and are urging the government to \"reignite\" anti-smoking efforts.\n\nLead author Dr Sarah Jackson, of UCL's Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, told BBC News the results suggested a \"step change\" in young people smoking, at the start of the pandemic.\n\n\"It definitely does seem like progress in reducing the number of young adults taking up smoking has slowed down,\" she said.\n\nResearchers noted higher levels of stress and social isolation among younger adults during the pandemic.\n\nBut Dr Jackson said others factors could also be to blame and warned against complacency.\n\nHave you attempted to quit smoking since Covid-19? Get in touch.\n\n\"It's really concerning there has almost been the assumption that we have solved the problem of smoking among young people,\" she said.\n\nYoung adults may start smoking because they believed e-cigarettes were equally bad for them, Dr Jackson said.\n\n\"There has a been lot of talk about vaping and there has been a real disconnect about the risks of vaping and risks of smoking among young people,\" she said.\n\n\"The risks of vaping are substantially lower than the risks of smoking.\n\n\"Smoking is uniquely lethal, yet most of the concern is about young people vaping.\"\n\nThe researchers supported a government proposal to raise the smoking age, which would mean a child turning 14 this year could never legally buy cigarettes.\n\nThe research, funded by Cancer Research UK and published in the journal BMC Medicine, also suggests, between April 2020 and August 2022:\n\nThe switch to homeworking during the pandemic may have contributed to loneliness and poor mental health, making people less inclined to quit smoking, the researchers said.\n\nBut manual workers may have had more financial disruption, leading to smoking becoming less affordable.\n\nThe charity Action on Smoking and Health said smoking rates would decline in response to government action, as they had historically.\n\n\"The ambitious programme recently announced by the government can put us on track,\" chief executive Deborah Arnott said, \"but no time must be lost in turning words into action.\"\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said it had doubled funding for stop-smoking services, helping 360,000 people quit, and was planning to provide a million free vapes to smokers.\n\nWales has a 2030 smoke-free target, while Scotland's is 2034.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The crash happened on the Belfast Road\n\nA 20-year-old woman has died after she was hit by a vehicle in Lisbellaw, County Fermanagh, on Wednesday evening.\n\nThe crash happened on the Belfast Road at about 17:50 GMT.\n\nA 25-year-old man has been arrested and remains in custody following, the police have said.\n\nOfficers have appealed for anyone who may have witnessed the incident or drivers with dash-cam footage of the incident to contact them.\n\nIn a separate incident, police are also appealing for information following a serious three-vehicle crash near Loughbrickland, County Down, on Wednesday.\n\nOne person was taken to hospital following for treatment.", "Scott Benton is currently an independent MP after he was suspended by the Conservatives\n\nMP Scott Benton faces being suspended from Parliament for 35 days over a \"very serious breach\" of standards rules.\n\nA Commons Standards Committee report said he had given the message \"he was corrupt and 'for sale'\".\n\nIf MPs approve the suspension it could lead to a by-election in his Blackpool South constituency.\n\nMr Benton has sat as an independent MP since he had the Tory whip withdrawn in April.\n\nIn a meeting with newspaper reporters posing as gambling industry investors, he was caught offering to lobby ministers and table parliamentary questions.\n\nAs part of his sanction, Mr Benton would also lose his salary for the duration of any suspension.\n\nA suspension of more than 10 days - if passed by the House of Commons - triggers a recall petition.\n\nIf 10% of voters in his constituency sign the petition a by-election would be called.\n\nIt means Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces the prospect of yet another by-election in the new year triggered by the misdemeanours of one of his own MPs.\n\nVoters in the constituency of Wellingborough are currently deciding whether to kick out their MP Peter Bone over bullying and sexual misconduct allegations.\n\nThe recall petition there closes on 19 December.\n\nMr Benton's seat is nowhere near as safe, with a majority of 3,690.\n\nHaving been Labour between 1997 and 2019, it is one the party would expect to win back easily, given its popularity in the polls.\n\nMr Sunak has already suffered four by-election defeats this year, including in Tamworth and Selby and Ainsty, when Labour overturned majorities of more than 20,000 to take the seats.\n\nA report by the Commons Standards Committee said Mr Benton had given the message \"he was corrupt and 'for sale' and that so were many other Members of the House\".\n\nIt said he \"communicated a toxic message about standards in Parliament\" and his comments \"unjustifiably tarnish the reputation of all MPs\".\n\nMr Benton had argued that he had not agreed to undertake activity that would breach rules during the meeting with undercover reporters from the Times, which was secretly filmed.\n\nBut the committee said he had suggested MPs could lobby ministers, set up meetings with government advisers, table parliamentary questions and provide access to confidential documents.\n\nIts report said Mr Benton had suggested he would be willing to breach Commons rules in return for payment from the company, which turned out to be fake.\n\nIt concluded he had repeatedly indicated his willingness to disregard the rules and gave the impression that many MPs had done so in the past.\n\nThe committee said this was a \"very serious breach\" of rules which require MPs not to do anything that causes significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the Commons.\n\nIt added: \"His comments gave a false impression of the morality of MPs in a way which, if the public were to accept them as accurate, would be corrosive to respect for Parliament and undermine the foundations of our democracy.\"\n\nIn a letter to the committee, Mr Benton said: \"I do not consider my actions to be a breach of the rules: it is my view that I complied with the letter and the spirit of the rules.\"\n\nThe MP said he did not have any further communications with the fictitious company following the meeting because during the conversation \"it became apparent that the opportunity was a non-starter as it would not be compliant with the rules\".\n\nHe added: \"The meeting was a lapse in judgment and I deeply regret my comments. I would like to again offer my unequivocal apologies for the inaccurate statements I have made.\"\n\nLabour said the report was \"damning\".\n\nThe party's shadow leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell said: \"This is not an isolated case, but comes off the back of a wave of Tory sleaze and scandal.\"\n\nConservative Party chairman Richard Holden said Mr Benton's behaviour was \"very disappointing\".\n\n\"It's right that action was taken very swiftly,\" he said, adding that the MP was suspended from the party \"immediately\" when the allegations came to light.", "International calls for a ceasefire in Gaza have been growing with the UN passing a non-binding resolution on Wednesday\n\nJust getting to the end of the day and surviving the night must feel like a miracle in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians \"plead for safety\", wrote Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the main UN relief agency in Gaza, in an \"endless, deepening tragedy… hell on earth\".\n\nIt must be just as hellish for the hostages taken by Hamas and for the families of their victims. War is a cruel furnace that puts humans through terrible agonies. But its heat can produce changes that seemed impossible.\n\nIt happened in western Europe after World War Two. Old enemies who had killed each other for centuries chose peace. Will the war in Gaza shock Israelis and Palestinians into ending their century of conflict over the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan river?\n\n18,600 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry\n\nI've been watching a video of a woman wracked by grief, sitting next to the body of her husband, Muhammad Abu Shaar. As Israel and Egypt are not allowing journalists to enter Gaza, I have not met her. I haven't been able to find out her name, which was not posted alongside those of her dead husband and children.\n\nIn the video, it is as if she hopes, somehow, that the power of her grief will bring him back.\n\n\"I swear, we promised to die together. You died and left me. What are we supposed to do, God? Muhammad, get up! For God's sake my beloved, I swear to God, I love you. For God's sake get up. Our children Nour and Aboud are here with you. Get up.\"\n\nThe two children were with their father because all three of them had just been killed by Israel. An air strike destroyed the house they were hoping would shelter them in Rafah.\n\nYonatan Zeigan (left) quit his job to campaign for peace after his mother, well-known peace activist Vivian Silver (centre), was killed by Hamas on 7 October\n\nI visited Yonatan Zeigen at his flat in Tel Aviv. It was a comfortable home, full of his children's toys. Among the family photos I recognised his mother, Vivian Silver, who was one of Israel's leading campaigners for peace with the Palestinians. Vivian was in the family home in kibbutz Be'eri, on the border with Gaza, when Hamas attacked on 7 October.\n\nThe first time I met Yonatan, in the days after their kibbutz was attacked, he was hoping his mother had been taken into Gaza as a hostage.\n\nWhen he heard the air raid sirens in Tel Aviv, he rang Vivian. They switched to WhatsApp as they heard gunfire and explosions in the kibbutz, hoping that if she made no noise, Hamas would bypass the house.\n\nHe read out the texts they exchanged, first some black humour and suddenly serious and full of love as she realised a massacre was happening.\n\n\"She wrote me, they're inside the house, it's time to stop joking and say goodbye,\" he tells me.\n\n\"And I wrote back that 'I love you, Mum. I have no words, I'm with you'. Then she writes, 'I feel you'. And then that was it, that's the last message.\"\n\nA drawing by Vivian's grandchildren reads, \"I am afraid my grandma will die\"\n\nThe next day, I visited her house in the kibbutz and saw it was burnt out. It took weeks for investigators to find Vivian Silver's remains in the ash left behind in the safe room. Yonatan has given up his career as a social worker to campaign for peace.\n\n\"They came into my country and killed my mother because we didn't have peace. So, to me, this just proves the point that we need it,\" he says.\n\n\"It could go either way. Catastrophes like this create changes in societies in the world. And I believe that it can lead to a better future.\"\n\nActivist Issa Amro says life for Palestinians in the West Bank has become much harder since October 7\n\nIssa Amro is a Palestinian activist in Hebron in the West Bank. The city is holy to Muslims and Jews, who revere it as the burial place of the prophet Abraham. It has been a flashpoint for decades.\n\nIssa is well known in Hebron and considered a troublemaker by Israeli soldiers who have enforced a curfew on Palestinians who live near the Jewish settlement in the heart of the city. He told me he was detained and beaten after the 7 October attacks.\n\nPalestinian activist Issa Amro told the BBC his hands were bound so tightly when he was detained by the IDF on October 7 that it cut off his circulation\n\nLike Yonatan Zeigen in Tel Aviv, Issa Amro believes that the war could produce a chance for Israelis and Palestinians to lead better and safer lives.\n\n\"I think it's two opportunities. Either we choose to make it deeper and worse, or we make it as an opportunity to solve the conflict and to solve the occupation, to solve the apartheid and make living together possible because the security solution failed… only peace is the solution.\"\n\nIt might seem a long way off now, and many more people are going to be killed before it happens, but like every war this one will stop.\n\nAll the wars in and around Gaza since Hamas seized control there in 2007 have ended the same way, with a ceasefire deal. The ceasefires all came with a fatal flaw that guaranteed the next war between Israel and Hamas. That was because no attempt was made to end a century of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.\n\nThe killing and destruction in this war are of such a different order that no one can pretend there is any kind of normality to restore. This time it must be different. That much is accepted by Palestinians and Israelis and the outside powers that matter the most.\n\nThe problem is agreeing which future to try to create. The Israeli government is heading for a diplomatic row with the United States, its most important ally, about what happens after the ceasefire.\n\nPresident Joe Biden is exasperated by what he called Israel's \"indiscriminate bombing\" of Gaza. Even so, he continues to back Israel, as he has since the start of the war, by deploying aircraft carriers, sending planeloads of weapons and vetoing ceasefire resolutions at the UN Security Council.\n\nIn return, Joe Biden wants Israel to agree that the only way forward is revive talks to establish an independent Palestinian state. That was the objective of the Oslo peace process, which failed after years of negotiations.\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not said much about how Gaza would be governed if and when he declares victory over Hamas. But he has rejected Joe Biden's plan.\n\nOne constant in Netanyahu's long political career has been opposition to the independent Palestinian state that Oslo tried and failed to produce.\n\nTotal victory and the unconditional surrender of anyone left alive in Hamas remain Israel's objectives. Annihilating Hamas, Mr Netanyahu believes, is the only way to rescue the hostages.\n\nA few hours before Mr Biden said Israel's bombing was indiscriminate, Mr Netanyahu made his own speech.\n\n\"I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo,\" he said. \"After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism. Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan.\"\n\nFatahstan is a derogatory reference to the Palestinian Authority, the rival to Hamas, which recognises Israel and co-operates with it on security.\n\nIsraeli domestic politics feed into Mr Netanyahu's calculations. Opinion polls indicate that many Israelis blame him for the intelligence and security failures that allowed Hamas to break into Israel with such force. By doubling down on his opposition to Palestinian self-determination, Mr Netanyahu is trying to regain the trust of the right-wing Jewish nationalists who support his government.\n\n1200 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October, including from Kibbutz Be'eri\n\nYonatan Zeigen, the son of the slain peace campaigner Vivian Silver, says his mother would have been heartbroken to see the war, believing that wars cause more wars.\n\n\"I think she would have said 'not in my name'… a war, if we're not too naïve, should be a means, right? But it feels like this war is a cause in itself, of revenge.\"\n\nYonatan senses a new opportunity, to put peace back on Israel's political agenda.\n\nPeace campaigners were prominent in Israel until they were discredited as an armed Palestinian uprising erupted after the Oslo process collapsed in 2000. The idea of peace with the Palestinians vanished from mainstream Israeli politics. Now, Yonatan hopes, it is inching its way back.\n\n\"Absolutely. You couldn't even say the word. And now people are talking about it.\"\n\nIssa Amro, the Palestinian activist in Hebron, told me life there is much harder for Palestinians since 7 October.\n\n\"It got much worse. Ten times worse. More restrictions. More violence. More intimidation. People don't feel safe at all. People don't have enough food to eat. People don't get any access to a social life. No schools, no kindergartens, no work. It's a collective punishment inside an area which is very restricted.\"\n\nFormer Palestinian shops in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron\n\nIssa got into a verbal spat with a group of Israeli soldiers while we were walking with him through the centre of Hebron. One of them, in combat gear, with an assault rifle and large pistol in a holster, wearing a black mask that only exposed his eyes, listened closely as Issa told me that peace was the only way ahead as there was no military solution to the conflict. The soldier wouldn't give his name when he butted into the conversation.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"You don't know what it's like to grow up in Israel with neighbours like this,\" he said. \"Gay rights, they beat the women, I saw this with my eyes. Yes. They kill their daughters if they have an affair with someone they don't like. They [Palestinians] are violent. I know them, I live with them. They don't want peace… They hate me. You know I can feel it. I know all the stuff they are telling. I don't talk to them.\"\n\nA chance for a peaceful future, for an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel that the Americans, the British and many other countries say they want, will not emerge without sustained diplomatic and political will and determination.\n\nThe old Oslo format, of negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis brokered by the Americans, ended in failure.\n\nIf there is a next time, one idea mentioned by senior Western diplomats is to make Palestinian independence a crucial part of a broader package of change in the Middle East. Israel would be offered the prize of mutual recognition with Saudi Arabia, if they made the concessions necessary for Palestinian independence. Jordan and Egypt would be crucial players, as countries who have made lasting peace with Israel. Also vital would be Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, immensely wealthy Gulf states. Like the Saudis, they need peace in the Middle East as they spend hundreds of billions establishing themselves as global players.\n\nA blueprint already exists. Twenty years ago, the Saudi peace plan offered Israel full recognition and peace with Arab states, in return for a viable and sovereign Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, with a capital in East Jerusalem. It could be relaunched by extending the existing Abraham Accords between Israel and some Arab countries, but adding to it the price tag of a Palestinian state.\n\nIt is an ambitious idea, that would not happen without new Israeli and Palestinian leaders who believed in the project.\n\nThe Americans could mediate, though they would have to be even-handed, something they have never managed before. Both sides would have to be prepared to make painful compromises on cherished beliefs, especially concerning territory. Political storms would break over leaders prepared to take risks for peace.\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist in 1995 when he tried to make peace with the Palestinians. An Islamist extremist killed Egypt's President Anwar Sadat because he made peace with Israel.\n\nAnd the war in Gaza would have to end as soon as possible. If it spreads, nightmare scenarios include desperate Palestinians breaching the Egyptian border as Israeli tanks close in and the escalation into full-scale war of the current cross-border exchanges between Israel and the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah.\n\nSo much needs to go right for peace to have a chance. So much has already gone wrong that peace might just be impossible.", "The bald eagle was once considered endangered throughout much of the United States, but has made a comeback\n\nTwo US men have been charged with illegally killing about 3,600 birds, including bald and golden eagles.\n\nSimon Paul and Travis John Branson allegedly shot the birds over several years and sold parts and feathers on the black market.\n\nThey were charged with conspiracy, violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, and illegal trafficking.\n\nThe two men were ordered to appear in court in January.\n\nAn indictment publicly released on Wednesday alleges that they killed birds on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana and elsewhere.\n\nThe indictment said Mr Branson sent messages bragging about \"committing felonies\" and going \"on a killing spree\", and that the pair sold the birds and their feathers for \"significant sums of cash\".\n\nAt one point, the men laid out a deer carcass to attract the birds before shooting them.\n\nThe indictment lists 13 separate instances of alleged violations of the Eagle Protection Act, but prosecutors did not specify what other types of birds the men killed or if many were rare or endangered.\n\nProsecutors declined to give further details when contacted on Wednesday.\n\nMr Branson, 48, lives in Washington state and Mr Paul, 42, is from a Montana town close to the Flathead Reservation. Neither could be reached for comment on Wednesday and court documents did not list attorneys for the men.\n\nThe bald eagle is the national bird of the United States and is depicted on both the currency and the national seal.\n\nIt was endangered in many places in the middle of the 20th Century due to hunting, loss of habitat and the use of DDT, an insecticide that makes the birds unable to lay eggs with strong shells. It was banned in 1972.\n\nAccording to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, just 417 nesting pairs of bald eagles were known to exist in 1963, but conservation efforts led to a strong comeback and the bird is no longer considered endangered.\n\nThe conspiracy and trafficking charges carry maximum prison sentences of five years, and violations of the Eagle Protection Act are punishable by a year in prison, plus fines.", "President Putin did not take any of BBC Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg's questions\n\nFor the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I'm invited to a Kremlin event. I'm in a room with Vladimir Putin.\n\nAt an exhibition hall opposite the Kremlin, in a specially built TV studio packed with video screens and electronic tickers, Russian journalists - and some foreign correspondents - are watching the Kremlin leader host an end-of-year news conference combined with a TV phone-in. He's taking questions from members of the public and selected media.\n\nYou can't miss the spectacular - that is, if you're in Russia and have your TV set on. The programme is being carried live by all main Russian TV channels.\n\nIt's called \"Results of the Year with Vladimir Putin.\" In effect, it is the world according to Vladimir Putin.\n\nA world in which the Kremlin leader is right about absolutely everything.\n\n\"I've learnt to identify what's most important,\" President Putin announces, \"and then do everything to achieve those aims, without paying attention to the unimportant.\"\n\nHis war aims haven't changed. The anchor puts a question to Putin which has been sent in by a viewer. It's about Russia's \"special military operation\" in Ukraine: \"When will there be peace?\"\n\n\"When we achieve our goals,\" replies the president.\n\nThis time last year, Vladimir Putin was under intense pressure. His \"special operation\" had gone badly wrong.\n\nBy the Kremlin's own admission, the Russian army had suffered \"significant\" losses. Ukraine was clawing back Russian-occupied territory: the situation had forced the Russian president into a \"partial mobilisation\", drafting hundreds of thousands of Russian men to fight in Ukraine.\n\nNo surprise, then, that the Kremlin cancelled last year's Putin phone-in and end of year news conference, which are normally two separate events.\n\nFast forward a year. The Russian authorities sense growing war fatigue across Europe and in the United States. And Ukraine's counter-offensive has failed to make the impact Kyiv had been hoping for.\n\nVladimir Putin is sounding increasingly confident about the situation on the battlefield.\n\n\"Practically along the whole line of contact our armed force are, to put it mildly, improving their situation,\" the president says.\n\nThe phone-in part of the show is designed to portray President Putin as Russia's Mr Fix-it and to boost his popularity ahead of next March's presidential election.\n\nIn a video message, one Russian pensioner complains about the rising price of eggs.\n\n\"My favourite president,\" she declares, \"please influence the situation.\"\n\nI look away from the president and up at a giant screen that's showing text messages sent in by viewers. They make fascinating reading.\n\nThere's plenty of praise for Putin.\n\n\"How do we make sure Putin lives forever?\" one message reads. \"A strong Putin is a strong Russia.\"\n\nBut there are critical texts, too: \"Does Putin want to end the war?\"\n\n\"Vladimir Vladimirovich, you've been in the job too long.\"\n\n\"When will power change in Russia?\"\n\n\"Could you tell me how to move to the Russia that we see on TV here?\"\n\nNone of these criticisms is put to the president during the broadcast or read out on air. Hardly surprising. This TV extravaganza is designed to promote Putin, not cast doubt on his work.\n\nBut the fact they've made it to the video screen suggests the Kremlin, at least, feels the need to hint at the existence of different views - without giving them too much prominence.\n\nThe four-hour marathon is carefully choreographed. I may have been invited, but the president won't take any of my questions.\n\nPity. Nearly two years on from the invasion he ordered, there was so much to ask.", "Former minister David Davis has confirmed he intervened to stop an attack on a rough sleeper near Parliament on Tuesday evening.\n\nThe veteran Tory MP said he stepped in when he saw two men \"kicking seven bells\" out of another man on the floor.\n\nGuto Harri, the former No 10 director of communications, also helped stop the attack and said the intervention \"prevented a man being killed\".\n\nMr Davis told the BBC he let the victim stay on his sofa overnight to recover.\n\nThe victim was still bleeding the next morning and was taken to hospital by Mr Davis.\n\nMr Harri told the BBC he helped the victim while Mr Davis blocked the attackers on Great Peter Street.\n\nHe said the attackers \"were picking on a guy for a laugh, getting off on beating a guy who wasn't hitting back\".\n\n\"They had no sense of restraint, had they not been stopped they might well have killed him,\" he said.\n\n\"It was deeply disturbing to think about what would have happened if we hadn't been there.\n\n\"David was assertive and held them back but remained calm and composed throughout. He never laid a finger on them no matter how many times one of them tried to hit him.\"\n\nAsked if he was scared during the scuffle, Mr Davis said his main concern had been \"getting him out of risk\" and that the incident was over within a minute.\n\n\"One of them wasn't really trying, the other was very aggressive. The important thing is to intimidate rather than be intimidated.\"\n\nSpeaking to the Evening Standard, who first reported the story, Mr Davis said: \"It was messy, but he's all right. He's still alive and that's the important thing.\"\n\nMr Davis has been an MP for the Yorkshire constituency of Haltemprice and Howden since 1987 and during his parliamentary career has served as a whip and Foreign Office minister.\n\nHe was also Brexit secretary under Theresa May, but resigned in 2018 in protest at her proposed Brexit deal.\n\nBefore becoming a politician, Mr Davis trained with the SAS as a reservist.\n\nAsked why he had got involved, Mr Davis told the BBC that 30 years ago there had been an incident on a South London common where someone \"got kicked in the head and died\".\n\n\"After that I could never walk away again.\"\n\nA recent report by Policy Exchange claimed that the area around Parliament had \"declined into a degree of squalor and disorder\".\n\nThe report said that between 2013/14 and 2021/22, recorded violent crime increased in the Westminster area by 168% going from 68 crimes a year to 182, while the rest of the borough increased from 6,807 to 10,040, a 47% increase.", "More than 300,000 people in England are likely to spend Christmas experiencing some form of homelessness, according to a housing charity.\n\nShelter's estimated figure is 14% up on last year, with most of those affected being in temporary accommodation.\n\nThe charity said a lack of social housing and unaffordable private rents was some of the reasons for the rise.\n\nThe government said it was spending £2bn on tackling homelessness and plans to end rough sleeping completely.\n\nShelter estimates suggest that, across 2023, an average of 309,550 people are in some form of homelessness - with nearly 280,000 of those in temporary accommodation arranged by councils.\n\nIt collated the figures using government statistics, data collected by other homelessness charities, and responses from 40 out of the 317 local authorities in England to Freedom of Information requests to find out the number of people living in accommodation provided by social services.\n\nShelter said the numbers could be higher due to some \"hidden homelessness\" such as sofa-surfing.\n\nPolly Neate, Shelter's chief executive said many people will \"spend this time of year in a tiny hostel room or freezing in a doorway\".\n\nShe said: \"The housing emergency is out of control. Chronic under-investment in social homes has left people unable to afford skyrocketing private rents and plunged record numbers into homelessness.\"\n\nGovernment figures published in November showed that the numbers of households and children living in temporary accommodation in England have hit new record highs.\n\nIt showed that 105,750 households were in temporary accommodation at the end of June, a new high since records began 25 years ago and an increase of 10.5% compared with the end of June 2022.\n\nThe total number of children in temporary accommodation - a measure which was first recorded in 2004 - was 138,930 as of the end of June this year.\n\nVictoria Fitzsimons, from near Manchester, told the BBC she and three of her children were living in noisy temporary accommodation above a pub, after the landlord of the house she was privately renting suddenly increased the price.\n\nShe said she was initially placed in two different B&Bs - one of which she described as \"disgusting\" - before they were moved to a three-bedroom property.\n\nShe was happy with the situation there, but was told to move again after what she was told was an administrative error.\n\n\"I felt suicidal. I'm in a better place now, but I can't believe how bad my mental health was,\" she said, adding that she came out in stress-induced hives.\n\nThe family has since been moved to new temporary accommodation above a pub, which has mould and damp and was \"really noisy\".\n\nShe said that her children often cannot sleep, and that their mental health had deteriorated.\n\n\"My 10-year-old has panic attacks. Her mental health is horrific,\" she said.\n\nThey are now waiting to be moved to new temporary accommodation, before they are eventually settled in permanent accommodation.\n\nShe said she had complained to Trafford Council about the noise, as well as about mould and damp in the property, but had been ignored.\n\nIn a statement, Trafford Council said it has been been in contact with the family since they were told to leave, as they have been \"awarded the highest priority band on our housing register to access social housing and have been offered financial assistance towards a deposit and the first month's rent for a private rented property\".\n\n\"While we continue to assist the family to secure settled housing, we have provided temporary accommodation for them,\" a spokesperson for the council told the BBC.\n\n\"Due to the exceptional demand on homelessness services, and limited availability of temporary accommodation, we are restricted to what we can offer at any one time.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added it will contact the family again to arrange a time for to treat the damp and mould.\n\nLiz Rutherfoord, chief executive of Single Homeless Project, which focuses on London, said there had been a \"big increase\" in the number of people rough sleeping in recent months, which she described as \"just the tip of the iceberg\", with many of those classed as homeless living in temporary accommodation.\n\nShe also cited a decline in social housing as being behind the problem, as well as a freeze on the Local Housing Allowance - used to work out housing benefits - which had been in place since 2020.\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt ended the freeze in his Autumn Statement, and the increase will come into effect in April, but Ms Rutherfoord called for it to be introduced \"immediately\".\n\nShe said \"people are not always a very long way from homelessness, and the circumstances that can lead you into homelessness,\" adding: \"Some people will have something to fall back on, but not every has. So you can end up with very short notice with nowhere to live.\"\n\nIn response to the Shelter figures, a spokesman for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said that \"everyone deserves a safe place to call home\".\n\nHe said £1bn was being made available to councils to provide financial support for people to find a home and move out of temporary accommodation.\n\n\"Temporary accommodation is an important way of making sure no family is without a roof over their head, but councils must ensure it is temporary and suitable for families, who have a right to appeal if it doesn't meet their household's needs,\" the spokesperson said.\n\n\"Through our Rough Sleeping Strategy, we will continue to work to end rough sleeping completely.\"\n• None Braverman wants to curb use of tents by homeless", "Police said the shop was 'significantly damaged' in the attack\n\nA car was crashed through the front of an ice cream shop and then set alight during a suspected attack in South Lanarkshire.\n\nFire crews extinguished the blazing 4x4 after it was driven into the front of Cookiez 'n' Creamz in Rutherglen at about 1:20 on Wednesday morning.\n\nSeveral flats above the shop on Kyle Square were evacuated following the fire, with one still affected.\n\nNo one was understood to have been injured as a result of the fire.\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said three appliances were dispatched to respond to the incident.\n\nPolice Scotland said \"significant damage\" was caused to the store and inquiries were ongoing.\n\nThe force said a flat immediately above the shop was still closed off, with the householder \"seeking alternative accommodation\".", "A skier just missed hitting a bear on the slopes of Lake Tahoe, California, when it quickly crossed the ski path.\n\nNo one collided with the bear and Tao Feng, who filmed the close encounter, says he saw the bear reunite with its mother on the other side of the trail.", "Beachgoers in Miami - for real (left) and in the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer (right)\n\nSouth Florida. A place where sea, sand and sexy are always in season.\n\nA place where the world's most famous footballer scores match-winning goals in flamingo pink.\n\nAnd a place where a multibillionaire considers how to commercialise space travel.\n\nWhen Lionel Messi and Jeff Bezos moved to Miami this year, they added a certain shimmer to a city already well-known for its sparkle.\n\nBut there's a dark side, a criminal underbelly, too.\n\nThe intersection of these worlds was on full display this week during the trailer release of Grand Theft Auto 6.\n\nIts emergence ended a decade-long streak of relative silence from Rockstar, the game's creators, and broke YouTube records, grabbing 93 million views in 24 hours.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: What have we learnt from the GTA VI trailer?\n\nThe video was described by basketball star LeBron James in a tweet as \"INSANE\". And it became the most viewed video on the platform - excluding music videos - in less than a day.\n\nThe 90-second teaser confirmed the game will be set in Vice City, a hyper-fictionalised version of Miami, and it immediately sparked debates online over how fair this depiction was.\n\nIt showcased many of Miami's cultural landmarks - beach joggers and boat partiers, luxury cars and rooftop pools. Neon-lit streets. Flamingos (yes, the birds can actually be seen at the Hialeah Park Racing and Casino).\n\nBut there was also a different side of the city on display.\n\nA crocodile crept through a convenience store, strippers danced over dollar bills and shotgun-wielding police kicked down a door.\n\nThe sight of a woman twerking atop a speeding car seemed other-worldly absurd, but it blended in seamlessly with what appeared to be exact replicas of Miami's basketball arena Kaseya Center and murals in the Wynwood neighbourhood.\n\nIt was this precise mix of the inconceivable and the actual that blurred the lines between fact and fiction.\n\nThat was exactly the aim for Rockstar, the developers behind the GTA series, according to Chris Livingston, senior editor at PC Gamer, a leading gaming publication.\n\n\"These [GTA games] are based on real American cities, and it's those tiny details that really bring it to life,\" Mr Livingston told the BBC.\n\n\"So much of what's in the games is based on real stuff. The developers are from the UK, so it's kind of their spin on a really exaggerated take on US culture.\"\n\nMr Livingston described what was in the GTA 6 trailer as an intentional \"tongue-in-cheek satire of the worst of American culture\".\n\nBut people on social media were quick to point out where scenes from the trailer actually appeared in reality.\n\n...probably inspired by this mugshot of Lawrence Sullivan taken by Miami-Dade Corrections\n\nFor instance, the woman twerking on the car, the angry old lady holding a hammer in each hand, the tattoo-faced criminal with purple hair - these were all images that made headlines in south Florida news.\n\nMr Livingston called these moments \"great fodder\" for Rockstar's developers, and said it allowed them to add incredible detail by mirroring \"the bizarre reality of US culture, especially in Florida\".\n\nBut, he said, the growing ridiculousness of reality also presented a challenge.\n\n\"Something we think about when we're talking about satirising American culture is just how over the top actual life has become,\" Mr Livingston said. \"How long can Rockstar satirise a culture that's gotten so ridiculous on its own?\"\n\nMany viewers of the trailer commented on the recurrence of the \"Florida Man\" meme, a term which has become a catchall for the outlandish behaviour captured in Florida headlines.\n\nAn alligator going shopping appears in the trailer - and in real life one was spotted outside WalMart\n\nDmitri Williams, a professor at the University of Southern California who studies games, influence and technology, said: \"I think there's more than a little winking at reality here.\"\n\n\"If you can pivot off the headlines, you're starting from a place that people know or have a feeling about, rather than inventing some new world from scratch,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"And that's what Rockstar is good at. They start with the stereotype.\"\n\nBut as much as the game's creators are good at reflecting reality, Mr Williams said they've also played a role in shaping it. He said the GTA series introduced a level of freedom and transgression that captured the hearts of gamers, now a \"devoted audience\".\n\n\"You could go anywhere, or do anything,\" he said - from eating a burger to shooting a cop and soliciting a prostitute.\n\nThe freedom and violence of previous GTA games has made news headlines of its own, drawing multiple lawsuits, one of which was filed by former first lady Hillary Clinton, another of which reached the Supreme Court.\n\nFor some, regardless of accuracy, GTA 6's depictions of Florida's crime and chaos were too overbearing and one-sided.\n\nNicole Haboush, senior charter and sales manager for TJB Super Yachts located in Palm Beach, said: \"I was a little upset by the video, because I'm like 'where is this'. It was kind of shocking. It doesn't depict the Miami that I've ever seen.\"\n\nMs Haboush said the people and places shown are very different than what she encounters during events like the Miami Boat Show and Art Basel, where she mingles with clients capable of spending up to $200m (£159m) on a \"mega yacht\".\n\n\"We try not to be around areas that would be having theft and violence,\" she said.\n\nBut for others, their reaction to the video was less unsettling.\n\n\"For all the kind of [heat] that Florida gets about being crazy, we live up to our reputation,\" Jose Duran, a Miami nightlife and culture journalist, told the BBC. \"I think the pulse around here in south Florida is that people are excited.\"\n\n\"In some ways, it's a point of pride - weirdly enough for some people - just how crazy Florida can really get.\"\n\nMr Duran said the trailer delivered as expected for a game that \"is all about the things you're not supposed to do in real life - stealing cars, killing people, beating people up\".\n\n\"I don't take offence to [the video], but I see how some people could,\" he said.\n\nMr Duran said he will be reserving his real judgement for when the game is officially released - in 2025.\n\n\"It'll be a different story when the game actually comes out and people can start dissecting things.\"", "Shirley Ballas believes the men involved did not want \"a woman in any high places\"\n\nShirley Ballas has said bullying left her on the verge of quitting dancing just before Strictly Come Dancing asked her to join its judging panel.\n\nBallas said she was targeted by men \"at the top\" while teaching dancers.\n\nThe 63-year-old said couples she was training were receiving \"threats\", warning their careers would be damaged if they worked with Ballas.\n\nShe believes it was because of misogyny and the men involved \"didn't want a woman in any high places\".\n\nBallas was speaking about her experiences on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs with Lauren Laverne.\n\nShe told Laverne she did not believe the industry was much better today, adding: \"I still think bullying goes on. There are a lot of great people in my industry, there are a lot of people who want to see people do extremely well. I think we have this handful of misogynistic people with egos that just will not deflate.\"\n\n\"Even the other day, I was reading messages of a couple that had been to a competition overseas, of different professionals that had written these most horrendous messages to them. It still goes on today. I don't know how people get away with it. It will carry on until it becomes name and shame, and I'm pretty much close to doing that, I'll tell you,\" Ballas said.\n\nShirley Ballas told Lauren Laverne (left) she is close to naming and shaming her bullies\n\nOn the brink of giving up, Ballas was approached by Strictly Come Dancing and asked to join the judging panel as a replacement for retiring head judge Len Goodman.\n\n\"Fortunately something aligned and I got the job on Strictly. So thank you very much to all the bullies in my industry and you know who you are, and everybody in my industry knows who they are - thank you, because you gave me a platform and a job that I sincerely love and adore,\" she said.\n\nBallas also addressed another issue prevalent in the dancing world - body shaming. She told the programme that, back when she was herself a competitive dancer, she returned from having a baby and her teacher said he hated seeing her stretch marks and said she \"made people feel physically sick\".\n\nBallas also spoke about the death of her brother David who took his own life in December 2003 and explained why Christmas was such a difficult time for her and her mother.\n\nBut she said she found Strictly's Christmas spirit uplifting and working on the show enabled her to meet her boyfriend, the actor Danny Taylor, when they appeared in a pantomime together.\n\nAt the beginning of their relationship he bought her and her mother a tiny Christmas tree which Shirley said was the start of them beginning to celebrate Christmas again.\n\nYou can listen to Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 at 11:15 GMT, or catch up on BBC Sounds", "Two people have been killed and seven others injured in a \"deliberate attack\" on an aid convoy in Sudan's capital Khartoum, the Red Cross has said.\n\nThe vehicles - which the charity said were \"clearly marked with a Red Cross emblem\" - were due to evacuate more than a hundred civilians.\n\nThe wounded included three charity staff, the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said.\n\nIn a statement the ICRC said it was \"shocked and appalled\".\n\nSudan's civil war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces is now in its eighth month.\n\nEarlier on Sunday, the East African regional body Igad said it had secured a commitment from both sides to implement a ceasefire and hold face-to-face talks.\n\nIt said the army chief and the head of the RSF had both committed to a peaceful settlement. However previous commitments have been broken.\n\nThe attack happened in al-Shajara neighbourhood, located in the west of the city, on Sunday, the ICRC said. It added that \"over a hundred vulnerable civilians\" were due to be moved from Khartoum to Wad Madani.\n\nThe humanitarian operation was requested by, and co-ordinated with, the parties to the conflict, it said - and that both had given security guarantees.\n\nPierre Dorbes, the head of the ICRC delegation in Sudan, said the attack was \"unacceptable\", before adding: \"I am shocked by the total disrespect for the Red Cross emblem, which must be respected and protected in accordance with international humanitarian law.\n\n\"Our mission today was to bring these civilians to safety,\" Mr Dorbes continued.\n\n\"Instead, lives have been tragically lost. My heart goes out to the loved ones of the people killed, and we desperately hope those injured will make a full recovery.\"\n\nThose being evacuated included the sick, children, orphans and the elderly needed to be moved to a safer area.\n\nThe evacuation operation has now been cancelled until a fresh security assessment can be made.\n\nThe ICRC has called for immediate protection for all civilians, including humanitarian workers and medical personnel.\n\nA coup in Sudan two years ago saw the overthrow of a power-sharing arrangement between military and civilian leaders following the ousting in 2019 of long-term authoritarian President Omar al-Bashir.\n\nIt came at a time of deep economic crisis with high inflation and shortages of food, fuel and medicine.\n\nA council of generals took over - led by the two military men at the centre of current dispute: Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the armed forces and in effect the country's president, and his deputy and leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti.\n\nThey disagreed on the direction the country was heading and the proposed move towards civilian rule.\n\nFighting in Sudan started in April after members of the RSF were redeployed around the country in a move that the army saw as a threat.\n\nThere had been some hope that talks could resolve the situation but these never happened.\n\nIt is disputed who fired the first shot but the fighting swiftly escalated in different parts of the country.\n\nMore than six million people have so far been displaced by the war, the UN says.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The workers were confronted by members of the public. Credit: @damocrat\n\nA McDonald's security guard mopping a street in London soaked the ground where a homeless man was sitting.\n\nA worker was filmed kicking the man's belongings away as he cleaned the floor outside the fast food restaurant on Victoria Street on Saturday.\n\nIn the footage, the security guard gestured to the homeless man to move further down the street.\n\nA McDonald's spokesperson said the firm has \"permanently removed\" the \"third party security guards involved\".\n\nFootage of the incident posted on social media showed the security guard soaking the pavement where the man had been sitting with his sleeping bag outside a Nationwide bank branch, next door to the McDonald's.\n\nIn the video, the rough sleeper said \"leave me alone\" before one security guard kicked his blanket out of the way and splashed more water along the pavement.\n\nAnother security guard attempted to prevent a bystander from filming.\n\nDamon Evans, who filmed the incident, could be heard telling the security guard \"you're covering his sleeping bag\" and he and other witnesses described the situation as \"outrageous behaviour\" and called it \"disgusting\" and \"bang out of order\".\n\nA spokesperson for McDonald's said they were \"shocked and saddened by this incident\".\n\nThey added: \"The restaurant team has been reminded of the importance of treating all people with respect including vulnerable people both in the restaurant and within the wider community.\n\n\"We would like to wholeheartedly apologise to the gentleman in the video and will work with the council to locate him and make amends, as part of our continued support for homelessness charities and organisations across London.\"\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A cordon remains in place at the property in Ipswich where the baby was found\n\nA murder investigation has been launched after the body of a baby was discovered.\n\nPolice were called at 12:35 GMT on Saturday after the newborn was found outside premises on Norwich Road in Ipswich.\n\nParamedics also attended the scene but the baby was declared dead.\n\nTwo men and a female have been arrested on suspicion of murder and remain in custody.\n\nA cordon has been put in place on Norwich Road while inquiries take place into the death.\n\nPolice said on Sunday the investigation was continuing\n\nPolice and forensic officers remain at the scene\n\nDet Ch Supt Jane Topping said: \"This is a very sad and distressing incident and, at this time, our investigation into the circumstances surrounding the baby's death is in its early stages.\n\n\"I would urge people not to speculate on social media as to the circumstances of this tragic event.\"\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830", "Martin Bashir stepped down from his role at the BBC in 2021\n\nA judge has strongly criticised the BBC for failing to release a large number of emails relating to the scandal over Martin Bashir's 1995 interview with Princess Diana on Panorama.\n\nThe documents had been requested by a journalist, who was investigating what managers at the corporation knew and what had been done about the reporter.\n\nBashir officially stepped down from his job at the BBC in 2021.\n\nIt emerged he had secured the interview through deception and faking documents.\n\nThe court ruling relates to a freedom of information request made by journalist Andy Webb.\n\nHe wants to see the emails BBC managers sent each other about Bashir over a two-month period in 2020.\n\nThe BBC disclosed a small number of messages to Webb, but it has now emerged there were more than 3,000 emails.\n\nThe corporation has said these contained information that was either \"irrelevant\" or \"legally privileged\".\n\nJudge Brian Kennedy ordered the BBC to release more emails - saying the corporation had been \"inconsistent, erroneous and unreliable\" in the way it dealt with the initial request.\n\nThe judge added the BBC's response was a \"cause for serious concern\".\n\nIn a statement, the BBC accepted mistakes had been made but says it is considering the judgement.\n\nThe corporation says it has also apologised to Webb and the tribunal.\n\nWriting in the Mail on Sunday, Webb welcomed the judgement.\n\n\"It is overwhelmingly in the public interest for these internal emails to be divulged to the public,\" Webb wrote.\n\nPrincess Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, who has been a supporter of Webb's investigation, told the BBC the integrity of the people within the organisation was at stake.\n\n\"People at the BBC who are responsible for this have hidden behind expensive lawyers at a time when the BBC, this great national and international institution, is making cuts. And I think that's obscene,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House programme.\n\nHe told the programme he approached BBC management in 2020 and was told they could not speak to Bashir as he was too ill.\n\n\"My suspicion is that they were cooking up a story to try and make him unavailable during a time of particular interest in Diana's interview, which was the 25th anniversary,\" Earl Spencer said.\n\nHe said senior figures at the BBC should not hide behind the organisation to protect their careers but that instead the BBC should be \"guarded by responsible senior figures\".\n\nBashir's departure from the BBC came after questions were raised about how he secured the interview with Princess Diana. Watched by more than 20 million people, the interview was considered a huge scoop for the BBC at the time.\n\nBut questions about the manner in which interview was secured started to be asked within a short time of its airing.\n\nIn 2021, an independent inquiry by Lord Dyson, a former senior judge, found that Bashir used deception to secure the interview and then lied to BBC managers.\n\nA graphic artist working for the BBC said he had been asked by Bashir to produce fake bank statements.\n\nThese appeared to show payments by a newspaper group to a former member of staff of Earl Spencer.\n\nThe Dyson report said this was to gain Earl Spencer's confidence, so he would introduce Bashir to Diana.\n\nWhen questioned by BBC bosses, Bashir admitted having the statements mocked up, but repeatedly denied showing these documents to Earl Spencer.\n\nThe report said Bashir \"lied and maintained the lie until he realised that it was no longer sustainable. This was most reprehensible behaviour which casts considerable doubt on his credibility generally\".\n\nBashir has previously said mocking up the documents \"was a stupid thing to do\" and he regretted it, but said they had had no bearing on Diana's decision to be interviewed.", "Steve Etches has the skull. Now he wants the rest of the animal's body\n\nThe skull of a colossal sea monster has been extracted from the cliffs of Dorset's Jurassic Coast.\n\nIt belongs to a pliosaur, a ferocious marine reptile that terrorised the oceans about 150 million years ago.\n\nThe 2m (6ft 5in)-long fossil is one of the most complete specimens of its type ever discovered and is giving new insights into this ancient predator.\n\nThe skull will be featured in a special David Attenborough programme on BBC One on New Year's Day.\n\nArtwork: Pliosaurs had the speed and power to take down other big marine reptiles\n\nThere are gasps as the sheet covering the fossil is pulled back and the skull is revealed for the first time.\n\nIt's immediately obvious that this pliosaur is huge and beautifully preserved.\n\nThere isn't a specimen anywhere else to match it, believes local palaeontologist Steve Etches.\n\n\"It's one of the best fossils I've ever worked on. What makes it unique is it's complete,\" he tells BBC News.\n\n\"The lower jaw and the upper skull are meshed together, as they would be in life. Worldwide, there's hardly any specimens ever found to that level of detail. And if they are, a lot of the bits are missing, whereas this, although it's slightly distorted - it's got every bone present.\n\nSteve Etches shows Sir David Attenborough the snout - the first piece to be found\n\nThe skull is longer than most humans are tall, which gives you a sense of how big the creature must have been overall.\n\nYou can't help but focus on its 130 teeth, especially those at the front.\n\nLong and razor sharp, they could kill with a single bite. But look a little closer - if you dare - and the back of each tooth is marked with fine ridges. These would have helped the beast to pierce the flesh and then quickly extract its dagger-like fangs, ready for a rapid second attack.\n\nExperiments show the grooves really do aid incision and withdrawal\n\nThe pliosaur was the ultimate killing machine and at 10-12m long, with four powerful flipper-like limbs to propel itself at high speed, it was the apex predator in the ocean.\n\n\"The animal would have been so massive that I think it would have been able to prey effectively on anything that was unfortunate enough to be in its space,\" says Dr Andre Rowe from Bristol University.\n\n\"I have no doubt that this was sort of like an underwater T. rex.\"\n\nMeals would have included other reptiles such as its long-necked cousin, the plesiosaur, and the dolphin-like ichthyosaur - and fossil evidence reveals that it would have even feasted on other passing pliosaurs.\n\nHow this fossil skull was recovered is extraordinary.\n\nIt started with a chance find during a stroll along a beach near Kimmeridge Bay on southern England's famous World Heritage Jurassic Coast.\n\nSteve Etches' friend and fellow fossil enthusiast Phil Jacobs came across the tip of the snout of the pliosaur lying in the shingle. Too heavy to carry, he went to fetch Steve and the pair rigged a makeshift stretcher to take the fossil fragment to safety.\n\nThe whole excavation was conducted on ropes high above the Dorset beach\n\nBut where was the rest of the animal? A drone survey of the towering cliff face pinpointed a likely location. The problem was the only way to excavate it was to abseil down from the top.\n\nRemoving fossils from rock is always painstaking, delicate work. But to do this while dangling on ropes from a crumbling cliff, 15m above a beach, requires another order of skill.\n\nThe courage, dedication, and the months spent cleaning up the skull, have certainly been worth it. Scientists from across the globe will be clamouring to visit the Dorset fossil to gain fresh insights into how these amazing reptiles lived and dominated their ecosystem.\n\nPalaeobiologist Prof Emily Rayfield has already examined the large circular openings at the rear of the head. They tell her about the size of the muscles operating the jaws of the pliosaur, and the forces generated as its mouth snapped shut and crushed its prey.\n\nAt the top end, this comes out at about 33,000 newtons. For context, the most powerful jaws in living animals are found on saltwater crocodiles, at 16,000 newtons.\n\n\"If you can generate a really powerful bite, you can incapacitate your prey; it's less likely to get away. A powerful bite means you're also able to crunch through tissue and bone quite effectively,\" the Bristol researcher explained.\n\n\"As for feeding strategies: crocodiles clamp their jaw shut around something and then twist, to maybe twist a limb off their prey. This is characteristic of animals that have expanded heads at the back, and we see this in the pliosaur.\"\n\nThe small pits could have been part of the animal's sensory system\n\nThis newly discovered specimen has features that suggest it had some particularly acute, and very useful, senses.\n\nIts snout is dotted with small pits that may have been the site of glands to help it detect changes in water pressure made by prospective prey. And on its head is a hole that would have housed a parietal, or third, eye. Lizards, frogs and some fish alive today have one of these. It's light-sensitive and might have helped in locating other animals, especially when the pliosaur was surfacing from deep, murky waters.\n\nSteve Etches will put the skull on display next year at his museum in Kimmeridge - the Etches Collection.\n\nIt has some vertebrae poking out at the back of the head but trailing off after just a few bones. They are a tantalising clue that more of the fossil might still be in the cliff. Steve is keen to finish what he started.\n\nDorset's Kimmeridge Clay cliffs were once the bottom-muds in warm Jurassic seas\n\n\"I stake my life the rest of the animal is there,\" he tells BBC News.\n\n\"And it really should come out because it's in a very rapidly eroding environment. This part of the cliff line is going back by feet a year. And it won't be very long before the rest of the pliosaur drops out and gets lost. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity.\"\n\nAttenborough and the Giant Sea Monster will air on BBC One and iPlayer at 20:00 on 1 January - a BBC Studios Natural History Unit production for the BBC and PBS with The WNET Group.", "Sam Thompson said winning was \"a dream come true\"\n\nAn average audience of 6.6 million watched this year's finale of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, overnight ratings show.\n\nMade In Chelsea star Sam Thompson was crowned king of the jungle in the ITV reality show's final on Sunday.\n\nThompson held off competition from boxer Tony Bellew and former UKIP and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage.\n\nViewing figures will be significantly higher when those watching later and on other platforms are added.\n\nAlthough overnight figures have been lower than last year's, consolidated figures show episodes have generally attracted audiences of well over eight million - making it still one of the most popular programmes ITV makes.\n\nOf the three finalists, Thompson was the bookmakers' favourite to win. The reality star and DJ, who has ADHD, endeared himself to many viewers with his positive personality and attitude.\n\nFormer heavyweight Bellew was second, with Farage - who was the best-paid campmate with a reported £1.5m fee - in third.\n\nFigures released by ITV show Thompson won with 56.6% of the vote, to Bellew's 43.4%.\n\nThe earlier vote, before Nigel Farage was eliminated, saw the politician take 25.8% of the vote share, against Bellew's 30.9% and Thompson's 43.3%.\n\nThe three finalists were among 12 celebrities who entered the Australian jungle three weeks ago - although Bellew and Frankie Dettori joined a few days after the launch.\n\nThompson said he was \"really overwhelmed\" by his win, adding: \"I didn't think I was even going to be invited onto this show, let alone be sat here [on the winner's throne].\"\n\nHe told viewers: \"I am so grateful, thank you so much. I've dreamed of doing this show and being invited on for years and years, and you've just made a boy's dream come true.\"\n\nThompson's likeable and enthusiastic personality proved to be a hit with viewers.\n\nEarlier on Sunday's final, he said being on the show had been \"like a dream that I don't even want you to wake me up from\".\n\n\"I've had the best time and I'm the luckiest person in the world,\" he told hosts Ant & Dec.\n\nThat positivity came despite being asked to eat items including a pig's vagina and a camel's penis in the last bushtucker trial.\n\nLeft-right: Sam Thompson, Tony Bellew and Nigel Farage were in the final\n\nThompson has improved on his third-place finish on Celebrity Big Brother in 2017. He left Made In Chelsea in 2019 and currently hosts a show on Hits Radio and co-presented the official Love Island podcast.\n\nThompson's girlfriend is Zara McDermott, who found fame on Love Island before moving to Made In Chelsea and then this year's Strictly Come Dancing.\n\nShe posted a video of herself with other supporters cheering when Thompson was named the I'm A Celebrity... winner.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by zara_mcdermott This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn the way to the I'm A Celebrity final, Thompson was praised for talking about receiving an ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) diagnosis last year.\n\n\"I'm not ashamed of having ADHD in any way,\" he said last week. \"But I know that I would have felt better about myself at school if I had been diagnosed with it at a younger age.\n\n\"Because I really was just like, 'I just suck at everything.'\"\n\nFarage's supporters rallied for him to win, but the GB News presenter said he \"couldn't be more thrilled\" with the third-placed finish.\n\nDespite some disagreements during the show, the divisive political figure said he was surprised the other contestants were so nice to him.\n\n\"It was interesting. Obviously there were people there that have very different views on Brexit and other subjects, and I never raised one political debate in there - not one in the whole time I was there,\" he said.\n\n\"Others did with me, but I think I managed to persuade them that we should respect the right of the other person to have a different point of view. And I had no screaming arguments... But we had proper debates. And I think in the end, I hope, the other candidates respected my point of view.\"\n\nHowever, a heated conversation about immigration between Farage and YouTuber Nella Rose attracted more than 800 complaints to media regulator Ofcom.\n\nAn average of 8.3 million people watched the show every night during the first two weeks of the series, according to consolidated ratings, which are not yet available for the final week.\n\nThat is down by more than two million on the same period last year, when footballer Jill Scott went on to win.\n\nHowever, the 2022 series attracted a higher audience than the previous year due to the huge media interest in former Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who finished third.\n\nFollowing Hancock and Farage's controversial involvement, the show's presenters Ant and Dec recently called for a year without politicians in the line-up.\n\nAsked recently whether Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was a potential future campmate, Dec said: \"I think we do a year without any politicians.\"\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Images of detained and stripped Palestinians apparently surrendering some weapons to Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip have prompted speculation about the circumstances of the events and the filming.\n\nInitially, two videos of what appeared to be the same scene - a man in his underwear obeying instructions to lay down a weapon - but with slight differences, sparked speculation it may have been filmed repeatedly for separate \"takes\".\n\nBBC Verify has examined the footage and established that both clips came from a continuous sequence in which three guns in total appear to be handed over. But questions remain about the exact circumstances and the release of the videos.\n\nTwo separate clips depicting the same scene but with minor discrepancies circulated on social media on Saturday 9 December. This led to accusations that different \"takes\" had been filmed. Some pointed to how the man in the video was holding the gun in a different hand in the two scenes.\n\nBBC Verify has found that in fact these videos are different sections of a continuous sequence, not separate takes, and the same man is going to and fro bringing different guns to the pavement with their detached ammunition.\n\nIn the footage, dozens of other men are seen standing across the road watching, also in their underwear, many of them with their arms aloft and holding identity cards. BBC Verify has established they are in front of a UN school in Beit Lahia, north of the Jabalia refugee camp.\n\nOne video, which we know was shot first because of the position of the sun, shows the man placing a gun from his right hand on top of another on the pavement. In the next video, with the sun lower, the man places a different gun on top of those from his left hand. Still images corroborate and bookend this sequence, with one showing the very first gun being placed, and another showing the resulting three guns and magazines on the pavement.\n\nThere are still some questions raised by the footage. Notably, the man is being held at gunpoint and issued directions from off-screen, so it's unclear whether he is \"surrendering\" the weapons or just moving them as instructed. Given he is already in his underwear and he cannot have been concealing them on his person, it's unlikely Israeli troops did not know about these weapons, suggesting this may be performed for the camera, rather than as an act of authentic surrender. We also don't know if he, or any of the other individuals in the video, have any involvement with Hamas or the 7 October attack.\n\nIn one of the videos, the end of what seems to be a DSLR zoom lens is briefly visible. There were also photographs circulating alongside the videos which were captured from a slightly different angle. This suggests the events were filmed or photographed by more than one person or camera.\n\nOver the past week, emotive images of Palestinians being detained in Gaza have provoked strong reactions - with some expressing concern over the treatment of the prisoners, and the Red Cross saying all detainees must be treated in accordance with international law.\n\nBut Israel has been keen to show evidence it's making progress against Hamas in Gaza. On Sunday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: \"In recent days, dozens of Hamas terrorists have surrendered to our forces. They are laying down their weapons and handing themselves over to our heroic fighters.\n\n\"It will take more time, the war is in full swing, but this is the beginning of the end for Hamas.\"\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not respond directly to questions about the circumstances of these videos but a spokesperson told the BBC that detained individuals \"are treated in accordance with international law\".\n\n\"It is often necessary for terror suspects to hand over their clothes such that their clothes can be searched and to ensure that they are not concealing explosive vests or other weaponry.\"\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Tate McRae: 'Creativity is what fuels me. If I don't create, I have a hard time staying happy'\n\nIt's shortly after 11:00 in the UK on Thursday, 7 December. Which, by the magic of international time zones, means it's just gone midnight in New Zealand. And that means her second album, Think Later, has just been released on the other side of the world.\n\n\"Release days are terrifying,\" says the 20-year-old. \"The songs are so close to you, you've had them in your car for a year or so, and suddenly everyone's listening. It stresses me out.\"\n\nShe turns her phone off to avoid reviews, but there's no need to worry. Clash magazine calls the album \"gripping\" and \"dramatic\"; and the NME describes McRae as \"an artist whose moment has arrived\".\n\nIt wasn't supposed to be this way. McRae started out as a dancer, winning a scholarship at the Berlin State Ballet and later studying with Canada's Alberta Ballet Company.\n\nThen, in 2017, she posted a song she'd written in 20 minutes to her YouTube channel. It picked up 40 million views and landed the Calgary-born teenager a contract with RCA Records.\n\nShe scored global hits with the scorched-earth break-up song You Broke Me First and 2022's She's All I Wanna Be. But her debut album, heavily indebted to Billie Eilish's sombre ballads, didn't quite connect.\n\nThe follow-up is punchy and strident, and was mostly written with Adele and Beyoncé chart-whisperer Ryan Tedder. But McRae insists the new direction is all hers.\n\n\"I walked into the first session with Ryan with two playlists of sounds I wanted him to use, songs I liked, lyrics I'd written and loads of different song titles.\"\n\nThat focus paid off. Lead single Greedy is a glistening shard of sultry pop that has topped Spotify's global chart and soundtracked nearly four million videos on TikTok.\n\nHer current single, Exes, is making a similar impact, and the star's world tour will culminate with a show at New York's Madison Square Garden next year.\n\n\"It's everything I've dreamed of for a very long time,\" she says.\n\nSettling into the BBC studios, McRae pulls a microphone close to her lips (\"I learned on tour, you have to be close enough to eat the mic\") and chats candidly about songwriting, heartbreak, perfectionism and her transformation from \"sad girl\" to \"badass\".\n\nMcRae danced with Justin Bieber and Demi Lovato before becoming a pop star in her own right\n\nDid you always know Greedy was going to blow up the way it did?\n\nNo, actually! There were about seven months where Ryan Tedder was trying to convince me it was the first single and I was like, \"Absolutely not!\"\n\nThe song genuinely scared me - how fast it was and how much energy it had. I was like, \"This is not my usual sound\".\n\nThen finally, I gave [Ryan] a million notes and transformed it from this squeaky-clean pop record into something super dark and grungy.\n\nWhen your record label sent me the file, it was marked \"version five, softer intro\". But that intro comes in hard. What on earth was the original like?\n\nThat's the part where my brain can get a little annoying. I will hear the tiniest little sound and it'll make me twinge because it's too sharp. No-one else would notice it, but it would kill me if I didn't switch it.\n\nThat song has so many little nuances, like sirens in the background of the verses and musical accents that my dancer brain picks up on. That stuff really satisfies me.\n\nI saw an interview where you said Exes was written in 30 minutes. Is that true? Completely from scratch?\n\nFully fresh. It was all instinct. I was just singing melodies and whatever first came out was what we used.\n\nSo you had no lyrics pre-written or anything?\n\nHonestly. I thought I had nothing left to say on this album, then I started singing about how I can be self-destructive in a relationship and ruin things before they begin. It's like your brain wants to say something, before you even know it. It's hard to explain.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by TateMcRaeVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nLast time we spoke, you said your relationship songs were all observational - you'd never been in love and never had your heart broken. That seems to have changed...\n\nYeah, this album in particular was about a very truthful and specific relationship I went through, which makes it 10 times scarier to release.\n\nI don't like talking about my life much, and now I've put it all in an album, ready for people to hear!\n\nYou've been releasing music for three years now and, between the hits, several songs have fallen by the wayside. Yet you seem to work as hard on every one. What does that say about the music industry?\n\nOh, the industry is so fickle. There's so much music being produced all the time. Like, 60,000 songs drop [on Spotify] every day. It's insane. It's so oversaturated. So to even make a dent is so hard.\n\nHow do you build a career then?\n\nI think the biggest thing is making sure you and your core group of fans all love the music. Then it's just about promoting the hell out of it on TikTok.\n\nIt's all self promotion. You have to do it yourself. That whole weight is put on you, to make the song big.\n\nThe singer appeared as a contestant on the 2016 season of So You Think You Can Dance\n\nYou hadn't played a concert when You Broke Me First went viral. How did you learn stagecraft on the go?\n\nIt's still a work in progress. I've had so much stage experience as a dancer, but that uses a different side of your brain.\n\nSinging and dancing takes extra thinking. It's like a tongue twister, almost, because you're working two sides of your body at once.\n\nI've tried it. I don't love running, but there's certain skills you have to learn, otherwise you sound like you have asthma!\n\nThis album is definitely going to give you a work-out on stage.\n\nYeah, my last album consisted of a lot of ballads and stripped back moments. This definitely has a lot more pop-leaning songs, which has been so exciting for me as a dancer.\n\nOn the song Cut My Hair, you say you got bored of being a \"sad girl\", always \"singing the same old things\".\n\nIt's funny because, obviously, you have to accept all your old work, but I'm also growing up as I'm making all this music.\n\nHearing your early songs is like looking at old Facebook pictures. You're like, \"God, I shouldn't have worn that, I look insane!\"\n\nSo who has taken the place of the \"sad girl\" Tate McRae?\n\nMy old album was pretty self-destructive and self-deprecating. On this album, I feel way more badass. It's all about empowering yourself and feeling good in your own shoes.\n\nWas empowerment something you had to learn in real life?\n\nYeah, I moved to Los Angeles at 17, as soon as I graduated high school, and I really struggled.\n\nI was living alone and I had a career but I didn't know what I wanted from life, and there was no-one to tell me what to do.\n\nIn the end, you just have to direct yourself. I took a lot of time to sit down in the silence and figure out who I want to be.\n\nBeing on your own in LA seems very lonely.\n\nYeah, there's so much going on in LA but I don't like to go out. So I'd just work and go home and watch movies. But that way, work just becomes your entire life.\n\nLuckily, I found a good group of girlfriends about six months ago. I feel very lucky for that, but it took a second.\n\nYou said you prefer to stay at home, but there's a song on the album [Think Later] that goes: \"It's not a good night if you don't take it too far.\"\n\n[Laughs] I wrote that song because it was so out character for me. Like one night, I just turned off my phone and went out on a whim.\n\nNobody could reach me and that's why it was such a big deal. My whole family were like, \"What happened?\"\n\nAnd how far did you take it?\n• None Why Tate McRae is a pop star you should get to know", "Michelle Mone says she \"regrets\" not being more transparent about her links with a company that had UK government contracts during the pandemic.\n\nPPE Medpro is being sued by the UK government for £122m plus costs for \"breach of contract and unjust enrichment\".\n\nIt is also being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).\n\nIn December 2020 lawyers for the Tory peer said she had \"no role or function\" in the firm.\n\nThey also said this applied to the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro.\n\nBut in November 2021 the UK government revealed that Baroness Mone was the \"source of referral\" for the company getting a place on the so-called \"VIP lane\" for offers of personal protective equipment for the NHS.\n\nThe VIP lane - also known as the high-priority lane - was introduced to help the UK government choose between huge numbers of supplier offers during the pandemic.\n\nThe Scottish businesswoman has now spoken publicly for the first time - in a Youtube documentary - since the story emerged.\n\nThe production is funded by PPE Medpro - the company at the centre of the controversy.\n\nThe BBC approached Michelle Mone for comment, but were told she was not available for interview today.\n\nBaroness Mone has been on a leave of absence from the House of Lords since late last year\n\nThe Conservative peer has admitted making an \"error\" in her responses to press inquires, and has said that she regrets not initially telling the media of her involvement with the company.\n\nShe says she initially denied involvement due to legal advice.\n\nIn the PPE Medpro-funded documentary, which outlines Michelle Mone and her husband's version of events, the Conservative peer denies defrauding the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and insists that ministers were always aware of her links to PPE Medpro.\n\nBaroness Mone says she \"may indirectly benefit\" from PPE Medpro profits via her husband, who was chairman of the consortium that bid for contracts. But she added that she had not personally made money from supplying PPE during the pandemic.\n\nIn a separate interview with the Sunday Telegraph, she says \"I am ashamed of being a Conservative peer given what this Government has done to us.\"\n\nHer husband, the businessman Douglas Barrowman, also spoke to the documentary funded by the company he was involved with. In it he says he offered to secure PPE as he had contacts that could supply large volumes at \"competitive prices.\"\n\nHe has accused UK ministers of buying \"way too much\" from various PPE suppliers. He alleges they then tried to identify \"technicalities\" to avoid paying for what they had purchased.\n\nMr Barrowman has stressed that he believes all products PPE Medpro supplied were \"fully compliant\".\n\nThe company has said it will \"rigorously\" defend the claim. It has filed a defence asserting that the gowns supplied were in accordance with the contract.\n\nDouglas Barrowman has also alleged that an unnamed negotiator for the Department of Health and Social care had implied the NCA investigation would end if a significant enough settlement was reached.\n\nA DHSC spokesman told the BBC \"We do not comment on ongoing legal cases.\" They have stressed that their staff adhere to all laws and regulations.\n\nThe NCA opened its inquiries in May 2021 into potential criminal offences in relation to the procurement of PPE contracts.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, the cabinet minister Michael Gove said \"ministers did not take individual decisions about who should receive contracts during the pandemic\" adding that there was a \"painstaking process\" in place.\n\nHe said that during the pandemic \"everyone in the public realm was doing their very best to try to ensure that we protected those on the frontline. \"\n\nDavid Cameron made Baroness Mone a Conservative peer in 2015. She has been on a leave of absence from the House of Lords since late last year.\n\nThe entrepreneur, who founded lingerie firm Ultimo, is being investigated by the House of Lords commissioner for standards.\n\nShe has denied any wrongdoing and has said she wants to clear her name.\n\nA spokesman for the NCA told the BBC \"The NCA opened an investigation in May 2021 into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro.\n\n\"The NCA is operationally independent and our investigations are intelligence-led.\"", "I know it's nearly Christmas, and maybe the last thing you want to think about is politics. But you might have to.\n\nThe governing party has to.\n\nBecause the Downing Street operation is in real trouble.\n\nAnd, while it seemed a bit wild when we talked about it last week, it is not crazy to think that the Conservatives really are in such a bad place that some of them are wondering if a change of leader might be needed.\n\nTake a breath - it is not the consensus that rolling a dice to produce a sixth prime minister since the EU referendum would be a good idea. But it is no longer a completely fringe view, for several really important reasons.\n\nRishi Sunak is under genuine pressure. He has to front up to the Covid inquiry on Monday, and on Tuesday there is the first vote on a plan he put his name to that has gone badly wrong.\n\nProblem one: the Tories just can't agree on how to keep one of the PM's big promises, to 'stop the boats'.\n\nThat phrase has become part of the political lexicon, but Rishi Sunak's slogan has become a millstone around his administration's neck.\n\nThe plan was based on an aspiration to put off migrants from around the world from coming to the UK by saying they would be sent to an African country instead if they made it here. The problem overcame early political controversies, and Parliament approved it some time ago.\n\nBut then it hit practical and legal challenges. In the last few days, Mr Sunak's new attempts to make his long-term wish come true have been battered by some of his own party.\n\nHe's stopped short of the more radical action some of his MPs believe is needed to get planes in the air without further time-consuming legal tangles, but his new laws have gone further than other colleagues are comfortable with.\n\nLike Theresa May's Brexit compromises, it doesn't quite satisfy everyone on the right of his party, and it makes people at the softer end of his tribe feel itchy.\n\nThe result? He's stuck in the uncomfortable middle on an issue that he chose to make his own.\n\nThis weekend MPs of all stripes in his party are mulling over whether to back the plan or not. (Although be cautious about the headlines predicting certain disaster, as many backbenchers are likely to let the proposals pass at its first stage debate, known as second reading, but then try to tweak them, pull them apart, or even kick them out after Christmas.)\n\nProblem two: it's not just the opponents you could predict who are in a stew. The prime minister's friend, and the minister who was in charge of dealing with the problem, has walked away. Robert Jenrick, who'll be with us in the studio on Sunday, says the plan simply won't work and he is raising big doubts about the government's whole approach to managing migration from abroad.\n\nProblem three: Number 10 is not just trying to tack between two sides, but a restive brew of different tribes who all follow different lines.\n\nIt is impossible to imagine pleasing them all, and hard to see a situation where they all are content to go along with Number 10. One MP poking fun at the different groups describes them as follows: \"The 'One Nation' would be the school swots. The goody two shoes. The European Research Group (ERG) are the Colonel Blimps or those old blokes who sit in the corner of the pub and the New Conservatives are those really annoying out of control kids in parks. The Truss lots are the Dementors!\"\n\nCatty jokes aside, how could one leader ever keep them all in check, even on issues that were not controversial? Of course, political parties are always coalitions. It's ridiculous to imagine they are all always in total harmony. But one former minister suggested in the Tory party in 2023: \"There is no cohesion as a parliamentary team on any level - they don't like one another, and they don't get on.\"\n\nProblem four: an unhappy, messy Conservative Party faces a different opposition.\n\nIt was one thing for the Tories to be permanently scrapping when Theresa May was in charge, or when Boris Johnson took over. The green benches opposite them then were full of unhappy factions under Jeremy Corbyn.\n\nLabour is different now, and the Tories know it.\n\nLeaked recordings reach my ears of the trade minister and former Conservative chair, Greg Hands, telling student activists in Oxford at the end of October as much.\n\nHe said that voters have been put off by the turmoil in Number 10. \"They have been turned off by us, particularly by the events of last year where we had three prime ministers.\"\n\nAnd he said that although Keir Starmer might not have created rapturous excitement among the voters, the idea that Labour is a threat for voters, has gone.\n\nIn the recordings he says: \"Corbyn was a great deterrent for a lot of more liberal-minded Conservatives from voting anything other than Conservative because they were afraid they would get Corbyn as their prime minister.\"\n\nWhen talking about trying to hold on to voters he's heard to say that Starmer \"isn't Corbyn, he doesn't alienate, frighten people like Corbyn does so that I think is a taller task for us at the moment is keeping those people on side\". Mr Hands did say there were Conservative voters who could yet return to the party.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: My patience with Rwanda plan has worn thin - Sunak\n\nIn response to that recording, he says: \"As I said in Oxford, Sir Keir Starmer hasn't convinced the British people - and the Conservative Party can still win the next general election.\n\n\"Like Neil Kinnock in the 1980s, Sir Keir Starmer is not as left wing as his predecessor, but he is still too left wing for the British people, and when the spotlight is on him, he will be found out. He changes his mind on every single major issue to please his audience, whether it be the monarchy, the EU, tuition fees or taxation.\"\n\nRishi Sunak's allies would say, with some justification, that the prime minister created calm after a spasm of chaos.\n\nBut looking at recent events, it's clear that wasn't powerful enough to prevail. And his many resets have perhaps gone into reverse. The splits now seem as sore as ever.\n\nMaybe that's because after so long being behind in the polls some Tory MPs would rather choose their own principles over the party's success.\n\nMaybe it's because Rishi Sunak hasn't been able to persuade them that unity is a prize worth fighting for.\n\nMaybe it's because after so long in power with endless reinventions the party isn't sure what it's really for.\n\nMaybe it's a mix of all of the above, and more.\n\nIn fact, Rishi Sunak still leads a party that enjoys a massive majority in the House of Commons. The next election does not have to happen for another 12 months. Voters are volatile creatures these days, the public mood can move very fast.\n\nBut the prime minister's USP - ending the chaos of the Truss and Johnson year - has taken a battering. Splits and scrapping are back. And the public does not like divided parties.\n\nRight now, that might be one of the few political truths that Conservative MPs can agree on.\n\nWhat questions would you like to ask Laura's guests on Sunday?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "The vehicles crashed on the A458 in the Morville Heath area, police said (generic view of the road)\n\nTwo people have died after the car they were travelling in crashed with a police vehicle in Shropshire.\n\nA West Mercia Police crime scene investigation vehicle and a Skoda Octavia crashed on the A458 in the Morville Heath area at about 10:15 GMT.\n\nA man in his 60s, the driver of the car, and a passenger, a woman in her 50s, died at the scene.\n\nThe driver of the police vehicle, which was not responding to an emergency, sustained serious injuries.\n\nThe officer was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for treatment following the incident on the A458 between Much Wenlock and Bridgnorth.\n\nWest Mercia Police said paramedics attended the scene and attempted to revive the driver and passenger, before declaring them dead after 45 minutes.\n\nA third woman also travelling in the Skoda, aged in her 20s, suffered minor injuries.\n\nCh Supt Gareth Morris said: \"Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the man and woman following this awful incident, and our staff member who has been seriously hurt, at this difficult time.\"\n\nThe incident has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, and the force's Professional Standards Department has been alerted, as is normal practice.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "The growing gap between the UK's \"haves and have-nots\" is in danger of becoming a \"chasm\", a report has warned.\n\nResearch by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) think tank argues the most disadvantaged are no better off than they were 15 years ago.\n\nIt mentioned stagnant wages, family breakdown, poor housing, crime, mental health and other issues, saying the gap widened during the pandemic.\n\nMinisters highlighted the support to help with the rising cost of living.\n\nThe report by the CSJ's Social Justice Commission says the country is at risk of slipping back to a social divide not seen since the Victorian era.\n\nIn Two Nations: The State of Poverty in the UK, the CSJ says the country is \"deeply divided\", with the \"systemic problems facing those at the bottom of society in danger of becoming entrenched\".\n\n\"For too many Britain is broken and the gap between the haves and have-nots is in danger of becoming a chasm,\" the report adds.\n\nIt argues the situation worsened as a result of lockdowns during the Covid pandemic, pointing to increased mental health problems among young people, a jump in school absences and a rise in the number of people on working-age benefits.\n\nAndy Cook, chief executive of the CSJ, said: \"Lockdown policy poured petrol on the fire that had already been there in the most disadvantaged people's lives, and so far no one has offered a plan to match the scale of the issues.\n\n\"What this report shows is that we need far more than discussions on finance redistribution, but a strategy to go after the root causes of poverty - education, work, debt, addiction and family.\"\n\nThe commission behind the report is chaired by former Sunday Times editor Martin Ivens, and includes other figures such as former Bank of England governor Lord King, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and Conservative MP Miriam Cates.\n\nThe research included a poll of more than 6,000 people, half of whom were on the lowest incomes, conducted by J.L. Partners.\n\nThe commission, which will report its policy recommendations next spring, also travelled across the UK to more than 20 towns and cities and heard from some 350 charities, social enterprises and policy experts.\n\nThe poll found six-in-10 of the general public say that their area has a good quality of life, compared to less than two-in-five of the most deprived.\n\nThe report argues that for many of the poorest people, \"work is not worth it\" as the financial rewards can be marginal.\n\n\"In the most left behind communities, work is typically poor quality, insecure, and offers little progression,\" it says.\n\n\"Increasingly, people are turning to welfare, rather than wages, in order to unlock additional income.\"\n\nThe report says real average weekly pay growth in the UK has remained stagnant since the 2008 financial crisis, leaving people worse off.\n\nIt also highlights evidence of worse mental health in deprived groups.\n\nThe commission's analysis found 40% of the most deprived report having a mental health condition, compared to just 13% of the general population.\n\nThe report argues the poorest are hit harder by family breakdown, with a teenager growing up in the poorest 20% of households two-thirds more likely to experience family breakdown than a teenager in the top 20%.\n\nLord King said: \"Money is not the only solution to the problem of deprivation. One glimmer of light is the institution of the family - rather than government - as a place of nurture, support, and fulfilment.\n\n\"No family is perfect, and families come in all different shapes and sizes. But if we are able to do more to support the family, then we can prevent the creation of an 'unhappy generation'.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions said: \"There are 1.7 million fewer people, including 400,000 children, in absolute poverty when compared to 2010. But we understand some families are still struggling.\n\n\"This is why we have worked hard to halve inflation and are providing on average £3,700 per household to help with the cost of living, including increasing benefits by over 10% this year.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added: \"Our Back to Work Plan will help up to 1.1 million disabled people, people with long-term health conditions or the long-term unemployed to look for and stay in work.\"", "West Indies got over the line in a nervy chase to beat England by four wickets on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method in a rain-shortened third one-day international in Barbados.\n\nWhen play began two hours later than scheduled, seamer Matthew Forde quickly took three wickets on his international debut as England collapsed to 49-5.\n\nBen Duckett made 71 to help England recover and post 206-9 from 40 overs after another rain delay.\n\nA further downpour left West Indies with a revised target of 188 from 34 overs and they looked on course for a comfortable victory thanks to a composed half-century from Keacy Carty.\n\nHowever, England hit back to set up a tense finale with Will Jacks taking 3-22 as the spinners did the damage.\n\nThe game looked to be going down to the wire but one expensive over from the previously impressive Gus Atkinson swung the game decisively in West Indies' favour and Romario Shepherd, who finished unbeaten on 41 from 28 balls, sealed the win with 14 balls to spare.\n\nWest Indies took the ODI series 2-1 and can celebrate a first home series win over England in the format since 1998.\n\nThe two sides will now prepare for the five-match T20 series that begins on Tuesday, also in Barbados.\n• None West Indies stun England in Barbados - as it happened\n\nEngland went into this series with a much-changed side following their World Cup disappointment and with Jos Buttler's team not scheduled to play another 50-over match until September 2024, this was the last chance for many of the new-look team to impress for quite some time.\n\nBut while the rest of the top order came unstuck as West Indies made the most of friendly bowling conditions early on, Duckett made his pitch for a regular berth in the one-day team.\n\nThe left-hander gritted it out early on as the wickets fell around him, seeing off Forde and co with the new ball before going about building a much-needed partnership with Liam Livingstone.\n\nDuckett got his tempo just right, even holding back on playing his favoured sweep shots against the spinners to eliminate as much risk as possible with England in a precarious position.\n\nWhen the ball was there to be hit, he did so, and the only frustration was that having done all the hard work, he fell in relatively tame fashion just when he might have hoped to kick on.\n\nA series defeat is not the way England wanted to start their new era in ODI cricket and they still have plenty of work to do to get back to the heights of 2019, but in Duckett they have a player capable of moving them in the right direction again.\n\nYoung West Indies team gives hope for the future\n\nWhile England are looking to bounce back after a dreadful World Cup, West Indies' rebuild is starting from an even lower base after they failed to even qualify for the tournament in India.\n\nThey have looked to a new generation of players and a first ODI series win over England since 2007 - and a first at home this century - is a very promising start.\n\nForde will take the plaudits and the 21-year-old was impressive on debut, moving the ball through the air and off the seam while consistently hitting a probing line and length to unsettle the England batters.\n\nWith the bat, opener Alick Athanaze played with great fluency for his 45 while Carty grew into his innings and showed some remarkable timing once he got into his stride.\n\nIt was left to Shepherd, now one of the elder statesmen of the team, to finish the job and secure West Indies' first ODI series win over a full member nation since March 2021.\n\nThat statistic in itself shows the work that still needs to be done and there have been plenty of false dawns before for West Indies cricket but the early signs are encouraging for this new side.\n\n'Build around Salt and Brook' - what they said\n\nEx-England captain Sir Alastair Cook on TNT Sports: \"I think there are a lot of positives. Phil Salt needs a run in the white-ball set-up. He has a strike-rate of 140 at the top of the order.\n\n\"I like the fact you have someone who is that dynamic. How good can he be? It's going to intriguing to see if he can do it against top-quality bowlers.\n\n\"Harry Brook, after a strange World Cup, where he was in the squad then wasn't, he should just bat at number five and get experience in the team of leading the reboot. Players like that are potential match-winners and World Cup winners. They have that much talent.\"\n\nEngland captain Jos Buttler: \"This is the start of a long journey for this side. There are some young guys who have got their first taste of ODI cricket and have hopefully learned a lot and we can build something for the future.\"\n\nPlayer of the match, West Indies bowler Matthew Forde: \"Obviously getting a victory is a dream come true on debut. It was special for me. I am 21 and I'm living the dream.\"", "Kiana and Ali Rahmani, 17, collected the prize on behalf of their mother who they have not seen for years\n\nThe teenage twins of jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi have accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.\n\nMs Mohammadi - who is serving a 10-year jail term in Tehran - won this year's prize for her work fighting against the oppression of women in Iran.\n\nIn a speech smuggled from prison and read out by her children, she denounced Iran's \"tyrannical\" government.\n\n\"The Iranian people, with perseverance, will overcome repression and authoritarianism,\" she said.\n\n\"Have no doubt, this is certain.\"\n\nThe prestigious peace prize was handed out in Oslo on Sunday, along with the other Nobel prizes for literature, science and economics.\n\nMs Mohammadi has for years been a prominent human rights figure in Iran. The 51-year-old has been in jail almost continuously since 2010 - and in total has been arrested 13 times, convicted five times, and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison.\n\nShe is currently in jail for \"spreading propaganda\".\n\nHer husband, political activist Taghi Rahmani, lives in exile in Paris with their two children and they have not seen one another for years.\n\nIn a speech smuggled out of Iran and delivered by her 17-year-old children Kiana and Ali Rahmani in French, Ms Mohammadi said: \"I write this message from behind the high, cold walls of a prison.\"\n\nShe praised young Iranians who she said have \"transformed the streets and public spaces into a place of widespread civil resistance\" - referring to the protests that began last year following the death of Mahsa Amini.\n\n\"The resistance is alive and the struggle is not weakening. Resistance and non-violence are our best strategies - it is the same difficult path that Iranians have walked until today, thanks to their historical consciousness and their collective will.\"\n\nThe twins collected the prize - which includes a cheque for 11 million Swedish crowns (about £837,000, or $1m) - at a ceremony in Oslo's City Hall attended by several hundred guests.\n\nThere was an empty chair on the podium between her children, to mark her absence.\n\nAli and Kiana Rahmani - next to the empty chair for their mother - live in exile in France\n\nOn Saturday, Ms Mohammadi's husband, Mr Rahmani, told BBC Hardtalk that his wife had once written a letter to their children expressing the hope \"they would forgive her\" for not being able to \"be a mother to them\".\n\nHe said she was among a group of imprisoned human rights activists \"standing up against the tyranny of the Islamic Republic\".\n\nA month ago, Ms Mohammadi began a hunger strike in the notorious Evin prison where she is being held.\n\nSpeaking to Radio 4's Today programme on Monday, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe - the British-Iranian national who spent six years in an Iranian jail accused of spying and who attended the ceremony in Oslo on Sunday - said Ms Mohammadi was an individual everyone relied on.\n\nMs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who met Ms Mohammadi while in prison, said: \"What she gave others was the support and the love and the peace of mind that you are going to be looked after the moment you enter this space.\"\n\nShe said Ms Mohammadi was known for her kindness and how much she cared for people. \"But I think more than that, one thing that if you have lived with Narges, you would know is, that Narges would live life to its fullest, with all its beauty, and at the same time she would choose to fight if she would want to... I think that's remarkable.\"\n\nIran's foreign ministry previously said the Nobel award was \"biased\" and in line with \"the interventionist and anti-Iran policies of some European countries\".\n\nAlso on Sunday, Norwegian author Jon Fosse is being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, while three scientists are receiving the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work in developing what are called quantum dots.\n\nThis year's Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier, whose work demonstrated a way to create extremely short pulses of light that can be used to capture and study rapid processes inside atoms.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "UN secretary general António Guterres has spoken about the \"serious risk to the maintenance of international peace and security\" in the Gaza conflict, citing the spillover of hostilities in \"the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen\".\n\nHe triggered Article 99, prompting a UN Security Council vote on Friday, because he believes this is a very urgent matter which must be brought to the attention of the council.\n\nThe Israeli government detests the UN and they detest the secretary general.\n\nThe Israelis rejected his description, claiming Mr Guterres is in fact the threat to world peace because he is pandering to Hamas by trying to end the fighting now, before their mission to destroy the group has been concluded.\n\nThat ill-feeling will not have improved after the secretary general also mentioned that one of the risks is that the situation in Gaza could get so bad that there would be a mass displacement of Palestinians over the border into Egypt - which is also of huge concern to the Egyptian government.\n\nThere was, Mr Guterres said, a high risk of the \"total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza\". And the Palestinians say that is exactly what Israel wants because it wants to get all Palestinians out of Gaza.\n\nJournalists are not permitted by Israel to enter Gaza so I can't report from there myself, but what the secretary general is saying sounds pretty accurate from the pictures and video we can see and the people we speak to.\n\nBy all the measures you can think of, the situation there for civilians is absolutely catastrophic, as they are subjected to a remorseless military campaign. Israel says they are doing what they can to save civilian lives but insists Hamas holds responsibility for using them as human shields.\n\nAt the UN, the Americans duly vetoed this resolution calling for a ceasefire. For those concerned about the significant loss of life, that does sound a bit hollow - the Americans claim the Israelis are saying they will stick to the rules of war and avoid unnecessary civilian deaths. But, they say, there is a gap between what Israel says and what it does.\n\nI think the strategy behind the secretary general's decision to bring a vote - which he knew would probably get vetoed - was to hurry up the inevitable moment when the Americans will say to Israel: \"Enough is enough, you've had enough time and killed enough people and it's time for a ceasefire.\"\n\nSome diplomats I have spoken to have said they might give the Israelis another month - I think Mr Guterres's strategy is to try and shorten that, partly by increasing international pressure and also partly by shaming the Americans into thinking that they cannot continue to hold this position as it becomes less and less tenable.\n\nThat pressure has also increased today with the publication of footage of prisoners in Gaza, held by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), stripped to their underwear and being driven away in trucks. It's a cruel image of war seeing these men, which local reports on social media suggest could be as many as 700.\n\nThose same sources, including family of some of the men, say that they were taken from a UN school where they were sheltering, and where others tried to get away and were killed.\n\nA horrendous video circulated yesterday of six people lying dead in the street - said to be from that same area and near that same school - and one of them was a bloody corpse lying on top of a white flag he had apparently been carrying.\n\nThe IDF say they are trying to work out who is a suspect and who is responsible for those terrible attacks on 7 October - and that they are all the while observing the international law on conflict.\n\nBut for those who have little sympathy for what Israel is doing, or have lost sympathy because of the level of killing that has been carried out in Gaza, those people are saying that this is another sign of Israeli indifference to the dignity and the health of Palestinians.\n\nThe weather is chilly here now, so being forced to walk around in underwear in streets, some blindfolded as we saw in the video, and some with their hands tied behind their back, is undoubtedly unpleasant.\n\nThe Israelis say they can't avoid it - others say it's pretty savage.", "Baseball sensation Shohei Ohtani has joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in the biggest deal in the sport's history.\n\nThe $700m (£558m) 10-year contract is the largest ever in US Major League Baseball (MLB) and makes Ohtani one of the world's highest-earning athletes.\n\nThe Japanese player, who is widely seen as among the best to have ever played the game, was the most coveted target in baseball.\n\nThe move to the Dodgers comes after weeks of speculation about his future.\n\nA major bidding war for his signature began when Ohtani opted to leave the Los Angeles Angels as a free agent after his contract expired following a six-year stint.\n\nThe reported value of the contract ranks alongside - or even surpasses - the sort of sums megastars like footballer Lionel Messi or basketball player LeBron James have commanded.\n\nFans and pundits have widely credited the 29-year-old with transforming how the sport is played in the modern era, and he is already well on the way to being considered an all-time great.\n\nUnlike most baseball players who specialise in batting or pitching, Ohtani is equally skilled at both disciplines.\n\nHe won the American League MVP award in 2021 and again last month, despite his 2023 season being cut short by injury.\n\nOhtani led Japan to a famous victory over the US in March, their first ever win over the Americans in the final of the World Baseball Classic championship - a major milestone for a country where baseball is the most popular sport.\n\nIn a statement posted on Instagram, Ohtani said the Angels would be \"etched in my heart forever\", adding: \"Until the last day of my playing career, I want to continue to strive forward not only for the Dodgers but for the baseball world.\"", "A video shared online appears to show swimmers at Leighton beach, near Perth in Australia, approaching a sperm whale that is swimming \"dangerously close\" to the shore.\n\nIn the footage, the whale can be seen straying into shallow waters and attracting the attention of beachgoers, before heading back out to sea.\n\nMarine biologist Dr Natalie Sinclair told the BBC that the mammal could have been at risk of stranding, and that this kind of behaviour was \"unusual and perilous\".\n\nShe also warned that people swimming that close risk disorientating the whale, and that the best thing to do in this situation is to \"leave the whale alone\" and leave any rescue attempts to professionals.\n\n\"The proximity of individuals to the whale poses risk, not only to the animal, but also to the people involved,\" she added.", "Israeli forces have focused on the city of Khan Younis in the south of Gaza\n\nIsrael's bombardment of Gaza is \"narrowing the window\" for a new truce, the Qatari prime minister has said.\n\nSpeaking at the Doha Forum, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said Qatar would continue its efforts to pressure both sides into a ceasefire.\n\nThe Gulf state played a key role negotiating the week-long pause in violence at the end of November, which allowed the release of hostages.\n\nIsraeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday \"the war is in full swing\".\n\nHe said in recent days \"dozens of Hamas terrorists\" had surrendered, and were \"laying down their weapons and handing themselves over to our heroic fighters\".\n\n\"This is the beginning of the end for Hamas,\" he said.\n\nThe comments come as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen.\n\nOn Sunday afternoon, the Hamas-run health agency in Gaza said almost 18,000 Palestinians had now been killed.\n\nIn an audio message to Al Jazeera, Hamas's armed wing said the temporary ceasefire had \"proved its credibility\" and that no more hostages would be freed until Israel engaged in talks.\n\nIn the message, spokesman Abu Ubaida also said Hamas fighters had fully or partially destroyed 180 military vehicles and killed \"a large number\" of Israeli soldiers, and that it is still inflicting blows on Israel, and \"what is coming is greater\".\n\nCivilians have been called on to evacuate the centre of Khan Younis\n\nAt the conference in Doha, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said the area had become \"hell on earth\" and was \"definitely the worst situation I have ever seen\".\n\nAlso speaking at the conference, Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh said Israel \"should not be allowed to keep violating international humanitarian law\", and called for international sanctions.\n\nMr Shtayyeh represents the Palestinian Authority, the organisation which operates in the West Bank and which is separate to the Hamas government operating in Gaza.\n\nAs the meeting took place in Doha, in the south of Gaza fighting continued to rage.\n\nThe city of Khan Younis, the place people were told to head to to escape the fighting in the north, is now under heavy bombardments - with Israel asking civilians to leave its centre.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News, senior Israeli adviser Mark Regev said there was going to be \"difficult fighting\" in Khan Younis, and urged civilians to \"move to safe zones\" - with Israeli tanks reaching the centre of the city on Sunday evening.\n\nCivilians in the city have been pictured collecting bodies and mourning family members killed in fighting.\n\nAddressing his cabinet on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said international allies had been inconsistent\n\nWhen asked about the situation in what Israel calls safe areas, Mr Regev said his country has made a maximum effort to try to safeguard civilian lives.\n\nCivilians in Gaza have formerly been advised to make their way to a \"safe zone\" at al-Mawasi. Measuring just 8.5 sq km (3.3 sq miles), the area is smaller than London's Heathrow Airport, has few buildings and largely consists of sandy dunes and agricultural land.\n\nMeanwhile, Israel has also been engaging in international diplomacy - calling out its allies for an inconsistent approach.\n\n\"You cannot on the one hand support the elimination of Hamas and on other pressure us to end the war, which would prevent the elimination of Hamas,\" said Mr Netanyahu while briefing his cabinet.\n\nHe was speaking two days after 13 members of the UN Security Council supported a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, with the US vetoing the move and the UK abstaining.\n\nIsrael also denied a claim by UNRWA chief Mr Lazzarini that it was trying to force Gazans out of the region and into Egypt - something previously reported in Israeli media.\n\nThe World Health Organization has also taken the unusual step of passing a resolution calling for immediate medical access to Gaza, with its director-general earlier calling the situation in the area \"catastrophic\".", "A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a man near a Tube station in May 1984, days after police launched a new appeal for information.\n\nAnthony Littler, 45, was attacked after leaving East Finchley Underground in north London.\n\nThe executive officer with Customs and Excise, who lived locally, was found with with head injuries in an alleyway.\n\nThe Met Police said the 58-year-old man was arrested on Sunday and bailed until January pending further inquiries.\n\nOn Wednesday this week the force renewed an appeal for information surrounding Mr Littler's death.\n\nDet Ch Insp Neil John, who is leading the investigation, thanked \"everyone who has already come forward with information\".\n\n\"However,\" he said, \"we still need to speak with anyone who may have witnessed the events leading up to Anthony's murder.\"\n\nWith a lack of surviving forensic evidence, detectives are relying primarily on re-examining original statements from the case.\n\nMr Littler's family have said that until his killer is found, they will not be able to find closure.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen on what the images show\n\nA 22-year-old Palestinian has told the BBC how he was detained with dozens of others by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in northern Gaza on Thursday.\n\nFootage verified by the BBC shows a group of men stripped to their underwear, kneeling on the ground and being guarded by Israeli soldiers.\n\nThe man says he was forced to sit in the street for hours, handcuffed and blindfolded, before being driven away.\n\nAn Israeli official said the soldiers were searching for Hamas members.\n\nMark Regev, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told the BBC they were looking for those \"responsible for the massacre of October 7\".\n\nThe detainees were taken by truck from Beit Lahia in northern Gaza to an unknown place, according to the young man - who asked to remain anonymous for his safety.\n\nOnce they arrived, they were randomly selected for questioning and interrogated about their relationship with Hamas, he adds.\n\nOne image - which has not yet been verified by the BBC - shows men blindfolded, kneeling in what appears to be a large pit of bulldozed sand.\n\nThe 22-year-old says the place that he, his father, brother and five cousins were taken to was sandy - and they were left there almost naked but given a blanket at night.\n\nAfter questioning, he says he was taken to another location before being told to go home, arriving at around 01:40 in the morning.\n\n\"They released all of us, except my father and eldest cousin. My father works for UNRWA. I don't know why they took him,\" he said.\n\n\"We walked barefoot down the street in the dark, with the roads full of rocks and glass.\"\n\nUNRWA is the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees.\n\nA picture of the men being driven away in a truck, verified by the BBC, has been circulating on social media\n\nMr Regev said IDF troops had been gathering people to find out who was responsible for the Hamas attacks in Israel.\n\nThey were trying to determine \"whose name and face fits with the photographs of people beheading people, or raping women and so forth\", he said.\n\nMr Regev claimed it was possible that some were UN workers, but suggested that did not \"automatically\" mean they were not also Hamas members.\n\nHe said Hamas controlled the workers' union of UNRWA and that the group had \"activists in all sorts of organisations, that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone\".\n\nJuliette Touma, UNRWA director of communications, told the BBC that the agency \"has a scrutiny and screening process for all its staff\" which it shares \"with the host governments where we work\".\n\n\"For Gaza and the West Bank, UNRWA also shares these lists with the government of Israel as the occupying power,\" she said.\n\nUNRWA has never received a response from Israel to these lists, she added.\n\nA second Palestinian, Mohammed Lubbad, who lives in Belgium, said on Instagram that his brother Ibrahim was detained along with 10 other family members.\n\nMr Lubbad told the BBC he had video-called his brother on WhatsApp two hours before he was taken away.\n\n\"He told me that our house and the entire village in Beit Lahia were surrounded by Israeli forces,\" he said. \"Later, I saw the video posted on social media [of the truck]. I immediately recognised my brother and also identified some of our neighbours.\"\n\nMr Lubbad said all his relatives were eventually released except for two cousins - Ahmed Lubbad, 35, a teacher and father-of-four, and Ayman Lubbad, a human rights activist and father-of-three.\n\nHe said his family were \"innocent civilians with no military affiliation\".\n\nOne of the detained men, Diaa al-Kahlout - who has not been released yet, according to a colleague - is a correspondent for The New Arab, or Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, a London-based pan-Arab outlet.\n\nSome of those later released told al-Kahlout's family that the journalist had been transferred to Zikim military base in Israel, according to Lamis Andoni of The New Arab.\n\n\"We have no idea about his fate,\" she told BBC Radio 4's PM programme. \"The photos and videos of these men are horrifying. I'm shocked.\"\n\nDescribing Mr al-Kahlout as very ambitious, she said he \"always had a smile on his face, but like many Gazans, felt suffocated\".\n\nMs Andoni said her outlet was speaking to Israeli forces through the UN. She said the IDF's suggestion the men were just suspects and that forces needed to investigate them was \"not a good answer\".", "Smile Direct Club has shut down months after filing for bankruptcy in the US, leaving some customers confused and stranded as their treatment is ongoing.\n\nBest known for selling clear aligners remotely, the firm said it had made the \"incredibly difficult decision\" to wind down operations late on Friday.\n\nThe US-based dentistry company was offering aligners for about £1,800 without the need to visit a dentist.\n\nA last-ditch rescue attempt failed though as it was weighed down by debt.\n\nFounded in 2014, the orthodontics company styled itself as a disruptor to the \"bricks-and-mortar\" dental industry.\n\nIn traditional dentistry, \"train-track\" braces and clear aligners are fitted by dentists and orthodontists themselves, or a trained orthodontic therapist, after an in-person consultation.\n\nMany customers were drawn to Smile Direct Club because of the lower price point and the fact they could take the moulds for their aligners themselves at home.\n\nTreatment with the company typically takes between four to six months and customers have online check-ins with registered dentists.\n\nIn a statement on its website, the company says that it has \"improved more than two million smiles and lives\".\n\nHowever, customers in the US, UK and elsewhere have been left confused as the firm says that its customer support line will no longer be available, despite the fact that customers may need check-ins or adjustments for their aligners.\n\nIt recommends that if people want to carry on with their treatment, they should get in touch with a local dentist.\n\nIt has also angered some customers by saying that the \"lifetime smile guarantee\" it previously offered was no longer valid, while those with payment plans set up are expected to continue making payments.\n\nThere will be more information on refunds, it said, as the bankruptcy process continues and \"next steps\" are determined.\n\nOn Facebook, several users questioned what to do about their treatment and complained about having made recent payments.\n\nOne wrote: \"Disgusting how we have all been treated... I only just signed up for my aligners, made my first payment and now I won't even be receiving my braces\".\n\nAnother said his wife had paid for her treatment in full and needs a new retainer, but she was now unsure whether or not she would receive this at all.\n\nOn Instagram, another customer questioned: \"I did six months [of] treatment - and now what? I can't finish?... This is heart-breaking.\"\n\nIn the statement on its website, Smile Direct Club apologised for the inconvenience caused.\n\nLisa Webb, consumer law expert at the organisation Which? said that many customers would feel \"adrift\" due to the company going bust.\n\nShe pointed out that where refunds would be available, they will be handed by liquidators. \"But customers will be at the back of a long queue of creditors so this is unlikely to amount to much, if anything at all,\" she said.\n\nShe recommended that anyone in the UK who is still waiting for products, and has not had their order cancelled and paid via credit card, could also try to claim their money back via Section 75 under the Consumer Credit Act.\n\nSmile Direct Club was forced to file for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US in late September, which postpones a company's obligations to its creditors, giving it time to reorganise its debts or sell parts of the business.\n\nBut on Friday, it emerged that a last-ditch attempt rescue deal had failed.\n\nAttorney Spencer Winters told a judge in bankruptcy court that a deal for its founders to provide fresh funds and buy Smile Direct Club out of bankruptcy had not come through after it could not get its most important lender to agree.\n\n\"We pushed very, very hard this week and it just didn't come together,\" he said.\n\nIt had once been valued at as much as $8.9bn (£7bn), but failed to turn a profit and had nearly $900m worth of debt at the time it filed for bankruptcy, according to Fortune magazine.\n\nThe firm, boosted by selfies and positive reviews online, had also faced issues with patent clashes and dentists' concerns ranging from aligners fitting poorly to claims of permanent nerve damage and tooth loss.\n\nIt vigorously defended its practices throughout and said consistently that customers' treatments are reviewed by licensed professionals, while risks were listed as well.\n\nAre you worried about your treatment plans, or the possibility of getting a refund? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani has made history by signing a record-breaking $700m (£558m) contract with the LA Dodgers.\n\nHis recent elbow surgery did not stop the Dodgers from offering the eye-watering 10-year deal - smashing Mike Trout's $426.5m 12-year deal contract signed in 2019, previously the largest in Major League Baseball (MLB).\n\nThe 29-year-old superstar, nicknamed \"Shotime\" has been described as the \"best player ever\" and is often referred to as \"unicorn\". He has previously drawn comparisons to Babe Ruth for his ability to pitch and hit in the same game.\n\nLast month, he was voted the most valuable player for the second time since 2021. What is unique about the achievements is that he received unanimous votes on both occasions and that is a first in MLB history.\n\nOhtani's professional baseball career began at the age of 18 with Japan's Nippon Ham Fighters under manager, Hideki Kuriyama. The pair were recently reunited when Kuriyama managed Japan to victory in the World Baseball Classic championship.\n\nAnd his global fame has already surpassed that of other Japanese players who moved to the US before him, including Ichiro Suzuki, Hideo Nomo, Hideki Matsui, Yu Darvish and Masahiro Tanaka.\n\nIn addition to Ohtani's baseball skills, his clean-cut image and a lack of scandals and tabloid gossip about his social life, have turned him into a brand advertisers and marketers are clamouring for.\n\nBut the baseball prodigy is known to be extremely picky about activities outside the sport as he does not want any distraction from his first love.\n\n\"Ohtani doesn't drink, doesn't smoke and doesn't care about money, which is part of his unique charm,\" says Robert Whiting who has written several books on Japanese baseball.\n\n\"In a game in which so many seem consumed by greed and entitlement, he is a purist - a warrior monk - who only cares about becoming the best baseball player in history.\"\n\nThis is evident from when Ohtani left Japan for the US in 2017 at the age of 23 and he signed a six-year contract with the Los Angeles Angels for $545,000 a year when he was estimated to have been worth more than $200m.\n\nThe shortfall can also be attributed to MLB's rules under which an incoming international player under the age of 25 is only eligible for the league's minimum salary.\n\nBut the money has been following Ohtani. His endorsement portfolio has grown from $6m in 2021 to at least $35m this year, according to Forbes. Add that to his salary and he is estimated to have raked in around $65m in earnings for the 2023 season, which would be another MLB record.\n\nIt is also felt in merchandise and ticket sales, bringing in millions of dollars in revenue every year for his team.\n\nEconomist Katsuhiro Miyamoto of Kansai University estimates Ohtani's economic impact for the 2023 season to be 50.4bn yen ($342m; £272m) which include 1.2bn yen spent by Japanese visitors who would travel to the US to watch his games. Japanese firms are also estimated to have spent 1bn yen to advertise at Angel Stadium.\n\n\"For an individual athlete to generate this level of economic impact is unheard of,\" said Prof Miyamoto, adding that it is equivalent to when a popular Japanese baseball team wins the Japan Series.\n\nOhtani struck-out the US captain to win the world baseball tournament\n\nJapan's hidden export gem, top baseball players, have been settling into the US turf for almost 30 years.\n\nIn 1995, Hideo Nomo - nicknamed \"Tornado\" - became the first Japanese player to make a successful baseball career in the US.\n\nThis was before smartphones were widely available, and due to the time difference, his fans in Japan would gather in front of big screens in public spaces to watch him play.\n\nAt the time, US stadiums inexplicably, were not allowing Japanese language advertisements on their billboards. But that has changed after more Japanese players arrived.\n\nThe US stakeholders became more aware of how Japanese companies are willing to spend big bucks to introduce their labels and goods to consumers in the world's biggest economy. The advertisers were also keen to be seen as supporters of the sport to Japanese viewers.\n\nBut beyond the money, the baseball stars also helped transform ties between the US and Japan.\n\nWhen Nomo joined the Los Angeles Dodgers, relations between the two countries were at their lowest point since World War Two, according to Mr Whiting.\n\n\"Japanese goods - like cameras, automobiles, and TV's - had flooded North America and the rest of the world, creating a huge trade imbalance.\"\n\nIn the mid-90s, in a somewhat similar tune to current trade tensions between the US and China, American lawmakers were not happy with the amount of Japanese imports.\n\nNomo, Mr Whiting recalls the New York Times writing at the time, was the only export from Japan that no one in America was complaining about.\n\nThese days, ties between the US and Japan are much warmer but what has made Ohtani more popular among his teammates and fan base in America is his humble attitude.\n\nAs MLB has welcomed Japan's top baseball players, the loser appears to be Japan's domestic baseball league, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).\n\nMr Whiting says NPB only has itself to blame.\n\n\"Unlike the US where it is a business operation to run a baseball team, Japanese companies buy a team to advertise themselves and they don't use the extra money to reinvest in the teams,\" he says.\n\nIn the 1990s, the gross revenue of Japanese baseball was about the same as the US. Now, MLB boasts $10bn total gross revenue compared to NPB's less than $2bn.\n\nMuch of MLB's success can be attributed to aggressive marketing through expanding sales of media rights, merchandising, sponsorships and the creation of new multi-faceted stadium complexes.\n\nCompetition is only getting tougher for future Japanese players in MLB.\n\nOn the opening day of the 2023 season 28.5% of the MLB's top players were born outside of the US, led by stars from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Cuba\n\nBut Ohtani has broken so many records still early in his career.\n\nAnd his first pro manager, Hideki Kuriyama, who oversaw his development as a two-way player despite criticism, recently said he is confident Shotime will \"continue to evolve and show us even more than he already has\".\n\nThis is why, with the promise of greater things to come, companies will want to piggyback on Ohtani's success and Japanese fans will be willing to travel to the US to pack the stadiums to watch him in action.", "At the end of the war that started on 7 October lies a big, unknown place called the future. The old status quo was dangerous and painful, especially for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. But it was familiar. Then after 7 October it was smashed by the Hamas attacks, and Israel's response.\n\nThe shock of war can speed up change, when it sweeps away old thinking, forcing difficult choices for a better future. Or it drives leaders and their citizens deeper into their bunkers, as they prepare for the next round.\n\nFor more than a century, Jews and Arabs have been confronting each other, and sometimes going to war, over control of the small, highly coveted piece of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Perhaps the safest, saddest bet is to assume that the conflict, reshaped, will go on. After all, that is what has happened after every other Middle East war since 1948, when Israel won its independence.\n\nBut there are other options. Here are some of the arguments made by individuals at the centre of events.\n\nIsrael's prime minister has not spelt out his plan for the day after, if he has one. His opponents in Israel, who blame him for security and intelligence failures that made the Hamas attacks on 7 October possible, say Netanyahu's only real plan is to stay in power and avoid conviction on the serious corruption charges he faces.\n\nNetanyahu built his career on the message he was Mr Security, the only man who could keep Israel safe. Hamas shattered his brand, which was already badly damaged by political strife inside Israel.\n\nNetanyahu has not spelt out his plans for Gaza after the war ends\n\nThe prime minister's broad statements about what happens after the war, assuming Israel can declare victory, all point to continued occupation of Gaza. Israeli officials have reportedly talked about setting up buffer zones along the border, without offering any details.\n\nNetanyahu has rejected a role for foreign peacekeepers, assuming they can be found. Jordan's foreign minister Ayman Safadi has already said that Arab states would not \"clean the mess\" left by Israel.\n\n\"There will be no Arab troops going to Gaza. None. We are not going to be seen as the enemy.\"\n\nNetanyahu has also dismissed US President Joe Biden's plan to replace Hamas with the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas. Netanyahu claims the PA cannot be trusted and supports terrorism, even though it recognises Israel and cooperates with it on security.\n\nPresident Biden's vision of the future is very different to Benjamin Netanyahu's. Biden continues to give considerable military, diplomatic and emotional support to Israelis. He visited, embraced the families of hostages and has ordered his diplomats at the United Nations Security Council to use the US veto to block ceasefire resolutions. Biden ordered two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region and has sent Israel vast amounts of weaponry.\n\nIn return, the US president wants Israel to return to some kind of revitalised peace process. He wants the Palestinian Authority (PA) eventually to run Gaza while Israel agrees arrangements for an independent Palestine alongside Israel.\n\nThe Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas agrees. He has largely been a bystander since 7 October. In a rare interview this week, with Reuters, he said there should be a peace conference after the war to work out a political solution that would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.\n\nBiden wants a revitalised peace process in the region\n\nThe \"two state solution\" has been the official objective of America and its western allies since the early 1990s. Years of negotiations to make it happen failed. For almost a quarter of a century, since the peace process collapsed, the phrase has been an empty slogan. Biden wants to revive it, arguing correctly that only a political solution will end the conflict.\n\nBiden sent his vice president, Kamala Harris, to Dubai last week to make a speech laying out America's red lines for Gaza on the day after.\n\nShe laid out five principles.\n\n\"No forcible displacement, no re-occupation, no siege or blockade, no reduction in territory, and no use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism.\"\n\n\"We want to see a unified Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian voices and aspirations must be at the centre of this work.\"\n\nIn and out of office, Benjamin Netanyahu has worked consistently hard to thwart Palestinian independence. It is safe to say he is not about to change his mind. If the two-state solution can be revived, it won't happen while he is prime minister.\n\nI went to see Simcha Rotman at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, where he is a prominent MP for the far-right Religious Zionist Party. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu depends on the support of Rotman's party and other hard-line Jewish nationalists. Their power comes from the dynamism of the movement to settle Jews on the land captured in 1967. From that moment of victory, some Israelis were set on extending the Zionist enterprise into the newly occupied Palestinian territories: the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.\n\nSince 1967 they have been highly successful, despite being forced to leave Gaza when Israel pulled out in 2005. Around 700,000 Israeli Jews now live in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Settler leaders are in the cabinet, and their enterprise is at the centre of Israeli politics.\n\nSimcha Rotman is a prominent MP for the far-right Religious Zionist Party\n\nNow that Israel is fighting Hamas, vowing to smash the organisation once and for all, Jewish nationalists see the biggest opportunity they have had since 1967, when Israel beat all its Arab neighbours in a war that lasted for six days.\n\nSince 7 October, armed settlers in the West Bank, backed by soldiers and police, have prevented Palestinian farmers from harvesting their olives or tending their fields. Settlers have paved illegal roads and sought to entrench themselves even deeper by consolidating outposts that are illegal under Israeli as well as international law. Posters are everywhere demanding the return of Jewish settlers to Gaza.\n\nSettlers have also killed Palestinians and invaded their homes. Men with bulldozers came at night to destroy the tiny village of Khirbet Zanuta, near Hebron. Its population of 200 Palestinians had already left, forced out by armed and aggressive settlers.\n\nInternational law says an occupying power should not settle its citizens in land it has captured. Israel says the law does not apply.\n\n\"Occupation is not the word,\" Simcha Rotman told me at the Knesset.\n\n\"You cannot occupy your own land. Israel is not an occupier in Israel because that's the land of Israel.\"\n\nFor Simcha Rotman and other Jewish nationalists, Gaza is also part of the land of Israel.\n\n\"We need to make sure that the only people that are in charge of our security in the land of Israel are the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]. We cannot have any terrorist organisation, doesn't matter what its name. Would it be Hamas? Would it be Fatah? Doesn't matter. The terrorist organisation cannot have control of our lives.\"\n\nIf there are Palestinian elections after the 7 October war ends, Mustafa Barghouti is likely to run for president. He is the secretary general of the Palestine National Initiative. It wants to be the third force in Palestinian politics, an alternative to the Islamist extremists in Hamas and to Fatah, the faction led by President Mahmoud Abbas, which it regards as corrupt and incompetent. Barghouthi believes resistance to occupation is legitimate and legal, though he wants it to be non-violent.\n\nIn his office in Ramallah on the West Bank, Mustafa Barghouthi told me that Israel is using the war to deliver a crushing blow not just to Hamas but to the idea of Palestinian independence and freedom. Like many Palestinians, Barghouthi sees what's happening as a grim echo of the events of 1948 when Israel won its independence and more than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced at gunpoint to leave their homes in what became Israel. Palestinians call it al-Naqba, \"the catastrophe\" and believe Israel wants it to happen again.\n\nMustafa Barghouti is the secretary general of the Palestine National Initiative\n\n\"I am 100% sure that their main goal right from the beginning was the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza, trying to push people to Egypt, a terrible war crime. And if they managed to do so, I think their next goal will be to try to ethnically cleanse the West Bank and force people to join them.\"\n\n\"If they fail to ethnically cleanse all Gazans, I am sure that Netanyahu's plan B is to annexe Gaza City and the north of Gaza completely to Israel and claim it as a security area.\"\n\nBarghouthi warns that Israel faces dire prospects if its troops stay in Gaza long term.\n\n\"Israel did that before and it didn't work. And there will be resistance to their occupation, which they cannot tolerate. And that's why Netanyahu's goal really is to ethnically cleanse people. He wants to have military control of Gaza without people. He knows very well that Gaza with people is something that is unmanageable.\"\n\nBarghouthi believes Gaza should be part of a democratic Palestinian state.\n\n\"We Palestinians are grown up people. We don't need any patronage of anybody. And no, we don't need any other country to tell us how we should rule ourselves.\"\n\nThis crisis looks as if it will have more chapters. The US veto of the latest ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council gives Israel more time to wage war. But that extra time is not indefinite, and continued Biden support for Israel carries a political price in America's coming election year. Influential members of his own Democratic party oppose what he's doing, and so do younger voters whose support he needs. The Biden Administration is already deeply uncomfortable that Israel is ignoring its repeated requests to protect civilians and respect the laws of war.\n\nIsrael may struggle to achieve the crushing victory Benjamin Netanyahu has promised. He set a high bar for victory; not just annihilating Hamas as a military force, but also destroying its capacity to govern. Israel's vast military power, reinforced by American resupply, has not yet destroyed the capacity of Hamas to fight. The Hamas creed of Islamist nationalism is also embedded in the minds of many Palestinians. Guns often don't kill ideas but reinforce them.\n\nThe future is messy and dangerous. The war in Gaza will not end neatly.", "Donald Tusk's coalition government is likely to get approved later this week\n\nThe daily livestream from Poland's parliament, the Sejm, has become an online hit, drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers for each session. Some top a million.\n\nSoon the latest must-watch series will make the leap to the big screen. Demand to follow key proceedings next week is so high that one of Warsaw's main cinemas, Kinoteka, is showing the whole thing, offering politics with popcorn.\n\nMonday is the deadline for Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to present his cabinet for a vote of confidence by deputies.\n\nIf he fails to get enough support, as expected, parliament will move to approve a coalition government led by Donald Tusk which holds a majority of seats in the Sejm.\n\nBarring any major surprise, Poland should have a new cabinet by mid-week.\n\nThe surge of public enthusiasm for tracking the ins-and-outs of political life follows an election in mid-October that saw a record turnout of over 70%.\n\nDemocracy is in vogue here, with women and young people particularly engaged.\n\nMany were motivated to vote by stark warnings from the opposition that Poland was backsliding on some of the basic principles of democracy, under a right-wing PiS (Law and Justice Party) government.\n\nHundreds of thousands are following the Polish parliament's livestream for all the latest political twists and turns\n\nThe big one is the rule of law.\n\nThe EU is still withholding more than €30bn (£26bn; $32bn) in Covid recovery funds because of its concerns about the politicisation of Poland's courts.\n\nDonald Tusk and his coalition partners have promised to make restoring the system's independence a priority. But their ambitions have been stalled.\n\nPiS won more votes than any other party at the election, giving it a first shot at forming a government, and it's taking the maximum time permitted.\n\nBut the populist party's eight years running Poland are drawing to a close.\n\nPiotr Gaciarek hopes that might mean he gets his job back.\n\nFor two decades, the judge ruled on criminal cases, including murder and drug smuggling.\n\nFor the past two years he's been stuck in a small back office of the giant Warsaw District Court \"working with documents\", as he puts it.\n\nHe was suspended in late 2021 after issuing a legal assessment that a judge was not competent to rule because he'd been appointed after controversial reforms by the PiS government.\n\nAs well as being sent to a paperwork purgatory, Judge Gaciarek's salary was docked by 40%.\n\n\"They simply wanted to have their own judges, to influence decisions.\n\nPiS argues that its reforms - which affect how judges are appointed and how they are disciplined - were about shaking up old elites and improving efficiency.\n\nBut judges' groups talk instead of the politicisation of the judiciary and a campaign of harassment against those who speak out.\n\n\"Most cases are of no interest to the authorities: divorce, theft. But there are those where it's important how the judge rules: against critical journalists, opposition politicians, protesters,\" Judge Gaciarek argues.\n\n\"They simply wanted to have their own judges, to influence decisions.\"\n\nHe was eventually reinstated, after a fight. But he's still not back in his old job.\n\nA letter he showed me from the court's president said he was too busy to be released from his current role, although he says he has about 15 minutes' administrative work a week.\n\n\"I'm so frustrated. Poland trained me to try the toughest criminal cases. This is a waste of a major resource.\"\n\nThe battle over the judiciary is costing Poland in other ways.\n\nWithout the EU recovery funds, analysts say the new government will struggle to meet promises on raising teachers' salaries, maintaining social spending and improving healthcare, as well as other issues important to voters.\n\nTusk's coalition has promised reforms to release the cash. But there's no concrete plan and the process is bound to be fraught.\n\nAt least 2,000 new judges have been appointed since the contentious reforms, and opinion on whether they should stay in post is divided.\n\nOn top of that, PiS-friendly President Andrzej Duda is in office for another two years, with the power to veto any legislative changes.\n\n\"But it has to be resolved,\" Judge Gaciarek insists. \"I compare it to going to the doctor and wondering if the surgeon is authorised to treat me. I have to trust that the judicial system is working legally.\"\n\nAnother headline promise from Team Tusk was a radical overhaul of state media, which it describes as a \"factory of lies and hatred\".\n\nTalk of a \"purge\" prompted prominent members of the conservative press to warn of attempts to \"completely eliminate free speech\".\n\nBut under PiS, Poland has slumped in international rankings measuring press freedom.\n\nRadio 357 is living proof of the changes.\n\nThe station was launched in January 2021 by staff who resigned or were sacked from public radio's Channel 3, or Trojka, in a battle over political interference.\n\nThe last straw was an attempt to ban a song criticising PiS party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, which had surged to the top of the Trojka charts.\n\nPawel Soltys was sacked from Polish public radio after defending colleagues who had reported anti-government protests\n\nPawel Soltys, now the boss of 357, describes publicly funded media today as a \"propaganda machine\". But he says the interference began as soon as PiS were first elected.\n\nPawel was a journalist at Trojka back in 2016 when two news anchors were demoted to work in the archives, after reporting on anti-government protests.\n\nHe defended them, as their trade union representative, and was then sacked himself.\n\n\"It was one of the first cases of political interference, but [then] it was getting worse and worse,\" Pawel told me, in the station's studios beneath a public library in a Warsaw suburb.\n\n\"It took a year, before the whole [public media] machine was running to support the government.\"\n\nEntirely funded by listener donations, Radio 357 is mainly dedicated to music. But Pawel values the fact its news bulletins and current affairs show are free to cover whatever they want.\n\n\"On public radio it's not that you can't mention an anti-government protest,\" he says. \"You just have to make sure to say there's a small crowd.\"\n\nAssuming Team Tusk eventually start work, the list of promises to fulfil is long.\n\nWomen's groups - and women voters - are among the many who will be watching closely, especially for reform of the abortion laws.\n\nStrajk Kobiet has led major protests against a near-total ban on terminations in Poland.\n\nThe group's founder, Marta Lempart, told the BBC she expects Donald Tusk to keep his campaign pledge and \"do everything possible for legalisation to happen,\" allowing abortion on demand up to 12 weeks.\n\nMarta Lempart, centre, has been leading abortion rights protests in Poland the past few years\n\nThe group also wants an end to the harassment and prosecution of people who give advice to women seeking abortion abroad or provide morning-after pills.\n\n\"Young people and women brought victory to the government,\" Marta Lampart says, \"so they should not be cheated\".\n\n\"That would be a clear signal not to engage anymore, ever.\"\n\nFor now, the engagement level is high. Kinoteka says all the free tickets for its screening of parliamentary proceedings on Monday have been snapped up. They are expecting a full house.\n\nThe audience there, and across Poland, don't want to be disappointed.", "BBC Breakfast's Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty were joined on the sofa by Thunder, a therapy husky dog.\n\nThunder's owner Adrian told the duo that the NHS-approved husky also had his own special antibacterial \"cologne\" that made him smell nice and clean for his visits to hospitals.\n\nCharlie couldn't resist taking a sniff and confirmed that Thunder \"does smell good\".", "The card featuring the King and Queen shows them posing in their crowns at the Coronation earlier this year\n\nRoyal Family members have revealed their Christmas card images - with King Charles III choosing a picture from his Coronation earlier this year.\n\nThe King and Queen Camilla shared a photo of them wearing their robes and crowns in Buckingham Palace's throne room on 6 May.\n\nMeanwhile, the Prince and Princess of Wales have released a monochrome photograph of their family.\n\nThe family are seen arranged around Princess Charlotte sitting on a chair.\n\nThey are all wearing white shirts too, with Catherine, Princess of Wales, and daughter Charlotte, eight, wearing jeans, while the Prince of Wales, wears black trousers along with sons Prince George, 10, and Prince Louis, five.\n\nTheir photo was taken by Yorkshire-born photographer Josh Shinner, who has previously snapped stars including Florence Pugh, Jodie Comer and Sam Smith.\n\nThe King and Queen were captured by photographer Hugo Burnand for the second Christmas card featuring King Charles as monarch.\n\nThe couple are standing side-by-side, with King Charles pictured wearing the Imperial State Crown and Queen Camilla wearing Queen Mary's Crown.\n\nThe King is wearing a coronation tunic and the robe of estate, which was made of purple silk velvet that had been embroidered in gold and was also worn by King George VI in 1937.\n\nThe Queen's robe of estate was made by Ede and Ravenscroft and was designed and hand embroidered by the Royal School of Needlework.\n\nKing Charles and Queen Camilla were crowned at Westminster Abbey earlier this year in a ceremony that brought together 100 heads of state, kings and queens from across the world, celebrities, and family and friends of the couple.\n\nThousands of people also gathered to see the couple on the palace balcony after the coronation, where they were joined by the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children, as well as the coronation pages and Ladies in Attendance.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales pose for their annual Christmas card picture, alongside their three children, George (R), Charlotte and Louis (L)\n\nSenior royals regularly release official festive images for Christmas cards that are sent to friends, family and colleagues.\n\nLast year, Charles and Camilla chose a picture of them attending the Braemar Royal Highland Gathering last September - just days before his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales opted for a picture of them walking hand-in-hand with their children on a sunny day in Norfolk during the summer.\n\nCatherine also held her annual carol concert at Westminster Abbey on Friday, where midwives and nursery teachers, young carers, and those who may have had a challenging year, were among the 1,500 attendees.\n\nThe Westminster Abbey choir performed, along with Beverley Knight and Adam Lambert, while William, Micheal Ward, Emma Willis, Roman Kemp, and Jim Broadbent gave readings.\n\nRead the latest from our royal correspondent Sean Coughlan - sign up here.", "The Scottish government's failed legal challenge against the blocking of Holyrood's gender reform bill is the latest in a series of judicial defeats.\n\nOne of the country's most senior judges, Lady Dorrian, told MSPs last week that 4,946 civil cases involving the government have come to court between April 2016 and November 2023.\n\nSome of those have been high-level litigation, from challenges to domestic policy to constitutional clashes between governments. And in many, the government has come out on the wrong side.\n\nWhy has our politics ended up in the courts so frequently? And why does the Scottish government keep losing?\n\nDisagreements between the SNP-led administration in Edinburgh and the Conservative one in London are unsurprisingly frequent.\n\nThe schism between the governments has widened during the turbulent times of late, and tumbles into the courts on a regular basis.\n\nThe Supreme Court has been called in on multiple occasions to rule on the scope of Holyrood's powers.\n\nBrexit lit the blue touchpaper when the UK government decided to plough ahead with its flagship Withdrawal Bill against the express wishes of MSPs - prompting them to pass their own legislation.\n\nUK law officers then challenged the Holyrood \"continuity bill\" at the Supreme Court.\n\nThe bill fell down on one ground, but the judges said it could have stood up on most others - \"as a whole\" it was within devolved competence.\n\nHowever it transpired that after the bill passed, UK ministers had added their own Withdrawal Act to a special list of bills which cannot be modified by the devolved administrations.\n\nThat meant great swathes of the continuity bill were rendered unlawful - and Scottish ministers were furious, saying the goalposts had been moved mid-match.\n\nLegislative disputes between the Scottish and UK governments are heard in the Supreme Court in London\n\nSince then, the two governments have rarely hesitated to take each other to court.\n\nUK law officers have challenged several pieces of Holyrood legislation - one of which, on incorporating a UN charter on children's rights into Scottish law, has just undergone the parliament's first ever \"reconsideration stage\" to rectify issues flagged up by judges.\n\nThe Supreme Court actually said the bill had been \"drafted in terms which deliberately exceed the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament\", and it had to be stripped back.\n\nThe era of so-called \"muscular unionism\" continued with the UK government stepping in to block Holyrood's gender reform bill, with the first ever use of section 35 of the Scotland Act.\n\nScottish ministers then launched an equally unprecedented judicial review of that decision at the Court of Session, arguing that the Scottish Secretary Alister Jack had acted unlawfully.\n\nThat challenge was unsuccessful, with Lady Haldane ruling that Mr Jack had followed proper procedure - although the case may yet be subject to appeal.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Supreme Court rejected Holyrood's power to set up a referendum\n\nThe Scottish government has also resorted to the courts to pursue its own political goals.\n\nIn 2022, Nicola Sturgeon decided to ask the Supreme Court to rule on whether Holyrood had the power to legislate for an independence referendum.\n\nMinisters accepted that the fate of the union was reserved to Westminster, but thought there might be a technical path to victory by claiming that referendum would only be advisory and not trigger independence on its own.\n\nThey were wrong, and the court unanimously ruled that MSPs could not set up a vote without Whitehall's approval.\n\nThe ruling has caused much head-scratching in the independence movement about the best way to proceed, with talk of using elections as de-facto referendums, or wildcat votes.\n\nAlex Salmond first took the government he once led to court in 2018\n\nThere are more domestic cases too, like this week's spat with the Information Commissioner over whether details of the 2021 ministerial code investigation of Nicola Sturgeon should be subject to Freedom of Information (FoI) rules.\n\nSome legal commentators have noted how swiftly the judges arrived at their decision, batting away the appeal without even leaving the courtroom to confer.\n\nThat case stemmed from an earlier judicial review, when Alex Salmond successfully challenged how the government investigated internal harassment claims against him.\n\nLegal advice published during a Holyrood inquiry underlined the chaos in the government's efforts to defend against Mr Salmond's suit, with documents frequently unearthed late in the day and increasingly exasperated legal advisors threatening to quit.\n\nHe has now launched another court action, in a bid to win damages and force ministers to take accountability for the botched investigation.\n\nThere has also been a steady stream of legal disputes over legislation passed and policies proposed at Holyrood over the years.\n\nThe record here is more mixed; the government did win a landmark case about minimum pricing for alcohol, which allowed a flagship policy to become law.\n\nMinisters also successfully batted away a challenge to their policy of freezing rents and banning most evictions during the winter fuel crisis.\n\nThere was another victory in 2016 after Ineos sued over the government's \"ban\" on fracking - although ministers only won by arguing that they had not in fact banned fracking, and that SNP claims to that effect were a political \"gloss\".\n\nPolitics and the courts have collided more frequently in recent years\n\nBut there have been high-profile defeats too, which have derailed policies.\n\nThe Supreme Court shot downs plans for a \"named person\" scheme in 2016, and efforts to revive it fell apart at Holyrood over the following years until it was ultimately scrapped.\n\nThere was another defeat over the Deposit Return Scheme, although the policy had already been wrecked by a row with the UK government.\n\nFrequently these reversals have come at the hands of campaign groups fronted by members of the public or businesspeople. They range across portfolios; there was one in the summer over scallop dredging.\n\nAnother, by the campaign group For Women Scotland, rendered part of a bill about gender balance on public boards unlawful - necessitating another piece of legislation at Holyrood make amends.\n\nThe cases can echo out to the frontlines of where policies are enacted too. City of Edinburgh Council has now suffered two defeats in the court about its short-term lets licensing regime - with the drafting of the original legislation at Holyrood at the heart of the cases.\n\nLord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC is the Scottish government's chief law officer, and occasionally represents ministers in major court cases\n\nIn one sense it doesn't matter whether the government has ended up in court due to a policy row, a constitutional showdown, disputes over drafting or a citizen challenge to a controversial new law.\n\nThe lawyers get paid either way.\n\nIn the really big cases the government is represented by its own law officers - like the Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC - who are at least on the payroll.\n\nBut they are generally supported by independent advocates, and take legal advice from external firms. None of that comes cheap.\n\nThe series of cases about gender balance on public boards have cost more than £200,000 to defend. The challenges to the named person scheme incurred costs of almost £480,000.\n\nThere has been a growing trend of campaign groups crowd-funding cases against policies they don't like. Legal academic Andrew Tickell has been tracking the topic and found millions of pounds has been pledged to litigation over recent years.\n\nAlex Salmond solicited just over £100,000 of donations for his judicial review, and the government ultimately had to pay him £512,000 in costs when it admitted defeat.\n\nThe Information Commissioner has pointed to the fact that tens of thousands of pounds had been incurred in that case - and ultimately had been born by the public purse on both sides, during a much-publicised budget squeeze.\n\nNone of this is unique to Scotland - think of the big legal defeats the UK government has suffered over Brexit and its Rwanda policy.\n\nAnd for all that ministers are always clear that they respect the role of the judiciary in the law-making process, they would surely rather not spend quite so much time in front of the courts in future.", "Foreign Secretary David Cameron has threatened to withdraw co-operation with Scottish ministers after Humza Yousaf met with Recep Tayyip Erdogan.\n\nThe first minister met the Turkish president at COP28 without a UK official present, which Lord Cameron said was a breach of protocol.\n\nIt comes amid ongoing tensions between Scotland and the UK government over meetings with foreign officials.\n\nA spokesperson for Mr Yousaf said a UK official was invited to the meeting.\n\nMeanwhile a UK government source told the BBC Lord Cameron wants to take a \"harder line\" approach than his predecessor James Cleverly.\n\nThe BBC has seen a letter which Lord Cameron, who returned to the cabinet as foreign secretary last month, has written to the SNP's External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson.\n\nIn that letter, Lord Cameron said the Scottish government had assured the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) that it would give \"sufficient advance notice\" of the meeting with Mr Erdogan.\n\nHe said this was to allow one of his officials to attend the meeting and \"was not done\".\n\n\"The absence of an FCDO official at this meeting contravenes the protocols in our guidance on FCDO support to devolved government ministers' overseas visits,\" the letter reads.\n\n\"Any further breaches of the protocol of ministerial meetings have a FCDO official present will result in no further FCDO facilitation of meetings or logistical support.\n\n\"We will also need to consider the presence of Scottish government offices in UK government posts.\"\n\nLord Cameron at a press conference in Washington in December - he was appointed foreign secretary last month\n\nJames Cleverly made a similar threat when he was foreign secretary after Mr Yousaf met the Icelandic prime minister in August, again without UK diplomats.\n\nHowever a UK government source said this latest intervention represents an \"escalation\" over the issue and the foreign secretary wishes to take a \"harder line\" approach than Mr Cleverly.\n\nOn the meeting with President Erdogan, the source said that Foreign Office officials were not told where it would take place \"until it was too late\".\n\nThe move \"undermined UK foreign policy\", they said.\n\nA UK government spokesperson added: \"Foreign affairs is reserved under the Scotland Act and in such turbulent times, the need for the UK to speak on the world stage with one consistent voice is more important than ever.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the first minister said a UK official was aware of and invited to the meeting, and that the same arrangements were in place for Mr Yousaf's engagements with other world leaders.\n\nThey added: \"The nature of events such as COP is that timings can change at the last minute, and the FCDO representative was elsewhere at the time it was convenient for the Turkish president to meet.\n\n\"Any threat by the UK government to curtail the Scottish Government's international engagement is misguided and would work against Scotland's interests.\"\n\nA Scottish government source said Lord Cameron's letter was a \"gross overreaction\", adding: \"You can hardly say to a president, 'Can you wait a second while we find our chaperone?'\"\n\nThey said that the FCDO representative was \"very late\" for a couple of meetings at the summit, but that was \"the nature of fast moving things like Cop.\"\n\nThe meeting between Mr Yousaf and Mr Erdogan had already proven controversial within the first minister's party.\n\nSNP councillor Roza Salih said she was \"disgusted\" by the meeting, as Turkey had stepped up attacks on Kurdish groups in Syria.\n\nThe Kurdish-born politician was elected in 2022 and became the first councillor to have moved to Scotland as a refugee.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Humza Yousaf This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe first minister posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he had discussed the climate crisis and the Israel-Gaza conflict with Mr Erdogan and the Lebanese prime minister during their meeting on 1 December.\n\nHe said he had called for an immediate ceasefire in the region. The BBC understands this contradiction of the UK government position has caused particular concern in the foreign office.\n\nMr Erdogan has taken a critical stance of Israel, accusing it of behaving like a \"war criminal\".\n\nHe made the comments while addressing thousands of demonstrators at a pro-Palestinian rally in Istanbul in October.\n\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has \"the most moral army in the world\".", "Mahsa Amini, from the north-western city of Saqez, died in hospital after spending three days in a coma\n\nThe family of Mahsa Amini have been banned from flying to France to collect a top human rights prize in her honour.\n\nMs Amini's parents and brother were stopped from boarding their flight and had their passports confiscated, their lawyer said.\n\nThey were travelling to Strasbourg to be presented with the EU's Sakharov Prize - which has been awarded posthumously to Ms Amini.\n\nTheir lawyer said they were banned from leaving despite having valid visas.\n\nMs Amini's death last year sparked protests unlike any the country had seen before.\n\nShe died in hospital in Tehran on 16 September 2022, three days after she was detained by morality police in the capital for allegedly violating Iran's strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf.\n\nWitnesses said the 22-year-old Kurd was beaten while in custody, but authorities denied she was mistreated and instead blamed \"sudden heart failure\" for her death.\n\nIn October, the European Union announced it was posthumously awarding its top rights prize to Ms Amini and the global \"Woman, Life, Freedom\" movement that her death triggered.\n\nSpeaking to the AFP news agency, the family's lawyer, Chirinne Ardakani, said Ms Amini's mother, father and brother had been \"prohibited from boarding the flight that was to take them to France for the presentation of the Sakharov Prize\".\n\nShe said the Iranian authorities \"have never been so mobilised to prevent the families of the victims from speaking to the international community\".\n\nThe president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, called on Iran to \"retract the decision\" to ban the family from travelling.\n\n\"Their place next Tuesday is at the European Parliament in Strasbourg to receive the Sakharov Prize, with the brave women of Iran,\" she said on social media. \"The truth cannot be silenced.\"\n\nIn September, on the anniversary of his daughter's death, Ms Amini's father Amjad was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and warned against marking the anniversary of his daughter's death, according to human rights groups.\n\nThousands of people around the world did mark the anniversary, taking to the streets in mass protests. Mr Amini was later released.", "The two sets of twin boys were aged three and four\n\nA mother has been charged with manslaughter after her four children died in a fire in south London in 2021.\n\nDeveca Rose, 29, of Sutton, was also charged with child abandonment on 9 November 2023, the Met Police said.\n\nLeyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and Kyson and Bryson Hoath, aged four, died after a fire in Collingwood Road, Sutton, at around 19:00 GMT on 16 December 2021.\n\nMs Rose is due to appear at Croydon Magistrates' Court on 11 December.\n\nFlowers were laid near the scene by the community\n\nFirefighters in breathing apparatus removed the four brothers from the mid-terrace house during the \"intense blaze\" and gave them CPR.\n\nThey were taken to two south London hospitals where they were pronounced dead.\n\nThe Met Police said its \"extremely complex investigation continues\" into the fire, supported by the London Fire Brigade and Crown Prosecution Service.\n\nA spokesperson for the force added that they recognise it had a \"significant impact on the local community\".\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "The Green Party has cut official ties with one of its largest members' groups amid a dispute over the party's stance on sex and gender.\n\nSenior members of Green Party Women (GPW) claim the group was \"disaffiliated\" because of their promotion of \"gender-critical views\".\n\nA Green Party spokesperson said it suspended GPW for procedural reasons.\n\nThere are divisions within the Green Party about its approach to trans rights.\n\nThe party's official position is that it supports transgender people and backs making it easier to change legal sex via self-determination.\n\nBut there are long-running tensions with members who hold gender-critical beliefs, which includes that a person's sex cannot be changed.\n\nThe BBC has seen documents that show the Green Party disaffiliated the GPW for failing to run its planned Autumn 2021 committee election until January 2022. This breached party by-laws and invalidated the group's leadership.\n\nThe GPW disputes the election was held too late. The group's former committee called the reasoning for its disaffiliation \"spurious\", claiming the party has found a technical reason for a \"politically motivated\" attack, in a document seen by the BBC.\n\nZoe Hatch, the GPW's most recently elected co-chair who is currently suspended from the party, described the decision as a \"convenient way for the ruling bodies to shut down the women's group\".\n\nEmma Bateman, a former co-chair of GPW who was briefly expelled from the party, said the disaffiliation was to \"demonstrate that women stepping out of line will be punished\".\n\n\"Members need to grasp what is happening and challenge the way that the ruling party bodies are treating gender-critical women.\n\n\"The Greens are gaining a reputation for misogyny and for a party that claims to support women's rights, that is a disaster.\"\n\nBeing unaffiliated to the party means the group can no longer access party resources or bring motions at the Green Party's annual conferences.\n\nIt has also lost its place on the Green Party's leading Political Committee and the Equality and Diversity Committee.\n\nThe contested election came to light after a complaint was made against the leadership of the GPW for bullying, the BBC understands.\n\nChesca Walton, a former co-chair of the GPW, had called for the Green Party to disaffiliate the GPW, because she said it was no longer \"a safe and welcoming space for all Green Party members, especially those who are trans or non-binary\".\n\nDuring her time as co-chair Ms Walton said she had been bullied by members of the group.\n\nIn a statement she said: \"I have never in my life witnessed such vile and inappropriate behaviour as I have witnessed from within Green Party Women.\n\n\"Such behaviour includes dehumanisation, harassment, intimidation and gaslighting. It is important to stress that this is a tiny minority of members, but it does have a disproportionate impact on the party as a whole.\"\n\nSpeaking to the BBC Ms Walton said: \"I'm really glad that this ruling has drawn a line under this issue and gives us all the opportunity to move on.\"\n\nThe Green Party said GPW will be able to re-join the party as soon as they \"meet the constitutional requirements\", though did not provide a timescale of how quickly this could happen.\n\nThe Green Party's rights and responsibilities page states \"trans men are men, trans women are women, and that non-binary identities exist and are valid\".\n\nThe party also supports making it easier for trans people to change their legal status without the need for a Gender Reassignment Certificate (GRC).\n\nBut there remains some tension within the membership.\n\nSome in the Green Party say policies on the rights of transgender people to access women-only spaces remain ambiguous - a key battleground in the debate around trans rights - pointing out the party supports single-sex wards in hospitals in its policy documents.\n\nThe GPW was suspended as senior members were working towards establishing a Green women's declaration - which focuses on biological sex as a basis for women's rights.\n\nLast year, a motion by the GPW to amend the Green Party's constitution to include protections for sex-based rights was rejected. Detractors said the way it was worded excluded trans people from protections.\n\nA member of the Green Party LGBTIQA+ group has written a motion to be debated at the group's AGM that would have classed the gender critical movement as inherently hateful but it has since been withdrawn.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nStrong winds and heavy rain have caused disruption around the UK as two storms track across the country.\n\nMet Office yellow weather warnings are in place through much of the country, with one warning in north west England in place until 3:00 GMT on Sunday.\n\nThe conditions have already impacted some train lines, with warnings of further disruptions to be expected.\n\nFour League Two football matches were also postponed due to waterlogged pitches.\n\nThe wet and windy conditions are being caused by two storms tracking one after the other across the Atlantic Ocean and over the UK.\n\nStorm Elin had drenched and battered much of the country by Saturday afternoon, while Storm Fergus was expected to have a similar impact on Sunday.\n\nMet Office spokesman Stephen Dixon said the band of heavy wind and rain will move from the south-west of the UK towards the north-east on Saturday, \"bringing with it heavy rain for much of the country\".\n\n\"We will also be seeing some quite strong winds in Wales, the Midlands, northern England and Northern Ireland, particularly coastal communities around the Irish Sea,\" he said.\n\nOn what was causing the stormy weather, BBC weather's Tomasz Schafernaker said: \"The weather can become turbulent due to a strong jet stream spawning multiple areas of low pressure.\n\n\"It's not uncommon for these lows to intensify into storms, impacting Ireland and the UK in rapid succession.\n\n\"On this occasion, Ireland's Met Eireann named both storms Elin and Fergus, anticipating the most significant impact to be felt in Ireland from these two storms.\"\n\nSince 2015, the UK and Irish weather services have named storms - most years,drawing on a shortlist of submitted favourites- with the aim of making it easier for the public to engage with the more extreme weather. The Dutch service also became part of the naming group in 2019.\n\nThe Met Weather Office issued a yellow warning for rain for an area stretching from Carlisle to Sheffield until 3:00 GMT on Sunday.\n\nThe yellow warning indicates potential flooding, service disruptions and power failures.\n\nRail lines are blocked between Liskeard and Looe due to \"heavy flooding\"\n\nThis majestic picture of a rainbow was taken in the town of Nairn, in the Scottish Highlands\n\nThe wet and windy conditions swept on the Suffolk coastline\n\nThere are also flood alerts in place, which stretch as far north as Scotland and as south as Cornwall.\n\nIn Cornwall, rail lines are blocked between Liskeard and Looe due to \"heavy flooding\", Great Western Railway (GWR) said. The operator urged passengers to use Go Cornwall buses instead.\n\nThe Environment Agency has issued a reminder that people should not to enter flood waters as it can contain hidden dangers including sharp objects, sewage, uncovered manholes and chemicals.", "It is just gone 00:30 here in London and 02:30 in Gaza where we can hear the occasional thud of an explosion on a live video feed, set up across the boundary in Israeli territory.\n\nMany civilians in Gaza have gone to bed hungry after another day of serious shortages of food, water and medicine, while Israel stepped up its bombardment of targets both in the north and south of the territory.\n\nIsraeli tanks moved towards the centre of the southern city of Khan Younis, where hundreds of thousands of Gazans have sought shelter. Israel has now told them to move to al-Mawasi but international aid organisations criticise the call, since the area is a small strip of land with few buildings and no infrastructure to provide for basic human needs.\n\nThe rest of the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a \"total breakdown of civil order\" when it comes to the delivery of limited humanitarian aid, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees says.\n\nAt least 18,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, since 7 October when Hamas launched its devastating surprise attack on Israel.\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Hamas fighters have been surrendering to IDF forces and it is the \"beginning of the end\" for the group which has controlled Gaza for years. However, one military analyst speaking to the BBC described the claim as “wildly optimistic”.\n\nThe UK and the EU said they were planning to impose sanctions on Israelis responsible for violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Violent attacks there, including fatal shootings of Palestinians by armed Jewish settlers, have risen sharply.\n\nAnd protests over the war go on, with pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Chile demanding a ceasefire outside the US embassy in the cpaital, Santiago.\n\nPolice in Chile hold off protesters demanding a ceasefire outside the US embassy in Santiago Image caption: Police in Chile hold off protesters demanding a ceasefire outside the US embassy in Santiago", "Stephen Fry says he needed constant physiotherapy after breaking his leg, pelvis and a \"bunch of ribs\"\n\nStephen Fry has said he finally feels comfortable returning to work - three months after having a nasty 6ft (1.8m) fall from a stage at London's O2 Arena.\n\nThe actor and broadcaster spoke about his recovery for the first time during an interview with Claudia Winkleman on her BBC Radio 2 show on Saturday.\n\nHe was left needing constant physiotherapy after breaking his leg, pelvis and a \"bunch of ribs\".\n\nBut he will soon be back on screens, hosting a UK version of Jeopardy!\n\nFry said he \"praised my lucky stars\" he did not injure his spine or skull after falling 6ft onto concrete while trying to exit the stage following a lecture about AI at the O2 Arena, in Greenwich, south-east London, in September.\n\n\"I did my bow after delivering this lecture, turned to go off stage and didn't realise that I was walking off the part of the stage where there was nothing - just a six-foot drop on to concrete,\" he said.\n\n\"So I broke my right leg in a couple of places and my hip and pelvis in four places and a bunch of ribs.\"\n\nSpeaking to Winkleman about his new ITV television show Jeopardy! - which is already a popular quiz show in the US - he said it had been \"an exciting week\" as he flew to Zurich for an event and did not need to use his walking stick for the first time since his fall.\n\nThe 66-year-old added he was now fine, as \"like Lazarus I cast aside my crutches\" and will return to work.\n\nWinkleman said she had no idea his accident had happened, but Fry quickly responded that \"I didn't want to make a fuss about it\".\n\nWhen asked what the secret was behind his recovery, he said \"constant physiotherapy\", although he was reluctant to take Oxycontin on his first night at hospital, as it is known for being a highly addictive opioid drug.\n\nHe has spoken openly in the past about his previous battles with drug addiction and, in his memoir More Fool Me, admitted to taking cocaine in Buckingham Palace, both Houses of Parliament and BBC TV Centre.\n\nHowever, he changed his mind about taking the opioid when a surgeon told him the pills \"are not there for your comfort, they are there for your recovery and to save the NHS money\".\n\nFry, who shot to fame in the 1980s as one half of the Fry and Laurie double act, also said he felt \"self-conscious\" about walking without a cane for the first time near his home in central London.\n\n\"The pavements are absolutely packed and people will stop to take a picture of the Christmas lights and you get worried about bumping into people. but it has been fine so far, but I feel self-conscious without the stick,\" he said.\n\nFinally, he added that although it was a \"tired cliché\", he wanted to thank that staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich as \"it is not a famous hospital but they are doing extraordinary work and were very kind.\"\n\nRecalling how he got the job as host of ITV's new Jeopardy! series, which begins on New Year's Day, Fry said he just happened to bring up the show during a dinner with his American agent while he was in the US filming episodes of the Apple TV series The Morning Show.\n\n\"He asked me what I was getting up to every day and I said: 'Well, my husband and I are not very Hollywood party animals or anything like that. We usually stay at home, one of us will cook and we'll watch Jeopardy,'\" he told Winkleman.\n\nHe added they went on to talk more about the show, with Fry telling his agent he wondered why there wasn't a UK version, as it was \"the best format I've ever encountered\".\n\n\"A couple of weeks later, he calls up and says: 'They're very excited about you hosting Jeopardy' and I said: 'Excuse me?'\" He joked, before adding he was won over when he visited the set.\n\nJeopardy! was an \"absolute institution\", Fry said, as the rules are different to other quiz shows. The show has been on US screens since the mid-1960s.\n\nRather than a traditional question and answer format, contestants will instead receive facts about a subject in the form of answers and they have to identify what the question could be.\n\nYou can listen to the full interview as part of the Claudia Winkleman show on BBC Sounds.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Robert Jenrick on why he resigned from government\n\nFormer immigration minister Robert Jenrick has said Rishi Sunak is making \"a political choice\" to revive Rwanda asylum scheme in a way that is unlikely to work.\n\nIn his first interview since quitting his post, Mr Jenrick told the BBC the draft law was \"weak\" and would be \"bogged down\" by legal challenges.\n\nEveryone who \"understands\" asylum law thinks the bill will fail, he added.\n\nHe added that he would not support the bill at a crucial vote on Tuesday.\n\nThe government has introduced the legislation to revive its scheme to send people seeking UK asylum to the east African country, after the policy was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court last month.\n\nThe legislation seeks to declare in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country to send refugees to - thereby stopping flights being grounded on legal grounds.\n\nMr Sunak made \"stopping\" small boats crossing the English Channel one of his top pledges earlier this year, with figures showing 45,774 people made the journey last year.\n\nA total of 24,830 have continued to arrive in the first nine months of 2023 and, despite the dip in arrivals, it is expected to be a key issue ahead of the general election expected next year.\n\nBut, speaking to BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Jenrick said the legislation in its current form would still allow a \"range of legal claims that will bog down our scheme\".\n\n\"I'm afraid it's very clear to all those people who really understand how this system operates that this bill will not succeed,\" he told the programme.\n\nHe added that people under threat of deportation would still be able to appeal on the grounds that Rwanda, even if generally safe, is not individually safe for them.\n\n\"I think that a political choice has been made to bring forward a bill which doesn't do the job,\" he said.\n\nHe had quit as immigration minister because he couldn't ask MPs to vote for a legislation he deemed \"a weak bill that won't work,\" he added.\n\nThe government had already introduced two bills to deal with the issue of illegal migration, he said, adding: \"It's three strikes or you're out\".\n\nAlthough he conceded the Rwanda plan could eventually lead to some \"symbolic\" flights taking off, there would not be enough deportations to deter people from crossing the English Channel.\n\nThe bill to revive the scheme has divided opinions among Conservative MPs, whose support Mr Sunak will need to ensure the bill passes its first parliamentary stage next week.\n\nMinisters argue the threat of deportation to Rwanda will deter people from crossing the English Channel in small boats\n\nThe prime minister has previously insisted his legislation will only allow legal challenges from those who can prove they are at \"real and imminent risk of serious and irreversible harm\".\n\nSpeaking on the same programme, Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove echoed this point, adding that only a \"vanishingly small\" number of appeals would still be allowed.\n\nThe government's law had already been endorsed in a \"plethora of legal opinion,\" he said, and was a \"robust bill that is legally sound\".\n\nSome liberal Tories have argued it goes too far in trying to bypass the courts, and puts the UK at risk of breaching its international legal obligations towards refugees.\n\nBut others on the right of the party say it does not go far enough, and will continue to be derailed by legal challenges.\n\nMr Jenrick added that he, along with like-minded Conservative MPs, hoped to persuade ministers \"that there is a better way\" to design the new law, adding he wanted the bill to work and create a \"powerful deterrent\".\n\nThe different factions within the Tory party are taking legal advice on the legislation, and are expected to deliver their verdict on the bill before Tuesday's vote.\n\nOn Sunday, a leading member of the European Research Group (ERG) - a group on the right of the party - said its own legal advice found the law was not fit for purpose.\n\nWriting in the Sunday Telegraph, Sir Bill Cash said the current wording of the legislation was not \"sufficiently watertight\".\n\nAt the vote on Tuesday, MPs will be asked to decide whether the bill should be blocked completely, or allowed to progress to its next stage in Parliament.\n\nLabour and opposition parties have already said they will try and vote it down, meaning the government needs to ensure enough Tory MPs vote for it to allow it to pass.\n\nTory critics of the bill could decide to allow the bill to pass at this stage, possibly by abstaining, in the hope of securing concessions from the government as it goes through the Commons.\n\nMr Jenrick also warned the Tories would face \"red hot fury\" from voters unless the party is able to do more to tackle both legal and illegal migration.\n\nThe governmentunveiled measureslast week to reduce levels of legal migration, following a backlash within the party after official figures showed it reached a record 745,000 in 2022.\n\nLabour has also said it thinks legal migration is too high, blaming the current high levels on a lack of training and skills development for Britons.\n\nAlso speaking to Laura Kuenssberg, shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said the party agreed with a government decision to raise the £26,200 minimum salary to apply for a UK work visa.\n\nHowever she refused to say whether its proposed hike to £38,700 was the right level, adding her party would like official migration advisers to publish their evidence first.", "Satellite images commissioned by the BBC reveal the extent of destruction across Gaza, showing that nearly 98,000 buildings may have suffered damage.\n\nThe satellite images were taken last Thursday - before the start of a seven-day suspension of hostilities, which has now ended.\n\nDrone footage and verified video also show buildings and entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble after Israeli air strikes and on-the-ground fighting.\n\nWhile northern Gaza has been the focus of the Israeli offensive and has borne the brunt of the destruction, widespread damage extends across the entire strip.\n\nIsrael says northern Gaza, which includes the major urban centre of Gaza City, was a \"centre of gravity of Hamas\", the group behind the deadly 7 October attacks on Israel. The Israeli military says its bombing campaign has successfully targeted Hamas commanders and fighters and accuses the group of embedding itself in civilian areas.\n\nSatellite data analysis suggests that almost 98,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip may have suffered damage, mostly in the north - as shown in the above map.\n\nAnalysis of the data was carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University. It is based on comparisons of two separate images, revealing changes in the height or structure of buildings which suggests damage.\n\nWe have analysed satellite imagery from several areas with extensive damage.\n\nThe cities of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the north and north-east of the Gaza Strip were among the first to be targeted by air strikes after the 7 October attacks by Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the area was a hideout for Hamas.\n\nParts of Beit Lahia, which overlooked olive groves and sand dunes stretching towards the border with Israel, were flattened. The satellite image below shows an area in the north-east of Beit Lahia, where a significant block of buildings was destroyed.\n\nBulldozers appear to have cleared roads through the rubble and the Israeli military cleared land and set up defensive positions in surrounding fields.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe IDF also struck the small nearby city of Beit Hanoun, less than 1.6km (1 mile) from the border. It said 120 targets were hit in the area on the first day of air strikes.\n\nAs the images above show, a skyline of multi-storey buildings and a mosque was gradually reduced to rubble between 14 October and 22 November.\n\nAfter weeks of air strikes on Gaza, Israel moved in on the ground - tanks and bulldozers going through areas which had been heavily bombarded. The IDF worked its way southwards along the coast towards Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in the Gaza City area.\n\nAs the image below shows, a whole series of craters are visible in what was once a residential area. Some of the buildings on the beach front, which boasted Gaza's first five-star hotel, the Al-Mashtal, as well as huts and restaurants, appear to have been partially destroyed.\n\nAbout a week after the air strikes began, the IDF warned Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south of a river known as Wadi Gaza for their own safety.\n\nDespite the warning and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Gaza City, areas in the south continued to be targeted.\n\nNuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza was hit several times before the temporary pause in hostilities began. The camp was said to be home to about 85,000 people, according to the UN.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn this verified video, which emerged online, people are seen picking through the rubble of collapsed and damaged buildings.\n\nThe distinctive black chimney stacks of the Gaza Power Plant, situated just north of the camp, are visible in the background.\n\nThe BBC has approached the IDF for comment.\n\nIn Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, thousands of people are living in tents or the rubble of bombed-out buildings.\n\nAlthough the damage was not as widespread as in the north, up to 15% of buildings across the city may have been damaged, according to Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek's analysis.\n\nAs well as pushing down from the north, Israeli forces also cut across the Gaza Strip westwards, isolating Gaza City from the south.\n\nIn this image below, taken to the south of Gaza City, we can see that a previously populated residential area was cleared by the IDF with heavy machinery and a road bulldozed towards the western Mediterranean shoreline.\n\nYou can also see dozens of military vehicles, including tanks, grouped behind fortifications made from earth.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nSatellite images also show an open square of land with a Star of David carved into the earth by vehicle tracks in Gaza City, near al-Azhar University.\n\nImages online from before the war showed children playing there and suggested it was a park, but IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said the ground was used by Hamas as a parade square near a base. The area was taken over by the IDF's Golani Brigade.\n\nA Star of David - which is used as a Jewish and Israeli symbol - was made by armoured vehicles in a ceremony in memory of Israeli soldiers who had been killed since the war began, according to a post by Rear Adm Hagari on X.\n\nAdditional reporting by Thomas Spencer, Paul Brown, Jake Horton, Alex Murray and Shayan Sardarizadeh and Jemimah Herd", "The University of Pennsylvania's president has resigned after her Congressional testimony triggered a backlash\n\nA US university president has quit after her comments about antisemitism on campus during a Congressional hearing triggered a major backlash.\n\nElizabeth Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, refused to say whether students who called for the genocide of Jews would be punished.\n\nThe university said she \"voluntarily tendered her resignation\" but will stay in post until a replacement is found.\n\nMs Magill has previously apologised for her testimony.\n\nShe made the controversial comments while appearing in front of a House of Representatives committee on 5 December alongside the presidents of Harvard and MIT, Claudine Gay and Sally Kornbluth.\n\nThey were asked by Republican New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik: \"Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university's] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment? Yes or no?\"\n\nMs Magill and her MIT and Harvard counterparts said repeatedly it would depend on the \"context\" and have been criticised for not flatly condemning any calls for the genocide of Jews.\n\nThe Congressional hearing was held amid widespread campus protests sparked by the Israel-Gaza conflict and a rising number of antisemitism incidents.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn a video statement released after the hearing, Ms Magill apologised for her testimony, but calls for her to step down have continued in recent days.\n\nShe was criticised by the White House, and a major donor who had planned to give the university $100m (£79.3m) pulled out, saying he was \"appalled\" at Ms Magill's comments.\n\nOn Thursday, two students at the university - both of whom are Jewish - filed a lawsuit, claiming the campus has become \"an incubation lab for virulent anti-Jewish hatred, harassment and discrimination.\"\n\nMs Magill's resignation was confirmed by Scott L. Bok, chair of the Penn board of trustees. He said Ms Magill would step down as president but \"will remain a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law\".\n\nTrustees had reportedly been due to meet on Sunday to discuss Ms Magill's position.\n\nIn a statement released via the university after her resignation was confirmed, Ms Magill said: \"It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution.\n\n\"It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn's vital missions.\"\n\nThe University of Pennsylvania - commonly known as UPenn - is among the oldest and most prestigious universities in the US, and is part of the elite Ivy League group alongside institutions such as Harvard and Yale.", "As Israel presses its military offensive across Gaza, the army has been repeatedly advising some two million civilians to move to a \"humanitarian zone\" smaller than London's Heathrow Airport.\n\nAl-Mawasi is a narrow strip of land by the Mediterranean Sea. It has few buildings and largely consists of sandy dunes and agricultural land.\n\nThe zone designated as safe by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is just 8.5 sq km (3.3 sq miles).\n\nReem Abd Rabu has spent the last few weeks sleeping on the ground and sharing a tent with four other families in the area.\n\nShe is one of the 1.8 million Palestinians who have been displaced since the war began on 7 October after Hamas's attack on Israel.\n\nShe first travelled to Khan Younis after fleeing northern Gaza, but after nearby houses were bombed, she said she felt she had to go to the place the Israeli army identified on the map as safe.\n\nReem told the BBC al-Mawasi was an abandoned place, \"not a place for human beings\".\n\nShe thought it would be safe from the intense bombardment and fighting, but when she arrived, she found little to no basic services.\n\n\"Water comes one day and not for the next 10 days, even in the bathrooms. And it's the same thing for electricity,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThe IDF has urged civilians to move to al-Mawasi on at least 15 occasions on social media, the last on 2 December.\n\nAlthough the UN is distributing some supplies, civilians say there is a lack of basic necessities in the area\n\nThe first mention of the humanitarian zone was on 18 October, when the IDF's Arabic spokesperson posted on X: \"The IDF orders Gaza residents to move to the humanitarian zone in the area of al-Mawasi, to which international humanitarian aid will be directed if necessary.\"\n\nAnother post, from 21 October, stated: \"If your life and the lives of those you love are important to you, head south of Wadi Gaza. We advise you to arrive at the humanitarian area in Mawasi according to our instructions.\"\n\nLittle to no internet connectivity has made it difficult for people to find safe areas in other parts of Gaza.\n\nHowever, even the IDF instructions on al-Mawasi have changed several times. Civilians say the changing messaging has made it difficult for them to know exactly where to find safety there too.\n\nEach IDF post has been accompanied by a map pinpointing a small area within al-Mawasi that Gazans should evacuate to.\n\nBut different areas in al-Mawasi have been designated as \"humanitarian zones\" by Israel on different dates.\n\nOn 18 October, the IDF designated the humanitarian zone marked in purple below. But three days later, the IDF declared a different area - shown in blue.\n\nThen, on 30 October, the area changed again - to the one marked in green.\n\nMona al-Astal, who has also fled to al-Mawasi, says she is kept awake all night by the sound of shelling.\n\nShe is a doctor who says she was forced to leave Khan Younis after her neighbour's home was bombed.\n\nMona also describes a lack of water, electricity and supplies in the humanitarian zone. She said she had been forced to buy a tent and other supplies for $300 (£238).\n\nMona said that she had seen people breaking into a UN agency storehouse because \"they were so hungry, they have nothing to eat\".\n\nTo make matters worse, diseases including lice, chicken pox and intestinal infections have become widespread among children, she says.\n\n\"With every day that passes, the danger for us here increases,\" Mona added.\n\nMohammed Ghanem fled from an area near al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza where he said more than 25 strikes occurred next to his house.\n\nHe said he came to al-Mawasi because \"the Israeli army has been directing people here\" but said the area was \"neither humane nor safe\".\n\nHe described seeing Israeli tanks less than a kilometre away and said there had been strikes on an area just 500 metres (1,640ft) from the humanitarian zone.\n\nThe BBC has identified at least one area of damage approximately 500m away from the designated area of al-Mawasi since the IDF began directing people there.\n\nThe BBC has contacted Israeli forces, but has not received a response.\n\nThe IDF does claim that on 6 December Hamas \"launched a rocket from a humanitarian zone toward Israel\", and released a map with al-Mawasi marked.\n\nThe BBC has not been able to independently verify this.\n\nInternational agencies have been voicing concerns about the viability of humanitarian zones in Gaza when fighting and air strikes extend across so much of the territory.\n\nIn mid-November the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the plan for al-Mawasi was \"a recipe for disaster\".\n\nWHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: \"Attempting to cram so many people into such a small area with such little infrastructure or services will significantly increase risks to health for people who are already on the brink.\"\n\nThe United Nations also has wider concerns about the plan.\n\n\"The situation in Gaza is catastrophic; no one and no place is safe,\" Andrea de Domenico, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) told the BBC.", "Alex Jones has built a cult following online by sharing outlandish conspiracy theories\n\nConspiracy theorist Alex Jones has returned to X - formerly Twitter - by reposting a message by controversial influencer Andrew Tate.\n\nTate's message praised both Jones and X owner Elon Musk, claiming: \"We're back\"\n\nHis account was reinstated after a poll by Musk, with 70% of roughly two million respondents voting to lift the ban.\n\nJones is most notorious for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was staged.\n\nHe was ordered to pay $1.5bn (£1.32bn) in damages to family members of the victims, after courts found he had caused them to be subjected to harassment and death threats with his false claims.\n\nJones, who founded the conspiracy theory website Infowars, was removed from other major platforms, including YouTube and Facebook.\n\nHe was banned from Twitter in 2018 for breaching the site's rules on abusive behaviour.\n\nAndrew Tate, who was also previously banned from the site before having his account reinstated last year, is a self-proclaimed misogynist influencer who is facing trial in Romania charged with rape, human trafficking and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women - which he denies\n\nHe also defended Jones in a social media post on Saturday, calling him a \"hero\".\n\nElon Musk bought X in October 2022 and initially rejected calls from some of Jones's supporters to reinstate his account.\n\nIn one post, he cited the death of his 10-week old baby in 2002 as motivation for not reversing the ban, writing: \"I have no mercy for anyone who would use the death of children for gain, politics or fame.\"\n\nBut on Saturday Musk asked users to vote on whether or not Jones should be allowed to return - a repeat of the move which saw former US President Donald Trump's account reinstated a month after Musk took over the firm. Mr Trump has only posted once since his ban was lifted.\n\nAfter Musk posted the poll, Jones shared a video online in which he called on his supporters to vote in favour of his ban being overturned.\n\nJones's old account was reinstated hours after the poll ended.\n\nResponding to one user on Saturday, Musk said he \"vehemently\" disagreed with Jones's statements about Sandy Hook, adding: \"but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not?\"\n\nHe said the move would be \"bad for X financially\" but \"principles matter more than money\".\n\nMusk has taken an increasingly bullish line on free speech online during his time at the top of X.\n\nLast month he accused major advertisers of trying to \"blackmail\" him when they boycotted X over concerns about antisemitic content shared on the site - including a post by Musk himself, which he later apologised for.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nTributes were paid to the supporter who died in the stands during Granada's home game against Athletic Bilbao as it resumed on Monday.\n\nThe fixture at Nuevo Los Carmenes stadium was stopped after 17 minutes on Sunday as paramedics tried to resuscitate the Granada season ticket holder who had a cardiac arrest.\n\nIt was abandoned an hour later.\n\nOn Monday, a minute's silence was held before the resumption of the game, which ended 1-1.\n\nA shirt was also placed on the supporter's seat in the stands, while captains Victor Diaz of Granada and Iker Muniain of Athletic Bilbao laid flowers as they paid their respects.\n\nThe fan was named by Granada as Antonio Trujillo Izquierdo.\n\nInaki Williams had given the visitors the lead before the game stopped on Sunday, but an Inigo Ruiz de Galarreta own goal earned Granada a draw.\n\nOn Sunday, the hosts had also offered condolences to the fan's \"family and friends as well as to the entire Granada family\".\n\nAthletic goalkeeper Unai Simon was applauded by Granada supporters for helping to inform officials of the incident in the stands. Players from both sides left the pitch 20 minutes after the match was initially stopped on Sunday.\n• None Yuri Berchiche (Athletic Club) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Bryan Zaragoza (Granada CF) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Aitor Paredes (Athletic Club) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Nico Williams with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt missed. Ander Herrera (Athletic Club) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Íñigo Lekue with a cross.\n• None Attempt blocked. Lucas Boyé (Granada CF) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "A senior UN aid official has warned that half of Gaza's population is starving, as fighting there continues.\n\nCarl Skau, deputy director of the UN World Food Programme, said only a fraction of supplies needed have been able to enter the Strip - and nine out of 10 people cannot eat every day.\n\nConditions in Gaza have made deliveries \"almost impossible\", Mr Skau said.\n\nIsrael says it must continue air strikes on Gaza to eliminate Hamas and bring Israeli hostages home.\n\nIsrael Defence Forces spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht told the BBC on Saturday that \"any death and pain to a civilian is painful, but we don't have an alternative\".\n\n\"We are doing everything we can to get as much as possible inside the Gaza Strip,\" he said.\n\nHerzi Halevi, chief of staff of the IDF, was filmed telling soldiers the army has to \"press harder\" because \"we're seeing terrorists surrendering... a sign their network is collapsing\".\n\nMeanwhile, the Biden administration has used an emergency law to bypass Congress and authorise the sale of some 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106m (£85m) to Israel.\n\nMovement in and out of Gaza has been heavily restricted since 7 October, when Hamas fighters broke through Israel's heavily-guarded perimeter fence - killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages.\n\nIn response, Israel closed its borders with Gaza and began launching air strikes on the territory, restricting aid deliveries which Gazans heavily relied on.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry says Israel has killed more than 17,700 Gazans in its retaliatory campaign, including more than 7,000 children.\n\nOnly the Rafah crossing bordering Egypt has been open, allowing limited quantities of aid to reach Gaza. This week Israel agreed to open the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza in the next few days - but only for the inspection of aid lorries. The trucks would then go to Rafah to cross into Gaza.\n\nMr Skau said nothing had prepared him for the \"fear, the chaos, and the despair\" he and his WFP team encountered during their trip to Gaza this week.\n\nThey witnessed \"confusion at warehouses, distribution points with thousands of desperate hungry people, supermarkets with bare shelves, and overcrowded shelters with bursting bathrooms,\" he said.\n\nInternational pressure and a temporary seven-day ceasefire last month had allowed some badly-needed aid to enter the Gaza Strip, but the WFP insists a second border crossing is now needed to meet demand.\n\nNine out of 10 families in some areas are spending \"a full day and night without any food at all\", according to Mr Skau.\n\nPeople in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, a city now surrounded on two fronts by Israeli tanks, say the situation there is dire.\n\nDr Ahmed Moghrabi, head of the plastic surgery and burns unit in the city's only remaining health facility, Nasser hospital, fought back tears as he spoke to the BBC about the lack of food.\n\n\"I have a daughter, three years old, always she ask me (for) some sweets, some apple, some fruits. I can't provide. I feel helpless,\" he said.\n\n\"There is not enough food, there is not enough food, only rice, only rice can you believe? We eat once, once a day, only.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dr Ahmed Moghrabi told the BBC there's a scarcity of food, water, medicine and he cannot operate on patients\n\nKhan Younis has been the focus of heavy air strikes in recent days and the boss of Nasser hospital there said his team had \"lost control\" over the numbers of dead and wounded arriving at the facility.\n\nIsrael says Hamas leaders are hiding in Khan Younis, possibly in an underground network of tunnels, and that it is fighting house to house and \"shaft to shaft\" to destroy the group's military capabilities.\n\nSpeaking on Saturday, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, accused the United States of being complicit in war crimes, after it vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.\n\nOut of 15 of the Security Council members, 13 countries voted in favour of the resolution calling for a ceasefire. The UK abstained from the vote and the US was the only country to vote against the resolution.\n\nMr Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, said he held Washington responsible for \"the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women, and elderly in Gaza at the hands of [Israeli] occupation forces\".\n\nThe US ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, defended the veto, and said the resolution was calling for an \"unsustainable ceasefire\" which \"would leave Hamas in place able to repeat what it did on October 7\".\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Saturday he appreciated the \"correct stance\" the US had taken at the security council.\n\nA seven-day temporary ceasefire ended just over a week ago. Under the truce, 78 hostages were released by Hamas in exchange for 180 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.\n\nThere are still more than 100 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nOn Saturday, it was confirmed that Israeli hostage Sahar Baruch, 25, had been killed, his kibbutz and a hostages' group said in a statement.\n\nIt comes after the armed wing of Hamas released a video on Friday which it said showed the bloody aftermath of a failed IDF operation to free an Israeli hostage.", "Residents in Mallaig felt a 'weak trembling' during the quake\n\nAn earthquake measuring 2.1ML on the Richter scale has hit parts of the Highlands.\n\nThe event was felt just before 15:30 on Saturday in Mallaig and Morar and by islanders on Lismore in the Inner Hebrides.\n\nThe British Geological Survey asked for people to share their experiences of the quake online.\n\nVillagers in Mallaig and Morar said they also \"felt a weak trembling\", as well as experiencing the same noise.\n\nSince 10 October, Morvern has been hit by 10 earthquakes.\n\nOn 3 December, a quake measuring 1.1ML was recorded, and all the previous ones were smaller.\n• None Where and why earthquakes occur in Scotland", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Drones gathered video from above an archaeological dig at Caerfai, a promontory hillfort along the Pembrokeshire coast\n\nWelsh leaders before the Roman invasion ruled from hillforts whose stone ruins still overlook every part of the country, an archaeologist has said.\n\nAberystwyth-based Toby Driver said there were \"big stories\" still to be told about Wales' 764 Iron Age hillforts.\n\nOne of the largest, Garn Goch, looms over Bethlehem in Carmarthenshire.\n\nVillagers said they \"respect\" the sprawling monument, but know little about the people who built it.\n\n\"People get very excited about the pyramids of Egypt and monuments around the world,\" Mr Driver said.\n\n\"We should be getting excited about this incredible hillfort heritage we have in Wales.\"\n\nHis new book, Hillforts of Iron Age Wales, includes illustrations showing what these \"vibrant hill top villages\" would have looked like 2,500 years ago.\n\nWales before Roman rule, he said, was too often seen as \"insular, primitive and wild, a forested place whose people were huddling in animals skins on hilltops\".\n\nBefore the AD47 invasion and partial occupation of Wales after 30 years of war, Greek and Roman traders had been coming by sea for centuries to exchange pottery, wine and gem stones for lead, copper, gold and hunting dogs.\n\nIron Age forts often defended \"vibrant villages\", seen in this illustration and aerial photo of Foel Drygarn, a hillfort at Crymych in Pembrokeshire\n\nMediterranean traders would have found complex societies, he said, with \"sophisticated timber buildings\" atop imposing stone hillforts that projected power over defended farms in the valleys below, in effect, \"owning the landscape\".\n\n\"We've got to wake up to how incredible Wales was before the Romans arrived. It was a devastating, brutal campaign.\n\n\"The Romans changed everything and very quickly, but through archaeology we can unlock that period of Welsh history.\"\n\nOne of the largest hillforts in Wales is a little-known ancient monument, Garn Goch, on a hill above the Tywi Valley in Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, also known as the Brecon Beacons.\n\nToby Driver says sites in England may be better known, but that means there is \"plenty here left to discover\"\n\nA 2.4 km (1.5 mile) wall of piled stones encloses a hilltop covering the equivalent of 30 football pitches and an enormous, 6,000-year-old burial mound, or cairn.\n\nJane Claricoates from nearby Llandybie said thinking about the people who lived in the fort and how they moved thousands of tonnes of stone to build its walls makes you \"stop in your tracks\".\n\nBut she said Garn Goch was also a lonely place when compared to high profile sites such as Stonehenge, but was \"very beautiful for that\".\n\nDafydd Evans, 80, has lived in the shadow of Garn Goch nearly all his life and remembered how his father, Gwynfor, the first Plaid Cymru MP, used to take his family to the site every year.\n\n\"The community respects the fort and realise that it is of significance,\" he said.\n\n\"But people around here are just ordinary people they don't particularly study it.\"\n\nThe stone ramparts of Garn Goch loom on the ridge above Dafydd Evans' home in Carmarthenshire\n\nFew people in the village even know about the fort's \"large and imposing stone entrance,\" he added.\n\nIn the Garn Goch car park, a group of walkers from Dover said they found the trail on a hiking app but had no idea it was once a cultural and religious centre for pre-Roman Celts.\n\n\"I don't know much about it at all. But I'm really interested to find what's up there,\" said Sam Carmody as the group set off on a trail.\n\nMr Driver said he hoped to capture people's curiosity about the Celts in his book and that Garn Goch was unusual because, unlike other hillforts, there was no visible evidence of round houses.\n\nHis theory is that the Garn, as it is known locally, was instead used to host festivals, a bit like a prehistoric Royal Welsh Agricultural Show or even an eisteddfod.\n\nHomes in the hill top villages would have been thatched, like this recreation at Castell Henllys Iron Age village in Crymych, Pembrokeshire\n\n\"You need places where you can sell cattle, where you meet your family and kin, come together and feast and celebrate, maybe meet your loved one for the future,\" he said.\n\nHe said there must have been charismatic leaders able to bring \"tribes together to provide the labour to build these enormous hilltop enclosures\".\n\n\"What gets people excited when we bring walking tours around these sites is there's so much to do now,\" he said.\n\n\"The archaeologists can do some of it but I think we need to put a wider call to the public of Wales to re-engage with these incredible historic buildings.\"\n\nFrom the Tre'r Ceiri hillfort on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, Iron Age people would have had good view of the sea traffic\n\nMr Driver said a surge of new community projects at hillfort sites in Cardiff, the Clwydian Range and near Aberystwyth in Ceredigion was \"waking up hillforts that have long lain unexcavated and telling us incredible new facts about them\".\n\n\"Nowadays people can have their faces painted blue, learn about the Celts in school,\" he said.\n\n\"But actually we have evidence of a very sophisticated and advanced prehistoric past in Wales and how much of that is getting out to the wider public?\n\n\"I think there's still a big story to tell there.\"", "Princess Diana photographed with Bryan Adams after a concert in Vancouver during her tour of Canada\n\nBryan Adams has spoken for the first time about how his friendship with Princess Diana was sparked by a song he wrote about her doomed marriage.\n\nThe singer recalled how the late royal said she found the lyrics about him \"losing his mind\" on the day she married Prince Charles \"very funny\".\n\nSpeaking to the Sunday Times, Adams added that Diana invited him round for tea so she could hear the song again.\n\nHe retired the song when she died in 1997 \"out of respect\", he added.\n\nThe 64-year-old Canadian's friendship with Diana led to some speculation in the 1990s that they had an affair, and this intensified in 2003 when his ex-girlfriend Cecilie Thomsen told reporters that \"ours was a stormy relationship and Bryan's affair with Diana didn't make it any easier\".\n\nAdams has never responded to the rumours and does not discuss it in this interview. Instead, he reveals the pair \"had a lot of really, really good conversations\" as their friendship blossomed.\n\n\"In fact it's strange and surreal to think about. I really, really liked Diana, she was an amazing woman and a super-great inspiration,\" he said during the interview.\n\n\"Meeting her was truly one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.\"\n\nHe said the pair met on a plane, where he told her he used her name on a song and she responded: \"Yes, I know, very funny. Actually I'd like to hear it again.\"\n\nAdams sent a copy to Kensington Palace and she then invited him round for tea.\n\n\"When I first went round to KP (Kensington Palace) she wasn't, like 'I really need to talk to somebody', and you don't bulldoze into someone's life wanting to know everything in the first 10 minutes,\" he said.\n\n\"It was 'let's have a cup of tea'. But later the more friendly we got the more I learnt what was really going on.\"\n\nDiana married Charles, now King Charles III, in 1981 and they had two sons together, Princes William and Harry. But after a marriage that was largely acrimonious in its latter years, the couple separated in 1992, before divorcing in 1996.\n\nAdams made his big breakthrough in the UK charts in 1985 with his first Top 40 hits Run To You and then followed that up with the singles Somebody, Summer of 69, It's Only Love and Heaven. The song Diana was the B-side to Heaven and its lyrics quickly caught the attention of the media.\n\nThey include the lines: \"The day that he married you - I nearly lost my mind\" and \"Diana - what cha doing with a guy like him\". Dropping a royal reference, Adams sings Diana is \"the queen of all my dreams\".\n\nThe husband of the Diana referenced in Adams' song clearly did not impress the singer-songwriter as he penned the lyrics: \"He might have lots of dough; but I know he ain't right for you\" and added: \"You've got one choice - you can get away. Leave it up to me. I'll bring the ladder - if you bring your limousine.\"\n\nBut Adams called the lyrics \"laddish humour\" during the Sunday Times interview, adding he was actually inspired by \"that guy who [had] broken into the Queen's bedroom and sat on her bed smoking a fag\".\n\nIn 1982, the late Queen Elizabeth II woke up one night and found painter and decorator Michael Fagan sitting on her bed after breaking into her bedroom.\n\nAdams had his biggest UK hit with his power ballad (Everything I Do), I Do It For You, in 1991. His most recent album, So Happy It Hurts, reached number three in the UK charts last year.\n\nBut he has also been a keen photographer over the years and once took an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth, which then became a 49 cent Canadian postage stamp.\n\nAnd in 2014, Diana's youngest son Prince Harry attended an exhibition of Adams' photographs, as they featured images of injured veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.\n\nIn the Sunday Times interview, Adams also talked about trying to help the late British singer Amy Winehouse during her battle with drug addiction in 2007.\n\nBryan Adams spoke about trying to help Amy Winehouse in 2007\n\nHe said he became friends with Winehouse after photographing her and he invited her to spend Christmas with his family at his villa on the island of Mustique.\n\nHe recalls trying to serve her a diet of carrot and beetroot juice, as well as vegan food - which she was not impressed with. And she also reportedly swallowed £2,000 worth of heroin wraps on the flight there.\n\nWhen asked whether he thought he could save her, Adams said he \"tried to help her but, you know, it's got to come from within\".\n\n\"I really don't know what happened with Amy and it is so sad because she was so, so talented and I so admired her individuality massively. But did I make a difference? I don't know,\" he added.\n\nIn 2011, Winehouse was found dead in her flat in Camden, London.", "Israeli soldiers hug as they look at pictures of the festival victims from the 7 October attacks\n\nHamas had a premeditated plan to use sexual violence as a weapon of war, an Israeli women's rights campaigner and lawyer has said.\n\nProf Ruth Halperin-Kaddari said she saw footage of women in several locations whose condition left her in \"no doubt\" that they had been raped.\n\nThere has been anger over the delay of some UN bodies to acknowledge claims of Hamas's sexual atrocities on 7 October.\n\nIsrael has been exploring evidence of sexual crimes during the attacks.\n\nWarning: This article contains graphic details which some readers may find upsetting\n\nIsraeli police say they have so far gathered more than 1,500 testimonies from witnesses and medics. Hamas has denied the group carried out sexual violence during the 7 October attacks.\n\nPictures and live footage streamed by the militants pointed to the gruesome nature of the attacks at the Supernova festival.\n\nA range of violence from gang rape to the sexual mutilation of murdered victims are being investigated by police.\n\n\"I saw a number of first-hand, eyewitness accounts, for example of one survivor who hid in the bushes and saw a woman next to her being raped by several men,\" Prof Halperin-Kaddari told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nShe said she also spoke to a paramedic who treated a woman who lost a life-threatening amount of blood after reporting being raped by four men.\n\n\"I saw footage and pictures from numerous locations of bodies whose condition were all exhibiting the same pattern of mutilation and leaving no doubt that rape was performed on these women before they were executed,\" she said.\n\nProf Halperin-Kaddari added that the the concentration of cases, all in one day but in several locations left her in \"no doubt\" that there was a \"premeditation to use sexual violence as a weapon of war.\"\n\nHamas said it \"rejected and strongly denounced\" the reports of abuses. In a post on the messaging app Telegram, it said that such claims were \"lies\" by Israel that sought to distort the \"humane\" way Hamas has treated Israeli hostages. Hamas took some 240 people hostage on 7 October - 110 were released last week as part of a truce with Israel.\n\nIsraeli women's rights and legal activists had been calling on key international organisations to publicly acknowledge reports of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, in the wake of Hamas's attacks.\n\nOn Monday, dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the UN headquarters in New York, protesting over what they said was its inaction over the rape, abduction and mistreatment of Israeli women.\n\nProf Halperin-Kaddari, who spent 12 years as a member of a UN convention on discrimination against women, said she and others have been calling on UN bodies to acknowledge these \"crimes against humanity\".\n\n\"Regrettably, until a week ago, none of them said the explicit word 'sexual violence'. It took them more than seven weeks,\" she said. The UN has yet to respond to accusations of a delay, but Prof Halperin-Kaddari visited the UN in Geneva just a week ago to draw attention to the violence.\n\nUN Women issued a statement - eight weeks after the attacks - acknowledging accounts of gender-based atrocities.\n\n\"This took them too long, much too long,\" Prof Halperin-Kaddari added.\n\nYael Sherer from the Lobby to Combat Sexual Violence advocacy group told Today that men were also victims of sexual violence on 7 October.\n\nShe said evidence is being gathered from some survivors of the attacks, as well as eyewitnesses and first responders, who have been detailing the violence.\n\n\"Hamas terrorists made sure to disgrace these people and dishonour them in many ways,\" she said.\n\nThis included violence carried out on the victims' bodies after they had died, Ms Sherer added.\n\n\"We also saw people who were bleeding... [and] people who were tied down to furniture with zip-ties, and were not clothed, of many ages.\"\n\nAn ongoing UN commission of inquiry investigating alleged war crimes on both sides of the Israel-Hamas conflict will include a focus on sexual violence carried out during the attacks on 7 October. However, Israel has not so far co-operated with the commission, viewing it as biased.\n\nNavi Pillay, who chairs the inquiry, said if Tel Aviv did not want to co-operate, her team could still take evidence from survivors and witnesses outside the country.\n\n\"All they [Israel] have to do is let us in,\" she told the BBC, adding that survivors of the attacks should be able to get a UN hearing.\n\nMs Pillay also rejected claims that the UN delayed acknowledging that sexual violence had taken place during Hamas's attacks and said \"every effort\" was being made as part of her team's investigations.\n\nThe Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October killed 1,200 people.\n\nSince then, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 15,500 people have been killed in Israel's military campaign which it launched in response.", "Chief of department for the New York Police Department Jeff Maddrey addresses reporters\n\nFour people, including two children, have been killed and three others injured following a stabbing in Queens, New York.\n\nPolice called to the Far Rockaway neighbourhood in the early hours of Sunday found the victims in a home that had been set on fire.\n\nThe male suspect stabbed two police officers before being shot by one of the injured officers.\n\nThe suspect was taken to hospital but was declared dead on arrival.\n\nIn a press briefing at Jamaica Hospital, police confirmed that they received a 911 call at 05:10 local time (10:10 GMT), when a \"young female caller stated that her cousin is killing her family members\".\n\nTwo officers were sent to the address on Beach 22nd Street where they saw a male walking out with luggage.\n\nWhen the officers tried to talk to the male he pulled a knife out, stabbing one officer in the neck and chest area, and a second officer in the head.\n\nOne of the officers was able to take out his firearm and shot the suspect.\n\nWhen more officers were dispatched to the scene, they found an 11-year-old girl at the front of the house. She was taken to hospital but later died of her injuries.\n\nAfter the New York Fire Department arrived at the scene, emergency services found the bodies of three other people inside the house: a 12-year-old boy, a 44-year-old female, and a male in his 30s.\n\nA 61-year-old female was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with multiple stab wounds.\n\nPolice believe all victims died as a result of stab wounds and a kitchen steak knife was recovered from the scene.\n\nNew York police named the suspect as 39-year-old Courtney Gordon, who had one prior arrest for domestic violence in the Bronx.\n\nHe was visiting his family members in Queens at the time of the attack.\n\nPolice said that the investigation was ongoing, but that the person who made the 911 call was being interviewed at the police station.", "Sam Smith appeared recently at the 2023 Spotify Wrapped Live event in London\n\nSwedish music-streaming giant Spotify has announced it is cutting 17% of its workforce, about 1,500 jobs, as the company seeks to clamp down on costs.\n\nChief executive Daniel Ek said he had made the \"difficult\" decision with economic growth slowing \"dramatically\".\n\nSpotify employs about 9,000 people, and Mr Ek said \"substantial action to rightsize our costs\" was needed for the company to meet its objectives.\n\nHe added he understood the cuts would be \"incredibly painful for our team\".\n\n\"I recognize this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions\", Mr Ek said. \"To be blunt, many smart, talented and hard-working people will be departing us.\"\n\nSpotify cut staff earlier this year but these plans dwarf those previous announcements.\n\nIn its latest results, Spotify had reported a profit of €65m (£55.7m) for the three months to September - its first quarterly profit for more than a year - helped by price rises and higher subscriber numbers.\n\nThe tech company has been expanding worldwide as it seeks to reach a billion users by 2030.\n\nIt currently has 601 million of them, up from 345 million at the end of 2020.\n\nMr Ek said that given the recent \"positive\" results, the job cuts being announced \"will feel surprisingly large\" for many people.\n\nHe said Spotify had considered making smaller reductions during 2024 and 2025, but decided that more drastic action was needed to improve the company's finances.\n\nSince it launched, Spotify has spent a lot of money on growing the business, and in securing exclusive content, such as podcasts created by the likes of Michelle and Barack Obama as well as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.\n\nThe deal with Harry and Meghan cost a reported $25m (£19.7m) and saw just 12 episodes delivered over two and a half years before the deal ended in June.\n\nCommenting on podcast content, Mr Ek told the BBC in September: \"The truth of the matter is some of it has worked, some of it hasn't.\"\n\nThe company will start informing affected employees on Monday. Employees will get about five months of severance pay, holiday pay, and healthcare coverage for the severance period.\n\nSpotify will also offer immigration support to employees whose immigration status is connected with their employment.\n\nThese jobs losses are the latest in a series of layoffs announced in the tech industry, which has cut tens of thousands of jobs following a boom during Covid pandemic lockdowns.\n\nBritish telecom group BT said in May that it will axe up to 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade.\n\nTech giants Meta and Microsoft also revealed plans to reduce their workforce by as many as 10,000 employees this year.\n\nOnline retail giant Amazon announced it was cutting over 18,000 jobs worldwide and Google parent company Alphabet announced cuts of around 12,000 people.\n\nSmaller firms have also felt the pinch with Yahoo and LinkedIn both announcing cuts this year too.\n\nApple however seems to have bucked the trend, announcing that it would be hiring some staff in the AI sector.", "Raw sewage was pumped into Windermere for more than three hours in June 2022\n\nWater companies can make sewage pollution disappear from the official figures, a BBC Panorama investigation has revealed.\n\nLeaked records suggest one firm, United Utilities, wrongly downgraded dozens of pollution events, including at a famed English lake in north-west England.\n\nThe Environment Agency signed off all the downgrades without attending any of the incidents.\n\nThe Liberal Democrats have called for a criminal investigation to be opened, based on the BBC's findings, while Labour's shadow environment secretary Steve Reed has accused the Government of turning \"a blind eye to corruption at the heart of the water industry\".\n\nThe Department of the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has said that the volume of sewage being discharged into English waters is \"utterly unacceptable\".\n\nWater companies in England are set environmental targets by the regulator, Ofwat. One of the key benchmarks is the number of pollution incidents per 10,000km of sewer. These are typically sewage discharges into rivers or the sea, caused by blockages or equipment failure.\n\nThe companies have to pay fines if they exceed a given number of pollution incidents, and are given financial rewards if they come in below.\n\nAccording to the Environment Agency's figures, United Utilities was the best performing company in England in 2022. It recorded just 126 pollution incidents, or 16/10,000km of sewer.\n\nAs a reward for this good performance, the company will be allowed to raise £5.1m by increasing bills for its seven million customers next year.\n\nBut whistleblowers at the Environment Agency claim the company has been wrongly downgrading pollution incidents and that the agency is failing to conduct independent checks.\n\nOne insider told Panorama that United Utilities was \"controlling the evidence\" on pollution.\n\nWhen pollution incidents are reported to the Environment Agency, it assesses the potential impact and decides whether to attend.\n\nFrom 2020 through to the end of 2022, there were 931 reported water company pollution incidents in north-west England, and the Environment Agency only attended six.\n\n\"If they [United Utilities] say attend - which is incredibly rare - we'll attend,\" said the whistleblower. \"If they say don't attend, we don't attend. They're effectively regulating themselves.\"\n\nWater companies are dumping huge quantities of sewage in UK rivers every year. So why do some of the worst offenders have such good environmental ratings? Joe Crowley investigates.\n\nPanorama has obtained 200 reports about pollution incidents at United Utilities' sewage works in 2022.\n\nIn more than 60 of these cases, the company appears to have wrongly downgraded the incidents to the lowest level, category 4.\n\nThey were all signed off by the Environment Agency.\n\nCategory 4 incidents are not counted in published figures because they are supposed to have had no environmental impact. Only more serious categories 1-3 are counted.\n\nThe Environment Agency guidance says category 4 should only be used where either pollution doesn't get into the water course, or where it is of such insignificance that it doesn't have an impact, for example a \"trickle into a large water course\".\n\nThe incidents identified by the programme were all more than a \"trickle\" and appear to have had an impact.\n\nTwo experienced water pollution officers, who can't be identified because they work for the Environment Agency, independently reviewed the documents for Panorama. They agreed that none should have been classified as category 4.\n\nIf the 60 cases identified by Panorama were wrongly downgraded, then United Utilities should not have been awarded its £5m bonus for reducing pollution incidents last year.\n\nOne of the apparent cover-ups was in a World Heritage Site in the Lake District. In June 2022, a fault led to raw sewage being pumped into the middle of Windermere. The incident went on for more than three hours.\n\nThe leaked documents show it was initially thought to be a serious category 2 incident, but the Environment Agency didn't attend and United Utilities downgraded it to category 4.\n\nThe Environment Agency insider said it was a serious incident, and that a huge volume of polluted material had been pumped into a water body: \"The water company don't want us to attend and then an incident like this gets downgraded to a low level or, effectively, gets kept off the books.\"\n\nUnited Utilities initially denied that sewage had been pumped into the middle of the lake and said that tests conducted on the shoreline showed the pollution had no impact.\n\nBut company documents obtained by Panorama prove the sewage was discharged into the middle of Windermere.\n\nMark Garth, the company's director of wastewater treatment, told the programme: \"I do accept that on this occasion sewage ended up in the lake as a result of that failure.\"\n\nAnother potential cover-up identified by Panorama was at the Wallasey pumping station on the River Mersey in Liverpool last November.\n\nOn this occasion, untreated sewage was released into a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) after the pumps stopped working for more than two hours.\n\nOnce again, the leaked documents show it was initially thought to be a serious category 2 incident, but the Environment Agency didn't attend and United Utilities downgraded it to category 4.\n\nUnited Utilities says it is false to suggest it misreports pollution incidents and that the final categorisations are decided by the EA.\n\n\"We work extremely hard to get on top of pollution and we're extremely proud of our performance,\" said Mr Garth.\n\n\"We continue to do that and covering it up or misguiding the Environment Agency in any way is absolutely no part of that performance.\"\n\nThe company said the Wallasey incident was a category 4, because the pollution was diluted by the large volume of water in the Mersey and then the Irish Sea.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mark Garth of United Utilities defends its record on pollution\n\nThe Environment Agency declined to be interviewed for the programme, but said in a statement that some monitoring of water companies could be done remotely.\n\n\"We take our responsibility to protect the environment very seriously,\" it said. \"We respond to every incident and always attend those where there is a significant risk.\"\n\nThe agency said regulations were being strengthened and that it would soon have new powers to deliver civil penalties that are quicker and easier to enforce.\n\nIt is currently conducting its largest ever criminal investigation into potential widespread non-compliance by the water companies, including United Utilities.\n\nDefra said that the government was delivering \"more investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement to tackle pollution and clean up our water\".", "Today the focus was on legal migration, but as soon as tomorrow it's likely to be on illegal immigration - and the government's frequently thwarted aim of sending migrants to Rwanda.\n\nNet migration - the difference between the number of people coming to live in the UK and those leaving - has ballooned at just the point (after Brexit) that the government at Westminster holds all the levers to control it.\n\nThat is an accountability pinch point if ever you saw one - hence the anguish of many Conservative MPs attempting to reconcile a number treble the one they promised to cut four years ago.\n\nThat is the context for today's plan - which at its heart has the claim that around 300,000 people who were eligible to come to the UK last year would not be able to in future.\n\nBut what of the trade offs - the consequences for care homes and universities, for instance? And what of the political implications, given it could be after the general election before these policies - if retained - make any significant difference to the numbers?\n\nFor ministers, this is about showing they get it and that plenty want to see the numbers shrivel. The big questions are will they, and when?", "British sprinter Bianca Williams has been banned from driving despite telling a court it would jeopardise her chances of going to the 2024 Olympics.\n\nWilliams, 29, failed to tell police who was driving a Tesla Model 3 when an alleged offence took place.\n\nThe athlete claimed a ban would make it difficult for her to get to training.\n\nBut magistrates at Lavender Hill rejected her claim that she could not use public transport and suspended her from driving for six months.\n\nWilliams failed on three occasions to reply to letters from the police between April and June 2023.\n\nIn October, two Metropolitan Police officers were sacked over a stop and search of Williams and her partner, the Portuguese sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos, 28, in 2020.\n\nThe couple are black and claimed they were racially profiled.\n\nA police misconduct hearing was told officers followed Mr Dos Santos in their police carrier because of the \"appalling\" and \"suspicious\" nature of his driving and were doing their duty when they conducted the stop and search.\n\nBut the panel found two officers had lied about smelling cannabis.\n\nHaving pleaded guilty to three charges of failing to tell police the identity of a driver, Williams told the court she was not driving the Tesla at the time of the alleged offences.\n\nRepresenting herself, Williams said she was currently working as a tennis coach in the evenings and as a full-time athlete during the day.\n\nThe sprinter, who lives in the Maida Vale area of west London with her partner, said it was \"massively inconvenient\" to get to the central London athletics track where she trains using public transport and \"really hard\" to get to her tennis coaching sessions in north London without a car.\n\nShe told the court she drops off her three-year-old child at nursery before training every morning, and said losing her licence would \"make my dream of going to the Olympics next year impossible\".\n\n\"I understand this is totally my fault, I shouldn't have relied on somebody else to fill out the form,\" she said.\n\n\"It's hard to get from nursery to training. My income would drop because I wouldn't be able to do any coaching sessions.\n\n\"It would be horrible to lose my licence. I would potentially have no work and no income.\"\n\nWilliams was disqualified from driving for six months and ordered to pay a fine of £276, a surcharge of £110 and £85 costs. Another 18 points were added to her licence, bringing her total to 29.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A Ukrainian serviceman jumps out of a boat on the shore of the Dnipro river\n\nOutnumbered and outgunned, one front-line soldier has given a sobering account of Ukraine's struggle to cling on to its foothold on the east bank of the vast Dnipro river.\n\nSeveral hundred Ukrainian soldiers have made it there as part of a counter-offensive launched six months ago.\n\nUnder relentless Russian fire, the soldier spent several weeks on the Russian-occupied side of the river as Ukraine sought to establish a bridgehead around the village of Krynky. The BBC is not naming him to protect his identity.\n\nHis account, sent via a messaging app, speaks of troop boats blown out of the water, inexperienced reinforcements and a feeling of abandonment by Ukraine's military commanders.\n\nIt highlights growing tensions as Ukraine's defence against Russia's invasion grinds to the end of another year.\n\nUkraine's military told the BBC they are not commenting on the situation in that area for security reasons.\n\nThe Ukrainian soldier's quotes are below in bold.\n\n\"The entire river crossing is under constant fire. I've seen boats with my comrades on board just disappear into the water after being hit, lost forever to the Dnipro river.\n\n\"We must carry everything with us - generators, fuel and food. When you're setting up a bridgehead you need a lot of everything, but supplies weren't planned for this area.\n\n\"We thought after we made it there the enemy would flee and then we could calmly transport everything we needed, but it didn't turn out that way.\n\n\"When we arrived on the [eastern] bank, the enemy were waiting. Russians we managed to capture said their forces were tipped off about our landing so when we got there, they knew exactly where to find us. They threw everything at us - artillery, mortars and flame thrower systems. I thought I'd never get out.\"\n\nYet the few hundred marines have been able to dig in, partly helped by Ukrainian artillery fire from the higher, western banks of the Dnipro.\n\nThe river separates the Russian-occupied and Ukrainian-controlled parts of the southern Kherson region.\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky has been keen to talk up this offensive, framing it as the beginning of something more.\n\nUkraine's General Staff reported in its daily update on Sunday that its forces were maintaining their positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro, and were inflicting \"fire damage on the enemy's rear\".\n\nThis soldier's testimony, however, reveals splits between Ukraine's government and its generals over the state of the war.\n\nUkrainian soldiers navigate on the Dnipro river by boat\n\nUkraine's commander-in-chief Gen Valery Zaluzhny told the Economist magazine in November that, \"just like the First World War we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate.\"\n\nPresident Zelensky's office swiftly rebuked the general for his comments, denying there was a deadlock on the battlefield.\n\n\"Every day we sat in the forest taking incoming fire. We were trapped - the roads and paths are all riddled with mines. The Russians cannot control everything, and we use it. But their drones are constantly buzzing in the air, ready to strike as soon as they see movement.\n\n\"Supplies were the weakest link. The Russians monitored our supply lines, so it became more difficult - there was a real lack of drinking water, despite our deliveries by boat and drone.\n\n\"We paid for a lot of our own kit - buying generators, power banks and warm clothes ourselves. Now the frosts are coming, things will only get worse - the real situation is being hushed up, so no-one will change anything.\n\n\"No-one knows the goals. Many believe that the command simply abandoned us. The guys believe that our presence had more political than military significance. But we just did our job and didn't get into strategy.\"\n\nThere's no doubt this crossing has forced some Russian forces to redeploy from other parts of the front line, such as their heavily defended positions in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Kyiv hoped there would have been a breakthrough sooner.\n\nBBC Russian recently spoke to some Russian troops who are defending the riverbank in that area. They said it was \"suicide\" for their soldiers to move there, saying they had lost many men in the fight and that they cannot dislodge the Ukrainians from their foothold.\n\nUkraine's military meanwhile says it wants to target Russian supply lines and force them back enough from the river to protect civilians from shelling.\n\nIt means both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers are absorbing a lot of fire.\n\n\"Mostly our losses were mistakes - someone didn't climb in that trench quickly enough; another guy hid badly. If someone isn't switched on, he'll be immediately targeted from everywhere.\n\n\"But thanks to our doctors, if we can get an injured soldier to the medics - he'll be saved. They're titans, Gods. But we can't get the remains of the fallen out. It's just too dangerous.\n\n\"At the same time our drones and missiles inflict a lot of losses on the enemy. We took prisoners of war once, but where to put them, if we have no way to cross the river even with our own injured comrades?\"\n\nLike every other part of the front line, this operation has also turned into a battle of attrition.\n\nWhile Russia is filling its ranks with conscripts and pardoned prisoners, Ukraine is struggling to find the manpower it needs.\n\nA recent BBC investigation found that nearly 20,000 men have fled Ukraine since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion to avoid the draft.\n\n\"Several brigades were supposed to be posted here, not individual companies - we just don't have enough men.\n\n\"There are a lot of young guys among us. We need people, but trained people, not the green ones we have there now. There are guys who had spent just three weeks in training, and only managed to shoot a few times.\n\n\"It's a total nightmare. A year ago, I wouldn't have said that, but now, sorry, I'm fed up.\n\n\"Everyone who wanted to volunteer for war came a long time ago - it's too hard now to tempt people with money. Now we're getting those who didn't manage to escape the draft. You'll laugh at this, but some of our marines can't even swim.\"\n\nThe village of Krynky has been turned to rubble.\n\nThe scenes of palpable relief when Kherson city and swathes of the Kharkiv region were liberated a year ago have yet to be replicated.\n\nInstead, Ukraine's wins are chalked up in small parcels of devastated and abandoned land.\n\nThat makes President Zelensky's case for long-term Western support harder to sell politically.\n\nBut regardless, the anonymous soldier's fight will soon continue.\n\n\"I got out after getting concussed from a mine, but one of my colleagues didn't make it - all that was left of him was his helmet.\n\n\"I feel like I escaped from hell, but the guys who replaced us last time got into even more hell than us.\n\n\"But the next rotation is due. My time to cross the river again is soon.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Man City\n\nManchester City have been charged by the Football Association with failing to control their players in Sunday's 3-3 Premier League draw with Tottenham.\n\nPlayers surrounded referee Simon Hooper when he awarded a free-kick to City late in stoppage time after it looked like Jack Grealish was through on goal.\n\nHooper initially indicated City had the advantage and waved play on, but halted the match once the pass was played.\n\nCity have until Thursday, 7 December to respond to the charge.\n\nAn FA statement said the defending champions \"failed to ensure their players do not behave in a way which is improper.\"\n\nStriker Erling Haaland was one of several City players to remonstrate with the official and he continued his protests after the game by reposting a clip of the incident on X, formerly Twitter, with the comment \"Wtf\", which is offensive slang.\n\nHowever, the FA will not be handing out any further charges relating to the fixture, so Haaland is not facing an individual punishment.\n\nIt is the third Premier League game in succession that City have drawn, having also been held by Liverpool and Chelsea, and they sit third in the Premier League with a three-point gap to leaders Arsenal.\n• None Our coverage of Manchester City is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything City - go straight to all the best content", "Campaigners for a compensation scheme gathered in London earlier this year\n\nMPs have backed a move to speed up compensation for victims of the NHS infected blood scandal, delivering the prime minister his first Commons defeat.\n\nMinisters will now have to set up a body to run the scheme within three months of a new bill becoming law.\n\nThe vote was passed by 246 votes to 242 after 22 Conservatives rebelled.\n\nThe Haemophilia Society said Rishi Sunak \"should be ashamed\" he had been forced \"to do the right thing\".\n\nThe society's chairman Clive Smith said it was an \"incredibly emotional\" moment for campaigners.\n\n\"Parliament last night drew a line in the sand and said: no more, no longer, will you need to fight, no longer will you need to wait, justice will finally be delivered to those who've waited for so long,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nThe vote - an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill - was the government's first defeat in the Commons on a whipped vote since the general election in 2019.\n\nThe legislation now needs to be approved by the House of Lords before becoming law.\n\nThe government has said there is a moral case for compensating victims of the scandal, and has made the first interim payments of £100,000 each to 4,000 surviving victims and bereaved partners.\n\nHowever, it said it wanted to wait for the infected blood inquiry to conclude before setting up a full scheme.\n\nEarlier this year, Sir Brian Langstaff, who is chairing the inquiry, called for a full compensation scheme to be set up immediately. He also said it should be widened to include orphaned children and parents who lost children.\n\nThroughout the 1970s and 1980s, up to 30,000 people were given contaminated blood products.\n\nMore than 3,000 people died after contracting HIV or hepatitis C after receiving a blood transfusion on the NHS or a treatment made from contaminated blood.\n\nCampaigners say the speed compensation is administered is key. It has been estimated that one person affected by the scandal dies every four days.\n\nJustine Gordon-Smith had to put her career on hold to care for her father\n\nJustine Gordon-Smith, whose dad died after being given infected blood, told BBC Newsnight she was \"stunned\" by the result but was concerned what the government \"might try to do to limit things now\".\n\nHer father Randolph Peter Gordon-Smith, who had haemophilia, learned in 1994 that he had been infected with hepatitis C. He later died in 2018.\n\n\"When he was infected - he lost everything,\" she said. \"He lost his home, his job, his wife, his health - everything - and he became a recluse.\"\n\nShe said compensation was not just about recognition, but \"repairing the damage that's done to your life\".\n\n\"The huge hole, the entire career, everything that our dad lost - that's the big issue. Then there's all the time and years of life we've lost,\" she added.\n\nSir Brian's inquiry had been due to publish a final report in November, but this has been pushed back to March 2024.\n\nIn an attempt to speed up efforts to compensate victims, Dame Diana Johnson - who leads the All-Party Parliamentary group on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood - put forward the amendment.\n\nShe told MPs that Sir Brian had already made clear his inquiry's recommendations on compensation and that the government did not need to wait for his final conclusions before setting up a scheme.\n\nThe Kingston Upon Hull North MP also noted that victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal had been awarded compensation before the inquiry's final report had been published, and argued the same should apply to those affected by infected blood.\n\nHer amendment was backed by her own party, with shadow minister Kevin Brennan saying there was \"no reason for the government not to move forward on this issue\".\n\nConservative MP Rehman Chishti was among those who gave his support, saying: \"Justice delayed is justice denied - we should not delay any further.\"\n\nThe voting list showed Mr Chishti was joined by a number of former Tory ministers, including Sir Robert Buckland, Damian Green, Dame Andrea Jenkyns and Chloe Smith.\n\nThe defeat came despite a last-ditch attempt by the government to offer concessions in an attempt to placate MPs.\n\nJustice Minister Edward Argar had said the government would try to amend the bill in the Lords to clarify when the body to provide compensation to infected blood victims would be delivered.\n\nAndrew Evans, chairman of Tainted Blood, a campaign group which represents contaminated blood victims, said the government had promised \"a future amendment to buy off Tory MPs, a move which thankfully has failed\".\n\nMr Evans said any attempts to reverse the amendment when the bill goes to the Lords \"would heap yet more misery on those who have already suffered so much for four decades\".", "British lawyers could be stationed in courts in Rwanda as part of a treaty to allow the UK government to send asylum seekers to the country.\n\nIt would aim to address concerns from the Supreme Court, which ruled the Rwanda plan unlawful last month.\n\nDetails are expected on Tuesday, with Home Secretary James Cleverly flying to Rwanda to sign the agreement.\n\nIt would be followed by a new law aiming to prevent the scheme being blocked again in the courts.\n\nMeanwhile, the government is expected to announce plans later to reduce legal migration, after figures published last week showed net migration hit a record high in 2022.\n\nThe Rwanda policy, first announced in April 2022, would see some asylum seekers sent to the east African country to claim asylum there.\n\nAfter last month's Supreme Court ruling, ministers are racing to revive the policy before the spring, when they want the first flights to take off.\n\nThose not granted refugee status to stay in Rwanda could apply to settle there on other grounds, or seek asylum in another \"safe third country\".\n\nThe Supreme Court, the UK's highest court, rejected the policy on the grounds that it could not be guaranteed the Rwandan courts would honour a principle of international law known as non-refoulment.\n\nThe principle forbids a country that receives asylum seekers from returning them to their country of origin if doing so would put them at risk of harm.\n\nFollowing the decision, the government said it would seek a formal treaty with Rwanda, a move it believed would provide stronger legal guarantees than its current bilateral agreement.\n\nA new deal is now close, and could see British lawyers stationed in Rwandan courts as part of efforts to address the Supreme Court's concerns, the BBC has been told.\n\nThe Sunday Times reported that the treaty would also give Rwanda an extra £15m to pay for additional staff to improve and expand its asylum processing system.\n\nHowever, Downing Street has rejected the claim with the prime minister's spokesman telling reporters: \"I don't recognise that figure of £15m, there's been no request for additional funding for the treaty made by Rwanda, or not offered by the UK government.\"\n\nThe UK has already paid the Rwanda government £140m for the scheme. The first flight was scheduled to go in June 2022 but was cancelled because of legal challenges.\n\nThe Rwanda policy was proposed following a steady rise in recent years in the number of people arriving in the UK illegally via Channel crossings in small boats.\n\nAs of 2 December, 28,972 people had made the journey in 2023.\n\nLast year, 45,755 people made the crossing, the highest number since figures began to be collected in 2018.\n\nMinisters have also been under pressure to act from backbenchers after official statistics showed net migration was 745,000 last year - far higher than originally thought.\n\nThere have been reports ministers are looking at scrapping the list of occupations where foreign workers can be hired below the standard salary thresholds.\n\nImmigration Minister Robert Jenrick has also recently said there are \"strong arguments\" for introducing a cap on migration, and restricting the number of dependents who can accompany migrants to the UK.\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly will make a statement to the Commons later on Monday.", "An increase to the BBC licence fee by almost £15 would \"absolutely\" be too much, the culture secretary has said.\n\nLucy Frazer said she was concerned a \"significant rise\" in the fee would add to cost of living pressures.\n\nThe licence fee has been frozen for the last two years at £159 but is due to rise in April in line with inflation.\n\nIt's currently expected to increase to £173.30 a year, but Ms Frazer said she was looking at which measure of inflation to use to calculate the rise.\n\nAsked by BBC Breakfast whether the government was looking at whether £15 would be too much of an increase, Ms Frazer replied: \"Absolutely. I think that is quite a significant rise, so that is exactly what we are looking at.\"\n\nShe added: \"We froze the licence fee for two years to help households with their daily payments. That freeze has come to an end and the licence fee is due to rise with inflation but we're looking at ways to make sure that is sustainable for families across the country.\"\n\nThe Sunday Times reported that Ms Frazer is considering using September's consumer price index (CPI) rate of inflation, rather than the higher 12-month average, to calculate how much the cost of the licence fee should rise by.\n\nUsing September's inflation rate of 6.7%, the licence fee would be expected to rise by £10.65 to £169.65 per year.\n\nThe culture secretary confirmed she would make the final decision on what the fee should be soon.\n\nMs Frazer also said she was also looking at how \"we fund the BBC going forward\".\n\n\"It's unsustainable because 400,000 people did not renew their licence fee over the last year. The media landscape is changing. We're not consuming the BBC like we used to consume it, so I'm also looking at a broader review,\" she said.\n\nRishi Sunak said the BBC should \"cut its cloth appropriately\"\n\nThe prime minister has also said the BBC should be \"realistic about what it can expect people to pay\" for the TV licence fee during times of high inflation, the prime minister has said.\n\nRishi Sunak said the BBC should \"cut its cloth appropriately\" and welcomed savings it was looking to make.\n\nFormer Head of BBC TV News, Roger Mosey, told BBC Radio 5 Live on Monday that the \"government should stick with the deal it made\" and increase the licence fee in line with inflation.\n\nWhile he accepted the impact of the cost of living crisis, he said it was unfair for \"the most important broadcaster in Britain to be punished\".\n\nOther streaming services such as Disney+ and Netflix have announced price increases of 38% and 14% respectively for the coming year.\n\nMembers of the public have been sharing their opinions on the planned increase to the licence fee on BBC Radio 5 Live.\n\nCraig from Oxford told broadcast Nicky Campbell he does not watch enough BBC content to justify the cost of the licence fee and would \"much rather pay less to stream just what I want, it's about offering people choice\".\n\nJaney from Northampton agreed, and added \"to take away people's choice is not how we should be running the law of the land\", saying the licence fee is not value for money as she does not watch any BBC programmes on the TV.\n\nHowever, other callers praised the BBC for providing unique content.\n\nStefan from Bristol said he was \"pleading\" for the World Service not to be axed, explaining his cousin was brought up in a war zone where education was prohibited, but was able to learn English from the World Service and that it changed his life.\n\nThe corporation said next year's cost was \"unconfirmed\" but that it had previously agreed increases in line with inflation to start from 2024.\n\nAsked whether he thought the licence fee was sustainable, Mr Sunak said: \"It's really important that when things are difficult, everyone is doing what they can to ease the cost of living on families\".\n\nThe BBC is already looking to make £500m of savings in the face of high inflation and a two-year freeze to the cost of a TV licence, which provides most of its funding.\n\nSpeaking to reporters travelling with him to the COP28 summit in Dubai, Mr Sunak added: \"The BBC like any other organisation that serves the public should be looking to do that and cut its cloth appropriately so I think that is very welcome.\"\n\nThe prime minister did not directly say whether he would be limiting the planned increase to the fee.\n\nThe BBC announced last week it was cutting back BBC Two's Newsnight programme, in what the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) described as a \"major blow to investigative news\".\n\nThe long-running show will lose its dedicated reporters, be shortened by 10 minutes and drop its investigative films to focus on studio-based debates.\n\nMore than 30 jobs will close at Newsnight\n\nAs part of further changes, an extended hour-long edition of BBC News At One TV bulletin will relocate to Salford while BBC Breakfast, also broadcast from Salford, will be extended by an extra 15 minutes a day, the corporation said.\n\nMore focus will be put on digital journalism and live coverage across the BBC News division, with a \"reduction in the amount of television packaging\".\n\nThe corporation expects the changes to save £7.5m.\n\nA BBC spokesperson said: \"The government and BBC agreed a six-year licence fee settlement in January 2022, which froze the licence fee for two years with increases in line with inflation from 2024.\n\n\"As is usual practice the government sets and confirms the cost of a licence each year and this remains unconfirmed for 2024/25.\n\n\"The BBC will continue to focus on what it does best: working to deliver world-class content and providing great value for all audiences.\"", "Rockets streak into the sky from Gaza towards Israel\n\nThe UK will carry out unarmed surveillance flights over the Middle East to search for Hamas hostage locations, the Ministry of Defence says.\n\nThe flights will help gather intelligence on potential hostage whereabouts.\n\nFive British nationals are missing and the UK government has not said how many could be held by Hamas.\n\n\"The safety of British nationals is our utmost priority,\" the MoD said.\n\n\"In support of the ongoing hostage rescue activity, the Ministry of Defence will conduct surveillance flights over the eastern Mediterranean, including operating in air space over Israel and Gaza.\"\n\nIt added that the aircraft will be unarmed and will be tasked solely to locate hostages.\n\n\"Only information relating to hostage rescue will be passed to the relevant authorities responsible for hostage rescue.\"\n\nThe aircraft will include Shadow R1s, which the Royal Air Force use for intelligence gathering, ministry officials said.\n\nInformation on the potential locations of hostages will be shared with Israel. More than 130 captives are thought to be in Gaza.\n\nThe Pentagon said unarmed UAV drones had been deployed over Gaza in \"support of hostage recovery efforts\", earlier this month.\n\n\"The US is conducting unarmed UAV flights over Gaza, as well as providing advice and assistance to support our Israeli partner as they work on their hostage recovery efforts,\" the Pentagon said.\n\nFighting resumed on Friday after a week-long truce in Gaza. The IDF said it had hit more than 400 Hamas targets on the first day.\n\nGaza's Hamas-run health ministry says at least 193 people have been killed in the latest wave of Israeli attacks.\n\nThe ministry says more than 15,200 people have died in the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October that killed at least 1,200 people.\n• None Israeli strikes heaviest so far, say residents of south Gaza city", "On migration policy, the government confronts a transparent, significant and emotionally charged failure.\n\nA failure against its own promises and targets.\n\nThat is why this week their focus is on trying to do something about it.\n\nIt has shot up to record levels, and is currently three times what it was when the Conservatives won the last election and promised it would fall.\n\nLittle wonder so many Tory MPs are desperate to see it come down.\n\nAnd secondly, illegal migration. The prime minister has promised to 'stop the boats'.\n\nThe numbers are down on last year, but still high - and the government's plan to send some to Rwanda has been bogged down in multiple courts, over an even greater multiple of months.\n\nAnd so, before Boris Johnson does what he does best - grabs attention - at the Covid Inquiry on Wednesday and Thursday, expect two days of the latest iterations of the government's migration plans.\n\nFirstly, on Monday afternoon, the plans for legal migration - and getting the numbers coming here down.\n\nI am told relations between the Home Office and Downing Street are considerably improved since the sacking of former Home Secretary Suella Braverman.\n\nFor the last few weeks the prime minister has been working with the new Home Secretary, James Cleverly, and the Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick to come up with a plan.\n\nRobert Jenrick had presented Rishi Sunak with a plan - the details of which I wrote about here about 10 days ago.\n\nWe'll be able to measure what the government announces against this wish list - from what I hear the announcement and what was being called for privately may be similar.\n\nLook out for details on a salary threshold, the rights of migrants to bring dependents and whether the Shortage Occupation List is retained, for instance.\n\nWe will also be able to measure the government's plan against the one Suella Braverman said she called for in government.\n\nThe key question is whether it will make any difference in bringing the numbers down.\n\nAnd next, on Tuesday, the Rwanda plan.\n\nIt looks likely James Cleverly will fly to Rwanda to sign a treaty.\n\nAfter that, as soon as Wednesday, a planned new law relating to it will be introduced in the Commons.\n\nMinisters say part of their plan for beefing up the deal with Rwanda is seconding British lawyers to Rwandan courts.\n\nIncidentally, I am detecting scepticism in the Home Office about withdrawing from or somehow exempting the Rwanda plan from the UK's commitments to the European Convention on Human Rights.\n\nThe argument goes that the ECHR and the UK's membership of it is useful for the bits of illegal migration policy that actually work: the returns agreement with Albania, cooperation with France.\n\nBut there are plenty of Conservative backbenchers who are fed up with the European Convention and desperate to remove any obstacles to the Rwanda plan.\n\nThe key question again when we step back from the detail on all this is just the same as with legal migration: How soon could this make a difference?\n\nMinisters say they are committed to getting migrants on planes to Rwanda by the spring.\n\nPlenty, within the Conservative Party and beyond, think that is highly unlikely.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe mother of a man suspected of stabbing a German tourist to death near the Eiffel Tower in Paris reported concerns about her son weeks before the attack, a prosecutor has said.\n\nTwo others, including a British man, were injured in the attack on Saturday.\n\nA 26-year-old French man was later arrested, and anti-terrorism prosecutors opened an investigation.\n\nFrance's interior minister said there was a \"failure\" in the alleged attacker's psychiatric treatment.\n\nGérald Darmanin told BFM TV that the attacker had an \"acute mental illness\", adding that \"doctors said on several occasions that he was doing better, was more normal and could be free\".\n\nProsecutor Jean-François Ricard said the suspect had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group (IS).\n\nArmand R, a French national born in France to Iranian parents, converted to Islam aged 18, the prosecutor said. He was imprisoned in 2016 for four years after making plans to travel to Syria to join IS.\n\nMr Ricard said that the suspect had been under surveillance for suspected extremism and that three people, including members of his family, had been detained for questioning.\n\nHe told reporters that the alleged attacker's mother \"reported concerns about her son's behaviour\" in late October \"as he had turned in on himself\".\n\nHowever, there was not enough information to allow for a new prosecution, he added.\n\nPolice said the suspect was supposed to be following treatment for psychiatric problems.\n\nThe victim killed in the attack was a German tourist who worked as a nurse\n\nThe victim killed in the attack was a German tourist who worked as a nurse.\n\nMr Darmanin said the victim was with his wife when he was attacked and fatally stabbed on Quai de Grenelle.\n\nHe said the wife's life was saved by the intervention of a taxi driver and that the suspect fled across a nearby bridge spanning the River Seine.\n\nAfter crossing to the north side of the river he attacked two more people: a French man aged around 60 and a 66-year-old British tourist who was hit in the eye with a hammer.\n\nThe suspect was then Tasered by police and arrested on suspicion of assassination - defined in French law as premeditated murder - and attempted assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise.\n\nThe two people injured were treated by emergency services and on Sunday, Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau told French media they were \"in good health\".\n\nVideo published online appeared to show the moment the suspect was apprehended by armed police not far from where the attack happened.\n\nMr Darmanin said the alleged attacker was heard shouting \"Allahu Akbar\", Arabic for \"God is greatest\", and told police he was upset because \"so many Muslims are dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine\".\n\nThe suspect is also understood to have suggested France was complicit in the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza.", "Mohammed Nazzal says he was beaten by Israeli prison guards\n\nPalestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails say that guards carried out abuse and collective punishment in the weeks after the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October.\n\nThey have described being hit with sticks, having muzzled dogs set on them, and their clothes, food and blankets taken away.\n\nOne female prisoner has said she was threatened with rape, and that guards twice tear-gassed inmates inside the cells.\n\nThe BBC spoke to six people in total, all of whom said they were beaten before leaving jail.\n\nThe Palestinian Prisoners Society says some guards are alleged to have urinated on handcuffed prisoners. And that six prisoners have died in Israeli custody in the past seven weeks.\n\nIsrael says all its prisoners are detained according to the law.\n\nEighteen-year-old Mohammed Nazzal was one of those released by Israel this week, in exchange for Israeli women and children held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nHe had been held in custody in Nafha Prison without charge since August, and says he does not know why he was arrested.\n\nIsrael has been releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages held by Hamas\n\nMohammed invited me to his home, down a winding alley in the village of Qabatiya near Jenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank.\n\nThe family reception room at the top of the old house was fogged by the smoke of a dozen cigarettes - a cousin circled the visitors with a flask of coffee and a tall tower of tiny paper cups.\n\nMohammed sat flanked by rows of male relatives, both his hands heavily bandaged, held up in front of him stiffly like a boxer, the tip of his thumbs peeking out.\n\nTen days ago, he says, Israeli prison guards came into his cell with a microphone and speaker, and tried to provoke the prisoners by clapping and screaming their names.\n\n\"When they saw we weren't reacting,\" he says, \"they started to beat us.\"\n\n\"They arranged us so that the elderly prisoners were put in the back and the young in front. They took me and started beating me. I was trying to protect my head, and they were trying to break my legs and my hands.\"\n\nThe family showed us medical reports and X-rays from Palestinian doctors in Ramallah who examined Mohammed after he was released on Monday.\n\nWe showed the X-ray pictures to two doctors in the UK, who confirmed that they showed fractures in both hands. It was no surprise to Mohammed.\n\nMohammed Nazzal says his hands were broken during beatings in jail\n\n\"In the beginning, I was in a lot of pain,\" he tells me. \"Then after a while, I knew that they were broken, so I stopped using them. I only used them when I went to the toilet.\"\n\nHe says the other prisoners helped him eat, drink and use the bathroom, and that he did not ask the guards for medical help out of fear that he would be beaten again.\n\nThe Israel Prison Service has disputed Mohammed's story, saying that he had been examined by a medic before leaving prison, with no medical problem diagnosed.\n\nThe prison service also released a video of the teenager leaving prison and boarding a Red Cross bus before his release, which it says proves that his claims are false.\n\nIn the footage, the teenager's hands are unbandaged, and appear to be hanging by his sides - including as he climbs onto the bus - but are out of shot for most of the video.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Israel has released a video that it claims proves that Mohammed was not beaten in jail\n\nMohammed told us that the first medical treatment he received was on that Red Cross bus.\n\nA medical report from a hospital in Ramallah the day he arrived back home advised that a plate might have to be fitted, if his fractures did not heal by themselves.\n\nWe asked the Red Cross to confirm Mohammed's story. They said in a statement: \"We speak directly with the detaining authorities if we have any concerns about the medical condition of detainees. Due to this dialogue, we do not speak publicly about individual cases.\"\n\nMohammed says the behaviour of guards inside Israeli jails changed after the Hamas attacks on 7 October.\n\nHe says guards kicked them, and used sticks to hit them, and describes one guard stepping on his face.\n\n\"They came in with their dogs,\" he continues. \"They let the dogs attack us and then they started beating us.\"\n\n\"They took out mattresses, our clothes, our pillows, and they threw our food on the floor. People were terrified.\"\n\nHe shows me the marks on his back and shoulder that he says were the result of these beatings.\n\n\"The dog attacking me wore a muzzle with very sharp edges - his muzzle and claws left marks all over my body,\" he tells me.\n\nMohammed showed the BBC injuries he says he sustained in Israeli detention\n\nBeatings like this happened twice at Megiddo Prison, he says, and more times than he could count at Nafha Prison.\n\nOther Palestinian prisoners we have spoken to have described a similar shift inside Israel's jails after the Hamas attacks, saying they understood it as \"revenge\" against Palestinian prisoners for the actions of Hamas.\n\nThe head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, Abdullah al-Zaghary, told us that many prisoners had witnessed cellmates being violently beaten on their faces and bodies, and that he had heard allegations of guards urinating on handcuffed prisoners.\n\nWe asked the Israel Prison Service for a response to these allegations. They said all prisoners were detained according to the law and had all the basic rights legally required.\n\n\"We are not aware of the claims you described,\" the statement said. \"Nonetheless, prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined by official authorities.\"\n\nThe Israel Prison Service says all inmates are detained according to the law\n\nLama Khater, released from prison earlier this week, published a video on social media alleging that an intelligence officer had \"explicitly threatened her with rape\" immediately after her arrest in late October.\n\n\"I was handcuffed and blindfolded,\" she told an interviewer in the video. \"They threatened to rape me... It was clear the goal was to intimidate me.\"\n\nIsrael said these claims were made by her lawyer and had been denied by the prisoner herself. The prison service had filed a complaint for incitement, it said.\n\nBut Lama Khater told us by telephone that women prisoners - including herself - had indeed been threatened with rape, and that tear gas had been used against prisoners in their dormitory at Damon Prison.\n\nThe Palestinian Prisoners Society says there has been a sharp rise in the number of Palestinian deaths in custody since the 7 October attacks, with six people dying in jail since that date.\n\nIsrael did not address our question about this directly, but said that four prisoners had died on four different dates over the past weeks, and that the prison service had no knowledge of the causes of death.\n\nIn Qabatiya village, Mohammed Nazzal says his hands still give him pain, especially at night.\n\nHis brother Mutaz told me the teenager he knew before had not returned from jail.\n\n\"This is not the Mohammed we know,\" he said. \"He was brave, courageous. Now his heart is broken and filled with terror.\"\n\nThe previous night, he said, the Israeli army had carried out an operation in the city of Jenin, 4km (2.5 miles) away: \"You could see how scared he was.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA rescue operation is under way to reunite drivers with their vehicles abandoned in heavy snow and restore electricity to 2,000 homes in Cumbria.\n\nThe Met Office estimates as much as 30cm of snow fell, trapping people in cars and forcing them to spend the night in temporary accommodation.\n\nFurther north, the coldest night since March was recorded in Scotland with the temperature dropping to -12.5C (9.5F)\n\nMore weather warnings for snow and ice come into force on Sunday evening.\n\nA Met Office yellow warning for ice across much of northern England, the Midlands and northern Wales is in place until midday on Monday.\n\nThis means difficult travel conditions are likely, as well as icy patches on roads and pavements.\n\nIn eastern Scotland, a yellow warning for snow and ice will be in place at the same time.\n\nOn Monday, heavy rain is forecast across parts of southern England and south-east Wales.\n\nThe Met Office has a yellow warning in place for possible flooded homes and businesses and travel disruption from midnight until 18:00 GMT.\n\nIn Cumbria, police declared a \"major incident\" on Saturday evening after thick snow caused about 7,000 homes and businesses to lose power and made roads unpassable.\n\nDrivers were forced to abandon their cars to seek warm places to spend the night.\n\nEmma Thompson, from Ulverston, slept in a scout hut in Hawkshead after she became stranded on her way home from manning a chilli jam stall at the local Christmas fair.\n\n\"By 16:00 I was up to my knees (in snow),\" she told BBC News.\n\nThe 54-year-old slept in a dormitory with 10 other women, while others stayed in the local church and school.\n\nMrs Thompson praised residents, who brought them tea, coffee and blankets. The vicar offered them soup, and a fish and chip shop provided food.\n\nMeteorologist Tom Morgan estimated 20 to 30cm of snow fell in southern Cumbria but cautioned these were not official measurements.\n\nElectricity North West (ENWL) said its network had been severely impacted but indicated it had restored power to nearly 5,000 customers on Sunday.\n\nBBC Weather's Paul Goddard said Cumbria was not likely to see any more disruptive snow over the next few days, after a change in wind direction.\n\nEmma Thompson trying to offer some winter warmth to Cumbria residents with her chilli jam\n\nSnow-covered peaks near Loch Droma in the Scottish Highlands\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. UK weather forecast: Are we set for more snow?\n\nElsewhere, Ant Brett, from Essex, travelled to Cumbria for a family wedding but the conditions meant he was travelling for 19 hours.\n\nHe told the BBC he became stuck on Saturday afternoon while waiting on the A595.\n\n\"I was heading up to a family wedding - it's fair to say I didn't make it. The cars here haven't had any water or food supplies.\"\n\nHeavy snow fell in Duddon Valley, Cumbria, leaving trees looking white and roofs covered in inches of snow\n\nRoads have been treacherous for drivers in Cumbria\n\nCumbria Fire and Rescue Service said it worked through Saturday night to rescue people from cars trapped in deep snow.\n\nHighways teams spent Sunday clearing and treating main routes through the county and advised drivers picking up abandoned cars to only use these routes on their journeys.\n\nCumbria police urged people to only travel if necessary and warned that black ice might become a risk in some areas.\n\nChildren enjoyed sledging outside beach huts in Blyth, Northumberland, on Sunday\n\nThick blankets of snow covered cars and streets in Cumbria, making some roads almost impassable\n\nFreezing temperatures and a blanket of snow greeted ramblers at the North York Moors National Park on Saturday\n\nOvernight on Saturday, the Met Office said Altnaharra, in the Highland region of northern Scotland, saw the coldest recorded temperature so far this winter at-12.5C.\n\nTemperatures overnight on Sunday were not expected to be as cold as Saturday night, BBC Weather's Paul Goddard said.\n\nHe added that colder-than-average temperatures would remain for the first half of the week, but by Thursday it could be wetter and windier but more mild, with a possible 13C in south-west England.\n\nSeparately, an amber health alert for cold weather, issued by the UK Health Security Agency, is in place until Tuesday for five central and northern regions in England. A yellow warning is in place for four other regions, including London and southern and eastern England.\n\nThe agency warned: \"Cold weather impacts are likely to be felt across the whole health service for an extended period of time, with potential for the whole population to be at risk.\"\n\nHeavy snow has also been causing disruption across Europe this weekend.\n\nGermany, Austria and the Czech Republic have been hit by train and flight cancellations.\n\nHas your area been affected by the adverse weather? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFind out the weather forecast for your area, with an hourly breakdown and a 14-day lookahead, by downloading the BBC Weather app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nThe BBC Weather app is only available to download in the UK.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA German man has died and two others, including a British man, have been injured in a knife and hammer attack on a street in central Paris.\n\nThe attack occurred near the Eiffel Tower shortly before 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on Saturday.\n\nA 26-year-old French man was later arrested, and anti-terrorism prosecutors opened an investigation.\n\nProsecutor Jean-François Ricard said the suspect had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group (IS).\n\nMr Ricard told a briefing on Sunday that the suspect Armand R, a French national born in France to Iranian parents, made the pledge in a video posted on social media.\n\nHe converted to Islam aged 18, the prosecutor said, and was imprisoned in 2016 for four years after making plans to travel to Syria to join IS.\n\nPolice said he was supposed to be following treatment for psychiatric problems.\n\nMr Ricard added that the suspect had been under surveillance for suspected extremism and that three associates, including members of his family, had been detained for questioning.\n\nEarlier, it was revealed that the victim killed in Saturday night's attack was a German tourist who worked as a nurse.\n\nFrance's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the victim was with his wife when he was attacked and fatally stabbed on Quai de Grenelle.\n\nHe said the wife's life was saved by the intervention of a taxi driver and that the suspect fled across a nearby bridge spanning the River Seine.\n\nAfter crossing to the north side of the river he attacked two more people: a French man aged around 60 and a 66-year-old British tourist who was hit in the eye with a hammer.\n\nThe suspect was then Tasered by police and arrested on suspicion of assassination - defined in French law as premeditated murder - and attempted assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise.\n\nVideo published online appeared to show the moment the suspect was apprehended by armed police not far from where the attack happened.\n\nForensics teams work at one of the scenes of the attack\n\nThe two people injured were treated by emergency services and on Sunday, Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau told French media they were \"in good health\".\n\nMr Darmanin said the alleged attacker was heard shouting \"Allahu Akbar\", Arabic for \"God is greatest\", and told police he was upset because \"so many Muslims are dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine\".\n\nThe suspect is also understood to have suggested France was complicit in the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza.\n\nOn Saturday, a video was posted on social media in which the suspect criticised the French government and discussed what he described as the murder of innocent Muslims, AFP news agency reports.\n\nWriting on X, formerly Twitter, French President Emmanuel Macron sent his thoughts to all those affected by the \"terrorist attack\" and thanked the emergency services for their response.\n\n\"The national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office will now be responsible for shedding light on this affair so that justice can be done in the name of the French people,\" he said.\n\nIt comes less than two months after a teacher was killed in a knife attack at a high school in the northern city of Arras, prompting the French government to put the country on its highest level of national security alert.", "James Cleverly is the third home secretary to roll up in Rwanda.\n\nPriti Patel, the original author of the idea, did the trip.\n\nSo too did Suella Braverman.\n\nNow the turn of Mr Cleverly.\n\nIt was April of last year when Priti Patel headed to east Africa to make the case that the UK needed a new tool to drive down illegal immigration: the prospect of migrants being sent to Rwanda.\n\nBut here we are in the final month of 2023 and the policy isn't off the ground, even if plenty of airliners with politicians on have been.\n\nThis time the plan gets the fountain pen and cartridge paper treatment - a treaty, an agreement between two countries recognised internationally.\n\nIt is the latest attempt to shove the whole idea into a place where it actually works and escapes the crippling judgements of an array of courts.\n\nLet's see if it is any more successful than everything else that has been tried.\n\nThe government's mantra is big problems demand novel solutions.\n\nMore of the same will lead to more of the same: lots of crossings on small boats, when the promise is to stop the boats.\n\nBut the number of people Rwanda would ever likely take, if they ever do, is likely to be small.\n\nAnd it is uncertain how much of a deterrent effect the prospect of being sent there will be.\n\nIt's worth a try, say ministers. It's a waste of time, say Labour.\n\nA senior Labour figure who's been doing a spot of maths texts me: \"It's one year, five months and 20 days almost to the hour since the first flight of asylum seekers was originally due to depart for Rwanda, before it was cancelled at the last minute.\n\n\"Since then, another 63,852 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats.\"\n\nBut it is an issue Labour could soon inherit if they win the election.\n\nAnd those in government reckon they are doing everything Labour is suggesting they would do and more.\n\nWe now await the detail of what is on that cartridge paper, in the treaty.\n\nJames Cleverly will dash back home within seven or eight hours of arriving in Rwanda —and is expected in the Commons on Wednesday setting out the planned new law on the treaty.\n\nCan it work? Will it work? And by when?\n\nThey are the three key questions at the heart of this.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How missiles and destruction quickly returned to Gaza\n\nThe resumption of fighting between Israel and Hamas has been met with a mixture of fear and anger in Gaza, with the UN calling it a \"nightmare\".\n\nA temporary ceasefire expired at 07:00 (05:00 GMT) with both warring sides blaming each other.\n\nSince then, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says 178 people have been killed in Israeli attacks.\n\nA UN official said much-needed aid had stopped coming through the Rafah crossing since the ceasefire ended.\n\nOn Friday morning, the sound of heavy gunfire could be heard in areas of northern Gaza infiltrated by the Israeli military, with clashes breaking out between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters.\n\nThere seemed to be no let up in the pace of fighting after the ceasefire, with jet fighters and reconnaissance planes deployed.\n\nAreas targeted by air strikes included north-western Gaza and Khan Younis in the south - where hundreds of thousands of people fled earlier in the war to escape fighting in the north. Houses in the city were targeted - including one house in close proximity to Nasser hospital, where the BBC Arabic team was based.\n\n\"Around 06:30 the drones started flying,\" Mohammad Ghalaiyini, a Briton who is currently in Khan Younis with his family, said in a voice message sent to the BBC. \"Around 07:30, I think, the bombings started and there's been like non-stop bombing every 10, 15, 20 minutes.\"\n\nLeaflets dropped by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned that areas east of Khan Younis and Salah al-Din were \"dangerous\" combat zones and urged people in some parts to head to shelters further south in Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.\n\nMeanwhile, Hamas and other groups fired rockets at Israel, which deployed its Iron Dome defence system to intercept them.\n\nThe renewed clashes were \"catastrophic for the people of Gaza,\" James Elder, a spokesman for the UN children's agency, Unicef, told the BBC.\n\nMr Elder said Nasser hospital - which he said was now Gaza's biggest functioning medical facility - was \"wildly overflowing with children and people with wounds of war recovering from the last attack\".\n\nHe said many families had been sleeping on mattresses at the hospital for weeks.\n\n\"This hospital cannot possibly cope with a surge in wounds from the battlefield with more children with burns, with those horrendous shrapnel injuries,\" he said.\n\nOther UN aid agencies have described similar conditions at other hospitals.\n\nThe situation at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City was \"like a horror movie\" even before the bombing started again, World Health Organization (WHO) senior emergency officer Rob Holden said.\n\nHis team - who visited the site earlier in the week - reported patients with \"the most horrific injuries\" lying on floors \"running with blood\", while the bodies of those who had been killed were lined up in the car park outside.\n\nThe WHO says only 18 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are \"minimally to partially functional\".\n\n\"Gaza's health system has been crippled by the ongoing hostilities,\" Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories, said. \"We are extremely concerned about the resumption of violence.\"\n\nThere is also major concern over the wider humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is likely to worsen as fighting resumes.\n\nAs supplies of cooking gas, food and water are dangerously low, shops are empty and there is not enough aid to distribute to displaced people.\n\nMany are sleeping in tents and have told the BBC they are struggling to cope with the cold weather conditions. They are desperately urging for more aid including warm clothing to be delivered.\n\nThey also say very little water, food and medicine is reaching hospitals.\n\nPhilippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN's relief agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said he was beyond mere concern that \"no humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza today including fuel\".\n\nHundreds of trucks carrying aid were able to enter Gaza during the seven-day ceasefire but they were still fewer in number than the roughly 500 trucks that entered Gaza every day before the war.\n\nOn Friday Mark Regev, senior adviser to the Israeli prime minister, said Hamas could have ensured the pause in fighting was extended if they had freed more hostages.\n\n\"They have close to 20 women [eligible for release] in the framework of the existing agreement, yet they chose not to do so,\" Mr Regev told the BBC.\n\nAsked whether those women were civilians or Israeli soldiers, Mr Regev said some of the women were in their 20s and had finished their military service.\n\nFor its part, Hamas says it did make several offers regarding further hostage releases - all of which were rejected by Israel.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its military strikes on Friday had hit Hamas command centres, underground sites and groups of Hamas fighters.\n\nOfficials in Gaza say more than 14,800 people including about 6,000 children have been killed since Israel began its military campaign against Hamas there, with thousands more believed to be dead under rubble.\n\nIt follows Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October during which it killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped 240 others.", "Lindeni Lombo stands with a poster of her murdered son\n\nThirty years after the transition from apartheid to a democratic South Africa, Fergal Keane returns to a country experiencing increasing political violence in a key region to see what happened to the hopes and promises of a better nation.\n\nThembinkosi Lombo may not have known the man who gunned him down - but he may well have known the person who ordered the hit.\n\nThe 35-year-old local councillor from South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) was shot dead in Greytown in the eastern coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal last year.\n\nHe left behind a wife and nine children - the youngest at just two months old.\n\nHis mother Lindeni Lombo, 75, tells us she believes the assassination was an inside job.\n\n\"He did tell me that from time to time there were cars that were suspicious that would follow him around,\" she says. \"My son told me that within the ANC there was some rivalry - those who were anti- and those who were pro-him.\"\n\nA 20-year-old man was arrested and charged with the murder in March last year. In the past 12 months more than 20 councillors have been killed in the region - it brings the number of elected representatives and local government officials killed in over a decade to more than 150.\n\nMrs Lombo keeps a big election poster of her son as a reminder of his life and of her pride in his election victory. She lives in the ward he represented, a remote rural community set in the undulating hill country of KwaZulu-Natal.\n\nOf the broader rise in political violence she says: \"They're fighting for positions.\n\n\"People want higher positions in the municipality, in the councils, and they are fighting all the time, competing for turf. They want money.\"\n\nPolice Minister Bheki Cele said most of the dead councillors had been victims of internal political battles. The majority were from the ANC.\n\nElected office can bring access to local government budgets. Billions of rand have been lost through corruption involving officials and politicians.\n\nIn one notorious case, the school nutrition programme in the province collapsed because of corruption, leaving thousands of children from poor families without school meals.\n\nThere is a long history of violence in the region\n\nKwaZulu means \"place of the Zulus\", and has a long history of violence - from the 19th Century wars of King Shaka, the struggle against the British Empire, then against apartheid, and the conflict between political parties that threatened to derail South Africa's transition to democracy in the 1990s.\n\nBut now the killings are frequently carried out by hitmen for hire - \"inkabis\" in the Zulu language. It can cost anywhere between 10,000 rand (£420; $535) to 500,000 (£21,000) to have a person killed. The higher the profile, the greater the price.\n\nDrive out into the remote rural districts around provincial capital Pietermaritzburg and there is apprehension that next year's elections will bring increased violence.\n\nAlpheus Mzolo is a traditional leader in the Table Mountain district - a landscape of acacia trees and small settlements dominated by a brooding flat-topped mountain, not to be confused with the more famous Table Mountain in Cape Town.\n\nMr Mzolo is an \"induna\" (headman) for a powerful chief. In times of war the Indunas are responsible for raising and commanding the chief's regiments. But his area is peaceful at the moment and he aims to keep it that way, refusing to align publicly with any party. The problem may come next year when political campaigning gets under way in earnest.\n\n\"Yes, I'm worried about it because it's just near now,\" he says. \"Our people, will get affected by this… so that makes me worried. Because of the elections.\n\n\"Then you can see violence coming back and killing the people. Our own people.\"\n\nThis is happening in a nation whose people were promised peace after the end of apartheid.\n\nThirty years ago this month, as he was presented with the Nobel Peace Prize, Nelson Mandela pledged South Africans would become \"children of paradise\" through recognising their shared humanity.\n\nIn Pietermaritzburg, I meet up with the ANC Mayor, Mzimkhulu Thebolla, and put it to him that the corruption and violence are an indictment of his party's nearly 30 years in power.\n\nMzimkhulu Thebolla says it will take more than 30 years to repair what has happened over 300 years\n\n\"We have challenges in this country,\" he says. \"And some of those challenges are the corruption you're talking about, the crime you're talking about is the result of that. The underdevelopment of course is a result of that.\n\n\"But we are saying that undoing what has been done and created for over 300 years cannot only take 30 years to repair.\"\n\nApartheid certainly left a bitter legacy - of violence, inequality and poor policing. There is also factional violence in some of the other political parties in KwaZulu-Natal.\n\nBut increasing numbers of South Africans are demanding that the ANC be held accountable for what has happened under its watch. In KwaZulu-Natal, that desire produced one of the more extraordinary local election results in South African history.\n\nTwo years ago, a white, Zulu-speaking, gay man was elected as mayor of uMngeni municipality, an area with nearly a three-quarters black majority.\n\nUnder the ANC, maladministration and corruption had wreaked havoc on the local budget.\n\nChris Pappas is one of the youngest mayors in South Africa\n\nChris Pappas, 32, of the opposition Democratic Alliance, set about tackling corruption. Within a year his administration had balanced the books. Mayor Pappas knows that fighting back against the crooks is a potentially risky endeavour.\n\n\"The biggest fear I have is from contractors, not so much politicians, but contractors,\" he says.\n\n\"As you start to unpack the supply chain systems of a municipality, you find all sorts of irregularities. And, you know, the right thing to do is to stop contracts, cancel them… claw back money.\n\n\"And that's bread and butter for people. That's no longer about political power, but that's about people keeping their lifestyles going.\"\n\nHe is one of the youngest mayors in the country and was only three years old when Nelson Mandela became president after the first democratic election in April 1994.\n\nNow Mr Pappas is his party's candidate for the premiership of the entire province of KwaZulu-Natal. Was he surprised that as a young, white, gay man he managed to garner such support in a largely black and socially conservative area?\n\n\"I think it reaffirms what many South Africans think generally, and that is that identity is not what drives our primary election motives,\" he says.\n\n\"I think what many people want to see is general peace and general prosperity. Issues of racism and issues of identity do feature in our country strongly. But I think when it comes to just moving the needle forward in terms of service delivery and progress, people just want to get things done.\"\n\nThe violence is deeply embedded in KwaZulu-Natal and while corruption cases are being prosecuted, what is described by anti-corruption campaigners as the \"looting\" of public resources is daunting. But South Africa's democracy does offer the possibility of change.\n\nThat is why next year's elections could be the most consequential since those first non-racial polls 30 years ago.\n\nIn South Africa, the present - let alone the future - seems to hang in the balance.\n\nSouth Africa: The Children of Paradise, Fergal Keane's documentary series with Milton Nkosi, is available on BBC Sounds and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from Monday 4 December. Click here to listen.", "Ryanair has said reports it has changed its policy so people have to pay for an online boarding pass are false.\n\nOver the past few days customers have complained that they have had to pay up to £21 for a seat to access a digital boarding pass when checking in.\n\nSeveral told the BBC the only other option was to queue at the airport to collect a paper version.\n\nA Ryanair spokesperson said passengers have never been asked to pay to download boarding passes.\n\n\"All Ryanair passengers can pay for a reserved seat if they so wish or if passengers wish to avoid this seat fee, they can select a randomly allocated seat entirely free of charge,\" the spokesperson said.\n\nHowever, several passengers have complained on social media that if they chose the option of a randomly allocated seat they were told they would have to pick up a paper boarding pass at the airport, a problem first reported in the Mail on Sunday two days ago.\n\nA series of indignant posts on X, formerly Twitter, have addressed Ryanair directly.\n\n\"When and why did you start this carry on? I now have to QUEUE to collect my boarding pass at the airport?\" said one passenger travelling from London to Belfast early on Monday morning.\n\nAnother passenger said: \"I just can't believe your new policy of not allowing passengers to create a boarding pass (mobile or print-out) unless they buy a seat, forcing them to join a check-in queue (30m or longer) to do so for no other reason for you to make a few quid. Scandalous.\"\n\n\"This definitely happened to me,\" Neil Buckley told the BBC. He flew to Riga with Ryanair at the weekend and said he felt forced to pay £15.50 for reserved seats - the equivalent of 10% of the ticket price.\n\n\"The app said if I opted for a free random seat I'd have to go to check-in to get a paper boarding pass, which I've never seen before.\n\n\"If you wanted a digital boarding pass, it said you had to pay for a reserved seat. I was really annoyed that I had to pay to avoid the inconvenience of queueing at check-in,\" he said.\n\nAnita Wilczynska, who flew to Krakow last Thursday, said that while checking in online, a message appeared informing her she must either collect her boarding pass from the airport, or purchase a seat for an e-boarding pass.\n\nAnother traveller on social media said that staff at the airport check-in desk told them the new policy was only for the last 20 passengers checking in for a flight, and the charge had been introduced in the past few days.\n\nThe BBC has asked Ryanair for further explanation.\n\nMost airlines require passengers to check in online, confirming their intention to travel. Usually you can download an electronic copy of your boarding pass at the same time as doing this. Some passengers choose to pick up a printed boarding pass at the airport instead. None of those choices usually incur a charge.\n\nHowever, these Ryanair passengers say they found they had to book a seat, which typically cost between £7 and £21, before they were allowed to download their boarding pass. The only alternative, if they chose not to pay to book a seat, was to queue for a boarding pass at the airport, they said.\n\nLow-price airlines such as Ryanair have gained a reputation for adding on charges, such as for putting luggage in the hold, booking a seat and asking for a seat with extra legroom.\n\nBudget carriers argue that is how they keep basic fares low compared to traditional carriers who usually provide meals, baggage and other add-ons within the overall price.\n\nAdding extra optional fees is known as \"drip pricing\" and can add significantly to the total price.\n\nRecent government research into the issue found these hidden fees were common not only among airlines, but also at other travel firms, gyms, restaurants, cinemas and theatres. More than half of firms in the entertainment and hospitality industries operate some kind of drip pricing, the research found.\n\nThe government recently held a public consultation into drip pricing and whether there should be clearer information for consumers.\n\nThe consultation closed in October, but the government has not indicated when it will respond.\n\nRyanair's pricing strategy has already been in the news in recent months, after it charged an elderly couple £110 to print their tickets at the airport. They had mistakenly downloaded their return tickets instead of their outgoing ones.\n\nIn a second case that hit the headlines, Ryanair charged a family £165 to check in at the airport after it said they had \"unchecked themselves\" even though they turned up at the airport with their printed boarding passes.\n\nConsumer rights expert Martyn James said the latest reports could indicate an error with Ryanair's computer or booking systems.\n\n\"If this new charge is true, then it's something of a false economy for Ryanair, as they'll need an awful lot more staff on the check-in desks to print off all of those boarding passes,\" he said.\n\n\"However, this latest news story highlights a glaringly unfair scenario that's been allowed to continue for far too long. Passengers should not have to pay for reserving a 'standard' seat at all. Speedy boarding, more legroom, premium - fine. But you should not have to pay to sit next to a loved one.\"\n\nHave you been charged to get your Ryanair boarding pass online? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Snow and ice has caused disruption across parts of the UK\n\nParts of the UK could be facing \"ice rink Monday\" as snow refreezes overnight, the RAC has warned.\n\nThe Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for snow and ice in eastern Scotland with road and railway disruption expected.\n\nThere is also a separate warning for rain in parts of south Wales and Devon and West Somerset.\n\nIt follows days of freezing temperatures and disruption caused by snow with Cumbria particularly hit.\n\nRAC breakdown spokesman Simon Williams said \"treacherous icy conditions\" were expected in northern parts on Monday as he urged drivers to take care when travelling.\n\n\"Those who decide to drive should leave extra space behind the vehicle in front, reduce their speeds to give plenty of time to stop,\" he said.\n\n\"Before setting out, it's important to allow more time to de-ice and de-mist vehicles thoroughly.\"\n\nThe Met Office said a thaw of recent snowfall will lead to wet roads and pavements, adding the refreezing of thawed snow as temperatures fall overnight will cause some icy patches on untreated surfaces.\n\nConditions in Cumbria remain treacherous with even 4x4 vehicles struggling to get access to affected homes and damaged power lines. Supplies are being carried into the area by foot.\n\nAbout 45 schools were closed on Monday in areas including Kendal, Ambleside, Ulverston and Barrow-in-Furness.\n\nFurther south, temperatures are expected to be milder than previous days. A warning for rain is in place for parts of the south and south west of England.\n\nMet Office chief meteorologist Jason Kelly said: \"The first Atlantic air mass for a while is making some inroads across southern and central parts of the country bringing less cold conditions to many southern areas, whilst the cold air mass continues to hold on in the north.\n\n\"Where these two air masses meet is the focus for continuing ice risk. For parts of north-east Scotland, wintry showers will bring some icy conditions overnight, as well as some accumulating snow inland.\"\n\nSaturday night saw the coldest temperatures since last winter, with -12.5C (9.5F) recorded in Altnaharra in the Highland region of northern Scotland, according to the weather service.\n\nIn Cumbria, police declared a \"major incident\" on Saturday evening after snow caused about 7,500 homes and businesses to lose power and made roads unpassable.\n\nDrivers were forced to abandon their cars to seek warm places to spend the night. Some sought shelter in the girl guiding centre in the village of Hawkshead after its annual Christmas fair was forced to be abandoned.\n\nJudith Myers, who has run the Brownies there for the past 47 years, said stallholders and visitors were stuck after the sudden snowfall. Around 45 people slept over even though there were only 32 bunks, she told Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"There was quite a few sleeping on the floor in the main hall. We put an appeal out on Facebook to members of the public villagers, they brought along sleeping bags and blankets and things like that, and food. We had soup brought and bread and all sorts of things.\"\n\nShe said nearly everyone around them had no power but luckily theirs only went \"on and off twice\". Some nearby were still without power, she said, as people stayed in a local school, church and the market hall before coming to the girl guiding hut.\n\nHow is the weather affecting you? Get in touch.\n\nMeteorologist Tom Morgan estimated 20 to 30cm of snow fell in southern Cumbria but cautioned these were not official measurements.\n\nElectricity North West said on Sunday evening that 1,500 properties in Cumbria remained without electricity, adding that power had been restored to 7,500 homes.\n\nAn amber health alert for cold weather, issued by the UK Health Security Agency, is in place until Tuesday for five central and northern regions in England.\n\nThe agency warned: \"Cold weather impacts are likely to be felt across the whole health service for an extended period of time, with potential for the whole population to be at risk.\"\n\nHeavy snow has also been causing disruption across Europe this weekend.\n\nGermany, Austria and the Czech Republic have been hit by train and flight cancellations.\n\nFind out the weather forecast for your area, with an hourly breakdown and a 14-day lookahead, by downloading the BBC Weather app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nThe BBC Weather app is only available to download in the UK.", "The late Shane MacGowan and the late Kirsty MacColl performing in 1988\n\nThe Pogues are battling for number one along with Wham! and Mariah Carey after the death of frontman Shane MacGowan, the Official Charts Company says.\n\nTheir gritty festive track Fairytale of New York has never reached the top spot since its release in 1987.\n\nLast Christmas by Wham! is currently on track to take the top spot next Friday.\n\nCarey's All I Want for Christmas is You has climbed from sixth to second. But The Pogues' rise to third spot puts them in the running for Christmas.\n\nThe rise of 15 places in seven days puts them in contention for the coveted festive number one spot to be announced on 22 December.\n\nFairytale of New York peaked at number two when it was released after being beaten to the Christmas number one slot by the Pet Shop Boys' Always on My Mind.\n\nAfter MacGowan's death, aged 65, on Thursday, his wife Victoria Mary Clarke told the BBC she would love to see the song at the top of the charts.\n\n\"It would be nice, wouldn't it?\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. \"It should be the Christmas number one, it absolutely should. I'm very much in favour of that.\"\n\nFairytale of New York was written by MacGowan with fellow Pogues founder Jem Finer and was later re-recorded to have the late Kirsty MacColl duet with MacGowan, which led to the best-known version of the track.\n\nIt has returned to the top 40 every year since 2005.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nThe previous TV deal which runs until 2025 was worth about £5bn The Premier League has agreed a new record £6.7bn domestic television deal for Sky and TNT to show up to 270 live games a season. The deal includes the BBC continuing to show highlights on Match of the Day. The top flight said the deal, which covers the four years from the 2025-26 season, is the \"largest sports media rights deal ever concluded in the UK\". The Saturday 3pm blackout will remain in place, but every 2pm Sunday kick-off will be televised. The BBC's deal includes MOTD2 and Football Focus plus additional digital rights for its online platforms. Sky has been awarded four of the five packages and will show a minimum of 215 matches a season including Saturday 5.30pm kick-offs, Sunday 2pm and 4.30pm kick-offs, plus evening games on Mondays and Fridays and three midweek rounds. TNT will show a minimum of 52 matches a season including all 12.30pm kick-offs on Saturdays and two midweek match rounds. Sky Sports will also broadcast all 10 matches on the final day of each season. Amazon, which shows 20 matches per season under the league's current deal, has not secured rights in the new agreement. This is the first time the Premier League has been through a tender process for its rights since 2018. The current £5bn domestic TV rights deal, which was for three seasons and expires at the end of 2024-25, was allowed to be extended because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Premier League says the new agreement, which is a year longer, is a 4% rise in live rights value compared to the previous deal and will \"provide financial certainty for clubs throughout professional football until at least 2029\". \"The outcome of this process underlines the strength of the Premier League and is testament to our clubs, players and managers who continue to deliver the world's most competitive football in full stadiums, and to supporters, who create an unrivalled atmosphere every week,\" said Premier League chief executive Richard Masters. Barbara Slater, Director, BBC Sport, said: \"Match of the Day remains enduringly popular with audiences and this new agreement with the Premier League is brilliant news for football fans all over the UK. \"For almost 60 years it has been the UK's most discussed football programme, delivering a complete digest of the weekend's action and this enhanced deal with more digital content means we can tell the story of the Premier League every day across BBC Sport platforms.\" Sky will show up to 100 more matches a season, and chief executive Dana Strong said: \"We are proud of our long history with the Premier League and look forward to delivering more engagement, entertainment, and innovation to the end of the decade.\" Even though they are selling significantly more games for marginally more money, the Premier League will be privately satisfied with the figures given they believe additional growth in TV revenues over the medium term will come from the overseas market. This announcement solidifies Sky's position as the main Premier League broadcaster partner, keeps TNT in the mix and will deliver more digital content to BBC Sport, which is part of its overall strategy in a period when it will also show highlights of the Champions League. We are still to see the true emergence of streaming platforms as a player in the market for weekly content, with Amazon - who this week will screen 10 matches - dropping out after the Premier League opted to put its five midweek rounds into their packages, rather than selling them off individually, as was the case when they last properly negotiated its domestic TV rights in 2018. The Premier League has confirmed the intention to screen all Sunday 2pm games, most of which involve clubs playing in either the Europa League or Europa Conference League the previous Thursday. There is no wholesale switch to Saturday or Sunday nights, which had been feared, although there are some weekend matches that have been sold as part of the packages that do not have timeslots. It remains to be seen what happens with them. In Italy, two matches are routinely played with different kick-off times on Fridays and Mondays. TNT retaining the 12.30pm kick-off slot on a Saturday points towards Sky continuing the current trend of screening EFL matches at that time. However, there is no additional space created for the Women's Super League, which is why there have been suggestions it might benefit from using the 3pm 'blackout' slot.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Ash-covered Indonesia volcano survivor sends video to mum asking for help\n\nEleven hikers have been found dead near the crater of Indonesia's Mount Marapi volcano after it erupted over the weekend, rescuers say.\n\nTwelve others are missing and the search was suspended on Monday after another, smaller eruption.\n\nThere were 75 hikers in the area during the main eruption on Sunday but most were safely evacuated.\n\nMarapi spewed a 3km (9,800ft) ash cloud into the air, dimming the sky and blanketing surrounding villages in ash.\n\nIt is among the most active of Indonesia's 127 volcanoes and is also popular among hikers. Some trails reopened only last June due to ash eruptions from January to February. Marapi's deadliest eruption occurred in 1979, when 60 people died.\n\nThree people were rescued near the crater on Monday before the search was suspended. They were \"weak and had some burns\", said Abdul Malik, head of the Padang Search and Rescue Agency.\n\nForty-nine climbers were evacuated from the area earlier in the day, many of whom also suffered burns.\n\nAuthorities did not immediately release the identities of the hikers.\n\nVideo footage of Sunday's eruption showed a huge cloud of volcanic ash spread widely across the sky, and cars and roads covered with ash.\n\nRescue workers took turns carrying the dead and the injured down the mountain's arduous terrain and onto waiting ambulances with blaring sirens.\n\n\"Some suffered from burns because it was very hot, and they have been taken to the hospital,\" said Rudy Rinaldi, head of the West Sumatra Disaster Mitigation Agency.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSumatra's \"Gunung Marapi\" volcano was deserted when we climbed it as teenage students in the 1980s. Foolishly, a university friend and I declined the offer of a guide from the village at the base of the slope and trekked up alone by a narrow path through the jungle.\n\nThe leeches soon found us, crawling into our socks and up our legs. We emerged at around 2,500m to find a world of blackened, twisted trees, scorched by a recent eruption. Clouds of sulphurous gases swirled around the crater and fissures opened up in the rock just metres away, revealing molten rock below.\n\nOnly then did we realise just how dangerous this volcano was - but by now it was getting dark, a freezing rain was falling and we couldn't locate the path back down through the jungle, leaving us thrashing through foliage for hours. We sorely regretted not bringing a guide.\n\nRescue workers coordinated to evacuate survivors from the area\n\nOne of the hikers, Zhafirah Zahrim Febrina, appealed to her mother for help in a video message from the volcano. The 19-year-old student, whose nickname is Ife, appeared shocked, her face burnt and her hair matted with thick grey ash.\n\n\"Mom, help Ife. This is Ife's situation right now,\" she said.\n\nShe was on a hiking trip in Marapi with 18 school friends and is now in hospital receiving treatment.\n\nHer mother, Rani Radelani, told AFP news agency that her daughter underwent \"tremendous trauma\".\n\n\"She is affected psychologically because she saw her burns, and she also had to endure the pain all night,\" she said.\n\nAnother hiker moaned in pain and said \"God is great\" as a rescuer carried her on their back, the news agency reported.\n\nJodi Haryawan, a spokesperson for the local search and rescue team, told reporters that it would be \"too dangerous\" to continue searching while the volcano was erupting.\n\nMarapi is located on Sumatra, the westernmost and third largest of Indonesia's 18,000 islands. It stands 2,891m (9,485ft) high.\n\nThe Indonesian archipelago sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.\n\nAre you personally affected by this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "BBC News' Aled Scourfield speaks to Cathy, whose identity is not being revealed\n\nA survivor of domestic abuse says victims should seek help early before abusive behaviour escalates.\n\nCathy, a pensioner who lives in the Dyfed-Powys Police force area, said she experienced controlling behaviour and stalking before going to the police.\n\nCathy said that while her treatment from some officers was awful, on the whole it was very good.\n\nThe force has been criticised over domestic abuse failings which could leave victims at risk.\n\nIt said tackling domestic abuse was now a \"priority\" and new checks had been put in place to safeguard victims, as it launched a winter campaign against domestic abuse.\n\nCathy said the abuse she experienced at the hands of her ex-partner was \"emotional and psychological\".\n\n\"I was financially controlled and there was damage to my property. He broke into my home at night when I was asleep in bed on more than one occasion. I was gaslighted.\n\n\"He'd listen in at windows. He'd follow me and spy upon me. He'd turn up unannounced at a home or wherever I happened to be, even though I hadn't told him where I was going. There was a tracker on my vehicle.\n\n\"He was always in the shadows. I was brainwashed, coercively controlled and he was very angry. All this was exacerbated when I ended the relationship.\"\n\nCathy, whose identity the BBC is not revealing, eventually asked for help from Dyfed-Powys Police, but her experience was mixed.\n\nDet Ch Insp Llyr Williams says it takes about 30 domestic abuse incidents before a victim has the confidence to seek help\n\n\"There were one or two or three officers who were awful in the way they treated me, but as a whole they were very good.\n\n\"They listened to me, they believed me and the crime was taken very seriously.\"\n\nBut Cathy said officers initially made some errors which could have affected her safety.\n\n\"However, over time they understood my wellbeing was most important and particularly the preservation of my life and they always came to my property or we met in unmarked police cars,\" she said.\n\n\"I was allowed into a police station via the back door. Parking there, instead of in full view. The officer in charge got people to understand that I needed to be spoken to softly.\"Cathy said the impact of the abuse was \"everlasting\" and had changed her behaviour and way of life.\n\n\"So I continue to have no routines. I can never have a routine, which he could latch on to.\n\n\"I'm secretive about everything I do, so I don't tell anybody.\n\n\"I scan, I constantly scan vehicles, the registration numbers for the type of vehicle, the people, and one of the hardest things is to stay living where I live because how can you move home without people knowing, especially when the perpetrator doesn't live that far.\"\n\nCathy wants victims to get help - whether that is from a charity or victim support group, or police, before behaviour escalates.\n\n\"What your gut is telling you is absolutely right. It's true, it's really true.\"\n\nDomestic abuse can be described as controlling, coercive, threatening, degrading and violent behaviour, which can include sexual violence, perpetrated by a partner or ex-partner or by a family member or carer.\n\nFigures from Dyfed-Powys Police show there were just over 1,000 incidents relating to domestic abuse in December 2022, an increase on the same month in 2021 and 2020.\n\nDet Ch Insp Llyr Williams said: \"We expect to have the same again, if not an increase in that demand this year.\n\n\"It takes around 30 occasions of domestic abuse for victims to have the confidence in phoning us and it is seen as an unreported crime.\n\n\"Our message is don't suffer in silence. Reach out for support. We are here to support victims.\n\n\"Domestic abuse and violence against women and young girls is a force priority and we will be robustly dealing with that.\"\n\nIf you have been affected by any issues raised in this article, help and support can be found at BBC Action Line.", "Inbar Haiman, 27, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, and Carmel Gat, 39, were all kidnapped on 7 October\n\n\"She doesn't deserve to wait for the next deal, just because she's not somebody's mother or grandmother,\" writes Or Neko Maymon on Facebook in Hebrew.\n\nOr is talking about 27-year-old street artist and art student Inbar Haiman, who is his partner's sister.\n\nInbar was kidnapped by Hamas from the Supernova music festival in Israel on 7 October, and was seen days later in a hostage video circulated on social media, with blood on her face.\n\nShe is one of 16 women BBC Verify has identified as still being captive in Gaza, following a seven-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. This pause in fighting saw Hamas agree to release 110 hostages (including 78 women and children), in return for 240 Palestinian prisoners being freed from Israeli jails.\n\nIsrael's focus on securing the release of female hostages has raised and dashed hopes for the families of the women who are still left behind.\n\nSince her kidnap, Inbar's friends and family have been campaigning for her release, and using the hashtag #FreePink, a reference to her street artist name.\n\n\"I'm really not ready for you to take away my hope to see Inbar come back,\" Or wrote in another post three days ago.\n\nInbar Haiman is one of 16 women who are still being held captive in Gaza\n\nIn November, Inbar's boyfriend, 24-year-old Noam Alon, camped for 10 days in front of the central military headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling for the Israeli government to do more to secure Inbar's release.\n\nOf the 237 people taken hostage by Hamas and five other armed Palestinian groups during the 7 October attacks, BBC News has verified that 115 are left in Gaza. An Israeli government spokesman says 135 people remain captive. There is no official published list of hostages, so the BBC has had to confirm names itself.\n\nAmong the remaining hostages are at least 16 women and 95 men. This number includes French-Mexican Orión Hernández Radoux, the boyfriend of 22-year-old Shani Louk, who was killed after being kidnapped from the Supernova musical festival.\n\nSoon after the festival was attacked, a video began circulating widely on social media showing the body of a young woman being paraded through the streets. Shani's family was able to identify her in the footage from her dreadlocks and distinctive tattoos.\n\nOrión Hernández Radoux pictured with his girlfriend Shani Louk, who was killed in the 7 October attacks\n\nAt the end of October, Shani's mother Ricarda said she had been told by the Israeli military that a piece of skull bone belonging to her daughter had been found. Shani's body has not yet been recovered.\n\nIn November, her boyfriend Orión turned 31 in captivity.\n\n\"Today is Orión's birthday,\" wrote family friend Gabriel De la Fuente on Facebook in Spanish, \"already a month since his kidnapping, may God return you well.\"\n\nOrión is believed to have been snatched at the festival, and the Sun newspaper says it has seen threatening messages written in Arabic sent from his phone.\n\nHis friends and family join together in prayer each night at 7pm, in a WhatsApp group created to help them support each other.\n\n\"Only by uniting together in prayer will we provide the spiritual strength and support that your soul needs right now, wherever it may be,\" writes Gabriel.\n\nFamilies waiting for loved ones to come home have become a great source of support to each other, says Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat has been captive since 7 October.\n\nCarmel Gat was visiting her parents when she was taken\n\n\"We became like a real large family of families,\" he told the BBC News channel. \"It feels as though, when their relatives are getting released, so are mine.\"\n\nCarmel, a 39-year-old occupational therapist from Tel Aviv, had been visiting parents in Be'eri on 7 October.\n\nHer sister in law, Yarden Roman-Gat, was released by Hamas on Wednesday, and reunited with her husband and three-year-old daughter.\n\n\"I wasn't even sure that she was alive until I saw her,\" Gil says of Yarden.\n\nWhen the 36-year-old German-Israeli, her husband and daughter were captured, they managed to break out of the gunmen's car near the Gaza-Israel barrier, Gil explains.\n\nThe family then began to run away while being shot at. Realising she couldn't run fast enough, Yarden gave her daughter to her husband and surrendered so that the others could make their escape.\n\nYarden Roman-Gat initially escaped with husband Alon and daughter Gefen but went missing during the chase\n\n\"We were very, very happy to see her,\" says Gil.\n\nBut now the ceasefire is over, Gil grows more and more scared for his cousin Carmel, who has not yet come home.\n\n\"We were very, very worried by the fact that the truce is ended,\" Gil says. \"I'm personally very worried for her.\"\n\nMany people whose loved ones remain hostages in Gaza have been using social media to campaign for their release, share feelings and support each other in grief.\n\nThe mother of dual US-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin has been posting videos of herself talking about her son on his family's Bring Hersh Home Facebook page.\n\n\"I wanted to share with you what happened last night when I woke up at 2:13 in the morning,\" Rachel told the Facebook page's 17,000 followers on Wednesday. \"I started to think about how much pain Hersh must be in.\"\n\nHersh lost his dominant arm during a grenade explosion before being kidnapped\n\nAccording to eye witnesses Rachel spoke with, Hersh lost half of his arm in a grenade explosion before he was kidnapped from the Supernova festival.\n\nEyewitness accounts say the 23-year-old was seen being forced onto a white pick-up truck. The last-known signal from his phone came from just inside Gaza.\n\n\"It is really important that we get him home so that he can start the process of learning how to live his life in a very different way than he ever lived it before,\" says Rachel in one of her latest videos.\n\n\"It's just another reason why we are tenaciously and tirelessly fighting for him to come home.\"", "The plane began its emergency landing on a road before crashing against the wall of an apartment building\n\nA small twin-engine plane has been forced to make an emergency landing in a southern Paris suburb.\n\nThe three people on board were taken to hospital requiring urgent attention, but their injuries were not considered life-threatening, officials said.\n\nNo-one else was injured in the incident.\n\nThe aircraft landed in a residential area in Villejuif after an engine failure, according to France's Transport Minister, Clément Beaune.\n\nThe three people on board were a flying instructor in his 80s and two passengers in their late 20s, according to local media reports.\n\nThe plane began its emergency landing on a road before crashing against the wall of an apartment building.\n\nIt eventually came to a halt in the garden at the back of the apartment building, with parts of the plane strewn over the roof of a nearby garage, and the fuselage crushed under the impact.\n\nThe tail of the aircraft was detached from the rest of the plane and the wings were largely torn off.\n\nThe tail of the aircraft detached from the rest of the cabin and landed on the roof of a garage\n\nThe plane originally took off from Rouen - around 130km (80 miles) from Villejuif - and was supposed to land in Toussus-le-Noble, near Versailles.\n\nAn investigation into involuntary injuries and endangering the lives of others was opened by the regional prosecutor and the air transport gendarmerie.\n\nThe Office of Investigation and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety has also opened an investigation into the accident.", "Glenys Kinnock, pictured here with her husband, Neil in 1987, was described by her family as \"a proud democratic socialist\"\n\nFormer Labour minister Glenys Kinnock, an ex-MEP and wife of ex-Labour leader Lord Kinnock, has died at 79, her family have said.\n\nThey praised her political work, saying Europe, Africa and the UN were the \"three great passions of her life\".\n\nHer family said she had \"endured Alzheimer's\" since a 2017 diagnosis and faced it with \"innate courage\".\n\nGordon Brown made her a baroness in 2009 so she could serve as a Foreign Office minister in his government.\n\nHer family, which includes Labour MP Stephen Kinnock and daughter Rachel, said they were \"devastated\" by her death.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer called her a \"true fighter\" for the party\n\nIn a statement they said: \"Neil was with her in her final moments. They had been married for 56 years.\n\n\"A proud democratic socialist, she campaigned, in Britain and internationally, for justice and against poverty all her life.\"\n\nStephen Kinnock, Labour MP for Aberavon, described her as \"a beloved Mum and Nain who was adored by her family and friends\".\n\nIn a social media post, he paid tribute to his mother as \"a truly formidable person in every single way, and with such a cheeky sense of humour\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer called her a \"true fighter\" for the party.\n\nHe said: \"She supported Neil through his leadership and went on to have an impressive political career of her own.\"\n\n\"Glenys was a passionate lifelong campaigner for social justice at home and abroad.\"\n\nStephen Kinnock, pictured left with his parents, is Labour MP for Aberavon\n\nFormer prime minister Sir Tony Blair said her death would be \"mourned in many countries and corners of the Earth\".\n\nIn a statement, he called her a \"huge figure in progressive politics for decades: incredibly smart, brave, determined and resolute in standing up for what she believed was right.\"\n\nHe said: \"Whether in fighting the cause of development, and the eradication of global poverty, social justice in Britain, equality for women or making the case for a European Union of weight and influence in the world, Glenys was passionate and persuasive.\n\n\"She was of course an enormous support to Neil but she was a leader in her own right.\"In her last years, as Stephen and Rachel have written, she took her illness with the same steadfastness which had governed her life.\"\n\nThe charity Dementia UK said that by publicly discussing their experiences of Alzheimer's, the Kinnock family had helped raise awareness and \"the challenge that a diagnosis can bring\".\n\nBaroness Kinnock was born in Northamptonshire in 1944 and moved to Anglesey in north Wales.\n\nShe was 18 and studying at Cardiff University when she met Neil Kinnock. They married in 1967.\n\nHe spoke about the importance of supporting her in her illness, and said she had been \"not just a rock, but a continent of rocks\" during his career.\n\nDuring her husband's Labour Party leadership from 1983 - and his two attempts to become prime minister - she was sometimes represented in the media as the power behind the throne, an experience she described as \"painful\" and \"difficult to take\".\n\n\"It was relentless, the description of me as being very manipulative and always undermining Neil,\" she said.\n\nWhen he stepped down as Labour leader in 1992, she took up the political baton and served as an MEP, representing Wales at European level from 1994 to 2009.\n\nDuring a Desert Island Discs interview after being elected, she spoke of her happiness at finding her own political voice.\n\n\"It has been a pleasure to be able to speak out about things that I care about,\" she said.\n\nShe received a life peerage in 2009 to enable her to join the Labour government, becoming Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead.\n\nGordon Brown said he was \"delighted\" when he \"persuaded her\" to join his government.\n\nPaying tribute, Mr Brown said: \"All who met Glenys admired her for her generosity, her warmth and her passionate support for the best of national and international causes.\"\n\nShe served as Minister for Europe and Minister of State with responsibility for Africa, the Caribbean, Central America and the UN.\n• None Caring for my wife is the least I can do - Kinnock", "Morrison was given an initial fine by parking enforcement officers after checks revealed the badge's registered holder had died\n\nA footballer who used a dead person's Blue Badge permit after buying it for £50 has admitted fraud.\n\nManchester magistrates heard Ravel Morrison used the badge while parked on Bridgewater Street in the city in May.\n\nMorrison, who began his career with Manchester United before moving to West Ham, Sheffield United, Derby County and current club DC United, said he bought it from \"someone in Old Trafford\".\n\nThe 30-year-old, of Warrington, pleaded guilty to fraud and was fined £1,000.\n\nHe was also ordered to pay £508 in costs and a victim surcharge of £400.\n\nBlue Badges are issued by councils to people with disabilities or mobility issues to allow them to park closer to their destinations.\n\nCarers and family members may also be eligible.\n\nThe court was told the Jamaica international had displayed the permit on his parked white Audi on the street in Manchester city centre in May.\n\nHe was given an initial fine by parking enforcement officers after a check of the badge revealed its registered holder had died in February 2022.\n\nMorrison's car was impounded, but he later reclaimed it.\n\nSpeaking after the hearing, a Manchester City Council representative said the ruling showed the law was \"applicable to everyone, with no exceptions\".\n\n\"Our officers patrol the streets daily to ensure that Blue Badges are used legitimately, and we will not hesitate to take action if we discover people trying to circumvent the law,\" they added.\n\nManchester-born Morrison, who played for England's under-21 side before appearing for Jamaica, rose through the youth ranks at Manchester United before leaving the club after only a handful of appearances.\n\nHe has since played for 12 clubs, including Queens Park Rangers, Birmingham City, Cardiff City and Middlesbrough, and signed for DC United in 2022.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Giant panda Tian Tian has been at Edinburgh Zoo for 12 years\n\nThe UK's only two giant pandas leave Edinburgh Zoo later, heading back to China at the end of their 12-year loan.\n\nThe zoo has always known that Yang Guang and Tian Tian would eventually be sent home and preparations have been under way for years.\n\nThe initial 10-year loan was extended by two years but now the 20-year-old pandas, who have become a major visitor attraction, are about to head to Sichuan province.\n\n\"There's a whole lot of logistics that have to happen,'' says Darren McGarry, head of living collections at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which runs the zoo.\n\nDarren McGarry says the pandas have been in quarantine for several weeks in preparation for the move\n\nIt has spent a long time making complex arrangements to safely send the pandas to the China Wildlife Conservation Association base at Chengdu.\n\nMr McGarry says the pair have been in quarantine for several weeks to comply with animal health regulations, as agreed with the UK and Chinese governments.\n\nThe pandas have regular vet checks, including blood and faecal sampling, to ensure they are healthy and do not take any disease into China.\n\nThey have been getting used to their new crates, built for their flight to China by the zoo's blacksmith, Rab Clark.\n\nHe has constructed two bespoke metal crates complete with sliding padlock doors, pee trays and removable screens so the keepers can check on them during the flight.\n\nRab Clark, the zoo's blacksmith, has built two bespoke metal crates to transport the pandas\n\n\"The keepers tell me what they're looking for and what's required so we work as a team to see what's best for the animal,\" Mr Clark says.\n\nThe crates are 190cm long, 146cm high and 127cm wide - roughly 6ft by 5ft by 4ft.\n\n\"Although they look small,\" Mr Clark says, \"there's actually quite a bit of room for them inside, it's not tight.\n\n\"I think they'll be fine. I'm sure they'll have a safe journey.\"\n\nA low-loader transporter has been hired to transfer the pandas from the zoo to Edinburgh Airport.\n\nIt is not your typical delivery.\n\nMr McGarry says it was an interesting conversation trying to source a lorry to put two giant pandas in.\n\nThe pandas arrived in Edinburgh in 2011 in specially designed travel crates\n\nThe transporter will leave Edinburgh Zoo early on Monday morning.\n\nThe exact time was kept secret to reduce the chance of disruption from crowds of well-wishers or protest groups.\n\nThere are many who think the zoo should never have taken the pandas and are glad they will no longer be living in captivity in Scotland.\n\nBob Elliot, of animal welfare charity One Kind, says: \"You can imagine them in the forests of China where they should be but not in a zoo in Edinburgh.\n\n\"Zoo collections are so old school now that their time has come and we really need to be looking beyond zoos and how we actually conserve animals in the wild.\"\n\nThe pandas arrived in 2011 on a plane bearing a picture of a giant panda\n\nThe flight to Sichuan will be on a specially chartered China Southern plane.\n\nIt is a typical passenger plane with most of the seats removed.\n\nThe panda crates will be loaded in by fork lift at stand 12 by Edinburgh Airport's terminal building.\n\nA RZSS keeper and vet, a Chinese keeper and airline official will have the only four passenger seats behind the pilot and co-pilot.\n\nThe pandas will have health checks, food and water during the flight but the humans on board will have to heat up their own meals in the on-board microwave because there will be no cabin crew.\n\nMr McGarry says: ''Half way between Edinburgh and China there'll be a handover that none of us will see on the plane.''\n\nRZSS keeper Michael Livingstone will give the pandas crate keys to the Chinese keeper and the pandas then become the responsibility of the Chinese.\n\nMr Livingstone says the pandas are usually a bit lazy and like a lie-in in the morning so he has been gradually bringing forward their wake-up time to get them used to earlier starts.\n\nHe says he does not envisage any problems getting them into their crates which will be wheeled to the van, driven down the Zoo Hill to be lifted, one after the other, onto the transporter.\n\nAfter customs and other formal checks at the airport, Mr Livingstone says: \"They'll be put on the plane, secured in place with the crate wheels removed.\n\n''We'll be able to feed them on the plane with fresh cut bamboo and we'll be able to check up on them.\"\n\nRZSS vet Stephanie Mota will be on board the plane with the pandas\n\nRZSS vet Stephanie Mota will be on board too.\n\nShe says: ''During the flight I'm not expecting to have major challenges.''\n\n\"Yang Guang and Tian Tian are healthy so my plan is to feed them plenty of bamboo throughout the flight.\n\n\"I will monitor them very closely of course and they will also have one of their favourite keepers with them so they should be happy.\"\n\nMs Mota will check their breathing, appetite and faecal waste all without touching them because they are dangerous animals.\n\n\"If we need to do something with a giant panda normally it requires general anaesthesia which we cannot do during the flight,\" she says.\n\n\"They are trained but they will probably not be at their best.\n\n\"It's not the same environment so we are expecting that they will not react as normal.\"\n\nMr Livingstone says the pandas are usually a bit lazy and like a lie-in in the morning\n\nThe 12 to13 hour flight takes the pandas to Chengdu in Sichuan province where Yang Guang and Tian Tian will be placed in quarantine again before being transferred to another panda centre.\n\nRZSS staff are planning to visit the two giant pandas there next year to check in on them.\n\n\"I've always known they were leaving and we try not to get attached, but we have to care for them so we are emotionally attached.\n\n\"I'm excited because I will go back for a follow up next year to make sure they're ok.\n\n\"I'm sure they will be. They're China's national treasure.\"\n\nAs the UK's only pandas go back to China, here are 10 moments that defined their time in Edinburgh.\n• None Edinburgh pandas spend last day in the spotlight", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lee Anderson and Sir Edward Leigh call on Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick for tougher lines on immigration.\n\nHome Office Minister Robert Jenrick has promised to bring forward a \"serious package of fundamental reforms\" to reduce net migration numbers.\n\nHe said there were \"strong arguments\" for introducing a cap on migration and restricting the number of dependents who can accompany migrants to the UK.\n\nHis comments came as he fielded questions from Tory MPs, frustrated at growing migration levels.\n\nLast week, figures revealed that in 2022 net migration hit a record high.\n\nOn Monday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said levels of net migration were \"too high\" and that the government needed to \"do more\", without giving details of what that might be.\n\nHe added that the government's decision earlier this year to restrict certain students from bringing dependents to the UK was \"the single biggest measure to bring down legal migration that anyone has ever taken\".\n\nMr Jenrick - together with former Home Secretary Suella Braverman - has been calling for tougher measures to curb legal migration.\n\nAnswering an urgent Commons question, he went further than Mr Sunak in setting out what the government is considering, saying \"substantive measures\" would be announced \"as soon as possible\".\n\nAsked if these plans would be announced before Christmas, Mr Jenrick said: \"My plan would have been brought to the House [of Commons] before last Christmas if I could have done, but let's hope we can bring forward a substantive package of reforms very quickly.\"\n\nHe said that reducing net migration would mean \"taking difficult choices\" adding: \"The public are sick of talk - they want action.\"\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Mr Jenrick would be \"furious when he discovers who's been in charge of the immigration system for the last 13 years\".\n\nRight-wing Conservative MPs lined up to urge Mr Jenrick to push Mr Sunak to take action.\n\nSir Edward Leigh said immigration levels had grown in part due to care worker visas being handed out \"like sweeties\".\n\nHe accused the care home sector of paying \"starvation wages of £20,000-a -year\" to foreign workers and called for the salary threshold for workers coming to the UK to be raised.\n\nSpeaking of the immigration minister, Sir Edward said: \"We know he is on the right side - he's just got to persuade the prime minister now.\"\n\nAnother Conservative MP, Jonathan Gullis, said Mr Jenrick had his \"full support\" and added that he was \"deeply concerned and confused\" by Mr Sunak's approach.\n\nSir John Hayes argued for further restrictions on the number of dependents allowed to accompany migrants working in the UK. Sir John said: \"We are relying on [Mr Jenrick] because we know he shares our concerns.\"\n\nDeputy Conservative chairman Lee Anderson and MP Marco Longhi both called for a cap on net migration, with Mr Anderson saying his constituents had \"had enough\".\n\nMr Jenrick expressed sympathy for the ideas saying there were \"strong arguments\" for a cap on migration numbers \"whether in general or in specific visas\".\n\n\"But these are conversations that we need to conclude within government,\" he added.\n\nOn salary thresholds for care workers, he said the government needed to \"take a more sensible, sustainable attitude to how we pay and look after people in such an important career\".\n\nAnd responding to questions about dependents, he said: \"There is a strong argument for saying that it is unsustainable for the country to continue to take so many dependents who, in turn, put pressure on housing, public services, school places and so on.\n\n\"With respect to care workers, we have seen a very substantial number of visas issued and an almost one-for-one in terms of those care workers bringing dependents with them. And that is something ... we're actively considering.\"\n\nMany of the ideas suggested by Conservative MPs echoed proposals Mr Jenrick has already drawn up - but which have not yet been adopted as government policy.\n\nConservative MPs queued up to urge the government to take action\n\nResponding to the debate in Parliament, a No 10 spokesman said: \"We always welcome contributions from MPs on this important debate. We are listening carefully to what they have got to say.\n\nDuring the question session, Yvette Cooper said: \"Net migration should come down. Immigration is important for Britain and always will be, but the system needs to be properly controlled and managed so it's fair and effective and is properly linked to the economy.\"\n\nShe urged the government to ensure salary thresholds for migrant workers would be reviewed.\n\nThe SNP's Alison Thewliss said migrants made \"our society and economy all the richer\".\n\nShe asked the government if they had \"thought this through - who is going to carry out the vital tasks of those who come to our shores as they raised the drawbridge and send people away.\n\n\"Pressures on services are helped by people coming here, not hindered.\"", "Beyoncé wore a design by Gaurav Gupta at her show in Atlanta, Georgia\n\nBeyoncé's Renaissance world tour was full of fashion moments, with her three-hour sets featuring numerous dazzling looks.\n\nFor her Atlanta show, that came in the form of a flowing neon green sari - a traditional South Asian outfit.\n\nIt was the work of Indian fashion designer Gaurav Gupta and took hundreds of hours to finesse.\n\n\"My purpose in life is for people to think differently,\" he tells BBC Asian Network.\n\nGaurav designed three looks for the Renaissance world tour. As well as the neon green sculpted sari he also made Beyoncé a gem-encrusted gown and a crystal body suit.\n\nGaurav says saris and Indian culture are central to his designs\n\nBoth the sari and the gown came from his runway shows at Paris Fashion Week and took painstaking work to design and create.\n\nGaurav has previously said the sari took more than 200 hours to create, and he and his team spent more than 700 hours hand stitching 50,000 individual crystals, sequins and beads into the gown.\n\nThe crystal body suit was an original design for Beyoncé which took Gaurav and his team over 500 hours to make from start to finish.\n\nIndian culture and saris were central to his looks for the Cuff It singer but when he returned to Delhi after fashion school, Gaurav didn't initially include saris in his collection.\n\n\"I relooked at the sari,\" he says.\n\n\"This is one of the most ancient costumes alive in the whole world… it's really cool. Not just from an Indian perspective but from a global perspective.\"\n\nGaurav believes he was destined to bring Indian culture to the fashion world\n\nAt the heart of Gaurav's designs is the ancient Hindu concept of the golden womb - the Hiraṇyagarbha - from which the whole universe was born.\n\nHe feels his inspiration knows no bounds - literally.\n\nGaurav says he has a fascination with all things abstract, taking ideas from across the universe down to \"patterns in clouds, stars and comets\" and combining them with Indian culture and myth.\n\n\"India's becoming a vibe,\" he says.\n\nGaurav aims to take his country's traditional ideas and combine them with a \"sexier, younger, cooler\" flair.\n\nHe calls this concept \"future primitive\" and it's become a core part of his brand's aesthetic.\n\nGaurav, pictured with Cardi B at Paris Fashion Week, is only the second Indian designer to be invited to show his collection there\n\nBut Beyoncé isn't Gaurav's first A-list client, with the last two years in particular being significant for him.\n\nIn 2022, he dressed Megan Thee Stallion for the Oscars, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for Cannes and Cardi B for the No Love music video.\n\nAnd this year, he created another look for Cardi, this time for the Grammys in a gown many considered one of the best of the night.\n\n\"I had to literally make Cardi's dress in two days,\" he says.\n\n\"Multiple people made it overnight - day and night - and then it was flown to Los Angeles.\"\n\n\"I live for it. I think it's so exciting,\" he says.\n\n\"It's always a gamble, right? Even after you put in all this effort, it still might not fit her and she still might wear something else.\"\n\nWhile he's worked for some of the world's biggest artists, he doesn't see them as stars and celebrities.\n\n\"I feel like I'm meeting like-minded people who are on a certain volume in life,\" he says.\n\nGaurav's look for Cardi B at this years Grammy Awards was singled out as a red carpet favourite\n\nGaurav also designed a red carpet look for Megan Thee Stallion at the 2022 Oscars\n\nGaurav believes he was born to bring Indian culture to an international stage.\n\nThis year he became only the second Indian designer to be invited to Paris Fashion Week in a show called Shunya - Sanskrit for zero - a number and philosophical concept first discovered in India.\n\n\"There is a moment happening for India and Indians globally right now,\" he says.\n\nThe past two years, he adds, have been \"extremely magical\".\n\nLooking ahead, he has a long list of stars he'd love to work with. He names Harry Styles, Adele, Zendaya, Deepika Padukone and Lady Gaga as just a few.\n\n\"I'm not really realising how lucky I am right now because I'm just inside it,\" he says.\n\nListen to Ankur Desai's show on BBC Asian Network live from 15:00-18:00 Monday to Thursday - or listen back here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The granddaughter of Nelson Mandela has spoken out against \"climate apartheid\".\n\nSpeaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg from the COP28 climate summit, Ndileka Mandela said \"the global north is using their economic and legal power to subjugate poor nations, who at the brunt of the effects of climate change.\"\n\n\"Africa and the global south has the smallest percentage of carbon emissions\", she added", "Sir Keir said the UK's economy was \"in a hole\"\n\nSir Keir Starmer has warned the UK will face \"huge constraints\" on public spending if his party wins the next general election.\n\nHe said anyone expecting a Labour government \"to quickly turn on the spending taps\" would be disappointed.\n\nIt comes as a think tank claimed the average household income in the UK is £8,000 less than in countries such as France and Germany.\n\nGrowing the economy will be an election battleground for both major parties.\n\nThe cost of living in the UK has put the economy at the centre of political debate as inflation and high interest rates put pressure on household budgets.\n\nThe Resolution Foundation released a report on Monday claiming that \"the toxic combination of slow growth and high inequality was straining the living standards of low- and middle-income Britain well before the cost of living crisis struck\".\n\nThe think tank, which focuses on improving living standards, has made a series of recommendations ranging from increasing investment in public services and improving transport systems and housing outside of London.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has already made economic growth one of his key pledges and, speaking at the conference launching the Resolution Foundation's report, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said his tax cuts were designed to boost the UK economy as he defended his Autumn Statement.\n\nMr Hunt told the conference that his decision to make tax cuts for business investment aimed to improve the UK's productivity.\n\n\"The only way in the long run that you can raise living standards is by raising productivity,\" he said.\n\nWhile the UK has not slipped into recession, there have been concerns over weak growth. The most recent official figures show the economy failed to grow between July and September, after a succession of interest rate rises increased borrowing costs.\n\nIn a speech at the conference, Sir Keir argued that decisions taken by the government and previous Conservative administrations over the past 13 years \"will constrain what a future Labour government can do\".\n\n\"We are in a hole, no doubt about it,\" he said.\n\n\"Taxes [are] higher than at any time since the war, none of which was true in 2010. Never before has a British government asked its people to pay so much, for so little,\" the Labour leader said.\n\nSir Keir added economic growth \"will have to become Labour's obsession if we are to turn around the economy\", which he admitted \"had not always been the Labour Party's comfort zone\".\n\nBut he said economic growth \"must better serve working people. And must raise living standards in every community\".\n\nLast month, Labour was forced to deny claims it could further water down its flagship green prosperity plan, after a senior source had suggested to the BBC that the level of investment previously promised - of £28bn a year - might never be reached.\n\nIn June, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the £28bn pledge would not be met at the beginning of a Labour term of government. A senior source in the Labour leader's office said the decision was made because of the state of the public finances.\n\nAsked whether a Labour administration would avoid cuts to government department budgets, Sir Keir said while he was \"not in the business of cutting the funding\", public services did require reform.\n\nA Conservative spokesman said Labour's policy \"presents a major risk\" to the British economy at a time when the cost of borrowing is \"so high\".\n\nSir Keir said Labour would be \"ruthless when it comes to spending every pound wisely\", saying he was offering \"a counsel of realism, not despair\".\n\nIn step with Mr Hunt, Sir Keir outlined plans which include changing \"restrictive planning laws\" to build more houses and infrastructure.\n\nHe declared Labour would secure \"a new deal to make work pay with increased mental health support, a fully-funded plan to cut NHS waiting lists, an end to zero-hour contracts, no more fire and rehire, a bold new act to stamp out racial injustice - and a real living wage\".\n\nMr Hunt said raising productivity was key to reviving the economy\n\nThe government has announced it will increase the minimum wage by more than a pound to £11.44 next April, but the government's forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), has said living standards are also not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2027-28.\n\nCritics have argued for increased investment in public services, but the chancellor argued he inherited an \"incredibly difficult situation\" in the aftermath of former Prime Minister Liz Truss's tenure.\n\n\"I don't think you want declining public investment, and I hope we get to a place where we don't have that,\" Mr Hunt told the conference.\n\nHe said reforming the country's planning system as well as reforms to the welfare system would help to boost economy growth.\n\nBut his changes announced in the Autumn Statement will not prevent tax levels staying at their highest level on record and economic growth is forecast to be sluggish.", "Last updated on .From the section Sunderland\n\nChampionship side Sunderland have sacked head coach Tony Mowbray after 15 months in charge.\n\nThe Black Cats have won just two of their past nine league games and have slipped to ninth, having made the play-offs last season.\n\nMowbray, 60, took over at Sunderland in August last year after Alex Neil left the club to join Stoke City.\n\n\"This was a difficult decision to make,\" sporting director Kristjaan Speakman told the club website.\n\n\"But we remain loyal to our ambition and our strategy, and felt that now was the right moment to take this step.\n\n\"We are now focused on identifying the right candidate and we will continue to support our coaching team and players throughout the interim period.\"\n\nChairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus said Mowbray would \"always be welcome\" at Sunderland.\n\nHe added: \"As custodians of our great club, we believe in our long-term strategy that we hope will ensure sustainability and success for SAFC.\n\n\"Central to that approach is a relentless demand for a high performance culture to be implemented throughout the club and the development of a strong playing identity that you, our loyal supporters, can all be proud of.\"\n\nMowbray's long-time assistant, Mark Venus, has also left the club, with first-team coach Mike Dodds placed in temporary charge.\n\nSunderland, who play one of Mowbray's former clubs West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, were fourth in the table after beating Watford on 4 October.\n\nBut last weekend's 1-1 draw at Millwall made it five games without a win on their travels, with Jack Clarke's late penalty their first away goal in four matches.\n\nDespite slipping to ninth, Sunderland remain only three points off a play-off spot.\n\nAfter replacing Neil early last season, Mowbray guided the Black Cats to a sixth-placed finish in their first season back in the Championship.\n\nAlthough they beat Luton 2-1 at the Stadium of Light in the home leg of the play-off semi-final, they lost 2-0 at Kenilworth Road to the Hatters, who went on to win promotion to the Premier League by beating Coventry City on penalties at Wembley.", "Nick Sturdy said he had only recently got back into photography\n\nAn amateur photographer has captured a rare weather phenomenon from the top of the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire.\n\nThe images show frosty peaks emerging from a blanket of clouds with blue sky above them.\n\nThese are cloud inversions, otherwise known as temperature inversions.\n\nThey occur when temperatures near the ground are lower than temperatures higher in the air, which is opposite to what normally occurs.\n\n\"While it may have been grey and foggy in Worcester, there was this great spectacle just a few miles down the road,\" said Nick Sturdy, a resident of the city, who took the pictures.\n\nThe cloud inversions as seen from the Malvern Hills\n\nMr Sturdy had a spectacular view from the Worcestershire Beacon\n\nMr Sturdy explained: \"I've just recently got back into photography. I try to share a picture a day on my Instagram.\n\n\"I was saying to a friend only on Friday night how it would be good to go up the Malvern Hills when there was a cloud inversion.\n\n\"I happened to see someone had posted a picture of a sunrise there on Saturday morning and so packed the camera and headed there straight away.\"\n\nHe said: \"I parked at the Wyche Cutting and walked to the Worcestershire Beacon and back, taking over 300 photos en route.\"\n\nThe photos were taken on Saturday 2 December\n\nNick Sturdy took more than 300 photos of the cloud inversions\n\nMr Sturdy's photos show dense clouds cloaking the countryside of Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and northern Gloucestershire.\n\n\"I was so glad I had made the journey that morning, though the pictures - as happy as I am with them - don't do the feeling I had of being there any justice,\" he said.\n\nIf you want to share great photos with us, visit BBC Weather Watchers\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A man has died and two others, including a British man, have been injured in a knife and hammer attack on a street in central Paris.\n\nThe attack occurred near the Eiffel Tower shortly before 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on Saturday.\n\nThe suspect was then Tasered by police and arrested on suspicion of assassination - defined in French law as premeditated murder - and \"attempted assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise\".\n\nThe man, dressed all in black, appears to be carrying a knife.\n\nRead more on this story.", "Neil and Glenys Kinnock in a Pontllanfraith pub during the 1987 general election campaign\n\nGlenys Kinnock, who has died aged 79, was the wife of the former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock - and a prominent political figure in her own right.\n\nShe had a high profile during her husband's time leading the party through most of the 1980s and into the early 90s.\n\nWhen he resigned after Labour's 1992 election defeat, she spent 15 years in the European Parliament and then a year as a UK government foreign minister in Gordon Brown's government.\n\nAs Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead, she sat in the Lords between 2009 and April 2021.\n\nBorn on 7 July 1944 as Glenys Elizabeth Parry, she grew up in a Welsh-speaking, chapel-going family on Anglesey.\n\nHer father was a railway signalman, union official and former merchant seaman who claimed that her pram was crammed full of Labour literature during the campaign that led to Labour's 1945 landslide election victory.\n\nLater telling the BBC the young Glenys had a strong sense of justice, she said her politics was a reaction to feeling that people were not getting their fair share.\n\nGlenys Kinnock (centre) demonstrates against the deployment of nuclear cruise missiles at RAF Greenham Common near Newbury in Berkshire, December in 1983\n\nHer Holyhead Comprehensive School report portrayed a \"bright, mature and intelligent\" pupil who went on to Cardiff University, studying education and history, where she met Neil Kinnock.\n\nShe said she remembered a \"loud ginger person\" in the lunch queue who offered her a leaflet and asked her for a date.\n\nSpeaking in 1988, he said: \"She took my eye immediately, and has been taking it ever since.\"\n\n\"She's got all the qualities that make women superior in so many departments, of that there is no doubt,\" he added.\n\n\"I think probably [she has] a little gift as well, possibly something to do with coming from the Druids' country, Anglesey. I don't know what it is, a bit of second sight I guess.\"\n\nNeil Kinnock was to become widely acknowledged as a great public speaker, but he admitted that as a student he made no contribution to the university debating society until \"she turned up\" and said she quite liked people debating.\n\n\"And I thought 'right, this is it, I can clinch the deal'\", he said.\n\n\"So I made a speech, which apparently went down rather well, and from then on kept on doing it.\"\n\nNeil and Glenys became husband and wife in 1967.\n\nGlenys Kinnock, with her husband Lord Kinnock and their son, Stephen Kinnock MP, in 2015\n\nEntering teaching after graduating, Glenys became a national UK figure when Neil won the Labour leadership in 1983.\n\nShe later said that Conservative-supporting newspapers had wrongly portrayed her as the power behind the throne, by suggesting she was more intelligent than her husband.\n\nPolitically active herself, she visited the women campaigning against the controversial deployment of nuclear cruise missiles at the Greenham Common American airbase in Berkshire in 1983.\n\nShe also attended miners' rallies during their year-long strike in the mid-eighties.\n\nNeil Kinnock lost a second election as Labour leader in 1992 and quit the role.\n\nThe Kinnocks in 2014 arriving for a Labour function in London\n\nGlenys Kinnock had a wide field of interests, but was especially well-known for her work to alleviate poverty and starvation in Africa and other parts of the world.\n\nShe became an MEP in 1994 and was a prominent member of several committees.\n\nFor a period, she was also Labour's spokeswoman on international development in the European Parliament.\n\nGlenys Kinnock left the European Parliament in 2009, and days later was appointed minister for Europe by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.\n\nWhen her husband was ennobled some years earlier, she was entitled to be called Lady Kinnock - but it was a title she never used.\n\nHowever, on her appointment as minister for Europe, she became a peeress in her own right.\n\nAnnouncing her death on Sunday, her family said she had \"endured Alzheimer's\" since a 2017 diagnosis and faced it with \"innate courage\".\n\nShe is survived by Neil, her husband of 56 years, who was with her in her final moments, and her children Stephen, Labour MP for Aberavon, and Rachel.\n\nShe was described in a family tribute as \"an adored grandmother\".", "An MP reported to social services as an unfit mother over her views is seeking to change the law, so no-one else has to go through such \"distress\".\n\nStella Creasy said being a victim of an online troll's \"campaign of harassment\" left her children with a social services record that cannot be removed.\n\n\"I sat in the court clutching myself to stop myself from shaking because I was thinking about what this man was doing, and thinking about my family,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.\n\nThe MP for Walthamstow in east London has tabled an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill to remove \"malicious\" reports from people's records.\n\nPhilip Stacey, 52, from Wigston, Leicestershire, told local police Ms Creasy's children should be taken into care due to her \"extreme views\" and also contacted the Labour Party and the BBC.\n\n\"That harassment continues to have an impact because that record exists,\" the MP said.\n\n\"We need a way of removing a malicious complaint so that it stops being a form of harassment to continually target people in this way.\"\n\nWaltham Forest Council launched an investigation as it was legally required to do following a referral from Leicestershire Police.\n\nBut despite Ms Creasy being cleared, the council said it was legally prevented from removing the man's complaint from its record.\n\n\"As a consequence of his behaviour, my children have a social services record,\" she said.\n\n\"That harassment continues to have an impact because that record exists and my local authority tell me that they can't delete it.\n\n\"We know in a lot of cases, victims of stalking and harassment often are subject to malicious complaints and we also know there's an increasing trend, particularly of women in the public eye, being reported to social services.\"\n\nWomen's Aid's head of policy, Lucy Hadley said the survivors of violence and abuse they support are \"routinely\" subjected to \"false allegations... made to discredit and undermine women\".\n\n\"There remain significant gaps in the skills and ability of the police and other statutory agencies to recognise this and respond effectively,\" she said.\n\n\"It is essential that false and malicious allegations are responded to as the forms of abuse they are, not used to discredit and silence women in public life.\"\n\nStacey was convicted at Leicester Magistrates' Court on 30 November of harassing Ms Creasy and her family.\n\nThe MP said while a shadow minister, she worked on the same stalking and harassment legislation the man was prosecuted with.\n\nThe MP is a prominent campaigner for women's rights\n\nShe added: \"Because I'd had the privilege of working with a range of experts on stalking and harassment, I knew it was much more serious than the initial police response which was, 'well, he's entitled to his views, and your views are extreme because after all, you are a feminist'.\n\n\"But I also knew that because he'd continued on even when he'd been told to stop, that was a breach of the law.\"\n\nLeicestershire Police said its first response to Ms Creasy was referred to its Professional Standards Department and \"advice and reflective learning\" was provided to officers.\n\nA spokesperson added the force takes \"any report of harassment extremely seriously\".\n\nShe added: \"The fact there isn't a way of removing those records feeds into something everybody knows, which is there's no smoke without fire.\n\n\"So even though people might dismiss those reports, eventually they start thinking, 'well maybe there is something here', all because somebody didn't like the views that I stand for.\"\n\nMs Creasy said her amendment would provide a process whereby a malicious report could be removed from someone's record.\n\nThe MP added she hopes more women will want to enter politics if the amendment is passed.\n\n\"[Targeting] someone's family is beyond the pale,\" Ms Creasy said.\n\n\"We probably need legislation now to address the fact that people's family members, their staff, are being targeted as a way not to promote a debate but to shut one down.\n\n\"It's not free speech if people are being intimidated or harassed in this way.\"\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "The USS Carney destroyer shot down three drones fired from Houthi-held Yemen on Sunday\n\nA US warship shot down three drones after three commercial vessels came under attack in the Red Sea, the US military has said.\n\nIt said the USS Carney assisted the ships - which had links to 14 nations including the UK - on Sunday after they were targeted from areas of Yemen held by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.\n\nTwo of the ships were hit by missiles but there were no casualties, it added.\n\nA Houthi spokesman said the group's navy had attacked two Israeli ships.\n\nThe Israeli military said the vessels had no connection to Israel.\n\nThe Iranian-backed Houthis have controlled parts of Yemen since the movement toppled the country's government in 2014, sparking an ongoing civil war.\n\nIt has recently begun targeting Israel-linked vessels in the Red Sea over Israel's war with Iranian-backed Hamas in Gaza.\n\nUS Central Command (Centcom), part of the US military which oversees operations in the Middle East, said that on Sunday morning, the USS Carney detected an anti-ship ballistic missile exploding near the Unity Explorer, a Bahamian-flagged, UK-owned and operated cargo ship.\n\nIt later shot down a drone that was heading towards the Carney itself, although Centcom said it was not clear whether the drone was targeting the Carney.\n\nThat afternoon, the Unity Explorer suffered minor damage after being struck by a missile fired from Houthi-controlled area.\n\nWhile responding to a distress call from the ship, the US vessel detected and shot down another incoming drone.\n\nLater, two more ships - one of them part UK-owned, both of them flagged in Panama - reported being struck by missiles. While on its way to assist the second ship, the USS Carney shot down a third drone.\n\nCentcom said the attacks had \"jeopardised the lives\" of the ships' multinational crews and represented a \"direct threat to international commerce and maritime security\".\n\n\"We also have every reason to believe that these attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran,\" it said.\n\n\"The United States will consider all appropriate responses in full coordination with its international allies and partners.\"\n\nEarlier this week, the US said its warship captured armed men who had earlier seized an Israeli-linked tanker off Yemen's coast.\n\nCentcom reported that two missiles were then fired towards the warship from rebel Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen.\n\nThe Houthis have declared themselves part of an \"axis of resistance\" of Iran-affiliated groups, which works in opposition to Israel, the US, and the wider West.", "Jason Evans was four when his father, Jonathan, died in 1993\n\nThe government faces a rebellion with at least 30 Tories backing an amendment to extend interim payouts to more victims of the infected blood scandal.\n\nUp to 30,000 people were given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 80s. Thousands have died.\n\nA Labour amendment will be brought on Monday calling for a new body to be set up to administer compensation.\n\nMore than 100 MPs, including Tories Sir Robert Buckland, Sir Edward Leigh and David Davis, are backing the move.\n\nMore than 3,000 people died after contracting HIV or hepatitis C after receiving a blood transfusion on the NHS or a treatment made from contaminated blood products.\n\nIn a letter sent to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves called the scandal \"one of the most appalling tragedies in our country's recent history.\"\n\nShe added: \"Blood infected with hepatitis C and HIV has stolen life, denied opportunities and harmed livelihoods.\"\n\nShe praised Theresa May, who set up the Infected Blood Inquiry when she was prime minister in 2017.\n\nBut she warned: \"For the victims, time matters. It is estimated that every four days someone affected by infected blood dies.\"\n\nJason Evans, from Coventry, was four when his father, Jonathan, died in 1993 after developing Aids and Hepatitis C as a result of receiving Factor VIII - a clotting agent given to people with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders to help their blood clot.\n\nMr Evans founded the Factor 8 organisation to campaign on behalf of those affected by the infected blood scandal.\n\nHe said time is key for many of those he meets. The inquiry heard that one person dies as a result of contaminated blood products every four days.\n\n\"For people like myself this is not just a catchphrase,\" he said. \"Every week or so someone I have known personally dies.\"\n\nInterim compensation is key, he said.\n\n\"I often hear of parents who lost multiple children and they are now elderly and they have received no recognition of what they have been through. Nothing.\"\n\nAmong those waiting for compensation is Lauren Palmer who was nine years old when she lost both her parents within a week of each other after her father was infected with HIV after receiving Factor VIII and unknowingly infected his wife.\n\nShe previously told the BBC: \"Factor VIII was supposed to prolong my father's life, not take him and my mum prematurely.\"\n\nMs Palmer said losing her parents meant she endured a miserable childhood\n\nThe chancellor, himself a former health secretary, told the inquiry in July that the government accepted the moral case for compensation.\n\nBut he said no final decisions could be made before the inquiry publishes its findings - now expected in March next year.\n\nIn August 2022, the government agreed to make the first interim compensation payments of £100,000 each to about 4,000 surviving victims and bereaved widows.\n\nBut inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff, said in April this year that the parents and children of victims should also receive compensation and also called for a full compensation scheme to be set up immediately.\n\nThe Commons Speaker will decide on Monday which amendments to the bill MPs will vote on.\n\nBut the government has said it will not be supporting the amendment.\n\nA Department of Health spokesperson said: \"We are deeply sympathetic to the strength of feeling on this and understand the need for action. However, it would not be right to pre-empt the findings of the final report into infected blood.\"\n\nNew Health Secretary Victoria Atkins was asked on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme whether she would be supporting the amendment.\n\n\"It's right that we take our time to wait for the report,\" she said, intimating that she would not be voting for the amendment.\n\nThe amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill has been brought by Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson, who leads the All-Party Parliamentary group on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood.\n\nShe said: \"The government have already accepted the 'moral case' for compensation to be paid, so now is the time for action - not further delay. There is no reason for the government not to support the amendments.\"\n\nIf the amendment is passed the government would have three months to set up an arms-length body, chaired by a High Court judge, to administer compensation.\n\nInterim compensation would be paid within a month to bereaved children, parents and siblings not covered by the first interim payment in October 2022, psychological support would be provided for victims within a month in England (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already provide this support).", "Cumbria Police urged people to take care on the roads, which were likely to be \"icy and slippery\"\n\nEngineers are working into the night to restore electricity supplies to properties cut off by snowy conditions in Cumbria.\n\nThousands were left without electricity after 30cm of snow hit the county, bringing down power lines.\n\nElectricity North West (ENW) believes 99% of affected properties will have power restored by the end of Monday.\n\nA small number of homes may remain without electricity until Tuesday due to significant damage in remote areas.\n\nEngineers used drones throughout the day to assess damage and restored power to about 15,000 properties.\n\nCustomer director Stephanie Trubshaw said the company was working to ensure power is restored as soon as possible, urging those who require extra support to get in touch.\n\nShe said: \"These are without a doubt some of the worst conditions we have seen in terms of snow for several years.\"\n\nENW is working with local businesses to provide hot drinks and food to those who remain without a supply.\n\nSnow has caused major disruption to the county, with about 200 vehicles marooned on Saturday night.\n\nThen, parts of the UK faced \"ice rink Monday\" after snow refroze overnight.\n\nThe Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for snow and ice in eastern Scotland, while about a dozen schools in the north east of Scotland closed due to problems caused by the wintry weather.\n\nA Met Office warning for ice in the north of England remained until midday.\n\nENW said snow had affected supplies to more than 13,000 homes over the weekend\n\nA yellow rain warning has been issued for north-east England until 09:00 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nThere is also a separate warning for rain in parts of south Wales and Devon and West Somerset.\n\nCumbria Police urged people to take care on roads, which were likely to be \"icy and slippery\".\n\nSome are impassable and drivers have been urged to check their routes before they travel.\n\nRAC breakdown spokesman Simon Williams said \"treacherous icy conditions\" were expected all day.\n\n\"Those who decide to drive should leave extra space behind the vehicle in front, reduce their speeds to give plenty of time to stop,\" he said.\n\n\"Before setting out, it's important to allow more time to de-ice and de-mist vehicles thoroughly.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAbout 45 schools were closed in parts of Cumbria including Kendal, Ambleside, Ulverston and Barrow-in-Furness.\n\nA list of school closures in Westmorland and Furness and Cumberland was circulated online.\n\nThe forecast for Cumbria for Saturday was one of scattered snow showers. However, a convergence line developed over the Irish Sea.\n\nThis is when opposing winds converge to enhance precipitation. The resulting, more organised area of snow drifted over the county and became very slow-moving over the southern half of Cumbria for several hours and snow amounts built steadily and quickly.\n\nThe Met Office already had a yellow warning in force for snow and ice.\n\nThis was upgraded to an amber warning for heavier, more widespread snow at 12:43 GMT but, as the situation was developing, snow was already falling heavily across much of the southern lakes.\n\nUnconfirmed reports suggest more than 11.8in (30cm) of snow fell across many places.\n\nEastern parts of the county saw generally lighter falls and more northern areas escaped most of the snow.\n\nPolice declared a major incident on Saturday after the Met Office issued an amber warning for snow.\n\nLangdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team said it helped emergency services with several incidents over the weekend.\n\nThe callouts included helping with a potential cardiac arrest, a suspected stroke and a suspected spinal injury caused from a sledging accident.\n\nThe British Red Cross provided practical and emotional support to people left without power, said emergency response officer David Taylor.\n\nHe said he and three other volunteers had been using four-wheel drive vehicles to take hot drinks, food and blankets to those affected.\n\n\"We are also going out to provide a listening ear to people,\" Mr Taylor said. \"These situations can be very traumatic especially for older people who may be in a situation where they haven't had power for a few days.\"\n\nHow is the weather affecting you? Get in touch.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Net migration into the UK was a record 745,000 last year, figures show - far higher than originally thought.\n\nOffice for National Statistics data published on Thursday show that experts have revised up previous estimates.\n\nIn May, it said net migration - the difference between the number of people coming to live in the UK and those leaving - for 2022 had been 606,000, 139,000 lower than the true figure.\n\nNo 10 said migration was \"far too high\" but it was taking action.\n\nPM Rishi Sunak's spokesman said migration was putting \"unsustainable pressure on communities and councils\" and it was clamping down on dependents of students arriving in the UK. \"We believe there is more to do,\" he added.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said \"shockingly high\" net migration represented \"a failure not just of immigration, but also of asylum and of the economy\".\n\nThe ONS said the population of England and Wales grew by an estimated 1% in the year to June 2022 - the fastest rate since the baby boom in the 1960s, but this time it was driven by international migration.\n\nBut it cautioned its estimates could be revised again - and provisional figures to June of this year suggest the rate of net migration may now be slowing.\n\nStatisticians said in the year to June net migration fell back to 672,000, after 1.2 million people came to live in the UK for at least a year, and 508,000 left.\n\nThe vast majority (968,000) arriving were from countries outside the European Union.\n\nStudents accounted for the largest group of non-EU migrants, also true of last year.\n\nBut there has been an increase in workers arriving with visas to fill chronic staff shortages in the NHS and social care, the ONS said.\n\nArrivals of people via humanitarian routes have fallen from 19% to 9% over the same period, the ONS said, with most of these made up of Ukrainians and British Nationals (Overseas) arrivals from Hong Kong.\n\nThey said estimates showed a marked change in immigration since 2021 following Brexit - when free movement for EU nationals ended, the easing of travel restrictions after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.\n\nHowever, the ONS said it was too early to know whether the latest falling net migration figure was the start of a downward trend, but recent estimates did indicate a slowing of immigration coupled with increasing emigration.\n\nWith more than a decade of Conservative-led governments promising to reduce numbers, these latest figures represent a political challenge for the prime minister.\n\nBack in 2010, David Cameron, former Tory PM now foreign secretary, pledged to get net migration below 100,000 - \"no ifs, no buts\". And the party's 2019 manifesto also committed to bring the rate down, without setting a specific target.\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly said the government remained \"completely committed\" to reducing levels of legal migration while also focusing on \"stopping the boats\", referring to the issue of people making dangerous English Channel crossings in small boats.\n\nHe said the ONS figures did not show a \"significant increase from last year's figures\" and pointed to \"a number of important and positive changes\" affecting them.\n\n\"The biggest drivers of immigration to the UK are students and healthcare workers - [they] are testament to both our world-leading university sector and our ability to use our immigration system to prioritise the skills we need,\" he said.\n\nHe added that he was \"proud\" the UK had welcomed more than half a million people through humanitarian routes, principally from Hong Kong, Ukraine and Afghanistan, over the last decade but said they still needed to reduce numbers by \"eliminating the abuse and exploitation of our visa system by both companies and individuals\".\n\nSome Conservative MPs are not convinced by his argument however.\n\nThe New Conservative group, on the right of the party, called for Rishi Sunak to \"act now\" on the \"do or die\" issue and propose a package of measures to bring down migration.\n\n\"Each of us made a promise to the electorate. We don't believe that such promises can be ignored,\" the group, led by Miriam Cates, Danny Kruger and Sir John Hayes, said in a statement.\n\nIt is understood the government is considering some new measures, including:\n\nDowning Street said any next steps needed to be carefully considered.\n\nLabour has criticised the government for the cost of using hotels to house asylum seekers who make up a tiny proportion of overall migration.\n\nHome Office figures, also published on Thursday, showed hotel use reached a record high in September - despite a slight fall in the asylum backlog.\n\nThere were 56,042 people in hotel accommodation, while 58,444 people were in \"dispersed\" accommodation - usually housing provided by the Home Office through private companies.\n\nThe number of people in hotels rose by 5,500 over three months while the number in housing stayed broadly the same.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the number of asylum seekers in hotels was 10,000 more than when Rishi Sunak promised to end hotel use - and was costing almost £3bn a year.\n\n\"Once again, the British taxpayer is footing the bill for the Conservatives' chaos,\" she said.\n\nThe population of England and Wales was estimated to be 60.2 million mid-2022, an increase of around 578,000 - or 1% - since 2021.\n\nThe ONS's Neil Park said: \"Unlike the baby boom driving population growth in the 1960s, the increases in our latest estimates are predominately being driven by international migration.\"\n\nHe said the picture varied across regions, with growth higher in the north of England than the south, and lowest in London.\n\nProf Brian Bell told the BBC's World At One programme net migration \"is very high in the UK relative to historical trends\", adding: \"But there's probably some indication it's beginning to fall. I wouldn't want to bet my house on it, but I think the indications are that we've reached the peak.\"\n\nHe said the Government should raise the salary thresholds related to the skilled worker route - which have not been increased for a number of years - as a way to reduce net migration.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "A murder investigation has been launched following an incident in Lurgan, County Armagh, on Sunday, police have said.\n\nTwo women aged 35 and 43 and a 31-year-old man have been arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nEarlier, police said they were investigating a sudden death on Edward Street in the town on Sunday morning.\n\nSinn Féin MLA John O'Dowd said it was \"a shocking scene on a Sunday morning\".\n\n\"A family somewhere is going to get really bad news today and our thoughts and prayers are with those,\" he said.\n\nMr O'Dowd encouraged members of the public with information to contact police.\n\nThere is a burnt out car at the scene\n\nThis is clearly a major investigation.\n\nThe cordon covers a wide area, stretching across a number of housing estates.\n\nIt is understood that earlier there were at least 16 police vehicles at the scene, with officers sent from across Northern Ireland.\n\nA cordon is in place in the Edward Street area\n\nThere is a wide police cordon in place in the Edward Street area of the town.\n\nForensics officers have erected a tent at the top of Prospect Way - just across from the McDonald's in the town.\n\nAs the investigation gets underway, detectives have been going from door to door.\n\nAlliance MLA Eóin Tennyson described news of the incident as \"shocking and appalling\".\n\n\"The community is reeling at the loss of yet another life to the scourge of violence,\" he said.\n\nDetectives urged anyone who was in the area between 02:00 and 05:00 GMT on Sunday and noticed suspicious activity to get in touch.", "Mayor Tom Tate struggled to find support for his idea\n\nThe Gold Coast has ruled itself out of hosting the next Commonwealth Games, ending any hope the event could still be held in Australia.\n\nThe coastal city hosted the 2018 Games, and mayor Tom Tate had - unilaterally - insisted it could do it again.\n\nBut the federal and state governments have repeatedly ruled out supporting the event, as had his own deputy mayor.\n\nOrganisers have said they may have to postpone or cancel the next instalment of the Games.\n\nThe Commonwealth Games is a multi-sport event that takes place every four years. It has only ever been cancelled during World War Two. To be eligible to participate, competitors must be from one of the Commonwealth's more than 70 nations or territories - many of which were once part of the British Empire.\n\nThe Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) had struggled to find a host for the 2026 Games before Victoria volunteered, and a month after the state's withdrawal, the only contender for the 2030 Games - the Canadian province of Alberta - also dropped its hosting plans.\n\nThere are no other firm bids to host either the 2026 or 2030 Games. Governments say the cost of the event is skyrocketing, while experts argue its global image and perceived relevance is waning.\n\nBut the CGF said it was working on finding a new host.\n\n\"Since the sudden withdrawal of Victoria in July 2023 as host of the 2026 Games, the Commonwealth Games Federation has been working tirelessly with Commonwealth Games Associations to find a new host who would be able to step in at such short notice,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"We are in active conversations with a number of potential hosts across the Commonwealth and hope to provide an update on those discussions in early 2024.\"\n\nOrganisers had originally estimated the Victorian Games - hosted across cities including Geelong, Bendigo, and Ballarat - would cost A$2.6bn (£1.4bn; $1.bn), but the government said it had ballooned to more than A$6 bn.\n\nMr Tate had said the Gold Coast, in the state of Queensland, could host a \"streamlined\" version of the event for A$700m and had floated the idea of sharing it with the city of Perth - a six-hour flight away in Western Australia.\n\nHe says his plan had attracted support from Australian billionaires like Gina Rinehart and Gerry Harvey and athletes who are desperate for the event to proceed, but that it could not win over the Queensland or federal governments.\n\n\"We did our best and that's all people can expect,\" Mr Tate said in a statement on Sunday.\n\nAustralia will now be known as \"a place that reneges on a global sports contract\", leaving its reputation \"in tatters\" he added.\n\nCommonwealth Games Australia (CGA) wanted to keep the Games in Australia, but chief executive Craig Phillips said he understood Mr Tate's decision.", "The conversation about immigration is characterised by a stumbling awkwardness.\n\nNot just at Westminster. But in society at large.\n\nConflicts and contradictions, wherever you look and listen.\n\nThere are the numbers. There is the economics. There are the practicalities.\n\nThere are industries, there is the health service, and there are some parts of the UK keen to lure people in.\n\nBut this is a debate about emotion, sentiment, belonging, identity - and sometimes fear too: some communities rapidly altered; public services strained.\n\nIt has been a conversation that has been a near constant soundtrack to the Conservatives' 13 years in office so far, since 2010.\n\nWhen the now Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron was prime minister, he promised to cut net migration to the tens of thousands.\n\nIt is a pledge that has never come close to being met and became a motivating factor for some to back Brexit.\n\nAnd yet net migration has soared since.\n\nAnd that contributes to a ripple effect into other equally fraught political themes - such as planning, the demands for more housing.\n\nThe reaction of our political parties to these numbers is worth unpicking.\n\nThe Scottish National Party lashed out at what it sees as Westminster's obsession with driving the numbers down.\n\nThe SNP says Scotland needs more immigration of people of working age, not less - to help public services function and the private sector to thrive.\n\nCompare that to the language of the Conservatives and Labour - and what comes across as an attempt to out do each other in their anger.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the figure was \"shockingly high\".\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman said it was \"far too high\".\n\nFormer Home Secretary Suella Braverman claimed the numbers were \"unsustainable\" and \"a slap on the face to the British public\".\n\nAnd yet at the heart of all of this is an essential truth.\n\nThe responsibility for immigration policy, from anywhere, lies at Westminster.\n\nThe vote for Brexit may have been two general elections ago, in 2016, but the next election will be the first fought with the UK no longer a member of the European Union.\n\nAs a member of the EU, there was free movement of people around the club, including to and from the UK.\n\nIt meant politicians could, and did, blame it for not being fully in control of immigration.\n\nBut come the general election campaign, each party, for the first time, will have to set out its approach to immigration knowing where the buck now stops.\n\nEach will have to articulate their instinct and attitude and their policies.\n\nEach will know that if they form a government, the six monthly numbers published by the Office for National Statistics will be for them solely to justify, to defend.\n\nThey can no longer blame anyone else.", "The Israelis have said that today was the fiercest fighting they've had since the start of the ground invasion and that they are now in centre of second biggest town in Gaza, Khan Younis.\n\nThere are people trying to move out of the path of the fighting and the UN is coming out with some of the most solemn and terrifying warnings we've heard from them so far about the massive humanitarian crisis that is undeniably taking place there. They're very concerned that they can't get to help the people who need it.\n\nIsrael's armed forces are now pushing further down the Gaza strip – the whole surface area of the strip is roughly the same as Isle of Wight – and more and more people are being pushed to the southern tip near Egypt.\n\nPalestinians pictured making their way through the rubble following strikes on Deir al-Balah Image caption: Palestinians pictured making their way through the rubble following strikes on Deir al-Balah\n\nNow the Egyptians are very, very concerned about the pressure of almost two million people in a very small area with not enough food or water, right on their border.\n\nOne of my colleagues has been in touch with a friend in Gaza today, who was saying: \"I cannot go on. I cannot hear my children saying, 'dad I need food please' – and I have nothing to give them.\"\n\nThis is someone who has a job, with money, and if there was food available to buy he could afford it. But there is nothing to buy.\n\nOne thing the UN says is that Israel should allow commercial suppliers in to revive the market, so that at least those people with money can buy food and the relief supplies can go to someone who doesn’t have money.", "Satellite images commissioned by the BBC reveal the extent of destruction across Gaza, showing that nearly 98,000 buildings may have suffered damage.\n\nThe satellite images were taken last Thursday - before the start of a seven-day suspension of hostilities, which has now ended.\n\nDrone footage and verified video also show buildings and entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble after Israeli air strikes and on-the-ground fighting.\n\nWhile northern Gaza has been the focus of the Israeli offensive and has borne the brunt of the destruction, widespread damage extends across the entire strip.\n\nIsrael says northern Gaza, which includes the major urban centre of Gaza City, was a \"centre of gravity of Hamas\", the group behind the deadly 7 October attacks on Israel. The Israeli military says its bombing campaign has successfully targeted Hamas commanders and fighters and accuses the group of embedding itself in civilian areas.\n\nSatellite data analysis suggests that almost 98,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip may have suffered damage, mostly in the north - as shown in the above map.\n\nAnalysis of the data was carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University. It is based on comparisons of two separate images, revealing changes in the height or structure of buildings which suggests damage.\n\nWe have analysed satellite imagery from several areas with extensive damage.\n\nThe cities of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the north and north-east of the Gaza Strip were among the first to be targeted by air strikes after the 7 October attacks by Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the area was a hideout for Hamas.\n\nParts of Beit Lahia, which overlooked olive groves and sand dunes stretching towards the border with Israel, were flattened. The satellite image below shows an area in the north-east of Beit Lahia, where a significant block of buildings was destroyed.\n\nBulldozers appear to have cleared roads through the rubble and the Israeli military cleared land and set up defensive positions in surrounding fields.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe IDF also struck the small nearby city of Beit Hanoun, less than 1.6km (1 mile) from the border. It said 120 targets were hit in the area on the first day of air strikes.\n\nAs the images above show, a skyline of multi-storey buildings and a mosque was gradually reduced to rubble between 14 October and 22 November.\n\nAfter weeks of air strikes on Gaza, Israel moved in on the ground - tanks and bulldozers going through areas which had been heavily bombarded. The IDF worked its way southwards along the coast towards Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in the Gaza City area.\n\nAs the image below shows, a whole series of craters are visible in what was once a residential area. Some of the buildings on the beach front, which boasted Gaza's first five-star hotel, the Al-Mashtal, as well as huts and restaurants, appear to have been partially destroyed.\n\nAbout a week after the air strikes began, the IDF warned Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south of a river known as Wadi Gaza for their own safety.\n\nDespite the warning and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Gaza City, areas in the south continued to be targeted.\n\nNuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza was hit several times before the temporary pause in hostilities began. The camp was said to be home to about 85,000 people, according to the UN.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn this verified video, which emerged online, people are seen picking through the rubble of collapsed and damaged buildings.\n\nThe distinctive black chimney stacks of the Gaza Power Plant, situated just north of the camp, are visible in the background.\n\nThe BBC has approached the IDF for comment.\n\nIn Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, thousands of people are living in tents or the rubble of bombed-out buildings.\n\nAlthough the damage was not as widespread as in the north, up to 15% of buildings across the city may have been damaged, according to Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek's analysis.\n\nAs well as pushing down from the north, Israeli forces also cut across the Gaza Strip westwards, isolating Gaza City from the south.\n\nIn this image below, taken to the south of Gaza City, we can see that a previously populated residential area was cleared by the IDF with heavy machinery and a road bulldozed towards the western Mediterranean shoreline.\n\nYou can also see dozens of military vehicles, including tanks, grouped behind fortifications made from earth.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nSatellite images also show an open square of land with a Star of David carved into the earth by vehicle tracks in Gaza City, near al-Azhar University.\n\nImages online from before the war showed children playing there and suggested it was a park, but IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said the ground was used by Hamas as a parade square near a base. The area was taken over by the IDF's Golani Brigade.\n\nA Star of David - which is used as a Jewish and Israeli symbol - was made by armoured vehicles in a ceremony in memory of Israeli soldiers who had been killed since the war began, according to a post by Rear Adm Hagari on X.\n\nAdditional reporting by Thomas Spencer, Paul Brown, Jake Horton, Alex Murray and Shayan Sardarizadeh and Jemimah Herd", "An Israeli military tank rolls near the border with the Gaza Strip on Sunday\n\nIsraeli ground forces are pushing into southern Gaza, after three days of heavy bombardment.\n\nInitial reports from Israeli army radio effectively confirmed Israel has launched a ground operation to the north of Khan Younis.\n\nThe BBC has also verified images of an Israeli tank operating near the city.\n\nThe head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later told troops the IDF was also fighting \"strongly and thoroughly\" in south Gaza.\n\nLt General Herzi Halevi was speaking to reservists from the Gaza division about military objectives and the IDF's killing of Hamas commanders.\n\nHe told the soldiers: \"We fought strongly and thoroughly in the northern Gaza Strip, and we are also doing it now in the southern Gaza Strip\".\n\nAn IDF spokesman later confirmed Israel \"continues to expand the ground incursion\" across all of Gaza, including troops \"conducting face to face battles with terrorists\".\n\nSince a week-long ceasefire ended on Friday, Israel has resumed a large-scale bombing campaign on Gaza, which residents of Khan Younis have described as the heaviest wave of attacks so far.\n\nThe seven-day truce saw Hamas release 110 hostages being held in Gaza in return for 240 Palestinians being released from Israeli prisons.\n\nOn Sunday morning, the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for several districts of Khan Younis, urging people to leave immediately.\n\nIsraeli authorities believe members of the Hamas leadership are hiding in the city, where hundreds of thousands of people have been sheltering after fleeing fighting in the north in the early stages of the war.\n\nA UN official has described a \"degree of panic\" he has not seen before in a Gaza hospital, after the Israeli military shifted the focus of its offensive to the south.\n\nJames Elder, from the children's agency Unicef, described Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Younis as a \"warzone\".\n\nAn adviser to Israel's prime minister said Israel is making \"maximum effort\" to avoid killing civilians.\n\nMr Elder told the BBC he could hear constant large explosions close to the Nasser hospital and children were arriving with head injuries, terrible burns, and shrapnel from recent blasts.\n\n\"It's a hospital I've gone to regularly and the children know me now, the families know me now. Those same people are grabbing my hand, or grabbing my shirt saying 'please take us somewhere safe. Where is safe?'\"\n\n\"They are unfortunately asking a question to which the only answer is there is nowhere safe. And that includes for them, as they know, that hospital,\" he said.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 500 people have been killed since the bombing resumed.\n\nMore than 15,500 people have been killed in the strip since the war began, the ministry also said.\n\nNasser hospital in Khan Younis has been described by a UN official as a \"warzone\" since IDF airstrikes began again\n\nMohammed Ghalayini, a British-Palestinian who has stayed in Gaza, said the situation in the city was \"beyond catastrophic\".\n\n\"People have been, for 50 days or more, withstanding brutal Israeli onslaught and are very low on all resources - food, water, power and the sanitation and the waste services,\" he told the BBC by phone, before the connection cut off.\n\nThe air pollution expert, who normally lives in Manchester, arrived in Gaza for a three-month visit to see his mother shortly before the 7 October attacks.\n\nIsrael began its retaliatory bombing of Gaza following Hamas's attacks on southern Israel on 7 October, which saw around 1,200 people killed and 240 taken hostage.\n\nRockets have also been regularly fired at Israel from Gaza since fighting resumed on Friday. A 22-year-old man in the city of Holon, near Tel Aviv, was treated for minor shrapnel injuries on Saturday.\n\nHundreds of thousands of people have already fled the fighting to take shelter in Khan Younis, after Israel told them to leave the north of the strip.\n\nThe latest UN update says around 1.8 million people are internally displaced in Gaza.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees chief, Filippo Grandi, said Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are being \"pushed more and more towards a narrow corner of what is already a very narrow territory\".\n\nThe IDF has begun posting maps of areas set to be attacked online. It says these maps, along with other measures like phone calls and leaflets being dropped on Gaza by plane, will warn people to evacuate.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's senior adviser Mark Regev said civilians are not targets and protecting them is made more difficult by Hamas \"embedding its military terror machine\" in civilian neighbourhoods.\n\nHe says the IDF are trying to be \"as surgical as we can in a very difficult combat situation\", and has given advance warning of attacks.\n\nSeparately, the IDF say they have destroyed 500 \"terror tunnel\" shafts used by Hamas in Gaza, out of the 800 they say have been found so far.\n\nIt also said around 10,000 air strikes on \"terror targets\" have been carried out by the air force \"under the guidance of IDF soldiers on the ground\" since the war began.", "The Venezuelan president described the result as a great victory but critics have queried the turn-out\n\nVenezuelans who turned out to vote in a referendum on the status of a disputed oil-rich territory long controlled by Guyana have overwhelmingly backed Venezuela's territorial claim.\n\nMore than 95% approved establishing a new Venezuelan state in the territory known as Essequibo, officials said.\n\nGuyana, and British Guiana before it, have administered Essequibo for over a century.\n\nThe referendum has ratcheted up tensions between the two neighbours.\n\nCritics of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, say he called the non-binding referendum to whip up nationalist fervour and distract from calls for free and fair elections to be held.\n\nPresident Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, had urged people to turn out en masse and vote \"five times 'yes'\" to the five questions his government had posed on the status of Essequibo.\n\nThe 159,500-sq-km (61,600-square-mile) region makes up two thirds of the total of the land currently controlled by Guyana.\n\nVenezuela has long maintained that a decision taken in 1899 by an international arbitral tribunal to award it to Britain, the colonial power which at the time ruled over Guyana, was unfair.\n\nThe matter is currently before the International Court of Justice, although Venezuela has disputed the international court's authority to rule on the Essequibo dispute.\n\nIn the referendum, the Venezuelan government asked voters to back its stance on the dispute.\n\nThe most controversial question was the fifth, which asked Venezuelans if they agreed with \"the creation of the Guayana Esequiba state\" and its \"incorporation into the map of Venezuelan territory\".\n\nElectoral officials said 95.9% of voters cast a \"yes\" vote to that question.\n\nGuyana has denounced the proposal as an attempt at annexation and President Irfaan Ali has accused his Venezuelan counterpart of fomenting conflict by calling for the referendum.\n\nPresident Maduro hailed the results as \"an overwhelming victory\". \"We have taken the first steps of a new historic stage in the struggle for what belongs to us, to recover what the liberators left us,\" he said.\n\nThe overwhelming support shown by voters had been widely expected as Venezuela's claim of sovereignty over Essequibo has very broad support in the country.\n\nPosters and graffiti in Caracas try to drive home the message that Essequibo is Venezuelan\n\nThis is reflected in the fact that there was no campaign for a \"no\" vote.\n\nWhat analysts were keen to see was how many people would follow the government's call to turn out.\n\nElvis Amoroso, the head of the National Electoral Council and a close ally of President Maduro, said that 10.5m votes had been cast - something he described as \"historic\" in the country of 20.7m eligible voters\n\nWhat Mr Amoroso did not say was how many voters took part in the referendum, a detail opposition politicians seized on.\n\nHenrique Capriles, who lost to Mr Maduro in the 2013 presidential election, suggested that considering that voters were asked to respond to five questions, the 10.5m votes only equated to two million voters.\n\nOpposition media also reported that polling stations had been very quiet throughout the day, casting doubt on the claims of the government that turn-out had been high.\n\nThe referendum came at a time of heightened tension between Guyana and Venezuela after the 2015 discovery of oil in the waters off Essequibo's coast by US oil giant ExxonMobil.\n\nTensions increased further in September this year, when Guyana held an auction at which oil companies bid for exploration licences in Essequibo waters.\n\nGuyanese citizens formed human chains on Sunday to show their support for Essequibo remaining under the control of their government.\n\nGuyana's president reassured them in an address broadcast on Facebook, saying that \"there is nothing to fear\" and that his government would defend the country's borders.\n\nThe International Court of Justice has warned Venezuela not to take any action that may alter the status quo in Essequibo.", "Joint military drills were held between Palestinian armed factions from 2020 onwards\n\nFive armed Palestinian groups joined Hamas in the deadly 7 October attack on Israel after training together in military-style exercises from 2020 onwards, BBC News analysis shows.\n\nThe groups carried out joint drills in Gaza which closely resembled the tactics used during the deadly assault - including at a site less than 1km (0.6 miles) from the barrier with Israel - and posted them on social media.\n\nThey practised hostage-taking, raiding compounds and breaching Israel's defences during these exercises, the last of which was held just 25 days before the attack.\n\nBBC Arabic and BBC Verify have collated evidence which shows how Hamas brought together Gaza's factions to hone their combat methods - and ultimately execute a raid into Israel which has plunged the region into war.\n\nOn 29 December 2020, Hamas's overall leader Ismail Haniyeh declared the first of four drills codenamed Strong Pillar a \"strong message and a sign of unity\" between Gaza's various armed factions.\n\nAs the most powerful of Gaza's armed groups, Hamas was the dominant force in a coalition which brought together 10 other Palestinian factions in a war games-style exercise overseen by a \"joint operation room\".\n\nThe structure was set up in 2018 to coordinate Gaza's armed factions under a central command.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Videos reveal how armed groups trained together before 7 October attacks\n\nPrior to 2018, Hamas had formally coordinated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Gaza's second largest armed faction and - like Hamas - a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK and other countries.\n\nHamas had also fought alongside other groups in previous conflicts, but the 2020 drill was billed in propaganda as evidence a wider array of groups were being unified.\n\nHamas's leader said the first drill reflected the \"permanent readiness\" of the armed factions.\n\nThe 2020 exercise was the first of four joint drills held over three years, each of which was documented in polished videos posted on public social media channels.\n\nThe BBC has visually identified 10 groups, including PIJ, by their distinctive headbands and emblems training alongside Hamas during the Strong Pillar drills in footage posted on the messaging app Telegram.\n\nFollowing the 7 October attack, five of the groups went on to post videos claiming to show them taking part in the assault. Three others issued written statements on Telegram claiming to have participated.\n\nThe role of these groups has come into sharp focus as pressure builds on Hamas to find dozens of women and children believed to have been taken as captives from Israel into Gaza by other factions on 7 October.\n\nThree groups - PIJ, the Mujahideen Brigades and Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades - claim to have seized Israeli hostages, alongside Hamas, on that day.\n\nEfforts to extend the temporary truce in Gaza were said to be hinging on Hamas locating those hostages.\n\nWhile these groups are drawn from a broad ideological spectrum ranging from hard-line Islamist to relatively secular, all shared a willingness to use violence against Israel.\n\nHamas statements repeatedly stressed the theme of unity between Gaza's disparate armed groups. The group suggested they were equal partners in the joint drills, whilst it continued to play a leading role in the plans to attack Israel.\n\nFootage from the first drill shows masked commanders in a bunker appearing to conduct the exercise, and begins with a volley of rocket fire.\n\nIt cuts to heavily armed fighters overrunning a mocked-up tank marked with an Israeli flag, detaining a crew member and dragging him away as a prisoner, as well as raiding buildings.\n\nWe know from videos and harrowing witness statements that both tactics were used to capture soldiers and target civilians on 7 October, when around 1,200 people were killed and an estimated 240 hostages were taken.\n\nThe first Strong Pillar drill propaganda video showed a command room overseeing the joint exercise\n\nThe second Strong Pillar drill was held almost exactly one year later.\n\nAyman Nofal, a commander in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades - the official name for Hamas's armed wing - said the aim of the exercise on 26 December 2021 was to \"affirm the unity of the resistance factions\".\n\nHe said the drills would \"tell the enemy that the walls and engineering measures on the borders of Gaza will not protect them\".\n\nAnother Hamas statement said the \"joint military manoeuvres\" were designed to \"simulate the liberation of settlements near Gaza\" - which is how the group refers to Israeli communities.\n\nThe exercise was repeated on 28 December 2022, and propaganda images of fighters practising clearing buildings and overrunning tanks in what appears to be a replica of a military base were published to mark the event.\n\nThe exercises were reported on in Israel, so it's inconceivable they were not being closely monitored by the country's extensive intelligence agencies.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have previously carried out air strikes to disrupt Hamas's training activities. In April 2023, they bombed the site used for the first Strong Pillar drill.\n\nWeeks before the attacks, female surveillance soldiers near the Gaza border reportedly warned of unusually high drone activity and that Hamas was training to take over observation posts with replicas of their positions.\n\nBut, according to reports in the Israeli media, they say they were ignored.\n\nBrigadier General Amir Avivi, a former IDF deputy commander in Gaza, told the BBC: \"There was a lot of intelligence that they were doing this training - after all, the videos are public, and this was happening just hundreds of metres from the fence (with Israel).\"\n\nBut he said while the military knew about the drills, they \"didn't see what they were training for\".\n\nThe IDF said they \"eliminated\" Nofal on 17 October 2023, the first senior Hamas military leader to be killed during the conflict.\n\nHamas went to great lengths to make sure the drills were realistic.\n\nIn 2022, fighters practised storming a mock Israeli military base built just 2.6km (1.6 miles) from the Erez crossing, a route between Gaza and Israel controlled by the IDF.\n\nBBC Verify has pinpointed the site in the far north of Gaza, just 800m (0.5 miles) from the barrier, by matching geographic features seen in the training footage to aerial images of the area. As of November 2023, the site was still visible on Bing Maps.\n\nThe training camp was within 1.6km (1 mile) of an Israeli observation tower and an elevated observation box, elements in a security barrier Israel has spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing.\n\nThe mock base is on land dug several metres below ground level, so it may not have been immediately visible to any nearby Israeli patrols - but the smoke rising from the explosions surely would have been, and the IDF is known to use aerial surveillance.\n\nHamas used this site to practise storming buildings, taking hostages at gunpoint and destroying security barriers.\n\nBBC Verify has used publicly available information - including satellite imagery - to locate 14 training sites at nine different locations across Gaza.\n\nThey even trained twice at a site less than 1.6 km (1 mile) from the United Nations' aid agency distribution centre, and which was visible in the background of an official video published by the agency in December 2022.\n\nOn 10 September 2023, the so-called joint committee room published images on its dedicated Telegram channel of men in military uniforms carrying out surveillance of military installations along the Gaza barrier.\n\nTwo days later, the fourth Strong Pillar military exercise was staged, and by 7 October, all the tactics that would be deployed in the unprecedented attack had been rehearsed.\n\nFighters were filmed riding in the same type of white Toyota pickup trucks which were seen roaming through southern Israel the following month.\n\nThe propaganda video shows gunmen raiding mock buildings and firing at dummy targets inside, as well as training to storm a beach using a boat and underwater divers. Israel has said it repelled attempted Hamas boat landings on its shores on 7 October.\n\nThe fourth and final Strong Pillar drill saw fighters training on raiding buildings\n\nHowever, Hamas did not publicise its training with motorcycles and paragliders as part of the Strong Pillar propaganda.\n\nA training video posted by Hamas three days after 7 October shows fences and barriers being demolished to allow motorcycles to pass through, a tactic they used to reach communities in southern Israel. We have not identified similar earlier videos.\n\nFootage of fighters using paragliding equipment was also not published until the 7 October attack was under way.\n\nIn a training video shared on the day of the attack, gunmen are seen landing in a mock kibbutz at an airstrip we have located to a site north of Rafah in southern Gaza.\n\nBBC Verify established it was recorded some time before 25 August 2022, and was stored in a computer file titled Eagle Squadron, the name Hamas uses for its aerial division - suggesting the paragliders plan was in the works for over a year.\n\nBefore 7 October, Hamas was thought to have about 30,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip, according to reports quoting IDF commanders. It was also thought that Hamas could draw on several thousands of fighters from smaller groups.\n\nHamas is by far the most powerful of the Palestinian armed groups, even without the support of other factions - suggesting its interest in galvanising the factions was driven by an attempt to secure broad support within Gaza at least as much as bolstering its own numbers.\n\nThe IDF has previously estimated 1,500 fighters joined the 7 October raids. The Times of Israel reported earlier this month the IDF now believes the number was closer to 3,000.\n\nWhatever the true number, it means only a relatively small fraction of the total number of armed operatives in Gaza took part. It is not possible to verify precise numbers for how many fighters from smaller groups took part in the attack or the Strong Pillar drills.\n\nWhile Hamas was building cross-faction support in the build-up to the attack, Hisham Jaber, a former Brigadier General in the Lebanese army who is now a security analyst at the Middle East Centre for Studies and Research, said he believed only Hamas was aware of the ultimate plan, and it was \"probable [they] asked other factions to join on the day\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAndreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at Kings College London, told the BBC: \"While there was centralised planning, execution was de-centralised, with each squad operationalising the plan as they saw fit.\"\n\nHe said people inside Hamas were said to be surprised by the weakness of Israel's defences, and assessed militants had likely bypassed Israel's surveillance technology by communicating offline.\n\nHugh Lovatt, a Middle East analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Israel would have been aware of the joint training drills but \"reached the wrong conclusion\", assessing they amounted to the \"standard\" activity of paramilitary groups in the Palestinian territories, rather than being \"indicative of a looming large-scale attack\".\n\nAsked about the issues raised in this article, the Israel Defense Forces said it was \"currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organisation Hamas\" and questions about any potential failures \"will be looked into in a later stage\".\n\nIt could be several years until Israel formally reckons with whether it missed opportunities to prevent the 7 October massacre.\n\nThe ramifications for its military, intelligence services and government could be seismic.\n\nAdditional reporting by Paul Brown, Kumar Malhotra and Abdirahim Saeed. Video production by Soraya Auer.", "Api Ratuniyarawa has been capped 33 times by Fiji and played in the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan\n\nA Barbarians rugby player has admitted sexually assaulting three women in a Cardiff city centre bar.\n\nApi Ratuniyarawa, 37, pleaded guilty to two counts of assault by penetration and one of sexual assault at Revolution between October 31 and 1 November.\n\nThe Fiji international was named in the Barbarians' squad to play against Wales at the Principality Stadium last month.\n\nRatuniyarawa, of The Orchard, Kislingbury, Northamptonshire, entered the pleas at Cardiff Crown Court.\n\nA court previously heard the three attacks happened independently of each other and none of the victims knew Ratuniyarawa or each other.\n\nRuth Smith, defending Ratuniyarawa, asked for an extension to his already \"stringent\" bail conditions ahead of his sentencing on 9 January.\n\nShe said he and his family, which included his wife and four children, had strong residential ties to the UK and he would not pose a flight risk.\n\nMs Smith added said the assaults \"arose out of primarily the consumption of alcohol\".\n\nShe added: \"The defendant is the sole breadwinner for the family. He has various appointments in place in respect of securing financial stability for his family.\"\n\nApi Ratuniyarawa is not attached to a club after his previous side, London Irish, folded\n\nThe application for bail was accepted by Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke and Ratuniyarawa's cannot leave his house between 19:00-07:00 GMT and must report to Northampton police station every day.\n\nHe is also banned from coming into Wales, except for his sentencing hearing, and from contacting his victims in any way.\n\nRatuniyarawa was a forward for London Irish before the club filed for administration when it was suspended from the Premiership.\n\nHe was named in the Barbarians squad to play against Wales on 4 November before being charged.\n\nThe lock, who has also played for Northampton Saints and in France, was hoping his appearance for the invitational side would lead to a contract with a new club, but has since been forced to apply for benefits.\n\nThe Barbarians team brings together players from different clubs for several fixtures each year.\n\nRatuniyarawa denied two further charges of sexual assault relating to one of the women and prosecutors said the pleas were acceptable to the Crown.\n\nRatuniyarawa was also placed on the sex offenders register.", "In the end it was a diplomatic achievement that the ceasefire lasted as long as it did. Now, after a seven-day pause, Israel and Hamas are facing their greatest military and political challenges.\n\nFor Hamas, it is the fight to survive. As long as a Hamas gunman can pull a trigger or launch a rocket into Israel it will claim to be undefeated.\n\nFor all its overwhelming military power, Israel's task is more complicated.\n\nIts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swore \"mighty vengeance\" after Hamas breached the border and killed around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, on 7 October.\n\nIn the first hours after the Israeli military went back on the offensive, the government recommitted itself to its war aims in a WhatsApp post: \"Releasing the hostages, eliminating Hamas and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to the residents of Israel.\"\n\nIsraeli soldiers gather near tanks as smoke rises from Gaza in the background, after the ceasefire ended on Friday\n\nHow it does that and what happens next are now the number one preoccupations of Mr Netanyahu, his political allies and enemies in Israel and Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state who has made four trips to Israel and the region since the war started.\n\nPerhaps Mr Blinken knew that his attempt to prolong what he called the \"humanitarian pause\" would fail.\n\nOn the evening before the fighting resumed, he repeated America's support for Israel's right to defend itself, and once again condemned Hamas.\n\nMr Blinken repeated his insistence \"that Israel act in accordance with international humanitarian law and the laws of war, even when confronting a terrorist group that respects neither\".\n\nThen Mr Blinken made his starkest public statement yet about how Israel should fight the war.\n\nIt is worth quoting at length, because it is a checklist of what the US expects from its closest ally.\n\nMr Blinken said that it meant \"taking more effective steps to protect the lives of civilians, including by clearly and precisely designating areas and places in southern and central Gaza where they can be safe and out of the line of fire\".\n\nDisplaced Palestinians take refuge in a school in Khan Younis\n\n\"It means avoiding further significant displacement of civilians inside of Gaza. It means avoiding damage to life-critical infrastructure, like hospitals, like power stations, like water facilities.\"\n\n\"And it means giving civilians who've been displaced to southern Gaza the choice to return to the north as soon as conditions permit. There must be no enduring internal displacement.\"\n\nAt the beginning of the war Joe Biden, the US president, came here. While trying to wrap Israel in a warm and powerful embrace he also warned his allies not to be blinded by rage as they sought justice, as America had been after the al-Qaeda attacks of 11 September, 2001.\n\nMr Blinken's remarks suggest Joe Biden believes that Mr Netanyahu, with whom he has had a difficult relationship, did not listen.\n\nIsrael's war aims require that the next phase of its offensive is aimed at Hamas in southern Gaza. When it invaded northern Gaza, it ordered Palestinian civilians to head to the south for their own safety.\n\nWhile not as lethal as the north, much of which Israel has turned into a wasteland, nowhere in Gaza is safe.\n\nA few hours after hostilities resumed, Palestinians in Rafah, in the far south of Gaza on the border with Egypt, were being killed in Israeli air strikes.\n\nIsrael cannot claim to have eliminated Hamas without destroying its infrastructure in the south, where it believes Yahya Sinwar and the other leaders are lying low in tunnels under the civilian population, along with an unspecified number of fighting men.\n\nResidents conduct search and rescue works in Rafah, as Israeli air strikes resumed hours after the end of the truce\n\nIf Israel is going to use the same tactics as it did in northern Gaza, thousands more civilians will be killed. Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, already calls the plight of the people of Gaza \"an epic humanitarian catastrophe\".\n\nEgypt, and others, fear that extreme military pressure on approaching two million civilians in the south could mean thousands of desperate people forcing their way over the border into the Sinai Desert. A new Palestinian refugee crisis would be another dangerous and desperate moment for the Middle East.\n\nLet us assume that Israel has promised the US that Palestinian civilians will be told to move to specific areas where they will be safe. In a high-intensity war of the kind that Israel has been waging, with tanks, air strikes and heavy artillery, it is far easier to see how that plan might go wrong, rather than how it might succeed.\n\nPalestinians travel toward safer areas to avoid air strikes in Rafah\n\nIf Israel shifts to lighter counter-insurgency tactics, with troops moving without a blanket of heavy protection, it will most likely suffer many more battle casualties than it has so far.\n\nIsrael's next moves are also a significant moment for Joe Biden, who is facing strident criticism of his support for Israel from the progressive wing of his own Democratic party.\n\nBiden's chief diplomat, Antony Blinken, has spoken clearly, in public, about the way the US wants Israel to fight Hamas. If Israel kills anything like as many Palestinian civilians as it did in the north, in defiance of the stated will of Joe Biden, the US president will have to decide whether he can continue to give Israel so much support, not just on the battlefield but also in the United Nations Security Council, where the US has used its veto many times to protect Israel.\n\nHamas is not beaten. Its remaining hostages give it a powerful lever that it can use to disrupt Israel's military campaign, and to inflict more psychological pressure on the home front. The Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his men will also try to exploit opportunities that open up if and when Israel's generals follow American instructions to use less firepower.\n\nThis war is in a new phase. So is the whole region. Many Palestinians and Israelis, including those far from the battles in Gaza, seem beaten down by the weight of a dangerous and uncertain future.", "The UK government has introduced measures it promised would deliver the biggest ever cut in net migration after levels soared to a record high.\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly announced a five-point plan to curb immigration, which he said was \"far too high\".\n\nThe changes included hiking the minimum salary needed for skilled overseas workers from £26,200 to £38,700.\n\nMr Cleverly claimed 300,000 people who were eligible to come to the UK last year would not be able to in future.\n\nThe minimum income for family visas has also risen to £38,700.\n\nIn a statement to MPs, the home secretary said migration to the UK \"needs to come down\" and there had been \"abuse\" of health and care visas for years.\n\n\"Enough is enough,\" Mr Cleverly said. \"Immigration policy must be fair, legal, and sustainable.\"\n\nThe migration plan comes after official figures last month showed net migration had soared to a record 745,000 in 2022.\n\nConservative MPs have since piled pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his government to bring down net migration, which is the difference between those entering and leaving the UK.\n\nThe sharp increase represents a huge political challenge for Mr Sunak and the Conservatives, who have repeatedly promised to reduce net migration since winning power in 2010, and \"take back control\" of the UK's borders since the Brexit vote.\n\nThe party's 2019 election manifesto committed to getting the number down, without setting a specific target, while David Cameron once pledged to bring net migration below 100,000 when he was prime minister.\n\nImmigration is shaping up to be a key issue ahead of the next general election, which is expected in 2024.\n\nWith Labour leading in opinion polls, Mr Sunak has vowed to \"do what is necessary\" to bring down net migration.\n\nWriting in the Sun newspaper, the prime minister wrote: \"If you can't contribute to the UK, you are not coming to the UK.\n\n\"Our plan will deliver the biggest-ever cut in net migration and curb abuse.\"\n\nOn top of the new salary requirements, the government said it would:\n\nThe home secretary told MPs the changes would take effect in the spring next year.\n\n\"In total, this package, plus our reduction in students dependants, will mean around 300,000 fewer people will come in future years than have come to the UK last year,\" Mr Cleverly told MPs.\n\nThe figure of 300,000 is an estimate, based on internal Home Office calculations.\n\nThe Home Office believes the previously announced ban on most overseas students bringing dependents with them will account for almost half of the overall reduction.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Monday's announcement was \"an admission of years of Tory failure on both the immigration system and the economy\".\n\nShe said while net migration \"should come down\", the Conservatives were \"failing to introduce more substantial reforms that link immigration to training and fair pay requirements in the UK, meaning many sectors will continue to see rising numbers of work visas because of skills shortages\".\n\nUnison general secretary Christina McAnea said the \"cruel plans spell total disaster for the NHS and social care\".\n\n\"Migrant workers were encouraged to come here because both sectors are critically short of staff. Hospitals and care homes simply couldn't function without them,\" she said.\n\nThe plans were welcomed by some Conservative MPs, with former cabinet minister Simon Clarke calling the changes \"serious\" and \"credible\" steps.\n\nBut Mr Cleverly's predecessor as home secretary, Suella Braverman, was less impressed.\n\nShe said the package was \"too late and the government can go further\" on salary requirements and \"shortening the graduate route\".\n\nMrs Braverman claimed she had put forward similar proposals six times when she was home secretary \"but the delay has reduced their impact\".\n\nShe has lambasted the government's record on immigration since she was sacked as home secretary by Mr Sunak last month.\n\nThe latest statistics show the challenge ministers will face in reducing migration into the health sector, which has come to rely heavily on hiring workers from abroad.\n\nThe government said in the year ending September 2023, 101,000 visas were issued to care workers.\n\nAn estimated 120,000 visas were granted to the family dependants of those care workers, the government said.\n\nThe care sector is facing staffing shortages and providers have resisted curbs on their ability to hire foreign workers.\n\nThe government's migration advisers have previously said \"persistent underfunding\" of local councils, which funds most adult social care, is the most important factor in the staffing crisis.\n\nMr Cleverly acknowledged some care workers might be deterred from coming to the UK because they would not be able to bring families under the new rules.\n\nBut he said he believed there would still be care workers who would be willing to work in the UK.\n\nDr Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory, said the decision to raise the family income threshold to £38,700 was \"the biggest surprise of the day\".\n\nThe government's changes to the minimum income for family visas mean that people may be blocked from bringing their relatives to stay in the UK under certain circumstances.\n\n\"Family migration makes up a small share of the total, but those who are affected by it can be affected very significantly,\" Dr Sumption said.\n\n\"The largest impacts will fall on lower-income British citizens, and particularly women and younger people who tend to earn lower wages.\"\n\nAre you affected by the decision to raise the salary threshold? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Some pass first time... others not so much\n\nA learner driver who failed the theory test 59 times before passing has been praised for their \"amazing\" commitment.\n\nThe person, who has not been named, spent £1,380 and around 60 hours on the process at a test centre in Redditch.\n\nThat is more than anyone else in Britain, but only just: another learner in Hull failed 57 tests, another in Guildford 55, and a driver in Tunbridge Wells fell short 53 times.\n\nThe AA said nerves always play a part but that \"revision is key to success\".\n\nThe figures from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) relate to learner drivers who passed during the first half of 2023.\n\nEach theory attempt costs £23 and takes around an hour.\n\nCamilla Benitz, managing director of AA Driving School - which has launched a revision app helping learners prepare for the test, said: \"There's no doubt it's a tough test and these learners' commitment to passing is amazing.\n\n\"It's quite easy to underestimate the theory test,\" she said, urging the importance of revision.\n\nDepartment for Transport figures show the pass rate for theory tests has fallen from 65% in the 2007-2008 financial year to 44% in 2022-2023.\n\nIt is not a particularly unlucky time for learners though - back in 2012, it was revealed a 28-year-old failed his theory test a bumper 92 times.\n\nLearners must pass the theory before they can book a practical driving test in the UK.\n\nThe theory test consists of 50 multiple-choice questions testing candidates' knowledge of the Highway Code and guidance on driving skills, for which at least 43 correct answers are required.\n\nThis is followed by a hazard perception test, which involves 14 video clips of driving situations.", "Sharon Gordon was found at her home in Dudley in July\n\nA builder has admitted murdering his client with a hammer in a row over the extension he was building at her home.\n\nSharon Gordon, 58, was found dead at her home in Dudley, West Midlands, by concerned friends after she failed to turn up to work in July.\n\nShe was slumped at the bottom of the stairs with severe head injuries, police said.\n\nPeter Norgrove, from Sedgley, was due to face trial but pleaded guilty to her murder on Monday.\n\nHe changed his plea at Wolverhampton Crown Court earlier and will be sentenced at the same court on 26 January.\n\nBlood-stained items were found at an address connected to Peter Norgrove, police said\n\nThe 43-year-old, from Brownswall Road, Sedgley, met Mrs Gordon through mutual friends at the same church they both attended, West Midlands Police said.\n\nHe was building an extension at her home in Bromford Road which had taken several months and thrown up a number of problems.\n\nAfter she did not arrive at work on 21 July, her friends went to her home and found her body. She had died the previous day, the force said.\n\nNorgrove told police he had left the property the day before, however blood-stained items were found in a wheelie bin at a family address related to him and further searches revealed a hammer hidden in a shed.\n\nMrs Gordon, 58, was found by concerned friends after she didn't turn up to work\n\nDet Insp Damian Forrest, who led the investigation, said: \"This appears to have been a disagreement over work carried out at the victim's property which has escalated into violence.\n\n\"I am pleased the defendant has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and spared Mrs Gordon's family the ordeal of a trial.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! hosts Ant and Dec have suggested the ITV show takes a break from putting politicians in the jungle.\n\nAsked on Instagram whether Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was a potential future campmate, Dec said: \"I think we do a year without any politicians.\"\n\n\"Agreed, agreed, agreed,\" Ant responded, according to the Daily Mail.\n\nFormer MEP Nigel Farage is on this year's show, while ex-health secretary Matt Hancock appeared last year.\n\nAsked about the comments from the presenting duo, ITV declined to comment.\n\nThe pair - real names Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly - made the comments during an Instagram livestream with fans on Saturday, the Mail reported.\n\nFarage is the latest political figure to star on the show, following in the footsteps of Hancock last year.\n\nBoth have brushed with controversy by appearing in the jungle.\n\nNigel Farage, who is earning £1.5m for taking part, entered the jungle claiming he is \"a hero\" to some people and \"an absolute villain\" to millions of others.\n\n\"In the jungle you're going to find the real me,\" the former Ukip and Brexit Party leader promised viewers.\n\nHis fellow campmates have taken the opportunity to question his political beliefs on multiple occasions.\n\nNella Rose questioned Nigel Farage on his attitudes towards immigration\n\nEarly on in the series, YouTube star and influencer Nella Rose accused him of being anti-immigration, adding that the former politician wanted people like her \"gone\" from the UK.\n\n\"Anti-immigrant, right? No, no, all I've said is we cannot go on with the numbers coming to Britain that are coming,\" Farage responded.\n\nHe was also criticised by another contestant, First Dates star Fred Sirieix, about a poster he used in his campaign for the UK to leave the European Union during the 2016 referendum.\n\nSirieix said Farage was \"demonising migrants\" and that it was \"shameful\".\n\nFarage replied: \"In your view it was, but it wasn't.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Hancock's appearance on I'm a Celeb last year caused a public outcry.\n\nHe was suspended as a Conservative MP as party managers disagreed with his decision to take part in a reality TV show while Parliament was sitting.\n\nHancock - who came third in the show and made it to the jungle final - defended his decision to leave his constituents behind, saying he wanted to raise awareness of dyslexia and show that politicians are human beings.\n\nHe was paid £320,000 for taking part, according to the register of MPs' financial interests.\n\nOther political figures who've had stints in the jungle include Robert Kilroy-Silk in 2008, Nadine Dorries in 2012, Edwina Currie in 2014, and Kezia Dugdale and Stanley Johnson in 2017.\n\nThis year's series has so far attracted a lower audience than last year's.\n\nLast year's launch was more than 12 million, based on seven-day figures. The comparable figure for this year is more than 10 million on seven-day figures.\n\nBBC News has contacted Ant & Dec and Nigel Farage's spokesperson for comment.", "Zhang Yiliang and Dong Lijun's challenges have resonated with young Chinese\n\nA young Chinese couple whose struggles to own a flat shed light on the country's economic downturn have captivated the nation.\n\nZhang Yiliang and his wife Dong Lijun, both in their 30s, have documented the last two years of their lives, starting with the moment they purchased the flat. Their account \"Liangliang Lijun couple\" has earned more than 400,000 followers on Douyin.\n\nWhat began as a celebration eventually ran into trouble, including rows with the property developer who they said owed them money. In recent weeks, they alleged they were assaulted and had their videos censored, which gained them the sympathy of millions online.\n\nTheir experience as small-towners who had big-city dreams appears to have resonated with so many ordinary Chinese people - and mirrored their challenges and dashed hopes amid a property crisis in a sluggish economy.\n\n\"What you are posting is real life,\" a Douyin user wrote. \"In fact, life is hard for most young people. It's not a party every night.\" Another comment, which was liked hundreds of times, read: \"Their story resonates because they are just like us.\"\n\nSome said their aspirations represented the so-called Chinese dream, a concept popularised by President Xi Jinping, which champions the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.\n\n\"Liangliang and Lijun painted a visible model for the 'Chinese dream',\" a former journalist said in a video on his social media channel. \"This is to tell everyone, especially young people: The most diligent, law-abiding, and optimistic citizens do not deserve the Chinese Dream, let alone others. Thanks to the couple for helping us see the cruel side of China's reality.\"\n\nBut the video has since been deleted, and his Weibo account has been banned from posting.\n\nAt the centre of the couple's emotional rollercoaster is their flat, which they bought in 2021. They first posted about their purchase on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok in November that year.\n\n\"Now among all the lights, there will be one lit up just for me,\" the overjoyed couple wrote alongside the video they shared on their account, Liangliang and Lijun.\n\nA recent job fair in China, where youth unemployment has hit a record high\n\nThey posted constantly about the progress of the construction of their flat, and visited the site almost every month.\n\nOne month later, Ms Dong came home with bad news - she was forced to accept a salary cut, bringing it down to just 2,000 yuan (about $282; £222) a month. In a video, she is seen crying while delivering the news to her husband: \"Our salary is already the lowest... What should I do?\"\n\nThe video likely echoed similar stories across China as unemployment increased. \"I can't be the only one crying while watching their videos,\" a comment read.\n\nBut for the young couple, the worst was yet to come.\n\nIn May 2022 the developer - Sunac China Holdings Limited - admitted to financial problems after missing an interest payment deadline on a bond.\n\nThis was a time when other property developers, such as Evergrande, were struggling to pay off debts and deliver homes. But Mr Zhang and Ms Dong were still optimistic. Days after the announcement, Mr Zhang said in a post: \"We chose Sunac so we should trust them. We believe they will act responsibly as a company should, and deliver the project.\"\n\nBut two months later construction stopped. They spent the next few months calling for the firm to resume construction, which happened early in 2023. During that time, they had a daughter.\n\nLife seemed like it was back on track - but they said the company still owed them a 20,000-yuan rebate, which they had been asking for over months.\n\nThen on 15 November, the couple went to an event hosted by Sunac and live-streamed their encounter. Their Douyin account has no posts after that day until 1 December.\n\nSoon after the Sunac avent, social media was abuzz with posts and comments, saying the couple had been beaten during the livestream, video of which is no longer available. Screengrabs that have been shared by users also show a series of posts, where Mr Zhang appears to have visited a hospital. In another video posted on Ms Dong's personal account on 18 November, he said, \"There are a lot of rules in this society for us to follow. It's not unusual that our videos got restricted or disappeared.\"\n\nThe couple said they called the police immediately. Local police told the Southern Metropolis Daily that they had \"punished\" the attackers and would follow up on the matter. Sunac China did not respond to the BBC's questions. The BBC also contacted Mr Zhang and Ms Dong for comment.\n\nIn a now-deleted video, Ms Dong puts tape over Mr Zhang's mouth - possibly a sign of them under pressure to be silent\n\nThe incident drew enormous attention online and from Chinese media. It topped the topic chart on Weibo, China's equivalent of X, with tens of thousands of comments and posts. While some cast doubt on their version of events, many sympathised with them.\n\n\"People get beaten up and they are not allowed to speak up. Are they still allowed to live?\" a top-liked comment reads. \"Can we help them, and help our society?\" another Weibo user asked.\n\n\"They went to the developer again and again, because they are very poor and they really need that money. They recorded the process of being beaten, and they were wronged but had nowhere to go,\" Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the state-run Global Times, wrote on Weibo.\n\n\"It is very important for us to ensure ordinary people's hard work pays off, and their passion and hope for the future stays alive,\" he added.\n\nMr Zhang and Ms Dong say they are yet to receive the rebate. Last week they provoked fresh discussion - full of anger and disappointment - when they said they were going to leave Zhengzhou and go back to Mr Zhang's hometown.\n\n\"Ordinary people like them are the majority, so the way things ended for them is particularly painful to us,\" a Weibo comment liked thousands of times reads.\n\nBut the couple have since said they are undecided - suspicion joined sympathy as some users wondered whether Mr Zhang and Ms Dong are profiting from all the attention online.\n\nOthers asked if they were giving in to pressure from local authorities, who wanted to stave off the bad publicity for Zhengzhou.\n\nA comment under their latest video, on Ms Dong's personal Douyin account, reads: \"It's too hard. It's too hard to be yourself.\"\n\nHow did 6 million people in China buy homes that don't exist? Listen here for more on the societal pressures young people face to be home owners", "Jason Manford says leaving litter is \"unbelievable\" and \"you wouldn't treat your home like that\"\n\nComedian and stage star Jason Manford has called it \"shocking\" audiences leave rubbish on theatre floors after a show, asking: \"Why do people do this?\"\n\nHe is starring in Jack and the Beanstalk, at Manchester Opera House, and filmed the popcorn, plastic cups and empty packets left among the seats.\n\n\"Look at it. I even tidy up after the cinema. Unbelievable - you wouldn't treat your home like that,\" he said.\n\n\"Pick up your stuff at the end. That's what I do.\"\n\nManford said he used to work front of house at a cinema and suggested people could just find a bin at the end. \"Just a thought,\" he added with a smile.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jason Manford This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nReplying to Manford on X, formerly known as Twitter, one user said: \"Theatres should remind people that they must remove their litter at the end of the show.\n\n\"My local theatre has staff standing with binbags - and most of the audience pick up their litter and clean up.\"\n\nAnother X user blamed \"laziness\" for people leaving food and wrappers on the floor.\n\nAnd a third said: \"Honestly, this riles me. I feel like recently there's been a huge decline in manners and general etiquette at cinemas and theatres - and I don't just mean litter either.\"\n\nMusic festivals such as Glastonbury employ hundreds of volunteers to return the sites to their natural beauty.\n\nGlastonbury employs teams to clean up the festival site\n\nVenues such as theatres and cinemas also provide staff to pick up litter after audiences leave - but the company Waste Management Resources suggests if food is left behind, they should consider whether their portion sizes are too big.\n\nIt also suggests \"providing litter bins and bins that offer separate compartments for recyclable items such as plastic bottles, paper cups and popcorn holders\".\n\nThe UK Cinema Association told the BBC: \"While we would encourage audience members to take any rubbish with them when they leave the auditorium and put it in the waste bin, everyone should be confident that staff will be on hand to pick up any litter, and make sure the screen is clean and tidy before the next show.\"\n\nEnvironmental psychologist Lee Chambers told the BBC there were \"so many different factors\" influencing whether people drop litter.\n\nHe mentioned \"access to receptacles, preparation for being able to remove litter, social cues from seeing other people's litter and how people perceive the space\".\n\n\"If they see other people's litter, it makes people feel like they have a bit more permission to do it themselves\".\n\nCinema and theatre floors start off clean before the show starts\n\nMr Chambers added that conversely, if people see someone else cleaning a space, they are more likely to do the same.\n\nBut he said \"attitudes towards littering have changed\", and it's seen as a \"smaller issue than it once was\".\n\n\"We've got big world problems, where we see massive conflicts, lots of crises, the climate... so a bit of litter - it's just a tiny thing for some people, but the accumulation of tiny things is massive.\"\n\nHe also spoke about cultural attitudes towards littering.\n\n\"There are major water companies pumping stuff into the sea and rivers, and fast fashion companies dumping stuff in other countries... we have businesses and organisations that influence the wider culture not setting the best example,\" he added.\n\nLittering had surged after lockdown, environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy said, in 2020, after the collection of rubbish and recycling had been disrupted in some areas by the pandemic.\n\n\"If you see a place that's full of litter and a mess, you're more likely to think that it doesn't matter,\" coaching psychologist Stephen Palmer, of the International Academy for Professional Development and University of Wales, told BBC Worklife.\n\nIn countries such as Japan, not dropping litter is part of their culture, with the World Economic Forum saying: \"Most Japanese people will take their rubbish home with them rather than dispose of it when out and about.\"\n\nBut the UK won the inaugural litter-picking World Cup, in Tokyo, last month, which had participants from 21 countries.\n\nIt is aimed at raising awareness of environment protection, according to Euronews.\n\nBBC News has contacted several anti-litter groups in Manchester for comment, along with UK Theatre.", "Store cameras showed Gaynor Lord at work in Jarrolds department store shortly before she left\n\nA body found in a river has been formally identified as that of missing mother-of-three, Gaynor Lord.\n\nMs Lord, 55, disappeared after leaving work in Norwich early on 8 December. Her belongings were later discovered in a city park.\n\nSpecialist divers retrieved her body from the River Wensum on Friday.\n\nNorfolk Police said post-mortem tests found no evidence of third-party involvement and early indications of death were \"consistent with drowning\".\n\nMs Lord's death was not being treated as suspicious and no formal cause of death would be recorded until the Home Office pathologist received toxicology results, the force added.\n\nDetectives said they would continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding her disappearance.\n\nSpecialist divers had been searching the river for three days\n\nMs Lord was reported missing after failing to return home from Jarrolds department store, where she worked on a gin counter as a retail assistant.\n\nCCTV footage showed her leaving work more than an hour earlier than expected before hurrying through the city on foot.\n\nLater that day her belongings, including clothing, jewellery and a mobile phone, were found scattered across Wensum Park.\n\nPolice launched a major search operation and were assisted by specialist teams from across England.\n\nDetectives said there was a \"high probability\" she had entered the water.\n\nFlowers were laid outside Wensum Park after Ms Lord's body was discovered on Friday\n\nOn Monday, Jarrolds department store issued a statement on social media which said: \"Our thoughts are with the family of Gaynor Lord at this extremely difficult time.\n\n\"As someone who worked within the store she will be missed by all and we would like to pass on our collective condolences.\"\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "More training for door staff and funding for testing kits are among a package of measures announced to crack down on spiking.\n\nThe Home Office has said the law will also be \"modernised\" to make it clear spiking - putting alcohol or drugs into another person's drink or body without their consent - is a crime.\n\nThe plans have broadly been welcomed by campaigners.\n\nBut they stop short of calls from some to make spiking a specific offence.\n\nThe measures announced by the government include:\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly said: \"Spiking is a perverse crime which can have a lasting impact on victims.\n\n\"Our comprehensive new measures are designed to help police and staff in bars, restaurants, pubs and other premises to protect victims and bring more offenders to justice.\"\n\nOn Sunday the government announced it would amend the Criminal Justice Bill to make clear \"without any doubt\" that spiking is illegal.\n\nIt said this would be backed by separate guidance, set in law, to provide an \"unequivocal\" definition of spiking.\n\nThe change will update parts of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which already makes it an offence to maliciously administer poison so as to endanger the life of someone or inflict grievous bodily harm.\n\nEarlier this year the government said there were already several offences which covered spiking so it was not necessary to create a new law.\n\nMPs on the Home Affairs Committee are among those who have called for the creation of a specific offence of spiking, arguing it could help increase reporting of incidents and improve police data.\n\nAsked why the government was not planning to do this, Mr Cleverly told reporters: \"This is a law that police officers understand, they're familiar with, but it is very, very old.\n\n\"So what we're doing is we're updating the law to make it more relevant, to make it explicit to spiking, so the police officers can understand it and deploy it, so that people hear that it is completely unacceptable.\"\n\nOfficial statistics on spiking are not routinely published but last year the NPCC said almost 5,000 cases of needle and drink spiking incidents were reported to police in England and Wales in the 12 months to September 2022.\n\nDawn Dines, who founded the campaign group Stamp Out Spiking, welcomed the announcement as \"monumental\".\n\n\"Spiking being clearly recognised in law and the language being modernised will give a clear message to the perpetrators that giving someone any drug - including alcohol without that person's knowledge or consent - can result in a criminal conviction and not be tolerated,\" she said.\n\nFormer Love Island contestant Sharon Gaffka, who has campaigned on the issue after being a victim of drink spiking herself, said: \"While urging legislative updates has been my primary request for some time, the introduction and investment in preventive measures like venue staff training and drink testing kits is crucial.\"\n\nLabour said the Conservatives were \"finally moving in the right direction but there is more work to do\".\n\nThe party pointed to figures suggesting spiking reports have increased five-fold in the past five years but the proportion leading to a charge is falling.\n\nShadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding Alex Davies-Jones said: \"Labour have called for spiking to be made a separate offence to increase people coming forward and the chance for convictions, and for every police force to have a rape and serious sexual offence unit.\"\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA site in the Shetland Islands has become the UK's first spaceport for vertical rocket launches.\n\nSaxaVord Spaceport on the small island of Unst has been given approval from the Civil Aviation Authority to begin orbital launches in 2024.\n\nIt will be the first fully-licensed spaceport in Western Europe able to launch vertically into orbit.\n\nIt permits up to 30 launches a year, that will be used to take satellites and other payload into space.\n\nThe site, which is the first spaceport in Scotland, has a number of launch operators around the world currently developing rockets.\n\nIt is hoped that German rocket firm HyImpulse will attempt sub-orbital launches - flights that do not travel high enough to reach outer space - from August.\n\nFull orbital launches are expected to take place at SaxaVord from 2025.\n\nAnother German company, Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), is also planning orbital launches, followed by Lockheed Martin/ABL Space Systems with the official UK Government Pathfinder launch.\n\nEdinburgh-based Skyrora also aims to be the first UK company to launch from British soil in the coming years.\n\nThe SaxaVord Spaceport, a former RAF radar station, is co-owned by Frank and Debbie Strang.\n\nThey bought the site 15 years ago with initial plans to turn it into an eco-tourism attraction.\n\nMr Strang said the awarding of the licence was \"historic\".\n\nHe added: \"Our team is very proud that the government has entrusted us with operating a complex, multi-disciplinary and multi-launch spaceport, and we all take this responsibility very seriously.\n\n\"There is much to do still but this is a fantastic way to end the year and head into Christmas.\"\n\nThe space industry in the UK is estimated to be worth £17.5bn and supports about 48,800 jobs at 2,200 firms.\n\nCornwall Spaceport was the UK's first licensed spaceport, however its rockets are launched horizontally carried by an aircraft.\n\nA mock up of how launches will take place from the Shetland site\n\nTim Johnson, director of space regulation at the CAA, said: \"Granting SaxaVord their licence is an era-defining moment for the UK space sector.\n\n\"This marks the beginning of a new chapter for UK space as rockets may soon launch satellites into orbit from Scotland.\n\n\"We are undertaking vital work to make sure the UK's space activities are safe and sustainable for all.\"\n\nUK transport Secretary Mark Harper said the CAA's announcement would boost Shetland's economy and \"put the United Kingdom at the forefront of spaceflight innovation\".\n\nLast week, the UK Space Agency announced funding of more than £6.7m to further Scotland's spaceport ambitions.\n\nScotland currently has five proposed spaceports under development, with the Sutherland Spaceport also under construction with ambitions of launching 12 rockets into orbit per year.\n\nA further spaceport is planned on North Uist, with both Glasgow Prestwick and Spaceport Machrihanish hoping to join the space race and conduct horizontal orbital launches in the future.\n\nThe approval of SaxaVord Spaceport by regulators did not come as a huge surprise.\n\nFor months the mood music had been that the licence was imminent and work on the three launch pads was progressing at pace.\n\nStanding on top of Launch Pad Fredo earlier this year, co-director Frank Strang told me it was all about \"location, location, location\".\n\nUndeniably, that was a big part of the civil aviation authorities' decision to award the licence.\n\nFrom Unst, operators have a good trajectory to get their satellites into polar orbit.\n\nSatellites in polar orbit are used for various applications such as earth mapping, weather tracking, communications and security.\n\nBut the safety of people and environmental concerns are also key components of the licence agreement and being remote certainly helps in that respect.\n\nSo where does this leave other prospective spaceports in Scotland?\n\nSaxaVord has been able to move faster than others because it has been largely privately financed.\n\nOn the other hand, there is now a blueprint in terms of what regulators are looking for, from which others could potentially learn.\n\nScotland also has recognised expertise in terms of small satellite production with about 8,500 people already working in the space sector here.\n\nHaving a homegrown spaceport could further boost the industry.\n\nAnd worldwide there is no shortage of demand with companies like SpaceX looking to send thousands of satellites into space to create giant constellations with many others looking to follow.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA Utah woman who ran a popular parenting advice YouTube channel has pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse.\n\nRuby Franke, 41, who came to a plea deal with prosecutors faced accusations of starving and abusing her children after her son escaped a Utah home.\n\nFranke said she pleaded guilty \"with my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children\".\n\nShe will testify against a former business partner and collaborator.\n\nThe former YouTube star - who once boasted more than two million subscribers for her parenting blog - wore a white and grey-striped jail jumpsuit as she entered her guilty plea on Monday.\n\nFranke is scheduled to be sentenced on 20 February 2024.\n\nShe was arrested in August at the home of her former business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, after her malnourished son's escape from the house in Ivins, Utah and asked a neighbour for food and water.\n\nMs Hildebrandt, 54 was also arrested and charged with child abuse. Franke appeared in YouTube videos posted by Ms Hildebrandt - a counsellor and life coach - on her site, ConneXions Classroom.\n\nIn a statement shared with US media, a lawyer for Franke cast blame on Ms Hildebrandt, alleging she had led Franke \"astray\".\n\n\"Over an extended period, Ms Hildebrandt systematically isolated Ruby Franke from her extended family, older children, and her husband, Kevin Franke,\" Winward Law said in the statement. \"This prolonged isolation resulted in Ms Franke being subjected to a distorted sense of morality.\"\n\nWinward Law, Ms Hildebrandt's attorney and prosecutors did not immediately respond to requests for comment.\n\nFranke's 12 year-old-son told officers that Ms Hildebrandt put ropes on his ankles and wrists before he escaped her home in August, according to court records.\n\nThe boy had to be taken to the hospital \"due to his deep lacerations from being tied up with rope and from his malnourishment\", officials said at the time.\n\nA second child, Franke's daughter, was also found malnourished and taken to a hospital once authorities were involved. Ultimately, four of her children were placed in state custody.\n\nFranke became YouTube famous in 2015 for her channel called 8 Passengers that discussed the parenting of her six children. The channel was deactivated earlier this year.\n\nAs her fame grew, Franke faced a backlash over her strict parenting measures. She described withholding meals as a disciplinary measure, and her son claimed to have slept on a bean bag for months as a form of punishment.", "A younger Alex Batty, pictured before he went missing.\n\nThe owners of a French farmhouse where British teenager Alex Batty stayed during his years missing abroad have spoken about his time living there.\n\nAlex left home in Oldham, Greater Manchester, with his mother and grandfather for a holiday in Spain in 2017, but then disappeared.\n\nNow 17, he returned to the UK on Saturday after walking alone for days in the French Pyrenees to find help.\n\nThe gite owners said Alex, who they knew as Zach, was \"part of our family\".\n\nHe is thought to have stayed there, on and off, over the last two years.\n\nFrench authorities have described Alex's relatives' lifestyle as nomadic, with the family travelling from Morocco to Spain and then on to France.\n\nThe Gite de la Bastide is one of a handful of stone houses that make up part of a small hamlet nestling in the foothills of the Pyrenees.\n\nPosting on their website on Sunday, the owners of the property, Frederic Hambye and Ingrid Beauve, said Alex did odd jobs in return for food and accommodation.\n\nThe couple said they would take him on outings throughout the summer, including cycling and trips to the beach and nearby river.\n\nWhile his mother did not live there, Alex \"left several times\" to join her, they said - adding that the last time he came back to the gite was early this summer.\n\nThe guesthouse in the Pyrenees where locals say Alex was living\n\nThey said he voiced a desire to \"return to a normal life\" so they helped him find a place at a school, but learned that he needed official identification which he did not possess.\n\nSoon afterwards, they said he told them of his intention to return to the UK to get the identity documents he needed to enrol in a local French school to study computer science.\n\nThe couple said when he left, he told them he was going to join his mother. They told him he \"would always be welcome\" and \"if needed, we were there to help him\", adding: \"We wish him the best of luck.\"\n\nGreater Manchester Police said they needed to fully establish the circumstances surrounding his disappearance before deciding whether to mount a criminal investigation.\n\nThey said their other priorities were to support Alex and his family, and to aid his integration back into society.\n\nThe whereabouts of Alex's mother is unknown, although French prosecutors said he told them she intended to take him to Finland - prompting his decision to return to the UK.\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Michelle Handforth was in charge of Network Rail’s Wales and Western Region\n\nNetwork Rail's managing director for the Wales and Western region, Michelle Handforth, has resigned.\n\nIt came just days after infrastructure problems left hundreds of passengers stranded in carriages for hours in the dark in west London.\n\nMs Handforth was paid a £330,000 salary and commuted to work from Aberdeen.\n\nA rail insider said she had made the decision to resign before the west London incident, after recognising the challenges of the role.\n\nEarlier this month, passengers were stuck in cold and dark carriages for hours when overhead electric cables were damaged in Ladbroke Grove.\n\nElizabeth line, Great Western Railway and Heathrow Express trains were all affected, with some passengers trapped for more than three hours with no access to toilets.\n\nMultiple rail system faults and damaged rails had caused problems on Paddington services in the weeks before the incident.\n\nMs Handforth had been in the role for three-and-a-half years.\n\nBefore joining Network Rail, she was chief executive for the Port of Aberdeen.\n\nLast month, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) launched an investigation into poor train punctuality and reliability in the Wales and Western region.\n\nThe regulator said train services in the region had \"continued to deteriorate\", while performance over the rest of the network in Britain had stabilised.\n\nThe ORR added that it would consider whether Network Rail could be doing more to improve services and may decide on \"appropriate measures\", which could include enforcement action.\n\nReacting to Ms Handforth's departure, Maryam Eslamdoust, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) union, said one person resigning \"simply isn't enough\".\n\nShe urged Network Rail needed to invest properly \"in the maintenance of its infrastructure\", saying delays to repairs and maintenance caused cancellations and increased safety risks.\n\n\"Ultimately though, this all goes back to the government who set the budget that Network Rail have to work with,\" she said.\n\nThe TSSA says nearly 500 staff who work on replacing old rails and sleepers face losing their jobs under Network Rail plans to cut costs.\n\nBut the campaign group Railfuture, which represents passengers, said Ms Handforth's resignation was a welcome show of responsibility.\n\n\"We certainly support the notion there is accountability at the top of the rail industry,\" said the group's spokesman Bruce Williamson.\n\n\"And it's also important that the people who are recruited to run our railway are the people with the right set of skills to deliver the railway that we all want to see.\"", "Brian Cox says there is a \"joke element\" to being on Strictly\n\nBrian Cox has said he turned down an invitation to be a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing as he felt he was \"too old\" to take part.\n\nThe Succession star, 77, told the BBC he liked dancing but was not sure he wanted \"to go down that road\".\n\nMore than eight million people viewed Saturday's grand final of the dance competition on BBC One.\n\nActress Ellie Leach, 22, was crowned this year's champion, making her the youngest winner in the show's history.\n\nThe Coronation Street actress, partnered by professional dancer Vito Coppola, beat EastEnders' Bobby Brazier and Bad Education star Layton Williams to lift the glitterball trophy.\n\nWith an average age of 23, they were the youngest trio of finalists ever to compete.\n\nThe moment of victory for Ellie and Vito\n\nCox, who starred as Logan Roy in the TV drama Succession, was asked about Strictly when he appeared on the BBC One programme Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.\n\n\"I've actually been asked to be on it,\" he revealed.\n\nBut he added: \"I declined. I mean, I like dancing, don't get me wrong... I just don't know why, but I always see that there's a sort of joke element in it.\n\n\"There's almost a character that's going to be getting the elbow... and I just thought, 'I don't know if I want to go down that road'.\"\n\nWhen asked if he could be convinced to take part, he stated: \"I'm getting too old for it anyway.\"\n\nFormer cabinet minister Robert Buckland, who was also a panellist on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, said he too loved dancing and is able to do the Charleston and \"a little bit of ballroom\".\n\n\"That show means so much to me and my family,\" he said. But he did not answer directly when asked if he fancied competing on the show.\n\nGood Morning Britain presenter Susanna Reid, who made it to the final of the show in 2013, congratulated this year's winners.\n\nBut she warned them \"it is not real life\".\n\n\"Any of those contestants who wake up this morning, they will come back down to earth with a bump because it's like a completely different planet where you breathe air which is sequin-encrusted,\" she added.\n\nAngela Rippon was the eighth contestant to be eliminated this year\n\nAngela Rippon told the BBC that she felt her appearance on the show this year had been an inspiration to older people.\n\nThe presenter - at 79, two years older than Cox - made it through to the Blackpool special before being eliminated after facing Brazier in the dance-off.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast on Sunday, she said she had \"loved every minute\" of being on Strictly.\n\nShe added that she had been \"overwhelmed\" by the support she had received, \"and the number of men of a certain age - as well as women - who are saying you've been an inspiration, just to demonstrate that it is possible to do what I do\".\n\nShe said it was \"amazing and joyful\" to hear she had inspired others to take dancing classes \"because they thought, well, 'if she could do it, why can't I?'\".\n\nThe final of Strictly Come Dancing 2023 was watched by an average of 8.8 million viewers.\n\nThat is a drop compared with last year, when 9.2 million people tuned in to see presenter Hamza Yassin crowned winner.\n• None Strictly stars gear up for youngest ever finale", "Record rainfall driven by a tropical cyclone has caused widespread flooding in the north-east of Australia.\n\nHundreds of people were rescued as homes became inundated and roads cut off.\n\nCairns Airport - a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef - was closed on Sunday, as video emerged online of planes submerged in floodwaters.\n\nIn the town of Ingham, a crocodile was seen swimming in a storm drain.", "President Aleksandar Vucic said his party was heading for an absolute majority in parliament\n\nSerbian President Aleksandar Vucic has claimed victory in snap parliamentary elections, saying his party is heading for an absolute majority.\n\nHis Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, won 47% of the vote, according to a near-final count.\n\nOpposition parties under the Serbia Against Violence (SPN) banner were well behind with around 23%.\n\nBut they claimed electoral fraud favouring the government, and called a protest for Monday evening.\n\nIf confirmed, the results will likely mean the SNS has won more than half of the 250 seats in the National Assembly.\n\nJoined by Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and controversial Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik on stage, Mr Vucic told supporters: \"My job was to do everything in my power to secure an absolute majority,\" although he himself was not running for election.\n\nAs well as voting for parliament, Serbians were deciding on Sunday who would control 65 local authorities.\n\nThe loose opposition SPN alliance had hoped to win control of Belgrade in Sunday's local elections.\n\nIt was formed after two mass shootings in May which sparked huge protests. The attacks killed 19 people, including 10 at a school in Belgrade.\n\nDespite the SPN's hopes, near-final results showed Mr Vucic's party slightly ahead in the capital.\n\nIn a statement, SPN claimed electoral fraud. The coalition said: \"More than 40,000 non-residents were brought to Belgrade\".\n\nIt demanded the annulment of the vote in the capital, and called on supporters to protest on Monday evening.\n\nBut President Vucic told supporters that the party had seen off the opposition challenge in Belgrade and that he was confident the capital would once again be run by former water polo star Aleksandar Sapic, who merged his party with the Progressives.\n\nThe vote was almost immediately marred by accusations of irregularities.\n\nThe International Election Observation Mission said in a statement that \"serious irregularities, including vote-buying and ballot box stuffing were observed\".\n\nThe SNS has been in power since 2012 but there have been three elections in the past three years.\n\nOpposition figures have accused the SNS of using public resources for political purposes and election monitor CRTA complained before the vote of a \"chronic lack of pluralism\" in Serbia.\n\nLocal observers reported various irregularities on Sunday, including voters being bussed in from Bosnia-Herzegovina to vote in Belgrade.\n\nThe CRTA observer mission gave details of attempted ballot-rigging in a number of polling stations.\n\nSerbia is a candidate to become a member of the European Union, and President Vucic is under pressure from both the EU and the US to normalise relations with Kosovo.\n\nKosovo declared unilateral independence from Serbia in 2008, and while it is recognised by more than 100 UN members, Serbia has refused to do so - backed by allies like Russia, China and five EU members.\n\nSome 95,000 ethnic Serbs live in Kosovo and those who wanted to vote had to cross into Serbia to cast their ballot.", "There was speculation over whether another uprising was brewing in the West Bank, even before the Hamas attacks on Israel in October.\n\nFrequent raids by the Israeli army, emboldened by a hard-right Israeli government - following deadly attacks by Palestinians, and violent attacks on Palestinians by settlers - had already increased pressure on Palestinians there.\n\nSince the war in Gaza, those pressures have spiralled: Israeli raids into West Bank towns have become more frequent and more forceful, and many families are suffering economically after Israel withheld tax revenues used to pay public servants in the West Bank, and banned Palestinian workers from entering Israel too.\n\nSmoke and fire rises from a Palestinian house in the Jenin refugee camp after it was targeted by the Israeli army on 13 December\n\nThere is anger at almost 20,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, and support for Hamas is rising.\n\nBut despite all this, calls by the armed group for an uprising in the West Bank over the past couple of months have come and gone.\n\nSupport for Hamas - and armed resistance more generally - has risen sharply since the war in Gaza began.\n\nAn opinion poll by the Centre for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah found that support for Hamas in the West Bank had more than tripled. Meanwhile, support for the West Bank's ruling party, Fatah, had dropped significantly. More than 90% of respondents thought Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas should resign.\n\nBut it seems that support for armed resistance, and disillusion with politics, is not translating into action on the ground.\n\nPalestinian inspects the damage inside a destroyed house in the Jenin refugee camp after it was targeted by the Israeli army on 13 December\n\nSince the war began, weekly demonstrations have been held in West Bank cities. The slogans chanted there are against Israel - but also against the Palestinian Authority. But they're usually held in city centres where there is much less risk of confrontation with Israeli soldiers, rather than at checkpoints - as happened during the last Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.\n\nAnd the numbers turning out for these weekly demonstrations are smaller than they were during previous moments of tension.\n\n\"People hesitate to come when Hamas calls for demonstrations, because there is a clear security price to be paid from the Israeli response,\" said Raed Debiy, a political scientist and youth leader in Fatah.\n\nBut they also don't come when Fatah calls for them, Debiy says, because \"people have lost hope in political parties\".\n\nDestruction in Jenin after the Israeli army operation\n\nAs the actions of Israel's army in the West Bank have become harsher, and the Palestinian security services more efficient, many people fear that becoming an active member of a militant group could make them a target for arrest or assassination.\n\nMore than 270 people have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October - including 70 children - according to the UN. That's more than half the total number killed this year.\n\nFour Israelis - including three from the armed forces - have been killed by Palestinians there in the same period.\n\nAn operation to arrest Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp this week lasted several days, with frequent bursts of heavy gunfire, rocket attacks and air strikes. Hundreds of people were detained, with 60 of them handed over to the security services for further questioning.\n\nAn ambulance trying to reach Jenin Hospital is stopped for search by the Israeli forces\n\nThe Israeli army has also been trying to destroy infrastructure used by armed groups.\n\nThis time, it claimed to have found more than a dozen underground tunnel shafts in the camp, as well as facilities for making explosives and \"observation control rooms\" to monitor Israeli forces.\n\nOne young man from the camp, who was among those detained this week and released after questioning, said the reason people ignored calls by Hamas to rise up in solidarity was that the group did not supply the West Bank with enough equipment to fight the Israeli army.\n\n\"Hamas in the West Bank has not done a good job of organising itself over the last decade,\" said Khalil Shikaki, head of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah.\n\n\"The Israelis have been arresting a lot of their members. Hamas is just incapable right now in the West Bank of mobilising and organising an eruption of violence that would be sustainable.\"\n\nBut previous uprisings here did not rely on Hamas. The second intifada (uprising), which began in 2000, was led by members of the West Bank's ruling party, Fatah.\n\nThe current leader of Fatah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is widely seen as trying to avoid an escalation in violence against Israel - a major shift in position from his predecessor, Yasser Arafat.\n\nHis security services co-operate with Israel to arrest members of armed groups - something that is widely criticised by Palestinians.\n\nSabri Saidam, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, denies that the party's position is at odds with public feeling in the territory, or that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is somehow avoiding a fight.\n\n\"To say that Fatah is in control and keeping the calm, [it's] as if you are hinting that there is a forceful implementation of a state of calm,\" he said. \"Nobody is forcing anything on anyone.\"\n\n\"People in the West Bank know that Netanyahu is throwing down bait, through persistent attacks every night against the people of Palestine regardless of their political affiliation - because he wants to provoke the Palestinians into a confrontational mood that he will use as an excuse to escalate the situation.\"\n\nThe US is pushing Israel to allow a \"revitalised\" PA to govern Gaza once the war there ends. Israel has so far said it will not consider it.\n\nBut the chance to govern a unified Palestinian bloc for the first time since 2006 is another incentive for the Fatah-dominated PA to prove its credentials and stop the situation in the West Bank from spiralling out of control.\n\n\"It's very clear that Fatah don't want any intifada,\" explained Raed Debiy, the party youth leader. \"They are still very keen to keep the status quo. But the grassroots of Fatah will not be controlled forever. How can you stay silent under daily assassination, daily invasion, daily violation of settlers - this will definitely lead to explosion.\"\n\nIn 2000, the spark for the second intifada was a visit by then-Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to a contested holy site in Jerusalem, known to Muslims as the al-Aqsa compound and to Jews at the Temple Mount.\n\nSharon's visit happened amid smouldering Palestinian frustration at the failure of the Oslo peace process - and, Dr Shikaki says, was \"exploited\" by Fatah's young guard to launch the uprising.\n\nA small event like this could still trigger something significant, but the situation has shifted since 2000.\n\nNow, far-right ministers in the Israeli government visit the compound, and make inflammatory claims about Israeli control of the site, without triggering a major response - at least not in the West Bank.\n\n\"We told the American administration many times that the pressure would definitely lead to some sort of reaction,\" said the senior Fatah leader, Sabri Saidam. \"But no-one anticipated that the reaction would come from Gaza.\"\n\nA map illustration showing the wider region of Israel, the occupied West Bank, Gaza, Tel Aviv and Jordan. Gaza and the occupied West Bank are highlighted in red, and show the locations of Jenin, Jerusalem and Nablus.\n\nWhere the West Bank goes from here depends partly on what follows the war in Gaza.\n\nThat transition is likely to be a precarious time for the West Bank, with hopes of a unified Palestinian leadership - possibly opening the door to talks on a future Palestinian state - clashing with the opposition of Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.\n\nAnd lifting restrictions imposed by Israel after the attacks - separating Palestinian and settler vehicles on some roads, for example - could prompt a spike in friction.\n\nBut a sustained uprising, of the kind seen two decades ago, will likely require a change in the policy of the West Bank's main political movement - and possibly even a change in its leader.\n\n\"It seems Fatah remains critical for an uprising to happen,\" Dr Shikaki told me. \"And as long as Fatah and the security services are not directly involved in the preparation for such an intifada, it seems highly unlikely we'll see one emerging.\n\n\"I don't yet see Fatah or the security services on the verge of a turning point,\" he continued. \"But we're moving in that direction.\"\n\nOthers point to the dwindling faith in Palestinian politics to provide peace, a state, or just a better life.\n\n\"If we had anything on the political agenda, things could go quiet,\" Raed Debiy told me. \"But I'm not sure with this right-wing [Israeli] government whether there is anything solid on the table - so the only scenario I see is explosion. It's just a matter of time.\"", "X finds itself in the EU's firing line\n\nThe European Union has formally announced it suspects X, previously known as Twitter, of breaching its rules in areas including countering illegal content and disinformation.\n\nDigital commissioner Thierry Breton set out the alleged infringements in a post on the social media platform.\n\nHe said X, which is owned by Elon Musk, was also suspected of breaching its obligations on transparency.\n\nX said it was \"co-operating with the regulatory process\".\n\nIn a statement the firm said it was \"important that this process remains free of political influence and follows the law\".\n\n\"X is focused on creating a safe and inclusive environment for all users on our platform, while protecting freedom of expression, and we will continue to work tirelessly towards this goal,\" it added.\n\nThese are the first formal proceedings launched under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the tough new rules for big tech firms the EU has introduced.\n\nThe DSA places extra obligations on major companies to protect users against extreme content. If they fail to do so they can face enormous fines or be suspended.\n\n\"Today, we opened formal proceedings against X based on several suspected infringements of the Digital Services Act,\" EU Commission spokesman Johannes Bahrke said.\n\n\"The opening of proceedings means that the Commission will now investigate X's systems and policies related to certain suspected infringements. It does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation.\"\n\nIn October the EU said it was investigating X over the possible spread of terrorist and violent content, and hate speech, after Hamas' attack on Israel.\n\nX said then that it had removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts from the platform.\n\nExplaining the latest steps in its investigation into X on Monday, the EU said its probe would also consider the effectiveness of X's so-called Community Notes system.\n\nIt allows contributors to comment on the accuracy of posts, with the company considering it a bulwark against disinformation.\n\nHowever, concerns about the nature of the content appearing on X have intensified since it was bought by Elon Musk - in part because he laid off many of its moderators - with the European Commission previously warning it had the biggest disinformation problem of any major platform.\n\nIn the US, controversy over extremist material appearing on the site has led to an advertising boycott, a bitter row between Mr Musk and a campaign group, and even questions about whether X could end up going bankrupt.", "North Korea has fired its most advanced long-range missile, South Korean authorities say, defying UN curbs.\n\nThe launch of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) drew immediate condemnation from the West. It landed west of Hokkaido in Japan.\n\nIt comes after South Korean and US defence officials met last week to update plans on how to respond to a nuclear attack from the North.\n\nPyongyang had vowed to take \"more offensive countermeasures\" in response.\n\nThe isolated state launched the long-range missile on Monday morning about 08:24 local time (23:24 Sunday GMT) from the Pyongyang area.\n\nSouth Korean and Japanese officials said the missile travelled for 73 minutes, covering about 1,000km (621 miles).\n\nICBMs have the range to reach the North American continent. Monday's launch is North Korea's fifth successful launch of an ICBM this year.\n\nSouth Korea, Japan and the US were quick to condemn the missile test on Monday, noting it breached UN Security Council resolutions and would make the Korean peninsula less secure.\n\nTensions between the North and the South flared last month when Pyongyang successfully launched a spy satellite into orbit, also in violation of UN sanctions.\n\nSeoul responded by partially suspending a military agreement with the North that was meant to limit military activity along the border and reduce the likelihood of clashes.\n\nPyongyang then withdrew from the agreement entirely. North Korea has since rearmed its soldiers in previously unarmed areas of the Demilitarised Zone which separates its territory from the South.\n\nLast week, South Korea's national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo said he was expecting the North to launch an ICBM at some point in December.\n\nOn Monday, South Korean national security officials confirmed the ICBM launched was a solid-fuel missile. Such missiles can be fired with less warning, as they do not need to be fuelled prior to launch.\n\nThe North had tested its Hwasong-18 missile in July following a first successful flight in April.\n\nIt is also working to develop a new solid-fuel medium-range ballistic missile. Last month it claimed to have successfully tested the engine, but said the missile had not yet been successfully launched.\n\nAs North Korea continues to refine and add to its arsenal of nuclear weapons, South Korea and the United States are stepping up their defence of the region.\n\nIn a meeting in Washington on Friday, officials updated their contingency plans for how to respond to a potential North Korean nuclear attack. The two countries also agreed to war-game the use of nuclear weapons in their military exercises next summer.\n\nMeanwhile, North Korea is deepening ties with China and Russia. On Monday, its officials met the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing.\n\nThough other countries were quick to condemn Monday's launch, Wang Yi expressed China's support for Pyongyang. He said China and North Korea \"had always firmly supported and trusted each other\", according to a read-out from the Chinese foreign ministry.\n\nSince May 2022, North Korea has been able to test weapons with little consequence, as both China and Russia have voted against further sanctions at the UN Security Council.", "Scientists say people's antibody levels against Covid are probably as low now as they have been\n\nWhat is it like to catch Covid now? It is a question I have been pondering since a friend was surprised by how roughed up they were by it. Their third bout of Covid was significantly worse than the previous time they caught it.\n\n\"I thought every time you catch an illness it's supposed to be a bit better each time?\" was the message from his sickbed.\n\nThat has certainly been said a lot during the pandemic. But I also know work colleagues and people I have interviewed or chatted to at the school gates, who have been hit hard by Covid in the past few months.\n\nA familiar tale has been a week of coughing, headaches or fever followed by a lingering fatigue.\n\nIt is important to stress that Covid has always caused a wide range of symptoms. Even before vaccines, some lucky people barely got sick or did not even develop symptoms.\n\nFor some of us, Covid is just a sniffle - not even enough to make you go digging around in the bathroom cabinet to see if there is a lateral flow test hiding in there.\n\nBut scientists specialising in our immune system warn Covid is still causing stonking infections that may be worse than before and knock us out for weeks.\n\nHow we fare after being exposed to Covid comes down to the battle between the virus itself and our body's defences.\n\nThe earliest stages are crucial as they dictate how much of a foothold the virus gets inside our body, and how severe it is going to be.\n\nHowever, waning immunity and the virus evolving are tipping the scales.\n\nProf Eleanor Riley, an immunologist at the University of Edinburgh, has had her own \"horrid\" bout of Covid that was \"much worse\" than expected.\n\nShe told me: \"People's antibody levels against Covid are probably as low now as they have been since the vaccine was first introduced.\"\n\nAntibodies are like microscopic missiles that stick to the surface of the virus and stop it from infecting our body's cells.\n\nSo, if you have lots of antibodies, they can mop up the virus quickly and any infection will hopefully be short and mild.\n\n\"Now, because antibodies are lower, a higher dose [of the virus] is getting through and causing a more severe bout of disease,\" Prof Riley says.\n\nAntibody levels are relatively low because it has been a long time since many of us were vaccinated (if you are young and healthy you were only ever offered two doses and a booster) or infected, which also tops up immunity.\n\nProf Peter Openshaw, from Imperial College London, told me: \"The thing that made the huge difference before was the very wide and fast rollout of vaccines - even young adults managed to get vaccinated, and that made an absolutely huge difference.\"\n\nFewer people are being offered a booster vaccine this winter\n\nThis year even fewer people are being offered the vaccine. Last winter, all over-50s could have one. Now it is only the over-65s, unless you are in an at-risk group.\n\nProf Openshaw says he is not a \"doomster\", but thinks the result will be \"a lot of people having a pretty nasty illness that is going to knock them out for several days or weeks\".\n\n\"I'm also hearing of people having nasty bouts of Covid, who are otherwise young and fit. It's a surprisingly devious virus, sometimes making people quite ill and occasionally leading to having 'long Covid',\" he says.\n\nHe thinks there is a \"good chance\" you are susceptible if you have not caught Covid in the past year.\n\nThe official government decision in the UK is to vaccinate those at risk of dying from Covid or needing hospital treatment. This relieves pressure on the National Health Service.\n\nProf Riley argues: \"But that's not to say people who are under 65 are not going to get Covid, and are not going to feel pretty rough.\n\n\"I think the consequence of not boosting those people is we have more people who are off work for a week or two or three over winter.\"\n\nDecisions on who gets vaccinated are not the only thing to have altered - the virus is also changing.\n\nAntibodies are highly precise as they rely on a close match between the antibody and the part of the virus to which they stick. The more a virus evolves to change its appearance, the less effective the antibodies become.\n\nProf Openshaw said: \"The viruses circulating now are pretty distant immunologically from the original virus which was used to make the early vaccines, or which last infected them.\n\n\"A lot of people have very little immunity to the Omicron viruses and their variants.\"\n\nIt could be a grotty winter for many of us\n\nIf you are feeling rough with Covid - or rougher than you have done before - it could be this combination of waning antibodies and evolving viruses.\n\nBut this does not mean you are more likely to become critically ill or need hospital treatment.\n\nA different part of our immune system - called T-cells - kick in once an infection is already under way and they have been trained by past infections and vaccines.\n\nT-cells are less easily befuddled by mutating viruses as they spot cells that have been infected with Covid and kill them.\n\n\"They will stop you getting severely ill and ending up in hospital, but in that process of killing off the virus there's collateral damage that makes you feel pretty rough,\" says Prof Riley.\n\nRelying on your T-cells to clear out Covid is what results in the muscle pain, fever and chills.\n\nSo where does this leave the thought that Covid is on a trajectory towards becoming a mild, innocuous infection?\n\nThere are four other human coronaviruses, related to Covid, that cause common cold symptoms. One of the reasons they are thought to be mild is we catch them in childhood and then throughout our lives.\n\nProf Openshaw is clear \"we are not there yet\" with Covid, but \"with repeated infection we should build up natural immunity\".\n\nIn the meantime will some of us have to suck up a grotty winter?\n\nAre you affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Martin Bashir stepped down from his role at the BBC in 2021\n\nThe Information Commissioner's Office says its criminal investigations team is looking into claims the BBC withheld documents relating to Martin Bashir's 1995 interview with Princess Diana.\n\nLast week, a judge strongly criticised the BBC for failing to release a large number of emails relating to the way Bashir secured the Panorama interview.\n\nThey had been requested by a journalist who claims the corporation breached the Freedom of Information Act.\n\nThe BBC has rejected the allegations.\n\nBashir officially stepped down from his job at the BBC in 2021, after it had emerged he had secured the Panorama interview through deception and faking documents.\n\nJournalist Andy Webb made a freedom of information request, asking to see the emails BBC managers sent each other about Bashir over a two-month period in 2020.\n\nThe BBC disclosed a small number of messages to Webb, but it has since emerged there were more than 3,000 emails.\n\nThe corporation previously said these contained information that was either \"irrelevant\" or \"legally privileged\".\n\nEarlier this month, Judge Brian Kennedy ordered the BBC to release more emails - saying the corporation had been \"inconsistent, erroneous and unreliable\" in the way it dealt with the initial request.\n\nA spokesperson for the ICO confirmed Mr Webb's case has since been referred to its criminal investigations team \"who are currently reviewing the material provided\".\n\nThe BBC said it rejected \"these allegations entirely, including any suggestion that the BBC has acted unlawfully\".\n\nA spokesperson said: \"We have repeatedly set out to Mr Webb that Martin Bashir's significant health issues prevented us from disclosing documentation in 2020, as we were unable to consult him on the substantive issues.\n\n\"As Mr Webb also knows, all relevant documentation that was in the BBC's possession was passed to the Lord Dyson inquiry which concluded and was published in 2021.\"\n\nMr Webb previously said it was \"overwhelmingly in the public interest for these internal emails to be divulged to the public\".\n\nThe inquiry found that Bashir used deception to secure the interview and then lied to BBC managers.", "The husband of ITV presenter Kate Garraway is in a \"very serious condition\" after being in and out of hospital since contracting Covid in March 2020.\n\nFormer political adviser Derek Draper, 56, had been living with extreme complications from the disease and has long-lasting damage to his organs.\n\nOn Sunday it was reported he was back in hospital after another setback.\n\nGarraway's co-stars on ITV have sent their love to the family.\n\nPresenting ITV's Good Morning Britain on Monday, Charlotte Hawkins said: \"We wanted to start with an update. You may have seen in the news over the weekend that Derek, Kate's husband, is sadly in a very serious condition at the moment.\"\n\nCo-host Richard Madeley said: \"We just want to let Derek, Kate and of course the whole family know we are all here thinking of them, and we know many of you are as well, and that all of us send them our very, very best wishes at what is a very, very difficult time.\"\n\nHawkins continued: \"It is indeed. Lots of love from all of us.\"\n\nKate Garraway stands with her husband Derek Draper and her parents Gordon and Marilyn Garraway, after being appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2023\n\nIn April 2021 Garraway said Draper had returned home after more than a year in hospital.\n\nHe can't really move,\" she said at the time. \"We do need a lot of help. And it's not just help with looking after him, because it is 24-hour care, and I haven't really slept as you can probably tell.\n\n\"I will ease off, I'm just very aware at the moment and it's a whole new team. So he's probably got a little bit used to the people in hospital and so it's a new team now that are working with him and helping him to come through.\n\n\"It's going to take a lot of adjustment.\"\n\nThe family's experience of adjusting to a new way of life due to his rare condition was chronicled in the ITV documentary Finding Derek. The film explored Draper's illness and its effect on the couple's two children - Darcey, 15, and 11-year-old Billy.", "Arsenal legend Ian Wright will step down as a pundit from Match of the Day at the end of the season.\n\nWright, 60, made his debut on the BBC programme as a player in 1997 and, following his retirement in 2000, went on to become a regular pundit in 2002.\n\nWright said the decision \"had been coming for a while\" and was \"fast-tracked\" by turning 60 last month.\n\n\"Ultimately, it's time to do a few more different things with my Saturdays,\" the former England striker said.\n\nWright had two spells on Match of the Day, first from 2002 before he left in 2008, and then returning in 2015. In May he appeared alongside Shaun Wright-Phillips to become the first father and son punditry team to appear on the show.\n\n\"After my debut show whilst still a player in 1997 and many more memorable years, I'll be stepping back from BBC MOTD at the end of this season,\" said Wright, who will be on Sunday's MOTD2 on BBC One at 22:30 GMT.\n\n\"I feel very privileged to have had such an incredible run on the most iconic football show in the world.\"\n\nHe added: \"Anyone that knows my story knows how much the show has meant to me since I was a young boy. MOTD is my Holy Grail. On my first ever show, I told [presenter] Des Lynam, 'This is my Graceland'. It will always be my Graceland and I will always be watching.\n\n\"I'm stepping back having made great friends and many great memories. I'm really looking forward to my last months on the show and covering what will hopefully be an amazing title race.\"\n\nThe show's host, Gary Lineker, wrote: \"It has been an absolute pleasure and privilege to work alongside you, Ian. One of my favourite people on the planet. Farewell my friend.\"\n\nHead of BBC Sport Content Philip Bernie said: \"Ian has been a wonderful star player on MOTD since his first appearance over 20 years ago. His insight, wit and warmth have richly entertained and informed all those watching him. We will miss his unique style and presence when he goes at the end of this season, but we will be sure to give him the send-off he deserves.\"\n\nWright started his professional career with Crystal Palace aged 21 in 1985 and scored 90 goals, including two in the 1990 FA Cup final against Manchester United. Palace drew 3-3 but were beaten 1-0 in the replay.\n\nHe moved to Arsenal in 1991 for a then club record of £2.5m and went on to score 185 times for them, becoming the club's leading goalscorer in September 1997 and also winning the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup during his time with the Gunners.\n\nAfter leaving Arsenal, he had spells with West Ham, Nottingham Forest, Celtic and Burnley.\n\nHe also won 33 caps for England and scored nine goals.\n\nSince retiring, he has become one of television's best-known football pundits, covering both the men's and women's game for the BBC and ITV.\n\nAway from football, he fronted a BBC programme on his upbringing and his abusive childhood.\n\nIn June, he was appointed an OBE in the Birthday Honours list for services to football and charity and last month received the Freedom of the City of London.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said progress had been made in talks with the government\n\nA meeting of the Democratic Unionist Party's (DUP) officers took place on Friday as the party considers a potential return to Stormont.\n\nThe party collapsed the executive 22 months ago in protest against post-Brexit trade arrangements.\n\nThe DUP has been asking for new legislation to address its concerns.\n\nThe government is lobbying hard to restore Stormont before next Tuesday, so the legislation can be laid before Parliament before its Christmas recess.\n\nThe recess period runs from 20 December to 7 January.\n\nOn Thursday, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said it was \"approaching the time\" for a decision.\n\nThe DUP is Stormont's second largest party but it has been blocking a functioning assembly and executive since February 2022.\n\nIts boycott began as a protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol, and later the Windsor Framework - two international agreements which set out how Northern Ireland trades with Great Britain after Brexit.\n\nThe DUP has argued the rules undermine Northern Ireland's place in the UK internal market by introducing additional checks on the movement of goods.\n\nOn Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government was ready to legislate to protect Northern Ireland's position and would work \"at pace\".\n\nSir Jeffrey said he had been \"refining\" those issues with the government.\n\n\"Significant progress\" had been made he told BBC News NI, but any deal would need the approval of DUP officers.\n\nThis body has 12 members, including Sir Jeffrey and the DUP's deputy leader, Gavin Robinson.\n\nBBC News NI understands that Sir Jeffrey has given a guarantee to his party executive - which is made up of more than 100 members - that they will be able to discuss any decision made by DUP officers.\n\nMr Sunak said new legislation must go hand-in-hand with a deal to restore Stormont, with the government offering £2.5bn in a financial package.\n\nStormont's largest parties have said the £2.5bn is not enough, which the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he will discuss with the prime minister.\n\nThe DUP do not like their officer board meetings taking place under a microscope.\n\nPerhaps they knew how critical and how sensitive this particular board gathering was and the last thing they wanted was to have cameras outside the door pinning officer board members as they left to ask them what exactly happened inside.\n\nWe know Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has been writing to members via email pretty often lately, and some of those emails have found their way into the public domain.\n\nThat's one to watch out for to get a handle on what exactly has happened.\n\nWhatever happened in Friday's meeting will, at some stage, have to be conveyed to the wider party.\n\nOn Thursday, Sinn Féin MP John Finucane said \"there never has been and there is no excuse now\" for the DUP to continue its Stormont boycott.\n\nSpeaking to BBC's The View, he said despite the fact Sir Jeffrey said he is not in any rush, many people do not have the luxury of time.\n\n\"What the people want to see is an executive and an assembly formed without delay so that we can begin to tackle the problems that are there that we all know about that grow on a daily basis,\" he added.\n\nJohn Finucane said the DUP should accept the deal and get back into Stormont\n\nAlliance Party MLA Andrew Muir said he was \"tired and fed up\" with the DUP's 22-month protest. He said the party had been turning its back on opportunities for Northern Ireland.\n\nUlster Unionist Party deputy leader Robbie Butler said he believed the DUP will go for the deal, adding: \"If any unionist was serious about protecting the union, they need to be making people's lives better here, and not impacting [them].\"\n\nSir David Sterling, a former head of Northern Ireland's civil service, said the \"hugely significant\" financial package offered by the government suggests the endgame is close, and any decision should be made as soon as possible.\n\n\"History shows, experience shows, that if you allow too much time between getting close to the end and actually getting over the line, the mice can get at it,\" he told The View.\n\n\"I just get the sense that the parties all individually now have reached this place where they feel now is the time to do this deal, including the DUP.\"\n\nMomentum to restore Stormont could be lost if discussions continue over Christmas break, Sir David warned\n\nOn Friday, Social Democratic and Labour Party leader Colum Eastwood said he thinks a deal to restore Stormont is \"nearly there\" and the assembly could be recalled as early as next week.\n\n\"That is with all the usual caveats because the DUP could do anything but I think they are now at the point where they have to do this deal,\" he told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today.\n\nHe added legislation could be laid before Westminster on Monday or Tuesday.\n\n\"There's no other way of doing this,\" he continued. \"We have a week left before Christmas and and I just don't believe this could go on beyond Christmas.\"", "Several senior Conservatives have urged Israel to show restraint in recent days\n\nIsrael has \"gone beyond self-defence\" and lost the moral authority in its war with Hamas, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee has said.\n\nTory MP Alicia Kearns told the BBC she thinks Israel has broken international law and risks increasing support for Hamas among Palestinians.\n\nShe said: \"Bombs don't obliterate an ideology and neither can a stable state be constructed from oblivion.\"\n\nFormer Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has also criticised Israel's tactics.\n\nWriting in the Daily Telegraph, he said Israel's legal basis for military action in Gaza was \"being undermined\" and warned its government was \"making the mistake of losing its moral authority alongside its legal one\".\n\nAsked if she agreed with Mr Wallace that Israel has damaged its standing with its conduct in Gaza, Ms Kearns told BBC Radio 4's World At One: \"I think unfortunately it has.\n\n\"International humanitarian law in my view has been broken.\"\n\nShe said a truce that could be turned into a lasting ceasefire should be pursued, rather than a focus on the eradication of Hamas - which Israel, the UK, US and some other Western powers class as a terrorist organisation.\n\nTen Tory MPs - including former Cabinet ministers Kit Malthouse and George Eustice - have written to the Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron urging him to push for an \"immediate ceasefire\", describing Israel's strategy as \"neither proportionate nor targeted\".\n\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted operations, which were launched when Hamas carried out an unprecedented assault on Israel on 7 October, will continue until the group is dismantled.\n\nAround 1,200 people were killed and an estimated 240 people were taken hostage by Hamas - and despite some being returned during a temporary truce, about 120 are still thought to be inside Gaza.\n\nMs Kearns - who chairs the committee of MPs tasked with holding the Foreign Office to account - warned Israel could inadvertently increase support for Hamas among Palestinians.\n\nShe said: \"Hamas is an ideology which recruits into its membership.\"\n\nAn opinion poll carried out between 22 November and 2 December by a respected Palestinian think tank, the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, found that support for Hamas had more than tripled in the occupied West Bank compared to three months ago.\n\nSupporters of Hamas were still in a minority, but 70% of the respondents said armed struggle was the best means of ending the Israeli occupation.\n\nIsrael has carried out air strikes and land operations against targets in Gaza\n\nIsrael has come under growing international pressure over the scale of civilian casualties in Gaza, which Hamas-controlled authorities put at more than 19,400.\n\nThe same authorities claimed 110 people were killed on Sunday in Israeli air strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, which had been the largest settlement for displaced people prior to the current fighting.\n\nThe retaliatory Israeli offensive has seen much of northern Gaza damaged and 85% of the territory's 2.3 million population driven from their homes.\n\nOn Sunday, Lord Cameron signalled a shift in tone from the government by calling for a \"sustainable ceasefire\" - echoing a form of words Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used in the Commons last week.\n\nWriting in the Sunday Times, the foreign secretary said: \"Our goal cannot simply be an end to fighting today. It must be peace lasting for days, years, generations.\"\n\nSpeaking to reporters during a visit to Scotland on Monday, Mr Sunak called for Israel to respect humanitarian law, adding: \"It's clear that too many civilian lives have been lost and nobody wants to see this conflict go on a day longer than it has to.\"\n\nThe government has consistently stopped short of calling for a full ceasefire, saying it respects Israel's right to self-defence.\n\nThe Israeli military said it located a large underground tunnel constructed by Hamas on Sunday\n\nIsraeli government spokesman Eylon Levy pushed back against Mr Wallace's criticism, describing his choice of words as \"unfortunate language\".\n\nHe told the BBC said allowing Hamas to \"literally get away with murder\" would be more likely to radicalise people than Israel's military tactics.\n\nHowever, Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, accused the Israeli army of normalising \"the mass murder of children, [and] women\" and \"the mass destruction of hospitals, schools, churches, mosques\".", "Sellafield is widely regarded as Western Europe's most hazardous nuclear site\n\nThe chief executive of Sellafield has hit back at reports that computer systems at the nuclear site in Cumbria have been hacked.\n\nEuan Hutton told the BBC there was no evidence of Sellafield's IT networks having been targeted by groups linked to foreign governments.\n\nHe also rejected allegations of serious safety failings at the plant.\n\nMr Hutton was responding to claims in a series of articles published in the Guardian earlier this month.\n\nSellafield, a sprawling facility on the Cumbrian coast, is widely regarded as Western Europe's most hazardous nuclear site.\n\nIn the past, its activities included generating electricity and reprocessing spent fuel. Now it is mainly used for the treatment and storage of nuclear waste.\n\nIt employs 11,000 people - many of whom are engaged in maintaining or decommissioning redundant buildings and equipment.\n\nIt is also home to the UK's civil plutonium stockpile, with 140 tonnes of the material stored there. Security is extremely tight.\n\nEuan Hutton said there was \"absolutely no evidence\" of any kind of attack\n\nEarlier this month, the Guardian reported that Sellafield's IT systems had been hacked into \"by cyber groups linked to Russia and China\".\n\nIt suggested that those networks had been infected with malware, potentially compromising crucial information about the plant's most sensitive activities.\n\nBut in an exclusive BBC interview, Mr Hutton said there was \"absolutely no evidence\" of any kind of attack, whether from state actors or elsewhere.\n\n\"We've got very robust multi-layer protection systems that would indicate if anything like that had happened,\" he said.\n\n\"We also have a 24/7-staffed cyber-security operations centre. And their job is to protect the system, to monitor the system to ensure that that never happens.\"\n\nAsked whether he could categorically reassure the public that there had been no hack, he replied: \"Yes, because our systems would indicate if there had been, and there has not.\"\n\nThe Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), which oversees the industry, agreed there was no evidence Sellafield's networks had been penetrated by state actors.\n\nBut in a statement, it added: \"Sellafield Ltd is currently not meeting the high standards that we require in cyber security, which is why we have placed them under significantly enhanced attention.\"\n\nAsked whether he accepted there were weaknesses in Sellafield's cyber-defences, Mr Hutton replied: \"Yes, because we've agreed with the regulator a plan to improve and eradicate those weaknesses.\"\n\nAn open-air pond at Sellafield still contains hundreds of tonnes of waste\n\nThe plant operator has also come under fire over the safety risks posed by some of its ageing facilities, two of them in particular.\n\nThe first is a vast, open-air pond, built in the 1950s to store and cool used nuclear fuel. It still contains hundreds of tonnes of waste, along with a large quantity of radioactive sludge, accumulated over decades.\n\nAlthough efforts to clean up the pond are under way, using a variety of robot submarines, concerns have been expressed for years about cracks in its ageing concrete structure and the potential consequences of an accident.\n\n\"It's an open-air pond that does have a number of cracks,\" Mr Hutton admitted.\n\n\"But we know where all of those cracks are, we monitor those cracks, or operators check those. And we understand what we would do should they get worse.\"\n\nThe second building is a giant storage silo, used to store some 11,000 cubic metres of highly radioactive scrap. It has been leaking contaminated water into the ground for several years, but because the leak is deep underground and inaccessible, it cannot be repaired.\n\nSellafield's solution is to empty the silo, and take the waste away for storage elsewhere. But this is a painstaking process, carried out by operators using a remote grab from behind a protective thick leaded-glass window. It is expected to take many years.\n\nMr Hutton insisted action was being taken as rapidly as possible.\n\n\"We are straining every sinew to accelerate safely what we have to do to stop the leak, and the best way to do that is to remove the waste safely,\" he said.\n\nHe insisted safety concerns were \"absolutely not\" being ignored or swept under the carpet.\n\nHe also rejected allegations that a toxic and potentially dangerous workplace culture of bullying, sexual harassment and drug taking existed on site.\n\nThis is not the first time such accusations have been levelled at the company.\n\nBut Mr Hutton said that while he did not deny historic concerns, he did not recognise \"the description that has been put out there\".\n\n\"That is not the company I work for. And those are not the people I work with. We do not accept bullying, harassment or racist behaviour,\" he said.\n\nNevertheless, the reports have clearly reignited longstanding concerns about Sellafield.\n\nTwo weeks ago, the Energy Secretary, Claire Coutinho, told the ONR that the allegations regarding cyber-security, safety and workplace culture were serious and required urgent attention.\n\nThe GMB union has also written to Ms Coutinho, suggesting that the allegations \"came as no surprise\" to its members.\n\nLabour's shadow energy security and net zero secretary Ed Miliband called on the government to \"provide assurances\" about the plant.", "Russell Brand has been questioned by Metropolitan Police for the second time in relation to a further six allegations of historical sex offences, the BBC understands.\n\nIt is understood he was interviewed under caution on 14 December.\n\nAn investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4's Dispatches revealed allegations of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse against the British comedian and actor.\n\nThe Met said a man in his 40s attended a police station in south London on 14 December. He was first questioned by police on 16 November over three other claims.\n\nThe force said the man has now \"been questioned in relation to nine alleged offences\".\n\nIt said inquiries were continuing.\n\nThe story was first reported in The Times.\n\nIn September the Met said it would investigate allegations of \"non-recent\" sexual offences, after receiving a number of allegations.\n\nAt the time, it was encouraging anyone who believed they may have been a victim of a sexual offence to contact them, \"no matter how long ago it was\".\n\nEarlier that month, the Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches programme said four women had accused comedian and actor Brand, 48, of sexual offences, including a rape, alleged to have taken place between 2006 and 2013.\n\nThe investigation claimed he had also behaved inappropriately at work, and displayed predatory and controlling behaviour.\n\nDuring that time, Brand held several jobs, including at Channel 4 and BBC Radio 2.\n\nThe BBC has approached Brand for comment but has not yet heard back.\n\nHe has previously said his relationships have \"always\" been consensual.\n\nThe day before the investigation was published online in September, Brand, 48, shared a video on social media.\n\nIn it, he denied \"serious criminal allegations\" he said were to be made against him, and said his relationships \"were absolutely, always consensual\".\n\nFollowing the allegations of \"non-recent\" sexual offences reported to the Met later that month, Brand put out another video in which he was critical of the mainstream media but did not directly address the claims against him.", "Streaming platform Twitch has been forced to abandon a loosening of its policy on sexual content because it led to a flood of AI-generated nudity.\n\nIt announced on Wednesday that more adult content was to be allowed, as long as it was deemed artistic.\n\nThat prompted a torrent of digitally generated nudes, and by Friday the firm announced a U-turn.\n\n\"Upon reflection, we have decided that we went too far with this change,\" CEO Dan Clancy said in a statement.\n\nHe said some of the imagery that had been allowed under the new guidelines was \"met with community concern\".\n\n\"Moving forward, depictions of real or fictional nudity won't be allowed on Twitch, regardless of the medium,\" he added\n\nLast week Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, issued a lengthy sexual content policy update to allow previously banned content, including:\n\nThe primary change involved the requirement for content creation labels on certain streams. Viewers were to provide consent before watching such a stream.\n\nMr Clancy said the issue had proven more complex than initially envisaged.\n\n\"Digital depictions of nudity present a unique challenge - artificial intelligence can be used to create realistic images, and it can be hard to distinguish between digital art and photography.\"\n\nThe decision came after an outpouring of concern online from Twitch's art community about the volume of AI-generated nudes which began to bombard Twitch's art category since the policy change.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Lunareth This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe only exception remains \"incidental nudity\" that appears in mature-rated games.\n\n\"While I wish we would have predicted this outcome, part of our job is to make adjustments that serve the community,\" wrote Mr Clancy.\n\n\"I apologize for the confusion that this update has caused.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Luton\n\nLuton Town captain Tom Lockyer is still in hospital and undergoing \"tests and scans\" after suffering a cardiac arrest on the pitch during Saturday's Premier League match at Bournemouth.\n\nLuton said Lockyer \"is awaiting the results before the next steps for his recovery are determined\".\n\nBoth sets of players were taken off midway through the second half as Lockyer received medical treatment.\n\nThe game at the Vitality Stadium was eventually abandoned.\n\nThe 29-year-old was responsive as he was carried off on a stretcher to applause and taken to hospital.\n\nOn Saturday, Luton said Lockyer was \"stable and currently undergoing further tests\".\n\nA day later the club provided an update, saying, \"We understand that supporters are concerned for him and that there is widespread media interest in his condition,\" before adding that updates on the player \"will be released via the club's official channels when the time is right\".\n\n\"We all want the very best for Tom, his partner Taylor and the whole Lockyer family, and politely ask that his and their privacy is respected at this difficult time.\"\n\nFollowing confirmation the game was abandoned on Saturday, both the Luton and Bournemouth players came back out on to the pitch to applaud the supporters, with Hatters manager Rob Edwards visibly emotional.\n\nLockyer collapsed during the play-off final win against Coventry in May and was taken to hospital.\n\nHe subsequently had heart surgery and was given the all-clear to return to playing in June.\n\nThe Premier League said in a statement: \"The match between AFC Bournemouth and Luton Town FC has been abandoned due to a player medical incident.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with Tom Lockyer and all players involved in today's match.\"\n\nLuton called for players, staff and supporters \"to come together\" in support of Lockyer and his family.\n\n\"We are sorry to all supporters present that players from both sides were in no state of mind to continue with the game after seeing their much-loved team-mate and friend taken off like that and staff could not carry on with managing the game in such circumstances,\" Luton said.\n\n\"We thank everyone for the wonderful applause and singing of Locks' [Lockyer's] name inside the stadium at such a difficult time.\"\n\nBournemouth responded to Luton's update on Lockyer's condition, saying: \"We're relieved to hear Tom is responsive.\"\n\nThe club added: \"Our thoughts will continue to be with Tom and his family at this time. We'd like to thank all the medical staff for their quick action as well as everyone inside the stadium for their support and unity during a difficult moment.\"\n• None Our coverage of Luton Town is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Hatters - go straight to all the best content", "Pope Francis said people being blessed did not require \"moral perfection\"\n\nPope Francis has allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, a significant advance for LGBT people in the Roman Catholic Church.\n\nThe leader of the Roman Catholic Church said priests should be permitted to bless same-sex and \"irregular\" couples, under certain circumstances.\n\nBut the Vatican said blessings should not be part of regular Church rituals or related to civil unions or weddings.\n\nIt added that it continues to view marriage as between a man and a woman.\n\nPope Francis approved a document issued by the Vatican announcing the change on Monday. The Vatican said it should be a sign that \"God welcomes all\", but the document says priests must decide on a case-by-case basis.\n\nIntroducing the text, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Church, said that the new declaration remained \"firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage\".\n\nBut he added that in keeping with the Pope's \"pastoral vision\" of \"broadening\" the appeal of the Catholic Church, the new guidelines would allow priests to bless relationships still considered sinful.\n\nPeople receiving a blessing \"should not be required to have prior moral perfection\", according to the declaration.\n\nIn the Catholic Church, a blessing is a prayer or plea, usually delivered by a minister, asking for God to look favourably on the person or people being blessed.\n\nCardinal Fernández emphasised that the new stance does not validate the status of same-sex couples in the eyes of the Catholic Church.\n\nThe declaration represents a softening of tone from the Catholic Church, although not a change in position. In 2021, the Pope said priests could not bless same-sex marriages because God cannot \"bless sin\".\n\nPope Francis had suggested in October that he was open to having the Church bless same-sex couples.\n\nBishops in certain countries have previously allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, though the position of Church authorities remained unclear.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The BBC's Rushdi Abualouf says Mr Abudaqa \"would bring joy to any place\"\n\nThe funeral has been held of an Al Jazeera cameraman who was killed by an Israeli drone strike on Gaza.\n\nSamer Abudaqa was wounded in the strike on a school in Khan Younis on Friday along with his colleague, Wael Al-Dahdouh.\n\nAl Jazeera said Abudaqa bled to death because a heavy bombardment prevented paramedics from reaching him.\n\nThe Qatar-based network said it had referred the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC).\n\nPosting on X, formerly known as Twitter, Al Jazeera referred to Abudaqa's death as an \"assassination\", and said that its legal filing to the ICC would include repeated attacks on network crews working in the Palestinian territories.\n\nThe network said Abudaqa was its 13th journalist to die on duty since it was created in 1996.\n\nDahdouh, who lost several family members in an earlier Israeli bombing, survived the attack.\n\nDuring his eulogy at this colleague's funeral, Dahdouh said journalists in Gaza would \"continue to do our duty with professionalism and transparency\".\n\nHe said that journalists in Gaza were carrying a \"human and noble message\" for the world amid the ongoing war and would continue to work despite Israeli attacks.\n\nAccording to Al Jazeera, Dahdouh was hit by shrapnel on his upper arm and managed to walk to Nasser hospital for treatment.\n\nAbudaqa also suffered shrapnel injuries, but paramedics struggled reach him as the area was under heavy bombardment from Israeli forces.\n\nAl Jazeera said the cameraman was \"left to bleed to death for over five hours,\" adding it held Israel accountable for targeting its journalists and their families.\n\nAbudaqa joined Al Jazeera in June 2004, working as a cameraman and editor.\n\nHe had three sons and a daughter, and lived in the town of Abasan al-Kabira near Khan Younis.\n\nAl Jazeera's managing editor, Mohamed Moawad, described Abudaqa as \"a skilled professional but a compassionate soul who understood the power of visual storytelling\".\n\n\"His unwavering commitment to truth and storytelling has left an indelible mark on our team,\" he said on X.\n\nAccording to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 64 journalists - mostly Palestinians - have been killed since the Israel-Gaza conflict began on 7 October.\n\nThe Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents several hundred journalists working for international news organisations, said it grieved the cameraman's death. saying he was the first FPA member to be killed in the Israel-Gaza conflict.\n\n\"We consider this a grave blow to the already limited freedom of the press in Gaza and call on the army for a prompt investigation and explanation.\"", "Rory died in Salt Lake City, Utah, a week after his 23rd birthday\n\nA Scottish mother whose son was shot dead in the US has called for an end to the country's \"culture of hatred\".\n\nDetectives in Utah believe Rory Swimm was killed by a 15-year-old schoolboy who had been given a handgun by his grandfather as a gift.\n\nHis Glasgow-born mother Susan and his American father Robb want his death to lead to change.\n\nSusan said there was a culture of hatred among teenagers in the US, and that they needed to be educated to be kind.\n\nSpeaking from the family home in Colorado, she said the loss of 23-year-old Rory had devastated friends around the world.\n\n\"It's a tsunami of destruction that has spread to Scotland, to Switzerland, to Utah, to Seattle, to Washington, to Montana,\" she said.\n\n\"There's a lack of culpability in America. It's totally fine that you can go out and shoot somebody because it happens all the time here.\"\n\nShe says education needs to begin with young teenagers \"to be kind, to have empathy for other people\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Susan and Robb Swimm want something positive to come out of Rory's death\n\nSusan added: \"I've had to tell myself hundreds of times a day that Rory's been murdered, that Rory's not going to come home, that my wee boy is dead because somebody shot him.\n\n\"I don't believe for a single minute that we can change any of the gun laws in America, but I feel that today within the teenage youth there's a terrible culture of hatred.\n\n\"Instead of raising kids to be positive in society, they're being struck down by all the negativity that's out there.\"\n\nShe said parents should be teaching their children empathy and love.\n\n\"I feel that it's become acceptable to be full of hate towards your peers in this country,\" she added.\n\nRory, a dual UK/US citizen born in Dundee, died in Salt Lake City in Utah in October - a week after his 23rd birthday.\n\nHis parents' grief has been compounded by anger after they discovered more about the 15-year-old accused of his murder.\n\nAt a memorial service attended by hundreds of people on 21 October, Susan Swimm's American husband Robb asked mourners to cry out a single word: \"Why?\"\n\nThey want something positive to come out of his death, no matter how impossible that might seem in a country so divided over gun control and gun rights.\n\nRobb told BBC Scotland News: \"It may not be the biggest story or the worst or the most tragic, but it's only because a gun was involved that there was a murder.\"\n\nRory, seen here with his sister Maggie, was a passionate skier and snowboarder\n\nThe incident began with an early morning argument between Rory and his friends and three teenagers outside a 7-Eleven convenience store.\n\nAccording to court papers detailing the investigation by the Salt Lake City Police Department, the two groups hadn't even reached the stage of exchanging blows when a single shot was fired, hitting Rory in the chest.\n\nHis friends Jimmy Ledford and Will Griffith later showed Rory's parents where he died.\n\nJimmy told them: \"When the paramedics were trying to figure out what was wrong with him, they lifted up his shirt and that's when we saw the bullet hole in his chest.\"\n\nDetectives say they found a spent 9mm shell casing 100ft (30m) away.\n\nThey used video footage to trace the 15-year-old at his home and discovered a 9mm handgun in a safe in his bedroom.\n\nJimmy Ledford and Will Griffith were with Rory when he was shot\n\nThe police report said the 15-year-old's grandfather told them he had given the teenager the weapon as a present and took him shooting almost weekly.\n\nThe suspect is said to have told his friends that he had \"shot into the air\" instead of aiming.\n\nUnder Utah law, he can't be named because of his age.\n\nRory's parents moved from Scotland to the States when he was six weeks old.\n\nHe grew up to be a passionate skier and skateboarder. His family said they would always remember his wild stunts and acrobatics, and ear-to-ear grin.\n\nEvery year Rory returned to visit relatives in Scotland. His older brother lives in Glasgow.\n\nRory Swimm (front centre) with family and friends on their annual Scottish trip to the village of Elie in Fife\n\nAt the time of his death, Rory was the 14th killing in Salt Lake City in 2023.\n\nUtah has one of the lowest homicide rates in the United States but it's still twice that of the UK's.\n\n\"There's a gun culture in Utah specifically that we're looking to expose,\" said Robb.\n\n\"The biggest tragedy is this was so preventable in so many ways.\"\n\nHe talks of a boycott of America over its gun laws, like the boycott of South Africa over apartheid.\n\n\"I don't want my son to just be a statistic, I want him to be remembered in a way that's positive,\" he said.\n\n\"The repercussions of this little act of a finger pulling a trigger ripples in so many directions.\"\n\nRory's family placed a memorial wreath at the scene where he was shot\n\nThe Swimms said a court hearing in January may determine whether the teenager is tried as a juvenile or an adult, a decision which will have a major impact on potential sentences if he's convicted. Either way, the death penalty would not apply.\n\nThe teenager has also been charged with illegal possession of the handgun. He has not yet entered a plea or made public his defence.\n\nAllison Anderman from the Gifford Law Centre, a US gun control campaign group, said: \"It is not illegal for someone to buy a gun as a bona fide gift for someone else.\n\n\"It seems as though, in Utah, the grandfather could have legally purchased the firearm for his grandson, provided the gun was used only as allowed under state law.\"\n\nRobb Swimm wants it made illegal to buy a firearm for someone aged under 18 or, failing that, for new restrictions on where weapons given to teenagers can be stored.\n\n\"I want to see if we can shake the tree a little bit with this,\" said Robb.\n\n\"I want this whole city of Salt Lake to know who Rory Swimm was. I want everybody in this country to know who Rory Swimm was. And that he got stolen from us, by one bullet.\"", "International calls for a ceasefire in Gaza have been growing with the UN passing a non-binding resolution on Wednesday\n\nJust getting to the end of the day and surviving the night must feel like a miracle in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians \"plead for safety\", wrote Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the main UN relief agency in Gaza, in an \"endless, deepening tragedy… hell on earth\".\n\nIt must be just as hellish for the hostages taken by Hamas and for the families of their victims. War is a cruel furnace that puts humans through terrible agonies. But its heat can produce changes that seemed impossible.\n\nIt happened in western Europe after World War Two. Old enemies who had killed each other for centuries chose peace. Will the war in Gaza shock Israelis and Palestinians into ending their century of conflict over the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan river?\n\n18,600 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry\n\nI've been watching a video of a woman wracked by grief, sitting next to the body of her husband, Muhammad Abu Shaar. As Israel and Egypt are not allowing journalists to enter Gaza, I have not met her. I haven't been able to find out her name, which was not posted alongside those of her dead husband and children.\n\nIn the video, it is as if she hopes, somehow, that the power of her grief will bring him back.\n\n\"I swear, we promised to die together. You died and left me. What are we supposed to do, God? Muhammad, get up! For God's sake my beloved, I swear to God, I love you. For God's sake get up. Our children Nour and Aboud are here with you. Get up.\"\n\nThe two children were with their father because all three of them had just been killed by Israel. An air strike destroyed the house they were hoping would shelter them in Rafah.\n\nYonatan Zeigan (left) quit his job to campaign for peace after his mother, well-known peace activist Vivian Silver (centre), was killed by Hamas on 7 October\n\nI visited Yonatan Zeigen at his flat in Tel Aviv. It was a comfortable home, full of his children's toys. Among the family photos I recognised his mother, Vivian Silver, who was one of Israel's leading campaigners for peace with the Palestinians. Vivian was in the family home in kibbutz Be'eri, on the border with Gaza, when Hamas attacked on 7 October.\n\nThe first time I met Yonatan, in the days after their kibbutz was attacked, he was hoping his mother had been taken into Gaza as a hostage.\n\nWhen he heard the air raid sirens in Tel Aviv, he rang Vivian. They switched to WhatsApp as they heard gunfire and explosions in the kibbutz, hoping that if she made no noise, Hamas would bypass the house.\n\nHe read out the texts they exchanged, first some black humour and suddenly serious and full of love as she realised a massacre was happening.\n\n\"She wrote me, they're inside the house, it's time to stop joking and say goodbye,\" he tells me.\n\n\"And I wrote back that 'I love you, Mum. I have no words, I'm with you'. Then she writes, 'I feel you'. And then that was it, that's the last message.\"\n\nA drawing by Vivian's grandchildren reads, \"I am afraid my grandma will die\"\n\nThe next day, I visited her house in the kibbutz and saw it was burnt out. It took weeks for investigators to find Vivian Silver's remains in the ash left behind in the safe room. Yonatan has given up his career as a social worker to campaign for peace.\n\n\"They came into my country and killed my mother because we didn't have peace. So, to me, this just proves the point that we need it,\" he says.\n\n\"It could go either way. Catastrophes like this create changes in societies in the world. And I believe that it can lead to a better future.\"\n\nActivist Issa Amro says life for Palestinians in the West Bank has become much harder since October 7\n\nIssa Amro is a Palestinian activist in Hebron in the West Bank. The city is holy to Muslims and Jews, who revere it as the burial place of the prophet Abraham. It has been a flashpoint for decades.\n\nIssa is well known in Hebron and considered a troublemaker by Israeli soldiers who have enforced a curfew on Palestinians who live near the Jewish settlement in the heart of the city. He told me he was detained and beaten after the 7 October attacks.\n\nPalestinian activist Issa Amro told the BBC his hands were bound so tightly when he was detained by the IDF on October 7 that it cut off his circulation\n\nLike Yonatan Zeigen in Tel Aviv, Issa Amro believes that the war could produce a chance for Israelis and Palestinians to lead better and safer lives.\n\n\"I think it's two opportunities. Either we choose to make it deeper and worse, or we make it as an opportunity to solve the conflict and to solve the occupation, to solve the apartheid and make living together possible because the security solution failed… only peace is the solution.\"\n\nIt might seem a long way off now, and many more people are going to be killed before it happens, but like every war this one will stop.\n\nAll the wars in and around Gaza since Hamas seized control there in 2007 have ended the same way, with a ceasefire deal. The ceasefires all came with a fatal flaw that guaranteed the next war between Israel and Hamas. That was because no attempt was made to end a century of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.\n\nThe killing and destruction in this war are of such a different order that no one can pretend there is any kind of normality to restore. This time it must be different. That much is accepted by Palestinians and Israelis and the outside powers that matter the most.\n\nThe problem is agreeing which future to try to create. The Israeli government is heading for a diplomatic row with the United States, its most important ally, about what happens after the ceasefire.\n\nPresident Joe Biden is exasperated by what he called Israel's \"indiscriminate bombing\" of Gaza. Even so, he continues to back Israel, as he has since the start of the war, by deploying aircraft carriers, sending planeloads of weapons and vetoing ceasefire resolutions at the UN Security Council.\n\nIn return, Joe Biden wants Israel to agree that the only way forward is revive talks to establish an independent Palestinian state. That was the objective of the Oslo peace process, which failed after years of negotiations.\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not said much about how Gaza would be governed if and when he declares victory over Hamas. But he has rejected Joe Biden's plan.\n\nOne constant in Netanyahu's long political career has been opposition to the independent Palestinian state that Oslo tried and failed to produce.\n\nTotal victory and the unconditional surrender of anyone left alive in Hamas remain Israel's objectives. Annihilating Hamas, Mr Netanyahu believes, is the only way to rescue the hostages.\n\nA few hours before Mr Biden said Israel's bombing was indiscriminate, Mr Netanyahu made his own speech.\n\n\"I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo,\" he said. \"After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism. Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan.\"\n\nFatahstan is a derogatory reference to the Palestinian Authority, the rival to Hamas, which recognises Israel and co-operates with it on security.\n\nIsraeli domestic politics feed into Mr Netanyahu's calculations. Opinion polls indicate that many Israelis blame him for the intelligence and security failures that allowed Hamas to break into Israel with such force. By doubling down on his opposition to Palestinian self-determination, Mr Netanyahu is trying to regain the trust of the right-wing Jewish nationalists who support his government.\n\n1200 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October, including from Kibbutz Be'eri\n\nYonatan Zeigen, the son of the slain peace campaigner Vivian Silver, says his mother would have been heartbroken to see the war, believing that wars cause more wars.\n\n\"I think she would have said 'not in my name'… a war, if we're not too naïve, should be a means, right? But it feels like this war is a cause in itself, of revenge.\"\n\nYonatan senses a new opportunity, to put peace back on Israel's political agenda.\n\nPeace campaigners were prominent in Israel until they were discredited as an armed Palestinian uprising erupted after the Oslo process collapsed in 2000. The idea of peace with the Palestinians vanished from mainstream Israeli politics. Now, Yonatan hopes, it is inching its way back.\n\n\"Absolutely. You couldn't even say the word. And now people are talking about it.\"\n\nIssa Amro, the Palestinian activist in Hebron, told me life there is much harder for Palestinians since 7 October.\n\n\"It got much worse. Ten times worse. More restrictions. More violence. More intimidation. People don't feel safe at all. People don't have enough food to eat. People don't get any access to a social life. No schools, no kindergartens, no work. It's a collective punishment inside an area which is very restricted.\"\n\nFormer Palestinian shops in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron\n\nIssa got into a verbal spat with a group of Israeli soldiers while we were walking with him through the centre of Hebron. One of them, in combat gear, with an assault rifle and large pistol in a holster, wearing a black mask that only exposed his eyes, listened closely as Issa told me that peace was the only way ahead as there was no military solution to the conflict. The soldier wouldn't give his name when he butted into the conversation.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"You don't know what it's like to grow up in Israel with neighbours like this,\" he said. \"Gay rights, they beat the women, I saw this with my eyes. Yes. They kill their daughters if they have an affair with someone they don't like. They [Palestinians] are violent. I know them, I live with them. They don't want peace… They hate me. You know I can feel it. I know all the stuff they are telling. I don't talk to them.\"\n\nA chance for a peaceful future, for an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel that the Americans, the British and many other countries say they want, will not emerge without sustained diplomatic and political will and determination.\n\nThe old Oslo format, of negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis brokered by the Americans, ended in failure.\n\nIf there is a next time, one idea mentioned by senior Western diplomats is to make Palestinian independence a crucial part of a broader package of change in the Middle East. Israel would be offered the prize of mutual recognition with Saudi Arabia, if they made the concessions necessary for Palestinian independence. Jordan and Egypt would be crucial players, as countries who have made lasting peace with Israel. Also vital would be Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, immensely wealthy Gulf states. Like the Saudis, they need peace in the Middle East as they spend hundreds of billions establishing themselves as global players.\n\nA blueprint already exists. Twenty years ago, the Saudi peace plan offered Israel full recognition and peace with Arab states, in return for a viable and sovereign Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, with a capital in East Jerusalem. It could be relaunched by extending the existing Abraham Accords between Israel and some Arab countries, but adding to it the price tag of a Palestinian state.\n\nIt is an ambitious idea, that would not happen without new Israeli and Palestinian leaders who believed in the project.\n\nThe Americans could mediate, though they would have to be even-handed, something they have never managed before. Both sides would have to be prepared to make painful compromises on cherished beliefs, especially concerning territory. Political storms would break over leaders prepared to take risks for peace.\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist in 1995 when he tried to make peace with the Palestinians. An Islamist extremist killed Egypt's President Anwar Sadat because he made peace with Israel.\n\nAnd the war in Gaza would have to end as soon as possible. If it spreads, nightmare scenarios include desperate Palestinians breaching the Egyptian border as Israeli tanks close in and the escalation into full-scale war of the current cross-border exchanges between Israel and the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah.\n\nSo much needs to go right for peace to have a chance. So much has already gone wrong that peace might just be impossible.", "Councils in England are warning they will struggle to balance their budgets next year, despite a rise in funding.\n\nThe government has announced they will have £64bn to spend next year, assuming they all hike council tax by the maximum amount.\n\nMinisters argue this represents a 6.5% rise on this year and will account for rises in inflation.\n\nBut councils have warned they will still need to make cuts next year to cover rising costs.\n\nAuthorities also say they are struggling to cope with rising demand for services they legally have to provide, such as social care.\n\nSince 2020, seven councils have declared themselves effectively bankrupt after they were unable to balance their budgets, including three this year.\n\nThe provisional figures cover spending from April next year, and will now be consulted on before being finalised in February.\n\nIt includes an additional £2bn compared to this year, including £1bn for social care, which the government says will make an extra £3.9bn available, once assumed council tax rises are taken into account.\n\nThe government said this would be 6.5% more than the equivalent figure for this year, which it argued represented an \"above inflation increase\".\n\nIt added that this was because it is more than the 1.7% predicted inflation in the economy for next year, known as the GDP deflator, as calculated by official forecasters.\n\nHowever, the Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, said the settlement would not be enough to help authorities cope with \"severe cost and demand pressures\".\n\nIts chair, Cllr Shaun Davies, said it would leave councils with a £2bn funding gap over the next two years and leave services \"exposed to further cuts\".\n\nCllr Barry Lewis, finance spokesperson for the County Councils Network, said the larger, more rural authorities the group represents would find the allocation \"bitterly disappointing\".\n\nHe added that councils would \"have no choice\" but to raise council tax and reduce services - which he called a \"double whammy\" for residents.\n\nThe government also confirmed that Thurrock, Slough and Woking - three of the councils that have effectively gone bust in recent years - will be able to raise council tax by more than the usual 5% next year without holding a local vote.\n\nBut it said the 5% maximum for councils providing social care services would stay in place elsewhere, to protect people from \"excessive tax rises\".\n\nAfter a period of austerity which saw budgets cut, the government has increased the funding available to councils, including for this year and next.\n\nBut a combination of inflation and growing demand for services, particularly support for vulnerable adults and children, and housing services, has left many councils facing budget shortfalls.\n\nCouncils also say they will remain exposed to high rates of inflation this year for some time, since they will have determined the cost of a number of contracts that will continue into next year.\n\nLocal Government Secretary Michael Gove told MPs earlier this month that all of the councils to declare effective bankruptcy so far have shown a \"direct linkage\" with poor leadership.\n\nBut he acknowledged: \"It may be the case in the future that some local authorities that have been relatively well managed will face particularly acute pressures\".\n\nLabour accused the government of a \"reckless\" approach to local council funding, calling the settlement a \"prime example of sticking plaster politics\".\n\nShadow local government minister Jim McMahon said his party would help authorities \"foster local growth\" and would also introduce longer funding settlements.", "Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood in a scene from the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring\n\nA fan fiction writer has been sued by the estate of JRR Tolkien for copyright after publishing his own sequel to The Lord of the Rings.\n\nUS-based author Demetrious Polychron published a book called The Fellowship of the King in 2022.\n\nHe dubbed it \"the pitch-perfect sequel to The Lord of the Rings.\"\n\nThe court ruled that Polychron must stop distributing copies of the book and destroy all physical and electronic copies.\n\nIn April 2023 Polychron attempted to sue the Tolkein estate and Amazon, claiming the TV series, Rings of Power, infringed the copyright in his book.\n\nThe case was dismissed after the judge ruled that Polychron's own book was infringing on Amazon's prequel that was released in September 2022.\n\nThe Tolkien Estate then filed a separate lawsuit against Polychron for an injunction to stop The Fellowship of the King from being further distributed.\n\nOn Thursday Judge Steven V Wilson called the lawsuit \"frivolous and unreasonably filed\" and granted the permanent injunction, preventing him from selling his book and any other planned sequels, of which there were six.\n\nThe court also awarded lawyer's fees totalling $134,000 (£106,000) to the Tolkien Estate and Amazon in connection with Polychron's lawsuit.\n\nThe estate's UK solicitor, Steven Maier of Maier Blackburn, said: \"This is an important success for the Tolkien Estate, which will not permit unauthorised authors and publishers to monetise JRR Tolkien's much-loved works in this way.\n\n\"This case involved a serious infringement of The Lord of the Rings copyright, undertaken on a commercial basis, and the estate hopes that the award of a permanent injunction and attorneys' fees will be sufficient to dissuade others who may have similar intentions.\"\n\nEarlier this year it was confirmed by Warner Bros that more Lord of the Rings films are on the way over the next few years.\n\nWork on the second series of Amazon's TV show began in October.\n\nThe BBC has tried to contact Demetrious Polychron for comment.", "An asylum seeker who died while being held on board the Bibby Stockholm barge was a 27-year-old Albanian named Leonard Farruku, BBC News understands.\n\nHis body was found on the vessel, which is moored off Portland in Dorset, on 12 December.\n\nThe barge, which is capable of housing 500 men awaiting asylum decisions, first came into use in August.\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly has said the death would be \"fully investigated\".\n\nMr Farruku's death has led to calls for an independent investigation from campaigners, who have also raised wider concerns about conditions on the barge.\n\nRefugee charity Care4Calais held a vigil for the man at the port earlier this week.\n\nThe Telegraph, which first reported Mr Farruku's identity, said he had paid almost £3,500 to travel to the UK across the Channel in a small boat.\n\nBBC News has spoken to asylum seekers who said Mr Farruku was heard shouting in a corridor in the hours before his body was found.\n\nThey claimed he was confronted by security staff in the early hours of the morning after loudly making complaints about conditions on the Bibby Stockholm.\n\nWhen asked about those claims earlier this week, a Home Office spokesperson said it took its responsibility for the well-being of those on board incredibly seriously.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"This will now be investigated by the police and coroner. It is right that the facts and circumstances surrounding this death are established.\"\n\nPlans to use a barge to house asylum seekers were announced as a way of cutting the government's £8m a day bill for private hotel accommodation.\n\nLast week, the Home Office's top civil servant Sir Matthew Rycroft told MPs in a letter that the cost of the Bibby Stockholm contract was £22,450,772.\n\nHe said a \"value for money assessment\" is under way to break down the cost of housing someone on the barge for a night.\n\nConditions on the Bibby Stockholm came under scrutiny days after the first asylum seekers were moved on board when the bacteria Legionella was discovered in the water supply.\n\nThe barge had to be emptied but began being used again around two months later.", "A new peer’s introduction to the House of Lords was briefly sidelined when a mobile phone’s ringtone went off.\n\nAs Robbie Douglas-Miller was being sworn in, the well-known tune from the Mission Impossible films was heard in the House of Lords.", "Stephen McKinney had denied murdering his wife in 2017\n\nA man who murdered his wife during a boating holiday in County Fermanagh has lost an appeal against his conviction.\n\nStephen McKinney was jailed for a minimum of 20 years for murdering 35-year-old Lu Na McKinney in April 2017.\n\nHer body was recovered from Lough Erne near a jetty at Devenish Island, where the couple were moored on a hire cruiser with their two young children.\n\nMcKinney, 47, who is originally from Strabane, was seeking to overturn his conviction and challenge the sentence.\n\nHe claimed his wife fell into the water while on deck to check mooring ropes and that he tried to save her.\n\nBut in 2021 a jury at Dungannon Crown Court found him guilty of his wife's murder after accepting the prosecution case that it was not a boating accident.\n\nAt the Court of Appeal in June McKinney's lawyers advanced a number of grounds in his attempt to have the verdict declared unsafe.\n\nThe prosecution argued he was convicted after an \"overwhelmingly strong case\" was presented to the jury.\n\nThe three appeal court judges listened to the recording of the 999 calls McKinney made on the night his wife drowned which were played during his trial.\n\nThey considered seven grounds of appeal that his conviction was unsafe but these were all rejected.\n\nIn dismissing the appeal, Mr Justice O'Hara said they had not been persuaded by any of the grounds advanced on behalf of McKinney.\n\nHe said the crown court judge had shown skill and care in the many legal rulings she made and her analysis of the evidence during a lengthy and complex trial.\n\n\"Having rejected the grounds of appeal individually we conclude by recording our view that even taken collectively there is nothing in this appeal which makes us doubt the safety of the jury's verdict,\" he said.\n\nA further hearing will take place in the new year to consider an appeal against the length of his sentence.", "A new type of non-hormonal menopause treatment has been approved in the UK, for hot flushes and night sweats.\n\nThe daily pill, Veoza - or fezolinetant - works on the brain's temperature-control centre to alleviate these symptoms.\n\nUp to 80% of women going through the menopause experiences them, experts estimate, although not all will want to take medication for it.\n\nThe drug has not yet been recommended for the NHS to prescribe though.\n\nThat requires a review by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, expected next year.\n\nMenopause is a normal, natural change, usually between the ages of 45 and 55.\n\nAs women approach the menopause - when their periods permanently stop - their levels of the hormone oestrogen fluctuate and drop, which can cause problematic symptoms.\n\nThe body can think it is overheating, for example.\n\nVeoza helps with this by blocking a protein in the brain called neurokinin B, involved in regulating temperature.\n\nBut unlike hormone replacement therapy (HRT), it will not alleviate other menopausal symptoms such as mood changes or vaginal dryness.\n\nJulian Beach, from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said: \"Hot flushes and night sweats caused by menopause are common and can have a significant impact on a woman's daily life.\n\n\"No medicine would be approved unless it met our expected standards of safety, quality and effectiveness and we continue to keep the safety of all medicines under close review.\"\n\nThe menopause - and the years leading up to it - affect women in different ways.\n\nFalling levels of oestrogen affect the brain, periods, skin, muscles and emotions.\n\nAre you going through the menopause? What do you think about the latest non-hormonal treatment? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Spectacular helicopter shots show the eruption on the island's coast\n\nPollution from a volcano that erupted on Monday could hit Iceland's capital, the country's meteorological office has said.\n\nThe eruption, which broke out on the Reykjanes peninsula of south-west Iceland, comes after weeks of intense earthquakes and tremors.\n\nFumes could reach Reykjavik by Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning.\n\nAbout 4,000 people were evacuated last month from Grindavik, a fishing town threatened by the lava flow.\n\nA resident living near Grindavik described \"crazy\" and \"scary\" scenes on Monday night and said she could still see the volcano exploding on Tuesday.\n\nIceland has been braced for volcanic activity for weeks. Since late October, the region around Reykjavik has been experiencing an increase in earthquake activity.\n\nThe eruption can be seen from Reykjavik, which is about 42km north-east of Grindavik.\n\nAn eyewitness in the capital told the BBC that half of the sky in the direction of the town was \"lit up in red\" from the eruption, and smoke could be seen billowing into the air.\n\nOn Tuesday, British tourists Amrit and Peter, a married couple in their 20s, took selfies with the bright orange lava in the background.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Peter said: \"We are not scared at all, the Icelandic authorities are handling this well and keep giving us information. We feel totally safe.\"\n\nIn 2010, a volcanic eruption caused an ash plume to rise several kilometres into the atmosphere, leading to several days of air travel disruption in Europe.\n\nVolcanologist Dr Evgenia Ilyinskaya told the BBC that there would not be the same level of disruption as 2010, as these volcanoes in south-west Iceland were \"physically not able to generate the same ash clouds\".\n\nSpeaking from Iceland, Dr Ilyinskaya, associate professor of volcanology at Leeds University, said local people had been both \"fearing and waiting for\" the volcano to erupt.\n\nShe added that authorities were preparing for potential lava flows that could destroy homes and infrastructure, including the Blue Lagoon, a popular tourist destination.\n\n\"At the moment it seems not to be threatening, although it remains to be seen,\" she said.\n\nThe Icelandic Met Office said at 12:30 GMT on Tuesday that the power of the eruption was decreasing, but that gases from the volcano could still reach Reykjavik.\n\nAoalheiour Halldorsdottir, who lives in Sandgeroi - about 20km from Grindavik - said she had seen the eruption from her home.\n\n\"It was crazy to see it with my own eyes. We have had volcano explosions before, but this was the first time I got really scared,\" she told BBC News.\n\n\"We're used to volcanoes [erupting], but this was crazy.\"\n\nShe said there was some \"panic\" on Monday night, and that she had bought extra supplies of water, but that things had largely returned to normal on Tuesday.\n\n\"I'm at work now and I can still see it. I can see the lights in the sky,\" she said.\n\nHans Vera was evacuated from Grindavik last month, but hoped before Monday's eruption to return home for Christmas.\n\nBut he said: \"I don't see that in the future they will let people get close to Grindavik - so we are back in the waiting game.\"\n\nIceland's foreign minister, Bjarni Benediktsson said on X, formerly Twitter, that \"there are no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland, and international flight corridors remain open\".\n\n\"The jets [of lava] are quite high, so it appears to be a powerful eruption at the beginning,\" he said.\n\nImages and videos posted on social media showed lava bursting from the volcano just an hour after an earthquake swarm - a series of seismic events - was detected.\n\nPolice have warned people to stay away from the area.\n\nThe length of the crack in the volcano is about 3.5km, with the lava flowing at a rate of around 100 to 200 cubic metres per second, the Met Office said, adding that this was many times more than recent eruptions on the Reykjanes peninsula.\n\nIceland's Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir said defences recently constructed would have a positive effect.\n\nShe said her thoughts were with the local community and she was hoping for the best despite the \"significant event\".\n\nPresident Gudni Johannesson said safeguarding lives was the main priority but that every effort would be made to protect structures too.\n\nAbout 4,000 people were evacuated from the fishing town of Grindavik last month\n\nAre you in Iceland? What can you see? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Footage shows the moment a landslide swept down a mountainside into Lake Garda, Italy.\n\nThe landslide created large waves and disrupted traffic on roads near the town of Tremosine.\n\nRescue teams were deployed to the scene, but Italian firefighters confirmed no one was injured in the incident.", "The disastrous incident in which Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops shot dead three Israeli hostages in Gaza on Friday, mistaking them for Hamas fighters despite their waving a white cloth, is a graphic illustration of the risks involved in armed hostage rescue.\n\nMaj Gen Charlie Herbert, a retired British Army general who served on 13 operational tours including Iraq and Afghanistan, told the BBC: \"As desperately sad as it is, the shooting dead of the three hostages... again calls into question IDF tactics, proportionality and distinction. One can only imagine how many civilians have been killed in similar circumstances.\"\n\nThe IDF says it takes great care to avoid harming civilians, but the horrific death toll in Gaza - more than 18,000 and rising - has caused Israel to be accused of indiscriminate bombing.\n\nIn nearly every case of kidnap in history, those abducted stand a far better chance of emerging alive and unscathed through mediation and a deal, rather than by armed intervention.\n\nOne of the first hostage cases I covered was when Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in Yemen abducted 16 Western tourists in 1998. The British ambassador went to see the interior minister to press for a negotiated release of the hostages. Too late, he was told, the Yemeni army has already gone in. A quarter of those kidnapped were killed in the ensuing firefight, with others injured.\n\nWestern and Israeli special forces have spent decades perfecting the art of hostage rescue, but even then it doesn't always go to plan. Israel's Operation Thunderbolt in Entebbe, Uganda in 1976 rescued 102 of the 106 hostages, but the commander of the Israeli commandos was killed. Today his brother, Benjamin Netanyahu, is prime minister.\n\nKilled by the IDF by mistake: (L-R) Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka\n\nThe 1980 SAS siege of the Iranian embassy in London is perhaps the most iconic hostage rescue of modern times, as it took place in the full glare of the TV cameras.\n\nWhen a British journalist, Stephen Farrell, was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2009 he was rescued by British Special Forces. But the raid also resulted in the deaths of one of his rescuers, two civilians and his Afghan interpreter.\n\nThe following year a US Navy SEAL team attempted to rescue the British aid worker Linda Norgrove, also kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The raid killed her kidnappers but she died from a grenade thrown by one of her rescuers.\n\nIn 2012 a British Special Forces operation to free one British and one Italian hostage in Nigeria was ruined when one of the Nigerian soldiers fired his weapon prematurely, alerting the kidnappers who then murdered their captives.\n\nMany hostage cases in Yemen have been resolved peacefully over the years, usually through lengthy tribal negotiations accompanied by interminable narcotic qat-chewing sessions. But ultimately, much depends on the demands and intentions of the kidnappers.\n\nIn the case of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State group (IS), the jihadist kidnappers never really had any intention of releasing their US and British captives. Instead they were aiming for maximum psychological impact by killing them on camera. In those situations, armed intervention, if they can be located, is usually the only option available.\n\nSharon Avigdori, seen hugging her husband, is among more than 100 hostages released after being abducted and taken to Gaza by Hamas\n\nHamas is something of a hybrid case. The atrocities committed in their raid into southern Israel on 7 October were gratuitously cruel and violent. Yet they have subsequently been willing to bargain the release of more than 100 hostages.\n\nToday, Israel's hostage relatives are all too aware that nearly all those already released won their freedom not by daring military action but by painstaking negotiations and mediation by Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States. To date, only one Israeli hostage, Private Ori Megedish, has been rescued by force.\n\nBut doing a deal with kidnappers, especially those considered by many governments to be terrorists, can be a bitter pill to swallow. Hostage-takers will demand something in return.\n\nIn the case of Hamas, that has meant releasing large numbers of prisoners from Israeli jails, pausing the fighting and significantly increasing the amount of aid getting into Gaza.\n\nYet any further successful return of the hostages, says Gen Herbert, can only come about through diplomatic means: \"There is no effective military solution to this issue in Gaza.\"", "Gail Bradbrook (addressing spectators) was joined by a group of supporters dressed as suffragettes for Monday's sentencing hearing\n\nThe co-founder of Extinction Rebellion has received a 15-month suspended jail sentence after a marathon legal battle over her breaking a pane of glass.\n\nDr Gail Bradbrook was convicted last month of causing more than £27,500 of damage to the Department for Transport.\n\nAt Isleworth Crown Court, Judge Martin Edmunds KC said Bradbrook had a conscientious motive but that did not excuse her actions.\n\nDuring the sentencing hearing, she accused judges of \"mansplaining\".\n\nBradbrook, from Stroud, Gloucestershire, was joined by a group of supporters dressed as suffragettes. In court, there was applause as the Extinction Rebellion (XR) activist finished her address to Judge Edmunds.\n\nIn October 2019, during XR's second major protest that brought traffic chaos to parts of central London, Bradbrook climbed on to an entrance canopy at the headquarters of the Department for Transport (DfT).\n\nShe used tools to break a large pane of reinforced security glass, which cost £27,660 to replace.\n\nDuring her police interview, she said she had been trying to stop crimes against humanity and \"had permission from nature\" to break the window.\n\nOver two trials she tried to make similar arguments despite being repeatedly directed not to do so by the judge because none of them amounted to a defence that a jury could consider.\n\nOn Monday, Bradbrook told Judge Edmunds: \"It can't be that there's compelling, objective evidence of a threat to life, and that's just completely irrelevant to the whole legal process.\n\n\"I know that is not what justice seeks to serve.\"\n\nBradbrook, pictured here causing criminal damage to the DfT window, could be jailed she commits another crime in the next 15 months\n\nBradbrook's case is one of scores linked to environmental protests since 2018 in which activists said damage, or serious disruption, caused as part of civil disobedience was legally justified.\n\nShe accused the courts in these cases of \"condescension\" and treating activists \"as if we were acting in good faith but slightly deranged\".\n\n\"I've had to listen to judges incorrectly characterising and, worse still, mansplaining the effectiveness of civil disobedience,\" she said.\n\nBecoming tearful, she concluded: \"God help us... life is being actively killed. We are compelled to act. The court systems of the UK are on trial, not myself.\n\n\"I wonder how history will judge this sentencing.\"\n\nJudge Edmunds said Bradbrook had \"actively sought\" prosecution to attract publicity, and had wrongly tried to tell the jury that her actions had been legally necessary.\n\n\"As a matter of law, that was certainly incorrect for damage on this scale,\" he said.\n\n\"I put it down to an echo chamber of misinformation and wishful thinking. In many pre-trial hearings you accepted that the law did not provide you with a defence. Yet throughout, you have sought to avoid those penalties [for damaging the window] rather than accept them.\"\n\nDr Gail Bradbrook is a high-profile member of Extinction Rebellion, whose mission statement is to create a culture that is \"healthy, resilient and adaptable\"\n\nEarlier this year the Court of Appeal ruled that judges hearing environmental protest cases should not evaluate the merits of the cause.\n\nIf a protester had been motivated by conscience, and the damage or disruption caused had not been excessive, judges were told to consider reducing the sentence.\n\nJudge Edmunds said that the damage and disruption caused by Bradbrook meant she would have normally have been jailed.\n\nBut taking into account the Court of Appeal ruling and wider personal factors he suspended Bradbrook's prison sentence, meaning she could leave court a free woman - but could be jailed if she commits another crime in the next 15 months.\n\nShe was also ordered to also carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "Strikes are being held on Friday and Saturday, with another day of action scheduled for 22 December\n\nPublic transport workers in Northern Ireland are staging a 48-hour strike in a dispute about pay.\n\nTrade unions Unite, GMB and Siptu are involved in the action on what is traditionally one of the busiest weekends before Christmas.\n\nTranslink has apologised for \"any inconvenience\" that will be caused.\n\nDr Graham Gault, from the National Association of Headteachers, said many hundreds of pupils could not attend school as a result of the strike.\n\nHe added there were additional impacts on school meals and school trips.\n\n\"The employers really should have settled this dispute long before now, thereby avoiding the widespread impacts across education,\" Dr Gault told BBC News NI.\n\nThe Education Authority said it was expecting \"significant disruption\" to school transport given the \"scale of the action\", which has affected bus, rail and Glider services.\n\nA further strike is also scheduled for 22 December.\n\nEamon Sturgeon, a bus driver on a picket line in Belfast, said workers felt they had \"no other option but to strike\".\n\n\"The support from the public is great, they understand that we deserve to be paid right,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bus and rail strikes: Why NI's public transport isn't running (in 109 seconds)\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has been engaged in talks with Stormont's largest parties this week about the restoration of the executive, with a £2.5bn financial package on offer from the UK government.\n\nThis would include provision for public sector pay increases.\n\nThe unions previously took strike action on 1 December.\n\nOn Friday, Davy Thompson from Unite said the action being taken is \"both proportionate and reasonable\".\n\nHe said that strike action is a \"very last resort\", adding: \"The secretary of state with the stroke of a pen could fix this.\"\n\nTranslink staff gathered at Belfast's Lanyon Place station to demonstrate over pay\n\nDamien Doherty, a bus driver in Londonderry, said on Friday: \"There isn't anybody standing on a picket line this morning that actually wants to be on a picket line, we've been forced out on to it.\"\n\nHe told BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster workers \"are sick to the back teeth of potential, we want concrete pay talks\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI at the picket line in Derry on Friday morning, Brian Warke, a bus driver at Pennyburn bus depot in the city, said his colleagues are struggling.\n\n\"People can't pay their mortgages,\" he said.\n\n\"We have been offered a zero per cent pay rise this year from April. And that's why we have had to make this decision today to come out together.\n\n\"We just need help here.\"\n\nBus driver Eamon Sturgeon in Belfast said workers had \"no other option but to strike\"\n\nDavid Shearer, a train conductor and union representative with SIPTU in Londonderry, added: \"We are frontline workers and have worked all through the Covid-19 pandemic and the government aren't taking us seriously.\"\n\nHe was joined by conductors, train signallers and porters on the picket line at the city's North West Transport Hub on Friday.\n\n\"I've been here from 06:30 this morning and we haven't had one complaint from anyone who missed a train or anyone walking past,\" he said.\n\nThe action has faced criticism from representatives of the hospitality and retail sectors as it falls during one of the most lucrative periods for both.\n\nStephen Margorrian, of hospitality collective Horatio Group, said the latest round of strikes could lead to some closing their doors for good.\n\n\"We're expecting to be down quite a considerable amount,\" he explained.\n\n\"I know for a lot of businesses in our sector, they were already pessimistic about next year and for some people this will just be destruction.\"\n\nChristmas is the busiest time of year for many hospitality businesses, Stephen Margorrian says\n\nRetail NI chief executive Glyn Roberts said the timing of strikes \"leaves a lot to be desired\" as it targets some of the industry's busiest days.\n\n\"There are independent retailers that are on life support who are depending on this Christmas to help them through to keep the doors open and to keep workers employed,\" he said.\n\nHe urged unions to reconsider planned action for next week and wait for a political breakthrough.\n\nJanice Gault, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation, said her industry had not reported many room cancellations so far but the strike had affected staff travel and some passing trade.\n\n\"We would like to see people dropping in for that ad hoc drink - a glass of wine, cup of coffee, and if people aren't coming in to shop, that's a big impact,\" she said.\n\n\"We aren't a standalone business; we're relying on bars, restaurants and the retail industry who have no doubt been very severely impacted by this.\"\n\nTranslink said it was \"fully committed to entering constructive pay negotiations,\" adding: \"This can only be done once the budget issue has been resolved\".\n\n\"This situation impacts all public sector workers and needs to be resolved at the NI Executive level,\" it said.\n\n\"We have urged our colleagues to reconsider and pause this action in light of the social and economic impact it will have at this time and to await the outcome of political talks.\"\n\nThe key to why we have seen so much disruption in the public sector is because people have seen the real value of their wages eroded quite substantially in a short period of time.\n\nIf Stormont was to come back next week, people, for example, would not expect to see their pay increasing in their January pay packet.\n\nThere's certainly money on the table, but there would have to be a process; an agreement reached between employers and unions, before you would actually see that pay flowing through to people.\n\nSo you could even be talking up into the spring before all that's sorted out.\n\nThe president of the Secondary Students Union NI (SSUNI) said young people were among the hardest hit as they were among the main users of public transport.\n\n\"Some schools have closed today, further disrupting education, while many students will not have been able to get into school,\" said Ellen Taylor from SSUNI.\n\n\"However, while we do not appreciate this disruption to education, we also acknowledge that Translink workers are underpaid and undervalued, and we support their calls for a pay rise.\n\n\"This is an endemic issue across Northern Ireland,\" she added, stating that public sector workers were taken for granted.\n\nOne of the private companies which operates services linking City of Derry, Belfast International and Dublin airports says it will be doubling its capacity on Friday and Saturday.\n\nMany have called for cars to be allowed to use the bus lanes as the volume of traffic is expected to increase considerably on Friday and Saturday.\n\nIn a statement the Department for Infrastructure said bus lanes would remain operational during the industrial action for \"cyclists, motorcyclists, permitted taxis, any operating buses, which could include buses provided by health and education authorities, and the emergency services\".\n\n\"Bus lane enforcement will continue as normal,\" it continued.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Michelle Mone: \"I'm sorry for not saying straight out: Yes, I am involved\"\n\nBaroness Michelle Mone has hit back at Rishi Sunak, saying she was \"honest\" with the government over contracts for personal protective equipment (PPE).\n\nThe peer has admitted lying to the media about her links to a company that supplied millions of pounds worth of personal protective equipment to the government during the Covid pandemic.\n\nBut she insisted the government knew about her involvement.\n\nThe prime minister said he was taking the issue \"incredibly seriously\".\n\nIn an interview with the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Baroness Mone conceded she stands to benefit from the profits made by PPE Medpro, which is led by her husband.\n\nAsked about her admission she did not tell the truth about her links to the company, Mr Sunak said: \"The government takes these things incredibly seriously, which is why we're pursuing legal action against the company concerned in these matters.\"\n\n\"But it is also subject to an ongoing criminal investigation. And because of that, there's not much further that I can add,\" he told reporters on a visit to Scotland.\n\nResponding to Mr Sunak's comments on X, Baroness Mone said: \"What is @RishiSunak talking about?\n\n\"I was honest with the Cabinet Office, the government and the NHS in my dealings with them.\n\n\"They all knew about my involvement from the very beginning.\"\n\nHowever, Lord Bethell - who was a minister in the Department of Health during the pandemic - disputed her account, saying she \"wasn't 'honest' about her financial interest to me\".\n\n\"She didn't explain 'from the very beginning' about her financial 'involvement',\" he wrote on X, adding that Mr Sunak was right to take the matter seriously.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Baroness Mone should not be a member of the House of Lords, describing the scandal as a \"shocking disgrace from top to bottom\".\n\nHe said the government had \"serious questions\" to answer, including who started the conversations with Baroness Mone in the first place.\n\nThe Liberal Democrats called for \"an urgent independent inquiry into what happened at the Cabinet Office over these contracts\".\n\n\"The more this scandal unfolds the more serious the questions for Michael Gove and other ministers to answer,\" the party's Cabinet Office spokeswoman Christine Jardine said.\n\n\"What did ministers know when, and what exactly did they say to Michelle Mone or anyone else involved?\"\n\nIn her interview on Sunday, Baroness Mone said she contacted Michael Gove - then Cabinet Office minister - at the start of the pandemic to offer help.\n\nThe Scottish lingerie tycoon was made a Conservative peer by David Cameron but is no longer in the parliamentary party.\n\nShe is currently on a leave of absence from Parliament, which she previously said was to \"clear her name\", and is being investigated by the House of Lords for not declaring her interest in PPE Medpro.\n\nThe company is also being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).\n\nEarlier, Energy Efficiency Minister Lord Callanan said he hoped Baroness Mone would \"see sense\" and \"would not be coming back to the House of Lords\".\n\n\"I think she should have declared her involvement in that in the House of Lords register, and there is guidance available for that,\" he told Sky News.\n\nThe peer, in an exclusive interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, says she stands to benefit from £60m PPE profit.\n\nPPE Medpro was awarded government contracts worth more than £200m to supply PPE to the NHS during the pandemic through a so-called \"VIP lane\", introduced to help the government choose between huge numbers of supplier offers.\n\nIn November 2021, the government revealed that Baroness Mone was the \"source of referral\" for PPE Medpro getting a place in the VIP lane.\n\nMillions of gowns the company supplied were never used but the couple say these were supplied in accordance with the contract.\n\nPPE Medpro is being sued by the UK government for £122m plus costs for \"breach of contract and unjust enrichment\". The company is defending the legal action.\n\nIn their interview with the BBC, Baroness Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman apologised for denying their role in the deal for more than three years.\n\nHaving previously denied gaining directly from the contracts, which yielded profits of around £60m, Baroness Mone admitted she and her children stand to become beneficiaries of financial trusts where the money is held.\n\n\"If my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children,\" she said.\n\nShe accepted they had lied to the media about their involvement, saying this was to protect her family from press intrusion. But she said this was \"not a crime\".\n\nBaroness Mone said she had been told by Cabinet Office officials she only had to declare her interest to them, not the House of Lords.\n\nThe couple said the government's handling of PPE contracts was \"shambolic\" and claimed they had been made scapegoats because they were \"high profile and successful\".", "Ukraine has warned it is already being forced to downsize some military operations because of a drop-off in foreign aid.\n\nTop general Oleksandr Tarnavskyi said troops faced ammunition shortages along the \"entire front line\", creating a \"big problem\" for Kyiv.\n\nIt comes as billions of dollars of US and EU aid have been held up amid political wrangles.\n\nUkraine said it hoped to boost its own ammunition industry with western help.\n\nBut it relies heavily on western supplies, particularly on deliveries of long-range missiles and air defence systems, to fight occupying Russian forces.\n\nGen Tarnavskyi told the Reuters news agency that the country lacked artillery shells, particularly for its Soviet-era weapons.\n\n\"The volumes we have are not sufficient, given our needs,\" he said. \"So, we're redistributing it. We're re-planning tasks that we had set for ourselves and making them smaller because we need to provide for them.\"\n\nHe said that diminishing foreign military aid was already having an impact on the battlefield, and forcing a change in tactics.\n\n\"In some areas, we moved to defence, and in some we continue our offensive actions.\n\n\"And we are preparing our reserves for our further large-scale actions. Their intention remains. The only thing is that their actions change, tactics change.\"\n\nHis comments come in the wake of setbacks in both the EU and US. Republicans in the US Congress first blocked a $60bn (£47bn) military package for Ukraine earlier this month.\n\nThat was followed by Hungary's blocking of the EU's €50bn ($55bn; £43bn) financial aid deal last week. EU leaders however said Ukraine would not be left without support.\n\nUkraine was already facing an ammunition shortage as Western powers struggled to maintain supplies. The EU pledged to send one million artillery shells by March 2024, but so far only 480,000 have been either delivered or are in the pipeline.\n\nMeanwhile, the US has provided Ukraine with more than two million 155mm shells for use in Western-made artillery systems. But its own stocks have been depleted, prompting the decision last summer to send cluster munitions.\n\nUkraine is already using ammunition faster than partners can produce it. A report by the Estonian defence ministry said Kyiv needed a minimum of 200,000 artillery shells a month to retain an edge against Russia.\n\n\"Sustaining this rate will empty European and US stockpiles over 2024 and will require significant foreign purchases of ammunition,\" it said.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Ivan Havryliuk said the country was ramping up production of kamikaze drones \"to compensate [for] the lack of artillery shells\".\n\nAdditionally, it was increasing its own production of artillery rounds \"for almost the entire range\" of its Soviet-era weapons.\n\nA Ukrainian gunner on the front line in Donbas\n\nHe also said the country hoped to boost its defence industry by jointly producing ammunition with Western companies on Ukrainian soil.\n\nGen Havryliuk said this was the focus of negotiations with US companies when he accompanied President Volodymyr Zelensky during his December visit to the US.\n\nUkraine signed a number of agreements with US firms to start joint production.\n\nHe said that Ukraine could not match the resources of or manpower of Russia and the goal was to achieve technological superiority.\n\nGen Havryliuk said Kyiv was confident its international partners would overcome political differences to provide Ukraine with aid as before.\n\nEU countries, he added, sent their assistance not only as a bloc but also on a bilateral level.\n\nHowever, the situation has signalled to Russia that international support for Ukraine is weakening - and there are concerns that by switching its economy onto a war footing, Moscow can outlast the West in this battle of attrition.\n\nLast week, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his belief that the war would end only when Russia achieves its goals.\n\nKalle Kirss, the head of the Nato and EU department at Estonia's defence ministry, told the BBC that Europe needed to commit funding to support Ukraine.\n\n\"We need to signal very clearly to Russia that we're ready for a long war and that we will boost our industry and we [will] commit our resources.\"", "Campaigners for a compensation scheme gathered in London earlier this year\n\nThe government has said it is still not in a position to make a final decision on compensation for the victims of the infected blood scandal.\n\nEarlier this month, the government lost a key vote designed to speed up the creation of a new body to administer and make payments.\n\nCabinet office minister John Glen said he recognised the anger of victims.\n\nBut he told the Commons it would be wrong to pre-judge the final report of a public inquiry due next year.\n\n\"For these reasons, the government is not yet in a position to share any final decisions on compensation,\" he said.\n\n\"However, members across this house have made clear that we must do right by the victims and the government recognises this, and I am personally committed to make sure that we do that.\"\n\nUp to 30,000 patients were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.\n\nIt is thought more than 3,000 people died in what has been described by MPs as the worst treatment disaster in NHS history.\n\nThe government has said there is a moral case for compensating victims of the scandal, and has made the first interim payments of £100,000 each to 4,000 surviving victims and bereaved partners.\n\nOn 4 December, MPs narrowly defeated the government in a vote to amend the Victims and Prisoners Bill.\n\nThat legislation, which still needs to be approved by the House of Lords before becoming law, would mean a new independent body would have to be set up within three months to administer full compensation payments to a wider group of victims and their relatives.\n\nCampaigners say that one person affected by the scandal dies every four days, making the speed of compensation key.\n\nSpeaking in the Commons, Mr Glen said the government was still \"working through the implications\" of the amendment, adding that a final decision on compensation must consider both the victims of the scandal and the costs to the public sector.\n\n\"There are a number of technical issues that must be considered that would have a significant impact on public finances,\" he said.\n\n\"This is my highest priority and I will continue to progress this work with all the urgency it deserves.\"\n\nA new psychological support service would be set up for victims and their families in England, to go live from early summer 2024, he added.\n\nEarlier this year, Sir Brian Langstaff, who is chairing the long-running public inquiry into the scandal, called for a full compensation scheme to be set up immediately.\n\nMr Glen repeated that it would be inappropriate for the government to respond until its full findings have been published, a process currently expected to be completed in March 2024.\n\nResponding, Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson, who put forward the amendment, said the government's statement would cause \"huge anguish\" to victims, and \"fuel suspicion\" ministers were trying to delay the payments.\n\n\"Justice delayed again will be justice denied for even more of those infected and affected in this scandal,\" she added.\n\nThe father of the house, Sir Peter Bottomley, one of 22 Conservative MPs who also voted for the amendment, said the government was still not doing enough for victims.\n\n\"If it's a question of money... and the cash flow of the government, say so now,\" he added.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUK MP Layla Moran says her relatives are among hundreds of civilians trapped in a Catholic Church in Gaza City as Israeli forces operate nearby.\n\nThe Liberal Democrat says her family are \"days away from dying\" without access to water or food.\n\nThe Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem say a mother and daughter were killed inside the Holy Family Church complex on Saturday by sniper fire.\n\nThe IDF said it found no evidence to show the incident took place.\n\nIn a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said: \"During the dialogue between the IDF and representatives of the community, no reports of a hit on the church, nor civilians being injured or killed, were raised.\n\n\"A review of the IDF's operational findings support this.\"\n\nThe Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said two Christian women - named as Nahida and her daughter Samar - were shot and killed while walking to a building in the church complex known as the Sister's Convent.\n\n\"One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,\" a statement said. Seven more people were shot and wounded as they \"tried to protect others inside the church compound\" on Saturday.\n\nThe patriarchate said no warning had been given and added: \"They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents.\"\n\nThe patriarchate said that earlier on Saturday an Israeli tank fired on part of the church compound with 54 disabled people inside. It caused a fire that destroyed the building's generator, the only source of electricity, and some of the disabled people can no longer use their respirators, the statement said.\n\nMembers of Ms Moran's extended family - a grandmother, her son, his wife and their 11-year-old twins - are Christian Palestinians who sought refuge inside the church after their home was bombed in the first week of the war.\n\nThey have been staying on mattresses along with dozens of others in rooms in the Holy Family Church for more than 60 days.\n\n\"I'm now no longer sure they are going to survive until Christmas,\" Ms Moran told the BBC.\n\nThey have been keeping in touch with Ms Moran and other family members sporadically through WhatsApp messages and calls - though they have no internet and power is intermittent.\n\nA sixth member of the family - a grandfather - died last month after not being able to get to hospital to receive medical treatment, Ms Moran says.\n\nThe five remaining members say they now no longer have access to food or water, and the last remaining generator - which was pumping water from wherever they could get it - has stopped working in the church.\n\nThey say soldiers entered the church compound in the last 24 hours and took over a room in a building.\n\nEarlier in the week, the family heard shots being fired and saw bullet casings in the church compound. They say two men were killed on Tuesday while they were coming and going from the building - a bin collector and a janitor.\n\nThe family have sent a photo, seen by the BBC, of two bodies lying on a street outside the church building. Ms Moran's relatives say the bodies have been decaying outside for days. The BBC has not verified the circumstances of what the image shows.\n\nMs Moran says there has been no explanation as to why Israeli soldiers would target the church and no warnings or leaflets were sent to people sheltering there.\n\n\"It does feel like it's making a mockery of keeping civilians safe,\" Ms Moran adds.\n\nIsrael says it is carrying out military operations in Gaza to \"eradicate\" Hamas and rescue hostages taken by the group.\n\nEarly on in the war Israel told people in northern Gaza to move to southern Gaza for their safety. It has also paused military activity in some areas for short periods to allow people to leave. There was also a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to allow a swap of some Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.\n\nHowever Israel has also bombed southern Gaza, where it told people to go, and a large number of Palestinians have remained in Gaza City and other northern areas.\n\nMs Moran says she has been in touch with a number of countries about getting her relatives out of Gaza, but the situation is \"incredibly complex\".\n\nShe adds that the family have considered trying to travel to Rafah in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt but say it is too dangerous while no ceasefire is in place.\n\nHamas broke through Israel's heavily guarded perimeter on 7 October, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages - some of whom were released during the brief truce.\n\nThe health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says more than 18,700 people have been killed and 50,000 injured in the enclave since the start of the Gaza war.", "Carer and resident at Addison Court care home, near Newcastle\n\nCare home staff have told the BBC they feel exploited and trapped by the firm that brought them to the UK to work.\n\nEmployees at Prestwick Care told an undercover Panorama reporter they believed their contracts prevented them from leaving.\n\nThe BBC investigation also saw low staffing levels which health professionals said put vulnerable residents at risk.\n\nPrestwick Care denies any suggestion of systematic wrongdoing or bad practice.\n\nAn undercover reporter for Panorama took a job as a care assistant at Addison Court in Crawcrook, to the west of Gateshead - one of 15 care homes in the north-east of England owned by Prestwick Care. He worked there from September to November this year, after hearing allegations from local health professionals about conditions in the home.\n\nAddison Court is home to more than 50 elderly people, with weekly fees averaging about £1,100. These are paid for either by the local authority, the NHS, the residents or their families.\n\nLike many care homes in the UK, Addison Court relies heavily on workers from overseas.\n\nAddison Court is one of 15 care homes owned by Prestwick Care in north-east England\n\nIn the year to September 2023, 140,000 visas were issued for overseas health and care workers to come to the UK - more than double the previous year. Of these, 39,000 were issued to people from India.\n\nNurses and care workers from overseas are eligible for a skilled worker visa. This means that they can work in the UK, but they need to be sponsored by an employer.\n\nIf they leave their job, they have 60 days to find another suitable post - otherwise they have to return to their home country.\n\nConcerns have been raised about the power this gives employers.\n\n\"If you are in a position of power as a boss, then you can exert coercive control over an individual,\" says Andrew Wallis of the anti-exploitation charity Unseen.\n\nPrestwick Care employs about 180 overseas workers who are in the UK on visas - nearly a third of its staff base.\n\nOne Indian nurse there told the reporter that she was unhappy in her job, but felt she could not quit, because her visa was sponsored by the company, and she believed she had no choice.\n\nAddison Court nurse: \"I can't just walk away\"\n\n\"I can't get out of here. If I was back at home I could at least resign. But here, I can't just walk away,\" she explained.\n\nPrestwick does not make life easy for those overseas nurses who have chosen to quit the company.\n\nAhmed (not his real name), came to the UK from the southern Indian state of Kerala in 2018.\n\nWhen he arrived, he was asked to sign a contract. It said that if he left the company within five years, he would have to pay Prestwick Care more than £4,000, which included the money the company had already paid to the Home Office, and the legal fees for his visa.\n\nAccording to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Code of Conduct, staff should not have to pay these costs.\n\nAhmed says he was told: \"If you don't want to stay here on that contract, you can go back to India.\"\n\nHe says he felt Prestwick Care was trying to prevent him leaving, but he nevertheless resigned after being offered a more senior role at a care home run by another company.\n\nPrestwick Care then started legal action against Ahmed, claiming that he owed the company more than £5,000.\n\nHe then called Bunty Malhotra, CEO of the Malhotra Group, which owns Prestwick Care. He told Ahmed, \"What you have done is immoral, unethical and terrible.\"\n\nAhmed was also told a clause in his contract stopped him from working for any competitor care home for six months.\n\n\"Ahmed\" was told he would have to pay his employer thousands if he left the company\n\nLiana Wood is a solicitor. She says that this clause would not be upheld by a court or a tribunal, and says that it was simply there \"to serve a purpose of making [nurses and senior care assistants] trapped in their situation\".\n\nThe legal action against Ahmed was eventually settled by his new employer.\n\nAndrew Wallis of Unseen says that loading workers with debt is used as a means to control by unscrupulous bosses.\n\nPrestwick Care denies that its contracts are designed to intimidate its employees and says it is now reviewing repayment clauses in all staff contracts.\n\nFor some of the staff at Addison Court, the situation was made worse by the fact that they had also paid between £6,000 and £10,000 for their visas through a recruitment agency called BGM Consulting.\n\nA three-year visa would only have cost £551 if they had applied directly through the UK government website.\n\nThe DHSC says that companies should not work with recruitment agents that charge job seekers a fee.\n\nBGM's director, Sunil Thomas, says the company has not taken any funds towards the recruitment of care workers in the UK, and claims that any money paid would have been to \"sub-agents\" acting without his knowledge in India.\n\nPrestwick Care says it has now suspended all new arrangements with BGM Consultancy.\n\nThe reporter also heard concerns about how low staffing was affecting the standard of care at Addison Court.\n\nThere are no rules on how many staff a care home should employ. Prestwick Care says that on night shifts (between 20:00 and 08:00), one nurse can provide ample care for 54 residents, as they are supported by a team of carers, some of whom can administer medication.\n\nHowever, an agency nurse who covered the night shift told the reporter that this was difficult to manage, and that some residents were not always receiving their medicines on time.\n\nAdministering drugs late can have serious consequences for some conditions, for instance, insulin injections for diabetics, or medicines for Parkinson's disease.\n\nThe agency nurse says he once tried to raise concerns about staffing levels with Bunty Malhotra. He says Mr Malhotra swore at him and was dismissive in his response - a claim Mr Malhotra denies.\n\nOther staff at Addison Court also told the undercover reporter that concerns had been raised about the lack of staffing, but that the management were not interested.\n\nThe workers' concerns have been echoed by local health professionals.\n\nA GP with patients at Addison Court, who asked to remain anonymous, told Panorama she saw a trend with certain patients not getting their medication on time.\n\nShe said that staff recognised that care was not always adequate, but they felt there was no point bringing their concerns to the management, because they would \"either somehow make it their fault or just try and sweep it under the carpet\".\n\nThe manager of Addison Court says that it is completely untrue that she fails to investigate complaints, and says she has positive relationships with staff at the home.\n\nPanorama investigates a care home short of staff, where external medical professionals report seeing residents neglected, and overseas staff complain of being exploited.\n\nWatch on BBC iPlayer or on BBC One at 19:00 on Monday 18 December (20:30 in Northern Ireland - and in Wales at 22:40 on Tuesday 19 December)\n\nNHS nurse Katy Maughan visited the home once a week until last year. She says the nurses she spoke to were unhappy, but felt they couldn't leave.\n\nShe thought staff were not escalating concerns because they did not want to upset the company and have to leave the country.\n\nMs Maughan says she was so worried about some residents that she made 33 safeguarding alerts over a two-year period to the local authority, Gateshead Council.\n\nOne of those alerts was about a resident who she says died after being left for 72 hours with severe constipation. She believes the death was preventable.\n\n\"They [the staff] should be speaking to the GP and saying, look, we still haven't had a bowel motion, and they should be getting medical advice. It's neglect.\"\n\nGateshead Council told Panorama it was unable to share the outcomes of the safeguarding concerns because it would involve releasing highly sensitive personal information. It says each alert was responded to and \"managed in the best interests of the residents… based on the evidence provided at the time\".\n\nIn its latest published accounts, Prestwick Care's parent company, Malhotra Care Homes Limited, made a profit of £9.3m in in the financial year 2021-22. Chartered accountant Vivek Kotecha says this margin - about 40% - is very high for a care home. He thinks that an explanation for this may be that the company is spending less than its competitors on staff.\n\n\"That's kind of worrying,\" he says, \"because these kinds of patients need staff and care… otherwise they are at risk of falls or injuries.\"\n\nAn accountant says that Prestwick Care appears to be spending less on staff than its competitors\n\nIn December 2022, Prestwick Care had its licence to sponsor overseas staff suspended by the Home Office. No reason has been given for the action.\n\nFollowing the news, Bunty Malhotra called Addison Court's Indian staff to attend a meeting, where he tried to persuade them to stay.\n\nHe implied that he was willing to overlook and cover up any mistakes they made.\n\n\"If you work for the NHS, one mistake [and you will be] reported to the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council) straight away,\" he is recorded saying.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Bunty Malhotra, filmed by hidden camera, implies mistakes may not be reported to protect nurses' \"pin\" registrations\n\n\"We will always protect our staff, we'll always say, 'this mistake is a training issue'... this protection isn't allowed outside.\"\n\nSeeing the footage of the meeting, Katy Maughan said she was shocked at how he appeared to be trying to scare staff into staying at the care home.\n\nThe Home Office has now \"fully revoked\" Prestwick Care's licence to sponsor overseas staff. Following the safeguarding reports, including from the BBC, the regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), has suspended Addison Court's \"good\" rating.\n\nIn a statement to the BBC, the CQC said that it was \"closely monitoring Addison Court along with the other locations registered to this provider\". It added that if there were immediate concerns about people's safety, \"we will use our enforcement powers to keep people safe\".\n\nPrestwick Care says any suggestion that there has been systematic wrongdoing or bad practice, is unfair and inaccurate. It says that the safety and wellbeing of staff remains paramount, and that it is \"fully committed to thoroughly investigating all concerns raised, and taking appropriate actions as necessary\".\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The BMA says not being paid in line with inflation means qualified doctors are leaving Wales for work\n\nJunior doctors in Wales will strike in January after a huge majority voted for industrial action.\n\nA 72-hour full walkout will take place from 15 January over a pay dispute.\n\nThe walkout could see more than 3,000 doctors withdraw their labour from hospitals and GP surgeries across Wales.\n\nThe Welsh government called the decision \"disappointing\" and said it could not meet pay demands without more UK government money.\n\nOf the doctors eligible to vote in Wales, 65% responded and 98% of those supported the strike.\n\nThe Welsh junior doctors committee made the decision to ballot members in August after being offered a below-inflation pay offer of 5%.\n\nIn a joint statement, Dr Oba Babs-Osibodu and Dr Peter Fahey, co-chairs of BMA Cymru Wales' junior doctors committee, said the ballot results showed the \"strength of feeling\".\n\n\"We are frustrated, in despair and angry… we can't and we won't take any further erosion of our pay,\" they said.\n\n\"Our members have been forced to take this difficult decision because junior doctors in Wales have experienced a pay cut of 29.6 per cent in real terms over the last 15 years.\"\n\nThey said members were not looking for a pay rise, but asking for pay to be restored in line with inflation, and the decision to strike had \"not been made lightly\".\n\n\"Pay needs to be fair and competitive with other healthcare systems across the world to retain and recruit doctors and NHS staff to provide much-needed care,\" they added.\n\n\"On top of this junior doctors are experiencing worsening conditions and so doctors are now looking to leave Wales to develop their careers for better pay and a better quality of life elsewhere.\n\n\"Doctors are already voting with their feet and leaving the NHS and we are in a vicious cycle of crippling staffing shortages and worsening patient care.\"\n\nDr Babs-Osibodu, a radiology registrar based in Newport who graduated from medical school in 2018, said: \"Doctors are already working in pretty gruelling conditions, working nights, working weekends, missing birthdays, Christmases.\n\n\"They've had to make multiple sacrifices, moving up and down the country and on top of that they're struggling financially\n\n\"We have to pay for exams, sometimes thousands of pounds and GMC fees, just to move around and then on top of that we're not being paid adequately. As a result, many of my colleagues are simply leaving.\"\n\nThe strike action will begin at 07:00 GMT on 15 January and end at the same time on 18 January.\n\nThere are just under 4,000 junior doctors working in Wales, in hospitals and GP surgeries.\n\nGiven that strike action has been a consistent theme throughout 2023 for junior doctors in England, it would have been more of a surprise if their colleagues in Wales had voted against industrial action.\n\nParticularly as the offer on the table - and now in their bank accounts - is less than that being discussed over the border.\n\nWhen the likes of nurses and ambulance staff took to the picket lines this time last year, the Welsh government insisted there wasn't the money to offer more.\n\nIn the end, an improved offer was found.\n\nBut at a time when tens of millions of pounds in cuts have already been demanded of health boards - if they're to get bail-outs for their overspend - the wriggle room is arguably reduced even further.\n\nThe term covers all qualified doctors under the level of consultant, who can have up to 11 years of experience in clinical settings.\n\nThe NHS in Wales , with the Welsh government prepared to step in and bail out health board overspends.\n\nThe strike announcement comes in the same week as the Welsh government's budget will be announced.\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson said: \"While we wish to address their pay restoration ambitions, our offer is at the limits of the finances available to us and reflects the position reached with the other health unions for this year.\n\n\"Without additional funding from the UK government, we are not in a position to currently offer any more.\n\nWe will continue to press them to pass on the funding necessary for full and fair pay rises for public sector workers.\"\n\nElsewhere, junior doctors in England are due to take strike action from 20-23 December and 3-9 January after five weeks of talks failed.\n\nThe BMA is also due to ballot members in Northern Ireland in the new year, with a potential 24-hour strike scheduled for March, while Scottish junior doctors accepted an improved offer of a 12.4% pay rise for 2023/2024, backdated to April.", "Gerard Depardieu has been nominated for one Oscar and two Bafta Awards\n\nA French museum has removed a waxwork of actor Gerard Depardieu following allegations of rape and sexual assault.\n\nThe Grevin Museum removed the statue \"following the negative reactions of visitors\" passing in front of it.\n\nThe French star was placed under judicial investigation on suspicion of rape and sexual assault in 2020.\n\nDepardieu was also accused in April of sexual assault or harassment by 13 women. He has strenuously denied all of the allegations\n\nA life-size representation of one of France's best-known actors, 74, had been on display at the Parisian wax museum since 1981.\n\nThe museum's management also said there had been negative comments on social media about the waxwork.\n\nA television documentary released in December included footage of the actor making obscene and sexist remarks about women which has thrown the allegations back into the limelight and reignited a debate about sexism in French cinema.\n\nIn footage apparently taken from the documentary's \"making of\", the actor repeatedly embarrasses his female interpreter with comments such as: \"I weigh 124 kilos. Without an erection. With an erection, I'm 126 kilos.\"\n\nParis prosecutors are also investigating the apparent suicide of actress Emmanuelle Debever, 60, who alleged she was sexually assaulted decades ago by Gérard Depardieu.\n\nProsecutors said the cause of her death was being investigated due to \"media reports\" of complaints she made against the actor in 2019 when she alleged on Facebook that Depardieu had fondled her while they were shooting the film Danton in 1982.\n\nThere is no suggestion that any crime has been committed.\n\nOn Sunday, Depardieu's family said there was an \"unprecedented conspiracy\" against him.\n\nThe Oscar and Bafta-nominated actor is known for films including Jean de Florette, Green Card and Cyrano de Bergerac.\n\nDepardieu was one of around 250 French and international personalities represented at the Grevin Museum.\n\nOthers have included French football icon Zinedine Zidane and French actor Omar Sy, as well as Canadian film star Ryan Gosling and Britain's King Charles III.\n\nWhile there is no court ruling against the actor, the museum is not the only institution to have distanced itself rom Depardieu in recent days.\n\nOn Saturday, a Belgian municipality stripped Depardieu of the title of honorary citizen, several days after the Canadian province of Quebec revoked its top honour over his \"scandalous\" comments against women.\n\nLast week, French Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak said the actor's behaviour shamed France and said he may be stripped of the Legion of Honour, the country's top award.", "Three Israeli hostages mistakenly killed by soldiers in Gaza on Friday had used leftover food to write signs pleading for help, Israel says.\n\nThe men had been staying at the building next to where they were shot \"for some period of time\", according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).\n\nThe head of the IDF told troops that they are \"absolutely not\" permitted to shoot those surrendering.\n\n\"The IDF doesn't shoot a person who raises their hands,\" said Herzi Halevi.\n\nHe said Gazans with a white flag must be arrested and not shot \"if they lay down their arms and raise their hands\".\n\nAbout 120 hostages are believed to be still in captivity in the Gaza Strip, held by Hamas and allied Palestinian groups.\n\nIsrael is under increasing pressure for a deal to free more hostages.\n\nIsraeli officials have admitted that killing the three men who were holding a white flag was a breach of \"rules of engagement\".\n\nThey were seized and taken to Gaza during the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed around 1,200 in southern Israel.\n\nIsrael has launched a massive retaliatory operation it says is aimed at destroying Hamas.\n\nMore than 18,000 people have been killed in Gaza since, according to the local health authorities, with hundreds of thousands of others pushed out of their homes.\n\nThe Israeli hostages - Yotam Haim, 28, Samer Talalka, 22, and Alon Shamriz, 26 - were killed in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City on Friday as Israeli troops face stiff resistance.\n\nAccording to an Israeli military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the men emerged shirtless from a building, with one carrying a stick with a white cloth.\n\nOne of the soldiers, the official added, felt threatened, as the men were at a distance of tens of metres, declared them \"terrorists\" and opened fire. Two were immediately killed while the third, wounded, returned to the building.\n\nLeft to right: Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka\n\nA cry for help was heard in Hebrew and the battalion commander ordered the troops to cease fire. The wounded hostage later re-emerged, and was shot and killed, the official said.\n\nIt is not clear if the hostages had been abandoned by their captors or escaped.\n\nOn Sunday, the IDF said a search of the building was carried out, revealing the messages \"SOS\" and \"Help, 3 hostages\" written on fabric.\n\nOfficials believe the hostages had been there for some time.\n\nSince the end of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas earlier this month, families of the hostages have urged the Israeli government to reach a new truce for at least some of the captives to be freed. The initial deal led to the release of more than 100 hostages, in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.\n\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has deflected the calls, insisting \"military pressure is necessary both for the return of the hostages and for victory\".\n\nAmid mounting Palestinian civilian casualties, Israeli authorities have come under growing international pressure, including from the country's main ally, the US.\n\nOn Sunday, France's Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna went to Israel calling for an \"immediate and durable truce\".\n\nHer Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen said a ceasefire would be an error, describing it as a gift to Hamas.\n\nThe UK and Germany have also called for a \"sustainable ceasefire\", whilst stopping short of saying it should be immediate.\n\nVast areas of the Gaza Strip have been destroyed by the Israeli bombardment, and the United Nations has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe amid widespread shortages of basic supplies.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nImages on social media on Sunday showed Gaza residents climbing on aid lorries.\n\nWith no let-up in the fighting, the IDF published images of what it said was Hamas's largest attack tunnel so far.\n\nThe tunnel - in some places wide enough for cars to pass through - was some 400m from the Erez border crossing with Israel, the IDF said.\n\nThe IDF says the tunnel is only 400m from the Erez crossing used by Gazans working in Israel before the war", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Michelle Mone: \"I'm sorry for not saying straight out: Yes, I am involved\"\n\nMichelle Mone has admitted that she stands to benefit from tens of millions of pounds of profit from personal protective equipment (PPE) sold to the UK government during the pandemic by a company led by her husband, Doug Barrowman.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC, the couple apologised for denying their role in the deal for more than three years.\n\nBut a defiant Baroness Mone said: \"I don't honestly see there is a case to answer. I can't see what we have done wrong.\"\n\nPPE Medpro was awarded government contracts worth more than £200 million to supply PPE to the NHS during the pandemic through a so-called \"VIP lane\", introduced to help the government choose between huge numbers of supplier offers.\n\nIn November 2021, the government revealed that Baroness Mone was the \"source of referral\" for PPE Medpro getting a place in the VIP lane.\n\nMillions of gowns the company supplied were never used but the couple say these were supplied in accordance with the contract.\n\nPPE Medpro is being sued by the UK government for £122m plus costs for \"breach of contract and unjust enrichment\".\n\nHaving previously denied gaining directly from the contracts, which yielded profits of around £60m, the former Conservative peer and lingerie tycoon admitted she and her children were beneficiaries of financial trusts where the money is held.\n\nBaroness Mone said \"of course\" she stands to gain, adding: \"If my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children.\"\n\nShe told the BBC her life had been \"destroyed\" by allegations about their PPE profits, even though \"we've only done one thing, which was lie to the press to say we weren't involved\".\n\nShe said that was \"not a crime\" and added: \"No-one deserves this.\"\n\nMr Barrowman said that Baroness Mone \"was always going to benefit, and my family will benefit in due course… her family benefit, my family benefit\".\n\n\"That's what you do when you are in a privileged position of making money,\" he said.\n\nBut Baroness Mone insisted that neither she nor her children had yet seen a penny of the money that is being held in the trust. Nor had the couple used the proceeds of the deal to buy a yacht, she said.\n\nShe also suggested she would not benefit if \"God forbid, we get divorced after this show\".\n\nThe Scottish businesswoman was made a Conservative peer by David Cameron but is no longer in the party.\n\nThe peer, in an exclusive interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, says she stands to benefit from £60m PPE profit.\n\nThe couple confirmed to the BBC that they had been under investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) \"ongoing for two-and-a-half years\", and said that they had both only been interviewed once.\n\nThey also confirmed the investigation was into conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation, and bribery.\n\nThe couple admitted to the BBC that they had lied about their involvement with PPE Medpro.\n\nBaroness Mone said: \"I should have said I am involved, straight away, but I didn't want the press intrusion for my family. My family have gone through hell with the media over my career, and I didn't want another big hoo-ha.\"\n\nThey first made the admission they were linked to the deal during a documentary funded by the company and posted online.\n\nBaroness Mone and Mr Barrowman told the BBC they were \"upfront, straight up people\", and apologised for not telling the truth at the start, saying: \"We both regret that we didn't.\"\n\nMr Barrowman said that he had led the PPE Medpro consortium, even though he is not listed at Companies House as having any connection to the company. He told the BBC that he was, in effect, the ultimate beneficial owner of the firm - the person who ultimately owns or controls a company.\n\nBaroness Mone is also under investigation by the House of Lords for not declaring her interest in PPE Medpro.\n\nShe told the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show that Cabinet Office officials had told her that she only had to declare her interest to them, not the House of Lords.\n\nShe said: \"I discussed it with the Cabinet Office, and you do not declare your interests in the House of Lords if you are not a director, you're not a shareholder, you're not financially benefitting.\"\n\nBaroness Mone claimed an official suggested, she just \"declare your interest to us\".\n\n\"That's exactly what I did,\" she said, \"I did everything they asked me to do.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"If, God forbid, my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children\"\n\nMr Barrowman said \"the Cabinet Office clearly felt there was a perceived conflict, because you have an unusual situation of husband and wife team being together\".\n\nHe told the BBC that PPE Medpro had agreed two contracts, to a value of £202m, making a profit of around £60m, which he described as a \"good return\".\n\nMr Barrowman said there had been \"no guarantee\" that PPE Medpro would be paid until the masks and gowns had been supplied. He added that the \"risks were absolutely extraordinary\".\n\nHe denied that the deal was profiteering, saying that it had presented very competitive prices for the taxpayer.\n\nThe Department of Health launched its claim against PPE Medpro, which is separate to the criminal investigation being carried out by the NCA, a year ago.\n\nMr Barrowman alleged that a government official had suggested he hand over a significant amount of money to \"call off the dogs\", which he took to mean to end the criminal investigation.\n\nHe said: \"They asked me would I pay more for the other matter to go away. I was speechless… I was absolutely gobsmacked.\"\n\nAn NCA spokesperson said: \"The NCA opened an investigation in May 2021 into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro. The NCA is operationally independent and our investigations are intelligence-led.\"\n\nThe Department of Health would not comment.\n\nThe couple said that the government's handling of PPE had been \"shambolic\".\n\nBaroness Mone said: \"It's appalling that over £9.1 billion was overordered, five years of stock, of PPE, when it only has a shelf life of two years. And all I will say, right now, is why are we not holding them to account, the [Department of Health]?\"\n\nShe said that their lives had been \"destroyed\" by the media attention, and that the couple had been scapegoated by the government because they were \"high profile and successful\".\n\nThe baroness, who is currently on a leave of absence from Parliament, said she hadn't yet thought about whether she would hand her title back, but said it was \"appalling\" that Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak had jousted over her situation at Prime Minister's Questions, \"when they don't know the facts\".\n\nDeputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, also speaking on the programme, defended the VIP lane process and refuted claims of cronyism.\n\n\"The government's intention in respect of that was to make sure that if legitimate claims came forward, we'd process them quickly,\" he said.\n\n\"There were no favours or special treatment.\"\n\nHe added that if there was fraud in the couple's case, \"the government will crack down on it\".\n\nWatch the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show on iPlayer.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Oil giant BP will pause all shipments of oil through the Red Sea after recent attacks on vessels by Houthi rebels.\n\nThe firm blamed the \"deteriorating security situation\" in the region as Iran-backed Houthis target ships they believe are bound for Israel.\n\nMany freight firms have suspended journeys as the attacks continue.\n\nFollowing BP's announcement the US said it would lead an international naval operation to protect ships along the route.\n\nCountries joining the security group include the UK, Canada, France, Bahrain, Norway and Spain.\n\nIn a statement, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said: \"The recent escalation in reckless Houthi attacks originating from Yemen threatens the free flow of commerce, endangers innocent mariners, and violates international law.\"\n\nBP said it would keep its \"precautionary pause under ongoing review\" and monitor the region.\n\nAnalysts suggested that if other large oil firms follow suit, oil prices could rise. Oil prices were higher on Monday, with international benchmark Brent trading up 2.6% to almost $79 a barrel.\n\n\"Right now it's unclear how significant the impact will be,\" said Gregory Brew, an oil historian and analyst at Eurasia Group.\n\n\"Though if more shipping companies divert their traffic, and if the disruption lasts more than a week or two, prices are likely to climb further.\"\n\nThe Red Sea is one of the world's most important routes for oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, as well as for consumer goods.\n\nAnalysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence found that nearly 15% of goods imported into Europe, the Middle East and North Africa were shipped from Asia and the Gulf by sea. That includes 21.5% of refined oil and more than 13% of crude oil.\n\n\"Consumer goods will face the largest impact, though current disruptions are occurring during the off-peak shipping season,\" said Chris Rogers from S&P Global Market Intelligence.\n\nOn Monday, one of the world's largest shipping firms said it would no longer carry Israeli cargo via the Red Sea.\n\nIn an update seen by the BBC, Evergreen Line, said: \"For the safety of ships and crew, Evergreen Line has decided to temporarily stop accepting Israeli cargo with immediate effect, and has instructed its container ships to suspend navigation through the Red Sea until further notice.\"\n\nThe Houthi rebels are targeting ships travelling through the Bab al-Mandab Strait - also known as the Gate of Tears - which is a channel 20 miles (32km) wide, and known for being perilous to navigate.\n\nThe rebels have declared their support for Hamas and have said they are targeting ships travelling to Israel, using drones and rockets against foreign-owned vessels.\n\nInstead of using the Bab al-Mandab Strait, ships will now have to take a longer route navigating around southern Africa, potentially adding about 10 days to the journey and costing millions of dollars.\n\nIsrael launched a military campaign in Gaza following the 7 October attacks by Hamas that killed 1,200 people. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said more than 18,700 have been killed since the start of the war.\n\nIt is not clear if all the ships Houthi rebels have attacked were actually heading to Israel.\n\nIn the most recent reported assault, the owner of the MT Swan Atlantic said the ship was hit by an \"unidentified object\" on Monday while in the Red Sea off Yemen despite there being no links to Israel.\n\nInventor Chemical Tankers said: \"For the record, there is no Israeli link in the ownership (Norwegian), technical management (Singapore) of the vessel nor in any parts of the logistical chain for the cargo transported.\"\n\nAttacks on ships have intensified in recent days, leading to shipping firms suspending travel through the strait which sits between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea on the African coast.\n\nIt is the route by which ships can reach the Suez Canal from the south - itself a major shipping lane.\n\nMaersk, the world's second-biggest shipping firm, described the situation as \"alarming\" on Friday after a \"near-miss\" incident involving Maersk Gibraltar and another attack on a container ship.\n\nIt was followed by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world's largest shipping group, which said it would also divert its ships from the area.\n\nIts container ship, MSC PALATIUM III, was attacked on Friday as it was transiting the Red Sea. There were no injuries to the crew, but the ship has been taken out of service.\n\nCMA-CGM has also stopped shipments through the region, and Reuters has reported that Belgian oil tanker firm Euronav and Norway-based tanker group Frontline would both avoid Red Sea routes.\n\nOn Monday, Inventor Chemical Tankers confirmed that the MT Swan Atlantic was targeted while travelling from France to Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean.\n\nThe company said there were no injuries to its Indian crew, adding that the \"crew and the ship are now assisted by the US navy and will be brought to safety under protection by naval forces\".\n\nGermany's Hapag-Lloyd said it was re-routing several ships via the Cape of Good Hope, until passage through the Red Sea \"will be safe again for vessels and their crews\".\n\nEvergreen Line said that any container ships on longer journeys between Asia and the Mediterranean, Europe or the east coast of the US would also be diverted around the Cape of Good Hope.\n\nPeter Sand, chief analyst at freight rate data company Xeneta, said shipping firms would now be contacting customers to let them know that cargo was being delayed, adding that there was \"definitely a price to pay for a situation like this\".\n\nHe said the industry would also face knock-on effects such as higher insurance premiums, but he said that it was in a much better position to deal with an unfolding crisis than it was when the huge Ever Given ship blocked the Suez Canal in 2021, with Covid-related supply chain issues having eased up.\n\nSue Terpilowski of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport also pointed out that in addition to extra fuel costs and time, the war-risk insurance costs are going up \"exponentially\", with customers facing higher prices being passed on to them too.", "A fuel depot in the West African country of Guinea has exploded, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 80.\n\nEyewitnesses said the blast at the Guinea's only oil refinery blew out the windows of local houses.\n\nFirefighters in the capital, Conakry, rushed to the oil terminal after it caught fire early on Monday.\n\nThe explosion was caused by a fire. It is unclear what started the blaze but an investigation has been launched, the government said.", "Diana wore the Azagury dress for the first time at a dinner with the Mayor of Florence in 1985\n\nA dress worn by Diana, Princess of Wales in 1985 has been sold at auction for 11 times its estimated price.\n\nThe black, ballerina-length velvet evening dress was sold at Julien's Auctions in Hollywood for a total of $1,148,080 (£904,262).\n\nIt has broken a new fashion record as the most expensive dress, worn by Diana, sold at auction.\n\nThe gown, which came with a matching illustration, was estimated to sell for $100,000 (£78,776).\n\nDiana first wore the dress in Florence, Italy in 1985 at a dinner while on a royal tour with her then-husband Charles, Prince of Wales, and again to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 1986.\n\nThe collector's item was constructed with fabric chosen by world-renowned textile merchant Jakob Schlaepfer and featured metallic embroidered stars carefully threaded by the design team at Jacques Azagury.\n\nThe ballerina skirt was considered a nod to her patronage of the English National Ballet and her love of dance.\n\nPrincess Dana's evening dress is one of the many celebrity items up for sale at Julien's Auctions in California\n\nPreviously, the most expensive dress worn by Diana and sold at auction was a 1991 velvet gown by Victor Edelstein which sold for $604,800 (£476,437) in January.\n\nThat means Diana's Jacques Azagury gown has nearly doubled the gap between first and second place.\n\nDiana wore several designed by the Moroccan-British fashion designer pieces during her time with the royal family.\n\nOther items on sale at the TCM Present: Hollywood Legends auction include a blouse worn by Diana for her engagement portrait in 1981.\n\nThe Emanuel blouse was worn by Diana for her engagement portrait\n\nThe pink crepe blouse has a ruff-like collar and loose pleats to the front and was captured on film by royal photographer Lord Snowdon.\n\nIt sold for $381,000 (£300,990), nearly four times its original estimate of $80,000 (£63,000).\n\nHollywood stars' clothes also up for auction included a Givenchy dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1963 comedy Charade, a sleeveless gown worn by Gloria Swanson in the 1950 noir film Sunset Boulevard and Barbra Streisand's sailor dress from a 1960s special called My Name Is Barbra.", "Palestinian children by the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli air strike in the east of Deir al Balah, central Gaza Image caption: Palestinian children by the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli air strike in the east of Deir al Balah, central Gaza\n\nIt's coming up to 03:00 in Israel and Gaza and 01:00 in London, and here's a recap of the past 24 hours:\n\nA vote on a new UN Security Council resolution calling for an \"suspension\" of hostilities has been postponed for the second day in a row after intense negotiations on the language of the proposal.\n\nThe language of the resolution proposed by the United Arab Emirates has already been watered down from calling for a ceasefire to get US backing, reports say, as it has consistently vetoed previous resolutions.\n\nReports also indicate negotiations over a new hostage exchange deal are in their early stages - with talks held in Poland between the US, Qatar and Israel earlier, while the head of Hamas's political wing will travel to Egypt shortly.\n\nOn the ground in Gaza, humanitarian agencies have expressed their anger and frustration at the lack of aid allowed to enter the strip.\n\nMore than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the north and south in the latest Israeli air strikes, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Around 19,600 people have been killed so far, the ministry also said.\n\nBBC Arabic has spoken to men from Gaza who say they were detained by the Israeli army for nearly a month, alleging abuse and mistreatment before their release a few days ago.\n\nUK MP Layla Moran, whose relatives are trapped in Gaza, says her family are \"down to their last can of corn\", and urged the UK government to support an immediate ceasefire\n\nThe head of the UN's maritime agency has condemned Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, warning they could threaten world trade\n\nOne of the world's biggest shipping firms, Hapag-Lloyd, has said it will not resume sailing on the vital trade route linking the Indian Ocean with the Mediterranean sea without safety guarantees.", "Amiram Cooper, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Tsachi Idan are being held in Gaza\n\nIsrael says 132 people remain unaccounted for after they were abducted and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attacks by Hamas.\n\nAn estimated 240 people were taken prisoner, but 105 were later released by Hamas during a six-day ceasefire at the end of November.\n\nThe Israeli military said it mistakenly killed three hostages in northern Gaza who had escaped from their captors and expressed \"deep remorse\" over the incident.\n\nOf the 132 still unaccounted for, Israel says that 20 of them are believed to be dead.\n\nThese are the stories of those hostages who are still being held, which have either been confirmed by the BBC or credibly reported.\n\nThis list is regularly updated and names may change, as some people feared kidnapped are confirmed to have been killed or released.\n\nLast updated on 19 December 2023 at 10:33 GMT\n\nYagev Kirsht, 34, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nirim, alongside his wife, Rimon Buchstab Kirsht. She has now been released.\n\nAlexander Trupanov, was taken hostage with his mother Lena Trupanov, 50, his partner Sapir Cohen, 29, and his grandmother Irina Tati, 73. All were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz as they spent the Sabbath together, according to a statement by Canada's Raoul Wallenburg Center for Human Rights. Irina and Lena were released on Wednesday 29 November and Sapir was freed the next day.\n\nAriel Cunio, his girlfriend Arbel Yahud and her brother Dolev are also thought to have been abducted in the same attack on Nir Oz. Eitan Cunio, Ariel's brother who escaped Hamas, told the Jewish Chronicle that his last message from Ariel said: \"We are in a horror movie.\"\n\nDavid Cunio, 33, another of Ariel's brothers, was also kidnapped from Nir Oz, family say. David's wife Sharon Aloni Cunio and their three-year-old twin daughters Ema and Yuly were released on 27 November. Sharon's sister Daniele Aloni, and her six-year-old daughter Emilia were both released on 24 November.\n\nDoron Steinbrecher, 30, a veterinary nurse, was in her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas attacked, the Times of Israel reported. At 10:30 on 7 October, the newspaper said, she sent a voice message to friends: \"They've arrived, they have me.\"\n\nItzhak Gelerenter, 53, was taken from the Supernova festival. His family said the IDF found his phone was located in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported. His daughter Pivko told the paper: \"I'm trying to think good thoughts, I have a powerful, smart, resourceful father.\"\n\nDoron Steinbrecher sent a voice message to friends during Hamas' attack\n\nNaama Levy, 19, was filmed being bundled into a jeep, her hands tied behind her back. The footage was released by Hamas and circulated widely on social media. According to her mother, the teenager had just begun her military service.\n\nYousef Zyadna, a 53-year-old Bedouin dairy farmer, was abducted from Kibbutz Holit and taken to Gaza along with his sons Hamza, 22, and Bilal, 18, and his daughter, Aisha, 16. Aisha and Bilal were released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nElad Katzir, 47, was abducted from Nir Oz with his mother Hanna. Hanna has now been released.\n\nOhad Ben Ami, 55, was kidnapped from Be'eri with his wife, Raz. She was released by Hamas on 29 November.\n\nTwin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, 26, were taken from Kfar Aza. Ziv was messaging a friend as the attack happened. Their family said the IDF has told them the brothers are being held in Gaza. Their brother Liran told CBN news the pair had \"twin power\" and were the centre of attention wherever they went.\n\nIraq-born Shlomo Mansour, 85, was taken captive from Kibbutz Kissufim, where he lived and worked as a chicken coop manager. His wife, Mazal, managed to escape.\n\nMichel Nisenbaum, 59, is a dual Brazilian-Israeli citizen who has lived in Israel for 45 years and works as a computer technician, his family told Brazilian media. They also say he is diabetic and has Crohn's disease. On 7 October, they say, someone claiming to be from Hamas answered his phone when they tried to call him.\n\nDaniela Gilboa, 19, sent messages saying that Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where she was staying, was under attack and asked her mother to pray for her. Her boyfriend, Roy Dadon, told the Economist 1843 magazine that he believes he saw a glimpse of her in a video showing three girls being driven away in the back of an SUV.\n\nItay Chen, 19, a dual US-Israeli citizen and IDF solider, was on active duty with a tank unit on 7 October, according to the Times of Israel. The paper reported that his family was notified by the IDF that he is officially considered missing in action and probably being held hostage. Another soldier in his unit, Matan Angrest, 21, is also presumed to be in Gaza.\n\nYosi Sharabi, 51, was taken from Be'eri with his brother, Eli Sharabi, 55. Eli's wife and two daughters were murdered in the attack. Ofir Engel, the boyfriend of Yosi's daughter, Yuval, was also taken, but released on 29 November.\n\nAgam Berger, 19, was kidnapped from Nahal Oz. She was seen being taken away in videos released by Hamas.\n\nEdan Alexander, 19, is an Israeli-US citizen who volunteered to join the Israeli army. He was serving near the Gaza border at the time of Hamas's attack. Edan's family said they had been told by Israeli officials that he had been taken to Gaza as a hostage.\n\nKaid Farhan Elkadi, 53, lives with his family south of Rahat and worked as a security guard, according to Israeli media. Reports said his family believes he was kidnapped and taken to Gaza, based on images shared by Hamas.\n\nIlana Gritzewsky and Matan Zanguaker were captured near the Gaza border, family say\n\nMatan Zanguaker, 24, was taken with his partner Ilana Gritzewsky, 30, from Nir Oz, according to Ilana's father. Ilana, a Mexican national, was released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nThe family of Eitan and Yair Horn believe they were taken from Nir Oz kibbutz\n\nEitan Horn, 37, and his brother Yair, 45, both Argentinian citizens, were also in Nir Oz at the time of the attack. Their father Itzik said he believes they were kidnapped. Yair is a construction worker while Eitan works in education.\n\nItai Svirsky, 38, is thought to have been abducted when his elderly parents were killed in Be'eri. He had been visiting them for the holiday of Simhat Torah.\n\nKeith Seigel, 64, and his wife Adrienne - often known as Aviva - Seigel, 62, were taken from their home in Kfar Aza, Keith's brother Lee Seigel told the BBC. Adrienne was released on 26 November.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, lived in Nahal Oz with his wife and two daughters. Omri was led away by Hamas with his hands tied, his wife Lishay told the Guardian newspaper. She told him not to be a hero, urging: \"Do whatever they want because I want you back.\"\n\nBipin Joshi, 23, a Nepalese student, is believed to have been taken from Kibbutz Alumim. Nepalese newspaper Setopati says he was one of 49 university students studying agriculture in Israel. It says 10 students were killed in the attack.\n\nIlan Weiss, 58, went missing from Kibbutz Be'eri after he was last seen leaving the house to defend the community. On 25 November, his wife Shiri Weiss, 53, and their daughter, Noga, 18, were freed from captivity in a hostage deal.\n\nAmiram Cooper, 85, and his wife Nurit, 80, were taken from their home in Nir Oz, their daughter-in-law Noa told the BBC. The family last spoke to the couple during the Hamas attack, Noa said, when the couple were in their safe room. The family later traced Amiram's phone to Gaza. On Monday 23 October, Nurit was one of two women to be released.\n\nAmiram and Nurit Cooper, pictured with their granddaughter, Gali\n\nOded Lifshitz, 83, and his wife Yocheved, 85 were taken hostage from Nir Oz. On Monday 23 October, Yocheved was one of two elderly women to be freed. After hearing the news of her mother's release, their daughter Sharone - a London-based artist - said: \"While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those - some 200 innocent people - who remain hostages in Gaza.\"\n\nHaim Peri, 79, was taken from his home in Nir Oz, reports the Times of Israel, and freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz said she saw that he was alive and well. His son Lior Peri told Talk TV that Haim had locked his wife inside the safe room before giving himself up to kidnappers.\n\nAvraham Munder, 78, was kidnapped from Nir Oz, Israeli officials say. His wife Ruthi, daughter and grandson have since been released.\n\nOmer Neutra, a 22-year-old Israeli-American and grandson of Holocaust survivors, put off plans to go to college in the US to study in Israel, and eventually joined the IDF. He was serving as a tank commander near Gaza when Hamas attacked. Omer's parents say they were told by the Israeli embassy that he had been kidnapped.\n\nRon Benjamin's vehicle was found empty following the attacks\n\nRon Benjamin, 53, had been taking part in a group cycle ride near the Gaza border when the Hamas attack began and he decided to drive home, his family told Israeli media. Days later, his vehicle was found empty and his family believe he was kidnapped.\n\nLouis Har, 70, is believed to have been taken from Nir Yitzhak. His partner Clara Marman was released on 28 November along with her sister Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and Gabriela's daughter Mia Leimberg,17. Clara and Gabriela's brother Fernando Simon Marman, 60, also remains in captivity.\n\nJudith Weinstein Haggai, 70, and her husband, Gad Haggai, 73, also went missing from Nir Oz after the Hamas attack. Ten days later, the Israeli military confirmed to the family they had been taken hostage, CTV News in Canada reported.\n\nAlex Danzig, 75, a scholar and historian of the Holocaust, was at his home in Nir Oz, when it was attacked by Hamas. \"We know for sure he was kidnapped,\" his son Mati told the BBC. Alex - whose older sister Edith is a Holocaust survivor - has spent the last 30 years working for Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance centre. His disappearance has triggered a campaign for his release, both in Israel and in Poland, the country of his birth.\n\nAlex Danzig has spent decades educating people about the Holocaust\n\nItzhk Elgarat, 68, was kidnapped at the same time as Alex Danzig, his brother Danny Elgert told Israel's Kan 11 TV station, adding that he had tracked his brother's phone to the border with Gaza.\n\nGadi Moses, 79, was also abducted during the same attack on Nir Oz, according to relatives and the Israeli aid agency where he worked as an agricultural expert. Efrat Katz, his partner, was initially thought to have been captured as well, but she was later found dead, the Times of Israel reported. Efrat was the mother of Doron Asher, who was taken hostage and later released with her two daughters. Ravid Katz, 51, Doron Asher's brother, was originally thought to have been taken hostage from Nir Oz, but on 28 November his family confirmed that he had been killed on 7 October.\n\nYair Yaakov, 59, is listed among the hostages. His partner Meirav Tal, 53, was released on 28 November. Yair's children Yagil, 13, and Or, 16, were released on 27 November.\n\nYair Yaakov was pictured being held captive by a gunman in a video shared online\n\nNimrod Cohen, 19, had studied software engineering in high school, according to reports. After he was kidnapped, his father was invited to meet Pope Francis in Rome along with other hostages' families.\n\nTsachi Idan, 51, was last seen by his wife, Gali, as he was taken away by Hamas gunmen. Their family had been ambushed in their safe room in Nahal Oz. Their ordeal was live-streamed by Hamas. Their eldest child, Maayan - who had just turned 18 - was shot dead, Gali told the BBC.\n\nTsachi Idan was ambushed with his wife and children and then led away\n\nYarden Bibas, 34, was abducted from Nir Oz. His wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel and Kfir, were also taken hostage, but on 29 November, Hamas claimed they had been killed in an Israeli air strike while in captivity. The Israeli government has said it is checking the claim.\n\nRonen Engel, 54, was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his wife, Karina Engelbert, 51, and their two daughters, Mika, 18 and Yuval, 11. On 1 December, the organisation representing the families said he had been murdered. Karina, Mika and Yuval were released on 27 November.\n\nKarina Ariev, a 19-year-old soldier, was serving at an army base near Gaza when she was kidnapped. Her sister Alexandra told the BBC she heard shooting as Karina called her during the attack, and later saw a video showing Karina being taken away in a vehicle.\n\nKarina Ariev was at the Nahal Oz military base, which was among the first to be attacked\n\nOfer Kalderon, 53, was taken by Hamas from Nir Oz. On 27 November his two children, Erez, 12, and Sahar, 16, were released. Two other relatives, 80-year-old Carmela Dan and her granddaughter, Noya, 12, were also believed to have been taken, but Israeli authorities later announced they had been found dead.\n\nYoram Metzger, 80, was a resident of Nir Oz. He has diabetes and broke his hip six months ago, his daughter-in-law said. Yoram's wife Tamar was released on 28 November.\n\nNadav Popplewell, 51, and his mother Channah were taken hostage by Hamas, said Channah's daughter Ayelet Svatitzky, who was speaking to them on the phone when the gunmen burst in. She said the captors sent pictures of her two relatives, who both have diabetes, with armed men in the background. Channah has now been released.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, was abducted after his family opened the door to their secure shelter to an Israeli child, who said he would be killed otherwise. Omri's wife, Lishay Lavi, said she saw him being taken away in handcuffs with three other hostages from Nahal Oz.\n\nLiri Elbag, 18, had just started military training as an Army lookout near the Gaza border when Hamas attacked, her father Eli told the Associated Press. Eli said he saw her in a video circulated later by Hamas, crowded with others on the back of a military truck which had been seized by the gunmen.\n\nLior Rudaeff, 61, was taken from Nir Yitzhak during the attack. His family have heard nothing from him since then.\n\nA number of people are believed to have been abducted from the Supernova music festival in southern Israel. Among them:\n\nShlomi Ziv, 40, was part of the security detail at the festival and was initially in contact with his sisters as the attack unfolded, according to an interview with The Times of Israel. A few weeks later the family learned he was officially considered to be a hostage, the report says.\n\nAlexander Lobanov, 32, is a Russian-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped at the festival.\n\nOri Danino, 25, is reported to have got away from the festival in his car, but it's believed he was captured after turning back in an attempt to save some people he had met there.\n\nAlmog Sarusi, 26, was kidnapped from the music festival and his partner Shahar Gindi was killed, according to Israeli media. Almog's father, Yigal, was among the relatives of hostages who met with Israel's prime minister in October.\n\nOmer Shem Tov, 21, called his parents as he was running away from gunfire and managed to get into a friend's car. His parents, Shelly and Malki Shem Tov, told Israeli media they lost contact with their son and the live location on his phone showed he was beyond the border in Gaza.\n\nIdan Shtivi, 28, an environmental sciences student, was attending the festival to take pictures at music and yoga workshops being held by friends. He escaped the site in his car but was attacked by Hamas along the route. The bodies of two of his passengers were found, and his family told the Jerusalem Post they suspect he was kidnapped.\n\nYosef Ohana, 24, had been at the festival with a friend, who told his mother he and Yosef had remained to help people escape the gunfire before running themselves. Yosef was last seen hiding under a car, and Israeli authorities have visited his mother to say he was kidnapped.\n\nAndrei Kozlov, 27, a Russian who moved to Israel in 2022, is missing from the Supernova festival, where he was working as a security guard. His mother told the De Taly publication the family was told by the IDF on October 26 that he was being held hostage.\n\nElyakim Libman, 23, was working as a security guard at the festival. In a Facebook post his father Eliyahu Libman said another guard told him his son had helped rescue others before trying to escape. He was last seen trying to help two badly-injured women.\n\nNoa Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was also kidnapped from the festival. Video footage - verified by her father Yaakov Argamani to Israel's Channel 12 - shows the 25-year-old being taken away on the back of a motorbike screaming, \"Don't kill me!\" Her boyfriend Avinatan Or, 30, also appears in the video being marched away from her by Hamas, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nEden Yerushalmi's family say they were told she had been taken hostage\n\nEden Yerushalmi, 24, called her family during Hamas's attack on the festival, her sister May told CBS News. The family say they were subsequently informed by the IDF that Eden had been abducted.\n\nChanan Yablonka, 42, is a father-of-two from Tel Aviv. According to reports, he attended the festival with friends and was due to celebrate his birthday a few days after the attacks.\n\nJonathan Samerano, 21, has been missing since 7am on the morning of the festival. His family have been told to presume he is being held in Gaza, Israeli media reported.\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal was filmed in captivity in Gaza, his family say\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal, 22, attended the festival with his brother. Guy appears in a hostage video that his family say confirms he is in Gaza.\n\nUriel Baruch, 35, was injured during the attack on the festival, his wife said on Facebook. Reports in Israeli media say his mother, Naomi, has heard from the IDF that he is a hostage.\n\nMaxim Kharkin's mother described speaking to him on the morning of 7 October\n\nMaxim Kharkin is aged 35 and a Russian speaker, his mother told Russian media. She added that he had called her at 07:00 on the morning of the attack.\n\nElkana Bohbot was seen in a video posted by Hamas\n\nElkana Bohbot, 34, had gone to the party with friends and, before losing contact, he spoke to his wife and mother telling them he was helping to evacuate the wounded, the Times of Israel reported. Hours later, his family found a video of him posted online by Hamas, which has been seen by BBC Verify.\n\nRom Braslavski, 19, was working on security for the festival. According to an account published by Hostages and Missing Families Forum, he was trying to rescue an injured person in the attack when he was caught in a volley of fire. He has not been heard from since.\n\nOmer Wenkert, 22, a restaurant manager, sent a message to his family to say he was going to a safe shelter but then lost contact, his father Shai Wenkert told the BBC's Today Programme. Shai Wenkert said he had seen footage of his son in captivity, including a photo of him handcuffed and wearing only underwear.\n\nEvyatar David's family say they were sent a video of him in captivity\n\nEvyatar David, 23, was at the festival and on the morning of the attacks, described fleeing from gunfire before losing contact with the outside world, his brother says. Later, his family say, Evyatar's sister posted on Instagram appealing for information about his whereabouts. She then received a text from an unknown number, which contained video footage of Evyatar handcuffed on the floor of a dark room. According to Israel's foreign ministry he is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nEitan Mor, 23, lives in Jerusalem, and was working as a security guard at the festival, the Times of Israel said. He reportedly texted his uncle after Hamas arrived and was last seen with a friend bringing others to safety.\n\nAlon Ohel, 22, a Serbian citizen, took refuge in a shelter after the festival came under attack, his family say. They have seen footage of him being dragged away after a grenade attack.\n\nAlmog Meir Jan, 21, tried to flee the festival. He and a friend made it to the friend's car but only managed to drive a short distance before being forced to stop. Almog's family say they have seen a hostage video in which he appears.\n\nInbar Heiman, a student aged 21, was seen by two young Israeli men being taken away from the festival on a motorcycle. Hamas have released a video in which she is seen very briefly.\n\nHersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a dual US-Israeli citizen, was badly injured in the attack, his family told the BBC. Eyewitness accounts say he was seen being forced onto a white pick-up truck - the last-known signal from his phone came from just inside Gaza.\n\nSegev Kalfon, 26, was running away from the festival, across the highway, when he was captured by Hamas, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.\n\nOrión Hernández Radoux, 30, from Mexico, attended the festival with his girlfriend, Shani Louk. He has not been seen since. The Sun newspaper says it has seen threatening messages written in Arabic sent from his phone. Shani, a tourist from Germany, was initially thought to be among those seized. But on 30 October, her mother Ricarda told German media that the family had been informed by Israeli military of her death following DNA identification.\n\nRomi Lesham Gonen, 23, was on the phone to her mother as she tried to escape from the Supernova festival. Merav Leshem Gonan has recounted a conversation in which her daughter begged for help after being shot. ABC News reports that Romi's phone is now in Gaza.\n\nBar Kuperstein, 21, last spoke to his family early on the morning of 7 October, as the attack unfolded. Later the same day, his family say they identified him in a video of Israeli prisoners, posted by Hamas. Since then, they say they have had no further information.\n\nEliya Cohen, 26, was hiding with his girlfriend Ziv from the attack, when Ziv felt him being pulled up and driven away by the gunmen, Eliya's mother has told the video initiative #BringThemHomeNow. The family then found a photo of Eliya in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nAmit Buskila, 28, from Ashdod, was last heard of making a call to her uncle, Shimon, as Hamas overran the festival. Her family say they have now been told by the government that she is being held in Gaza.\n\nCarmel Gat, 39, is Jordan's sister-in-law, and also was seen by her father being taken by gunmen from Kibbutz Be'eri, Haaretz newspaper reported. She has not been heard from since.\n\nOhad Yahalomi, 49, was abducted from Nir Oz, along with his 12-year-old son, Eitan, who was released during the November ceasefire.\n\nDror Or, 48, was seen by a neighbour being dragged out of his home in Be'eri, according to their nephew Emmanuel Besorai, along with his son and daughter. On Saturday 25 November Dror's son Noam, 17, and daughter Alma, 13, were released from captivity. The body of Yonat, 50 - Dror's wife and the children's mother - was identified among the 120 people murdered at the kibbutz, Yonat's brother told the Guardian newspaper.\n\nTal Shoham, 38, was taken from Kibbutz Be'eri. His wife Adi, also 38, her mother Dr Shoshan Haran, 67, were released by Hamas on 25 November, along with the couple's children Nave, eight, and Yahel, three. Dr Haran's husband, Avshalom - an economist and dual German/Israeli citizen - was killed on 7 October.\n\nTamir Adar, 38, who defended Nir Oz as part of the kibbutz's emergency squad, was taken to Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen, 35, an American-Israeli citizen, has been missing since Hamas's attack on Nir Oz, his father Jonathan told the BBC. He said his son was not found among the dead and the \"only reasonable explanation\" is that he was taken to Gaza.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen's father has not heard from him since Hamas attacked the kibbutz where he lived\n\nThailand's ambassador to Israel says 26 of its citizens were taken hostage, 23 of whom have now been released.\n\nThose still being held are believed to include Watchara Sriuan, 32. His mother, Viewwaew, told the Thaiger news site that the family had been informed he was being held captive.\n\nKiattisak \"Top\" Patee and a Mr Pongtorn (no first name given) have also been named by the Thai foreign ministry as hostages.\n\nA number of other people thought to have been held hostage are now confirmed to have died, either during the 7 October attack or while in captivity.\n\nAs well as Ron Scherman and Nik Beizer, four bodies were identified this week. They were Tal Chaimi, an Israeli-Romanian citizen aged 41, and Joshua Mollel, a 19-year-old Tanzanian student. Also, 27-year-old Eden Zecharya, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, and 36-year-old Ziv Dado, who had already been declared dead by the Israeli military.\n\nOthers known to have died include Dror Kaplun, 68, Aviv Atzili, 49, Arye Zalmanovich, 85, Ronen Engel, 54, Maya Goren, 56, Guy Iluz, 26, Ofir Tzarfati, 27, Ofra Keider, 70, and Eliyahu Margalit, 75.\n\nThe bodies of 19-year-old soldier, Noa Marciano, and 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss were found by Israeli troops in buildings close to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.\n\nOn Saturday 9 December Kibbutz Bari announced that Sahar Baruch, 25, had been killed in Gaza.\n\nOther hostages whose death has been reported, but not confirmed include Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir.\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? If it is safe to do so, please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Ellie Challis is a Paralympic swimmer and continues to hold one world record and multiple British bests\n\nPremier Inn has apologised to a Paralympic swimmer and her father after a broken lift meant they were unable to access their first floor hotel room.\n\nEllie Challis, 19, and dad Paul said they waited two hours at the hotel in Romford, east London, but were told no other accommodation could be found.\n\nThe pair said they had no option but to make a 200-mile (322km) journey home to Manchester in the middle of the night.\n\nHowever, the pair said the recompense was not enough.\n\nChallis became Paralympics GB's youngest medallist at Tokyo 2020 when she reached the podium in the Women's S3 50m Backstroke on her Games debut.\n\nShe continues to hold one world record and multiple British bests.\n\nChallis said they became aware of the issue at the hotel late in the evening on 2 December.\n\nShe is originally from Clacton in Essex, but her family are now based in Manchester, which meant the journey home took about four hours during the night.\n\nChallis uses a wheelchair and had booked a standard room for her and her father to stay in, because she often finds the wet rooms in accessible rooms uncomfortable.\n\nShe said: \"If I was on my own, I would have been left at 19 to find myself with somewhere to stay at 1am.\"\n\nThe swimming star said she was often met with similar obstacles at train stations and while boarding planes.\n\n\"It is just irritating,\" she said. \"Most of the time I get a 'sorry' that is not really 'sorry', and it is the same next time.\"\n\nHer father said: \"There is no point in saying 'sorry' if you're not going to do something about it in the future.\n\n\"All my fight is to try and get these things cured for the future - not just for Ellie, for anybody, and at the moment these things are going to happen again.\"\n\nPremier Inn has apologised to the Paralympian\n\nPremier Inn said in a statement: \"When a guest books an accessible room, this automatically triggers a pre-stay call to make sure the room booked is the most suitable for them.\n\n\"However, we understand some people with accessibility issues on occasion do prefer to book our standard rooms.\n\n\"Where this is the case we have an accessible email helpline, which again helps ensure the room allocated is the best fit for individual needs.\n\n\"In this instance for example, we would have prioritised this booking as a ground floor room so that in rare event an issue with the lift did arise, access would not have caused a problem.\"\n\nIn response, Challis said it should not be up to her to contact the email helpline and bookings should be simplified so wheelchair users can book a ground floor room.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Some 4,000 American bully XL owners have applied for exemption from an upcoming ban - but many more dogs could be out there, the UK's chief vet says.\n\nDr Christine Middlemiss urged owners to apply before it becomes illegal to own a bully XL in England and Wales from 1 February.\n\nOwners who do not wish to keep their dogs can have them euthanised and apply for compensation for the cost.\n\nFrom 31 December all bully XLs must be kept on a lead and muzzled in public.\n\nIt will also be illegal from this date to breed, sell, advertise, gift, exchange, and abandon these dogs or let them stray.\n\nDogs on the exempt list will have to be neutered and microchipped.\n\nThe ban was announced in September following a number of attacks involving the breed, and the exemption scheme was introduced for people who already owned XL bullies.\n\n\"We want to bring in the certificates of exemptions because we don't have a way of understanding how many XL bullies there are and exactly where they are,\" the UK's Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Middlemiss told BBC Breakfast.\n\n\"It's great that over 4,000 owners have already registered and we urge the remaining owners who have not registered and want to do so to get on with the process.\"\n\nThe Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says a majority of exemption certificates have already been issued.\n\nThere have been 351 attacks by bully breeds in 2023, according to campaign group Bully Watch.\n\nHundreds of owners protested against the ban shortly after it was announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in September. Many insist that the dogs make lovable pets.\n\nDr Middlemiss said it was difficult to say how many unregistered dogs remained in England and Wales, but that the government would work with local authorities and police forces to see where there had been non-compliance.\n\nThe Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has published details defining an American Bully XL, which is not a breed recognised by the Kennel Club in the UK.\n\nAccording to this, the dogs are a \"large dog with a muscular body and blocky head, suggesting great strength and power for its size. Powerfully built individual.\"\n\n\"If your dog is meeting a significant number of the criteria, I advise a precautionary approach and register your dog,\" Dr Middlemiss added.\n\nShe said a combination of measures were being brought in by the government to protect the public, including rules on muzzling and breeding.\n\nTo qualify for an exemption certificate, the dogs will also need to be neutered by 30 June.\n\nIf the dog is less than a year old by 31 January, they must be neutered by the end of 2024, and evidence must be provided.\n\nThose seeking an exemption must also pay a £92.40 application fee for administration costs, hold active public liability insurance for their pets and ensure the dogs are microchipped.\n\nPeople with dangerously out of control dogs can be jailed for 14 years and banned from owning animals, and their pets can be put down.\n\nDo you have an American bully XL? Have you applied for an exemption? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Majors seen arriving at court on Monday\n\nUS actor Jonathan Majors has been found guilty of assaulting his then-girlfriend after a trial in New York.\n\nThe jury found Majors, known for playing Kang in the Marvel films, attacked British choreographer Grace Jabbari during an altercation in March.\n\nShe told the court she was left with a fractured finger, bruising, a cut behind her ear and \"excruciating\" pain.\n\nMajors, 34, faces up to a year in jail, and has been dropped from starring roles in forthcoming Marvel movies.\n\nThe six-person jury's verdict was announced on Monday following three days of deliberations.\n\nAs their decision was read in court, Majors pursed his lips and looked downwards but gave no other reaction, according to reporters in court.\n\nFollowing the verdict, a spokesperson for Marvel said the studio will not be moving forward with Majors on future projects.\n\nThe crime took place when the couple were in a car in New York and Ms Jabbari saw a text message from another woman on Majors' phone, which said: \"Wish I was kissing you right now.\"\n\nAccording to prosecutors, when she took the phone, he then grabbed her, twisted her arm behind her back and hit her in the head to get it back.\n\n\"I felt like a hard blow across my head,\" Ms Jabbari testified.\n\nThe jury found him guilty of two of the four domestic violence charges that he was facing.\n\nHe was found guilty of assault by recklessly causing physical injury, as well as harassment.\n\nBut the jury declined to convict him on charges of aggravated harassment and assault with intent to cause physical harm.\n\nThe prosecution painted the assault as the latest escalation in Majors' attempts to \"exert control\" over his girlfriend through physical and emotional violence. They shared voice recordings and text messages between the former couple with the jury.\n\n\"I'm a monster. A horrible man. Not capable of love,\" the actor sent in a text in September 2022 while threatening to kill himself.\n\nGrace Jabbari, seen during 2021's London Fashion Week, was a movement coach on Ant-Man and the Wasp\n\nIn audio from an argument that same month, Majors told her she needed to act more like Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama, the wives of Martin Luther King and former President Barack Obama.\n\n\"I am doing great things, not just for me but for my culture and the world,\" he said, adding that she would need to \"make sacrifices\" for him.\n\nMajors did not testify. His lawyer had argued the actor was the victim, and that Ms Jabbari assaulted him in a jealous rage after seeing the text message in the car.\n\nMajors, who also starred in Creed III, countersued her in June, alleging that she was the aggressor, but prosecutors declined to charge her due to a lack of evidence.\n\nSentencing will be in February. The judge also issued a new protection order, requiring him to have no contact with Ms Jabbari.\n\nShe was \"gratified to see justice served\" by the verdict, her lawyer said, adding that it should serve as an inspiration for other abused women to come forward.\n\n\"Ms Jabbari testified publicly and truthfully, even though reliving these traumatic events on the witness stand was obviously painful,\" lawyer Ross Kramer said in a statement to BBC News.\n\nMajors shown in a court sketch lowering his eyes as the verdict is read\n\nJurors were shown CCTV footage of the assault\n\nA lawyer for Majors said in a statement that his legal team is \"grateful\" that the jury notably did not find that he had intended to cause physical injuries to Ms Jabbari.\n\n\"Mr Majors is grateful to God, his family, his friends, and his fans for their love and support during these harrowing eight months,\" said lawyer Priya Chaudhry.\n\n\"Mr Majors still has faith in the process and looks forward to fully clearing his name.\"\n\nManhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office brought the criminal charges, said after the verdict that the psychological and emotional abuses carried out by the movie star were \"far too common across the many intimate partner violence cases we see each and every day\".\n\nMs Jabbari had met Majors two years earlier on the set of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where she was a movement coach.\n\nAfter his arrest, Marvel pushed back until 2026 the release of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, in which Majors had been due to play the lead villain.\n\nAnother film, Magazine Dreams, which had been touted as a possible Oscar contender, also had its release postponed following the allegations.", "The civilians are taking shelter inside the Holy Family Church (file photo)\n\nCivilians trapped in a church in Gaza City are living in an \"unreal\" sense of fear, a relative of one of those confined there has said.\n\nFifi Saba, whose sister is trapped inside the Holy Family Church, said people were scared to move out of fear of being shot.\n\nA mother and her daughter were killed inside the church by sniper fire on Saturday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said.\n\n\"A mother, Mrs Nahida Khalil Anton, and her daughter, Samar Kamal Anton, were killed, and others were wounded by the shooters while they were going to the bathroom,\" he said on Sunday.\n\n\"Some say, 'This is terrorism. This is war.' Yes, it is war. It is terrorism,\" he added.\n\nMs Saba, a Catholic from Gaza who now lives in the US, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she was worried about her sister, her brother-in-law and their two children aged 9 and 12, who were trapped there.\n\nShe said she was receiving news about them through a family member, who was able to speak to her sister once a day.\n\n\"They are locked in,\" she said. \"They can't really see the street very much, and most of the time they're cut off from the world. They don't have their phones, they don't have internet, they don't have the news.\"\n\nShe said her sister often asked for news about what was happening outside, and was able to hear bombs overhead.\n\n\"The fear they have been living is unreal,\" she said.\n\nMs Saba said she received a message in which her sister said the \"situation is really difficult\".\n\n\"I found out later that day that when she said the situation is very difficult, she was witnessing the killing of the two people - the two women in the church,\" Ms Saba said.\n\nMs Saba added that the family had spent \"a couple of hours\" hiding on the ground in the church compound, because \"they believed the Israelis were shooting anything that moves\".\n\n\"They were terrified to go to the bathroom, because the women were shot trying to get to the toilet,\" she said, adding that the water to the church had been cut off for a few days.\n\nFood was also scarce, she said, with those trapped living off boiled spaghetti for three weeks.\n\n\"And I think the past couple of days they have had no food,\" she said.\n\nOn Saturday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said two Christian women - named as Nahida and her daughter Samar - were shot and killed while walking to a building in the church complex known as the Sister's Convent.\n\n\"One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,\" a statement said. Seven more people were shot and wounded as they \"tried to protect others inside the church compound\" on Saturday.\n\nThe patriarchate said no warning had been given and added: \"They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents.\"\n\nThe patriarchate said that earlier on Saturday an Israeli tank fired on part of the church compound with 54 disabled people inside. It caused a fire that destroyed the building's generator, the only source of electricity, and some of the disabled people can no longer use their respirators, the statement said.\n\nIn response to the church's letter, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said it took \"claims regarding harm to sensitive sites with the utmost seriousness\".\n\nIt said an incident with its troops took place near a church in the Shejaiya area, and that an \"initial review suggests that IDF troops\" were operating against a Hamas \"threat that they identified in the area of the church\".\n\n\"The IDF is conducting a thorough review of the incident,\" it said.\n\nThe BBC has contacted the IDF for further comment on the accusations of indiscriminate shooting.\n\nIt is unclear why the church is allegedly being targeted, but Ms Saba said she did not believe Hamas fighters were inside, and that her sister had not mentioned their presence.\n\n\"We've seen in the past 72 days how hospitals are attacked, schools are attacked, libraries are attacked, markets are attacked, bakeries are attacked.\n\n\"I find it hard to believe if that's the narrative they're using,\" she said.\n\nLayla Moran, a UK member of parliament, also told the BBC that members of her extended family, who are Christian Palestinians, were trapped in the church, having sought refuge after their home was bombed in the first week of the war.\n\n\"I'm now no longer sure they are going to survive until Christmas,\" she said, adding that they no longer had access to food or water.\n\nThe family members said soldiers had entered the church compound in the last 24 hours and had taken over a room in a building.\n\nThe family has sent a photo, seen by the BBC, of two bodies lying in a street outside the church building. Ms Moran's relatives say the bodies have been decaying for days.\n\nMs Moran said there had been no explanation as to why Israeli soldiers might target the church and no warnings or leaflets were sent to people sheltering there.\n\n\"It does feel like it's making a mockery of keeping civilians safe,\" she said.\n\nIsrael says it is carrying out military operations in Gaza to \"eradicate\" Hamas and rescue hostages taken by the group in its 7 October attacks. The Israeli military has repeatedly said it does not target civilians.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 18,700 people have been killed and 50,000 injured in the enclave since the start of the war.", "Federal prosecutors have charged Hunter Biden with evading $1.4m (£1.1m) in tax payments, a second criminal case against the US president's son.\n\nThe nine-count indictment also details a lavish spending spree including drugs and escorts over the same period, from 2016 to 2019.\n\nMr Biden, 53, was indicted in September for owning a gun while on drugs and not declaring his addictions on a form.\n\nHis lawyer said on Thursday night the new charges are politically motivated.\n\nPresident Joe Biden is not mentioned in the indictment and the White House has not commented.\n\nIt comes as congressional Republicans place Hunter Biden's business dealings at the centre of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, who is seeking re-election next year.\n\nIf convicted in the tax case, Hunter Biden could face up to 17 years in prison.\n\nThe three felonies and six misdemeanours include failure to file and pay taxes, false tax return and evasion of assessment.\n\nUS Department of Justice Special Counsel David Weiss has been investigating the Yale-educated lawyer and recovering crack cocaine addict since 2019.\n\nIn a 56-page indictment filed in California, prosecutors allege he spent his money on \"drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes\".\n\nThey say the president's son \"individually received more than $7 million in total gross income\" between 2016 and 2020, but \"willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes\".\n\nHunter Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, responded to the new charges by saying that \"if Hunter's last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought\".\n\nHunter Biden eventually paid all his taxes and fines back in 2020 - with the help of a loan from his personal attorney.\n\nA chart inside the indictment outlines what Hunter Biden spent his money on.\n\nBetween 2016-19, he paid over $188,000 for \"adult entertainment\" and over $683,000 on \"payments - various women\", according to the charge sheet.\n\nHunter Biden \"continued to earn handsomely and to spend wildly in 2018\", prosecutors allege.\n\nThe indictment notes he made \"substantial\" income, including from a company he formed with a Chinese business conglomerate, the Ukrainian energy company Burisma and an unnamed Romanian businessperson.\n\nAs his income increased, so did his expenditures on an \"extravagant lifestyle\", says the indictment.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Why Hunter Biden is important to Republicans\n\nIn 2018, the defendant spent more than $1.8m, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash withdrawals, about $383,000 in payments to women and $151,000 on clothing.\n\nYet that same year, Hunter Biden texted his ex-wife that he could not make his alimony payment \"due to insufficient funds\".\n\nHe meanwhile stayed at various luxury hotels, spent $10,000 \"to purchase a membership in a sex club\" and claimed that $1,248 cross country airline tickets for an exotic dancer were a business expense, according to the indictment.\n\nProsecutors note that he \"had sufficient funds available… to pay some or all of his outstanding taxes when they were due\", but chose not to do so.\n\nHe allegedly often wrote off personal expenses as business expenses, like a rental of a Lamborghini that he drove when he first moved to California in April 2018 until his Porsche arrived from the east coast.\n\nEarlier this year, Hunter Biden had been expected to plead guilty to misdemeanour tax charges in a deal with prosecutors.\n\nBut that agreement fell apart after a judge questioned it as \"unusual\". Congressional Republicans later slammed it as a \"sweetheart deal\".\n\nThis summer, two Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers testified to Congress that Hunter Biden should have been charged with more serious tax crimes, but alleged he received lenient treatment as the son of the president.\n\nGary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler said Thursday's indictment serves as \"complete vindication\".\n\nThe federal gun charges filed in September related to his being in possession of a gun while using narcotics and lying on a form about it. He pleaded not guilty.\n\nThe House of Representatives Oversight Committee is currently leading an impeachment inquiry of President Biden, claiming he was involved in an influence-peddling scheme with his son.\n\nWhile congressional Republicans on the panel have produced bank statements that they argue prove Joe Biden lied when he denied benefitting from his son's business dealings, the White House has said the entire inquiry is based on lies.", "Gadi Eisenkot was told of his son's injuries while visiting an army base (file photo)\n\nThe son of Israel's ex-army chief Gadi Eisenkot, who is currently a minister in the country's war cabinet, has been killed in Gaza, the military says.\n\nIt says 25-year-old Master Sergeant Gal Eisenkot died in northern Gaza on Thursday.\n\nIsraeli media say MSgt Eisenkot was badly injured after a tunnel shaft exploded and later died in hospital.\n\nPM Benjamin Netanyahu said he and his wife were \"broken-hearted\", and that Gal Eisenkot was a \"true hero\".\n\nIn his statement, Mr Netanyahu added: \"Our heroes have not fallen in vain. We will continue to fight until victory.\"\n\nGadi Eisenkot, 63, is a battle-hardened retired general who served as Israel's chief of the general staff from 2015-19.\n\nA lawmaker from the National Unity party, he is also a current member of Mr Netanyahu's emergency government set up after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages.\n\nIsrael has responded by bombarding Gaza from the air and launching a ground invasion. Hamas officials in Gaza say it has killed more than 17,000 people, mainly civilians, with thousands more missing under rubble.\n\nMr Eisenkot was informed about his son's injuries as he was visiting the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) Southern Command, local media reported.\n\nA number of Israeli government officials and lawmakers also sent their condolences to the Eisenkot family.\n\nOpposition leader Yair Lapid posted a photo of Gal and Gadi Eisenkot in military uniforms hugging each other.\n\n\"This photo. This hug. A father and his son. Both in uniform. Both soldiers in this country,\" Mr Lapid wrote. \"They both respond to the call and show up when they're needed, doing whatever they need to do. The fate of an entire nation in one hug.\"\n\nThe IDF also said that another soldier - named as Sgt Maj Jonathan David Deitch, 34 - was killed in southern Gaza on Thursday.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Elizabeth line passengers walk down the tracks after their hours-long wait\n\nServices to and from Paddington station remain disrupted after hundreds of passengers were stranded on dark, cold trains for several hours.\n\nDamage to overhead electric cables in the Ladbroke Grove area of west London affected Elizabeth line, Great Western Railway and Heathrow Express trains.\n\nSome passengers said they were stuck for more than three hours on Thursday.\n\nPolice were also called to reports of a sexual assault on the Elizabeth line during the disruption.\n\nPassengers wait inside a train stuck on the Elizabeth line on Thursday night\n\nEngineers managed to open two lines for electric trains serving Paddington.\n\nMajor disruption is expected until 18:00 GMT on Friday, with trains in and out of Paddington cancelled or delayed. Great Western Railway (GWR) has advised customers to avoid travelling between London and Reading until further notice.\n\nElizabeth line trains are running with delays, while a reduced half-hourly service is running on the Heathrow Express.\n\nTrain drivers' union Aslef said a manager drafted in to cover during strike action on Thursday was driving the train involved in the incident in which the overhead cables were damaged.\n\nUnion members who work at GWR walked out as part of a long-running dispute over pay. Aslef said other train operators had chosen \"quite sensibly\" not to run any services during the strike.\n\nA GWR spokesperson said: \"The only people who can drive our trains are competent train drivers with route knowledge.\n\nOfficials assist passengers to get down from a train stuck on the Elizabeth line after damaged overhead cables blocked railway lines\n\nPassengers walk away after being evacuated from trains stuck on the Elizabeth line\n\nThe £19bn Elizabeth line - which opened in May 2022 - uses mainline rail infrastructure west of Paddington.\n\nPaddington services have been repeatedly affected by rail system faults in recent weeks - incidents on the Great Western line include four damaged rails discovered in eight days last month.\n\nThe British Transport Police said it was called to reports of a sexual assault on the Elizabeth line service at about 20:30 GMT on Thursday.\n\n\"While responding to the incident at Paddington station on 7 December, officers on scene were made aware of reports of a sexual assault,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"A man was arrested and later released. Inquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.\"\n\nTV personality Rachel Riley was among those affected by the disrupted service on Thursday night. She posted on X: \"Nearly 4 hours after we got on, we're getting off the Elizabeth line, woohoo!\"\n\nSinger James Blunt also claimed to have been caught up in the chaos.\n\nBlunt wrote on X: \"Been stuck somewhere outside Paddington for close to 4 hours now. Out of peanuts and wine\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Rachel Riley MBE 💙 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSome passengers reported being stuck for more than three hours while receiving no information from rail operators, while others said they had been unable to access a toilet.\n\nCommuter Mikey Worrall described the train as \"lurching to a stop\" and then a long, several-hour wait in semi-darkness as the driver drip-fed what little information they had through to passengers.\n\nEventually, the battery back-up running the train's heating and light services ran out, and passengers were left in darkness for another hour and a half until they were evacuated from the train.\n\nSome passengers were stuck between Paddington and Acton Main Line for more than three hours\n\nPassengers were evacuated from the train in the darkness after hours on it without power\n\nMr Worrall said: \"We saw a couple of workers come past, and they were trying to keep everyone calm. Suddenly, we saw a stream of people coming down the track, and at that point it was clear that we would be getting off.\n\n\"It was really eerie walking down the railway line in amongst this big crowd of people. It felt like a wartime thing.\"\n\nA Network Rail spokesman said: \"We are so sorry for the difficult journeys passengers endured on our railway last night and we will be investigating how and why it happened.\n\n\"The knock-on effects from last night mean operators will not be able to run a full service from Paddington today and passengers should check before they travel.\n\n\"Repairs are ongoing and we hope to have the railway fully open by the weekend.\"\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Victoria Hall was 17 when she was snatched about 300 yards away from her home and killed\n\nSerial killer Steve Wright has been arrested in connection with the unsolved murder of a teenage girl in Suffolk more than 24 years ago.\n\nVictoria Hall, 17, was last seen in the early hours of Sunday, 19 September 1999 in High Road, Trimley St Mary.\n\nWright, 65, is currently serving a whole life sentence for the murder of five women in Ipswich in 2006.\n\nThe BBC understands Wright was initially arrested in 2021 in connection with the Victoria Hall case.\n\nSteve Wright killed Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls, before dumping their bodies around Ipswich in the winter of 2006\n\nWright killed Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls, before dumping their bodies around Ipswich in the winter of 2006.\n\nSuffolk Police confirmed the same man initially arrested in 2021 had been rearrested on Wednesday for questioning in connection with the murder of Victoria, whose body was found five days after she was last seen 25 miles (40km) from her home.\n\nHe has now been released from police custody, and remains in prison, under investigation.\n\nThe BBC understands Wright was not one of the people originally arrested in the 1999 case.\n\nIn September 2019, police revealed the case - known as Operation Avon - was once again a live murder inquiry and was being reinvestigated by a new detective team.\n\nFresh information had been received that was not previously known, Suffolk Police said.\n\nOfficers first arrested Wright on suspicion of murder on 28 July 2021.\n\nVictoria's body was found in a ditch at Creeting St Peter five days after she went missing\n\nVictoria had gone for a night out with a friend on 18 September 1999 at the Bandbox nightclub in Bent Hill, Felixstowe.\n\nShe and her friend stayed there until about 01:00 BST on 19 September before leaving to get food at the Bodrum Grill in Undercliff Road West.\n\nThey then started to walk back to Trimley St Mary.\n\nVictoria was just a short walk from her home when she and her friend parted company at about 02:20 near the junction of High Road and Faulkeners Way.\n\nWhen Victoria's parents woke up they found she had not returned home and called the police.\n\nA missing person's inquiry was opened but five days later Victoria's naked body was found in a ditch beside a field by a dog walker in Creeting Lane, Creeting St Peter.\n\nSuffolk police asked for anyone with information about the case to contact them.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830", "The wait for a coil to be fitted dominated Gail Adams's life and stopped her socialising with friends and partner Richie\n\n\"You sweat profusely and you feel violently sick and you're crying out, the pain is so bad.\"\n\nGail Adams, 48, says delays in having a coil fitted left her in \"excruciating\" pain with endometriosis, and she was unable to work for three months.\n\nSome patients in her area are waiting nine months for a coil - also used for contraception - to be fitted, compared to two weeks in most of the country.\n\nCardiff and Vale health board said it has 900 people on its waiting list.\n\nA spokesperson said services were experiencing \"significant and sustained pressures nationally\", adding that \"colleagues are working tirelessly to see patients in a timely manner\".\n\nHormonal intra uterine devices, also known as coils, can be used to help treat endometriosis, a painful condition thought to affect one in 10 women, where tissue similar to the womb lining grows in other places outside the uterus, sticking organs together.\n\nThe hormonal coil, the copper coil and the implant are primarily used to prevent pregnancy and should be free and easy to access through NHS services.\n\nFor Gail, a short appointment to fit one could have changed everything.\n\nGail Adams says the wait had an huge impact on her life\n\nInstead the English teacher relied on hot water bottles and daily strong painkillers to cope with the constant \"dull ache\" of living with endometriosis.\n\nOptions included Gail's GP telling her about replacing her hormonal coil that would help treat the endometriosis and reduce her symptoms, but there was a four-month wait for this.\n\nShe described a flare-up as feeling like \"birthing pain\", and it dragged all down her legs, back, hips and stomach.\n\nThe pain was so bad that she stopped working for almost three months and stopped socialising as she waited for her appointment.\n\nIn the meantime, Cardiff and Vale health board's sexual health services put her on a seven-month waiting list.\n\n\"It's completely debilitating,\" she said.\n\n\"The only option is to double up on my painkillers and knock myself out.\"\n\nPeople with endometriosis have to wait alongside people wanting the coil for contraceptive purposes\n\nAn appointment to fit a coil takes about 30 minutes, with the actual fitting about five minutes.\n\nCardiff Royal Infirmary currently has 900 people waiting for a coil or implant.\n\nGail was recently offered a last-minute cancellation from her GP, and while she feels grateful, is concerned about others having to wait. She has now had the procedure, but remains off work.\n\n\"I still have the pain, but it's slowly getting better,\" she said\n\n\"There are so many women who are really fighting and advocating for themselves to get very simple procedures done for a very debilitating and life-changing illness.\"\n\nMost of Wales' health boards reported waits of two weeks for a fitting after an initial contact, with the second longest wait being seven weeks in the Hywel Dda area of west Wales.\n\nHowever, within Cardiff and Vale, it was between five and six months.\n\nBut some clinicians suggested to BBC Wales that some patients are waiting eight or nine months.\n\nDr Georgina Forbes believes there should be more impetus from government officials to improve the situation\n\nA health board spokesperson encouraged patients to call its concerns team, adding: \"We are sorry to hear of this patient's experience and understand how difficult it is for patients who wait a long time for treatment.\"\n\nThere is \"not an equitable service for the women of Wales\" is how Dr Georgina Forbes described the situation.\n\nThe Wales chairwoman of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare said there was a real variety of waiting times across the country.\n\nShe said that before Covid, meeting demand was difficult, but since the pandemic, coils and implants were \"put on the back burner\", leading to backlogs.\n\nDr Forbes, who works for the Aneurin Bevan health board, also said drop-in clinics had closed while staff training and retention was an issue.\n\n\"In the meantime, you're still getting that same weight of referrals every week and the same number of women are ringing every week, it's really difficult to get that amount down,\" she said.\n\nDr Forbes pointed out that it was not only fitting, but also removing coils that was an issue, potentially delaying women's ability to conceive.\n\nIn its latest report, Public Health Wales recorded a 34% increase in the number getting abortions in the five years up to 2021.\n\nDr Forbes said there was a partial link between abortion and contraception rates, adding: \"If we're diverting our workforce to abortion care, we're not solving some of the problem of the rising abortion rates.\"\n\nDr Forbes called for more \"impetus\" from the Welsh government, \"putting some pressure on trusts to provide the service within a timely manner\".\n\nThe Welsh government said it was \"committed to ensuring access to a range of contraception options, provided safely and effectively by confident and competent fitters\".\n\n\"We expect all health boards to take positive action to improve the experiences and outcomes of women and address any inequalities,\" it added.\n\n\"This will act as the vehicle for transforming the care received by the women of Wales.\"", "Brazilian legend Pele, arguably the world's greatest ever footballer, was a Viagra ambassador\n\nPele may have been its poster boy - and the Pope gave it his blessing - but if it wasn't for a south Wales industrial town, we may never have known about Viagra.\n\nMen from Merthyr Tydfil, including ex steelworkers desperate for cash during the town's industrial decline, went to a local research centre to volunteer as medical guinea pigs.\n\nLittle did they know the trial they were agreeing to take part in helped change the world.\n\nBecause it wasn't until 30 years later that some of them discovered it laid the foundations for the drug that has since helped millions of men with erectile dysfunction.\n\nAt the start of the 1990s, drug company Pfizer was testing a compound called Sildenafil UK-92,480 in an effort to treat high blood pressure and angina.\n\nIt contracted medical studies out of a research house in Merthyr Tydfil and recruited local young men to test it.\n\nIdris Price was one of the men who signed up to test the new drug in 1992.\n\nAt the time he was going from job to job having been laid off in the local steelworks.\n\n\"If I was short of money, I'd go down this place called Simbec,\" Idris said.\n\nIdris Price says he and fellow volunteers in Merthyr Tydfil didn't know the angina drug they tested led to the creation of Viagra\n\nHe would ask what studies he could do for cash, adding: \"We were told nothing about the drug apart from the doctor said the tablet is for angina and you might have side effects.\n\n\"A lot of the boys were nervous about what was going to happen.\"\n\nThe volunteers, all young men, were paid to take the compound UK-92,480 pill three times a day for 10 consecutive days.\n\n\"In the late 1980s and early 90s, it was very hard times for us and you'd try to get any money you could get,\" Idris told BBC documentary Keeping It Up.\n\n\"The money from the trial was very important to my family as we had nothing in those days.\n\n\"It allowed us to get in extra food and instead of having two bags of coal for the fire, we had five. It was actually a doddle, easy money which came in handy.\"\n\nBut when the trial was over, unforeseen side effects from the drug proved the \"lightbulb moment\" for Pfizer.\n\n\"Volunteers started coming forward and saying 'it's a little embarrassing, but I've noticed I'm getting more erections than usual - and the erections are a lot harder than usual',\" said Dr Pete Ellis, Pfzier's former discovery and development lead.\n\nThe chance observations in Merthyr Tydfil saw Pfizer put funding together to launch an impotence study.\n\nMerthyr Tydfil is an industrial town in the south Wales valleys that was hit hard by the decline of heavy industry in the 1980s and 1990s\n\nPatients with erectile dysfunction were tested at Bristol's Southmead Hospital, before a further clinical trial the following year in 1994 in Swansea.\n\nThe clinic at Swansea's Morriston Hospital was the widest spectrum as it included men with diabetes and heart disease, where the side effects can include erectile dysfunction.\n\n\"Pfizer said they had to be heterosexual men in a stable relationship,\" recalled trial leader and endocrinology consultant David Price.\n\n\"They were all regular guys, all married and ordinary blue collar Swansea men. The trial included showing the men erotic videos.\"\n\nDavid Price said his clinical trial of Viagra had a huge impact on his patients and their partners\n\nA device was attached to the penis of the men to monitor the drug's impact and doctors reassured the men they wouldn't be interrupted.\n\nThe results from the Swansea trial, like the Bristol study, were positive.\n\nPfizer quickly realised they had a potentially game-changing drug on their hands.\n\nIn fact so positive were the results, several men refused to return their unused tablets.\n\nPfizer's marketing team then kicked into overdrive on how to land their message of this new pill as experts pondered whether it'd be seen by the public as \"extremely special or disastrous\".\n\nThe firm was concerned about launching what could be described as a sex drug into what they thought was a relatively conservative world - so they used the feedback from men on the trials as their marketing message.\n\nViewers can watch the big story of the little blue pill on BBC iPlayer and on BBC Two on Friday at 21:00 GMT.\n\n\"One idea from the research was how deeply impotence impacts a person's sense of self, the other was how much this impacted relationships,\" said Pfizer's former senior marketing manager Jennifer Doebler,\n\n\"I was deeply touched by what men were saying and how much this hurt relationships and how much it mattered to them.\"\n\nTo boost their PR message that their possible impotence cure could repair struggling relationships, Pfizer got religious blessing from the Vatican by saying Viagra could help the institution of marriage and strengthen family values.\n\nViagra hit the shelves in the USA and UK in 1998 as the first approved oral treatment for erectile dysfunction in a blaze of publicity and quickly became the fastest selling drug in history with annual sales peaking in 2008 of almost $2bn.\n\nBut Idris, oblivious to the fact the side effects fellow volunteers reported helped create Viagra, was unaware of Merthyr's role in Viagra's story until researchers from Keeping It Up told him earlier this year.\n\nThe Russell T Davies' feature-length drama Men Up will be one of the BBC 's flagship shows over the festive period\n\nThe story of Viagra's origin in south Wales has been made into a feature-length drama Men Up, which counts Doctor Who and It's A Sin's Russell T Davies as an executive producer, and is to be broadcast on BBC One over Christmas.\n\n\"I was amazed when I found out,\" Idris said.\n\n\"Viagra is a big thing now... I'm glad it was found in Merthyr Tydfil.\"\n\nViagra co-founder Dr David Brown said if it wasn't for the men of south Wales, Viagra may not exist.\n\n\"They made history,\" he said.\n\n\"They were probably just desperate to earn a bit of income but they've made a big difference to many people's lives and they should feel good about that.\"\n\nViagra co-founder Dr David Brown thanked the men of south Wales for their part in helping make medical history\n\nThe NHS says impotence or erectile dysfunction is \"very common, particularly in men over 40\" and some research estimates it can effect about half of all men between the ages of 40 and 70 - so more than four million men in the UK.\n\nOther studies suggest that by 2025, 322 million men across the world may be affected by erectile dysfunction - more than double of the estimated 152 million in 1995.", "James Henry Clarke, pictured in 2017, when being interviewed by the BBC\n\nA former minister who was extradited from Canada to Northern Ireland has been sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for three years, for a number of historical child abuse offences.\n\nJames Henry Clarke, 81, with an address at Cloncore Road, Portadown, County Armagh, appeared before Belfast Crown Court on Thursday.\n\nHe was charged with three counts of indecently assaulting two teenage boys in the 1960s and 1970s.\n\nAn international arrest warrant had been issued for him.\n\nClarke admitted abusing two teenage boys who were living in care homes where he worked.\n\nThe court heard the first victim was abused on two occasions between January 1966 and 1972 while he was staying at Bawnmore House in Newtownabbey.\n\nOne incident happened when the victim was in bed feeling unwell and the second incident happened at Clarke's mother's home.\n\nThe victim had contacted the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in 1980 and alleged he had been abused by Clarke when he was 13 years old.\n\nFollowing this complaint, police officers travelled to Canada and spoke to Clarke about the allegations which he denied. At this stage, no decision was taken to prosecute him.\n\nFive years later Clarke was interviewed by police about an unrelated matter but he then admitted abusing the teenager at Bawnmore House.\n\nThe court also heard that the second victim was abused on a date between May 1970 and May 1974 at Conway House children's home in County Antrim.\n\nIn 1985 Clarke admitted to abusing this victim whilst he was a deputy senior matron at the home, in a letter to the RUC officer who had previously interviewed him in Canada in 1980.\n\nThe victim told the police he was around 13 years old when the incident occurred on a fishing trip in Newcastle.\n\nNo action was taken against Clarke on this occasion either, despite his confession.\n\nIn 2017 BBC Newsline travelled to Canada and tracked down Clarke and interviewed him about the abuse allegations which had come to light through the Historical Institutional Abuse Enquiry.\n\nHe admitted to the organisation that he did abuse two boys in Belfast in the 1960s and 1970s.\n\nClarke also told the BBC he admitted the abuse to police but no action was taken against him.\n\nFollowing this, the Public Prosecution Service launched extradition proceedings.\n\nThe court heard that after emigrating to Canada in 1977 Clarke became a church minister.\n\nAs part of his work there, he was involved in a child-abuse inquiry and also helped set up a home for boys.\n\nThe court heard that at no point were the Canadian authorities made aware of the allegations against Clarke in Northern Ireland.\n\nDefence barrister Michael Boyd told the court that the extradition was a \"harrowing experience\" for his client who spent more than 40 days in detention in Canada before being brought to Northern Ireland.\n\nMr Boyd mentioned Clarke's complex medical conditions, as well as caring responsibilities he and his 83-year-old wife have for one of their sons who requires extensive care.\n\nHe said that Clarke was \"ashamed and deeply sorry\" for what he did, adding that he did everything to \"facilitate the prosecution of himself by virtue of his confessions\".\n\nJudge Reel said that after reading statements from the two complainants \"both men speak of the long-lasting memories of the abuse that they suffered at the hands of this defendant\".\n\nHe added: \"They say those memories effect every day of their existence.\"\n\nThe judge said he taken into considerations Clarke's admissions of guilt, his caring responsibilities in Canada and his health issues.\n\nAlso noted by the judge was no evidence of further offending in Canada \"despite his access to children\".\n\nAddressing Clarke as he stood in the dock, Judge Reel imposed the suspended sentence and warned Clarke of the consequences should be re-offend within the next three years.", "NIE Networks have a legal obligation to employ contractors to manage the safety of electrical lines where there is an encroachment of trees.\n\nAn east Belfast woodland was cut down by accident in part due to ineffective communication, Northern Ireland Electricity Networks (NIE) has said.\n\nA local councillor told BBC News NI around 170 trees and saplings in Orangefield Park were cut down in error.\n\nThe instructions given to NIE said the trees should only have been trimmed.\n\nNIE has said it will restore the woodland and will introduce new procedures.\n\nA local resident told the BBC the mistake was \"hard to stomach\".\n\nOn Thursday, councillors at Belfast City Council will be asked to approve NIE's offer to replant the area.\n\nOverhead power lines are owned and managed by NIE Networks who have a responsibility to cut back any trees that grow around the lines.\n\nPower lines run through the woodland in Orangefield Park and in April 2023 NIE had asked the council for permission to cut back the trees.\n\nThe council granted a licence for the work with specific instructions to \"lop the trees, as opposed to felling them\" and stated that the work should be completed outside the bird nesting season.\n\nIn May, a NIE contractor began to clear the area, but work was suspended when residents complained about \"excessive tree cutting\".\n\nNIE said that the work carried out in May was \"technically competent\" but acknowledge that the tree cutting works \"deviated significantly from those agreed with Belfast City Council as detailed in the published work instruction.\"\n\nIt added that \"changes to cut‐type and the disposal of arisings were made without rigour and on an ad‐hoc basis\".\n\nIn a statement, NIE said: \"We know that the issue arose due to the effectiveness of the communication between the contractor and NIE Networks.\"\n\nLocal resident Caroline Gallagher, who regularly walks her dog in Orangefield Park, said she was \"saddened\" at the news.\n\n\"170 trees accidentally being cut down due to a communication error is hard to stomach, especially in this day and age when we have many communication channels,\" she said.\n\n\"I am glad NIE are taking ownership by funding the replanting of more trees, but the damage is done and unfortunately the area won't return to its natural beauty for many years because it will take time for the new trees to reach maturity.\"\n\nBelfast City Council's climate and city resilience committee will meet to discuss NIE's response to the incident on Thursday evening.\n\nNIE have asked the council for permission to finish the work it had started in clearing the area and to begin restoring the woodland.\n\nAn area of around 1,400 square metres was cleared and NIE have offered to plant 400 new trees in the space with around 60% of these being hazel trees.\n\nNew procedures will also be put in place for contractors managing trees on council sites.\n\nGreen Party councillor Brian Smyth told BBC News NI it was \"very positive to see a resolution\" but added that the incident had \"caused anger and upset for those who use the park and live nearby\".\n\n\"Approximately 170 trees of all sizes were cut down and we're looking at 400 being planted,\" he said.\n\n\"It's not only about a tree replacement scheme but putting in place new agreements with outside contractors so this never happens again\".\n\nNIE said the \"project shall be funded and managed by NIE Networks, at no cost to the council\" and that it expects work to start in 2024.", "Kigali can bee seen from the upper floors of the empty hostel that will put up people sent from the UK\n\nThis week, Rwanda has been at the centre of a debate in UK politics about whether the government's latest attempt to offshore some of its asylum seekers to the East African nation will work. But what do people in Rwanda make of the scheme?\n\nThe atmosphere in Hope Hostel is eerie.\n\nIts 50 double rooms are cleaned daily, toiletries and slippers wait for new arrivals that are yet to come. Located in the affluent Kagugu suburb of Rwanda's capital, Kigali, you can see the presidential palace from some of the rooms' balconies.\n\nIt used to be a refuge for survivors of the 1994 genocide, in which about 800,000 people were slaughtered by ethnic Hutu extremists targeting the Tutsi minority.\n\nLast year, it was then repurposed to host the asylum seekers who were going to be relocated from Britain.\n\nIt has 50 double rooms and can host up to 100 guests.\n\nQurans and prayer mats have been set up in each room.\n\nIsmail Bakina, the hostel's managing director, says they were told many of the new arrivals would be Muslims from the Middle East and they wanted to accommodate their faith.\n\nAll the signs around the hostel are in English and Arabic.\n\nAnd the restaurant has a big halal placard above the kitchen. Two prayer rooms on the top floors have breath-taking views of Kigali's rolling green hills.\n\nHope Hostel reception is still waiting to welcome its first guest\n\nA BBC crew visited the hostel a year ago as it was getting ready to receive the first arrivals from the UK. Now, a year-and-a-half later, it still stands empty.\n\nIt is part of what we now know is a £240m ($300m) payment the UK made as part of its deal with Rwanda to settle some of its asylum seekers here.\n\nThe refugees would be given the option to stay in Rwanda or re-settle to another country.\n\nTwenty-five-year-old journalist Providence Uwase is happy about the arrangement and thinks the deal could be good for Rwanda.\n\n\"Money is being injected into the country. Remember the UK has already provided the first instalment, which in return will support economic growth here,\" she tells the BBC.\n\n\"And the fact that Rwanda takes these asylum seekers in, might change the negative depiction of this country.\"\n\nUK Home Secretary James Cleverly and Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta say their two countries are in a partnership\n\nMany of the people we speak to will not criticise the government on the record. They worry there might be repercussions in a country which rights groups have criticised for not allowing free expression.\n\nA 42-year-old Kigali café owner, who spoke to the BBC on the condition of anonymity, is torn about whether the scheme will benefit the country.\n\n\"On a positive note, by bringing these people here, in the long term… we'll become more multicultural.\n\n\"But the downside is that this is a tiny, densely populated country with minimal or no access to basic opportunities. What happens if foreigners come in to compete for the same opportunities?\"\n\nIt is also not clear whether the new legislation, if passed in Westminster, will get stuck in a court battle.\n\nLast month the UK Supreme Court judged a previous version of the scheme unlawful on the basis that it could not be sure Rwanda was a safe third country to send vulnerable asylum seekers to.\n\n\"I was surprised that the British government wanted to push this deal forward. They've signed a new treaty, but Rwanda's human rights record was one of the problems highlighted by the Supreme Court. If human rights issues are not addressed I think this treaty will face another legal challenge,\" she says.\n\nThe Rwandan government says it has always been important to both Rwanda and the UK that their partnership meet the highest standards of international law.\n\nIt also objects to being called unsafe, adding that the funding by the British government will ensure the asylum seekers it sends to Kigali are well taken care of.\n\nIn a press conference with British Home Secretary James Cleverly on Tuesday in Kigali, Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta said his country had a long history of welcoming refugees from around the world, including African migrants who were stuck in Libya and are now having their asylum cases processed in Rwanda.\n\nHe was referring to the Gashora transit camp, which we visit on a hot Thursday afternoon.\n\nCameroonian Berenice Nonga says Rwanda is a good home for refugees but wants to be re-located to the US\n\nForty-two-year-old Berenice Nonga is one of the residents.\n\nShe is happy here, but applied for asylum in the US. Her application has been successful and she hopes to move soon.\n\n\"Rwanda is really good, it's home for all the refugees, the people are welcoming, they take good care of us. But since I never intended to spend all my life in Rwanda, that's why I asked to be resettled somewhere else so that I can give my child a good life.\"\n\nShe is not the only one. Of the almost 2,000 people who have been relocated to the transit camp in Gashora since it was set up in 2019, none opted to stay in Rwanda when given the option, preferring instead to move to another country.\n\nBack in Kigali, 26-year-old South Sudanese refugee John (not his real name) also says he does not want to stay in Rwanda.\n\n\"I have no reason to stay in Rwanda. I don't see my life staying in Rwanda. All I do here is a struggle, I'm trying to build up a life out of a struggle.\"\n\n\"I'm grateful to the government of Rwanda for giving me refugee status, but when I think about my growth, I don't feel proud to be in Rwanda.\"\n\nHe says although some refugees like the dozens of female students Rwanda took in from Afghanistan live in good hostels and are well taken care of, others like him are left to rot in camps for years. He does not think the UK should send its asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\n\"Suella Braverman [who was home secretary at the time] came here to look into the living conditions of refugees. But she didn't meet the people who would have told her the truth about what it's like to be a refugee here before deciding to send asylum seekers here.\n\n\"It wasn't the real investigation of how to bring refugees in Rwanda. I don't agree with bringing refugees to Rwanda.\"", "PC Joe Gerrard said officers faced such jeopardy \"day in, day out\"\n\nA police officer who was stabbed five times has told the BBC that he thought he was going to die.\n\nPC Joe Gerrard suffered a punctured a lung and was unable to work for about a year as a result of the stabbing.\n\nHe spoke to BBC London ahead of the sentencing of his attacker Mohammed Rahman for attempted murder.\n\nAt Kingston Crown Court on Friday, 25-year-old Rahman was given a life sentence. He received a minimum prison term of 20 years.\n\nRahman stabbed PC Gerrard and his colleague PC Alannah Mulhall after they responded to a report of a drink being spiked at a nightclub in Soho, on 16 September 2022. PC Mulhall sustained a deep knife wound to her arm.\n\nPC Gerrard said he was left \"absolutely dripping in blood\" and struggling to breathe. \"I knew it was serious and I was thinking 'I'm probably going to die here',\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRecounting the events leading up to the stabbing, PC Gerrard said he and another female colleague were joined by PC Mulhall and a male officer to deal with the drink-spiking report.\n\nPC Mulhall and the other female officer took the disorientated victim to an ambulance, where a member of the public approached them and said Rahman had taken his phone at knifepoint\n\nAt this point, PC Gerrard and his male colleague were making inquiries inside the club.\n\nPCs Gerard and Mulhall are back on duty after long recoveries\n\n\"When we were in the ambulance, I can hear an argument going on outside,\" PC Mulhall said.\n\n\"[It] sounds a bit silly but I've never had a gut feeling in my life about anything, but the second I saw the suspect walking towards us, I knew something wasn't right.\"\n\nThe two female officers approached Rahman and he lunged at them before running off.\n\nAlerted to the situation, PC Gerrard and the other male officer went outside.\n\n\"There was no-one in the ambulance; our colleagues were gone, there were no paramedics,\" he said.\n\nPC Gerrard and his colleague soon found the other two officers. Rahman reappeared and was Tasered, but it had little effect due to his thick clothing.\n\n\"It's clear he was intent on killing one of us,\" said PC Gerrard, who tried to restrain him but was stabbed in the arm.\n\nRahman then turned to PC Mulhall and stabbed her right arm, cutting her down to the bone. \"It all happened so quick,\" she said.\n\nMohammed Rahman, of Westbourne Park Road in Notting Hill, was convicted of attempted murder and other offences in October\n\nBackup had arrived and Rahman was Tasered again, at which point he dropped his knife.\n\nPC Gerrard tried to kick the knife away from Rahman but the 25-year-old got back up, punched the officer and grabbed the knife again.\n\n\"He then grabbed hold of me, grabbed hold of my body-worn camera, and he was just repeatedly stabbing me,\" PC Gerrard said.\n\nRahman was finally restrained when he was Tasered once more.\n\nPC Gerrard said: \"The injuries have lasted. It has taken me a good year to recover.\"\n\nHe has been back at work for less than two months and remains on limited duties. PC Mulhall, who was off work for five months, is now back on patrol.\n\n\"I don't want to let this incident shape my whole life,\" she said.\n\nReflecting on the challenges police officers face, PC Gerrard said the situation that night was \"not really abnormal\".\n\n\"We see stuff like this day in, day out. It happens all over London, all over the country; dealing with people brandishing knives, attacking people and hurting people,\" he said.\n\n\"We are not the last police officers to be stabbed. There's been plenty since and, hopefully not, but it will probably happen again.\"\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "Saudi Arabia's sports minister says claims of 'sportswashing' against the country are \"very shallow\", as he defended its right to host the men's football World Cup.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC in Jeddah, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal said: \"A lot of the people that accuse us of that haven't been to Saudi, or seen what we are doing.\"\n\nCritics say unprecedented spending on sport has been used to improve the oil-producing kingdom's reputation over its human rights record and its environmental impact.\n\nBut the Saudi government insists the investment is boosting the economy, opening it up to tourism and inspiring people to be more active.\n\nIn his first interview since it emerged the country was bidding unopposed for the 2034 men's World Cup, the minister:\n• None Said Saudi Arabia was \"studying the possibility\" of hosting the tournament in the summer, despite the kingdom's extreme heat\n• None Backed the Fifa process that led to Saudi's World Cup bid emerging unchallenged, denying \"any lack of transparency\"\n• None Defended the Saudi Pro League's £750m summer transfer spending spree, arguing that \"nobody questioned [the Premier League] when they did it\", and that he was \"sure next year we'll have more attendance\" after small crowds at some games\n• None Vowed the controversy over neighbouring Qatar's treatment of migrant workers before the 2022 World Cup was \"not going to be repeated\"\n• None Insisted \"everyone is welcome\" at the event, despite the concerns of some fans about a country where homosexuality is illegal and women's rights are restricted.\n\nSaudi Arabia has invested around £5bn in sports since 2021, when the country's Crown Prince made it a key part of his strategy to diversify the economy, with a host of major sporting events brought to the kingdom, including high-profile boxing and Formula 1.\n\nThe country's Public Investment Fund has also launched the breakaway LIV golf series, taken control of four Saudi Pro League clubs and purchased Newcastle United.\n\nBut campaigners claim this vast state investment into sport is being used to distract from long-standing reputation issues such as Saudi Arabia's human rights record, the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the war in Yemen - a process known as 'sportswashing'.\n\nSpeaking in Jeddah, where his country has recently hosted both an America's Cup regatta and ATP Tennis event for the first time, and is now preparing to host this month's Fifa Club World Cup, Prince Abdulaziz said accusations of 'sportswashing' were \"very shallow\".\n\n\"Twenty million of our population are below the age of 30, so we need to get them engaged - we are playing our role to develop sports within the world and to be part of the international community\" he said.\n• None Why Saudi World Cup decision should not surprise anyone\n\nWhen asked if his country would be a suitable host of the 2034 World Cup, he added: \"We've showcased that - we've hosted more than 85 global events and we've delivered on the highest level. We want to attract the world through sports. Hopefully, by 2034, people will have an extraordinary World Cup.\"\n\nWhile campaigners acknowledge reforms over women's freedoms in Saudi Arabia in recent years, they also point to a reported rise in the number of executions, the continuing male guardianship system and the imprisonment of activists for online dissent.\n\nFifa has been urged to secure commitments to improving human rights before formally confirming a Saudi World Cup next year. According to Fifa guidelines, countries bidding to host the event must commit to respect human rights.\n\n\"Any country has room for improvement, no-one's perfect. We acknowledge that and these events help us reform to a better future for everyone\" claimed Prince Abdulaziz.\n\nWomen in Saudi Arabia were only allowed to enter sports stadia to watch matches in 2018, but since then a professional women's football league and national women's team has been created, with more than 70,000 girls now playing regularly.\n\nHowever, last month Jake Daniels, the UK's only openly gay active male professional footballer, told the BBC he \"wouldn't feel safe\" at the 2034 World Cup.\n\n\"Everyone's welcome in the kingdom\" said Prince Adbulaziz. \"Like any other nation we have rules and regulations that everyone should abide by and respect. When we come to the UK we respect the rules and regulations, whether we believe in them or not. Through the 85 events that we have had so far, we haven't had any issues.\"\n\nIt is widely expected that the 2034 tournament will be in winter to avoid the country's extreme summer temperatures, as with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.\n\nBut Prince Abdulaziz said organisers were \"definitely studying\" whether it could be staged in summer.\n\n\"Why not see what the possibilities are to do it in the summer? Whether it is summer or winter it doesn't matter for us, as long as we make sure that we [deliver] the right atmosphere to host such an event\" he said.\n\nSaudi Arabia is already building three new stadia for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, but must have 14 venues with capacities of 40,000 or more for the World Cup.\n\nIn October, human rights group Amnesty raised concerns over the treatment of migrant workers in the kingdom.\n\nWhen asked if there could be similar issues to the controversy that dogged the Qatar World Cup over workers' rights, Prince Abdulaziz said: \"I assure you it's not going to be repeated.\n\n\"We have 10 years to work on that, we already started in a lot of the venues, so we have a long time to do it in the right time, in the right process… We're already developing infrastructure… so we are not required to build a lot more to host such an event.\"\n\nBut environmental groups have expressed concerns over the environmental impact of staging a 48-team event, pointing to the energy required for cooling systems, the desalination of water and carbon-intensive infrastructure projects.\n\nReferencing various initiatives that the Saudi government says is helping it to diversify away from fossil fuels and reduce omissions, Prince Abdulaziz said: \"It's a mandate on us in the kingdom to make sure that we abide by the international regulations… to make sure that we play our role, to make sure that it's eco-friendly.\"\n\nHe also rejected criticism that the world's biggest oil exporter is using sport to distract from its record on sustainability, saying: \"I reject that completely because we are taking that seriously and thinking that we are part of this globe… and we have to play our role in that and we are doing that.\"\n\nIn March, Fifa dropped plans for Saudi Arabia's tourism body to sponsor the Women's World Cup following a backlash from co-hosts Australia and New Zealand and some players about the proposed deal.\n\nWhen asked about reports that state-owned oil giant Aramco is in talks over a sponsorship deal with Fifa, Prince Abdulaziz said: \"Aramco has been open to a lot of sponsors around the world in sports and they believe in sports because it's a good platform for them to develop and so on… they've sponsored Formula One, they've sponsored a lot of events around the world. I don't see what the issue is with Fifa - or is it just because it's Fifa?\"\n\nConcerns have been raised over the fast-tracked Fifa process that blocked most countries from bidding for the 2034 World Cup, and resulted in Saudi Arabia standing unopposed.\n\nAt the time of the announcement, fan group 'Football Supporters Europe' said it \"rolls the red carpet out\" for the country.\n\nBut Prince Abdulaziz rejected any suggestion that the governing body had paved the way for his country.\n\n\"It's just a theory,\" he said. \"What we should look at is what benefits the sport of football.\n\n\"Everyone was clear on the regulations, nobody objected to them during [the process] so I don't think there was any lack of transparency from Fifa. It was only that we were ready to do it and maybe others weren't. That's not our fault.\n\n\"As you can see from the announcement of more than 125 federations in support of the Saudi bid… the world also wants us to host 2034.\"\n\nFifa has said that a full evaluation of bids for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups is still to be completed before votes by all national associations at its Congress next year, and said its rotation policy helps to grow the game.\n\nFive-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo was the first notable figure to make the switch to the revamped Saudi Pro League last year. Since then a host of stars, such as Karim Benzema, Neymar, N'Golo Kante and Ruben Neves have followed suit, with £750m lavished on new signings this summer, sending shockwaves through football's transfer market.\n\n\"I think the Premier League did that and that's how they started. So nobody questioned them when they did it,\" said Prince Abdulaziz, when asked if the spending was a threat to more established European leagues.\n\nBBC Sport attended the recent Riyadh derby between Ronaldo's Al-Nassr and rivals Al-Hilal while covering a number of events, accompanied by Ministry of Sport officials, during several days in Saudi Arabia. The game was played in front of more than 50,000 fans, but crowds at some smaller clubs have been as low as several hundred, with average attendances less than 9,000.\n\n\"It's building blocks… I'm sure that next year we'll have more attendance,\" said Prince Abdulaziz.\n\n\"Like anywhere in the world there's some matches that attract much more audience than others, but all of our big matches have attracted record numbers so far… we're broadcasting to 147 countries around the world.\n\n\"When we planned to develop the league we never thought that we would do it with such pace, but to see that is actually refreshing and it actually showcases the importance of this. Our focus is to develop our league to attract the best in the world.\"\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "The 2015 American Gold Buffalo 50-dollar coin contains one-troy ounce (31.1g) of pure gold\n\nA foreign coin deposited into a charity's collection can has been called a \"Christmas cracker\" after it turned out to be worth £1,462.\n\nThe 2015 American Gold Buffalo 50-dollar coin was donated to Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA).\n\nIts true value was only discovered after being sent to a foreign currency exchange.\n\nAs the charity has collection cans all over Scotland it said it had no way of knowing where it was handed in.\n\nSCAA community fundraising manager Kate Loades said when the cans are emptied and counted any foreign, out-of-date or misshapen coins are gathered in a box.\n\n\"When we have enough foreign coinage, it is sent for conversion to Sterling for our funds,\" she said.\n\n\"It could have been donated anywhere in Scotland. All we know is that we're hugely grateful to whatever kind person parted with their US coin to support the work of SCAA.\n\n\"Their generosity helps us to respond to critical injury and illness wherever we're needed in Scotland, so we thank them for making one of our collection cans a real Christmas cracker.\"\n\nThe American Buffalo coin, also known as a gold buffalo, contains one-troy ounce (31.1g) of pure gold and has a face value of $50(£38).\n\nIt was first offered for sale by the US Mint in 2006 - since then the coin has increased considerably in value due to its popularity and the increase in the price of gold.\n\nLast year the SCAA raised nearly £26,000 through collection can giving, but the charity said it has never raised as much money from a single can before.\n\n\"It really is the Golden Goose of SCAA's Christmas,\" Ms Loades said.", "Last updated on .From the section Women's Football\n\nChelsea manager Emma Hayes says women are \"routinely used to dealing with systemic misogyny and bullying\" in football.\n\nIt follows comments ex-footballer Joey Barton made on X criticising women working in the men's game.\n\nBarton, 41, said women \"should not be talking with any kind of authority\" about men's football.\n\n\"The realities are male privilege has always been at the centre of football in this country,\" Hayes said.\n\n\"I feel that sport is the last place in society where that male privilege exists.\"\n\nWhen asked about Barton's comments in a news conference on Friday, Hayes did not name the former Manchester City and QPR player directly.\n\n\"I don't expect any individual personality to understand their privilege. Nonetheless you only have to see scores of women across the internet or in the business - whether that's coaches, presenters, players - we're routinely used to dealing with systemic misogyny, bullying and behaviour that has been pretty normal for a large part of the football public.\"\n\nHayes, who is set to leave Chelsea at the end of the season and become the United States women's national team head coach, has been in charge of the Blues since 2012 and guided them to six Women's Super League titles.\n\nShe has also worked as a pundit across men's and women's football, including for ITV at the men's Euros in 2021.\n\n\"If you haven't experienced systemic misogyny, like lots of us have, you can't for one moment understand how detrimental some of these conversations are knowing that anything anyone says just enables an absolute pile on, particularly on social media,\" she said.\n\n\"When it comes to the sport of football in this case, we have to remember that society isn't always as well represented across the media or across the game in coaching or playing.\"\n\nLast month, Barton, who was sacked as Bristol Rovers manager in October, was criticised for describing the racist murder of teenager Anthony Walker as a \"scrap\".\n\nHis brother Michael Barton was 17 when he was jailed for life alongside his cousin Paul Taylor in the 2005 killing of the 18-year-old with an ice axe.\n\nIn October 2022, Barton was cleared of assaulting his wife after a judge ruled he could not have a fair trial.\n\nBarton has been criticised by fans and women in the industry, including TNT Sports presenter Laura Woods, who said his comments \"encourage a pile on for the women getting on with their jobs\".\n\nSpeaking on Piers Morgan's TalkTV show on Thursday, he said the use of female pundits and presenters in men's football was part of a \"woke agenda\".\n\nHayes added that she wanted to \"accentuate the positive contributions\" of women in sport and highlighted that females working in other professions would not face the same scrutiny.\n\n\"We wouldn't go into a hospital and have a female physician who's carrying out a surgical procedure on someone's kidney - we wouldn't turn around and say to that surgeon 'I hope she's a good patient because being a good patient means you're going to be a good doctor'.\n\n\"It's the same about being a great banker - does that mean you have to be a frugal spender to be a good banker?\n\n\"Much in the same way, do you have to be a well-travelled passenger to be a good pilot?\"\n\nHayes said that it is an \"interesting debate\" but one that could be \"done better or in another way\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA major University of Pennsylvania donor has withdrawn a $100m (£79.3m) grant after a controversial appearance in Congress by the school's president.\n\nIn an email seen by the BBC, Ross Stevens said he was \"appalled\" Elizabeth Magill avoided questions about how students calling for the genocide of Jews would be punished.\n\nMs Magill was grilled by politicians on Tuesday about antisemitism on campus.\n\nShe has since apologised for her remarks, but is facing calls to resign.\n\nUS media are reporting the advisory board at Wharton - the university's business school - has written a letter to Ms Magill calling for her to step down \"with immediate effect\".\n\nAmerican college campuses have seen angry protests and rising incidents of antisemitism since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted two months ago.\n\nMs Magill appeared in the House of Representatives alongside the presidents of Harvard and MIT, Claudine Gay and Sally Kornbluth.\n\nThey were asked by Republican New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik: \"Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university's] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment? Yes or no?\"\n\nMs Magill and her MIT and Harvard counterparts did not reply yes or no but said - in varying ways - that it depended on the \"context\".\n\nThere has been a widespread backlash since, with the White House condemning the remarks.\n\n\"The lack of moral clarity is unacceptable,\" Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, the highest-ranking Jewish member of the administration, said on Thursday at a ceremony to mark the lighting of the national menorah.\n\nIn his message about the withdrawal of the donation, Mr Stevens said: \"I have clear grounds to rescind Penn's $100 million of Stone Ridge shares due to the conduct of President Magill.\"\n\nThe founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, he told the university that its \"permissive approach\" to those calling for violence against Jewish people \"would violate any policies or rules that prohibit harassment and discrimination based on religion, including those of Stone Ridge\".\n\nPenn is one of the oldest universities in the US and a part of the elite Ivy League group, which also has Harvard, Columbia and Yale as members.\n\nWharton counts former US President Donald Trump, Tesla and SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk, and many other powerful names in business and finance among its graduates.\n\nThe donation, in the form of limited partnership units in Stone Ridge, was gifted by Mr Stevens in 2017 to help Wharton create a finance innovation centre.\n\nUniversity of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill has faced mounting calls to resign after her congressional testimony\n\nMs Magill in particular has faced mounting scrutiny as to whether she can continue in her position.\n\nShe released a video on the university's website on Wednesday apologising for her response during the hearing, saying that she was focused on the \"university's long-standing policies - aligned with the US Constitution - which say that speech alone is not punishable\".\n\nShe added she should have been focused on the \"irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate\", adding that it is \"evil, plain and simple\".\n\nWhile her apology on Wednesday was welcomed by some, Mr Stevens' letter appeared to call for her resignation.\n\nHe said Stone Ridge would welcome the opportunity to review its decision \"if, and when, there is a new University President in place\".\n\nOn Wednesday, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro - a non-voting trustee at UPenn - criticised Ms Magill for her \"absolutely shameful\" remarks and called on the university to make a \"serious decision\" on her continued leadership.\n\n\"It should not be hard to condemn genocide,\" he said. \"Leaders have a responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity, and Liz Magill failed to meet that simple test.\"\n\nA petition demanding Ms Magill's resignation had gathered more than 23,000 signatures as of Friday afternoon.\n\nFacing criticism over her own remarks at Tuesday's hearing, Harvard President Dr Gay apologised in an interview with the college newspaper, saying she \"got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures\".\n\nThe House Committee on Education and the Workforce announced on Thursday that they will formally investigate Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology over \"rampant antisemitism\".\n\n\"Committee members have deep concerns with their leadership and their failure to take steps to provide Jewish students the safe learning environment they are due under law,\" the committee's chairwoman Virginia Foxx said in a statement.\n\nTwo University of Pennsylvania students - both of whom are Jewish - filed a lawsuit against the school on Thursday, claiming it has become \"an incubation lab for virulent anti-Jewish hatred, harassment and discrimination.\"\n\nThe lawsuit also accuses the school of \"selectively\" enforcing rules of conduct \"to avoid protecting Jewish students\" and hiring \"rabidly antisemitic professors who call for anti-Jewish violence\".\n\nIslamophobic attacks have also been on the rise on university campuses.\n\nThe Department of Education has launched an investigation into multiple schools over alleged incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. William Brown Jr's parents made an emotional plea to the driver involved\n\nA man has been arrested after a boy was killed crossing a road.\n\nSeven-year-old William Brown was hit as he walked in Sandgate Esplanade in Folkestone, Kent, on Wednesday at 17:35 GMT.\n\nThe crash, near to the junction with Prospect Road, involved two vehicles, an unidentified car or van, and a red Citroen car, Kent Police said.\n\nPolice said a 49-year-old from the Dymchurch area was arrested at 17:15 GMT on Thursday.\n\nThe boy's father, William Brown Sr, said his son was \"a beautiful boy\", who had been killed while trying to cross the road to collect his football.\n\nRelatives of William appealed for anyone with any information to come forward.\n\nWilliam's mother, Laura Brown, broke down as she told the BBC: \"He was the sweetest boy in the world, so soft and gentle.\"\n\n\"Someone killed my son and left him in the middle of the road,\" she said.\n\n\"Please help us find this person. I'm begging you. Do it for William.\"\n\nWilliam Brown’s mother Laura Brown was consoled at her home in Folkestone, Kent\n\nWilliam's father said: \"Thousands of people walk down this road. Someone must have seen something.\n\n\"We just want peace for our son. Do it so Will gets his peace.\"\n\nHe added: \"William Jr was a beautiful boy who believed in forgiveness.\n\n\"Nothing was a drama. If he was here he would say 'come on guys, we'll see you in heaven'.\"\n\nFolkestone & Hythe District Council leader Jim Martin shared his condolences with the family.\n\n\"His death at such a young age is a terrible tragedy and we can only echo the heartfelt plea of his parents that the driver of the vehicle come forward to assist Kent police officers with their investigation,\" he said.\n\nA Kent Police spokesman said: \"The unidentified vehicle left the scene in the direction Hythe, prior to the arrival of emergency services.\"\n\nAny witnesses or those with CCTV or dashcam footage are being asked to contact police.\n\nPolice and ambulance crews attended, and William was confirmed dead at the scene.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Josh Taylor will be missed \"every minute of every day\", his family said in a statement\n\nAn Australian man has died after being buried in sand on a beach, authorities say.\n\nJosh Taylor was at a beach campground on Queensland's Bribie Island on Saturday when he fell into a hole that had been reportedly dug to roast a pig.\n\nMr Taylor, 23, was airlifted to hospital shortly after the incident but succumbed to his injuries on Thursday.\n\nAuthorities are still investigating the circumstances that led to his death, which was not immediately known.\n\nQueensland Police said in a statement there \"may be numerous people who were present and are yet to speak with police\".\n\nMr Taylor was with friends on Bribie Island - a popular camping area located 65km (40 miles) north of Brisbane - when the incident occurred, according to local media.\n\nThe Courier Mail reported it took about 15 people to pull him free, before wildlife rangers performed CPR on him until paramedics arrived at the scene.\n\nMr Taylor's family confirmed his life support had been switched off on Thursday.\n\nIn an emotional statement, they called him \"the best son, brother, boyfriend and mate we could all have wished for\" who would be missed \"every minute of every day\", Nine News reported.\n\n\"Unfortunately, the injuries he received were too severe for him to overcome,\" the family statement added, while also thanking hospital staff for their efforts.\n\nThe incident happened at a beach campground on Bribie Island near Brisbane\n\nA fundraiser page organised on behalf of Mr Taylor's parents described Mr Taylor as \"a vibrant and adventurous soul who has brought so much joy to those around him\".\n\nMore than A$65,000 ($42,000; £34,000) has been raised to help support the Taylor family.", "Timothée Chalamet - aka Moddedcontroller360 - took the the stage in Los Angeles\n\nActor Timothée Chalamet revealed the Game of the Year at the videogame industry's biggest awards ceremony.\n\nThe Wonka star announced that fantasy RPG Baldur's Gate 3 had won the top prize at the Los Angeles ceremony.\n\nAccepting the award, Belgian developer Larian said the epic fantasy RPG based on Dungeons and Dragons was a labour of love.\n\nIt dominated the awards with six wins including best performance, best RPG and player's choice.\n\nTimothée was introduced by awards host Geoff Keighley as \"ModdedController360\" - the name of his now-deleted teenage YouTube channel celebrating painted gaming peripherals.\n\nThe Wonka star has spoken about being a keen gamer in interviews and was recently photographed on a visit to legendary developer Hideo Kojima's Japanese studio.\n\nIn total, Baldur's Gate 3 picked up six awards, including best performance for actor Neil Newbon, who played fan favourite Astarion.\n\nSurvival horror game Alan Wake 2 took home three awards for best game direction, narrative and art direction.\n\nOther notable wins included The Last of Us TV series, which won best adaptation, Cyberpunk 2077 for best ongoing game, and puzzle adventure Cocoon in the best independent game category.\n\nThe people behind Baldur's Gate 3 said they'd poured their heart into the RPG as they collected the Game of the Year prize\n\nElsewhere, Forza Motorsport picked up the innovation in accessibility award and action-adventure Tchia was named Game for Impact winner.\n\nSuper Mario Wonder, Spider-Man 2, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Alan Wake 2 and Resident Evil 4: Remake were also in the running for Game of the Year.\n\nThe Game Awards is a mixture of awards show and preview event, with many fans watching for new trailers and announcements of forthcoming titles.\n\nFans got a first look at Exodus, a sci-fi RPG from Archetype Entertainment, a studio made up of ex-Bioware developers.\n\nAnd legendary videogame creator Hideo Kojima unveiled OD, or Overdose, a project he's working on with Get Out director Jordan Peele.\n\nA remake of 2013 game Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons was revealed, alongside new looks at Hellblade 2: Senua's Saga and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth.\n\nPlayers also got a glimpse of Jurassic Park: Survival gameplay, and Sega announced it was reviving classic franchises Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio.\n\nWizards of the Coast and Larian Studios Baldur's Gate 3 was the big winner of the evening\n\nThe awards follow a year that has seen thousands of job cuts in the games industry, despite an above-average number of highly praised titles.\n\nGames companies including Fortnite maker Epic Games, Assassin's Creed developer Ubisoft Montreal and Pokemon Go creator Niantic have all announced cuts.\n\nThe awards, organised by gaming journalist Geoff Keighley, is often criticised for spending more time on trailers and adverts than handing out prizes during the three-hour show.\n\nAnd this year there have been complaints that the show sped through multiple awards at once without inviting the winners on stage.\n\nGaming site Kotaku said: \"In a year when developers were laid off nearly every week, it would have been nice... to give all these talented people a moment to shine.\"\n\nThere are 31 awards in total across a wide range of categories including audio design, best independent game and accessibility and innovation.\n\nWinners are decided by a panel of industry experts and a fan vote which counts for 10% of the final score.\n\nThe full list is on the Game Awards website.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Dame Eleanor Laing is the deputy speaker of the House of Commons\n\nThe Metropolitan Police has closed an investigation into alleged breaches of Covid regulations at an event in Parliament in December 2020.\n\nThe police said the gathering - attended by deputy speaker Dame Eleanor Laing and Tory MPs Virginia Crosbie and Sir Bernard Jenkin - had not met the threshold for issuing fines.\n\nAll three MPs are now facing an investigation by Parliament's watchdog.\n\nThe event was first reported by the Guido Fawkes website in June.\n\nThe political blog said it was held on 8 December 2020 to celebrate the birthday of Ms Crosbie, the MP for Ynys Mon, and the Conservative peer Baroness Anne Jenkin.\n\nAt the time, coronavirus rules in London prohibited indoor social mixing outside households or support bubbles.\n\nSir Bernard sits on the Privileges Committee, which earlier this year produced a damning report into rule breaking in Downing Street during the pandemic.\n\nWhen news of the 8 December event was reported, Boris Johnson accused Sir Bernard of \"monstrous hypocrisy\".\n\nThe Harwich and North Essex MP previously denied attending any drinks parties during lockdown. When he was asked by a Guido Fawkes reporter whether he had a drink at the celebration of his wife's birthday that evening, he was quoted as saying \"I don't recall\".\n\nMs Crosbie said she apologised \"unreservedly for a momentary error of judgement in attending the event\".\n\n\"I attended the event briefly, I did not drink and I did not celebrate my birthday. I went home shortly after to be with my family.\"\n\nDame Eleanor, who is the Conservative MP for Epping Forest, previously told the Guido Fawkes website she held a \"business meeting\" that evening, adding: \"At the beginning of the pandemic I took advice on how many could be present in a room, I had the room measured and I kept a two-metre ruler so that I could always verify that nobody who was working here was put at risk.\"\n\nThe police launched an investigation in July 2023 but have now closed their inquiry saying: \"Officers assessed the available information and concluded it did not meet the threshold for the referral of any fixed penalty notices.\"\n\nLast month, parliamentary commissioner for standards Daniel Greenberg opened an investigation into Dame Eleanor and Mrs Crosbie.\n\nOn Thursday, a third investigation was opened into Sir Bernard, who chairs the Commons Liaison Committee which includes the chairs of all 32 Commons select committees.\n\nThe commissioner's website does not provide any details about the investigations other than to say they relate to claims of \"actions causing significant damage to the reputation of the House as a whole, or its members generally\".", "Engineers are on site at Morriston Hospital\n\nMorriston Hospital has declared it is on its highest alert after suffering a boiler breakdown.\n\nIt said engineers were at the Swansea site and that the failure was affecting both heating and hot water.\n\nThe hospital has urged patients to attend booked appointments but avoid A&E if possible. It also requested discharged patients be picked up.\n\nA spokesman said everything possible was being done to resolve the \"business continuity incident.\"\n\nThey added: \"In the meantime, we're conserving existing hot water and heat, making sure extra blankets are available, if needed.\"\n\nThe term black alert is sometimes colloquially used to describe this highest escalation, but it is not an official term used by health boards.\n\nEach of Wales' health boards has five levels of escalation which determine the pressure on its services.\n\nBusiness continuity is the highest level of alert a health board can declare when coping with seasonal pressures.\n\nHowever, there are exceptional circumstances in which hospitals could declare major or critical incidents.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Archbishop of Canterbury criticises the impact of raising the income threshold for people bringing dependents to the UK\n\nThe Archbishop of Canterbury has warned new visa rules will have a \"negative impact\" on family relationships.\n\nJustin Welby said the government was \"rightly concerned\" with cutting migration.\n\nBut he said higher income requirements would see many families unable to live together.\n\nFrom next spring, Britons who want to bring a foreign family member or partner to live with them in the UK must earn at least £38,700 a year.\n\nThe government said the increase from the previous limit of £18,600 \"reinforces that all those who want to work and live here must be able to support themselves\".\n\nThe new figure is above the median gross annual earnings for full-time employees in the UK, which was £34,963 in April 2023.\n\nOverseas care workers will also no longer be able to bring family dependants, such as their partner or children, with them to the UK.\n\nThe changes were part of a package of measures announced earlier this week aimed at cutting net migration - the difference between the number of people coming to live in the UK and those leaving - after the figure reached a record 745,000 last year.\n\nSpeaking in the House of Lords, the archbishop said: \"This week we hear that many people in this country will be prevented from living together with their spouse, child or children ... as a result of a big increase in the minimum income requirement for family visas.\n\n\"The government is rightly concerned with bringing down the legal migration figures and I'm not, you'll be relieved to know, going into the politics of that.\n\n\"But there is a cost to be paid in terms of the negative impact this will have on married and family relationships for those who live and work and contribute to our life together, particularly in social care.\"\n\nHe argued the family was \"indispensable to the state\" and \"a lack of strong families undermines our whole society\".\n\n\"Government needs families to work. They must not set a series of hurdles for them to jump over,\" he added.\n\nThe archbishop's comments came during an annual debate he leads in the House of Lords, with this year's topic \"Love Matters\", The Report Of The Archbishops' Commission On Families and Households.\n\nSome Conservatives have also raised concerns about the policy.\n\nFormer Tory minister Gavin Barwell said: \"It is both morally wrong and unconservative to say that only the wealthiest can fall in love, marry someone and then bring them to the UK.\"\n\nTory MP Alicia Kearns told LBC she was \"very uncomfortable\" with increasing the income requirement for family visas.\n\n\"It risks being very unconservative,\" she said, adding that the Conservatives were \"the party of family\".\n\nDr Madeleine Sumption, director of the University of Oxford's Migration Observatory, said the largest impact of the change would fall on those who tend to earn lower wages, including women, younger people and those living outside of London and south-east England.\n\nLabour has said it has \"real concerns\" about increasing minimum salary requirements for family visas.\n\nOn Wednesday a spokesman for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the party wanted to look at the evidence on what impact the change would have, but added: \"It looks like it would punish those who fall in love with someone from another country if they don't earn almost £40,000 a year.\"\n\nEarlier this week, No 10 clarified that the minimum income figure was for a \"household as a whole\".\n\nThe prime minister's spokesman said people could also demonstrate their ability to support a dependant through their level of savings.\n\nHe added that the rules included a provision for \"exceptional circumstances where there would be unjustifiably harsh consequences\" if an individual earning below the threshold could not bring their foreign family member to the UK.\n\nBut the spokesman could not give any examples, saying applications would be considered on a \"case-by-case basis\".\n\nThere is uncertainty over whether the new income rules will apply to people who already have a foreign family member in the UK, when their existing visa comes up for renewal.\n\nOn Thursday, Downing Street said work was \"ongoing\" to look at how the change would apply to those renewing visas.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Helen Willetts looks at the forecast for the next few days\n\nYellow weather warnings for wind and rain are in place for large parts of the UK on Friday and Saturday, likely causing weekend travel disruption.\n\nSevere weather is expected in western and central England, as well as Wales, south-west Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to the Met Office.\n\nAlmost 30 flood warnings, where flooding is expected, are also in place.\n\nWet and windy weather is also expected into the start of next week.\n\nAbout 150 flood alerts, where flooding is considered possible, are also in force.\n\nStrong winds are expected across Wales and much of central England between 09:00 GMT and 23:45 on Saturday, with the Met Office warning that transport services could be disrupted.\n\nA yellow weather warning for heavy rain is also in place for parts of south-west England on Saturday morning.\n\nCommunities in south-west Scotland, from Dumfries to beyond the Isle of Arran and as far east as Jedburgh, are expected to receive heavy rain from Friday evening until around 21:00 on Saturday.\n\nThere is a risk of flooding, as well as travel and power disruption, the Met Office said.\n\nRain and wind warnings are also in place across much of Northern Ireland on Saturday, possibly bringing flooding and travel disruption.\n\nA series of flood warnings are in place around the East Midlands due to recent rainfall and the weekend's melting snow.\n\nThe weekend rains follow a bout of cold and wintry weather in recent days.\n\nBBC Weather presenter Elizabeth Rizzini said temperatures this weekend are likely to be above the seasonal average \"in sharp contrast to where we were just a week ago\".\n\nIt is likely to be \"very wet and windy\" at times, particularly in the north and the west.\n\nRain is a concern given parts of Devon and Cornwall received around half their monthly average rainfall over Wednesday and Thursday, she said.\n\nAnd she warned of further heavy downpours on Sunday, along with gusts of 40-50mph along southern and western coasts in the morning and up to 65-70mph on exposed coasts of north-west England, north-west Wales and Northern Ireland in the afternoon.\n\n\"Expect delays to transport and dangerous coastal conditions with large waves,\" she said, adding that there is little respite in the forecast for the start of the week with \"more wet and windy weather\" likely.\n\n\"But we are expecting something a little more settled, and colder once more as high pressure builds from Wednesday onwards,\" she said.\n\nRoads were flooded in Norfolk on Thursday", "Alert bystanders stopped a woman as she attempted to set fire to the birth home of Martin Luther King Jr in Atlanta, Georgia, police say.\n\nOfficials said the prompt action \"saved an important part of American history\".\n\nThe accused is in custody on charges of attempted arson and interfering with government property after allegedly pouring petrol onto the residence.\n\nThe two-storey house where Dr King spent the first 12 years of his life is a federal landmark.\n\nIts interior was acquired by the National Park Service in 2018 and has been closed to the public since last month for repairs and renovations.\n\nOfficers responded to the vandalism in progress in the city's Auburn Avenue Historic District at about 17:45 local time (22:45 GMT) on Thursday, Atlanta police said in a news release.\n\nOn Friday they identified the suspect as Laneisha Shantrice Henderson, 26.\n\nMs Henderson's father and three sisters, who arrived on the scene later, described her as a veteran in mental distress, one of the intervening bystanders told the New York Times.\n\nThe accused would receive a mental health evaluation before being transferred to the local jail, police said on Thursday night.\n\nThe home where the famed civil rights leader spent the first 12 years of his life is a federal landmark\n\nA video shared with the local WSB-TV news channel shows a woman dressed in all black dousing the porch and front windows of the home.\n\nBy the time police arrived, the suspect had been stopped by two visiting filmmakers from Utah and two off-duty police officers from New York who were also visiting the home, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum told reporters.\n\nOne of the filmmakers, Zach Kempf, told the New York Times he initially thought the woman was watering shrubs in front of the house before she rushed up the stairs and pulled on the front screen door.\n\nShe did not respond when they asked what she was doing, emptying the contents of a five-gallon container before tossing it into the bushes and grabbing a lighter she had left on the grass, he said.\n\nMr Kempf, 43, said the woman had a \"nervous energy\" but was not aggressive and walked away after he physically blocked her path.\n\nHe said he called 911 and shouted for help to the two New York officers, who chased down the suspect and restrained her until local police arrived.\n\nLocal fire officials said no damage was done to the home and a hazardous materials team was cleaning up the scene.\n\n\"If the witnesses hadn't been here and interrupted what she was doing, it could have been a matter of seconds before the house was engulfed in flames,\" fire chief Jerry DeBerry said.\n\n\"It was really about the timing and the witnesses being in the right place at the right time.\"\n\nIn a statement, the King Center confirmed the arson attempt had been unsuccessful \"thanks to the brave intervention of good Samaritans and the quick response of law enforcement\".\n\n\"Our prayers are with the individual who allegedly committed this criminal act,\" it added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Olivia Spencer's family said she had a \"heart of pure gold\"\n\nA 21-year-old woman who died after falling ill at a nightclub had taken an illegal drug, an inquest has heard.\n\nOlivia Morgan Spencer collapsed at a venue in Butetown, Cardiff, early on Saturday morning.\n\nThe coroner in Pontypridd was told emergency services were called and attempted to save her life, but she died at the scene.\n\nA post-mortem examination found further investigation was needed to establish a cause of death.\n\nDescribing the circumstances of the death, usher Catherine Burnell said: \"On 2 December 2023, an emergency call was made to the ambulance service after 21-year-old Olivia collapsed at a night club [Vaults Cardiff] on Bute Street in Cardiff.\"\n\nMs Burnell added: \"Police were also in attendance and received information that Olivia had consumed an illegal drug. Toxicology tests are ongoing.\"\n\nThe family of Ms Spencer, who was from Pentre in Rhondda Cynon Taf, have agreed her organs and tissue samples would be donated for medical research and teaching purposes.\n\nAfter her death, they said they were \"devastated\" to have lost someone who \"lit up every room.\"\n\nArea Coroner Patricia Morgan said an inquest was required because she suspected Ms Spencer's death was \"un-natural in nature\".\n\nThe inquest was adjourned to allow further investigations to take place.\n\nMs Morgan added \"I wish to express my deepest condolences to the family of Olivia Spencer at such a difficult time.\"", "Gérard Depardieu has made more than 200 films and is France's best-known actor\n\nFrance's best-known actor Gérard Depardieu is under new pressure following a TV documentary showing him making obscene remarks about women.\n\nThe programme, broadcast on Thursday, portrays the 74-year-old star as sex-obsessed while on a shoot in North Korea in 2018.\n\nIn footage apparently taken of the documentary's \"making of\", the actor repeatedly embarrasses his female interpreter with comments such as: \"I weigh 124 kilos. Without an erection. With an erection, I'm 126 kilos.\"\n\nOn another occasion he says in front of her: \"I have a girder in my underpants.\"\n\nHe is also seen at a riding stable making sexual comments about why he claims women enjoy going on horseback.\n\nThe programme - part of the Complément d'Enquête (Further Investigation) series on France 2 - uses the material to back up allegations of Depardieu's sexual misconduct made recently by a number of women in the film industry.\n\nDepardieu was placed under judicial investigation on suspicion of rape and sexual assault in 2020, after a complaint made by actress Charlotte Arnould.\n\nHe denies the allegation, saying their sexual contact was consensual. Police initially dropped the charge because of a lack of evidence of rape. But on appeal it was re-opened, with Arnould alleging she was under his emotional \"control\".\n\nA second case was opened three months ago, when actress Hélène Darras accused Depardieu of groping her in 2007 while on a shoot for the film Disco. The prosecutor's office said the case may be dropped because the events were too long ago.\n\nIn Thursday's television documentary, other women spoke of a sexualized ambience whenever Depardieu was on set, and of being the target of his innuendo.\n\nThey said that a kind of silence prevailed because of his status, which meant he was never checked.\n\nBorn in Châteauroux in central France in 1948, Depardieu had a troubled childhood before coming to Paris and being discovered as an actor in the early 1970s.\n\nHe has made more than 200 films, and been seen by more French cinema-goers than any other actor apart from Louis de Funès.\n\nThe France 2 documentary also investigated the allegation - originally made by Depardieu himself - that as a boy as young as nine he had taken part in \"rapes\" in Châteauroux.\n\nThe claim was first made by the actor in an interview in 1978, then repeated to Time magazine in 1991 when Depardieu was in the running for an Oscar for his film Cyrano de Bergerac.\n\nIt was reported in France at the time that the Time profile helped tip the Oscars jury against him.\n\nTwo childhood friends of Depardieu confirmed that he was regarded in the 1950s as a légèr voyou (minor hooligan), and that non-consensual sex at the time was common.\n\nBut Depardieu's brother Alain said: \"He told so many stories. He built up a legend - or maybe we did it for him - which made him out to be a much greater delinquent than he actually was.\"\n\nFeminists have had Depardieu in their sights for several years, since the MeToo movement began to gather momentum.\n\nIn April, 13 women - some anonymous - were quoted in an online investigation by Médiapart accusing him of inappropriate behaviour. Activists forced him to cancel public appearances.\n\nIn October Depardieu reacted with an open letter to Le Figaro newspaper.\n\n\"All my life I have been provocative, over-the-top, at times crude,\" he said. \"I have often done what others did not dare to do: test limits, shake up accepted wisdom … But I am not a rapist or a predator.\"\n\nAfter viewing the documentary, Depardieu's former agent Jean-Louis Livi said that: \"You can't watch these interviews without feeling a deep malaise and an empathy with the people who speak… But what has been shown is only one side of the case. It is a media show trial.\"", "Nick Cave and Shane MacGowan on stage together in 1992 Image caption: Nick Cave and Shane MacGowan on stage together in 1992\n\nShane MacGowan’s music is the thread that binds this funeral service. Connecting the prayers and eulogies are some of his most beloved lyrics and melodies - many of which he’d previously requested at his 60th birthday party in Dublin five years ago.\n\nNick Cave played A Rainy Night In Soho, a beautiful ode to friends lost but not forgotten. Mundy and Camille O’Sullivan sang Haunted - a duet MacGowan originally recorded with Sinead O’Connor, another Irish musical rebel we sadly lost this year.\n\nMost poignantly of all, Pogues musician Cait O’Riordan and contemporary Irish folk musician John Francis Flynn, will dedicate I'm a Man You Don’t Meet Every Day to MacGowan.\n\nAlthough it wasn’t an autobiographical song, the lyrics about a “roving young fellow” who says “be easy and free when you’re drinking with me” couldn’t be more appropriate.\n\nBono, Bob Geldof Imelda May and Declan O’Rourke are also taking part in the service - an indication of how much Irish music owes to MacGowan, and what a vital life force we have lost.", "After the inquest, Ruth Perry’s sister Julia Waters (right) said Ofsted had an \"inhumane system\"\n\nRuth Perry's sister has called Ofsted's response to the verdict of the inquest into her death \"woefully inadequate\".\n\nSenior coroner Heidi Connor ruled on Thursday that an Ofsted inspection at Caversham Primary contributed to the head teacher taking her own life.\n\nOfsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman apologised for the distress it had caused Mrs Perry and said next week's inspections would be delayed by a day.\n\nBut Mrs Perry's sister, Julia Waters, said that was \"just not enough\".\n\nProf Waters said the schools watchdog had apologised \"for the distress rather than causing my sister's death\".\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, she said the coroner's verdict \"confirmed what I already knew, that there was something profoundly wrong with that inspection and the system that allowed it\".\n\nShe said it had been \"horrifying\" hearing the evidence at the inquest of her sister's decline after the inspection in November 2022, which had \"destroyed and humiliated\" her.\n\nCaversham Primary School, in Reading, was downgraded from outstanding to \"inadequate\" due to safeguarding concerns after the Ofsted visit.\n\nMrs Perry, who had been head at the school for 13 years, died in January this year while waiting for the report to be published.\n\nThe school has since been regraded as \"good\".\n\nThe coroner's verdict was recorded as \"suicide: contributed to by an Ofsted inspection carried out in November 2022\".\n\nIt is the first time Ofsted has been listed as a contributing factor in the death of a head teacher.\n\nAfter the verdict, Ofsted's chief inspector Ms Spielman apologised \"for the distress that Mrs Perry undoubtedly experienced as a result of our inspection\".\n\nOfsted was making several changes to help reduce the pressure felt by school leaders, she said. As a first step, inspections would be delayed by a day next week.\n\nShe added: \"We have started to develop training for all inspectors on recognising and responding to visible signs of anxiety.\"\n\nBut Prof Waters said the verdict of the inquest had been \"utterly damning\" and that the Ofsted response was \"fundamentally inadequate\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ruth Perry's sister reacts after inquest returns conclusion into her death\n\nShe also said Ms Spielman had displayed \"a staggering lack of emotional intelligence\" during previous public interviews about the case.\n\nProf Waters said she had \"screamed and screamed\" while listening to an interview the chief inspector had given to Woman's Hour a few days before the inquest started, in which she said Mrs Perry's death had been \"used as a pivot to try and discredit\" Ofsted.\n\nProf Waters said: \"I really hope my parents weren't listening then, it was such a kick in the guts.\n\n\"Ofsted are doing a good job of discrediting themselves, they don't need us to come and do that.\"\n\nBBC News approached Ofsted for a response to Prof Waters' comments, but was directed to Ms Spielman's initial statement following the verdict of the inquest.\n\nSince her sister's death, Prof Waters has advocated for wholesale reform of the school inspections system, including removing the one-word judgements which range from \"outstanding\" to \"inadequate\", and has had multiple meetings with Education Secretary Gillian Keegan.\n\n\"It's not just one word, it's that word,\" Prof Waters said, referring to the \"inadequate\" judgement that had \"haunted\" her sister before her death.\n\n\"Her whole career, her whole vocation destroyed with just one word.\"\n\nRuth Perry was the head at Caversham Primary School in Reading for 13 years\n\nShe told Woman's Hour this would be the \"easiest\" and \"most effective\" change that could be enacted.\n\nThe Department for Education has previously said the one-word judgements \"succinctly summarise independent evaluations\" that \"highlight success\" and \"identify schools that need support\".\n\nAfter the inquest, Ms Keegan said the department would \"look closely at the coroner's recommendations to consider further changes\".\n\nReading Council and Brighter Futures for Children, which provides children's services for the council, said they fully acknowledged and accepted the coroner's recommendations.\n\nIf you're affected by the issues in this report, you can find support from BBC Action Line.\n\nAre you affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Dr Claudine Gay was asked whether calls for the genocide of Jews constitutes harassment under university policy\n\nHarvard's president has apologised for controversial remarks she made at a congressional hearing about antisemitism on US college campuses.\n\nWhen asked whether calls for the genocide of Jews constituted harassment under university policy, Dr Claudine Gay said it depended on the context.\n\nDr Gay, and two other university presidents who gave similar answers, have since faced fierce criticism.\n\n\"I am sorry,\" she said in an interview with The Crimson student newspaper.\n\n\"Words matter. When words amplify distress and pain, I don't know how you could feel anything but regret,\" she added.\n\nAddressing the criticism in her interview with The Crimson, Dr Gay said she had \"got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures\".\n\nIt is the second time Harvard's first black president has sought to clarify comments that have drawn national condemnation, including from the White House. Some have since called for her resignation.\n\nThe Ivy League school is one of several in the US accused of failing to protect its Jewish students following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war two months ago. Jewish groups have reported an alarming rise in antisemitic incidents in the US since the conflict began.\n\nAt Tuesday's hearing before the Republican-led House Education and Workforce Committee, Dr Gay - along with the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - was challenged on university policies and procedures to combat antisemitism.\n\nNear the end of the nearly six-hour hearing, New York Republican Elise Stefanik asked the three women: \"Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university's] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment? Yes or no?\"\n\nEach witness evaded a direct answer, saying \"it depends on the context\".\n\nDr Gay further added that Harvard only takes action when the speech \"crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation\".\n\nMs Stefanik had previously asked about contentious phrases commonly used by some members of the Pro-Palestinian movement, which Dr Gay said she found personally \"abhorrent\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDr Gay and the other college presidents also stated their support for Israel and opposition to antisemitism, but Dr Gay said her comments during the now viral exchange with Ms Stefanik were a mistake.\n\n\"What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged,\" she said in her interview with the Harvard Crimson.\n\nDr Gay and the other leaders' testimony has since sparked growing backlash both on and off campus.\n\nHarvard Hillel, a Jewish campus organisation, said in a statement on Tuesday that the testimony \"calls into question [Dr Gay's] ability to protect Jewish students on Harvard's campus\".\n\nAnd on Thursday, Rabbi David Wolpe - who had only weeks earlier joined a Harvard advisory group to combat antisemitism - resigned citing Dr Gay's \"painfully inadequate testimony\".\n\nRabbi Wolpe told BBC Newshour that \"an ideology of wokeism and attendant antisemitism is deeply rooted\" in the culture of Harvard and other elite institutions. He noted that these colleges had spoken out against racism in recent years but retreated to \"transparently hypocritical\" defences of free speech on more contentious issues.\n\nHarvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT now all face official congressional investigations on their efforts to address antisemitism.\n\nUniversity of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill is also facing a call to resign by an advisory board to the university's influential Wharton business school. A top donor at the school has vowed to withdraw a $100m donation because of her comments.", "A video showcasing the capabilities of Google's artificial intelligence (AI) model which seemed too good to be true might just be that.\n\nThe Gemini demo, which has 1.6m views on YouTube, shows a remarkable back-and-forth where an AI responds in real time to spoken-word prompts and video.\n\nIn the video's description, Google said all was not as it seemed - it had sped up responses for the sake of the demo.\n\nBut it has also admitted the AI was not responding to voice or video at all.\n\nIn a blog post published at the same time as the demo, Google reveals how the video was actually made.\n\nSubsequently, as first reported by Bloomberg Opinion, Google confirmed to the BBC it was in fact made by prompting the AI by \"using still image frames from the footage, and prompting via text\".\n\n\"Our Hands on with Gemini demo video shows real prompts and outputs from Gemini,\" said a Google spokesperson.\n\n\"We made it to showcase the range of Gemini's capabilities and to inspire developers.\"\n\nIn the video, a person asks a series of questions to Google's AI while showing objects on the screen.\n\nFor example, at one point the demonstrator holds up a rubber duck and asks Gemini if it will float.\n\nInitially, it is unsure what material it is made of, but after the person squeezes it - and remarks this causes a squeaking sound - the AI correctly identifies the object.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Google This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nHowever, what appears to happen in the video at first glance is very different from what actually happened to generate the prompts.\n\nThe AI was actually shown a still image of the duck, and asked what material it was made of. It was then fed a text prompt explaining that the duck makes a squeaking noise when squeezed, resulting in the correct identification.\n\nIn another impressive moment, the person performs a cups and balls routine - a magic trick where a ball is hidden underneath one of three moving cups - and the AI is able to determine where it moved to.\n\nBut again, as the AI was not responding to a video, this was actually achieved by showing it a series of still images.\n\nIn its blog post, Google explained that in fact it told the AI where a ball was underneath three cups, and showed it images which represent cups being swapped.\n\nIt's not quite the same as AI responding to a live video\n\nGoogle clarified that the demo was created by capturing footage from the video, in order to \"test Gemini's capabilities on a wide range of challenges\".\n\nWhile sequences were shortened and stills were used, the voiceover from the video is taken directly from the written prompts fed into Gemini.\n\nBut there is another element of the video which further stretches the truth.\n\nAt one point, the user places down a world map, and asks the AI: \"Based on what you see, come up with a game idea... and use emojis.\"\n\nThe AI responds by apparently inventing a game called \"guess the country\", in which it gives clues (such as a kangaroo and koala) and responds to a correct guess of the user pointing at a country (in this case, Australia).\n\nThe guess-the-country game as showcased in the demo\n\nBut in fact, according to Google's blog, the AI did not invent this game at all.\n\nInstead, the AI was given the following instructions: \"Let's play a game. Think of a country and give me a clue. The clue must be specific enough that there is only one correct country. I will try pointing at the country on a map,\" the prompt read.\n\nThe user then gave the AI examples of a correct and incorrect answer.\n\nAfter this point, Gemini was able to generate clues, and identify whether the user was pointing to the correct country or not from stills of a map.\n\nIt is impressive - but it is not the same as claiming the AI invented the game.\n\nGoogle's AI model is impressive regardless of its use of still images and text-based prompts - but those facts mean its capabilities are very similar to that of OpenAI's GPT-4.\n\nAnd it is noteworthy that the video was released just two weeks after a period of unprecedented chaos in the AI space, following Sam Altman's dramatic firing - and rehiring - as CEO of OpenAI.\n\nIt is unclear which of the two is more advanced - but Google may already be playing catch-up after Mr Altman told the Financial Times that the firm is working on the next version of its AI.", "Wham!'s Last Christmas has had four spells at number one, but never in Christmas week itself\n\nChristmas has come early in the UK charts as almost three quarters of songs in the top 40 are festive tunes.\n\nWham!'s Last Christmas has topped the singles chart for the fourth time, followed by Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You in second place.\n\nA week after the death of The Pogues singer Shane MacGowan, Fairytale of New York has risen to number four.\n\nIt still has time to reach the top spot for the first time, with two weeks until Christmas number one is revealed.\n\nReleased in 1987 and featuring Kirsty MacColl, the track originally peaked at number two, being narrowly beaten to festive first place by the Pet Shop Boys' Always On My Mind.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by ThePoguesOfficial This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nIn total, there are eight festive songs in this week's top 10, including Brenda Lee's Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree at number six, and Ed Sheeran and Elton John's hit Merry Christmas at number seven.\n\nSpeaking to the Official Charts Company, Andrew Ridgeley, one half of Wham!, said it felt like \"Christmas has indeed come early\" and he was \"delighted that Last Christmas has once again reached the zenith of the Official Singles Chart\".\n\nGeorge Michael and Ridgeley's 1984 festive song broke a record in 2021 for the longest time taken to reach number one.\n\nIt reached the top spot for a second time in 2022, and for a third at the very beginning of 2023.\n\nIt has never been number one in Christmas week itself, however. But that could change this year after YouTubers and charity fundraisers LadBaby - who have had the Christmas number one for five years in a row - decided not to enter the 2023 race.\n\nMariah Carey made it to number two this week\n\nThe 28 festive songs in the top 40 include Ariana Grande's Santa Tell Me at 11, Michael Bublé's Holly Jolly Christmas at 21 and Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody at number 39 on the 50th anniversary of its release.\n\nAmong the non-seasonal singles still left in the chart, Jack Harlow's Lovin On Me has dropped to third place after three weeks at number one.\n\nSouth Korean boy band Ateez were pipped to the number one album by Peter Gabriel\n\nMerriment is yet to hit the album charts in full force, as only one of the top five albums - Michael Buble's Christmas - is a festive one.\n\nFormer Genesis singer Peter Gabriel has claimed his third solo number one with his new album i/o, his first collection of new material in 21 years.\n\nAt number two, K-pop group Ateez have claimed a career best with The World EP - Fin, the final record of the band's The World trilogy.\n\nCher is bringing some seasonal cheer with her collection Christmas breaking into the top 10 at number eight.", "The Prince of Wales has sprung a surprise on Emma Webb, who is pulling a life-sized model horse 160 miles (257km) in memory of her daughter Brodie, 16, who took her life in 2020.\n\nShe is walking from Chepstow, Monmouthshire to London over 19 days.\n\nWilliams shocked her by turning up out of the blue on day 13 of her 19-day journey in Slough, Berkshire.\n\nShe screamed \"oh my gosh\", before the prince hugged her and then had a chat with her and her friends.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson has finished giving evidence at the public inquiry looking into how his government handled the Covid crisis.\n\nOver two days at the hearing, the former prime minster admitted some mistakes were made but defended his overall approach.\n\nHere are key points that emerged from around 10 hours of questioning.\n\nMr Johnson was highly combative during his grilling by a committee of MPs over Partygate in March, a tactic that did not stop them ultimately concluding he misled Parliament over the scandal.\n\nThis time, Mr Johnson - who reportedly spent hours with his publicly-funded lawyers preparing for his appearance at the inquiry - took a more measured approach.\n\nThere were occasional theatrics, however, such as when he accused the lead inquiry lawyer of saying he had \"his feet up\" at his country retreat in February 2020 - before Mr Johnson admitted he had confused the comment with someone else.\n\nAnd he choked up when he described the return of the virus after the first national lockdown, describing 2020 as a \"tragic, tragic year\".\n\nHe also drew on his own experience of being moved into intensive care with the virus to insist he \"did care\" about the fate of those who suffered with Covid, and he understood \"what an appalling disease this is\".\n\nHe opened his testimony by saying he was sorry for the \"pain and the loss and the suffering\" people experienced during the pandemic.\n\nBut his comments were interrupted by protesters, who were ordered to leave the inquiry room.\n\nSome members of bereaved families stood up holding pieces of paper, spelling out the message: \"The dead can't hear your apologies.\"\n\nThere were also protests outside the inquiry building during his evidence, and his departure from the venue on both days was greeting with jeers and boos.\n\nFamilies bereaved by Covid held up pictures of lost loved ones outside the inquiry building\n\nThe main point he wanted to get across was that ministers did their \"level best\" to respond to the virus, in difficult circumstances.\n\nHowever, he admitted he - along with scientists and advisers - should have \"twigged\" the seriousness posed by the disease earlier than he did.\n\nHe also said his Downing Street operation had a problem with gender balance, adding that \"too many meetings were male-dominated\".\n\nHe conceded that, as a \"symbol of government earnestness\", mass gatherings should perhaps have been banned earlier than they were in 2020.\n\nAnd he also apologised for describing long Covid as \"bollocks\" in a previously-published handwritten note from October 2020.\n\nHe was more relaxed, however, about some of the foul language revealed in WhatsApp messages disclosed during the course of the inquiry so far.\n\nHe denied his No 10 had been a toxic place to work, and said bad-tempered exchanges between advisers showed \"naturally self-critical\" people anxious to do their best, even adding it was \"creatively useful\".\n\nAnd he shrugged off messages in which he was urged to sack Matt Hancock as health secretary, saying that as prime minister he was \"constantly being lobbied by somebody to sack somebody else\".\n\n\"It's just what, I'm afraid, happens, and it's part of life,\" he told the inquiry.\n\nHe did reveal, however, he had apologised to Helen MacNamara, the former official who accused him of failing to tackle \"misogynistic language\" used about her in a WhatsApp group by his former top adviser Dominic Cummings.\n\nHe said that, whilst understandable, the different messages in different parts of the UK - where there were different Covid rules - risked being \"confusing\" for the public.\n\nHe insisted that he had always enjoyed a \"friendly\" relationship with then-Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon, despite suggestions earlier in the inquiry that No 10 was reluctant for them to hold meetings.\n\nIn England, he said the tier system was \"divisive and difficult to implement\" involving \"laborious\" negotiation over local financial support.\n\nOne eye-catching revelation during Mr Johnson's testimony came over diary extracts from Sir Patrick Vallance, his chief scientific adviser at the time.\n\nAccording to one entry, the former prime minister blamed high infection rates in Wales during the pandemic on \"the singing and the obesity\".\n\nHowever, he was not asked about that alleged remark about Wales, which appeared in a diary extract dated 11 September 2020.\n\nInstead, the inquiry lawyer quizzed him on a different part of the entry.", "Yael Noy (left) drives sick Palestinians, mostly children, across checkpoints to hospital appointments in Israel\n\nYael Noy doesn't wear military fatigues, but she describes herself as being in battle right now, after the Hamas assault on 7 October.\n\n\"I'm fighting to be good,\" she tells me. \"I'm fighting to stay moral when both sides are in such terrible pain. I'm fighting to be the same person I was before.\"\n\nYael heads a charity called Road to Recovery, a group of Israeli volunteers who drive sick Palestinians - mostly children - from checkpoints in the occupied West Bank and Gaza to hospital appointments in Israel.\n\nThe 1,000 or so volunteers can no longer take patients from Gaza, which is governed by Hamas. And four of them are dead - murdered as Palestinian gunmen stormed through their kibbutzim in southern Israel.\n\nThey include Vivian Silver, a renowned peace activist; Adi Dagan, who Yael describes as \"funny\" and always ready to step in and ferry patients at short notice in his big car; Tammy Suchman, a much-loved grandmother; and Eli Or-Gad, who loved talking about poetry.\n\nFour other volunteers lost close family members on 7 October.\n\nAbout 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel. Since then, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 17,177 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive which followed.\n\nYael lives in northern Israel, but her parents are from kibbutz Alumim, one of the southern communities which was attacked - and they cowered as the assault unfolded, hour after terrifying hour.\n\nTwo of her nephews have been fighting in Gaza, in Israel's military response.\n\nYael Noy's parents were in one of the kibbutzim attacked by Hamas on October 7 and are now displaced\n\nIn the immediate aftermath of 7 October, Yael says she was so shaken that she could barely breathe.\n\n\"Something was broken in my heart and I said that I would never talk to people in Gaza again,\" she tells me.\n\nBut after a few days, she decided that she couldn't allow the atrocities to change her.\n\nShe and most of the Road to Recovery volunteers have continued to drive Palestinians from the West Bank to hospitals in Israel for cancer treatment, organ transplants and kidney dialysis. As soon as she can, she says she'll go and collect patients from Gaza again.\n\nOur neighbours need help, so we need to help them.\n\nYael refuses to dehumanise them, or equate them with Hamas, which is classed as a terrorist organisation in the UK and other countries.\n\n\"Like us they are victims of Hamas, so I think we should keep on helping them, because it's not their fault,\" she tells me over the phone.\n\n\"We can't refuse to help a child with cancer. Our neighbours need help, so we need to help them.\"\n\nShe worries for the families she knows in Gaza, with winter approaching and so many bombed houses now uninhabitable.\n\nThe parent of a 6-year-old child, who'd had an organ transplant, texted one of the Road to Recovery volunteers saying simply: \"We are okay. We are going to die here.\"\n\nAfter one week of truce, bombing over Gaza resumed on Friday\n\nYael is also desperately concerned for two Road to Recovery volunteers, Oded Lifschitz and Chaim Peri, who are still being held hostage by Hamas.\n\nEmotionally, she feels like she's being torn apart. She has uncles and cousins who are adamantly opposed to what she's doing and accuse her of helping Hamas.\n\nAnd it's not just family members who disapprove.\n\n\"When I'm driving with Palestinians through checkpoints in the West Bank, soldiers have asked me how I can do what I'm doing,\" she tells me. \"Other people ask the same question.\"\n\n\"It's dangerous now to even talk about the suffering of the kids in Gaza - people look at me like I'm the enemy,\" she says, through sobs. \"But I'm not doing it for the Palestinians, I'm doing it because I want to be proud to be Israeli. I believe that whether you're an Israeli or a Palestinian, a Jew or an Arab, people are people.\"\n\nSome Palestinian families have reached out to find out how she is. But it's harder than ever now for those few people swimming against the tide by trying to bridge the divide between Israelis and Palestinians.\n\n\"Even people on the left say that we should flatten Gaza. Both sides have become more and more radicalised,\" Yael says.\n\n\"I really don't know what will happen in the future. But I know that both of us will still live here, so we must find a solution.\"\n\nSince 7 October, some Road to Recovery volunteers have dropped out of driving altogether or decided to focus on taking medicines to displaced Israelis instead, while the war lasts.\n\nBut other volunteers have stepped in, to make sure that sick Palestinians from the West Bank still get to appointments that are saving their lives.\n\nYael says the charity will need support from the outside world to keep going because donations from within Israel have virtually stopped.\n\nBut she is sure that, when it becomes possible, Road to Recovery will be collecting child patients from Gaza again - hoping that they will all have survived.\n\n\"It may be hard. But we can't stop,\" she says. \"It's my mission and I have to do it.\"", "The armed wing of Hamas has released a video which it says shows the bloody aftermath of a failed Israeli operation to free an Israeli hostage.\n\nIn the footage, a man says he has been held for 40 days, suggesting the video may have been recorded in mid-November.\n\nA lot of blood is seen on a tiled floor, as well as military equipment, which Hamas claims to have captured.\n\nThe video ends with gruesome images of a bloodied body that appears to be that of the same hostage seen earlier.\n\nWe are withholding the man's name - he says this and his age in the video.\n\nA script in Arabic says that Israeli soldiers \"failed to reach\" the hostage, leading to his death, and that the Israeli team \"quickly fled the place\".\n\nIt claims that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used an ambulance to reach the place where the hostage was being held.\n\nThe BBC has not verified the video and has no confirmation of the claims made by Hamas in it.\n\nAt a briefing on Friday evening, chief IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari confirmed that two Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded during operations in Gaza to free hostages.\n\nHe said \"terrorists who participated in the kidnapping and holding of hostages\" had been killed, but he said no hostages had been released.\n\nIt is not clear if he was talking about the same incident described in the Hamas video or something else.\n\nThe IDF launched its military operation in Gaza after a deadly Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.\n\nIsrael says 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage in the Hamas attack. A number of hostages were later released during a short-lived ceasefire - but not those who Hamas claims to be linked to the Israeli military.\n\nHamas says Israel has killed more than 17,177 people in its retaliatory campaign, including about 7,000 children.", "Satellite images commissioned by the BBC reveal the extent of destruction across Gaza, showing that nearly 98,000 buildings may have suffered damage.\n\nThe satellite images were taken last Thursday - before the start of a seven-day suspension of hostilities, which has now ended.\n\nDrone footage and verified video also show buildings and entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble after Israeli air strikes and on-the-ground fighting.\n\nWhile northern Gaza has been the focus of the Israeli offensive and has borne the brunt of the destruction, widespread damage extends across the entire strip.\n\nIsrael says northern Gaza, which includes the major urban centre of Gaza City, was a \"centre of gravity of Hamas\", the group behind the deadly 7 October attacks on Israel. The Israeli military says its bombing campaign has successfully targeted Hamas commanders and fighters and accuses the group of embedding itself in civilian areas.\n\nSatellite data analysis suggests that almost 98,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip may have suffered damage, mostly in the north - as shown in the above map.\n\nAnalysis of the data was carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University. It is based on comparisons of two separate images, revealing changes in the height or structure of buildings which suggests damage.\n\nWe have analysed satellite imagery from several areas with extensive damage.\n\nThe cities of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the north and north-east of the Gaza Strip were among the first to be targeted by air strikes after the 7 October attacks by Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the area was a hideout for Hamas.\n\nParts of Beit Lahia, which overlooked olive groves and sand dunes stretching towards the border with Israel, were flattened. The satellite image below shows an area in the north-east of Beit Lahia, where a significant block of buildings was destroyed.\n\nBulldozers appear to have cleared roads through the rubble and the Israeli military cleared land and set up defensive positions in surrounding fields.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe IDF also struck the small nearby city of Beit Hanoun, less than 1.6km (1 mile) from the border. It said 120 targets were hit in the area on the first day of air strikes.\n\nAs the images above show, a skyline of multi-storey buildings and a mosque was gradually reduced to rubble between 14 October and 22 November.\n\nAfter weeks of air strikes on Gaza, Israel moved in on the ground - tanks and bulldozers going through areas which had been heavily bombarded. The IDF worked its way southwards along the coast towards Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in the Gaza City area.\n\nAs the image below shows, a whole series of craters are visible in what was once a residential area. Some of the buildings on the beach front, which boasted Gaza's first five-star hotel, the Al-Mashtal, as well as huts and restaurants, appear to have been partially destroyed.\n\nAbout a week after the air strikes began, the IDF warned Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south of a river known as Wadi Gaza for their own safety.\n\nDespite the warning and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Gaza City, areas in the south continued to be targeted.\n\nNuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza was hit several times before the temporary pause in hostilities began. The camp was said to be home to about 85,000 people, according to the UN.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn this verified video, which emerged online, people are seen picking through the rubble of collapsed and damaged buildings.\n\nThe distinctive black chimney stacks of the Gaza Power Plant, situated just north of the camp, are visible in the background.\n\nThe BBC has approached the IDF for comment.\n\nIn Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, thousands of people are living in tents or the rubble of bombed-out buildings.\n\nAlthough the damage was not as widespread as in the north, up to 15% of buildings across the city may have been damaged, according to Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek's analysis.\n\nAs well as pushing down from the north, Israeli forces also cut across the Gaza Strip westwards, isolating Gaza City from the south.\n\nIn this image below, taken to the south of Gaza City, we can see that a previously populated residential area was cleared by the IDF with heavy machinery and a road bulldozed towards the western Mediterranean shoreline.\n\nYou can also see dozens of military vehicles, including tanks, grouped behind fortifications made from earth.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nSatellite images also show an open square of land with a Star of David carved into the earth by vehicle tracks in Gaza City, near al-Azhar University.\n\nImages online from before the war showed children playing there and suggested it was a park, but IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said the ground was used by Hamas as a parade square near a base. The area was taken over by the IDF's Golani Brigade.\n\nA Star of David - which is used as a Jewish and Israeli symbol - was made by armoured vehicles in a ceremony in memory of Israeli soldiers who had been killed since the war began, according to a post by Rear Adm Hagari on X.\n\nAdditional reporting by Thomas Spencer, Paul Brown, Jake Horton, Alex Murray and Shayan Sardarizadeh and Jemimah Herd", "Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis have posted Christmas cards to children who may struggle this festive season, as they attended their mother's annual carol concert.\n\nIts theme this year was \"children and families\" - reflecting the Princess of Wales's early years campaign work.\n\nHer three children were photographed putting cards into a special post box outside Westminster Abbey.\n\nAll the cards will be distributed to children's charities after the service.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales and their children arrive with the Dean of Westminster Abbey\n\nIn January the Princess of Wales launched her Shaping Us campaign, which aims to highlight and promote the significance of the formative years of a child's life.\n\nThe carol concert, which took place on Friday, was an opportunity to \"say a heartfelt thank-you to all those supporting the very youngest members of our society during those crucial early years\", the princess said.\n\nAmong the 1,500 attendees were midwives and nursery teachers, young carers, and those who may have had a challenging year, including children and families, or those who might find the winter period difficult.\n\nThe Princess of Wales chats with a young guest inside Westminster Abbey\n\nMusical treats included carols from the Westminster Abbey choir, and a special duet by Beverley Knight and Adam Lambert.\n\nThe Prince of Wales, Micheal Ward, Emma Willis, Roman Kemp, and Jim Broadbent gave readings, and a specially commissioned poem by Joseph Coelho, the Children's Laureate, was read by Leonie Elliott.\n\nOther royals who attended included Peter Phillips, Savannah Phillips, Isla Phillips and Zara Tindall\n\nThe abbey was adorned with eco-friendly festive decorations for the occasion.\n\nThe service will be broadcast on ITV1 and ITVX on Christmas Eve at 7.45pm.", "Claire Lewis says the \"game-changer\" drug had given hope to so many families\n\nA family say they are devastated after medication described as a \"cure\" for their rare bone disease was not recommended for the NHS.\n\nClaire Lewis, 59, and her family live with X-linked hypophosphataemia (XLH), which affects bones and teeth.\n\nThe National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) rejected the burosumab drug for adults on the NHS in draft guidance.\n\n\"It affects every part of your life… we are distraught,\" said Ms Lewis.\n\nMs Lewis, from Hirwaun, Rhondda Cynon Taf, said the new medication, marketed under the name Crysvita, could be a \"game-changer\".\n\n\"I've been told it's [as good as] a cure,\" she said.\n\nApproval by the Scottish Medicines Consortium means patients in Scotland have been able to access the drug on the NHS since February.\n\nFour generations of Ms Lewis' family - including her three siblings, her mum, her three children and her great-nephew Reggie - have the hereditary condition and they can trace it back to the 1800s in their lineage.\n\nThey face daily pain, and one of her sisters has even lost all her teeth to the condition.\n\nXLH affects one in 20,000 people and Ms Lewis believes only eight families in Wales are affected.\n\nBut \"there are absolutely no expertise for adults with XLH\" in Wales, she added.\n\nIt is characterised by low levels of phosphate and \"basically gives you rickets\".\n\nMs Lewis was a teacher for more than 20 years, but had to give up her career a decade ago when she needed surgery.\n\n\"It affects every single part of your life,\" she said.\n\n\"As I've got older, the fatigue has completely taken over. I can only do half of what I used to, 59 is not old.\"\n\nShe said even getting up and getting dressed were difficult.\n\n\"I can get up in the morning feeling as if I haven't slept at all, even though I may have slept 12 hours,\" she added.\n\n\"We are very weak because we can't walk that far. I can no longer get on and off buses or trains.\"\n\nClaire Lewis, right, and her daughters all suffer daily pain due to the bone disease\n\nMs Lewis said her marriage broke down due to the stress, and that relationships were often difficult for people with XLH, partly due to the possibility of passing the disease to children.\n\nShe added: \"What it affects most is your mental health… being different and people just not understanding what's happening.\"\n\nMs Lewis' family currently attend a geriatric bone clinic, since the funding for them to go to a specialised clinic in Oxford was stopped in 2018.\n\n\"The treatment in Wales is, I would like to say poor, but I have to say non-existent,\" she said.\n\nStuart Ralston, a professor of rheumatology at the University of Edinburgh, is an expert in bone diseases and has used burosumab with some of his own patients since February.\n\n\"It's worked fantastically well. Essentially, it's like a cure, so it's a very effective treatment,\" he said.\n\nProf Ralston said NICE \"seem to be stalling\" due to less evidence available on the effects of the medication in adults compared to children and hoped its use in Scotland would help demonstrate the benefits.\n\nPeople with XLH have a lack of active vitamin D in their bodies, which needs to be activated before the body can use it \"a bit like your electronic train tickets on your mobile phone,\" said Prof Ralston.\n\nHe added phosphate supplements were \"hard for patients to take\" making it difficult to control the condition without burosumab.\n\nHe said he did not know how much the NHS would have to pay for it, but admitted it was \"very expensive\" at a list price of about £200,000 a year per patient.\n\nClaire Lewis had to have surgery to her femur, forcing her to give up work when she was just 48 years old\n\nMs Lewis attended a roundtable discussion on rare diseases at the Senedd, chaired by Mike Hedges, on 4 October.\n\nSwansea East MS Mr Hedges said he was \"disappointed\" by the NICE decision, but added: \"I would like to see an arbitration procedure on the price of drugs so that companies would need to justify the price they are charging.\"\n\nIn its draft guidance, NICE said \"people having burosumab may have less pain and fatigue, and improved physical functioning\" but this was \"not certain\".\n\nIt added: \"All of the cost effectiveness estimates are above the range normally considered an acceptable use of NHS resources.\"\n\nThe treatment has previously been approved by NICE for children with growing bones, but Ms Lewis said this was concerning because young people like three-year-old Reggie would not have an understanding of the condition's symptoms when the treatment stopped.\n\n\"The difference in him has been outstanding,\" Ms Lewis said.\n\nShe added the XLH community - who communicate online and regularly meet up - have been waiting years to find out if the drug would be available to them.\n\n\"Everyone is devastated... It's so short-sighted,\" Ms Lewis said.\n\nReggie, three, is receiving the burosumab drug but his family are worried about how he will cope when he turns 18 and funding stops\n\nThe second NICE evaluation is in February 2024 and campaigners are lobbying NICE to reconsider.\n\nCharity XLH UK said: \"Access to this treatment is not merely about managing symptoms, it's about providing individuals the opportunity for a life without the constant burden of pain and limited mobility.\"\n\nIt said denying access to the drug \"imposes a cycle of unnecessary additional suffering.\"\n\nClaire Lewis and other XLH patients and campaigners attended a round table discussion at the Senedd in October\n\nKyowa Kirin, the company which makes the drug, said it \"regrets\" NICE's decision, but is committed to finding a solution.\n\nThe Welsh government said it relied on NICE guidance \"to ensure resources are targeted where patients will benefit the most, and where the medicine costs are in balance with those benefits\".\n\n\"The draft guidance does not constitute NICE's final position on the availability of burosumab,\" it said.", "As Israel presses its military offensive across Gaza, the army has been repeatedly advising some two million civilians to move to a \"humanitarian zone\" smaller than London's Heathrow Airport.\n\nAl-Mawasi is a narrow strip of land by the Mediterranean Sea. It has few buildings and largely consists of sandy dunes and agricultural land.\n\nThe zone designated as safe by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is just 8.5 sq km (3.3 sq miles).\n\nReem Abd Rabu has spent the last few weeks sleeping on the ground and sharing a tent with four other families in the area.\n\nShe is one of the 1.8 million Palestinians who have been displaced since the war began on 7 October after Hamas's attack on Israel.\n\nShe first travelled to Khan Younis after fleeing northern Gaza, but after nearby houses were bombed, she said she felt she had to go to the place the Israeli army identified on the map as safe.\n\nReem told the BBC al-Mawasi was an abandoned place, \"not a place for human beings\".\n\nShe thought it would be safe from the intense bombardment and fighting, but when she arrived, she found little to no basic services.\n\n\"Water comes one day and not for the next 10 days, even in the bathrooms. And it's the same thing for electricity,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThe IDF has urged civilians to move to al-Mawasi on at least 15 occasions on social media, the last on 2 December.\n\nAlthough the UN is distributing some supplies, civilians say there is a lack of basic necessities in the area\n\nThe first mention of the humanitarian zone was on 18 October, when the IDF's Arabic spokesperson posted on X: \"The IDF orders Gaza residents to move to the humanitarian zone in the area of al-Mawasi, to which international humanitarian aid will be directed if necessary.\"\n\nAnother post, from 21 October, stated: \"If your life and the lives of those you love are important to you, head south of Wadi Gaza. We advise you to arrive at the humanitarian area in Mawasi according to our instructions.\"\n\nLittle to no internet connectivity has made it difficult for people to find safe areas in other parts of Gaza.\n\nHowever, even the IDF instructions on al-Mawasi have changed several times. Civilians say the changing messaging has made it difficult for them to know exactly where to find safety there too.\n\nEach IDF post has been accompanied by a map pinpointing a small area within al-Mawasi that Gazans should evacuate to.\n\nBut different areas in al-Mawasi have been designated as \"humanitarian zones\" by Israel on different dates.\n\nOn 18 October, the IDF designated the humanitarian zone marked in purple below. But three days later, the IDF declared a different area - shown in blue.\n\nThen, on 30 October, the area changed again - to the one marked in green.\n\nMona al-Astal, who has also fled to al-Mawasi, says she is kept awake all night by the sound of shelling.\n\nShe is a doctor who says she was forced to leave Khan Younis after her neighbour's home was bombed.\n\nMona also describes a lack of water, electricity and supplies in the humanitarian zone. She said she had been forced to buy a tent and other supplies for $300 (£238).\n\nMona said that she had seen people breaking into a UN agency storehouse because \"they were so hungry, they have nothing to eat\".\n\nTo make matters worse, diseases including lice, chicken pox and intestinal infections have become widespread among children, she says.\n\n\"With every day that passes, the danger for us here increases,\" Mona added.\n\nMohammed Ghanem fled from an area near al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza where he said more than 25 strikes occurred next to his house.\n\nHe said he came to al-Mawasi because \"the Israeli army has been directing people here\" but said the area was \"neither humane nor safe\".\n\nHe described seeing Israeli tanks less than a kilometre away and said there had been strikes on an area just 500 metres (1,640ft) from the humanitarian zone.\n\nThe BBC has identified at least one area of damage approximately 500m away from the designated area of al-Mawasi since the IDF began directing people there.\n\nThe BBC has contacted Israeli forces, but has not received a response.\n\nThe IDF does claim that on 6 December Hamas \"launched a rocket from a humanitarian zone toward Israel\", and released a map with al-Mawasi marked.\n\nThe BBC has not been able to independently verify this.\n\nInternational agencies have been voicing concerns about the viability of humanitarian zones in Gaza when fighting and air strikes extend across so much of the territory.\n\nIn mid-November the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the plan for al-Mawasi was \"a recipe for disaster\".\n\nWHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: \"Attempting to cram so many people into such a small area with such little infrastructure or services will significantly increase risks to health for people who are already on the brink.\"\n\nThe United Nations also has wider concerns about the plan.\n\n\"The situation in Gaza is catastrophic; no one and no place is safe,\" Andrea de Domenico, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) told the BBC.", "NI Screen said the project aims to \"address imbalances\" in the Digital Film Archive\n\nNorthern Ireland Screen has made a public call for videos in order to make its Digital Film Archive more diverse.\n\nLaunched in 2000 as part of the British Film Institute's Millennium Project, it is a free, public access archive.\n\nIt contains hundreds of hours of film, spanning from 1897 to the present day.\n\nNI Screen has asked for contemporary content to ensure the archive is \"more accurate and representative\" of life in Northern Ireland.\n\nMainly focused on Northern Ireland society, the archive also chronicles pre-partition Ireland.\n\nIt contains an array of genres including feature films, drama, sport, documentaries, news coverage and amateur footage.\n\nHowever, Northern Ireland Screen said the archive lacks contemporary material related to several themes and communities.\n\nThese include more diverse religions; ethnic minorities; disabled and neurodivergent people; LGBTQ+ people; and those from working-class communities, especially young men.\n\nNI Screen said the Northern Ireland Now: Contemporary Collecting project aims to \"prioritise content that showcases diversity and inclusion\" and \"address imbalances\" in the archives.\n\n\"Outdated language and concepts found in older holdings will also be addressed to ensure the content is relevant, respectful and carries content warnings where applicable,\" a spokesperson added.\n\nLaunching the project, head of heritage and archive Francis Jones said it will better reflect \"the diversity of life today\".\n\n\"We're also embracing different types of contemporary content for the first time such as memes, viral videos, parodies and topical content,\" he said.\n\nElspeth Vischer from Northern Ireland Now pictured with, Francis Jones from NI Screen and Niall Kerr from the Nerve Centre\n\nThe project is being supported by the British Film Institute (BFI) and funds from the National Lottery.\n\nMarta Berto, screen heritage fund manager, at the BFI described the project as a \"significant step forward\" in preserving the diverse narratives and experiences of life in Northern Ireland.\n\nAn outreach engagement programme is also being led by the Nerve Centre, in Londonderry, with groups contributing their voice to archive during sessions that will explore areas such as content curation, cataloguing, digital preservation and promotion.\n\n\"This project is a unique opportunity for interested groups to share their love of film and use the medium to enhance and better reflect their own backgrounds, in turn building a more cohesive view of modern society,\" said the Nerve Centre's head of heritage, Niall Kerr.\n\nOnce submissions have been collected they will be catalogued and contextualised so they can be better understood by the public before being incorporated into the Digital Film Archive.\n\nNI Screen has said knowledge acquired through the scheme will also help inform the Belfast Stories project - a new £100m visitor centre opening in 2029.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Now project will run until spring 2025.", "A portrait of murdered teacher Samuel Paty at the school where he taught\n\nSix teenagers have been convicted in France for their roles in the 2020 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty.\n\nMr Paty was killed outside his school in Paris after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a class on freedom of expression.\n\nA teenage girl was found to have lied about what happened in class, while five others were guilty of identifying Mr Paty to his attacker.\n\nThe sentences from 14 months to two years are all suspended or commuted.\n\nMr Paty's name was disclosed on social media after caricatures published by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were shown during a class he taught.\n\nThe teenage girl told her parents that Mr Paty had asked Muslim pupils to leave the room before showing the caricatures.\n\nBut she had in fact been absent from the class in question. The court found her guilty of having made false accusation charges and slanderous comments.\n\nFive defendants, aged 14 and 15 at the time, were found guilty of staking out the teacher.\n\nThey were convicted of involvement in a group preparing aggravated violence.\n\nMr Paty's killer, Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Chechen refugee, was shot dead by police at the scene of the murder.\n\nA second trial will open next year for eight adults also accused of complicity in the murder. These include Brahim Chnina, the father of the 13-year-old girl on trial.\n\nDepictions of the Prophet Muhammad are widely regarded as taboo in Islam, and are considered highly offensive by Muslims.\n\nThe issue is particularly sensitive in France because of Charlie Hebdo's decision to publish cartoons of the Prophet.\n\nTwelve people were killed by Islamist extremists at the magazine's offices in 2015 after the images were published.\n• None Six French teenagers on trial over teacher's murder", "The UK's competition watchdog is to look at whether Microsoft's high-value partnership with OpenAI could be considered as a merger.\n\nThe Competition and Markets Authority is examining whether the US tech giant's work with OpenAI could affect the AI market overall.\n\nMicrosoft, reportedly OpenAI's biggest investor, said it had \"preserved independence\" for both firms.\n\nBut the relationship has come under focus after recent upheaval at OpenAI.\n\nLast month, OpenAI, which is best known as the creator of ChatGPT, was plunged into chaos when its boss Sam Altman was suddenly fired.\n\nAfter Mr Altman's sacking, Microsoft then offered him a job leading a new advanced AI research team, before he was reinstated at OpenAI following an appeal from employees.\n\nDuring the drama, a spotlight was cast on how commercial competition is shaping the development of AI systems and the pace at which the technology is moving.\n\nIt caused confusion about the future of the start-up, while Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella had said previously that governance at the firm needed to change.\n\nThe CMA said that it was asking for comments, partly \"in light of these developments\".\n\nThe watchdog is questioning whether the partnership has resulted in an \"acquisition of control\", whether an effective merger has taken place and if this could affect competition in the UK.\n\nIt has asked third parties for their comments on the tie-up and could launch a probe if it feels it is necessary.\n\nSorcha O'Carroll, senior director for mergers at the CMA, said: \"The invitation to comment is the first part of the CMA's information gathering process and comes in advance of launching any phase 1 investigation, which would only happen once the CMA has received the information it needs from the partnership parties.\"\n\nIn response to the announcement, Microsoft said that its partnership with OpenAI has \"fostered more AI innovation and competition\".\n\nVice chair and president of Microsoft Brad Smith said that the only thing that has changed is that it \"will now have a non-voting observer on OpenAI's board\".\n\nThis means that it will have access to confidential information, but it will not be able to vote on matters like choosing directors or have any control over its operations.\n\nOn Friday, Microsoft also disputed reports that it owns any stake in OpenAI, saying that details of the agreement were confidential but it is entitled to a share of profits.\n\nMr Smith added that the tech giant, which also came under scrutiny from regulators over its acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, will work closely with the CMA to provide all the information that it needs.\n\nAn OpenAI spokesperson said: \"Our partnership with Microsoft empowers us to pursue our research and develop safe and beneficial AI tools for everyone, while remaining independent and operating competitively.\"\n\nMr Smith has previously denied that the recent drama witnessed at OpenAI was due to concerns around the safety of the technology being developed.\n\nFears that AI was going to overtake humans in the next year were unfounded, he said recently during an event in London.\n\n\"There's absolutely no probability that you're going to see this so called artificial general intelligence where computers are more powerful than people come in the next 12 months. It's going to take years, if not many decades.\"\n\nMr Altman was a co-founder of OpenAI and became the face of its ground-breaking chatbot ChatGPT after it launched last year.\n\nHe secured a significant funding boost to the tune of $13bn (£10bn) from Microsoft, which helped catapult the business.\n\nIn an interview with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), one of the four board members who fired Mr Altman said that its goal was to \"strengthen OpenAI and make it more able to achieve its mission.\"\n\nHelen Toner, an academic and now former board member, did not answer questions about her interactions with Mr Altman, but said that the move was due to a \"lack of trust\" in the executive.\n\nThere was reportedly a clash between the two after her work on an AI safety paper was published, which suggested that other tech companies had fast-tracked AI products in a bid to keep up with OpenAI.\n\nShe told the WSJ: \"OpenAI is a very unusual organization, and the non-profit mission - to ensure [artificial general intelligence] benefits all of humanity - comes first.\"", "Prince Harry is challenging the fairness of how decisions over his security were made\n\nPrince Harry wants his children to \"feel at home\" in the UK but they cannot if \"it's not possible to keep them safe\", the High Court has heard.\n\nCalling the UK his home, the Duke of Sussex said it was \"with great sadness\" that he and his wife Meghan \"felt forced\" to leave the country in 2020.\n\nHe is challenging the Home Office over a decision to downgrade his security protection when visiting.\n\nThe government says his claim should be dismissed.\n\nThe court is considering the changes to publicly-funded protection when Prince Harry stopped being a \"working royal\" in early 2020. After stepping back he moved to the US, where he lives with his wife and their two children, Archie and Lilibet.\n\nThe committee that arranges security for members of the Royal Family and other VIPs - known as Ravec - decided in 2020 that Prince Harry would no longer have the automatic level of security for senior royals.\n\nInstead the level of security would be arranged depending on the perceived risk, as is the case with other high-profile visiting dignitaries.\n\nPrince Harry's lawyers say the decision was \"unlawful and unfair\".\n\nAt a hearing on Thursday his barrister, Shaheed Fatima KC, said references by the Home Office's lawyers to the prince no longer being a full-time working royal were \"often said in a way that emphasised choice\".\n\nBut she said he did not accept this.\n\nShe read out an excerpt of a statement written by Harry as part of his case, in which he said: \"It was with great sadness for both of us that my wife and I felt forced to step back from this role and leave the country in 2020.\n\n\"The UK is my home. The UK is central to the heritage of my children and a place I want them to feel at home as much as where they live at the moment in the US. That cannot happen if it's not possible to keep them safe when they are on UK soil.\n\n\"I cannot put my wife in danger like that and, given my experiences in life, I am reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm's way too.\"\n\nThursday marks the end of the two-and-a-half day hearing - much of which concerned security arrangements for senior figures and took place in private.\n\nPrince Harry, who did not attend in person, now waits for a ruling from Mr Justice Lane at a later date.\n\nEarlier this week, Prince Harry's lawyers argued there had been a lack of transparency about the decision and the prince had been not been treated the same way as others.\n\nThere was \"no good reason for singling out the claimant [Prince Harry] this way,\" said his legal team.\n\nMs Fatima KC told the court: \"Ravec should have considered the 'impact' a successful attack on the claimant would have, bearing in mind his status, background and profile within the royal family - which he was born into and which he will have for the rest of his life - and his ongoing charity work and service to the public.\"\n\nBut the Home Office's case argued that as the prince was no longer a working royal and lived overseas, \"his position has materially changed\".\n\n\"In those circumstances protective security would not be provided on the same basis as before,\" said its lawyers.\n\nThere will still be publicly-funded police security for Prince Harry, the lawyers said, but these will be \"bespoke arrangements, specifically tailored to him\", rather than the automatic security provided for full-time working royals.\n\nSir James Eadie KC, for the Home Office, said in written arguments it was \"simply incorrect\" to suggest that there was no evidence that the issue of impact was considered, adding that the death of Diana, Princess of Wales - Harry's mother - was raised as part of the decision.", "Brianna's body was discovered by dog walkers at Culcheth Linear Park after she was stabbed 28 times\n\nA girl accused of the \"frenzied\" murder of teenager Brianna Ghey has told a court she enjoyed \"dark fantasies\" about killing and torturing people.\n\nThe defendant, identified as girl X, said she also fantasised about killing Brianna, 16, but had \"no intention\" of bringing it to reality, a jury heard.\n\nBrianna, who was transgender, was stabbed to death in a park near Warrington, Cheshire, on 11 February.\n\nGirl X and a teenager identified as boy Y are on trial accused of her murder.\n\nManchester Crown Court has heard the pair, both now 16 but aged 15 at the time of Brianna's death, both blame each other for the killing. They cannot be identified due to their age.\n\nWarning: Some readers might find the following report distressing\n\nOn day 10 of their trial, girl X gave evidence from the witness box, screened from the view of the public gallery and accompanied by an intermediary.\n\nShe told the jury she began to fantasise about killing people at the age of 14, when she began to take an interest in \"dark materials\" such as videos of murder, torture, and serial killers.\n\nGirl X said she had used an app to search for the materials on the dark web.\n\nThe jury heard she was interested in the idea of murder and the \"different personalities of serial killers and different ways they would carry things out\", but said they did not make her want to torture or kill others.\n\nA crumpled note with an alleged \"murder plan\" to kill Brianna was found in girl X's bedroom\n\nShe said her co-accused had \"similar interests\", and she would share the \"dark fantasies\" with him as he \"seemed to like that sort of stuff\".\n\nGirl X denied being \"obsessed\" with Brianna but said she found her \"different\" and \"interesting\".\n\nIn Snapchat messages between her and Boy Y, he had referred to Brianna as an \"it\" because he \"doesn't agree with people who were trans or gay\", she told the court, but she denied holding anti-transgender views herself.\n\nGirl X denied trying to give Brianna an overdose to kill her a few weeks before she was stabbed, after telling boy Y she had given Brianna Ibuprofen pills but that she had a high tolerance and had not died, the jury head.\n\n\"I was making a fantasy about killing Brianna even though I had no intention,\" she said.\n\nWhen asked about the five other children named on her and boy Y's alleged \"kill list\", girl X said these were all fantasies that she had not intention of acting on.\n\nShe told boy Y she wanted to keep the body parts of the purported victims as part of the fantasy, as it was something serial killers had done, the jury heard.\n\nGirl X said at times she would self-harm as a \"coping\" mechanism and at times, felt suicidal and was taking medication.\n\nThe court has heard she has \"traits\" of autism and ADHD.\n\nEarlier in the trial, jurors were shown a crumpled, hand-written note of an alleged \"murder plan\" to kill Brianna found on the bedroom floor of Girl X after her arrest.\n\nNotes were also made on serial killers including Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez and Harold Shipman in a black Pukka notebook.\n\nJurors have also heard girl X and boy Y had a fixation with torture, violence and death, with girl X describing herself as a \"satanist\".\n\nThe trial was adjourned until Monday.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The band collected their trophy ahead of the Brit Awards' official ceremony next March\n\nIndie band The Last Dinner Party have been crowned the winners of the Brits Rising Star prize.\n\nThe five-piece are one of the year's most talked-about new acts, thanks to their swooping, dramatic singles and theatrical stage costumes.\n\nThey now follow in the footsteps of Adele and Sam Fender, who are previous winners of the rising star prize.\n\nSinger Abigail Morris described the honour as \"a bit like having an out-of-body experience\".\n\n\"It's one we can tell our family about and they'll be like, 'Yeah, that is quite massive,'\" she told BBC Radio 1.\n\nThe band said they'd found out about the prize \"at a truck stop in Germany\" while travelling to a gig in Prague.\n\n\"A couple of us were inside trying to buy granola bars and coffee,\" said guitarist Lizzie Mayland.\n\n\"Then we just ran around in the snow and kicked sleet at each other and screamed and terrorised the locals.\n\n\"So it was a squeal and a hug and then trying to find some champagne.\"\n\nVoted for by an industry-wide panel, the rising star prize recognises British artists who had not achieved a top 20 album, or more than one top 20 single by 31 October this year.\n\nPop singer Caity Baser and soul sensation Sekou were also in the running for this year's award.\n\nThe Last Dinner Party came together in 2020, after its members met at gigs around London.\n\nThey had just started rehearsing when the pandemic struck - but lockdown gave them the opportunity to develop their baroque indie-pop sound, inspired by the likes of Kate Bush, David Bowie and Siouxsie and the Banshees.\n\n\"By the time we emerged from the chrysalis, we were fully formed,\" bassist Georgia Davies told the BBC last month.\n\n\"We played our first show like it was the Pyramid Stage. There was never a choppy, scrappy period.\"\n\nThe Last Dinner Party (L-R): and Lizzie Mayland (guitar), Aurora Nishevci (keyboards), Abigail Morris (vocals), Emily Roberts (guitar) and Georgia Davies (bass)\n\nThe group recorded their debut album with Arctic Monkeys producer James Ford last December, but put it on ice so they could spend 2023 building up their reputation on the live circuit.\n\nOver the course of the year, they skipped from venue to venue, upgrading from pubs and clubs to concert halls holding 1,200 fans; while securing support slots with Florence + The Machine, Lana Del Rey and Hozier.\n\nFans were asked to come in costume - with individual concerts dedicated to themes like Greek myths, folk horror and \"the language of flowers\".\n\nThe release of the majestic, hook-laden single Nothing Matters in April lit a rocket under their career, and the follow-ups Sinner and My Lady Of Mercy proved they had material to spare.\n\nMorris said the public's embrace of those songs was the true measure of success.\n\n\"It's amazing to win an award and we're very lucky and honoured - but in real life it's about the music that we've made, and the people who buy the records and dress up and sing the songs.\"\n\nThe band will release their album, Prelude to Ecstasy, in February; and collect their Brit Award when the ceremony takes place at London's O2 Arena on 2 March, 2024.\n\nThey are also on the longlist for the BBC's Sound Of 2024 prize, for which the winner will be revealed in January.", "A \"Stop the Boats\" lectern and a defiant appeal to unite behind the UK government's plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nThese were the optics and the message chosen by a prime minister in the midst of a deepening political crisis.\n\nBy holding a TV news conference in Downing Street, Rishi Sunak's intention was to seize the narrative and amplify his attempt to revive the Rwanda policy to as wide an audience as possible.\n\nBut some of his words appeared to be carefully selected with a target audience in mind - unruly MPs from different factions of his party.\n\n\"What everyone should do is support this bill,\" Mr Sunak said.\n\nThe fate of the Rwanda scheme hinges on the passage of the Safety of Rwanda Bill.\n\nMr Sunak said the new law was the \"only approach\" that would successfully prevent further legal challenges stopping flights taking off to Rwanda.\n\nBut the Conservative Party is split over the bill and the prime minister's news conference doesn't seem to have done much to calm tensions among MPs.\n\nMore than a year into Mr Sunak's premiership, MPs from different factions of the party are in open revolt over the Rwanda scheme - a legacy project of Boris Johnson's government.\n\nThat includes the so-called One Nation group - perceived as the more centrist and moderate wing of the party. And the so-called European Research Group (ERG) - an influential group of Brexiteer MPs on the right wing of the party.\n\nThe groups may be familiar to those who remember the tumultuous Brexit days, and the headache they gave former Prime Minister Theresa May as she tried, and ultimately failed, to appease them both.\n\nThree prime ministers later, and both groups are back at the centre of another political whirlwind.\n\nWith the Rwanda bill due back in Parliament next week, both groups are taking legal advice before deciding whether to back it, or move against it.\n\nEnter the ERG's Star Chamber, who, we're told, are studying the bill \"forensically\".\n\nThey feel Robert Jenrick's resignation as immigration minister was very significant and are not expected to give a judgement on whether they'll vote for or against the bill, or try change it, for a few days. Many worry it leaves the government too open to individual appeals by asylum seekers, with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg still able to challenge deportations.\n\nThe One Nation group of MPs are being given legal advice by Lord Garnier, a former government solicitor general.\n\n\"I won't vote for it [in the House of Lords],\" Lord Garnier told the BBC.\n\n\"It's an extraordinary bill - it's trying to define things when there is no evidence for that being the case. It's rather like a bill that has decided that all dogs are cats.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: My patience with Rwanda plan has worn thin - Sunak\n\nThe bill compels judges to treat Rwanda as a safe country and gives ministers the powers to disregard sections of the Human Rights Act.\n\nMr Sunak said the bill addresses the concerns of the Supreme Court, which ruled the Rwanda scheme unlawful last month.\n\nLord Garnier isn't so sure: \"It makes political nonsense and it makes legal nonsense.\"\n\nThe group that's taking legal advice from Lord Garnier are nervous and share these concerns too.\n\nAgain, their position on whether to back the bill or not - or try to change it - is still undecided and it's likely they'll come to a conclusion in the coming days.\n\nThe bill is set to get its second reading in Parliament on Tuesday, when MPs will get to vote on it. Some may wait until later stages of the bill's passage to rebel or amend the draft law.\n\nMr Sunak has indicated that if Tory MPs do vote against the bill, they would not be thrown out of the party.\n\nThe vote next Tuesday, Mr Sunak said, was about \"confidence in Parliament to demonstrate that it gets the British people's frustration\", not confidence in his government.\n\nThis all has quite an air of 2018 about it, when Mrs May found herself at the centre of rebellions from different sides over her Brexit legislation.\n\nSome MPs fear Mr Sunak is repeating what they see as the mistakes of the past.\n\nAs one MP put it, his news conference earlier seemed to be \"channelling Theresa May\" to talk to MPs via the television - rather than more effectively in person.\n\nThe unheeded ultimatums and the mutinous spirit that brought down Mrs May and other previous Tory prime ministers haunt Mr Sunak at a moment of political peril.\n\nAt the news conference, Mr Sunak was asked if he was telling Tory MPs to \"back me or sack me\", a phrase used by former Tory Prime Minister John Major when he faced a leadership challenge in 1995.\n\nIn his answer, Mr Sunak may have done something rare these days and spoken for his whole party when he said: \"My patience with this has worn thin.\"", "A 31-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Odhrán Kelly in Lurgan.\n\nThe body of 23-year-old Mr Kelly was found beside a burning car in Maple Court, close to Edward street, in the early hours of Sunday.\n\nThe suspect is to appear before Craigavon Magistrates' Court on Friday.\n\nEarlier, two women appeared in court charged with assisting an offender by helping with \"the disposal of the body of Odhrán Kelly\".\n\nAnother 31-year-old man who was arrested by police remains in custody.\n\nAndrea Catherine Theresa Stevenson, 43, from Edward Street in Lurgan and 36-year-old Stephanie McClelland, from Shan Slieve in Lurgan appeared at Lisburn Magistrates' Court on Thursday.\n\nBoth were remanded in custody.\n\nThey also both applied for legal aid and are expected to apply for bail later this month.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen on what the images show\n\nWith fighting raging around Khan Younis and in the north of Gaza, a video has emerged on social media showing dozens of Palestinian men detained by Israel.\n\nThe footage, verified by the BBC, shows them stripped to their underwear, kneeling on the ground and being guarded by Israeli soldiers.\n\nThe men are thought to have been arrested in Beit Lahia, in the far north of the Gaza strip.\n\nThe BBC has been told some of the men have since been released.\n\nOne of the men identified as having been detained is a well-known Palestinian journalist, leading his employers to accuse Israel of carrying out \"invasive searches and humiliating treatment\" of civilians.\n\nAsked about the video, a spokesman for the Israeli government told the BBC the men detained were all of military age and had been \"discovered in areas that civilians were supposed to have evacuated weeks ago\".\n\nIn the video, dozens of men are lined up on a pavement and appear to have been told to remove their shoes, which are scattered across the road. Israeli soldiers and armoured vehicles are standing guard over them.\n\nOther images show them being transported in military trucks. In the Israeli media, the captives are being described as Hamas fighters who have surrendered.\n\nAnother image - which has not yet been verified by the BBC - shows men blindfolded, kneeling in what appears to be a large pit of bulldozed sand.\n\nThe Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has not directly commented on the images, but spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Thursday that \"IDF fighters and Shin Bet officers detained and interrogated hundreds of terror suspects\".\n\n\"Many of them also turned themselves in to our forces during the past 24 hours. The intelligence coming out of their interrogations is utilised to continue the fighting.\"\n\nOn Friday, Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy told the BBC the men had been detained in Jabalia and Shejaiya in northern Gaza, which he described as \"Hamas strongholds and centres of gravity\".\n\n\"We're talking about military age men who were discovered in areas that civilians were supposed to have evacuated weeks ago,\" he said.\n\nMr Levy added that they would be questioned to \"work out who indeed was a Hamas terrorist and who is not\".\n\nHe emphasised the detained men had been found in areas where Israeli forces had engaged in \"close-quarter combat\" with Hamas. They had been \"deliberately disguising themselves as civilians\" and operating from civilian buildings.\n\nThe BBC has spoken to a man who says 10 of his cousins were part of the group detained by the Israeli army on Thursday in Beit Lahia.\n\nThe man - who wishes to remain anonymous over safety concerns - told BBC Arabic's Ethar Shalaby that IDF soldiers entered the area and used megaphones to order the men from their homes and UN relief agency (UNRWA) schools.\n\nThe IDF ordered women in the area to go to a nearby hospital and later threated to shoot them if the men did not come out of their homes, he said.\n\nThe man said seven of his cousins have since been released and have returned home, but added he does not know about the fate of the three who remain in Israeli detention.\n\nIn a post on social media, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK described the footage as \"savage images of Israeli occupation forces detaining and stripping civilians taken from a UN shelter\".\n\n\"This evokes some of humanity's darkest passages of history,\" Husam Zomlot said.\n\nA picture of the men, verified by the BBC, has been circulating on social media\n\nPalestinian journalist, Diaa al-Kahlout, a correspondent for al-Araby al-Jadeed, has been identified among those who were in the video of the detainees.\n\nThe Arabic language news outlet, which also publishes in English under the name the New Arab, said Mr al-Kahlout had been arrested along with his brothers, relatives and \"other civilians\" by Israeli forces in Beit Lahia.\n\nAl-Araby al-Jadeed has condemned what it describes as the \"humiliating\" detention of Mr al-Kahlout on Thursday.\n\nIt added that soldiers forced the men to remove their clothes and \"subjected them to invasive searches and humiliating treatment upon their arrest, prior to transporting them to undisclosed locations\".\n\nThe outlet \"urges the international community, journalists' rights defenders and watchdogs, and human rights bodies to denounce this ongoing assault\" by Israel on journalists in the territory.\n\nA colleague of Mr al-Kahlout, Palestinian journalist Lamis Andoni, told Radio 4's PM programme on Friday that a number of prisoner had been released - but not Mr al-Kahlout.\n\nMs Andoni said those freed told Mr Kahlout's family that he had been transferred to Zikim military base in Israel. The BBC has not verified this claim.\n\n\"We have no idea about his fate. The photos and videos of these men is horrifying. I'm shocked,\" she said, adding that her media outlet was liaising with Israeli forces via the UN.", "U2, Paul Weller and Pete Doherty are among the stars who have paid tribute to Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan.\n\nThe singer-songwriter died on Thursday at the age of 65 following a recent stay in hospital.\n\nHe was best known for hits including 1987's Fairytale of New York and A Pair of Brown Eyes.\n\nU2 frontman Bono shared a sketch of the star on X/Twitter, writing: \"Shane MacGowan's songs were perfect so he or we his fans didn't have to be.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by U2 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nLibertines frontman Doherty told the BBC World Service he \"loved and respected\" the Pogues singer, who he said was \"up there in the top three or four lyricists in the last 30 or 40 years\".\n\nMacGowan had \"a gift for melody\" and was a \"kind of an old romantic [who] told tales, told stories in songs, strong characters, he painted a lot of pictures and fairytales\", Doherty said.\n\nHe told Newshour that the song Fairytale of New York, which remains one of the UK's best-loved Christmas songs, was an \"absolute belter\" and one \"you never get tired of hearing\".\n\nDoherty recalled performing on stage with MacGowan, saying they made the \"strongest connections\".\n\nHe said: \"For a long time I was sitting at his feet in awe... In certain difficult times of my life I could speak to him. When I was in jail, he knew some people, who knew some people and he helped me out of a few spots and I just felt close to him.\"\n\nDoherty added: \"I knew he was ill but I thought he was bulletproof.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Paul Weller This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMacGowan's former Pogues bandmate James Fearnley described the singer as \"a tearaway\" who \"had a lot of concern for the state of the world\" and who \"spoke very deeply and incisively to a lot of people\".\n\nFearnley told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"I'm privileged to have worked with somebody like that, and lived with somebody like that, and drank with somebody like that, and shared a lot of experiences with somebody like that. I'm very sorry he's gone.\"\n\nA statement from MacGowan's spokesperson confirmed he died peacefully on Thursday.\n\nHis wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, wrote: \"I am going to miss him so much! His smile, his eyes his laugh his sense of humour and his voice, every little part of him.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video has been removed for rights reasons\n\nMacGowan revealed he was diagnosed with encephalitis, a serious condition in which the brain becomes inflamed, last year in a video posted to social media on New Year's Eve.\n\nOthers who have paid tribute to MacGowan include Irish musician and actress Camille O'Sullivan, who told 5 Live he was \"a lovable, gentle kind of soul, and he was a sweetheart\".\n\n\"He was a complex guy. He didn't say much, but when he did say stuff it was really astute,\" she added. \"He had a little cackley laugh and he was a bit like a young boy when he talked to you.\n\n\"You'd always think Shane was not listening or thinking something else and then he'd come out with [something] - he was very astute about stuff, and very learned about films and books. And so he'd be quiet, and suddenly he'd blow everybody away in the room.\"\n\nNick Cave called him \"a true friend and the greatest songwriter of his generation\", adding that it was \"a very sad day\".\n\nThe Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess also paid tribute, saying MacGowan had \"a life lived to the full\" and was \"a lyrical genius\".\n\nIrish President Michael D Higgins described MacGowan as one of \"music's greatest lyricists\".\n\n\"His words have connected Irish people all over the globe to their culture and history, encompassing so many human emotions in the most poetic of ways,\" he said.\n\nTV presenter Carol Vorderman shared a picture of MacGowan and the late Sinead O'Connor on X, calling them \"the incredible rebel of my generation\".", "Helen Clarke was found with significant burns and a head injury\n\nAn 80-year-old man has pleaded guilty to murdering his 77-year-old wife in a car fire.\n\nHelen Clarke died two days after emergency services were called to the blaze on Sketty Lane, Swansea, on Friday 24 September.\n\nDavid Clarke, of Higher Lane, Langland, Swansea, appeared at Swansea Crown Court via video link and spoke only to confirm his name and enter his plea.\n\nHe will be sentenced on 9 February.\n\nDavid Clarke, 80, has admitted killing his wife in a car fire in Swansea\n\nMs Clarke was found in a critical condition, with significant burns as well as a head injury, South Wales Police previously said.\n\nThe force launched an investigation, with detectives working alongside other specialists.", "UN secretary general António Guterres has spoken about the \"serious risk to the maintenance of international peace and security\" in the Gaza conflict, citing the spillover of hostilities in \"the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen\".\n\nHe triggered Article 99, prompting a UN Security Council vote on Friday, because he believes this is a very urgent matter which must be brought to the attention of the council.\n\nThe Israeli government detests the UN and they detest the secretary general.\n\nThe Israelis rejected his description, claiming Mr Guterres is in fact the threat to world peace because he is pandering to Hamas by trying to end the fighting now, before their mission to destroy the group has been concluded.\n\nThat ill-feeling will not have improved after the secretary general also mentioned that one of the risks is that the situation in Gaza could get so bad that there would be a mass displacement of Palestinians over the border into Egypt - which is also of huge concern to the Egyptian government.\n\nThere was, Mr Guterres said, a high risk of the \"total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza\". And the Palestinians say that is exactly what Israel wants because it wants to get all Palestinians out of Gaza.\n\nJournalists are not permitted by Israel to enter Gaza so I can't report from there myself, but what the secretary general is saying sounds pretty accurate from the pictures and video we can see and the people we speak to.\n\nBy all the measures you can think of, the situation there for civilians is absolutely catastrophic, as they are subjected to a remorseless military campaign. Israel says they are doing what they can to save civilian lives but insists Hamas holds responsibility for using them as human shields.\n\nAt the UN, the Americans duly vetoed this resolution calling for a ceasefire. For those concerned about the significant loss of life, that does sound a bit hollow - the Americans claim the Israelis are saying they will stick to the rules of war and avoid unnecessary civilian deaths. But, they say, there is a gap between what Israel says and what it does.\n\nI think the strategy behind the secretary general's decision to bring a vote - which he knew would probably get vetoed - was to hurry up the inevitable moment when the Americans will say to Israel: \"Enough is enough, you've had enough time and killed enough people and it's time for a ceasefire.\"\n\nSome diplomats I have spoken to have said they might give the Israelis another month - I think Mr Guterres's strategy is to try and shorten that, partly by increasing international pressure and also partly by shaming the Americans into thinking that they cannot continue to hold this position as it becomes less and less tenable.\n\nThat pressure has also increased today with the publication of footage of prisoners in Gaza, held by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), stripped to their underwear and being driven away in trucks. It's a cruel image of war seeing these men, which local reports on social media suggest could be as many as 700.\n\nThose same sources, including family of some of the men, say that they were taken from a UN school where they were sheltering, and where others tried to get away and were killed.\n\nA horrendous video circulated yesterday of six people lying dead in the street - said to be from that same area and near that same school - and one of them was a bloody corpse lying on top of a white flag he had apparently been carrying.\n\nThe IDF say they are trying to work out who is a suspect and who is responsible for those terrible attacks on 7 October - and that they are all the while observing the international law on conflict.\n\nBut for those who have little sympathy for what Israel is doing, or have lost sympathy because of the level of killing that has been carried out in Gaza, those people are saying that this is another sign of Israeli indifference to the dignity and the health of Palestinians.\n\nThe weather is chilly here now, so being forced to walk around in underwear in streets, some blindfolded as we saw in the video, and some with their hands tied behind their back, is undoubtedly unpleasant.\n\nThe Israelis say they can't avoid it - others say it's pretty savage.", "People in Gaza have been giving us their reactions to the US blocking a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.\n\nSome residents told us they were not surprised by the outcome of Friday night's vote, as they had expected the US to use its veto powers.\n\n“This war won’t stop until the US says so,” one woman said.\n\nAnother resident, Alaa al-Saqa, said he felt like people in Gaza were viewed only as “numbers and breaking news”. He described the US’s move to block the resolution as a “farce”.\n\n\"We have only Allah standing with us,\" says Rafat abu Danhe Image caption: \"We have only Allah standing with us,\" says Rafat abu Danhe\n\nRafat abu Danhe said he had “a lot of hope” that the resolution would go through and was “very upset” that it didn’t. “We have only Allah standing with us,” he said. “We are telling all nations - Western and Arab - that we need a ceasefire, because we are living in a tragedy right now.”\n\nAs we’ve been reporting, the UK abstained in the vote, while the 13 other countries in the 15-member Security Council voted in favour of the resolution.\n\nThe US has defended its position, calling the resolution \"imbalanced\" and \"divorced from reality\".\n\nMeanwhile, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, has thanked the US for blocking the resolution, which he said would “enable Hamas’ terrorists to stay in power in Gaza and does not condemn Hamas or call for the release of the hostages”.", "Paul Bryan was found guilty of murdering Roman Szalajko last month\n\nA murderer who assumed the identity of a dead man to evade justice for 39 years has been jailed for life.\n\nPaul Bryan was 22 when he stabbed 62-year-old Roman Szalajko at the victim's south London home in 1984.\n\nThe crime remained unsolved as Bryan \"simply disappeared\" until a cold case review led to his arrest last year. He was convicted last month.\n\nMr Szalajko's daughter-in-law said seeing Bryan brought to justice had given the family \"great peace\".\n\nSentencing Bryan at the Old Bailey, Nigel Lickley KC said he would serve a minimum of 24 years for murder.\n\n\"There was no need to use violence of such an extreme nature towards Roman Szalajko,\" he said.\n\nThe \"suffering and damage\" he caused had affected people to this day, the judge added.\n\nMr Szalajko was killed at his flat in south London\n\nMr Szalajko was fatally stabbed at his flat in Seaton Close, Kennington, in February 1984.\n\nAfterwards, Bryan took on the identity of a dead Welshman with the same name and embarked on a new life in Portugal, Crete, Spain and France.\n\nHe became a suspect when his fingerprints were identified from a bottle at the scene during a cold case review in 2013.\n\nDNA from Bryan's late mother's hairbrush was later found to be a familial match to traces on the victim's vest and clump of hair.\n\nScotland Yard Det Sgt Quinn Cutler took a decade to track down the defendant and arrested him at Stansted, Essex, as he stepped off a plane from Portugal in November last year.\n\nThe defendant, now aged 62, originally from Hammersmith, west London, admitted having a false passport and was found guilty of murder after a trial.\n\nBryan was 22 when he fatally stabbed Mr Szalajko\n\nBryan had refused to give a statement on why he murdered Mr Szalajko, but Judge Lickley said he believed it was financial gain.\n\nDuring sentencing, in a victim impact statement, Mr Szalajko's daughter-in-law Julie Szalajko said the killing had a \"painful and long-lasting\" impact on the family.\n\nHer husband Gerard had been accused of killing his father and both he and his sister died before Bryan was caught.\n\nHowever, Ms Szalajko said knowing the truth about her father-in-law's murder had been a \"great comfort\" to her and her family.\n\n\"Seeing Paul Bryan being brought to justice gives us great peace and comfort after all these years,\" she added.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Two men have been arrested in France after allegedly scamming elderly people into paying thousands of euros for bedbug treatment they did not need.\n\nPolice in Strasbourg said the men would go to their victims' homes, carry out phoney control services and then overcharge for treatment products.\n\nThey added that 48 people had been scammed altogether, many of them women over 90.\n\nRecent months have seen a rise in bedbug infestations across France.\n\nThe issue has sparked concern across the country, with senior government officials working on measures to address it.\n\nEntomologists and health experts have warned that the outbreak has also led to a rise in false sightings and unwarranted hysteria.\n\nAuthorities said the alleged scammers would phone their victims and tell them there was an infestation in their neighbourhood.\n\nThey would then visit the person's home posing as health officials and, using aerosol sprays, pretend to fumigate the space.\n\nBefore leaving, they would offer an ointment that they said would keep the bugs away from human skin. The ointment was in fact a simple eucalyptus-scented cream.\n\nVictims would be charged between €300 and €2,100 (£257 and £1,800).\n\nPolice said they had received a total of nine formal complaints for suspected fraud.\n\nThe suspects were then placed under surveillance and arrested as they left the home of an alleged victim in Strasbourg.\n\nThe infestations in Paris have led to fears the problem could spread across the Channel to London.\n\nSpeaking to PoliticsJOE in October, London mayor Sadiq Khan said the threat to the capital's public transport system was a \"real source of concern\".\n\nHe said he had been in contact with counterparts in Paris as well as officials at Transport For London to \"ensure we don't have that problem\".\n\nHave you been affected by any of the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Police still do not have an accurate understanding of \"grooming gangs\", despite years of concerns about the problem, the police watchdog has said.\n\nHis Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) reviewed 27 cases.\n\nData collection was \"unreliable\", it said, and intelligence gathering \"wasn't prioritised\".\n\nIt found most offenders were white, despite the concerns of politicians about \"Asian\" grooming gangs.\n\nThe Home Office announced the creation of a taskforce to deal with the gangs in April.\n\nHM Inspector of Constabulary, Wendy Williams, said \"the pace of change needs to increase, and this starts with understanding the problem\".\n\nConcerns about groups of men who groom children on the streets and then sexually abuse them go back more than a decade.\n\nLarge gangs of abusers in Rotherham, Rochdale, South Yorkshire, Oxford and Telford have been jailed, and a public inquiry found this sort of abuse had caused life-long \"devastation and harm\" to young victims.\n\nIn its report published on Friday, the HMICFRS said though some progress had been made more recently, \"we expected to find, ten years later, that the police and other organisations had a greater understanding of the problem and had developed effective responses to protect children\".\n\n\"In many respects, we were disappointed.\n\n\"We found that an accurate view of group-based child sexual exploitation still wasn't available to the police service.\n\n\"Most forces weren't gathering data and intelligence on these crimes.\"\n\nThe inspectorate reviewed 52 investigations involving the sexual exploitation of children, of which 27 uncovered abuse by groups.\n\nThere has been a fierce debate about the ethnicity of those involved.\n\nIn April, the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman highlighted the \"overwhelming\" involvement of British-Pakistani men, pointing to three notorious cases in Rochdale, Rotherham and Telford.\n\nHowever the HMICFRS found, of the 27 investigations it examined, \"the most common ethnic group of offenders was white; the next most common ethnic group was Asian or British Asian. Other ethnic groups were also represented in the sample\".\n\nThe inspectorate did not give further details, or name the forces it involved. It also said \"our sample size isn't fully representative\".\n\n\"We know that child sexual exploitation, group-based or otherwise, extends far beyond the confines of towns and cities with a high concentration of residents of South Asian heritage,\" the report said.\n\nIn 2022 the Home Office asked the police to collect ethnicity data for every suspected offender taken into custody.\n\nHowever, this report found that when first arrested, police often weren't sure what suspects had been doing.\n\n\"Therefore, data collected at that time might be inaccurate and of little value,\" the watchdog said.\n\nIt recommended the Home Office adopt a more consistent way of tracking abuse by grooming gangs.\n\nOf the 27 police investigations examined by the watchdog, nine were assessed as \"good\", 14 as \"requiring improvement\" and four as \"inadequate.\"\n\nIt highlighted the use of officers who were not specialised in sexual abuse investigations, warning that they often lacked experience and training.\n\nIt also raised concerns about \"victim blaming\" by the police, often seen as a reason in the past for young people who have been abused not coming forward.\n\nThe inspectors found \"inappropriate language\" was used on a few occasions in the three of the six forces they examined more closely.\n\nOne example, relating to a young female victim, was a note that concerns had been raised due to \"her general proclivity with older men\".\n\nThe National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) accepted there was still a problem with \"victim blaming\", but said the new national police taskforce was now supporting 40 investigations nationally, advised by a Crown Prosecution Service specialist unit.\n\nThe NPCC lead for child protection, Ian Critchley, said: \"We will not be complacent, and we recognise there is still more to be done as highlighted in this report.\"\n\n\"We will continue to listen to victims and use these recommendations to support our improvements with forces across the country.\"", "At 2:15 on Christmas morning last year, Ruth Perry woke and wrote down her thoughts while her two teenage daughters and husband slept.\n\n\"I.N.A.D.E.Q.U.A.T.E keeps flashing behind my eyes.\"\n\nShe had been head teacher at Caversham Primary School, in Reading, for 13 years - the school had always been judged as \"outstanding\".\n\nThe previous month, inspectors had visited, and Ruth knew they were going to downgrade her school to the lowest rating, \"inadequate\".\n\nThat Christmas, Ruth's thoughts kept returning to a meeting she'd had on the first morning of the school inspection, when the lead inspector had raised concerns about record keeping and staff checks intended to keep children safe.\n\nIf Ofsted decided the school wasn't safeguarding pupils effectively, it would automatically be deemed \"inadequate\" - no matter how good the education it provided. Ruth knew Caversham Primary would then be taken over by an academy trust, putting her job at risk.\n\nAfter the meeting, Ruth's colleagues say she was distraught and unable to speak coherently. From that moment on, her family say she became increasingly distressed.\n\n\"I'd never seen Ruth so deflated,\" says Jon, her husband of 21 years. \"She said she felt powerless.\"\n\nIn the weeks after the inspection, Ruth wrote a series of notes, later found by her family, revealing the turmoil she was going through.\n\nShe was \"devastated\" and \"heartbroken\".\n\n\"I do not believe any child has been harmed because I have been negligent in my duties,\" she wrote.\n\nRuth Perry grew up in Caversham, a suburb of Reading. She had been a pupil at Caversham Primary School, together with her older sister, Julia.\n\nRuth began her career in east London, but moved back to Reading in 2009 when she was appointed deputy head of the school she'd attended as a child. A year later, she was promoted to head teacher.\n\nIn 2010, Ruth (right) became head teacher at the school she and her older sister, Julia (left), had attended as children\n\nHappily woven into the local community, the people who knew her say she was carefree, confident and passionate about everything she did.\n\nRuth's husband, Jon, had also grown up in Caversham. In the week of the Ofsted inspection, the couple and their two daughters moved into what had once been Jon's childhood house. Ruth and Jon had plans to renovate what they hoped would be their \"forever home\".\n\nThe evening after the two-day Ofsted inspection, Julia Waters visited her sister. She found her dejected and pale. \"I'm broken,\" Ruth told Julia, and began to cry.\n\n\"I gave her a hug,\" Julia says, \"she just leant into me and cried. There was nothing I could do to comfort her - I've never seen her like that.\"\n\nThe notes Ruth wrote in subsequent days show Ruth rehearsing breaking the news that the school has been rated \"inadequate\".\n\n\"I write this to you as parents on the evening of 18th November 2022 to say how utterly broken I am by the Ofsted inspection.\n\n\"I have given my life to CPS [Caversham Primary School]. I have only ever wanted children to leave happy and confident on the next stage of their journey, and I have been devastated by the impact of how I have done a disservice to the community.\"\n\nWithin days of her school being inspected, Ruth told her husband she was having \"dark thoughts\". She feared house prices in the area would fall if the school was deemed inadequate and was terrified the local community would be angry.\n\nRuth told Jon their family would have to move away and confided in the school's business manager that she had considered taking her own life.\n\nShe had no previous history of mental ill health, but by the following weekend, Jon had become so worried he drove his wife to a local psychiatric hospital. The couple were told Ruth would need to see her own doctor before she could be helped there and were sent home.\n\nFive days after the inspection, when Ruth did see her GP, he was concerned about her suicidal thoughts and referred her to a mental health crisis team. Ruth was assessed over the phone but was discharged by 8 December 2022.\n\nRuth had googled what head teachers do after failed Ofsted inspections - she wrote that she had seen examples of suicide, forced removal, and \"resignation in shame\".\n\nHer notes describe how close she had come to killing herself and how she had talked herself \"in and out of doing it\".\n\nAccording to her sister-in-law, Anna Perry, Ruth was resilient and capable, until the fear of shame and humiliation began to eat away at her as she waited for Ofsted's report to be published.\n\n\"This was going to be the end of her career and she didn't know what she could do,\" says Anna, who'd known Ruth since childhood.\n\n\"This is what she loved and I don't think she could hold her head up - she was so distraught.\"\n\nGrappling with the thought of losing both her job and her standing in the community, Ruth's notes suggest her mental health was becoming increasingly fragile as Christmas approached.\n\n\"Every space is filled with my feelings of wretchedness and desperation,\" Ruth wrote.\n\nFifty-four days after the Ofsted inspection at Caversham Primary School, Ruth Perry took her life, on 8 January 2023.\n\nOn 21 March 2023, Ofsted published its inspection report, rating the school \"inadequate\". It described Caversham Primary as welcoming and vibrant, with exemplary pupil behaviour and high expectations.\n\nRuth Perry's name was on Ofsted's report, with a footnote stating the leadership had since changed because of her death.\n\nNobody from Ofsted had spoken to, written to or visited her family - although the offer of a meeting would be made later.\n\nCaversham Primary School was reinspected by Ofsted in June 2023. In the same month MPs launched an inquiry into school inspections in England, as a result of which some changes have already been made.\n\nIn July, Ofsted published its report judging Caversham Primary to be \"good\".\n\nAn inquest into Ruth Perry's death concluded on Thursday. Her GP, the school's chair of governors and two deputy head teachers all told the coroner they believed the Ofsted inspection had contributed to her death.\n\nThe inquest heard no child at Caversham Primary had come to harm.\n\nIn conclusion, the coroner said the Ofsted inspection at Caversham Primary School had been done in a manner that \"lacked fairness, respect and sensitivity\".\n\nShe added that Ruth Perry felt she could not talk to mental health professionals about the inspection and felt obliged to \"bear this burden alone\".\n\nSpeaking on behalf of Ofsted, Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman apologised to Ruth Perry's family for the distress she experienced as a result of their inspection.\n\nShe said: \"It's right that we inspect first and foremost in the interests of children, their parents and carers. But in the light of Mrs Perry's sad death, it's also vital that we do all we can to minimise stress and anxiety when we inspect.\"\n\nAnna, Ruth's sister-in-law, says Ruth's family are still trying to come to terms with the shock of what has happened.\n\n\"The future looks very different\", she says.\n\nOn Christmas Day 2022, Ruth Perry and her family had gathered to celebrate, going for a walk before sitting around the kitchen table together to try to help her see a way forward.\n\nIt would be the last time Julia saw her younger sister alive.\n\n\"Ruth didn't want to spoil the children's Christmas,\" Julia says, \"but she was haunted.\"\n\nNow, she says it's important for Ruth's daughters to be able to remember her as the devoted mother she was.\n\n\"She was just a lovely human being,\" Julia says, \"destroyed by an utterly inhumane system.\"\n\nIf you're affected by the issues in this report, you can find support from BBC Action Line.\n\nHow Ruth Perry's death put Ofsted in the spotlight.", "A 31-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the murder of Odhrán Kelly in County Armagh.\n\nGary Damien Scullion, from Edward Street in Lurgan, appeared at Craigavon Magistrates' Court on Friday.\n\nWhen asked if he understood the charge, he replied \"yeah\".\n\nThe body of the 23-year-old was found beside a burning car in Maple Court, close to Edward Street, in the early hours of Sunday.\n\nThere was no application for bail and the defendant was remanded in custody until January.\n\nRelatives of Odhrán Kelly wept in court as the case was being heard.\n\nOn Thursday, two women appeared in court charged with assisting an offender by helping with \"the disposal of the body of Odhrán Kelly\".\n\nAndrea Catherine Theresa Stevenson, 43, from Edward Street in Lurgan and 36-year-old Stephanie McClelland, from Shan Slieve in the town were remanded in custody and are due to appear in court again later this month.\n\nIn Lurgan, Odhrán Kelly is being remembered as a cherished member of his family and as a valued member of the community.\n\nHe worked at Craigavon Area Hospital where friends say he was a funny and caring colleague.", "Rishi Sunak defended his Rwanda plans at a press conference on Thursday\n\nThe UK has given Rwanda a further £100m this year as part of its deal to relocate asylum seekers there.\n\nThe payment was made in April, the Home Office's top civil servant said in a letter to MPs, after £140m had already been sent to the African nation.\n\nSir Matthew Rycroft said another payment of £50m was expected next year.\n\nThe revelation came hours after Rishi Sunak vowed to \"finish the job\" of reviving the plan after the resignation of his immigration minister this week.\n\nThe scheme to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing and potentially resettlement, in order to deter people from crossing the English Channel in small boats, was first announced by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April 2022.\n\nBut it has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges and no asylum seekers have been sent from the UK so far.\n\nUntil now it was known that the government had spent at least £140m on the policy. Sir Matthew had previously refused to disclose updated figures, saying ministers had decided to set out the costs annually.\n\nThe figures were disclosed in a letter to Dame Diana Johnson, who chairs the home affairs select committee and and her fellow Labour Dame Meg Hiller, who chairs spending watchdog the public accounts committee.\n\nDame Meg told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the full cost of the policy so far had only been revealed after repeated inquiries.\n\n\"It almost looks like the government's got something to hide,\" she said.\n\nSir Matthew stressed that the extra payments were not linked to the new treaty signed this week between UK and Rwanda as part of the government's attempt to amend the policy, which was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court last month.\n\nDowning Street has said the costs associated with the deal were set out in the original agreement with Rwanda and that it was always going to involve \"additional funding\".\n\nLegal migration minister Tom Pursglove said the money was being spent to ensure the Rwanda policy was \"robust\".\n\nHe added that the scheme was \"key\" to reducing the amount the government spends on housing migrants in UK hotels - currently £8m a day.\n\nRobert Jenrick's immigration minister role was split into two following his resignation. Michael Tomlinson is the illegal migration minister.\n\nLabour branded the revelation of the extra costs \"incredible\", with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper adding: \"How many more blank cheques will Rishi Sunak write before the Tories come clean about this scheme being a total farce?\"\n\n\"It's basically £100m for every home secretary trip to Rwanda,\" she said.\n\nThe Home Office has said Rwanda has an initial capacity to take 200 people a year, but there are plans to increase that number when the scheme begins.\n\nThe department has also estimated the cost of sending someone to a safe country - not specifically Rwanda - is £169,000, compared to £106,000 if they remain in the UK.\n\nEarlier on Thursday, Mr Sunak held a press conference where he urged Tory MPs to back his plan.\n\nThe prime minister was speaking a day after immigration minister Robert Jenrick resigned over the government's revised policy, saying he believed it was destined for failure.\n\nMr Sunak insisted the new emergency legislation set out by the government would end the \"merry-go-round of legal challenges\" over the flights of some asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nThe bill compels judges to treat Rwanda as a safe country and gives ministers the powers to disregard sections of the Human Rights Act. But it does not go as far as allowing them to dismiss the European Convention on Human Rights, as some on the right of the Conservative Party have called for.\n\nThe bill faces opposition from MPs in different factions of the Conservative Party when it returns to Parliament next week.\n\nAlso on Thursday, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman reiterated that it would fail to \"stop the boats\" and called on the government to fully exclude international law.\n\nThe Times has reported that senior government lawyers had warned No 10 the emergency legislation could still allow migrants to lodge challenges against their removal to Rwanda.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Pursglove insisted the legislation would \"close off the routes to try to frustrate the appeals process\".\n\nOn Sky News he said ministers would \"engage constructively with parliamentarians around any concerns that they have\".", "Joint military drills were held between Palestinian armed factions from 2020 onwards\n\nFive armed Palestinian groups joined Hamas in the deadly 7 October attack on Israel after training together in military-style exercises from 2020 onwards, BBC News analysis shows.\n\nThe groups carried out joint drills in Gaza which closely resembled the tactics used during the deadly assault - including at a site less than 1km (0.6 miles) from the barrier with Israel - and posted them on social media.\n\nThey practised hostage-taking, raiding compounds and breaching Israel's defences during these exercises, the last of which was held just 25 days before the attack.\n\nBBC Arabic and BBC Verify have collated evidence which shows how Hamas brought together Gaza's factions to hone their combat methods - and ultimately execute a raid into Israel which has plunged the region into war.\n\nOn 29 December 2020, Hamas's overall leader Ismail Haniyeh declared the first of four drills codenamed Strong Pillar a \"strong message and a sign of unity\" between Gaza's various armed factions.\n\nAs the most powerful of Gaza's armed groups, Hamas was the dominant force in a coalition which brought together 10 other Palestinian factions in a war games-style exercise overseen by a \"joint operation room\".\n\nThe structure was set up in 2018 to coordinate Gaza's armed factions under a central command.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Videos reveal how armed groups trained together before 7 October attacks\n\nPrior to 2018, Hamas had formally coordinated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Gaza's second largest armed faction and - like Hamas - a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK and other countries.\n\nHamas had also fought alongside other groups in previous conflicts, but the 2020 drill was billed in propaganda as evidence a wider array of groups were being unified.\n\nHamas's leader said the first drill reflected the \"permanent readiness\" of the armed factions.\n\nThe 2020 exercise was the first of four joint drills held over three years, each of which was documented in polished videos posted on public social media channels.\n\nThe BBC has visually identified 10 groups, including PIJ, by their distinctive headbands and emblems training alongside Hamas during the Strong Pillar drills in footage posted on the messaging app Telegram.\n\nFollowing the 7 October attack, five of the groups went on to post videos claiming to show them taking part in the assault. Three others issued written statements on Telegram claiming to have participated.\n\nThe role of these groups has come into sharp focus as pressure builds on Hamas to find dozens of women and children believed to have been taken as captives from Israel into Gaza by other factions on 7 October.\n\nThree groups - PIJ, the Mujahideen Brigades and Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades - claim to have seized Israeli hostages, alongside Hamas, on that day.\n\nEfforts to extend the temporary truce in Gaza were said to be hinging on Hamas locating those hostages.\n\nWhile these groups are drawn from a broad ideological spectrum ranging from hard-line Islamist to relatively secular, all shared a willingness to use violence against Israel.\n\nHamas statements repeatedly stressed the theme of unity between Gaza's disparate armed groups. The group suggested they were equal partners in the joint drills, whilst it continued to play a leading role in the plans to attack Israel.\n\nFootage from the first drill shows masked commanders in a bunker appearing to conduct the exercise, and begins with a volley of rocket fire.\n\nIt cuts to heavily armed fighters overrunning a mocked-up tank marked with an Israeli flag, detaining a crew member and dragging him away as a prisoner, as well as raiding buildings.\n\nWe know from videos and harrowing witness statements that both tactics were used to capture soldiers and target civilians on 7 October, when around 1,200 people were killed and an estimated 240 hostages were taken.\n\nThe first Strong Pillar drill propaganda video showed a command room overseeing the joint exercise\n\nThe second Strong Pillar drill was held almost exactly one year later.\n\nAyman Nofal, a commander in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades - the official name for Hamas's armed wing - said the aim of the exercise on 26 December 2021 was to \"affirm the unity of the resistance factions\".\n\nHe said the drills would \"tell the enemy that the walls and engineering measures on the borders of Gaza will not protect them\".\n\nAnother Hamas statement said the \"joint military manoeuvres\" were designed to \"simulate the liberation of settlements near Gaza\" - which is how the group refers to Israeli communities.\n\nThe exercise was repeated on 28 December 2022, and propaganda images of fighters practising clearing buildings and overrunning tanks in what appears to be a replica of a military base were published to mark the event.\n\nThe exercises were reported on in Israel, so it's inconceivable they were not being closely monitored by the country's extensive intelligence agencies.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have previously carried out air strikes to disrupt Hamas's training activities. In April 2023, they bombed the site used for the first Strong Pillar drill.\n\nWeeks before the attacks, female surveillance soldiers near the Gaza border reportedly warned of unusually high drone activity and that Hamas was training to take over observation posts with replicas of their positions.\n\nBut, according to reports in the Israeli media, they say they were ignored.\n\nBrigadier General Amir Avivi, a former IDF deputy commander in Gaza, told the BBC: \"There was a lot of intelligence that they were doing this training - after all, the videos are public, and this was happening just hundreds of metres from the fence (with Israel).\"\n\nBut he said while the military knew about the drills, they \"didn't see what they were training for\".\n\nThe IDF said they \"eliminated\" Nofal on 17 October 2023, the first senior Hamas military leader to be killed during the conflict.\n\nHamas went to great lengths to make sure the drills were realistic.\n\nIn 2022, fighters practised storming a mock Israeli military base built just 2.6km (1.6 miles) from the Erez crossing, a route between Gaza and Israel controlled by the IDF.\n\nBBC Verify has pinpointed the site in the far north of Gaza, just 800m (0.5 miles) from the barrier, by matching geographic features seen in the training footage to aerial images of the area. As of November 2023, the site was still visible on Bing Maps.\n\nThe training camp was within 1.6km (1 mile) of an Israeli observation tower and an elevated observation box, elements in a security barrier Israel has spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing.\n\nThe mock base is on land dug several metres below ground level, so it may not have been immediately visible to any nearby Israeli patrols - but the smoke rising from the explosions surely would have been, and the IDF is known to use aerial surveillance.\n\nHamas used this site to practise storming buildings, taking hostages at gunpoint and destroying security barriers.\n\nBBC Verify has used publicly available information - including satellite imagery - to locate 14 training sites at nine different locations across Gaza.\n\nThey even trained twice at a site less than 1.6 km (1 mile) from the United Nations' aid agency distribution centre, and which was visible in the background of an official video published by the agency in December 2022.\n\nOn 10 September 2023, the so-called joint committee room published images on its dedicated Telegram channel of men in military uniforms carrying out surveillance of military installations along the Gaza barrier.\n\nTwo days later, the fourth Strong Pillar military exercise was staged, and by 7 October, all the tactics that would be deployed in the unprecedented attack had been rehearsed.\n\nFighters were filmed riding in the same type of white Toyota pickup trucks which were seen roaming through southern Israel the following month.\n\nThe propaganda video shows gunmen raiding mock buildings and firing at dummy targets inside, as well as training to storm a beach using a boat and underwater divers. Israel has said it repelled attempted Hamas boat landings on its shores on 7 October.\n\nThe fourth and final Strong Pillar drill saw fighters training on raiding buildings\n\nHowever, Hamas did not publicise its training with motorcycles and paragliders as part of the Strong Pillar propaganda.\n\nA training video posted by Hamas three days after 7 October shows fences and barriers being demolished to allow motorcycles to pass through, a tactic they used to reach communities in southern Israel. We have not identified similar earlier videos.\n\nFootage of fighters using paragliding equipment was also not published until the 7 October attack was under way.\n\nIn a training video shared on the day of the attack, gunmen are seen landing in a mock kibbutz at an airstrip we have located to a site north of Rafah in southern Gaza.\n\nBBC Verify established it was recorded some time before 25 August 2022, and was stored in a computer file titled Eagle Squadron, the name Hamas uses for its aerial division - suggesting the paragliders plan was in the works for over a year.\n\nBefore 7 October, Hamas was thought to have about 30,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip, according to reports quoting IDF commanders. It was also thought that Hamas could draw on several thousands of fighters from smaller groups.\n\nHamas is by far the most powerful of the Palestinian armed groups, even without the support of other factions - suggesting its interest in galvanising the factions was driven by an attempt to secure broad support within Gaza at least as much as bolstering its own numbers.\n\nThe IDF has previously estimated 1,500 fighters joined the 7 October raids. The Times of Israel reported earlier this month the IDF now believes the number was closer to 3,000.\n\nWhatever the true number, it means only a relatively small fraction of the total number of armed operatives in Gaza took part. It is not possible to verify precise numbers for how many fighters from smaller groups took part in the attack or the Strong Pillar drills.\n\nWhile Hamas was building cross-faction support in the build-up to the attack, Hisham Jaber, a former Brigadier General in the Lebanese army who is now a security analyst at the Middle East Centre for Studies and Research, said he believed only Hamas was aware of the ultimate plan, and it was \"probable [they] asked other factions to join on the day\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAndreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at Kings College London, told the BBC: \"While there was centralised planning, execution was de-centralised, with each squad operationalising the plan as they saw fit.\"\n\nHe said people inside Hamas were said to be surprised by the weakness of Israel's defences, and assessed militants had likely bypassed Israel's surveillance technology by communicating offline.\n\nHugh Lovatt, a Middle East analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Israel would have been aware of the joint training drills but \"reached the wrong conclusion\", assessing they amounted to the \"standard\" activity of paramilitary groups in the Palestinian territories, rather than being \"indicative of a looming large-scale attack\".\n\nAsked about the issues raised in this article, the Israel Defense Forces said it was \"currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organisation Hamas\" and questions about any potential failures \"will be looked into in a later stage\".\n\nIt could be several years until Israel formally reckons with whether it missed opportunities to prevent the 7 October massacre.\n\nThe ramifications for its military, intelligence services and government could be seismic.\n\nAdditional reporting by Paul Brown, Kumar Malhotra and Abdirahim Saeed. Video production by Soraya Auer.", "Palestinians are mourning the death of well-known writer and literary scholar Refaat Alareer, who was killed in an air strike in Gaza City on Wednesday.\n\nAlareer's father-in-law said he had died along with his brother and sister and four of her children.\n\n\"My heart is broken, my friend and colleague Refaat Alareer was killed with his family,\" Gazan poet Mosab Abu Toha wrote on social media.\n\nAlareer had declined to leave northern Gaza following the start of Israeli operations in the area. Two days before he died he posted video to social media in which a number of explosions could be heard.\n\n\"The building is shaking. The debris and shrapnel are hitting the walls and flying in the streets,\" he wrote.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC in the hours after Hamas's 7 October attack on Israel, Alareer caused widespread offence by calling it \"legitimate and moral\". He said it was \"exactly like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising\".\n\nThe Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a revolt that took place in German-occupied Poland in 1943 and saw Jews use weapons smuggled into the ghetto to try to resist Nazi efforts to transport people to the extermination camps.\n\nAlareer was one of the founders of \"We Are Not Numbers\", a Palestinian non-profit set up in 2015 that joined writers from around the world with young people in Gaza to \"tell the stories behind the numbers of Palestinians in the news\".\n\nHe was the co-editor of the book, Gaza Unsilenced, and the editor of Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine.\n\nPaying tribute on social media, former student Jehad Abusalim described Alareer as a mentor and friend who had \"truly cared about his students beyond the classroom\".\n\nAlareer, he added, taught him English and viewed the language as a \"way to break free from Gaza's prolonged siege, a teleportation device that defied Israel's fences and the intellectual, academic, and cultural blockade of Gaza\".\n\nHe was \"full of energy, life & humour. He loved Chicago Pizza, cats, history, classic music, theatre, poetry & Harry Potter,\" said Muhammad Shehada, a Gazan writer and communications chief at Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.\n\nHe was described as \"one of the kindest, most generous, committed, wonderful human beings I ever met\", by Palestinian-American author and activist Susan Abulhawa in a video posted on social media.\n\n\"Rest in peace, Refaat Alareer. We will continue to be guided by your wisdom, now and forever,\" Palestinian-American author and journalist Ramzy Baroud wrote.\n\nIn a poem posted on X, formerly Twitter, on 1 November, Alareer wrote: \"If I must die, let it bring hope, let it be a tale\". The post has been shared tens of thousands of times.\n\nIsrael destroyed the Islamic University at which Alareer taught on 11 October, saying it was an \"important Hamas operational, political and military centre in Gaza\".\n\nFollowing the outcry over Alareer's interview in October, a BBC spokesperson said: \"We reported the Hamas attacks and the response by Israel in line with the BBC's Editorial Guidelines.\n\n\"We have included contributors who have condemned the attackers as terrorists and we have reported that Hamas is designated as a terrorist group by many Western governments, including the UK.\n\n\"While an interviewee who made comments on the Warsaw Ghetto was robustly challenged on air, we agree his comments were offensive and we don't intend to use him again.\"\n\nIn the 7 October attack, Hamas killed around 1,200 people and took 240 hostages, some of whom were released during a short-lived truce at the end of November.\n\nHamas officials in Gaza say Israel has killed more than 17,177 people in its retaliatory campaign, including about 7,000 children.\n\nUpdate: An earlier version of this article described Refaat Alareer as controversial and has been amended to make clear that it was his comments about the 7 October attacks which were controversial and caused huge offence.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA teenager in Michigan who killed four students with a semi-automatic handgun has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole.\n\nEthan Crumbley, 17, pleaded guilty to terrorism and murder charges last year.\n\nHe was 15 when he opened fire at Oxford High School, around 30 miles (48km) north of Detroit, in November 2021.\n\nHis parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are awaiting trial on four counts of involuntary manslaughter.\n\nProsecutors have argued Mr and Mrs Crumbley ignored their son's depression and fascination with guns.\n\nThe teenager killed four and injured seven in the worst school shooting in Michigan's history, which devastated Oxford - a small suburban town of 22,000 people.\n\nThough the defense asked for the option of parole, the judge said he was applying the maximum sentence, in part, as a deterrent to any other young person plotting a similar gun attack.\n\n\"He did this for notoriety,\" said Judge Kwamé Rowe, calling the attack \"a true act of terrorism\".\n\nFriday's sentencing followed nearly five hours of emotional testimony from survivors and the loved ones of the four young victims, Hana St Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; and Justin Shilling, 17.\n\nWhile the victims' friends and family sought the harshest sentence during the hearing, the defendant wore an orange prison jumpsuit and sat with his head bowed and eyes fixed on his hands.\n\n\"We are suffocating together in disbelief,\" said Madisyn's mother, Nicole Beausoleil. \"No-one will forgive you.\"\n\nReina St Juliana, the sister of Hana, spoke of losing the family's \"bright light\".\n\n\"Loving Hana shouldn't be this painful and life isn't supposed to be this paralysing,\" Reina said. \"I don't want to wake up in the morning because Hana is not here.\"\n\nOther students and educators at the school that day also took the stand on Friday to share gut-wrenching details from the shooting. Some at the sentencing hearing openly wept and buried their faces in their hands due to the nature of the testimony.\n\nHana St Juliana, Tate Myre, Madisyn Baldwin and Justin Shilling were all killed in the 2021 shooting\n\nMolly Darnell, a teacher at Oxford High School, described the enduring trauma she has faced after she was injured in the attack.\n\n\"You may not be glancing my way today, but I know you can hear me,\" she said, speaking to the young shooter. \"You intended to leave my husband a widower and my children motherless. There is no forgiveness for you.\"\n\nKylie Ossege, a student who was shot in the attack, remained in hospital for months after watching Hana St Juliana take her last breaths at the school. She said paramedics found her lying in a pool of blood.\n\n\"I am still disabled and in extreme pain every day,\" Ms Ossege said. \"It has been 738 days of reliving the tragedy in my head every single hour.\"\n\nThe shooter's parents face their own trials in 2024. It marks the first time parents in the US face involuntary manslaughter charges - punishable by up to 15 years in prison - over their child's role in a mass shooting, experts told the BBC.\n\nProsecutors argue the parents are criminally responsible because they bought their son the weapon he used in the attack and ignored his mounting mental health troubles. The defendant's lawyers have also argued he was neglected by his parents and suffered from mental illness.\n\nThe parents later attempted to flee after being charged with manslaughter.\n\nKaren McDonald, the Michigan prosecutor who filed charges against the parents, told the New York Times in 2021 the decision to prosecute represented \"a brand-new way of approaching school shootings\".\n\nMany have also laid blame on the Oxford Community Schools district. On the day of the shooting, school officials found the teenager with disturbing drawings. But they failed to check Crumbley's backpack, where he stored the gun, and sent him back to class.\n\nOxford Community Schools did not respond to a request for comment from the BBC.\n\nBefore being sentenced the attacker addressed the court to say that he was solely responsible for the killings.\n\nHis parents and school officials, he said, \"did not know and I did not tell them\" of the attack plan, \"so they are not at fault for what I've done\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment police teams arrive at scene of active shooter in Las Vegas\n\nAn ex-college professor was \"struggling financially\" and carrying a \"target list\" when he fatally shot three faculty members and injured a fourth at a Las Vegas campus, say police.\n\nThe 67-year-old suspect was fatally shot by police during Wednesday's attack at the University of Nevada.\n\nOfficials said being denied \"several\" jobs at various colleges may have been a motive for the shooting.\n\nHe also posted a white powder to at least one university before the attack.\n\nTwo of the victims have been officially named as professors Cha Jan Chang, 64, and Patricia Navarro-Velez, 39. The name of the third victim would be released after relatives had been notified of the death, said college officials.\n\nThe fourth victim, a 38-year-old visiting professor, was in a critical condition in hospital.\n\nEveryone on the suspect's target list has been contacted except for one person who is travelling internationally, police said.\n\n\"None of the individuals on the target list became a victim,\" Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters on Thursday.\n\nThe gunman, Anthony Polito, was carrying a legally purchased .9mm pistol and 11 magazines, police said. Investigators are still trying to determine how many shots were fired.\n\nThe BBC's US partner CBS News reports that Polito, a former business professor who had taught in Georgia and North Carolina, had applied for a position at the UNLV, but did not get the job.\n\nShortly before the shooting, the suspect went to a local post office and sent 22 letters to universities throughout the country.\n\nSheriff McMahill said one of the envelopes mailed by Polito was found to contain an unknown white powder, which investigators have sent for testing.\n\nPolice also have searched the suspect's apartment in the nearby city of Henderson, and seized electronics.\n\nSheriff McMahill said when investigators arrived at the suspect's home they found an eviction notice taped to the front door.\n\nThe gunman's online presence - through his personal website, LinkedIn profile and Twitter account- provides no clear indication as to why he might have opened fire at UNLV's business school.\n\nHe had been a tenured associate professor at Eastern Carolina University when he resigned in 2017. He started teaching there in 2001.\n\nHe appears to have moved to Nevada soon afterwards and referred to himself as \"semi-retired\" on his personal website. He wrote positively about Las Vegas, posting on his site that he had \"had the pleasure of making more than two dozen trips\" there over 15 years.\n\nOne former student of Polito told WTVD-TV in North Carolina that the lecturer would obsess over online \"negative feedback\" from students.\n\n\"One of the things that always stood out to me that made me uncomfortable was he would try to figure out who wrote the negative feedback,\" Paul Whittington told the outlet. \"And a lot of the negative feedback was shared with us in class.\"\n\nPolito opened fire just before noon on Wednesday, and police gave the all-clear about 40 minutes after the first report of an active shooter.\n\nSheriff McMahill said the university police's quick response had saved lives.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. LeBron James: LA Lakers forward calls lack on action on gun control in USA 'ridiculous'\n\nFour other people were also taken to hospital for panic attacks and two police officers were treated for minor injuries.\n\nOne student told a local ABC station of the fear on campus during the shooting.\n\n\"You don't know what to do,\" said the student. \"You're calling your family, texting your friends like 'I love you guys' because he [the shooter] could burst through the door at any minute.\"\n\nPresident Joe Biden said in a statement that UNLV is the \"latest college campus to be terrorized by a horrific act of gun violence\".\n\nThe campus, about two miles from the world-famous Las Vegas Strip, will remain closed on Friday.\n\nThere have been more than 630 mass shootings in the US this year.\n\nLas Vegas is also the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, where 60 people were killed at a music festival in 2017.\n• None The numbers behind the rise in US mass shootings", "Expert lawyers who have been involved in the Rwanda case - or supported the challenge to the policy - have described new legislation as potentially setting up a politically explosive fight with both the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.\n\nIn last month's Supreme Court ruling, five justices unanimously ruled that the country was not safe - and they listed the detailed evidence about how its asylum system was deeply flawed.\n\nThe key element of the government's package tries to deal with this part of the defeat by asking Parliament to declare Rwanda to be \"conclusively\" safe and simultaneously banning British judges from ever saying it is not.\n\nThat is aimed at preventing the courts from once again considering documented evidence about injustices in Rwanda's asylum system. Taken to a hypothetical extreme, if Rwanda exploded with civil war like in 1994 (not something currently likely to happen), British law would still state the country was a safe place to send people.\n\nThe plan then orders British judges and courts to ignore the sections of the Human Rights Act that set out how they should interpret safeguards set out in the European Convention of Human Rights. That includes the right not to be tortured, or the right to a fair hearing before a court.\n\nIt also prevents judges from considering other international laws - most importantly the Refugee Convention and the United Nations' ban on torture.\n\nThis is quite a move to pull off legally and politically on the world stage. On the one hand, the UK freely entered into these laws because it wanted to set a global example for others to follow. On the other, the government has designed a law, say critics, that allows it to pick and choose when it adheres to such global rules - while demanding that Rwanda sticks to the letter all the time.\n\nOne highly-respected legal thinker, Professor Mark Elliott of Cambridge University, has already blogged that this is \"an astounding level of hypocrisy\".\n\nFinally, it says our courts must ignore any other British law that stands in the way of finding the country to be safe - this is important because the Supreme Court said such laws exist.\n\nSo where does this leave the plan?\n\nThe front page of the bill gives it away. Every piece of new legislation must carry a statement as to whether the plan is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.\n\nThis bill comes without that assurance - and that means government lawyers have warned ministers it is more likely than not to fall apart under sustained legal challenges.\n\nSo if the bill is passed, many experts are gearing up for a new and profoundly messy court battle - if not lots of them. Some of those battles might even start in Edinburgh if the plan runs roughshod over some part of Scots law that Downing Street has not thought of. If that sounds like a plot twist, it happened to Boris Johnson when he was roundly defeated over illegally closing down Parliament amid the Brexit crisis.\n\nAt worst, it could lead to an unprecedented constitutional stand-off between Parliament and judges.\n\nThe Supreme Court cannot strike down primary legislation - but it has the power to make a \"Declaration of Incompatibility\". This is a rare judgment that says an Act of Parliament should be rethought because it is incompatible with the basic European Convention of Human Rights safeguards embedded in British law.\n\nTwo such rights that come to mind in relation to the Rwanda plan are the right not to be subject to inhuman treatment and the right to have a fair hearing of your case before you are put onto a plane to equatorial Africa.\n\nIf the Supreme Court makes a Declaration of Incompatibility, in theory a government should then ask Parliament to amend the offending law. But it does not have to do so - hence the potential stand-off.\n\nSo if ministers pressed ahead with flights, it is a racing certainty that claimants would then try to take their case, as would still be their right under the law, to the European Court of Human Rights.\n\nThe court in Strasbourg would then have to consider whether it wants to block the plan - and flights - while it considers the case.\n\nIf it did that, the bill includes a measure that says ministers can ignore such an order and send a plane skywards anyway.\n\nBut two massive obstacles stand in the way of the plan becoming reality.\n\nThe first is politics. They need to get this through Parliament - and there is no certainty the House of Lords will comply.\n\nSome observers are already wondering why Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, and Victoria Prentice, the Attorney General, have stood by the bill when they both have constitutional roles in upholding international laws that may soon be ignored. A lot of votes in the Commons may rest on their shoulders.\n\nSecondly, just supposing it did become law, some of the best legal minds in the country have fought the government over Rwanda. The plan could become so mired in challenges in court that it never gets to a final judgment before the General Election clock runs out.", "Dr Darla Zelenitsky and Dr Francois Therrien with the full tyrannosaur fossil\n\nThe last meal of a 75-million-year-old tyrannosaur has been revealed by scientists - two baby dinosaurs.\n\nResearchers say the preservation of the animal - and of the small, unfortunate creatures it ate - shines new light on how these predators lived.\n\nIt is \"solid evidence that tyrannosaurs drastically changed their diet as they grew up,\" said Dr Darla Zelenitsky, from the University of Calgary.\n\nThe specimen is a juvenile gorgosaurus - a close cousin of the giant T. rex.\n\nThis particular gorgosaur was about seven years old - equivalent to a teenager in terms of its development. It weighed about 330kg when it died - about a tenth of the weight of a fully-grown adult.\n\nThe hind limbs of two, small bird-like dinosaurs called citipes are visible beneath its ribcage.\n\n\"We now know that these teenage [tyrannosaurs] hunted small, young dinosaurs,\" said Dr Zelenitsky, one of the lead scientists in this study, which is published in the journal Science Advances.\n\nThe juvenile gorgosaur would have chased small therapods and 'dissected' them with its blade-like teeth\n\nAn array of earlier fossil evidence, including evident bite marks on the bones of larger dinosaurs that match tyrannosaur teeth, have allowed scientists to build a picture of how the three-tonne adult gorgosaurs attacked and ate very large plant-eating dinosaurs which lived in herds.\n\nDr Francois Therrien, from the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology, described these adult tyrannosaurs as \"quite indiscriminate eaters\". They probably pounced on large prey, \"biting through bone and scraping off flesh,\" he told BBC News.\n\nBut, Dr Zelenitsky, added, \"these smaller, immature tyrannosaurs were probably not ready to jump into a group of horned dinosaurs, where the adults weighed thousands of kilograms\".\n\nThe fossil was originally discovered in the Alberta Badlands in 2009 - a hotspot for dinosaur hunters.\n\nEntombed in rock, it took years to prepare and it wasn't immediately obvious that there was prey inside. Staff at Alberta's Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology eventually noticed small toe-bones sticking out from the ribcage.\n\n\"The rock within the ribcage was removed to expose what was hidden inside,\" explained Dr Therrien, who is the other lead scientist in this study. \"And lo and behold - the complete hind legs of two baby dinosaurs, both under a year old.\"\n\nDr Zelenitsky said that finding only the legs suggested that this teenage gorgosaurus \"seems to have wanted the drumsticks - probably because that's the meatiest part\".\n\nAdult gorgosaurs grew to ten times the size of this 300kg juvenile\n\nThe gorgosaurus is a slightly smaller, more ancient species than T. rex. Fully grown, these were - as Dr Therrien put it - \"big, burly tyrannosaurs\".\n\nThey transformed as they matured. \"Juveniles were much more lightly built - with longer legs and very blade-like teeth,\" he explained. \"Adults' teeth are all much rounder - we call them 'killer bananas'.\n\n\"This specimen is unique - it's physical proof of the juveniles' very different feeding strategy.\n\nWhile the adults bit and scraped with their powerful \"killer banana\" teeth, \"this animal was selecting and even dissecting its prey - biting off the legs and swallowing them whole\".\n\nProf Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist from the University of Edinburgh and the National Museum of Scotland, said that seeing prey in the dinosaur's guts gave a real insight into the animals: \"They weren't just monsters, they were real, living things and pretty sophisticated feeders.\"\n\nRecalling a depiction of T. rex in the 1993 film Jurassic Park - where the giant dinosaur chased a car through the fictional theme park - Prof Brusatte added: \"A big, adult T. rex wouldn't have chased after a car - if cars or jeeps were around back then - its body was too big, and it couldn't move that fast.\n\n\"It would be the youngsters - [like this gorgosaur] - the children of T. rex that you'd have to keep an eye on.\"", "Models used the road as a catwalk on Manchester's Thomas Street\n\nCelebrities, models and several hundred global fashionistas crammed into a Manchester street on Thursday as French luxury brand Chanel turned it into a catwalk for a prestigious fashion show.\n\nActors Kristen Stewart, Hugh Grant and Tilda Swinton were among the stars on Thomas Street in the city's Northern Quarter, as was director Sofia Coppola.\n\nModels including Manchester's Karen Elson used the road as a catwalk, with its mixture of trendy bars and traditional shops providing the backdrop for the Metiers d'Art show.\n\nThe models and guests were protected from the pouring rain by a tall Perspex canopy that was erected over the road for the occasion.\n\nThe Guardian's fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley wrote that there was \"general agreement that Manchester was a surprising choice for a Chanel show\".\n\nThe Telegraph's head of fashion Lisa Armstrong said there was \"mutual curiosity, wonderment and a degree of humour\" when Chanel's \"highest-spending international clients came face to face with The Mancunian\".\n\nBut the company's president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky praised the city, saying they were attracted by its \"creative energy\" and musical history.\n\nThe new Gallagher brothers: Liam's sons Gene and Lennon\n\nChanel opted for Manchester because \"too many things happen in London and we wanted to be in the UK out of London\", Pavlovsky told BBC News.\n\n\"We decided to come to Manchester because it was the most inspiring for Virginie [Viard, creative director]. She was inspired by the music and art that she sees here in Manchester, and we've had a warm welcome.\"\n\nUS actress Kristen Stewart is one of Chanel's brand ambassadors\n\nThe show's soundtrack included Manchester bands like The Fall and New Order - two of whose members were in attendance, along with local rappers Aitch and Bugzy Malone.\n\nThere were also two Gallagher brothers - not Oasis stars Liam and Noel, but Liam's sons Gene and Lennon, as well as Noel's daughter Anais.\n\nA tall canopy kept the rain off the models and guests\n\nVictoria and Doctor Who star Jenna Coleman sitting at one of the wooden tables that lined the street\n\nAlso among the 600 attendees were actors Jenna Coleman, Callum Scott Howells, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Lucy Boynton. Other guests ranged from author Jeanette Winterson to Olivia Attwood Dack from Love Island to Taiwanese actress Gwei Lun-mei and Japan's Sakura Ando.\n\nThe stars soaked up the street's combination of history and hipness, posing for photos in the doorway of the long-standing Clark Brothers - a retail supply shop that few people would have previously given a second glance - and outside the Bay Horse Tavern pub.\n\nGuests including US model Kristen McMenamy braved the rain on the way in\n\nThat was one of the street's bars that Chanel took over for the night. For most of the previous two weeks, the pubs and shops had been shut after the company moved in.\n\nChanel has compensated businesses for closing but declined to say how much it had spent in the city.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Chanel Metiers d'Art: 'It's an exciting time to be in Manchester'\n\nCouncillor Luthfur Rahman, Manchester's cabinet member for culture, would not say how much the company had paid, but said it had \"invested in the city\" and that the event would help the local economy.\n\nHe said the show was \"great for Manchester and is great for our ambition to be a global destination\", adding: \"The fact that Chanel have chosen to come to Manchester demonstrates that we're doing something right.\"\n\nBeforehand, a protester outside held a sign calling on the city council to \"get your priorities sorted\" - with the slogan: \"Food or heat!! Not luxury goods.\"\n\nKaren Elson wrote on Instagram: \"Closing the @chanelofficial show in my hometown of Manchester. I'm weeping.\"\n\nThe event has been held in cities including Paris, New York, Rome, Dakar, Salzburg and Dallas in the past, and was last in the UK when it was staged at Linlithgow Palace in Scotland in 2012.\n\nThis year, guests watched the show from wooden tables that lined the street, which has a link to the birth of the modern textiles industry, having been built for small-scale workshops when the industrial revolution took off in the city in the 18th Century.\n\nWhether by accident or design, that history tied in with the idea behind Chanel's Metiers d'Art show, which is to celebrate the skilled craftspeople and artisans that the company works with.\n\nChanel said its new collection focused on \"the poetry of emotions with a dash of the sixties\".\n\nIt added that \"ideas of Great Britain\" were represented in \"wraparound skirts, miniskirts with godets, Bermuda shorts, shirts, coat-dresses all featured in tweed, knitwear in Shetland and cashmere\".\n\nThere were also nods to Manchester's famous footballing pedigree, with one model sporting Chanel's version of a Manchester City shirt and another wearing a scarf in Manchester United colours.\n\nAbout 160 guests who arrived a day early were taken by Chanel to watch United beat Chelsea at Old Trafford on Wednesday.\n\nThey then went to a pre-show party at Salford Lads' Club, featuring a performance from Salford poet John Cooper Clarke.\n\nOn Thursday, an after-party took place at the historic Victoria Baths, the Manchester former swimming pool that was given a new lease of life after winning the BBC's Restoration programme in 2003.", "Amiram Cooper, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Tsachi Idan are being held in Gaza\n\nIsrael says 132 people remain unaccounted for after they were abducted and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attacks by Hamas.\n\nAn estimated 240 people were taken prisoner, but 105 were later released by Hamas during a six-day ceasefire at the end of November.\n\nThe Israeli military said it mistakenly killed three hostages in northern Gaza who had escaped from their captors and expressed \"deep remorse\" over the incident.\n\nOf the 132 still unaccounted for, Israel says that 20 of them are believed to be dead.\n\nThese are the stories of those hostages who are still being held, which have either been confirmed by the BBC or credibly reported.\n\nThis list is regularly updated and names may change, as some people feared kidnapped are confirmed to have been killed or released.\n\nLast updated on 19 December 2023 at 10:33 GMT\n\nYagev Kirsht, 34, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nirim, alongside his wife, Rimon Buchstab Kirsht. She has now been released.\n\nAlexander Trupanov, was taken hostage with his mother Lena Trupanov, 50, his partner Sapir Cohen, 29, and his grandmother Irina Tati, 73. All were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz as they spent the Sabbath together, according to a statement by Canada's Raoul Wallenburg Center for Human Rights. Irina and Lena were released on Wednesday 29 November and Sapir was freed the next day.\n\nAriel Cunio, his girlfriend Arbel Yahud and her brother Dolev are also thought to have been abducted in the same attack on Nir Oz. Eitan Cunio, Ariel's brother who escaped Hamas, told the Jewish Chronicle that his last message from Ariel said: \"We are in a horror movie.\"\n\nDavid Cunio, 33, another of Ariel's brothers, was also kidnapped from Nir Oz, family say. David's wife Sharon Aloni Cunio and their three-year-old twin daughters Ema and Yuly were released on 27 November. Sharon's sister Daniele Aloni, and her six-year-old daughter Emilia were both released on 24 November.\n\nDoron Steinbrecher, 30, a veterinary nurse, was in her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas attacked, the Times of Israel reported. At 10:30 on 7 October, the newspaper said, she sent a voice message to friends: \"They've arrived, they have me.\"\n\nItzhak Gelerenter, 53, was taken from the Supernova festival. His family said the IDF found his phone was located in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported. His daughter Pivko told the paper: \"I'm trying to think good thoughts, I have a powerful, smart, resourceful father.\"\n\nDoron Steinbrecher sent a voice message to friends during Hamas' attack\n\nNaama Levy, 19, was filmed being bundled into a jeep, her hands tied behind her back. The footage was released by Hamas and circulated widely on social media. According to her mother, the teenager had just begun her military service.\n\nYousef Zyadna, a 53-year-old Bedouin dairy farmer, was abducted from Kibbutz Holit and taken to Gaza along with his sons Hamza, 22, and Bilal, 18, and his daughter, Aisha, 16. Aisha and Bilal were released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nElad Katzir, 47, was abducted from Nir Oz with his mother Hanna. Hanna has now been released.\n\nOhad Ben Ami, 55, was kidnapped from Be'eri with his wife, Raz. She was released by Hamas on 29 November.\n\nTwin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, 26, were taken from Kfar Aza. Ziv was messaging a friend as the attack happened. Their family said the IDF has told them the brothers are being held in Gaza. Their brother Liran told CBN news the pair had \"twin power\" and were the centre of attention wherever they went.\n\nIraq-born Shlomo Mansour, 85, was taken captive from Kibbutz Kissufim, where he lived and worked as a chicken coop manager. His wife, Mazal, managed to escape.\n\nMichel Nisenbaum, 59, is a dual Brazilian-Israeli citizen who has lived in Israel for 45 years and works as a computer technician, his family told Brazilian media. They also say he is diabetic and has Crohn's disease. On 7 October, they say, someone claiming to be from Hamas answered his phone when they tried to call him.\n\nDaniela Gilboa, 19, sent messages saying that Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where she was staying, was under attack and asked her mother to pray for her. Her boyfriend, Roy Dadon, told the Economist 1843 magazine that he believes he saw a glimpse of her in a video showing three girls being driven away in the back of an SUV.\n\nItay Chen, 19, a dual US-Israeli citizen and IDF solider, was on active duty with a tank unit on 7 October, according to the Times of Israel. The paper reported that his family was notified by the IDF that he is officially considered missing in action and probably being held hostage. Another soldier in his unit, Matan Angrest, 21, is also presumed to be in Gaza.\n\nYosi Sharabi, 51, was taken from Be'eri with his brother, Eli Sharabi, 55. Eli's wife and two daughters were murdered in the attack. Ofir Engel, the boyfriend of Yosi's daughter, Yuval, was also taken, but released on 29 November.\n\nAgam Berger, 19, was kidnapped from Nahal Oz. She was seen being taken away in videos released by Hamas.\n\nEdan Alexander, 19, is an Israeli-US citizen who volunteered to join the Israeli army. He was serving near the Gaza border at the time of Hamas's attack. Edan's family said they had been told by Israeli officials that he had been taken to Gaza as a hostage.\n\nKaid Farhan Elkadi, 53, lives with his family south of Rahat and worked as a security guard, according to Israeli media. Reports said his family believes he was kidnapped and taken to Gaza, based on images shared by Hamas.\n\nIlana Gritzewsky and Matan Zanguaker were captured near the Gaza border, family say\n\nMatan Zanguaker, 24, was taken with his partner Ilana Gritzewsky, 30, from Nir Oz, according to Ilana's father. Ilana, a Mexican national, was released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nThe family of Eitan and Yair Horn believe they were taken from Nir Oz kibbutz\n\nEitan Horn, 37, and his brother Yair, 45, both Argentinian citizens, were also in Nir Oz at the time of the attack. Their father Itzik said he believes they were kidnapped. Yair is a construction worker while Eitan works in education.\n\nItai Svirsky, 38, is thought to have been abducted when his elderly parents were killed in Be'eri. He had been visiting them for the holiday of Simhat Torah.\n\nKeith Seigel, 64, and his wife Adrienne - often known as Aviva - Seigel, 62, were taken from their home in Kfar Aza, Keith's brother Lee Seigel told the BBC. Adrienne was released on 26 November.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, lived in Nahal Oz with his wife and two daughters. Omri was led away by Hamas with his hands tied, his wife Lishay told the Guardian newspaper. She told him not to be a hero, urging: \"Do whatever they want because I want you back.\"\n\nBipin Joshi, 23, a Nepalese student, is believed to have been taken from Kibbutz Alumim. Nepalese newspaper Setopati says he was one of 49 university students studying agriculture in Israel. It says 10 students were killed in the attack.\n\nIlan Weiss, 58, went missing from Kibbutz Be'eri after he was last seen leaving the house to defend the community. On 25 November, his wife Shiri Weiss, 53, and their daughter, Noga, 18, were freed from captivity in a hostage deal.\n\nAmiram Cooper, 85, and his wife Nurit, 80, were taken from their home in Nir Oz, their daughter-in-law Noa told the BBC. The family last spoke to the couple during the Hamas attack, Noa said, when the couple were in their safe room. The family later traced Amiram's phone to Gaza. On Monday 23 October, Nurit was one of two women to be released.\n\nAmiram and Nurit Cooper, pictured with their granddaughter, Gali\n\nOded Lifshitz, 83, and his wife Yocheved, 85 were taken hostage from Nir Oz. On Monday 23 October, Yocheved was one of two elderly women to be freed. After hearing the news of her mother's release, their daughter Sharone - a London-based artist - said: \"While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those - some 200 innocent people - who remain hostages in Gaza.\"\n\nHaim Peri, 79, was taken from his home in Nir Oz, reports the Times of Israel, and freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz said she saw that he was alive and well. His son Lior Peri told Talk TV that Haim had locked his wife inside the safe room before giving himself up to kidnappers.\n\nAvraham Munder, 78, was kidnapped from Nir Oz, Israeli officials say. His wife Ruthi, daughter and grandson have since been released.\n\nOmer Neutra, a 22-year-old Israeli-American and grandson of Holocaust survivors, put off plans to go to college in the US to study in Israel, and eventually joined the IDF. He was serving as a tank commander near Gaza when Hamas attacked. Omer's parents say they were told by the Israeli embassy that he had been kidnapped.\n\nRon Benjamin's vehicle was found empty following the attacks\n\nRon Benjamin, 53, had been taking part in a group cycle ride near the Gaza border when the Hamas attack began and he decided to drive home, his family told Israeli media. Days later, his vehicle was found empty and his family believe he was kidnapped.\n\nLouis Har, 70, is believed to have been taken from Nir Yitzhak. His partner Clara Marman was released on 28 November along with her sister Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and Gabriela's daughter Mia Leimberg,17. Clara and Gabriela's brother Fernando Simon Marman, 60, also remains in captivity.\n\nJudith Weinstein Haggai, 70, and her husband, Gad Haggai, 73, also went missing from Nir Oz after the Hamas attack. Ten days later, the Israeli military confirmed to the family they had been taken hostage, CTV News in Canada reported.\n\nAlex Danzig, 75, a scholar and historian of the Holocaust, was at his home in Nir Oz, when it was attacked by Hamas. \"We know for sure he was kidnapped,\" his son Mati told the BBC. Alex - whose older sister Edith is a Holocaust survivor - has spent the last 30 years working for Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance centre. His disappearance has triggered a campaign for his release, both in Israel and in Poland, the country of his birth.\n\nAlex Danzig has spent decades educating people about the Holocaust\n\nItzhk Elgarat, 68, was kidnapped at the same time as Alex Danzig, his brother Danny Elgert told Israel's Kan 11 TV station, adding that he had tracked his brother's phone to the border with Gaza.\n\nGadi Moses, 79, was also abducted during the same attack on Nir Oz, according to relatives and the Israeli aid agency where he worked as an agricultural expert. Efrat Katz, his partner, was initially thought to have been captured as well, but she was later found dead, the Times of Israel reported. Efrat was the mother of Doron Asher, who was taken hostage and later released with her two daughters. Ravid Katz, 51, Doron Asher's brother, was originally thought to have been taken hostage from Nir Oz, but on 28 November his family confirmed that he had been killed on 7 October.\n\nYair Yaakov, 59, is listed among the hostages. His partner Meirav Tal, 53, was released on 28 November. Yair's children Yagil, 13, and Or, 16, were released on 27 November.\n\nYair Yaakov was pictured being held captive by a gunman in a video shared online\n\nNimrod Cohen, 19, had studied software engineering in high school, according to reports. After he was kidnapped, his father was invited to meet Pope Francis in Rome along with other hostages' families.\n\nTsachi Idan, 51, was last seen by his wife, Gali, as he was taken away by Hamas gunmen. Their family had been ambushed in their safe room in Nahal Oz. Their ordeal was live-streamed by Hamas. Their eldest child, Maayan - who had just turned 18 - was shot dead, Gali told the BBC.\n\nTsachi Idan was ambushed with his wife and children and then led away\n\nYarden Bibas, 34, was abducted from Nir Oz. His wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel and Kfir, were also taken hostage, but on 29 November, Hamas claimed they had been killed in an Israeli air strike while in captivity. The Israeli government has said it is checking the claim.\n\nRonen Engel, 54, was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his wife, Karina Engelbert, 51, and their two daughters, Mika, 18 and Yuval, 11. On 1 December, the organisation representing the families said he had been murdered. Karina, Mika and Yuval were released on 27 November.\n\nKarina Ariev, a 19-year-old soldier, was serving at an army base near Gaza when she was kidnapped. Her sister Alexandra told the BBC she heard shooting as Karina called her during the attack, and later saw a video showing Karina being taken away in a vehicle.\n\nKarina Ariev was at the Nahal Oz military base, which was among the first to be attacked\n\nOfer Kalderon, 53, was taken by Hamas from Nir Oz. On 27 November his two children, Erez, 12, and Sahar, 16, were released. Two other relatives, 80-year-old Carmela Dan and her granddaughter, Noya, 12, were also believed to have been taken, but Israeli authorities later announced they had been found dead.\n\nYoram Metzger, 80, was a resident of Nir Oz. He has diabetes and broke his hip six months ago, his daughter-in-law said. Yoram's wife Tamar was released on 28 November.\n\nNadav Popplewell, 51, and his mother Channah were taken hostage by Hamas, said Channah's daughter Ayelet Svatitzky, who was speaking to them on the phone when the gunmen burst in. She said the captors sent pictures of her two relatives, who both have diabetes, with armed men in the background. Channah has now been released.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, was abducted after his family opened the door to their secure shelter to an Israeli child, who said he would be killed otherwise. Omri's wife, Lishay Lavi, said she saw him being taken away in handcuffs with three other hostages from Nahal Oz.\n\nLiri Elbag, 18, had just started military training as an Army lookout near the Gaza border when Hamas attacked, her father Eli told the Associated Press. Eli said he saw her in a video circulated later by Hamas, crowded with others on the back of a military truck which had been seized by the gunmen.\n\nLior Rudaeff, 61, was taken from Nir Yitzhak during the attack. His family have heard nothing from him since then.\n\nA number of people are believed to have been abducted from the Supernova music festival in southern Israel. Among them:\n\nShlomi Ziv, 40, was part of the security detail at the festival and was initially in contact with his sisters as the attack unfolded, according to an interview with The Times of Israel. A few weeks later the family learned he was officially considered to be a hostage, the report says.\n\nAlexander Lobanov, 32, is a Russian-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped at the festival.\n\nOri Danino, 25, is reported to have got away from the festival in his car, but it's believed he was captured after turning back in an attempt to save some people he had met there.\n\nAlmog Sarusi, 26, was kidnapped from the music festival and his partner Shahar Gindi was killed, according to Israeli media. Almog's father, Yigal, was among the relatives of hostages who met with Israel's prime minister in October.\n\nOmer Shem Tov, 21, called his parents as he was running away from gunfire and managed to get into a friend's car. His parents, Shelly and Malki Shem Tov, told Israeli media they lost contact with their son and the live location on his phone showed he was beyond the border in Gaza.\n\nIdan Shtivi, 28, an environmental sciences student, was attending the festival to take pictures at music and yoga workshops being held by friends. He escaped the site in his car but was attacked by Hamas along the route. The bodies of two of his passengers were found, and his family told the Jerusalem Post they suspect he was kidnapped.\n\nYosef Ohana, 24, had been at the festival with a friend, who told his mother he and Yosef had remained to help people escape the gunfire before running themselves. Yosef was last seen hiding under a car, and Israeli authorities have visited his mother to say he was kidnapped.\n\nAndrei Kozlov, 27, a Russian who moved to Israel in 2022, is missing from the Supernova festival, where he was working as a security guard. His mother told the De Taly publication the family was told by the IDF on October 26 that he was being held hostage.\n\nElyakim Libman, 23, was working as a security guard at the festival. In a Facebook post his father Eliyahu Libman said another guard told him his son had helped rescue others before trying to escape. He was last seen trying to help two badly-injured women.\n\nNoa Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was also kidnapped from the festival. Video footage - verified by her father Yaakov Argamani to Israel's Channel 12 - shows the 25-year-old being taken away on the back of a motorbike screaming, \"Don't kill me!\" Her boyfriend Avinatan Or, 30, also appears in the video being marched away from her by Hamas, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nEden Yerushalmi's family say they were told she had been taken hostage\n\nEden Yerushalmi, 24, called her family during Hamas's attack on the festival, her sister May told CBS News. The family say they were subsequently informed by the IDF that Eden had been abducted.\n\nChanan Yablonka, 42, is a father-of-two from Tel Aviv. According to reports, he attended the festival with friends and was due to celebrate his birthday a few days after the attacks.\n\nJonathan Samerano, 21, has been missing since 7am on the morning of the festival. His family have been told to presume he is being held in Gaza, Israeli media reported.\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal was filmed in captivity in Gaza, his family say\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal, 22, attended the festival with his brother. Guy appears in a hostage video that his family say confirms he is in Gaza.\n\nUriel Baruch, 35, was injured during the attack on the festival, his wife said on Facebook. Reports in Israeli media say his mother, Naomi, has heard from the IDF that he is a hostage.\n\nMaxim Kharkin's mother described speaking to him on the morning of 7 October\n\nMaxim Kharkin is aged 35 and a Russian speaker, his mother told Russian media. She added that he had called her at 07:00 on the morning of the attack.\n\nElkana Bohbot was seen in a video posted by Hamas\n\nElkana Bohbot, 34, had gone to the party with friends and, before losing contact, he spoke to his wife and mother telling them he was helping to evacuate the wounded, the Times of Israel reported. Hours later, his family found a video of him posted online by Hamas, which has been seen by BBC Verify.\n\nRom Braslavski, 19, was working on security for the festival. According to an account published by Hostages and Missing Families Forum, he was trying to rescue an injured person in the attack when he was caught in a volley of fire. He has not been heard from since.\n\nOmer Wenkert, 22, a restaurant manager, sent a message to his family to say he was going to a safe shelter but then lost contact, his father Shai Wenkert told the BBC's Today Programme. Shai Wenkert said he had seen footage of his son in captivity, including a photo of him handcuffed and wearing only underwear.\n\nEvyatar David's family say they were sent a video of him in captivity\n\nEvyatar David, 23, was at the festival and on the morning of the attacks, described fleeing from gunfire before losing contact with the outside world, his brother says. Later, his family say, Evyatar's sister posted on Instagram appealing for information about his whereabouts. She then received a text from an unknown number, which contained video footage of Evyatar handcuffed on the floor of a dark room. According to Israel's foreign ministry he is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nEitan Mor, 23, lives in Jerusalem, and was working as a security guard at the festival, the Times of Israel said. He reportedly texted his uncle after Hamas arrived and was last seen with a friend bringing others to safety.\n\nAlon Ohel, 22, a Serbian citizen, took refuge in a shelter after the festival came under attack, his family say. They have seen footage of him being dragged away after a grenade attack.\n\nAlmog Meir Jan, 21, tried to flee the festival. He and a friend made it to the friend's car but only managed to drive a short distance before being forced to stop. Almog's family say they have seen a hostage video in which he appears.\n\nInbar Heiman, a student aged 21, was seen by two young Israeli men being taken away from the festival on a motorcycle. Hamas have released a video in which she is seen very briefly.\n\nHersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a dual US-Israeli citizen, was badly injured in the attack, his family told the BBC. Eyewitness accounts say he was seen being forced onto a white pick-up truck - the last-known signal from his phone came from just inside Gaza.\n\nSegev Kalfon, 26, was running away from the festival, across the highway, when he was captured by Hamas, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.\n\nOrión Hernández Radoux, 30, from Mexico, attended the festival with his girlfriend, Shani Louk. He has not been seen since. The Sun newspaper says it has seen threatening messages written in Arabic sent from his phone. Shani, a tourist from Germany, was initially thought to be among those seized. But on 30 October, her mother Ricarda told German media that the family had been informed by Israeli military of her death following DNA identification.\n\nRomi Lesham Gonen, 23, was on the phone to her mother as she tried to escape from the Supernova festival. Merav Leshem Gonan has recounted a conversation in which her daughter begged for help after being shot. ABC News reports that Romi's phone is now in Gaza.\n\nBar Kuperstein, 21, last spoke to his family early on the morning of 7 October, as the attack unfolded. Later the same day, his family say they identified him in a video of Israeli prisoners, posted by Hamas. Since then, they say they have had no further information.\n\nEliya Cohen, 26, was hiding with his girlfriend Ziv from the attack, when Ziv felt him being pulled up and driven away by the gunmen, Eliya's mother has told the video initiative #BringThemHomeNow. The family then found a photo of Eliya in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nAmit Buskila, 28, from Ashdod, was last heard of making a call to her uncle, Shimon, as Hamas overran the festival. Her family say they have now been told by the government that she is being held in Gaza.\n\nCarmel Gat, 39, is Jordan's sister-in-law, and also was seen by her father being taken by gunmen from Kibbutz Be'eri, Haaretz newspaper reported. She has not been heard from since.\n\nOhad Yahalomi, 49, was abducted from Nir Oz, along with his 12-year-old son, Eitan, who was released during the November ceasefire.\n\nDror Or, 48, was seen by a neighbour being dragged out of his home in Be'eri, according to their nephew Emmanuel Besorai, along with his son and daughter. On Saturday 25 November Dror's son Noam, 17, and daughter Alma, 13, were released from captivity. The body of Yonat, 50 - Dror's wife and the children's mother - was identified among the 120 people murdered at the kibbutz, Yonat's brother told the Guardian newspaper.\n\nTal Shoham, 38, was taken from Kibbutz Be'eri. His wife Adi, also 38, her mother Dr Shoshan Haran, 67, were released by Hamas on 25 November, along with the couple's children Nave, eight, and Yahel, three. Dr Haran's husband, Avshalom - an economist and dual German/Israeli citizen - was killed on 7 October.\n\nTamir Adar, 38, who defended Nir Oz as part of the kibbutz's emergency squad, was taken to Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen, 35, an American-Israeli citizen, has been missing since Hamas's attack on Nir Oz, his father Jonathan told the BBC. He said his son was not found among the dead and the \"only reasonable explanation\" is that he was taken to Gaza.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen's father has not heard from him since Hamas attacked the kibbutz where he lived\n\nThailand's ambassador to Israel says 26 of its citizens were taken hostage, 23 of whom have now been released.\n\nThose still being held are believed to include Watchara Sriuan, 32. His mother, Viewwaew, told the Thaiger news site that the family had been informed he was being held captive.\n\nKiattisak \"Top\" Patee and a Mr Pongtorn (no first name given) have also been named by the Thai foreign ministry as hostages.\n\nA number of other people thought to have been held hostage are now confirmed to have died, either during the 7 October attack or while in captivity.\n\nAs well as Ron Scherman and Nik Beizer, four bodies were identified this week. They were Tal Chaimi, an Israeli-Romanian citizen aged 41, and Joshua Mollel, a 19-year-old Tanzanian student. Also, 27-year-old Eden Zecharya, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, and 36-year-old Ziv Dado, who had already been declared dead by the Israeli military.\n\nOthers known to have died include Dror Kaplun, 68, Aviv Atzili, 49, Arye Zalmanovich, 85, Ronen Engel, 54, Maya Goren, 56, Guy Iluz, 26, Ofir Tzarfati, 27, Ofra Keider, 70, and Eliyahu Margalit, 75.\n\nThe bodies of 19-year-old soldier, Noa Marciano, and 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss were found by Israeli troops in buildings close to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.\n\nOn Saturday 9 December Kibbutz Bari announced that Sahar Baruch, 25, had been killed in Gaza.\n\nOther hostages whose death has been reported, but not confirmed include Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir.\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? If it is safe to do so, please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Leonarda Zarcone has now been told she can stay the UK\n\nA Leicester woman who was threatened with deportation after 42 years in the country has now been told she can stay.\n\nLeonarda Zarcone, 74, is a French citizen who applied for EU settled status after Brexit.\n\nMs Zarcone said she missed the deadline to provide more information because an email ended up in a \"junk folder\".\n\nBut after the BBC contacted the Home Office on Wednesday, she received an email on Friday telling her she has residency.\n\nReacting to the update on Friday, her son David Brunetto told the BBC: \"I'm really happy. All the weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Mum is relieved… really happy.\"\n\nMs Zarcone, who ran a chip shop in Leicester until she retired seven years ago, previously said it was \"the shock of my life\" to hear that she had lost her right to live in the UK.\n\nShe found out she did not have residency from an immigration officer at East Midlands Airport on her return from a family wedding in France in September.\n\nShe was eventually allowed through border control with a 28-day visitor stamp.\n\nMs Zarcone first lived in the UK as a child, and moved permanently with her husband and her two eldest children in 1981.\n\nDavid Brunetto said his mother's records proved she had been living in the UK for decades\n\nIn September, Ms Zarcone made a new application for settled status.\n\nBut that was rejected as \"invalid\" and her visitor's visa had expired.\n\nShe then received a letter from the Home Office spelling out the \"consequences of staying in the UK unlawfully\".\n\nThose consequences included being detained or prosecuted, removed from the UK, or being charged for NHS medical treatment.\n\nTito Mbariti, from Cross Border Legal Solicitors - which represented Ms Zarcone - added: \"[It is] absolutely great, very happy. It's a shame we had to do it, it's obvious this person belongs here.\"\n\nA Home Office spokesperson said: \"All EU Settlement Scheme applications are carefully considered on their individual merits, on the basis of the evidence provided and in accordance with the immigration rules.\n\n\"A wide range of support remains available for applicants, including vulnerable people. This includes support through a grant-funded network of third party organisations dedicated to assisting vulnerable people with their applications.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.", "Shane MacGowan has been hailed as a poet, lyricist, singer and trailblazer at his funeral ceremony in County Tipperary.\n\nThe acclaimed songwriter and lead singer of The Pogues died last week aged 65.\n\nHundreds of people gathered inside and outside the church in Nenagh to say their farewells.\n\nSome of his famous friends took part in the ceremony including Nick Cave, Johnny Depp, and Bob Geldof.\n\nIrish President Michael D Higgins was among the guests at the Saint Mary of the Rosary Church in Nenagh.\n\nFittingly, music played a huge part in the ceremony and the mood was celebratory rather than sad.\n\nMourners danced in the church as host of Irish musicians played Fairytale of New York.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. MacGowan's family dance to Fairytale of New York during the funeral service.\n\n\"I think Shane would have enjoyed that, that's some send off for my brother,\" Siobhan MacGowan told the congregation.\n\nIn her eulogy, his widow Victoria Mary Clarke described him as \"a genius and a beautiful soul\".\n\nVictoria Mary Clarke, wife of Shane MacGowan, arriving for the funeral\n\nParish priest and keen rock music fan Fr Pat Gilbert delivered the homily, describing MacGowan as \"our modern-day bard\".\n\n\"A poet, lyricist, singer, trailblazer, Shane reflected life as lived in our time, calling out accepted norms that oftentimes appear unacceptable,\" he said.\n\nMacGowan, who is best known for his Christmas song Fairytale of New York, would have celebrated his 66th birthday on Christmas Day.\n\n\"Born on the birthday of Jesus and passing on the same days as Oscar Wilde and Patrick Kavanagh, and his funeral celebration Mass today on this great Feast of Mary and Sinead's [O'Connor] birthday, all seems right,\" Fr Gilbert told mourners.\n\nActor Johnny Depp read one of the Prayers of the Faithful\n\nMacGowan had been unwell for some time before his death last week.\n\nHis most recent home was in Dublin but his funeral ceremony is being held 160 km (100 miles) away in Tipperary, near where he spent part of his childhood.\n\nNick Cave, who arrived a little late, performed one of MacGowan's best known songs, A Rainy Night in Soho.\n\nImelda May and Hothouse Flowers frontman Liam Ó Maonlaí led a rendition of MacGowan's ballad You're The One.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIrish singers Mundy and Camille O'Sullivan sang \"Haunted\" - a duet that MacGowan recorded with the late Sinead O'Connor who died earlier this year.\n\nThe musical performances were organised by Oscar-winning songwriter Glen Hansard, frontman of The Frames.\n\nThe actor Aidan Gillen and former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams were among the readers in the church.\n\nU2 leader singer Bono was not able to attend in person but he sent recorded reading for the funeral.\n\nHis widow recalled first meeting him when she was 16 and how they became a couple when she was 20.\n\n\"I think I fell in love with his soul,\" Ms Clarke said.\n\nShe also spoke candidly about how drug-taking was a huge factor in his life, with people telling her for decades that \"he would be dead within six months\".\n\n\"His physical body lasted a very long time, considering what he did to it,\" she said.\n\nBut she hailed his talent and creativity, calling him a \"brilliant artist\" who \"reinvented Irish music\".\n\nDuring the offertory procession a number of gifts were brought to the altar, each chosen to represent aspects of the singer's life.\n\nThe gifts included a vinyl copy of the album Led Zeppelin II, a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) shirt and a copy of MacGowan's book Crock of Gold.\n\nHis former bandmates from The Pogues sang The Parting Glass towards the end of the service.\n\nEarlier, fans thronged the streets of Dublin to say their farewells as his funeral procession travelled through the Irish capital.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Pogues fans take part in a singalong of Dirty Old Town ahead of Shane MacGowan's funeral procession in central Dublin\n\nThey sang along as musicians played some of his best known songs, while the horse-drawn carriage bearing his coffin made its way through the city.\n\nWhen the Artane Band struck up Fairytale of New York you could hear a pin drop - until the chorus when the crowd softly joined in:\n\n\"And the boys of the NYPD Choir still singing Galway Bay, and the bells were ringing out for Christmas Day.\"\n\nThe Artane Band led the procession along Dublin's Westland Row\n\nThe funeral procession of Shane MacGowan makes its way through the streets of Dublin\n\nDublin was blanketed in a thick layer of cloud as the city paid tribute to its Kent-born adopted son.\n\nIt was probably fitting as weather was a theme of MacGowan's lyrics - you can't have that night in Soho without the rain, the morning light at Albert Bridge without the mist.\n\nThe Pogues had international fame and many fans travelled from far afield to say their goodbyes.\n\nBruno and Pascal Kenard came all the way from Nantes, in France, to attend the procession.\n\n\"Shane was a poet. I think I know all his songs,\" Bruno said.\n\n\"There are lots of emotions today,\" he added. \"The band playing, the singing - have to say it broke my heart.\"\n\nAt Tower Records in Dublin city centre, Pogues albums and merchandise have nearly sold out since his death.\n\nGerard O'Boyle said there was a great buzz around live gigs involving MacGowan\n\n\"It was the same when Sinéad (O'Connor) died, there was a tremendous interest in everything,\" said Gerard O'Boyle, who works in the store.\n\n\"Some people are quite frantic to get it. We've had people on the phone wanting Haunted (MacGowan's duet with O'Connor) but it's hard to get.\"\n\nHis band The Gorehounds supported the band during their 1980s heyday.\n\n\"They were brilliant, it was a great night. The records are good but live - that was where the buzz was.\"\n\nShane MacGowan in the 1980s, performing with The Pogues", "Protestors from both sides of the debate gathered outside the Scottish Parliament ahead of the reforms being passed by MSPs last year\n\nJudges have ruled that the UK government acted lawfully in blocking Scotland's gender self-ID reforms.\n\nLegislation making it easier for people to change their legally-recognised sex was passed by the Scottish Parliament last year.\n\nThe UK government blocked it from becoming law over fears it would impact on equality laws across Great Britain.\n\nThe Court of Session in Edinburgh has now rejected a Scottish government legal challenge to the veto.\n\nThe Scottish government has 21 days to decide whether it wants to appeal against the ruling, and the case could ultimately end up in the Supreme Court in London.\n\nThe legislation received cross-party support in Holyrood, passing by 86 votes to 39 after a highly-charged debate.\n\nCampaigners against the reforms warned the legislation could risk the safety of women and girls in same-sex spaces such as hospital wards and refuges.\n\nSupporters argued it would make the process of obtaining a gender recognition certificate (GRC) easier and less traumatic for trans people.\n\nThe legislation would remove the need for trans people to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria by a doctor before they are allowed to change their legally-recognised sex in Scotland, and would lower the age that someone can apply for a GRC from 18 to 16.\n\nThe period in which applicants would need to have lived in their acquired gender would be cut from two years to three months.\n\nThe UK government stepped in to block the bill from receiving royal assent after it was passed by MSPs, using powers contained in section 35 of the Scotland Act for the first time.\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack raised concerns that the reforms could adversely impact on the 2010 Equality Act, which applies in Scotland, England and Wales and sets out protections for groups including women and transgender people.\n\nHumza Yousaf decided to proceed with the legal challenge shortly after succeeding Nicola Sturgeon as first minister\n\nThe Scottish government challenged the move at the Court of Session - Scotland's highest civil court - with its top law officer, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, arguing that Mr Jack did not have \"reasonable grounds\" to block the bill.\n\nMs Bain also claimed that if the UK government was successful, Westminster \"could veto practically any act of the Scottish Parliament having an impact on reserved matters because he disagreed with it on policy grounds\".\n\nBut in her written ruling, judge Lady Haldane dismissed the Scottish government's appeal and said the block on the legislation was lawful.\n\nShe said Mr Jack followed correct legal procedures when he made his decision to invoke section 35 and that the Scottish government had failed to show that he had made legal errors.\n\nThe judge wrote: \"I cannot conclude that he (Mr Jack) failed in his duty to take such steps as were reasonable in all the circumstances to acquaint himself with material sufficient to permit him to reach the decision that he did.\"\n\nLady Haldane also said that \"Section 35 does not, in and of itself, impact on the separation of powers or other fundamental constitutional principle. Rather it is itself part of the constitutional framework.\"\n\nWelcoming the judgement, Mr Jack said it \"upholds my decision to prevent the Scottish government's gender recognition legislation from becoming law\".\n\nHe added: \"I was clear that this legislation would have had adverse effects on the operation of the law as it applies to reserved matters, including on important Great Britain-wide equality protections.\n\n\"Following this latest court defeat for the Scottish government, their ministers need to stop wasting taxpayers' money pursuing needless legal action and focus on the real issues which matter to people in Scotland - such as growing the economy and cutting waiting lists.\"\n\nAlister Jack blocked the legislation because of its potential impact on equalities law that applies across Scotland, England and Wales\n\nHumza Yousaf decided to proceed with the legal challenge shortly after succeeding Nicola Sturgeon - a passionate supporter of trans rights - as first minister earlier this year.\n\nWriting on X, formerly Twitter, he described the ruling as a \"dark day for devolution\".\n\nMr Yousaf said: \"Today's judgment confirms beyond doubt that devolution is fundamentally flawed. The court has confirmed that legislation passed by a majority in Holyrood can be struck down by Westminster.\n\n\"The only way to guarantee we get true self-government is through independence. Sovereignty should lie with the people of Scotland, not a Westminster government we didn't vote for with the ability to overrule our laws.\"\n\nHe was the only one of the three candidates in the SNP leadership contest who backed taking legal action and the issue has been deeply divisive within the party.\n\nColin Macfarlane, director of nations at LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, said the ruling would \"mean more uncertainty for trans people in Scotland who will be waiting once again to see whether they will be able to have their gender legally recognised through a process that is in line with leading nations like Ireland, Canada and New Zealand.\"\n\nLabour's shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray said it was \"disappointing this legalisation ended in the courts but this ruling should be respected\".\n\nShortly after the reforms were passed, double rapist Isla Bryson - who changed gender after being arrested for attacking two women - was remanded to a women's jail.\n\nBryson was subsequently moved to a male prison after the case sparked widespread anger. The Scottish government said the new legislation had no impact on the decision about where Bryson was held.\n\nAs befitting an unprecedented case, this is in Lady Haldane's words a \"novel and complex\" ruling.\n\nShe actually concluded in part that this is a situation where many decisions could have been taken, and that \"there is possibly no single right answer\" - but that the courts should only intervene in the case of a clear error in law.\n\nThe judge concluded that Alister Jack was entitled to make a decision on this, and that he had taken the proper steps to come to a view, without going into the even knottier territory of whether it was the right one.\n\nAll of that complexity means there could be room for appeal.\n\nThe Scottish government will be combing through the ruling to see if there are grounds to go back to court.\n\nMr Jack has urged them not to, telling them not to waste public funds on further legal action.\n\nBut ministers will perhaps put more weight on the position of the Scottish Greens, their partners in government, who are absolutely furious about the \"horrible, heartbreaking and unjust\" outcome.\n\nChallenging UK ministers on this has been a red line for the Greens in the past. It may be that Scottish ministers have little choice but to fight on if they are to keep their partnership government together.", "The actor's comments have attracted amusement on social media\n\nHollywood actor Timothée Chalamet has been jokingly warned his comments about Hull having a \"sexy\" accent will see him \"savaged by middle-aged women\".\n\nThe star of the new Willy Wonka film revealed his love for the northern twang in an interview with LadBible.\n\nThe actor admitted he also loved the Essex accent and a \"middle-aged northern accent\".\n\nTV star Lucy Beaumont, from Hull, said she was baffled as to why Chalamet would find it attractive.\n\nIn the clip, Chalamet said: \"I like the Hull accent... Hull is sexy.\"\n\nAfter people behind the camera starting laughing, the actor said: \"Why is everyone cracking up?\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by ladbible This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nResponding to his remarks on BBC Radio 5Live, Beaumont said: \"I think he's on drugs.\n\n\"I've had this accent for 40 years and no-one has ever told me it's sexy.\"\n\nThe actress, who wrote the sitcom Hullraisers, added: \"He looks like a very lovely young man and he should stay away from the region or he'll be savaged by middle-aged Hull women.\"\n\nLucy Beaumont also wrote BBC radio sitcom To Hull and Back\n\nChalamet's comments attracted surprise on social media, with one person writing: \"Timothée Chalamet saying Hull is sexy is the highlight of my year.\"\n\nAnother said: \"Can someone ask Timothée Chalamet how he knows that Hull exists?!\"\n\nChalamet plays the character previously depicted by Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp in earlier adaptations of the children's novel. The film was released on Friday.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Omid Scobie says he had named the two royals in an earlier version of the text\n\nAn author whose book triggered a row over allegations of racism in the Royal Family has said an earlier version of the text was to blame for the naming of two royals in one edition.\n\nOmid Scobie said an \"early and uncleared\" version of Endgame was sent to the Dutch publisher so work could start on translating.\n\nThe Dutch edition was not the final version he had submitted, he added.\n\nThe translation included the names of King Charles and Catherine, Princess of Wales, who are reported to have allegedly discussed the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's unborn baby.\n\nThe passage in the book relates to allegations made by Prince Harry and Meghan during their tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.\n\nIn the interview, Meghan said there had been \"concerns and conversations about how dark [Archie's] skin might be when he was born\".\n\nIn the English version of the book, Scobie claimed there had been two people involved and that he knew their identities, but he said for legal reasons the names could not be disclosed.\n\nHowever, the Dutch language edition of his book, entitled Eindstrijd, appeared to identify the two royals alleged to have been involved in the conversation. The BBC has seen a copy of the Dutch translation, which names the King and Catherine as being the two royals that discussed the baby.\n\nScobie said \"my stomach flipped\" when he first realised the royals had been named.\n\nWriting in an opinion piece for the i, he said: \"Unbeknownst to me at the time, early and uncleared text was provided to the Dutch publisher in order for them to start work on the translation, with the understanding that their translation would be updated to reflect the final version of the book I officially submitted.\n\n\"Other foreign-language publishers, including in France and Italy, were also doing the same thing, though their versions perfectly replicated the completed work.\n\n\"What I can be sure of is that I edited carefully, took independent legal advice, and the finished book that I submitted was not the version published in the Netherlands.\"\n\nScobie said the only publisher he had worked with was the \"one covering the US and UK\".\n\nHe previously told the BBC he did not know how the Dutch translation came to name the two royals.\n\nHe told Dutch television last week: \"For me, I edited and wrote the English version; there has never been a version that I've produced that has names in it.\"\n\nThe Dutch edition was withdrawn from sale, with publisher Xander Uitgevers blaming a translation error.\n\nResponding to Scobie's article in the i, Xander Uitgevers said: \"Omid Scobie's explanation in his column in iNews about the Dutch editorial process of the Dutch edition of Endgame is factually incorrect and we do not recognize ourselves in his representation of the events.\"\n\nThe publisher added that it \"is not allowed to say anything about the content\".\n\nMeghan's claims in the Oprah Winfrey interview were explosive - Buckingham Palace called them \"concerning\" and said they were being \"taken very seriously\".\n\nHowever, in subsequent interviews, Prince Harry was asked whether he would describe the comment about his son's skin colour as racist, he told ITV's Tom Bradby in January: \"No, I wouldn't.\"", "Prince Harry has lost an attempt to get part of the Mail on Sunday publisher's defence thrown out in a libel case.\n\nThe Duke of Sussex has taken Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) to the High Court over a 2022 article about a battle over his UK security arrangements.\n\nThe prince has said the story falsely suggested he had \"lied\" and \"cynically\" tried to manipulate public opinion.\n\nBut the judge said ANL's honest opinion defence had \"a real prospect of success and should go forward to trial\".\n\nFriday's judgement comes in the same week that the duke made a separate High Court challenge against the Home Office over his security protection when visiting the UK.\n\nHis lawyers want to overturn a ruling that saw his security status downgraded after he stopped being a \"working royal\".\n\nThe libel case centres on an article that, according to the judge, claimed the prince tried to \"mislead and confuse the public\" over that dispute with the government.\n\nThe headline said the duke had \"tried to keep his legal fight with the government over police bodyguards a secret\", but that his \"PR machine tried to put a positive spin on the dispute\" after the story broke.\n\nThe duke has denied the suggestion that the he only offered to pay for his security after starting legal proceedings in 2021, saying he had made an offer at a meeting in Sandringham the previous year.\n\nHowever, the Mail on Sunday say the Sandringham offer was not made to the government, and the duke only made an offer to the government after he had started his claim for a judicial review.\n\nIn his judgement on Friday, Mr Justice Nicklin said: \"The Defendant [ANL] has a real prospect, at trial, of demonstrating that the Duke of Sussex had not made an offer to the Government to pay for his security before he began his proceedings for judicial review.\"\n\nThe publisher can use the honest opinion defence, which gives protection to individuals or organisations from being held liable for defamation in cases where statements are made as opinions rather than false statements of fact.\n\nA trial is expected to be held in 2024.", "Lianne Gordon has been described as loved by the community\n\nA 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman who was shot in Hackney, east London.\n\nLianne Gordon, 42, who has been described as a much-loved community member with \"a heart of gold\", died at the scene of the attack outside a home in Lower Clapton on Tuesday evening.\n\nA 20-year-old man and a boy, 16, were also wounded in the shooting. They have since been discharged from hospital.\n\nThe arrest was made early on Friday and the suspect remains in custody.\n\nDet Ch Insp Jo Yorke, who is leading the murder investigation, said: \"While this arrest marks a significant development in this investigation, I would like to reiterate my appeal for anyone with information to come forward.\n\n\"I have a team of dedicated and experienced officers working tirelessly to ensure Lianne's family and friends get the answers they so desperately need; if you can help then please get in touch.\"\n\nA large section of road near Vine Close was cordoned off by police\n\nDet Ch Supt James Conway, who is responsible for policing in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, said community support \"has been crucial in driving the investigation forwards\".\n\nHe added: \"You will continue to see police, both specialist and local officers, in and around the Clapton area over the coming days as this investigation continues.\n\n\"We also have additional officers on patrol across Hackney to provide reassurance in response to this incident.\"\n\nMs Gordon's family paid tribute to her following the shooting, saying: \"Lianne had a heart of gold. We, her family, are going to miss her immensely.\"\n\nHer neighbours described her as \"very community-spirited\" and \"loved by the community\".\n\nThe Met says Ms Gordon's family is being supported by family liaison officers.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "Hundreds of Oxfam shop and office workers are striking for the first time in the charity's 81-year history.\n\nUnite union members rejected a pay offer in last ditch talks and will strike for 17 days over Christmas.\n\nThe union says workers, squeezed by cost of living pressures, deserve more of the charity's funds.\n\nOxfam said it understood workers' frustrations, but that its reserves had fallen, and it needed to keep back funds to weather financial shocks.\n\nUnite said the strike of nearly 500 workers will affect 200 shops.\n\nThe union said average wages at Oxfam have fallen by more than a fifth, in real terms, since 2018.\n\nIt said by contrast, Oxfam's reserves swelled to £44.6m in 2022.\n\nUnite general secretary Sharon Graham said \"Oxfam is an extremely wealthy organisation and can afford to put forward an acceptable offer\" without hitting its charity work.\n\n\"Oxfam wants to end poverty and says it is on the side of unions. Yet its own workers report having to use foodbanks,\" she said.\n\nThe union also accused Oxfam of \"undermining the strike\" by asking volunteers to work.\n\nIn November, Unite members rejected a pay offer of £1,750 or a 6% rise, and a one-off payment of £1,000 for the lowest earners, instead opting to strike.\n\nOxfam and Unite had been engaged in last-ditch discussions, but on Thursday the union said the strikes will go ahead.\n\nIndustrial action will take place on 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 and 31 December.\n\nOxfam said it was doing what it could to ease financial pressures on workers \"within the limits of the resources we have available\".\n\nA spokesperson said the charity \"chose to bring forward paying the latest real living wage increases, and prioritised lower paid colleagues in this year's award\".\n\nOxfam has a collective bargaining agreement with two unions: Unite, and the Independent Oxfam Union (IOU).\n\nIt said it had managed to reach an agreement with IOU, but not Unite.\n\nIt added that its reserves have fallen since 2022, and are \"currently at the lower end of what is necessary to allow Oxfam to weather future financial shocks\".\n\nThe charity said it expected this situation to continue for the next few years.\n\nOxfam added that it was \"normal practice for volunteers to keep shops open in the absence of managers, where this is practical,\" as it allowed fund-raising to continue.\n\n\"Where volunteers are comfortable to do so, we will follow our usual procedure during strike action,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"Our priority is the wellbeing of all those who work and volunteer with us and we will not ask volunteers to take on any work they are not comfortable with.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Golf\n\nMasters champion Jon Rahm has become arguably LIV Golf's most significant signing in its short history.\n\nThe world number three's decision to leave the PGA Tour for the Saudi-funded circuit represents a huge U-turn.\n\nRahm had previously ruled out joining LIV since its inaugural season in 2022.\n\n\"As you can see now it's official. This is me finally saying after all the rumours, some of them were true, and I am officially joining LIV Golf,\" the Spaniard, 29, told Fox News.\n\n\"It's not an easy decision. I've had a very successful career and I'm happy.\n\n\"There are a lot of things that LIV Golf have to offer which were very enticing, starting with team golf.\"\n• None Saudi sports minister says claims of 'sportswashing' against the country are \"very shallow\"\n\nThe two-time major winner is reportedly set to earn upwards of £450m ($566.4m) as part of the deal but said he \"can't comment\" on the figure which was a \"private business\".\n\nBasque-born Rahm said the money he was being offered by LIV was \"great\" but maintained that he does \"not play golf for the money\".\n\nHe continued: \"I play golf for the love of the game and for the love of golf. I'm an ambitious person but I'm not a greedy one.\n\n\"But as a husband, as a father and as a family man I have a duty to them to give them the most amount of opportunities and the most amount of resources possible.\n\n\"Obviously, [money] is a factor and it's an important one in this decision. The love of the game and wanting to grow it in a global market. Being part of the team. Being a captain. Hopefully being a leader to team-mates. It makes me want to work harder than I have done now to actually prove myself.\n\n\"Hopefully some time in the future some kids in Spain will want to be part of this team that I am going to build. Hopefully it's something that I am related to for a very long time. Hopefully until the day I die. And I can make it something very special.\"\n\nHe joins several other major winners at LIV, including Brooks Koepka, who won this year's US PGA Championship, 2022 Open champion Cam Smith and six-time major winner Phil Mickelson.\n\nIn June 2023 the PGA and DP World Tours announced they had a 'framework agreement' to merge with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has pledged $2bn (£1.6bn) of support to LIV.\n\nThat agreement has a deadline of 31 December 2023 to be ratified, although the American government is examining the PGA Tour's plans to take massive investment from Saudi Arabia.\n\nRahm's decision is likely to have huge repercussions for the ongoing negotiations over the future of men's professional golf.\n\nThe Spaniard said in 2022 that LIV's three-day events, with shotgun starts and no cut, was \"not appealing\" and he was chasing a golfing legacy over money.\n\nHis victories in this year's Masters and the 2021 US Open guarantee him exemptions to play in all four majors for several years, but this decision puts his Ryder Cup future in jeopardy. Europe's players must be members of the DP World Tour to be eligible to play in the biennial competition.\n\nThat rendered record points scorer Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter ineligible after they resigned from the European tour in May in the wake of being fined and banned for their involvement with LIV.\n\nEurope also switched captain midway through the two-year cycle after Henrik Stenson opted to join LIV, with Luke Donald taking over.\n\nRahm has signed his DP World Tour membership forms for 2024 and has said that he wants \"to maintain my PGA Tour and DP World status\".\n\nBefore the Ryder Cup, he was critical of LIV's European players not being allowed to compete.\n\nAmerican Brooks Koepka, who won his fifth major at the 2023 US PGA Championship, was the only LIV player competing in Rome.\n\n\"It's sad politics have got in the way of such a beautiful event,\" said Rahm earlier this year.\n\n\"It's the best Europeans against the best Americans, period, And whatever is going on, who is playing LIV and who is not playing LIV to me shouldn't matter.\"\n\nRahm won three points as Europe regained the trophy with a 16½-11½ victory over the United States in Rome in September.\n\nRumours of the Spaniard's move to LIV gathered pace after pulled out of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's new TGL venture, saying it would \"require a level of commitment I can't offer\".\n\nRahm had been one of the first to commit Woods and McIlroy's high-tech indoor simulator league, which has been postponed until 2025 after its facility in Florida sustained damage.\n\nHe said his decision \"wasn't anything personal\" against the players on the PGA Tour and \"hopes the best for the future\" of the sport in a \"moving and changing environment\" which will eventually allow him to play across both formats.\n\n\"I found a great platform on the PGA Tour and I am forever grateful for the platform they have given me,\" he added.\n\n\"If I'm lucky and things go well in the future, I still want to be part of that platform.\n\n\"LIV Golf gives me the freedom to play golf when it doesn't conflict with the PGA Tour or DP World Tour and I certainly want to be part of that in the future.\"\n\nWhat has Rahm previously said about LIV?\n\nThere have been rumours about the two-time major champion joining Greg Norman's LIV set-up over the past 18 months.\n\nAccording to reports, Rahm, who has $51m (£41m) in PGA Tour career earnings, has previously turned down up to $400m (£320m) to join the circuit.\n\nHe said in 2022: \"Money is great, but when [my wife] Kelley and I started talking about it, we're like, will our lifestyle change if I got $400m? No, it will not change one bit.\n\n\"I could retire right now with what I've made and live a very happy life and not play golf again. So I've never really played the game of golf for monetary reasons. I play for the love of the game, and I want to play against the best in the world.\n\n\"I've always been interested in history and legacy, and right now the PGA Tour has that.\"\n\nHowever, Rahm was one of the more outspoken players after the shock announcement of the 'framework agreement', saying at the time that a lot of PGA Tour players \"feel betrayal from management\".", "American actor Ryan O'Neal, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in 1970 romance Love Story, has died at the age of 82, his son said.\n\nHis family did not share a cause of death, but O'Neal was diagnosed with chronic leukaemia in 2001 and prostate cancer in 2012.\n\nHe also starred in 1970s hits What's Up, Doc?, Paper Moon and A Bridge Too Far.\n\nHis son said his father was \"a Hollywood legend. Full stop.\"\n\n\"My dad passed away peacefully today, with his loving team by his side supporting him,\" Patrick O'Neal wrote on Instagram on Friday.\n\nHe added that his father had always been his hero.\n\nO'Neal's rugged good looks catapulted him from television soap to movie stardom in tearjerker Love Story. He starred as an upper-crust Harvard undergraduate who falls in love with a working class student, played by Ali MacGraw.\n\nThe movie is considered by the American Film Institute to be among the top 10 most romantic of all time.\n\nHe went on to star in 1972 screwball comedy What's Up, Doc?, alongside Barbra Streisand. He acted with her again in The Main Event in 1979.\n\n\"So sad to hear the news of Ryan O'Neal's passing,\" Streisand posted on X, formerly Twitter.\n\n\"He was funny and charming, and he will be remembered,\" she added.\n\nHe played a Depression-era conman in road comedy-drama Paper Moon (1973), alongside his nine-year-old daughter, Tatum O'Neal, who won an Oscar for her show-stealing supporting role.\n\nO'Neal also appeared with an all-star cast in 1977 war epic A Bridge Too Far and in Barry Lyndon (1975), Stanley Kubrick's highly anticipated follow-up to A Clockwork Orange.\n\nBut his star faded at the end of the 1970s and only his turbulent personal life kept him in the headlines.\n\nHe was born in Los Angeles in 1941 to a mother who was a stage actress and a father who was a novelist and screenwriter.\n\nO'Neal took up boxing in school and developed an impressive physique before landing small television roles.\n\nHe was cast in Peyton Place, known as America's first prime-time soap opera. That role made him a household name, and like his co-star Mia Farrow, he was able to make the leap to the big screen.\n\nHe was married twice: first to American actress Joanna Moore, with whom he had two children, including Tatum, and then to Emmy-winning actress Leigh Taylor-Young, with whom he had one son, Patrick.\n\nBut O'Neal was also known for his long-term, tumultuous romance with actress Farrah Fawcett. That relationship lasted from 1979 to 1997, and then from 2001 until Fawcett's death in 2009.\n\nIn an interview with Piers Morgan in 2011, O'Neal said that re-watching his film Love Story \"upsets me, actually\".\n\n\"I lost Farrah to cancer, and I just wonder [why] that played out that way for me,\" O'Neal said.\n\nIn the tribute to his father, Patrick O'Neal said that he was \"skilled at his craft, worked so hard, and just loved acting plain and simple\".\n\n\"As a human being, my father was as generous as they come,\" he added. \"And the funniest person in any room. And the most handsome clearly, but also the most charming. Lethal combo.\"\n\nPatrick also paid tribute to Fawcett, his father's long-time love.\n\n\"Now they meet again. Farrah and Ryan. He has missed her terribly. What an embrace that must be. Together again.\"\n• None O'Neal gets to keep Fawcett portrait", "Jade found the attitudes of some to be exhausting\n\nA social worker said racism she encounters was like \"death by a thousand cuts\".\n\nJade Forbes, who is black, said the workplace bigotry she experienced had affected her mental health.\n\nWhile not considering herself a victim, she admitted she found some people's attitudes \"exhausting\".\n\nThe British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Cymru wanted more data to tackle racism. Social Care Wales said it wanted an anti-racist sector.\n\nMs Forbes, who has worked in social services for 13 years around south Wales, said: \"It makes me really quite angry about things and [I have] a sense of injustice.\n\n\"It can be quite an isolating place as a black social worker, trying to express my frustration around racism when often colleagues have not got that same lived experience.\"\n\nThe 37-year-old wanted clearer policies to deal with racism.\n\nShe said: \"There definitely needs to be more training around racism… because if I'm experiencing racism as a social worker, then there's no doubt there will be tell-tale signs of individuals who access services experiencing forms of racism, whether it be direct or covert.\"\n\nDespite not encountering direct barriers in progressing her career, Ms Forbes said she had to \"work harder and shine brighter\" to be at the top of her game.\n\nThe most challenging period of her career followed the murder of George Floyd - an African-American man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis in 2020.\n\nMs Forbes recalled other professionals making comments on social media that were in conflict with anti-racists Black Lives Matter.\n\n\"There was a consensus around the world that this was a really bad thing to happen and there were conversations justifying his [the killer's] actions,\" Ms Forbes said.\n\nAbyd Quinn Aziz said racism hurt more if it came from colleagues\n\n\"I found it absolutely berserk and also quite scary, because I've got a son and I just thought if professionals are justifying decisions around murdering a black man in broad daylight on the street, then it makes me worry about my son's safety as he grows up in the way that he may be viewed as a black man.\"\n\nBASW Cymru said more data was needed to tackle racism.\n\nIt said it heard more about racism in staff teams than from clients.\n\nBASW Cymru's Abyd Quinn Aziz said there was far more data in England and called on Social Care Wales to publish more.\n\nThis year, Social Work England found black male social workers over 40 were disproportionately subject to fitness to practise proceedings.\n\n\"We know it [racism] happens but it's about understanding how it happens, where it happens and whether the things that we're doing make a difference to racism,\" Mr Quinn Aziz said.\n\nHe said racism hurt more if it came from colleagues.\n\nDavid Pritchard said data was at the heart of tackling racism\n\n\"In Wales, in the last 20 years, I think I've only known of one non-white director of social services, and while I'm not saying you have to be black to understand it, I think there's a lack of confidence and pro-activeness,\" he said.\n\nSocial Care Wales (SCW), which regulates the workforce in Wales, said about 80% of social workers were white and the remainder a variety of ethnicities.\n\nIt said about 6% of the whole social care work force, which includes social workers as well as those who care for older people and children, are black. About 5% have an Asian background.\n\nSCW regulation director, David Pritchard, said racism worked against social care principles and that SCW was committed to working to ensure the sector was anti-racist.\n\n\"Data, research and evidence is absolutely the heart of tackling racism and other prejudices in our society,\" he said.", "DUP MP Gavin Robinson said Stormont's finances need addressed to provide for sustainable devolution\n\nA deal to restore devolution is no closer despite planned roundtable talks about Stormont's finances, the DUP deputy leader has said.\n\nGavin Robinson added the DUP will join Monday's discussions with the Northern Ireland secretary and other parties.\n\nThere has been speculation over whether it will strike a deal with the government to restore power-sharing.\n\nHowever, Mr Robinson said the government needed to completely change its approach.\n\nLast week, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said talks with the DUP were in the \"final, final stages\".\n\nThe DUP collapsed Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive in February 2022 when then-first minister Paul Givan resigned.\n\nThey have protested against post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland, which the DUP has argued undermines Northern Ireland's position in the UK internal market.\n\nIt has also blocked the election of an Assembly Speaker on a number of occasions.\n\nOn Friday, Mr Robinson told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster it was also important that Northern Ireland's financial situation was addressed to \"provide a sustainable basis for devolution\".\n\nSinn Féin's Conor Murphy said the DUP did not appear to be \"in any hurry\" to resolve its talks with the government.\n\n\"It's clear that patience has run out,\" the former Stormont finance minister continued.\n\nConor Murphy said patience had run out and called for devolution to be restored\n\n\"It has run out among the other political parties, among the public some time back. Clearly now patience has run out with the British government.\n\n\"They need to bring this endless merry-go-round of private dialogue with the DUP to a close so that we get to a decision point.\n\n\"The public who elected us all to do a job, the people who run our public services are all suffering as a result.\"\n\nThe Northern Ireland Office invitation to talks at Hillsborough Castle on Monday was issued to the five largest parties at Stormont.\n\nWhen you're covering politics in Northern Ireland there is one thing Santa never fails to deliver - Christmas talks.\n\nAnd it doesn't matter if you've been bad or good.\n\nSure enough this year it is all-party talks at Hillsborough, a sure signal our devolution hiatus is coming to an end - or is it?\n\nTop of many people's Christmas list is a deal between the DUP and the government.\n\nOptimism has never been so high but there's no sign of anyone or anything coming down the chimney just yet.\n\nAs with many people's festive plans money is featuring heavily - Stormont's finances are in a dire state.\n\nBut DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson needs more than that if he's to persuade the doubters in his own ranks.\n\nHe may have it, in which case he's got a selling job to do and not much time to do it.\n\nAs Chris Heaton-Harris says were in \"the final final stages\" but don't leave out the carrots and mince pies just yet.\n\nAlliance Party leader Naomi Long said a deadline should be set for a return to power-sharing.\n\n\"This week there's been an indication that the government have done what they can and it's now up to the DUP to decide whether it's enough,\" she said.\n\n\"Whether or not we get the assembly up and running - and I sincerely hope we can - we have to deal with the financial crisis that's facing our public services.\"\n\nStormont has been without a power-sharing executive since February 2022\n\nUlster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie said a public sector pay rise should be a short-term priority.\n\n\"There needs to be direct intervention that comes from the treasury in regards to that,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\nMr Beattie said \"all options\" should be looked at to plug Northern Ireland's public service black hole.\n\nSocial Democratic and Labour Party MP Claire Hanna said there are \"deep issues\" in Northern Ireland's public services which need to be resolved.\n\n\"These are much more important, frankly, than whatever the DUP are talking about,\" she said.\n\n\"Overspends have got even worse without ministers, which underlines the fact there is a mismatch between what we need to spend and the funding available.\"\n\nWhile the invite relates to the future of Northern Ireland's finances, parties are likely to look for clarity about where discussions are at to get power-sharing restored.\n\nIt is up to the secretary of state to set a budget for Northern Ireland while there is no executive.\n\nMr Heaton-Harris did so for 2023/24 back in April but it saw Stormont departments facing difficult decisions and having to implement some cuts.\n\nThe secretary of state has also been urged by various health, education and transport unions to take action on pay awards in recent months.\n\nHe maintains he does not have powers to act in this area, and in recent weeks different unions have gone on strike or notified the public of upcoming strike action.", "Tory MPs are coming under pressure from ministers to back the PM's Rwanda plan.\n\nRishi Sunak hopes sending migrants to the African nation for processing and potential resettlement will deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats.\n\nHe has introduced emergency legislation aimed at overcoming legal issues which have so far delayed the scheme.\n\nHowever, MPs from across his party have concerns about the approach and will be examining the bill over the weekend.\n\nLast month, Supreme Court judges blocked the government's original plan, declaring that Rwanda was not a safe country and that the asylum system was flawed.\n\nThe government has now introduced the Safety of Rwanda Bill which requires judges to treat Rwanda as safe. It also gives ministers powers to disregard parts of the Human Rights Act, and prevents judges from taking into account other international laws.\n\nGovernment ministers have been putting in calls to persuade MPs to vote for the bill on Tuesday, when it gets its second reading in the House of Commons.\n\nThis stage of the process is usually reserved for debating the general points of the proposed law.\n\nMPs with concerns are likely to wait until later stages before trying to make changes to the draft legislation.\n\nBut Mr Sunak is keen to avoid a defeat at the hands of Tory rebels and the Labour Party on a key part of his flagship \"stop the boats\" policy.\n\nConcerned Tory MPs are being offered meetings with government ministers.\n\nThose who have human rights concerns are being told not all of the Human Rights Act is being disapplied by the proposed law and that asylum seekers facing serious irreversible harm could still challenge a decision to be deported, based on their individual cases.\n\nHowever, MPs on the right of the party are being reassured that such legal challenges would be unlikely to succeed.\n\nBoth former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick have said Mr Sunak's plan will not work.\n\nMr Jenrick resigned his ministerial job shortly after the Safety of Rwanda Bill was published arguing that it did not go far enough.\n\nIn an article in Saturday's Daily Telegraph, Mr Jenrick says he does not believe the Rwanda law will work, and calls for the UK to \"extricate\" itself from \"complex international frameworks\" and \"outdated treaties\".\n\nThe bill in its current form would still allow migrants to challenge their removal to Rwanda, and would not exclude individual appeals from the European Court of Human Rights, he says.\n\n\"The idea, therefore, that this Bill will guarantee all those arriving are detained and swiftly removed is for the birds,\" he wrote.\n\nHe also suggested the Conservatives will face the \"red-hot fury of voters\" unless they do more to tackle the number of people moving to the UK.\n\nThe European Research Group, an influential body of pro-Brexit MPs, have said they are studying the bill \"forensically\" but some are concerned the bill still allows for individuals to appeal a decision to deport them to Rwanda.\n\nOn the other side of the party, the One Nation group of MPs are taking legal advice from former Solicitor General Lord Garnier.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's PM programme the legislation was \"political nonsense and legal nonsense\".\n\n\"It's trying to define things when there is no evidence for that being the case. It's rather like a bill that has decided that all dogs are cats.\"\n\nLord Garnier sits in the House of Lords, where the bill is also likely to run into difficulties.\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday, Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta said: \"It has always been important to both Rwanda and the UK that our rule of law partnership meets the highest standards of international law.\"\n\nHe added that \"without lawful behaviour by the UK\" Rwanda would not be able to continue with the agreement.\n\nFormer Brexit Secretary David Davis told BBC Radio 4's The Week in Westminster he supported the policy, saying: \"It's expensive, but the truth is it won't be expensive if it works.\n\n\"I don't know whether it'll work... but I think we have to try it.\"\n\nHe also suggested some of criticism of the policy \"comes out of leadership manoeuvrings\".\n\nHe warned his colleagues not to put their \"leadership ambitions\" ahead of the interests of the Conservative Party or the country.\n\nThe full interview will be available to listen to at 11am on Saturday 9 December on Radio 4 and afterwards on BBC Sounds.", "Mr Putin would be 77 at the end of his fifth term\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin has said he will stand again for a fifth term in office.\n\nHe announced it at an awards ceremony for participants of the full-scale war he launched against Ukraine in 2022.\n\nIt comes a day after election officials set 15-17 March 2024 as dates for the presidential election.\n\nThe re-election of Mr Putin, 71, is seen as inevitable, with opposition almost non-existent and Russian media completely under his control.\n\nMr Putin served as president in 2000-08, returning to the role from a stint as prime minister in 2012. This means that he has already been in power in Russia longer than any ruler since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.\n\nRussia's constitution was amended in 2020, increasing the presidential term from four to six years and giving Mr Putin a clean slate to run again next year by cancelling out his previous terms.\n\nA victory in March would see him remain as president until 2030. After that, he can then potentially serve another six years until 2036 if he decides to stand again.\n\nMr Putin - a former KGB officer - had been widely expected to run for the country's top job, amid huge challenges brought about by his invasion of Ukraine and resulting stand-off with the West.\n\nHe is unlikely to face any serious opposition, with most genuine opponents either dead, behind bars or in exile.\n\nOn Thursday, Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, announced the elections. Shortly afterwards, the country's electoral commission said they would be held over three days, from 15-17 March.\n\nFollowing the announcement, the Kremlin's official spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that an \"astonishing\" number of people wanted Mr Putin to continue as leader.\n\nHe did not take long to make his intentions clear.\n\nMr Putin spoke at an informal gathering after a ceremony in the Kremlin to award Ukraine war veterans with the Hero of Russia medal.\n\nHis words were in answer to a request that he stand again for election from Lt-Col Artyom Zhoga, who heads a former pro-Russian separatist unit in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region - which Moscow declared annexed together with another three Ukrainian regions in September 2022.\n\n\"Now is the time when one needs to take decisions. I will be running for the post of president of the Russian Federation,\" Mr Putin said in remarks shown on Russian TV.\n\nMr Putin was handed the presidency at the very end of 1999 by his ailing predecessor Boris Yeltsin.\n\nMr Putin's grip on power, which has never really been in doubt, has tightened throughout his leadership.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: What's in Vladimir Putin's 2024 calendar... and what isn't?", "The award recognises \"his lifelong determination to make the world a kinder place for animals.\"\n\nEntertainer Paul O'Grady has been posthumously named Peta's person of the year.\n\nThe animal rights organisation said the award recognised his \"lifelong determination to make the world a kinder place for animals.\"\n\nThe Birkenhead-born TV presenter, who died in March aged 67, was a leading advocate for helping dogs and cats find permanent homes.\n\nO'Grady rose to fame in the 1990s with his drag queen persona Lily Savage before going on to present light entertainment programmes.\n\nHe was well-known for presenting ITV's documentary series For The Love Of Dogs, which showcased life at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, which he became an ambassador for in 2012.\n\nA Peta representative said the organisation \"recognises and thanks Paul O'Grady for his lifelong determination to make the world a kinder place for animals\".\n\n\"He never wavered in his commitment to protecting the most vulnerable among us. We will always treasure his legacy of compassion,\" they said.\n\nFlowers were left at Battersea Cats & Dogs Home after Paul O'Grady died in March\n\nO'Grady joined the animal rights organisation in the 1990s to raise awareness about testing on animals, and also urged the Lord Mayor of London to stop herding sheep across London Bridge in 2014.\n\nHe raised awareness of the treatment of orcas in marine parks and joined a call to ban foie gras, a mousse or pate made by force-feeding ducks or geese.\n\nPeta vice president of programmes Elisa Allen said O'Grady \"once said that 'it is our duty to treat animals with respect', and he lived by his own principles every day by being a tireless animal advocate\".\n\n\"He never wavered in his commitment to protecting the most vulnerable among us,\" she said.\n\n\"We will always treasure his legacy of compassion.\"\n\nO'Grady's husband Andre Portasio will be presented with the award on his behalf.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video has been removed for rights reasons\n\nThe Pogues were once described as a tight, professional bunch of musicians fronted by a total shambles.\n\nBut the shambles, their charismatic singer Shane MacGowan, was heralded as one of the finest song writers and lyricists of his time.\n\nThe Pogues' great achievement was to successfully bring together traditional foot-stomping Irish music with the crashing chords of North London punk.\n\nLike fellow Celts Brendan Behan and Dylan Thomas, MacGowan's source of inspiration was invariably alcoholic and he became as famous for his legendary excesses as he was for his music.\n\nShane Patrick MacGowan was born in Kent on 25 December 1957 while his Irish parents were visiting relatives. He spent the first six years of his childhood in a rural idyll in Tipperary before his family moved to live in England.\n\nHe lived much of his life expressing the musical sentiments of an Irishman in exile, though he later made Ireland his home.\n\nMacGowan's mother was a prize-winning traditional Irish singer; his father an aspiring writer. When he was 12, Shane won a scholarship to the prestigious Westminster public school.\n\nHe had a spell as a journalist editing a fanzine\n\nHe didn't fit in and was expelled at 16 after being caught with drugs. He began working in London record shops and bars to satisfy his love for music and drink.\n\nMacGowan was inevitably drawn to the energy and chaos of the punk movement. He first made the news when he was photographed covered in blood from a bitten ear while at a concert by the band The Clash.\n\nThe picture subsequently made the newspapers under the somewhat overstated headline, \"Cannibalism at Clash Gig.\"\n\nFor a time he became a journalist, editing a Punk fanzine.\n\nIn 1977 he joined the Nipple Erectors, later shortened to The Nips, a band that had been formed in North London by Shanne Bradley.\n\nThen known as Shane O'Hooligan, MacGowan became the front man and chief songwriter for the band which released four singles before splitting up.\n\nIt was not until he formed Pogue Mahone (a variant of Irish phrase póg mo thóin, which means \"kiss my arse\"), that he was finally able to mix the rawness of punk with the Irish poetry and sentimentality of his lyrics, to huge critical and commercial acclaim.\n\nThe Pogues were a band of considerable musical ability\n\nMacGowan's songs, often with strong Irish republican influences, reflected the experience of the Irish diaspora whether in North London or further afield.\n\nHe has often cited Brendan Behan as a major influence, a man who, like McGowan himself, was a talented writer who was partial to the bottle.\n\nBilly Bragg commented that \"they came at folk music, got hold of it by the lapels, and threw it down the stairs\".\n\nBetween 1984 and 1990, the band, its name diplomatically shortened to The Pogues, released five albums, with songs such as A Pair of Brown Eyes and A Rainy Night in Soho hailed as classics.\n\nThe Pogues appeared as special guests on tours by U2, culminating in a date at Madison Square Garden in New York.\n\nIn 1987, Kirsty MacColl collaborated with the Pogues for the MacGowan-penned Fairytale of New York which made number two in the UK charts and has become an evergreen Christmas favourite.\n\nWhile MacColl appeared in the promotional video for the song, she and McGowan recorded their individual tracks quite separately.\n\nThe song helped The Pogues' next album, If I Should Fall from Grace with God, sell more than a million copies worldwide.\n\nFabers published a volume of his poetry entitled Poguetry, and MacGowan became the leading musical spokesman for the London Irish community.\n\nAlthough he was later praised for revitalising pub and rebel songs with his punk arrangements, these songs were initially greeted less favourably by some in the native Irish community who accused him of bringing their music into disrepute and perpetuating the myth of the \"drunken paddy\".\n\nIn fact, the line between MacGowan's own lifestyle and the down and outs he sang about had become increasingly blurred and by 1991, the Pogues were moved to throw out their founder member because of his increasingly erratic behaviour.\n\nOne of his friends, the singer Sinead O'Connor, once called in the police when she saw him taking heroin. It cured him of the habit. But MacGowan continued to defy doctors' warnings about his alcohol intake.\n\nMacGowan went on to form a new band The Popes, and in 1994, the album The Snake was released to fresh acclaim.\n\nThree years later came Crock of Gold, with its album cover featuring a painting by Shane MacGowan of leprechauns that resembled the demons that seemed to haunt him throughout his life.\n\nAdvice to curtail his drinking was usually ignored\n\nHe rejoined the Pogues in 2001 signalling a revival of the band which, over the following years, played to dozens of sell out audiences in the UK, Ireland and the USA.\n\nTheir packed Christmas gigs became a joyous festive tradition, the Guinness-fuelled crowd singing along with every number, as an increasingly inebriated McGowan hung desperately on to the microphone stand.\n\nIn 2005, the re-released Fairy Tale of New York, reached number two in the UK charts as part of a fundraising drive in support of the charity Crisis at Christmas.\n\nFive years later he began performing with a new line-up, The Shane Gang, which featured members from the Irish rock band, In Tua Nua.\n\nA television documentary, screened in 2015, focused on MacGowan's decision to have a new set of teeth, the last of his natural ones having given up the ghost seven years previously. The Guardian referred to the nine-hour procedure as 'the Everest of dentistry'.\n\nA bout of pneumonia, combined with a hip injury - initially sustained following a fall as he was leaving a Dublin studio in 2015, fracturing his pelvis - left MacGowan requiring a long and enforcedly sober stay in hospital, the following year.\n\nBy now using a wheelchair, he turned 60 in 2018. To mark the occasion he was honoured with a concert gala - attended by the likes of fellow rock stars Nick Cave and Bobby Gillespie - at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, where he was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by Irish President Michael D Higgins.\n\nIt proved to be a big year for the singer, as after an 11-year engagement, he also married Irish journalist Victoria Mary Clarke in a ceremony in Copenhagen.\n\nHis band are known for songs including A Rainy Night In Soho\n\nIn 2020, BBC Radio 1 said it would not play the original version of Fairytale of New York that Christmas, because its audience may be offended by the song's use of a term now widely considered a homophobic slur, sparking debate.\n\nAround the same time, a late decision was made to subtitle the star's voice for the UK release of a documentary about his life - director Julien Temple's Crock Of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan - after some said it was hard to make out what he was saying.\n\nMacGowan was one of popular music's great survivors whose excesses did not seem to dim his creative talent.\n\nHe once boasted that most of his 300 songs had been penned while under the influence. \"I haven't,\" he famously said \"joined a band to drink milk.\"\n\nIn November 2023, his wife had been posting updates on his health after he was hospitalised, including regular photographs of him in his hospital bed.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by @victoriamary This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn 23 November, she wrote: \"Shane got out of the hospital! We are deeply and eternally grateful to all of the doctors and nurses and staff at St Vincent's it's the best!\".\n\nShe included a photograph of the singer looking frail, wearing a hat and scarf in bed, and when his death was announced, she said: \"I am blessed beyond words to have met him and to have loved him and to have been so endlessly and unconditionally loved by him and to have had so many years of life and love and joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures.\n\n\"There's no way to describe the loss that I am feeling and the longing for just one more of his smiles that lit up my world.\"⁦\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Born in Kent, MacGowan was the son of Irish immigrants and fronted The Pogues from 1982 until their break-up in 2014\n\nThe Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan has died aged 65, following a recent hospital stay after being diagnosed with encephalitis.\n\nThe singer-songwriter, whose hits include 1987's Fairytale of New York and A Pair of Brown Eyes, had been unwell for some time.\n\nMacGowan also had well-documented problems with drugs and alcohol.\n\nHis wife Victoria Mary Clarke said on Instagram that MacGowan \"meant the world to me\".\n\nShe wrote: \"I don't know how to say this so I am just going to say it. Shane... has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese.\"\n\nShe said MacGowan \"will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the start and end of everything that I hold dear\".\n\nA statement from MacGowan's spokesperson confirmed he \"died peacefully at 3.30am this morning (30 November) with his wife and sister by his side\".\n\n\"Prayers and the last rites were read during his passing,\" he added.\n\nOn 22 November, Clarke said he had left hospital, and just a few days later she said they celebrated their wedding anniversary, and were grateful they were \"still alive\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by @victoriamary This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBorn in Kent, MacGowan was the son of Irish immigrants and fronted The Pogues from 1982 until their break-up in 2014.\n\nHe had formed the Irish punk band Pogue Mahone, later shortened to The Pogues, in 1982 and released seven studio albums.\n\nIn 1987 Kirsty MacColl collaborated with The Pogues for the Christmas song Fairytale of New York, written by MacGowan, which got to number two in the UK chart and remains one of the UK's best-loved Christmas songs.\n\nLibertines frontman Pete Doherty told Newshour the song was an \"absolute belter\" and one \"you never get tired of hearing\".\n\nHe recalled performing on stage with MacGowan, saying there you made the \"strongest connections\".\n\n\"I knew he was ill but I thought he was bulletproof,\" Doherty told the programme.\n\n\"I loved and respected him. For a long time I was sitting at his feet in awe, and I do feel that over time I got his respect,\" he added\n\nMacGowan revealed he was diagnosed with encephalitis last year in a video posted to social media on New Year's Eve.\n\nIt is an uncommon but serious condition in which the brain becomes inflamed, according to the NHS website.\n\nHe had also used a wheelchair since 2015 after injuring himself in a fall.\n\nIn 2018 he was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at a 60th birthday party in Dublin's National Concert Hall.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video has been removed for rights reasons\n\nA documentary about his life - Crock Of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan - was released in 2020.\n\nHe was close friends with Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor who died in July.\n\nIn her statement, Clarke said: \"I am blessed beyond words to have met him and to have loved him and to have been so endlessly and unconditionally loved by him and to have had so many years of life and love and joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures.\n\n\"There's no way to describe the loss that I am feeling and the longing for just one more of his smiles that lit up my world.\"\n\nIrish President Michael D Higgins described Shane MacGowan as one of \"music's greatest lyricists\".\n\n\"Like so many across the world, it was with the greatest sadness that I learned this morning of the death of Shane MacGowan,\" he said.\n\n\"His words have connected Irish people all over the globe to their culture and history, encompassing so many human emotions in the most poetic of ways.\"\n\nThe singer was pictured looking frail in 2022\n\nAuthor Tony Parsons posted on social media: \"I remember Shane MacGowan when he was in his mid-teens and coming down the Roxy in Covent Garden to bang on unattended drums in his Union jack jacket.\n\n\"A crazy kid with a dream who grew into one of the greatest talents these islands have ever know. A creative giant. Sleep well, Shane and see you at number one for Christmas.\"\n\nThe musician Nick Cave called him \"a true friend and the greatest songwriter of his generation,\" adding it was \"a very sad day.\"\n\nThe Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess also paid tribute, saying MacGowan had \"a life lived to the full\".\n\n\"A lyrical genius. An inspiration to so many of us who wanted to be in bands. I followed The Pogues to far flung places, met Shane a few times and watched some of the most exhilarating shows I've ever witnessed,\" he also said on social media.\n\nDerry Girls actor Siobhan McSweeney has said that Shane MacGowan \"was the voice of London for us Irish\" and said when she was scared about moving to the capital \"he lured me over with songs about chancers, drinkers, lovers, poets and scoundrels\".\n\nFairytale of New York producer Steve Lillywhite told BBC Radio 5 Live MacGowan was \"truly a poet\", crediting him for inventing \"a new style of music that was sort of the punk attitude with traditional Irish rhythms\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Spider Stacy This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nTV presenter Dermot O'Leary talked about the importance of The Pogues for the Irish \"diaspora\".\n\n\"The Pogues were our band,\" he said. \"Shane's words were symbols of an Ireland I knew through sepia-worn pictures and endless summer holidays.\"", "This Gaza war, unprecedented in scope, has now been raging for two months. The Hamas-run health ministry says more 17,000 people have been killed, including thousands of children.\n\nIsrael’s military operation in the southern Gaza Strip, currently focussed on the largest city there, Khan Younis, is making a difficult humanitarian situation worse. The UN says 80% of the population has been displaced. People are running out of safe havens and not enough aid is getting in. Speaking in Geneva, the UN’s top aid official, Martin Griffiths, gave this bleak assessment.\n\nGriffiths said negotiations were under way with Israel to improve the flow of aid. Israeli officials say are willing to do what they can, to increase the amount of aid coming in and to facilitate the opening of additional field hospitals to help cope with the vast number of casualties. On his first visit to the region since the crisis began, the UK Defence Secretary, Grant Schapps, said other routes were being looked at that could involve the Royal Navy.\n\nWith fighting raging around Khan Younis and in the north, images are circulating on social media showing dozens of Palestinian men, stripped to their underwear, kneeling on the ground, being guarded by Israeli soldiers. Other pictures show them being transported in military trucks.\n\nIsrael’s chief military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said hundreds of what he called terror suspects had been detained and that many had given themselves up. But already one well-known Palestinian journalist has been identified among those being held.", "The prime minister will face the Covid enquiry ahead of the vote on Rwanda legislation\n\nIt had been a while since I'd heard mention of a \"Star Chamber\".\n\nBut it is back in the lingo of Westminster.\n\nThis weekend different groupings of Conservative MPs are scrutinising the government's planned new law on the Rwanda migrants plan.\n\nIt will come to a vote on Tuesday.\n\nIt is provoking flashbacks for me of the Brexit years, where deep, wide, passionate and angry arguments within the Conservative Party dominated.\n\nEnter next, a grouping of that era, the Conservative European Research Group.\n\nDuring the Brexit debates, they sought to ensure ministers remained committed to what they saw as a proper Brexit, leaving all the main structures of the EU and not diluted compromise.\n\nIts chairman, Mark Francois said: \"We all agree with the prime minister that we need to stop the boats but the legislation to do this must be assuredly fit for purpose.\n\n\"To that end, I spoke with Sir Bill Cash this morning, who confirmed that his Star Chamber Team are already analysing the Rwanda Bill, in detail.\n\n\"This may still take a few days to complete but he was confident their findings will be available, at the very latest, prior to the Second Reading debate on Tuesday.\"\n\nThere you have it, the Star Chamber of legal experts chaired by Sir Bill is back.\n\nIt will want to test the instincts of the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and the former immigration minister Robert Jenrick who have both concluded the Rwanda Bill is a dud.\n\nThe former Home Secretary Suella Braverman thinks the Rwanda legislation is \"destined to fail\"\n\nOther groupings of different instincts have similar approaches.\n\nA leading member of the so-called One Nation caucus of Conservative MPs told the BBC a decision on whether to vote for, against, or abstain on the Rwanda bill will not be taken until Monday evening's meeting of the group.\n\nHowever, he described the mood generally as one of \"deep concern\".\n\nThey are taking legal advice from the former Solicitor General Lord Garnier, who told Radio 4's PM programme he'd vote against the bill in the Lords, and that declaring in law that Rwanda was safe was rather like declaring \"all dogs are cats\".\n\nBut here's another twist: These groups are not homogenous and those who appear on their behalf don't represent the views of all of their members.\n\nSo where does all this leave Rishi Sunak?\n\nBeing at the mercy of clumps of your own backbenchers is never a comfortable place for any prime minister to be in.\n\nPlenty of Tory MPs now think it is entirely possible a sufficient number of their colleagues will register a loss of confidence in Mr Sunak that he faces a vote of confidence.\n\nIn all likelihood he would win such a vote, but it even happening would be crippling to his authority.\n\nLet's be clear: It may well not happen.\n\nBut a range of folk with a deep knowledge of the parliamentary party think it could.\n\nOh and one final thought.\n\nBefore that moment on Tuesday, Mr Sunak has another big moment on Monday: Appearing at the Covid inquiry.", "Israeli soldiers hug as they look at pictures of the festival victims from the 7 October attacks\n\nHamas had a premeditated plan to use sexual violence as a weapon of war, an Israeli women's rights campaigner and lawyer has said.\n\nProf Ruth Halperin-Kaddari said she saw footage of women in several locations whose condition left her in \"no doubt\" that they had been raped.\n\nThere has been anger over the delay of some UN bodies to acknowledge claims of Hamas's sexual atrocities on 7 October.\n\nIsrael has been exploring evidence of sexual crimes during the attacks.\n\nWarning: This article contains graphic details which some readers may find upsetting\n\nIsraeli police say they have so far gathered more than 1,500 testimonies from witnesses and medics. Hamas has denied the group carried out sexual violence during the 7 October attacks.\n\nPictures and live footage streamed by the militants pointed to the gruesome nature of the attacks at the Supernova festival.\n\nA range of violence from gang rape to the sexual mutilation of murdered victims are being investigated by police.\n\n\"I saw a number of first-hand, eyewitness accounts, for example of one survivor who hid in the bushes and saw a woman next to her being raped by several men,\" Prof Halperin-Kaddari told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nShe said she also spoke to a paramedic who treated a woman who lost a life-threatening amount of blood after reporting being raped by four men.\n\n\"I saw footage and pictures from numerous locations of bodies whose condition were all exhibiting the same pattern of mutilation and leaving no doubt that rape was performed on these women before they were executed,\" she said.\n\nProf Halperin-Kaddari added that the the concentration of cases, all in one day but in several locations left her in \"no doubt\" that there was a \"premeditation to use sexual violence as a weapon of war.\"\n\nHamas said it \"rejected and strongly denounced\" the reports of abuses. In a post on the messaging app Telegram, it said that such claims were \"lies\" by Israel that sought to distort the \"humane\" way Hamas has treated Israeli hostages. Hamas took some 240 people hostage on 7 October - 110 were released last week as part of a truce with Israel.\n\nIsraeli women's rights and legal activists had been calling on key international organisations to publicly acknowledge reports of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, in the wake of Hamas's attacks.\n\nOn Monday, dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the UN headquarters in New York, protesting over what they said was its inaction over the rape, abduction and mistreatment of Israeli women.\n\nProf Halperin-Kaddari, who spent 12 years as a member of a UN convention on discrimination against women, said she and others have been calling on UN bodies to acknowledge these \"crimes against humanity\".\n\n\"Regrettably, until a week ago, none of them said the explicit word 'sexual violence'. It took them more than seven weeks,\" she said. The UN has yet to respond to accusations of a delay, but Prof Halperin-Kaddari visited the UN in Geneva just a week ago to draw attention to the violence.\n\nUN Women issued a statement - eight weeks after the attacks - acknowledging accounts of gender-based atrocities.\n\n\"This took them too long, much too long,\" Prof Halperin-Kaddari added.\n\nYael Sherer from the Lobby to Combat Sexual Violence advocacy group told Today that men were also victims of sexual violence on 7 October.\n\nShe said evidence is being gathered from some survivors of the attacks, as well as eyewitnesses and first responders, who have been detailing the violence.\n\n\"Hamas terrorists made sure to disgrace these people and dishonour them in many ways,\" she said.\n\nThis included violence carried out on the victims' bodies after they had died, Ms Sherer added.\n\n\"We also saw people who were bleeding... [and] people who were tied down to furniture with zip-ties, and were not clothed, of many ages.\"\n\nAn ongoing UN commission of inquiry investigating alleged war crimes on both sides of the Israel-Hamas conflict will include a focus on sexual violence carried out during the attacks on 7 October. However, Israel has not so far co-operated with the commission, viewing it as biased.\n\nNavi Pillay, who chairs the inquiry, said if Tel Aviv did not want to co-operate, her team could still take evidence from survivors and witnesses outside the country.\n\n\"All they [Israel] have to do is let us in,\" she told the BBC, adding that survivors of the attacks should be able to get a UN hearing.\n\nMs Pillay also rejected claims that the UN delayed acknowledging that sexual violence had taken place during Hamas's attacks and said \"every effort\" was being made as part of her team's investigations.\n\nThe Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October killed 1,200 people.\n\nSince then, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 15,500 people have been killed in Israel's military campaign which it launched in response.", "Video showed the moment two reindeer wandered across a busy A-road after escaping from a Christmas event.\n\nThe Elveden Estate in Suffolk said Blue and Blitzen had \"got spooked and jumped the fence\" on Sunday afternoon.\n\nOliver Connolly filmed them on the A11 near Mildenhall on Sunday afternoon before the dual carriageway was later closed by police as a precaution. He said: \"It was like a scene from a movie.\"\n\nThe animals were finally found on Monday afternoon on the Elveden estate, one of the biggest farms in the UK, owned by Lord Iveagh of the Guinness family.", "Hackers have been able to gain access to personal information from about 6.9 million users of genetic testing company 23andMe, using customers' old passwords.\n\nIn some cases this included family trees, birth years and geographic locations, the company said.\n\nAfter weeks of speculation the firm has put a number on the breach, with more than half of its customers affected.\n\nThe stolen data does not include DNA records.\n\n23andMe is a giant of the growing ancestor-tracing industry. It offers genetic testing from DNA, with ancestry breakdown and personalised health insights.\n\nThe biotechnology company, which is based in South San Francisco, was not hacked itself but cyber-criminals logged into about 14,000 individual accounts, or 0.1% of customers, by using email and password details previously exposed in other hacks.\n\nAs was first reported by Tech Crunch, the company has acknowledged that by accessing those accounts, hackers were then able to find their way into \"a significant number of files containing profile information about other users' ancestry\".\n\nThe criminals downloaded not just the data from those accounts but the private information of all other users they had links to across the sprawling family trees on the website.\n\nThe stolen data includes information like names, how each person is linked and in some cases birth years, locations, pictures, addresses and the percentage of DNA shared with relatives.\n\nAs first reported by TechCrunch, the hackers were able to access the family tree profile information of about 1.4 million other customers participating in the DNA relatives feature, including display names and relationship labels.\n\nOne batch of data was advertised on a hacking forum as a list of people with Jewish ancestry, sparking concerns of targeted attacks.\n\nBut there is currently no evidence that any of the datasets being advertised have had any buyers or that they have been used by criminals.\n\nOz Alashe, CEO of CybSafe, a risk management platform, said that the data breach at 23andMe \"emphasises the importance of improving cyber-security behaviours in the general population\".\n\n\"Poorly secured accounts, with weak passwords and no two-factor authentication, put all those sharing their sensitive data at risk,\" he said.\n\n23andMe said it was now telling all affected customers, as required by law. The firm will be forcing customers to change their passwords and improve their account security.", "A trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI has finally been released by game developer Rockstar, after a low-quality copy leaked online.\n\nBBC Technology reporter Tom Gerken has broken down the trailer to see what the game could have to offer, including the first female protagonist in the franchise since the 1990s.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Ash-covered Indonesia volcano survivor sends video to mum asking for help\n\nThe death toll from a volcanic eruption in Indonesia has gone up to 22, after rescuers found nine more bodies.\n\nThe search for the 10 missing hikers on Mount Marapi resumed on Tuesday after being paused due to safety worries.\n\nOfficials said that nine bodies had been recovered by afternoon, with one of them still missing. Twelve other injured hikers are undergoing treatment in hospital.\n\nFrequent volcanic eruptions in Marapi have hampered rescue efforts for days.\n\nAhmad Rifandi, head of Marapi's monitoring post, told AFP news agency that five eruptions had been recorded on Tuesday alone.\n\n\"Marapi is still very much active. We can't see the height of the column because it's covered by the cloud,\" he said.\n\nRescuers told BBC News Indonesia they have been taking advantage of windows of relative calm to look for the missing and efforts to look for the last missing hiker would resume on Wednesday.\n\nOfficials say that one hiker is still missing\n\nThe volcano spewed a 3km (9,800ft) ash cloud into the air on Sunday, shrouding surrounding villages in ash.\n\nThere were 75 hikers in the area during the eruption, most of whom have been evacuated and received treatment for burns.\n\nMount Marapi, which means \"Mountain of Fire\", is among the most active of Indonesia's 127 volcanoes and is also popular among hikers. Some trails reopened only last June due to ash eruptions from January to February. Marapi's deadliest eruption occurred in 1979, when 60 people died.\n\nVideo footage of Sunday's eruption showed a huge cloud of volcanic ash spread widely across the sky, and cars and roads covered with ash.\n\nOn Monday, rescuers took turns carrying the dead and the injured down the mountain's arduous terrain and onto waiting ambulances with blaring sirens.\n\n\"Some suffered from burns because it was very hot, and they have been taken to the hospital,\" West Sumatra Disaster Mitigation Agency head Rudy Rinaldi said.\n\nOne of the hikers, Zhafirah Zahrim Febrina, appealed to her mother for help in a video message from the volcano. The 19-year-old student, whose nickname is Ife, appeared shocked, her face burnt and her hair matted with thick grey ash.\n\n\"Mom, help Ife. This is Ife's situation right now,\" she said.\n\nShe was on a hiking trip in Marapi with 18 school friends and is now in hospital receiving treatment.\n\nHer aunt, Rani Radelani, told the BBC Indonesian service that her niece went through great trauma.\n\n\"We knew [where she was] because she called using her friend's phone,\" Ms Radelani said.\n\nOn the call, Ife could not stop crying. She complained that her skin felt hot because of the volcanic ash.\n\nBut Rani tried to encourage her niece not to give up. \"She said that she was scared, hot, cold, and thirsty. I told her you have to be strong, you are tough,\" Ms Radelani said.\n\nMarapi is located on Sumatra, the westernmost and third largest of Indonesia's 18,000 islands. It stands 2,891m (9,485ft) high.\n\nThe Indonesian archipelago sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.\n\nAdditional reporting by Hanna Samosir in Jakarta and Joel Guinto and Kelly Ng in Singapore\n\nAre you personally affected by this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The UK made some progress in Pisa's educational rankings\n\nTeenagers in the UK are skipping more meals because of poverty than in many other Western European countries, a survey suggests.\n\nIn the UK, 11% of pupils told the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) survey they missed a meal at least once a week.\n\nThe average across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which runs Pisa, was 8%.\n\nBut the UK did make some progress in the educational rankings.\n\n\"Many parts of the world are experiencing a food crisis, with families struggling to put food on the table,\" the Pisa report says.\n\n\"Millions of students, including from some of the richest countries, are often struggling to get fed.\"\n\nIn Portugal, Finland and the Netherlands less than 3% of teenagers told the survey they had skipped at least one meal a week because of a lack of money, over the previous 30 days.\n\nIf pupils are hungry, the report points out, they are unlikely to learn as effectively.\n\nEvery four years, Pisa compares 15-year-olds' reading, science and maths levels across 81 countries and regions. And OECD education director Andreas Schleicher said the UK was \"in a fairly good spot\":\n\nThese changes are marginal, however, as the difference between 10th and 21st place is statistically insignificant.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nAmong the UK's four devolved education systems, England was the highest performing nation across all three subjects.\n\nThe strong results showed the government had made real progress driving up standards in England, the Department for Education said.\n\nThe average maths score fell in all UK nations\n\n\"These results are testament to our incredible teachers, the hard work of students and to the government's unrelenting drive to raise school standards over the past 13 years,\" Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said.\n\nWith the results gap between UK nations widening, Wales, recording its worst results so far, remained the lowest performing across all subjects.\n\nWelsh Education Minister Jeremy Miles said the Covid-19 pandemic had derailed improvement in literacy and numeracy.\n\nNorthern Ireland scored higher than Scotland in maths and science but Scotland outperformed Northern Ireland in reading.\n\nThis is the first time the OECD has run a second part to the study, focusing on wellbeing.\n\nAnd Mr Schleicher told BBC News he was surprised to see the UK above the OECD average for food insecurity.\n\n\"You know, if you look among industrialised countries... the only country really that does the worse is the US,\" he said.\n\n\"I couldn't imagine in a wealthy country like the UK that so many young people at age 15 would skip a meal because there was no food.\"\n\nBut head teacher Jason Bridges said the figures were no shock.\n\nCockshut Hill Secondary School head teacher Jason Bridges says the level of food insecurity does not surprise him\n\nMore than two-thirds of his 975 pupils, at Cockshut Hill secondary school, in Birmingham, receive free school meals.\n\nThe school's trust has given pupils bedding, clothes, uniforms, and laptops - and Mr Bridges said none had been refused food.\n\n\"Schools are having to be responsible for a lot of other things,\" he said.\n\n\"There has been a massive rise in mental health issues - and other safeguarding issues are on the rise.\"\n\nThe OECD averages across all three subjects declined in the 2022 tests\n\nIn all three subjects, the OECD average scores were lower than in 2018 - and this is only partly due to the pandemic, the Pisa reports says.\n\nMaths scores were falling before 2018 in Belgium, Finland, France, Hungary and Iceland - and science and reading scores have been in decline since 2010.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "British sprinter Bianca Williams has been banned from driving despite telling a court it would jeopardise her chances of going to the 2024 Olympics.\n\nWilliams, 29, failed to tell police who was driving a Tesla Model 3 when an alleged offence took place.\n\nThe athlete claimed a ban would make it difficult for her to get to training.\n\nBut magistrates at Lavender Hill rejected her claim that she could not use public transport and suspended her from driving for six months.\n\nWilliams failed on three occasions to reply to letters from the police between April and June 2023.\n\nIn October, two Metropolitan Police officers were sacked over a stop and search of Williams and her partner, the Portuguese sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos, 28, in 2020.\n\nThe couple are black and claimed they were racially profiled.\n\nA police misconduct hearing was told officers followed Mr Dos Santos in their police carrier because of the \"appalling\" and \"suspicious\" nature of his driving and were doing their duty when they conducted the stop and search.\n\nBut the panel found two officers had lied about smelling cannabis.\n\nHaving pleaded guilty to three charges of failing to tell police the identity of a driver, Williams told the court she was not driving the Tesla at the time of the alleged offences.\n\nRepresenting herself, Williams said she was currently working as a tennis coach in the evenings and as a full-time athlete during the day.\n\nThe sprinter, who lives in the Maida Vale area of west London with her partner, said it was \"massively inconvenient\" to get to the central London athletics track where she trains using public transport and \"really hard\" to get to her tennis coaching sessions in north London without a car.\n\nShe told the court she drops off her three-year-old child at nursery before training every morning, and said losing her licence would \"make my dream of going to the Olympics next year impossible\".\n\n\"I understand this is totally my fault, I shouldn't have relied on somebody else to fill out the form,\" she said.\n\n\"It's hard to get from nursery to training. My income would drop because I wouldn't be able to do any coaching sessions.\n\n\"It would be horrible to lose my licence. I would potentially have no work and no income.\"\n\nWilliams was disqualified from driving for six months and ordered to pay a fine of £276, a surcharge of £110 and £85 costs. Another 18 points were added to her licence, bringing her total to 29.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Campaigners for a compensation scheme gathered in London earlier this year\n\nMPs have backed a move to speed up compensation for victims of the NHS infected blood scandal, delivering the prime minister his first Commons defeat.\n\nMinisters will now have to set up a body to run the scheme within three months of a new bill becoming law.\n\nThe vote was passed by 246 votes to 242 after 22 Conservatives rebelled.\n\nThe Haemophilia Society said Rishi Sunak \"should be ashamed\" he had been forced \"to do the right thing\".\n\nThe society's chairman Clive Smith said it was an \"incredibly emotional\" moment for campaigners.\n\n\"Parliament last night drew a line in the sand and said: no more, no longer, will you need to fight, no longer will you need to wait, justice will finally be delivered to those who've waited for so long,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nThe vote - an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill - was the government's first defeat in the Commons on a whipped vote since the general election in 2019.\n\nThe legislation now needs to be approved by the House of Lords before becoming law.\n\nThe government has said there is a moral case for compensating victims of the scandal, and has made the first interim payments of £100,000 each to 4,000 surviving victims and bereaved partners.\n\nHowever, it said it wanted to wait for the infected blood inquiry to conclude before setting up a full scheme.\n\nEarlier this year, Sir Brian Langstaff, who is chairing the inquiry, called for a full compensation scheme to be set up immediately. He also said it should be widened to include orphaned children and parents who lost children.\n\nThroughout the 1970s and 1980s, up to 30,000 people were given contaminated blood products.\n\nMore than 3,000 people died after contracting HIV or hepatitis C after receiving a blood transfusion on the NHS or a treatment made from contaminated blood.\n\nCampaigners say the speed compensation is administered is key. It has been estimated that one person affected by the scandal dies every four days.\n\nJustine Gordon-Smith had to put her career on hold to care for her father\n\nJustine Gordon-Smith, whose dad died after being given infected blood, told BBC Newsnight she was \"stunned\" by the result but was concerned what the government \"might try to do to limit things now\".\n\nHer father Randolph Peter Gordon-Smith, who had haemophilia, learned in 1994 that he had been infected with hepatitis C. He later died in 2018.\n\n\"When he was infected - he lost everything,\" she said. \"He lost his home, his job, his wife, his health - everything - and he became a recluse.\"\n\nShe said compensation was not just about recognition, but \"repairing the damage that's done to your life\".\n\n\"The huge hole, the entire career, everything that our dad lost - that's the big issue. Then there's all the time and years of life we've lost,\" she added.\n\nSir Brian's inquiry had been due to publish a final report in November, but this has been pushed back to March 2024.\n\nIn an attempt to speed up efforts to compensate victims, Dame Diana Johnson - who leads the All-Party Parliamentary group on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood - put forward the amendment.\n\nShe told MPs that Sir Brian had already made clear his inquiry's recommendations on compensation and that the government did not need to wait for his final conclusions before setting up a scheme.\n\nThe Kingston Upon Hull North MP also noted that victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal had been awarded compensation before the inquiry's final report had been published, and argued the same should apply to those affected by infected blood.\n\nHer amendment was backed by her own party, with shadow minister Kevin Brennan saying there was \"no reason for the government not to move forward on this issue\".\n\nConservative MP Rehman Chishti was among those who gave his support, saying: \"Justice delayed is justice denied - we should not delay any further.\"\n\nThe voting list showed Mr Chishti was joined by a number of former Tory ministers, including Sir Robert Buckland, Damian Green, Dame Andrea Jenkyns and Chloe Smith.\n\nThe defeat came despite a last-ditch attempt by the government to offer concessions in an attempt to placate MPs.\n\nJustice Minister Edward Argar had said the government would try to amend the bill in the Lords to clarify when the body to provide compensation to infected blood victims would be delivered.\n\nAndrew Evans, chairman of Tainted Blood, a campaign group which represents contaminated blood victims, said the government had promised \"a future amendment to buy off Tory MPs, a move which thankfully has failed\".\n\nMr Evans said any attempts to reverse the amendment when the bill goes to the Lords \"would heap yet more misery on those who have already suffered so much for four decades\".", "Government makes new effort to get signature policy off the ground\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly has today inked a new treaty with the Rwandan government - which he says will allow his own ministers to clear remaining legal hurdles with their signature asylum policy. Whether this allays the concerns of judges will be something for the courts to decide. This live page is closing now, but you can head here for our report on today's news, and we have an explainer article here. The reporting on this page was from Owen Amos, Simran Sohal, Jacqui Howard, Barbara Tasch, James FitzGerald and me.", "Chris Sayers was asked to pay £100 over the advertised price to secure a flat\n\nWould you pay more than the asking price to rent a flat with mushrooms growing out of the bathroom walls?\n\nThat was the situation Chris Sayers found himself in when he was hunting for a place to live in London.\n\nHe'd gone to view the apartment, in a \"brand new, high-rise complex\", and the letting agent asked him how much rent he wanted to offer.\n\n\"And it was like, well, whatever's on the advert,\" says Chris.\n\n\"And they said: 'Oh, well, we've already had higher than that. So if you want to be taken seriously, you are going to have to do more.\"\n\nChris says the agent told him that he'd have to stump up at least £100 a month more than the advertised rent to be in with a chance of securing the property.\n\nOnce he was inside, Chris noticed problems: \"I have a photo where there were actual mushrooms growing out of the grouting in the bathroom,\" he says.\n\nThat wasn't the end of it.\n\n\"Our apartment got a rat infestation,\" says Chris. \"And at all hours of the day you could hear rats scurrying around in the walls.\"\n\nChris says he took a photograph of a \"mushroom\" growing out of the grouting in his apartment bathroom\n\nChris, originally from Wales, had never heard of bidding wars before moving to London, but was involved in two when looking for a place to rent in the capital.\n\nIt's nothing new for people buying a property, but more and more private renters like Chris are finding themselves in battles to outbid rival tenants.\n\nA survey by charity Shelter found more than half a million private renters in England missed out on a place in the last five years because someone else offered more money.\n\nThe market is very competitive - according to figures from Rightmove for the BBC, letting agents get about 25 requests to see each available property.\n\nBefore the pandemic, it was six.\n\nCampaigners blame this demand for fuelling bidding wars and driving up prices. In Bristol, which has some of the highest rents outside the capital, community group Acorn has spent the last year attempting to get agents to sign a pledge against allowing the practice.\n\nChair Laura Stone says: \"We've had people tell us they've had to take out payday loans to pay a number of months rent up front, just so they can secure the property.\n\n\"People are moving further and further out of the city because they just can't afford to live in the areas that they grew up in. It's having a huge effect on people's livelihoods and futures here.\"\n\nLaura Stone and the Acorn group have led a campaign to stop bidding wars in Bristol\n\nLaura says many tenants are too scared to speak up.\n\n\"I think they're terrified of not being able to find suitable homes in the future,\" she says.\n\n\"For renters, obviously your home is never permanent, so you never know when you're going to have to go back to letting agents.\n\n\"I think people are worried that that's going to unfairly affect them, especially when there's such a big need for housing in Bristol.\"\n\nThe Labour Party tells Newsbeat it wants the UK to follow New Zealand's lead, which banned bidding wars in 2021. A number of states in Australia have also done the same.\n\nThe party's Shadow Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook, says the practice \"pits tenant against tenant\" and leaves only one winner - the landlord.\n\n\"And so for all those tenants who miss out on a property as a result of bidding wars, they're in a bad position,\" he says.\n\n\"But even those who secure a property by that means, they're often pushed to the financial limits of what they can afford.'\n\nLabour wants the government to add a ban on bidding wars to its renters reform bill - a new law currently going through Parliament that ministers say will crack down on measures such as no-fault evictions.\n\nBristol's competitive housing market has some of the highest rents outside London\n\nBen Beadle, from the National Residential Landlords Association, accepts that bidding wars happen but says many problems in the private rental market are due to supply issues.\n\n\"You can't go around banning everything,\" he says.\n\n\"What I would say is we need to look at what's forcing people to make these decisions.\"\n\nOther landlords who've spoken to Newsbeat say the rising cost of living and high mortgage rates mean bidding wars are a way to make sure they can afford to keep renting out their properties.\n\nInterest rates set by the Bank of England are currently at a 15-year high of 5.25%, which pushes up the prices of mortgages for homeowners and landlords.\n\n\"At the end of the day, if we have a plentiful supply of homes then bidding wars are a thing of the past and, actually, high rents are as well,\" Ben says.\n\nIn a statement, a government spokesperson said: \"It is ultimately for landlords and tenants to agree the amount of rent that should be charged when a tenancy begins.\n\n\"Our renters reform bill will deliver a fairer, more secure, and higher quality private rental sector for landlords and tenants.\"\n\nFor more on this story, watch Newsnight on BBC Two at 22:30 GMT and catch up afterwards on iPlayer.\n\nHave you been involved in a rental bidding war? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Junior doctors in England are to stage more strikes, in December and January, after rejecting a new pay offer put forward in talks with government.\n\nThe British Medical Association (BMA) union said the proposal was worth an extra 3% on average this year. This is on top of an 8.8% rise already given.\n\nThe strikes will be for three days from 07:00 on 20 December and six days from 07:00 on 3 January.\n\nThe new-year walkout will be the longest in the NHS's history.\n\nIt coincides with what is traditionally one of the NHS's busiest periods, with emergency services often under huge strain.\n\nThe breakdown in talks comes after five weeks of negotiations during which industrial action had been suspended.\n\nThe BMA wants a 35% pay uplift, to make up for what it says have been below-inflation rises since 2008.\n\nThe government refused to comment on the detail of the offer, with sources saying there had still been room for movement if the talks had continued.\n\nHealth Secretary Victoria Atkins said it was \"disappointing\" junior doctor leaders had walked away from negotiations.\n\n\"The new strikes will result in more disruption for patients and extra pressure on NHS services and staff as we enter a busy winter period, risking patient safety,\" she added.\n\nDr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, who co-chair the BMA junior doctors committee, said: \"We have been clear from the outset of these talks that we needed to move at pace - and if we did not have a credible offer, we would be forced to call strikes.\n\n\"After five weeks of intense talks, the government was unable to present a credible offer on pay by the deadline.\n\n\"Instead, we were offered an additional 3%, unevenly spread across doctors' grades, which would still amount to pay cuts for many doctors this year.\"\n\nSir Julian Hartley, of NHS Providers, which represents health managers, said: \"This is the outcome that NHS leaders were dreading.\"\n\nSince industrial action started in the NHS, more than a million appointments and treatments have had to be cancelled.\n\nThere have been walkouts by nurses, ambulance workers and physiotherapists, among others, but those by doctors have been the most disruptive.\n\nThe rise given to junior doctors in April was weighted so those at the start of training - and therefore earning the least money - received the biggest rises.\n\nThe BMA's announcement of more strikes comes after the union reached a pay deal last week with the government on senior doctors, or consultants, who have also been taking strike action.\n\nConsultants will now vote on that deal, which involves an average pay rise of nearly 5% in January on top of the 6% rise they received in April.\n\nOther health workers, including nurses, accepted a pay offer of an extra 5% and a one-off sum of at least £1,655, in May.\n\nAre you a doctor with a view on the strike? Are you a patient affected? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC News journalist. You can also make contact in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page but cannot see the form, visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment, or email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "There is no evidence some investors profited from knowledge of Hamas's attack on Israel before it took place on 7 October, the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) has said.\n\nOne academic study had suggested investors betting against the Israeli economy made large sums.\n\nIt said it found significant short-selling in the run-up to the attacks.\n\nBut the report has since been called \"inaccurate\" and \"irresponsible\" by the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE).\n\nThe ISA said it was dropping its investigation into the matter.\n\nShort-selling is when investors try to make money on shares, bonds or other financial instruments that they think will fall in price.\n\nThey arrange to sell shares they do not yet own at the current price, hoping to buy them later at a cheaper price before the shares change hands, so they can then bank the difference.\n\n\"Days before the attack, traders appeared to anticipate the events to come,\" researchers Robert Jackson Jr from New York University and Joshua Mitts of Columbia University had stated on Tuesday.\n\nThe researchers said they had identified a dramatic increase in investors seeking to sell shares in Israeli companies on the TASE.\n\nBut the stock exchange said the claims made in the academic paper since were inaccurate, labelling them \"irresponsible\".\n\nTASE said the authors of the report had miscalculated the sums, showing the value of the share prices in agorot, similar to pennies, instead of Israeli shekels.\n\n\"Therefore they calculate a profit of NIS 3.2bn (£680m) when in practice the profit was only NIS 32m (£6.8m),\" TASE's head of trade Yaniv Pagot told the publication Globes.\n\nHe also said claims of a sudden spike in trading before the attack were \"divorced from reality\".\n\nThe researchers have corrected the currency mistake in their report, but Mr Mitts on Tuesday said that he stood by the \"highly unusual\" exchange traded fund (ETF) and short-dated options activity also identified by the researchers.\n\nCorrection 7 December: This article updates a previous one that included incorrect currency information provided in the report by Robert Jackson Jr from New York University and Joshua Mitts of Columbia University.", "The English National Opera has chosen Manchester as its new headquarters, a year after it was told to leave London or lose its Arts Council funding.\n\nThe historic company also had Birmingham and Liverpool on its final relocation shortlist.\n\nArts Council England controversially threatened to axe its annual £12m grant if it did not leave the capital.\n\nAfter the move in 2029, the ENO will however continue to own and perform at its current home, the London Coliseum.\n\nENO interim chief executive Jenny Mollica said: \"As we continue to transition through significant change, today's announcement marks an important and defining moment for our remarkable company.\n\n\"This future direction will see us continue to expand our role as a national institution - supporting our mission to create work with and for even more audiences across the country, alongside our annual season at the London Coliseum.\"\n\nThe ENO will continue to own, manage and stage a \"substantial ENO season\" at the London Coliseum\n\nShe said Greater Manchester had offered \"an emerging vision for the future of ENO and operatic work\" and they had \"a shared ambition to open up new possibilities for opera in people's lives\".\n\nManchester is currently the biggest city in Europe without a resident opera company, going by OECD population statistics.\n\nLast November, Arts Council England told the ENO to move after being instructed by the government to spread more money beyond the capital.\n\nThe Arts Council suggested Manchester as a destination, but left the final decision up to the ENO.\n\nBut the move was met by opposition from the company and many in the cultural world.\n\nThe row led Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to initially tell the ENO: \"If you can't come willingly, don't come at all.\"\n\nHowever, he has now said he is \"immensely proud to be able to bring them to a new home here in Greater Manchester\".\n\nHe added: \"We can't wait to welcome them and see where this new partnership takes us.\"\n\nAviva Studios, which opened in Manchester earlier this year, will produce some new shows with the ENO\n\nThe opera company will not have its own venue, but will perform in locations including new £240m arts centre Aviva Studios and The Lowry theatre in Salford.\n\nThe Lowry chief executive Julia Fawcett said: \"This is great news for audiences in the region and we look forward to collaborating with the company on their exciting new plans.\"\n\nJohn McGrath, artistic director and chief executive of Factory International, which runs Aviva Studios, said: \"We look forward to developing a number of exciting new co-productions together, and to presenting these ambitious explorations of the future of opera across the coming years.\"\n\nHe added that the ENO would be involved in its local training and skills scheme, \"ensuring that the widest possible range of residents find employment in our ever-growing cultural sector\".\n\nThe ENO was originally told it would have its Arts Council grant effectively halved even if it did move, but has been awarded more funding as well as an extension to the original 2026 deadline to relocate.\n\nTuesday's news comes almost two months after the ENO's music director Martyn Brabbins resigned following the announcement of a proposal to axe 19 orchestral positions and employ its remaining musicians on part-time contracts.\n\nHe described it as \"a plan of managed decline\".\n\nTenor David Butt Philip, who has performed with the ENO, questioned what would happen to the current chorus, orchestra and technical team after the move.\n\n\"There is no such thing as 'ENO' without the people who actually create the performances,\" he wrote on X/Twitter. \"You're moving a brand-name, not a company in any meaningful sense.\"", "James Cleverly is the third home secretary to roll up in Rwanda.\n\nPriti Patel, the original author of the idea, did the trip.\n\nSo too did Suella Braverman.\n\nNow the turn of Mr Cleverly.\n\nIt was April of last year when Priti Patel headed to east Africa to make the case that the UK needed a new tool to drive down illegal immigration: the prospect of migrants being sent to Rwanda.\n\nBut here we are in the final month of 2023 and the policy isn't off the ground, even if plenty of airliners with politicians on have been.\n\nThis time the plan gets the fountain pen and cartridge paper treatment - a treaty, an agreement between two countries recognised internationally.\n\nIt is the latest attempt to shove the whole idea into a place where it actually works and escapes the crippling judgements of an array of courts.\n\nLet's see if it is any more successful than everything else that has been tried.\n\nThe government's mantra is big problems demand novel solutions.\n\nMore of the same will lead to more of the same: lots of crossings on small boats, when the promise is to stop the boats.\n\nBut the number of people Rwanda would ever likely take, if they ever do, is likely to be small.\n\nAnd it is uncertain how much of a deterrent effect the prospect of being sent there will be.\n\nIt's worth a try, say ministers. It's a waste of time, say Labour.\n\nA senior Labour figure who's been doing a spot of maths texts me: \"It's one year, five months and 20 days almost to the hour since the first flight of asylum seekers was originally due to depart for Rwanda, before it was cancelled at the last minute.\n\n\"Since then, another 63,852 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats.\"\n\nBut it is an issue Labour could soon inherit if they win the election.\n\nAnd those in government reckon they are doing everything Labour is suggesting they would do and more.\n\nWe now await the detail of what is on that cartridge paper, in the treaty.\n\nJames Cleverly will dash back home within seven or eight hours of arriving in Rwanda —and is expected in the Commons on Wednesday setting out the planned new law on the treaty.\n\nCan it work? Will it work? And by when?\n\nThey are the three key questions at the heart of this.", "It's nearly midnight, yet Abi is wearing sunglasses. She also has a balaclava and her hoodie up to disguise her identity. It's clear she's hesitant to talk to me - and Abi isn't even her real name.\n\nI'm nervous to meet her too, in a dark alley on a London housing estate.\n\nAbi is a female \"spotter\" who works for a London watch theft gang.\n\nHer job is to go to bars and nightclubs in affluent areas of the city to look for potential male victims among the well-dressed clientele.\n\n\"I'll talk to the guys, see what they're wearing,\" she says.\n\nIf Abi spots an expensive-looking watch, she gets in touch with gang members who will target the victim wearing it - and rob them, often threatening them with knives and machetes.\n\nI'm talking to Abi to find out why watch theft has become so common - and so violent - for a BBC Three documentary, Hunting the Rolex Rippers.\n\nTo expose how they operate, I tracked down numerous watch thieves. Through unprecedented access into their world, I found out how they plan and execute their aggressive attacks.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police explained how the thefts were organised crime - and throughout, I asked the thieves if they felt any guilt about what they were doing.\n\nBut I'm not alone with Abi. I have been introduced to her by a gang leader, known as M, who is hovering close by, listening to every word Abi tells me.\n\nM says he runs a large network of full-time thieves and describes himself as a \"big dog\" in the watch theft business. \"All I care about is getting the watches, selling the watches and that's it.\"\n\nM views his victims purely as sources of cash. \"He's wearing a deposit for his house on his wrist, that's money for me,\" he says.\n\nJournalist Tir Dhondy (right) spoke to gang leader M (centre) and young woman \"spotter\" Abi on a London housing estate\n\nMore than £50m-worth of watches were reported stolen in London in 2022, according to a Metropolitan Police FOI, shared exclusively with the BBC by international database The Watch Register.\n\nIn the first six months of 2023 in the capital, 3,190 watches were reported stolen according to the Met. Although we don't know exactly how many of these were stolen on the street, a fifth involved violence against the victim.\n\nCelebrities have been targeted too, including Welsh singer and presenter Aled Jones who had his £17,000 Rolex taken from him in west London by a teenager wielding a machete.\n\nIn a strange turn of events, while filming the documentary, I was contacted by the 16-year-old who had attacked Mr Jones. He had seen my various messages on different watch-theft Instagram pages.\n\n\"I'm a convicted watch thief,\" he wrote back. \"If you want to talk we can.\"\n\nAfter agreeing to meet in daylight, he finally showed up after dark. We ended up talking in the back of a car.\n\nThe teenager told me his attack had not been planned and he just wanted some quick cash.\n\n\"I was walking around this area where I knew I would see something,\" he told me. \"I clocked this guy and followed him for a couple of minutes.\"\n\n\"He went on to a back road where there was nobody there,\" he adds, \"so what I did is, I pulled out the shetty [machete] on him… [It] was roughly 23 inches.\n\n\"I told him [to] take off the watch, he gave it to me.\n\n\"Half an hour after I robbed him, when I was going back home, the realisation hit me that I'd just done something crazy, something stupid. I regretted it instantly.\"\n\nDuring the interview, I noticed the teen had a large machete tucked into his trousers. Nervous about being in the dark in a confined space, we decided we couldn't press him too much and we left.\n\nIn October, the teenager was given a 24-month detention and training order after admitting robbery against Mr Jones and possession of an offensive weapon.\n\nWe told Mr Jones we had spoken to the teenager - and he said he didn't want to make any further comment.\n\nGang leader M agrees to meet me in one of the wealthiest parts of London - Mayfair - to show me how he plans his attacks.\n\nWe sit in a car outside a high-end restaurant and watch dozens of people - both inside and on the street - wearing top-brand watches. M knows areas like this well and seems to have eyes in many places.\n\nHe has a team of young people on mopeds tearing around the streets snatching watches off people, while wielding machetes.\n\nThis is our second meeting, but he doesn't seem at ease. With the streets being so busy, it's clear he wants the interview to end as quickly as possible.\n\nWe meet up several times in the coming weeks. During one meeting, a pair of thieves bring him a watch they have just stolen. M judges it to be worth about £18,000.\n\nI ask M if he feels responsible for getting young people involved in this crime at such an early age. He says he doesn't. \"Listen, everyone needs money, so I don't dive into their prospects and I don't care.\"\n\nM tells me he studied watches at a young age and decided he wanted to get into stealing them when he was 12.\n\nWhen I ask if he feels guilty about the violence towards his victims, M says: \"No, it don't make me feel bad.\"\n\nJournalist Tir Dhondy explores the rise in luxury watch theft, meeting the moped riders snatching watches off the street - as well as a gang leader who runs a team of watch rippers.\n\nWatch on Tuesday 5 December, 21:00 GMT on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer.\n\nWhile filming, I also meet Raz and K, two teenagers who aren't part of a gang, but who work together.\n\nThis is not uncommon. I have watched numerous clips of CCTV showing watch thieves operating in pairs.\n\nRaz and K don't reveal their ages to me, but I think they could be as young as 15 or 16.\n\nLike many of the thieves, Raz and K have little sympathy for their victims. \"These people can afford to buy the watch in the first place,\" Raz says. \"Is that really a loss? I don't think it's a big loss.\n\n\"This is better than drug dealing, in my opinion,\" he adds. \"You might see a grandma walking down the street with a £30,000 watch on.\"\n\nI say that sounds ruthless - and that stealing from a grandmother could leave her seriously hurt.\n\n\"This game has no rules,\" I am told.\n\nWith many luxury watches having serial numbers on them - making them easy to trace - a lot of the timepieces make it out of the country to places such as Paris, Romania and Dubai.\n\nI want to meet someone higher up the chain involved in the legitimate watch-dealing industry. A reseller who trades luxury brands, but says she doesn't deal in stolen watches herself, agrees to tell me how the watch-theft business works. She is too afraid to show her identity.\n\n\"Anyone who works, or has worked, in the industry knows that it's very dirty and full of criminals,\" she says. \"They will get younger people, smaller people down the chain, to steal for them. It's common all over London, Paris and most of Europe… it's done to order.\n\n\"It's just a horrible business. It makes me feel sick.\"\n\nWatch thieves attacked Conservative councillor Andrew Dinsmore. \"My wife thought it was a terrorist attack,\" Andrew says\n\nAnd to find out what's being done to tackle this type of crime, I go out with the Met Police teams who are patrolling central London - in places like busy Oxford Street.\n\nSgt Dan Naylor says: \"It's easier to steal a watch than a car. No-one is going to have £150,000 in their wallet, but they are going to have it on their wrist.\"\n\nHe says it's down to organised crime and not opportunists.\n\n\"They're not just coming in [and] grabbing people's watches off the street, they're doing surveillance work.\" The stolen watches then go to a handler, he explains, and potentially out of the country or sold on the black market.\n\nVictims of watch-theft gangs tell me about being targeted in this way.\n\nAndrew Dinsmore - a Conservative councillor who had his watch stolen by a thief riding a moped and carrying a machete - believes there was a spotter, like Abi, who was operating in the restaurant he was at with his wife, shortly before his watch was stolen.\n\n\"My wife thought it was a terrorist attack,\" Andrew says. \"She thought I was going to be beheaded.\"\n\nBack on the estate, I ask the spotter Abi, how much money she makes per job. \"It really depends, sometimes £500, sometimes £1,000,\" she says.\n\nI ask if she feels guilty charming these men in a nightclub, before arranging for them to be violently robbed.\n\n\"I mean, yeah and no, I do a little bit, but at the same time I've got bills to pay,\" she says.\n\nAs she continues to speak, I can see M getting agitated. He's spotted a couple of men nearby who have put him on edge, and he leaves briefly, returning with a small suitcase.\n\n\"Is that a knife?\" I ask. \"No, something quicker,\" he replies, flashing me a gun before quickly stashing it in his trousers.\n\nM is wearing a stolen watch. He knows its value and knows that wearing it on the estate is asking for trouble.\n\n\"I'm in a deprived area, with a £20,000-£30,000 watch on my wrist.\"\n\nM was preparing for a fight, so we decided to cut the interview short.\n\nWatch Hunting the Rolex Rippers on Tuesday 5 December, 21:00 GMT on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nThe previous TV deal which runs until 2025 was worth about £5bn The Premier League has agreed a new record £6.7bn domestic television deal for Sky and TNT to show up to 270 live games a season. The deal includes the BBC continuing to show highlights on Match of the Day. The top flight said the deal, which covers the four years from the 2025-26 season, is the \"largest sports media rights deal ever concluded in the UK\". The Saturday 3pm blackout will remain in place, but every 2pm Sunday kick-off will be televised. The BBC's deal includes MOTD2 and Football Focus plus additional digital rights for its online platforms. Sky has been awarded four of the five packages and will show a minimum of 215 matches a season including Saturday 5.30pm kick-offs, Sunday 2pm and 4.30pm kick-offs, plus evening games on Mondays and Fridays and three midweek rounds. TNT will show a minimum of 52 matches a season including all 12.30pm kick-offs on Saturdays and two midweek match rounds. Sky Sports will also broadcast all 10 matches on the final day of each season. Amazon, which shows 20 matches per season under the league's current deal, has not secured rights in the new agreement. This is the first time the Premier League has been through a tender process for its rights since 2018. The current £5bn domestic TV rights deal, which was for three seasons and expires at the end of 2024-25, was allowed to be extended because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Premier League says the new agreement, which is a year longer, is a 4% rise in live rights value compared to the previous deal and will \"provide financial certainty for clubs throughout professional football until at least 2029\". \"The outcome of this process underlines the strength of the Premier League and is testament to our clubs, players and managers who continue to deliver the world's most competitive football in full stadiums, and to supporters, who create an unrivalled atmosphere every week,\" said Premier League chief executive Richard Masters. Barbara Slater, Director, BBC Sport, said: \"Match of the Day remains enduringly popular with audiences and this new agreement with the Premier League is brilliant news for football fans all over the UK. \"For almost 60 years it has been the UK's most discussed football programme, delivering a complete digest of the weekend's action and this enhanced deal with more digital content means we can tell the story of the Premier League every day across BBC Sport platforms.\" Sky will show up to 100 more matches a season, and chief executive Dana Strong said: \"We are proud of our long history with the Premier League and look forward to delivering more engagement, entertainment, and innovation to the end of the decade.\" Even though they are selling significantly more games for marginally more money, the Premier League will be privately satisfied with the figures given they believe additional growth in TV revenues over the medium term will come from the overseas market. This announcement solidifies Sky's position as the main Premier League broadcaster partner, keeps TNT in the mix and will deliver more digital content to BBC Sport, which is part of its overall strategy in a period when it will also show highlights of the Champions League. We are still to see the true emergence of streaming platforms as a player in the market for weekly content, with Amazon - who this week will screen 10 matches - dropping out after the Premier League opted to put its five midweek rounds into their packages, rather than selling them off individually, as was the case when they last properly negotiated its domestic TV rights in 2018. The Premier League has confirmed the intention to screen all Sunday 2pm games, most of which involve clubs playing in either the Europa League or Europa Conference League the previous Thursday. There is no wholesale switch to Saturday or Sunday nights, which had been feared, although there are some weekend matches that have been sold as part of the packages that do not have timeslots. It remains to be seen what happens with them. In Italy, two matches are routinely played with different kick-off times on Fridays and Mondays. TNT retaining the 12.30pm kick-off slot on a Saturday points towards Sky continuing the current trend of screening EFL matches at that time. However, there is no additional space created for the Women's Super League, which is why there have been suggestions it might benefit from using the 3pm 'blackout' slot.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Denny Laine, lead singer of the Moody Blues and a guitarist with Sir Paul McCartney's band Wings, has died at the age of 79.\n\nHis wife Elizabeth Hines said he died after a long battle with lung disease.\n\nAmong other achievements, Laine sang on the Moody Blues' multi-million selling Go Now and co-wrote the Wings hit Mull of Kintyre.\n\nSir Paul paid tribute on Instagram, calling the musician \"an outstanding vocalist and guitar player\".\n\n\"Denny was a great talent with a fine sense of humour and was always ready to help other people,\" he said.\n\n\"We had drifted apart but in recent years managed to re-establish our friendship and share memories of our times together.\"\n\nUS musician Christopher Cross also posted a message remembering Laine as a \"dear friend... an icon and a sweet man.\"\n\n\"He will be missed. Prayers for his wife Liz and their family,\" he added.\n\nBorn Brian Hines in the Channel Islands, Laine grew up in Birmingham and was inspired to play guitar by jazz legend Django Reinhardt.\n\nHis stage name derived from a childhood nickname, Denny, and his sister's favourite singer, Frankie Laine. (The similarity to Penny Lane, written by his future Wings' bandmate, was coincidental.)\n\nHis professional career began as the frontman of a local band called Denny Laine and the Diplomats, which featured future ELO musician Bev Bevan on drums.\n\nBut when the band failed a record label audition, Laine left to join The Moody Blues.\n\nThere, he scored a number one hit with Go Now and followed it up with a number of R&B-influenced singles like From The Bottom of My Heart (I Love You) and Bye Bye Bird.\n\nLaine (right) performing with Paul and Linda McCartney in 1977\n\nBut their commercial success was on the slide, and Laine left before the band reinvented itself as a progressive rock outfit with songs like Nights In White Satin.\n\nHis next project, the Denny Laine String Band, also struggled to achieve chart success and the guitarist took a sabbatical in Spain to study flamenco guitar, before joining Cream drummer Ginger Baker in his hard rock outfit Air Force.\n\nThen, in 1971, McCartney announced the arrival of Wings - his first band since the Beatles, centred around songs written with his wife Linda.\n\nLaine provided guitar, bass and vocals, giving essential support to McCartney on hits like Jet, Band on the Run and Live and Let Die.\n\nHe had known McCartney since the Diplomats and The Moody Blues supported The Beatles on tour in the 60s; and although he had previously been known as a frontman, he enjoyed the freedom Wings afforded him.\n\n\"I was in the shadows more, but I wasn't bothered by that,\" he told Billboard earlier this year.\n\n\"I was traveling the world and learning a lot and having a good time in many ways. So from that point of view, it was easy for me.\"\n\nBut he was gifted solo sections during concerts on the Wings Over America tour, where he sang Go Now, amongst other songs.\n\nIn the studio with Wings in 1973\n\nWings split in 1981 after Paul McCartney was arrested in Japan for marijuana possession while on tour.\n\nLaine continued working with McCartney on his early 1980s solo albums Tug of War and Pipes of Peace, and pursued a solo career, having already released a handful of albums in the 1970s.\n\n1980's Japanese Tear included the Paul McCartney co-write Send Me The Heart, along with several songs Wings had recorded but never released.\n\nFuture albums included Hometown Girls, Wings On My Feet and Lonely Road - and the musician re-imagined some of Wing's biggest hits on 1996's Wings At The Sound of Denny Laine.\n\nHis final solo album, The Blue Musician, was released in 2008 and he continued to tour, playing a selection of the songs he was associated with, until very recently.\n\nIn 2018, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues - after initially being left off the list of inductees.\n\nHe was charitable about the snub, saying the rest of the band deserved a place \"because of the amount of work and the popularity\" they had achieved after he left.\n\nBut he was honoured to be added to the roster. \"I think I'm at least a little part of their story, so I feel very content, really,\" he told Billboard.\"\n\nLaine's death comes shortly after Wings announced a 50th anniversary reissue of Band On The Run.\n\nAlthough the musician maintained that he \"didn't do favourites\", he held a special affection for that record.\n\n\"The most important album to me is Band on the Run because it was just me and Paul and Linda doing a few harmonies,\" he said.\n\n\"As musicians, it was just Paul and me and the input I had on that album that made it special to me. He was on drums and I was on guitar and the album had a special feel to it.\"\n\nIn her statement, Laine's wife said he had expected to recover from lung disease, but the condition got progressively worse over the last few weeks.\n\n\"He fought everyday. He was so strong and brave, never complained,\" she wrote.\n\n\"All he wanted was to be home with me and his pet kitty, Charley, playing his gypsy guitar.\"\n\nAfter thanking fans for their support, she asked for \"the time and privacy\" the family would need \"as we grieve for our loss\".", "Double rapist Isla Bryson sparked an public outcry after being sent to a a women's prison\n\nTrans women who have hurt or threatened women or girls will not be held in female prisons unless there are \"exceptional\" circumstances, new guidance states.\n\nThe Scottish Prison Service (SPS) policy follows a public outcry after a rapist was sent to a women's prison.\n\nIsla Bryson raped two women while still known as Adam Graham.\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives said the new policy was \"subjective\" and \"unacceptable\".\n\nThe latest figures for Scotland show there were 23 trans prisoners from January to March this year.\n\nThey included 19 transgender women, seven of whom were in a women's prison, and four transgender men - one of whom was in a male prison.\n\nUnder previous guidance drawn up in 2014, the prison service allowed all prisoners to be placed in facilities matching their gender identity, rather than their sex at birth, providing accommodation that \"best suits the person in custody's needs\".\n\nThis was already subject to a review, but in February it was updated following the Bryson case to say no newly convicted or remanded transgender prisoner with a history of violence against women would be housed in female prison facilities.\n\nThe Scottish guidance does not go as far as in England and Wales, where rules introduced earlier this year banned trans women with male genitalia from female prisons, as well as those convicted of sexual offences or any violence.\n\nThe Daily Telegraph reported on Monday that there were only five transgender women left in female jails in England and Wales.\n\nUnder the new SPS policy - which will come into force in February 2024 - a trans woman would not be allowed to move into the female estate if they had been convicted of, or were on remand awaiting trial for, a crime that harmed a female - unless there was \"compelling evidence that they did not present an unacceptable risk of harm to those in the women's prison\".\n\nThese offences include any that result in suffering to a female, such as sexual offences, murder, assault, abduction and intimidation.\n\nThose who have changed their legal gender can also be housed in accordance with their sex at birth, \"if it is considered necessary to support people's safety and wellbeing\".\n\nFormer governor Rhona Hotchkiss (front) called for a blanket ban on trans women in female jails\n\nThe policy states: \"Only when staff have enough information to reach a decision that a trans individual can be safely accommodated will they be placed in an establishment which matches their affirmed gender.\"\n\nTrans men will be admitted to the female estate, but those who have committed crimes against women may be kept separate from other prisoners if it is \"deemed necessary\" to \"keep women in custody safe\".\n\nThe new guidelines also allow officers to search inmates regardless of the inmate's \"affirmed gender\" or sex assigned at birth, \"if it is necessary to keep the individual or staff safe\".\n\nThe Scottish government's Justice Secretary Angela Constance said the new guidelines protected the \"safety and welfare\" of staff and prisoners, and the \"rights of transgender people\".\n\nShe said: \"SPS has considerable expertise, as well as a duty of care for the management of people in their custody, and this policy upholds its responsibilities to deliver safe, secure and suitable services for all.\"\n\nScottish Trans, a project run by government-funded charity Equality Network, welcomed the new policy, saying it continued to recognise prisoners should not be considered to be a risk of harm to others \"simply because they are trans\".\n\nManager Vic Valentine said: \"We very much support that the policy outlines that decisions should be taken on the basis of evidenced risk assessment, with the safety of all prisoners the central consideration in each decision.\"\n\nTeresa Medhurst, chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, said prisoners would be located to suit their \"risk and needs profile\", and if a trans woman's offences were historic and low level, they could be moved to the female estate in \"exceptional\" cases.\n\nShe said all prisoners were \"treated with dignity and respect, with their rights upheld, and any risks carefully managed\".\n\n\"The position, whilst it is still individualised, will ensure that those that have a history of violence against women and girls and present a risk to women will no longer be placed on admission in the women's estate.\"\n\nShe added that she was confident the new policy would address public concerns surrounding trans prisoners.\n\nHowever, Rhona Hotchkiss, former governor of women's prison HMP Cornton Vale, told BBC Scotland the new policy was a \"big disappointment\" and called for a blanket ban on prisoners who were born male in the female estate.\n\n\"They have tried to write a policy that takes into account the Isla Brysons of the world, but it is fundamentally uninformed when it comes to recognising the risks men pose to women in prison,\" she said.\n\n\"We're talking about women who have lifetimes of abuse behind them, and their very reaction to a person they know to be male in close living space is one of re-traumatisation.\"\n\nIsla Bryson identified as a women after initially appearing in court on rape charges as Adam Graham\n\nScottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay MSP said the new prison policy was \"unacceptable\" and put women at \"even greater risk by further eroding their fundamental right to single-sex space\".\n\nHe told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme \"no male convicted of sexual violence\" or violence against women should be in the female estate.\n\n\"After five long years of this document being worked on, the SPS has issued this policy document which effectively formally opens the door of women's prisons to those like Isla Bryson and other male-bodied violent criminals and sex offenders who say they identify as female.\"\n\nMr Finlay said moving any criminals who have committed crimes against women into female prisons was \"taking a gamble\".\n\nHe said: \"The document doesn't explain this in any level of sufficient detail. It says that those male-bodied criminals can be sent into the women's estate unless there is 'compelling evidence'… and they do not present an 'unacceptable risk of harm'. Not only is this completely subjective, but it's impossible to predict. What risk level is deemed to be acceptable?\"\n\nHe said women's groups had been outraged that the SPS had not followed policies in England and Wales that were \"much more stringent and transparent\" and went further to prioritise the rights of women in prison.\n\nA statement from campaign group Keep Prisons Single Sex said they were \"dismayed\" the \"shameful\" policy did not present evidence behind its decisions or address the safety of women.\n\n\"Let's be quite clear: there is no degree of risk a convicted rapist presents to women that is ever 'acceptable',\" it said.\n\nThe SPS policy was welcomed by HM Inspectorate of Scotland.\n\nA spokesperson added: \"It will be important to monitor how the new policy and assurance processes work in practice, but HMIPS supports the underlying principles behind the new policy.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA man was captured on video dragging a swan through a park by the neck until bystanders called on him to release the bird.\n\nBrandon Ryzy, 21, filmed what he called a \"sickening\" attack near Caerphilly Castle and posted the video on social media.\n\n\"I'm just glad I was there to stop him,\" he said of the incident reported at 16:20 GMT on Sunday\n\nGwent Police said officers searched the area and were trying to trace the man.\n\nWarning: This story contains images of animal cruelty\n\n\"I was just walking home from doing some shopping,\" said student Brandon, \"when I spotted him in the corner of my eye.\n\n\"I'm guessing he was under the influence.\"\n\nWhen confronted, he said the man claimed the swan had attacked his children.\n\n\"But there were no children around.\"\n\n\"I did chase after him and made sure he put the swan down,\" he said. \"I had to be very aggressive to get him to stop.\n\nThe bird was flapping and was then \"dropped down on the floor\" he said .\n\n\"I watched the man walk off and stayed with the bird to see if it could get itself back to the moat.\"\n\nHe said the feathers on the bird's neck were ruffled where it has been gripped and it \"seemed to be in shock\".\n\n\"It seemed quite fragile and was moving slowly.\"\n\nHe said other bystanders in a nearby pub also saw the incident and one reported it to the police.\n\nCaerphilly Bird Rescue posted a comment about the video, saying it \"sickens me to the stomach\".\n\nPolice said the caller who reported the incident told officers the swan ran \"back into the water\".\n\nDetectives are asking for help in tracing the man.", "The plane began its emergency landing on a road before crashing against the wall of an apartment building\n\nA small twin-engine plane has been forced to make an emergency landing in a southern Paris suburb.\n\nThe three people on board were taken to hospital requiring urgent attention, but their injuries were not considered life-threatening, officials said.\n\nNo-one else was injured in the incident.\n\nThe aircraft landed in a residential area in Villejuif after an engine failure, according to France's Transport Minister, Clément Beaune.\n\nThe three people on board were a flying instructor in his 80s and two passengers in their late 20s, according to local media reports.\n\nThe plane began its emergency landing on a road before crashing against the wall of an apartment building.\n\nIt eventually came to a halt in the garden at the back of the apartment building, with parts of the plane strewn over the roof of a nearby garage, and the fuselage crushed under the impact.\n\nThe tail of the aircraft was detached from the rest of the plane and the wings were largely torn off.\n\nThe tail of the aircraft detached from the rest of the cabin and landed on the roof of a garage\n\nThe plane originally took off from Rouen - around 130km (80 miles) from Villejuif - and was supposed to land in Toussus-le-Noble, near Versailles.\n\nAn investigation into involuntary injuries and endangering the lives of others was opened by the regional prosecutor and the air transport gendarmerie.\n\nThe Office of Investigation and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety has also opened an investigation into the accident.", "Eleven-year old Keisi Hoxhaj is one of 400 pupils at a Sheffield primary school that suffers from poor air quality\n\nIn a school playground squeezed between two main roads, children play tag in some of Sheffield's filthiest air.\n\nKeisi Hoxhaj, 11, says her morning walk is \"really busy and full of pollution\".\n\nTraffic is the main cause, but the situation isn't helped by a lack of trees to soak up the fumes.\n\nA new interactive map released on Tuesday starkly lays out what has been long suspected, that \"concrete jungles\" devoid of tree cover have more pollution and poorer air quality.\n\nBy a fence at the school, Lowfield Primary, stands a young rowan tree. It was planted by pupils after campaigning by Head of Safeguarding Jo Quinlen.\n\nAlmost shouting over the din of trucks and buses, she explains why trees come under her remit.\n\n\"We're in the inner city with very little green spaces and I'm very conscious that that could be affecting the health of our children as they play out in both of our playgrounds,\" she said.\n\nShe says planting trees is an \"essential part of the battle against pollution\".\n\n\"We're doing it as something which we feel is essential to improve that air quality… It's not just so they are pretty, it's so our school can be a healthier and nicer place to be.\"\n\nJo Quinlen, safeguarding lead for Lowfield Primary School, says trees are vital to child safety\n\nThe interactive map by the Woodland Trust, American Forests and Centre for Sustainable Healthcare covers urban areas of the UK where more than 50m people live - roughly 80% of the population.\n\nIt uses new tree canopy data from Google and six climate, health and socioeconomic indicators to generate a score out of 100 for most urban neighbourhoods in the UK, known as the \"tree equity score\" (TES).\n\nThe map's creators say the lower the score, the greater the need for more trees.\n\nIt suggests that those living in the most deprived areas have less than half the tree cover, and almost 20% more air pollution from traffic in the form of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), than the least deprived neighbourhoods.\n\nIt also reveals that on the hottest summer days, UK-wide, the most deprived neighbourhoods are nearly a degree warmer than average - a concern as the climate heats.\n\nBy contrast, where tree cover per person is highest, people have around 30% less NO2 pollution, and are 4C cooler during a heat wave than neighbourhoods with the fewest trees per person.\n\nChildren at Lowfield Primary School planted this rowan in their playground to help fight air pollution\n\nThis stark difference must be tackled, according to Catherine Nuttgens, urban lead for the Woodland Trust.\n\n\"The way that trees are distributed is unfair… It's often the university-educated middle classes who have access to lovely leafy suburbs. It's not that people that live in less affluent areas don't like trees, they love trees, but they don't have access to them.\"\n\nThe Woodland Trust believes that people living in those areas aren't reaping the benefits of trees - potentially exacerbating social inequalities.\n\n\"The benefits of trees and the way that they make people feel, the way that they slow down flooding, the way that they shade areas where we are getting increasing heat - that should be for everyone,\" she said.\n\nThe map's creators hope it will inform policymakers in the UK, encouraging them to view trees in our towns and cities as \"critical infrastructure\" as vital to daily life as electricity and water supplies - which everyone has the right to access.\n\nTyree Perkins says planting trees in Detroit changed his life\n\nThe idea behind so-called \"tree equity\" was two years ago by not-for-profit organisation American Forests. It has now received funding as part of $1bn of public money being granted to projects targeting urban tree planting in areas of greatest need.\n\nIn Detroit, Michigan, a city ravaged for decades by the collapse of heavy industry, these are often the more deprived areas of the city. They historically also have fewer trees.\n\nHere, not only has the project led to more trees, but also to jobs planting them.\n\nTyree Perkins was struggling to find work before he joined the Detroit Tree Equity Partnership (DTEP).\n\n\"The job changed my life personally by keeping me motivated, I'm around a good environment and every day I am doing something different but it's positive.\"\n\nIn the UK some councils, including Birmingham and Belfast, are already looking at the link between urban tree cover and deprivation in their strategies. But the map's creators hope that the TES will provide a uniform index to encourage all authorities to prioritise where to plant street trees.\n\nPupils from Lowfield Primary School are helping to plant trees to fight air pollution\n\nBack at Lowfield Primary School, a handful of children gather around their new rowan, growing out of a hole cut in the artificial grass.\n\nSurrounded by thick wooden support posts, it's still just a sapling and even small hands can wrap around the entire trunk.\n\nOne girl tells us she'd like to see \"a hundred million more\" - but at least this is a start.", "Family and friends of Odhrán Kelly want him to be remembered as a \"loving, funny and caring\" person\n\nA vigil is to be held on Wednesday night for a man who has been named locally as the victim of a murder in Lurgan.\n\nFamily and friends of Odhrán Kelly, 23, say they want to remember him as a \"loving, funny and caring\" person.\n\nA major police investigation has been taking place since a man's body was found in the Edward Street area in the early hours of Sunday.\n\nForensic teams and police officers have remained there for a third day.\n\nTwo women, aged 35 and 43, and a 31-year-old man who were arrested on Sunday on suspicion of murder remain in police custody.\n\nFloral tributes have been placed close to the scene.\n\nThe area inside a police cordon includes a block of flats and a nearby green space where a car was found burnt out.\n\nThe police did not reveal the gender of the victim until Monday evening.\n\nDet Ch Insp Anthony Kelly, who is leading the investigation, said CCTV footage showed three people close to the burning car.\n\n\"I believe these people may have witnessed the suspects in the area and I would like to speak to them to find out what they know,\" he said.\n\n\"My thoughts remain with the victim's family who are still trying to comprehend this horrific incident.\"\n\nDet Ch Insp Kelly said a post mortem was taking place and it is hoped the victim will be identified \"imminently\".\n\nHe added: \"I am aware there may be some video footage circulating on social media and I would be keen to see it.\"\n\nPolice have appealed for CCTV footage or information from anyone who was around the Edward Street area between 02:00 and 05:00 GMT on Sunday.\n\nA Major Incident Public Portal where anyone can upload footage has also been set up.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lee Anderson and Sir Edward Leigh call on Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick for tougher lines on immigration.\n\nHome Office Minister Robert Jenrick has promised to bring forward a \"serious package of fundamental reforms\" to reduce net migration numbers.\n\nHe said there were \"strong arguments\" for introducing a cap on migration and restricting the number of dependents who can accompany migrants to the UK.\n\nHis comments came as he fielded questions from Tory MPs, frustrated at growing migration levels.\n\nLast week, figures revealed that in 2022 net migration hit a record high.\n\nOn Monday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said levels of net migration were \"too high\" and that the government needed to \"do more\", without giving details of what that might be.\n\nHe added that the government's decision earlier this year to restrict certain students from bringing dependents to the UK was \"the single biggest measure to bring down legal migration that anyone has ever taken\".\n\nMr Jenrick - together with former Home Secretary Suella Braverman - has been calling for tougher measures to curb legal migration.\n\nAnswering an urgent Commons question, he went further than Mr Sunak in setting out what the government is considering, saying \"substantive measures\" would be announced \"as soon as possible\".\n\nAsked if these plans would be announced before Christmas, Mr Jenrick said: \"My plan would have been brought to the House [of Commons] before last Christmas if I could have done, but let's hope we can bring forward a substantive package of reforms very quickly.\"\n\nHe said that reducing net migration would mean \"taking difficult choices\" adding: \"The public are sick of talk - they want action.\"\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Mr Jenrick would be \"furious when he discovers who's been in charge of the immigration system for the last 13 years\".\n\nRight-wing Conservative MPs lined up to urge Mr Jenrick to push Mr Sunak to take action.\n\nSir Edward Leigh said immigration levels had grown in part due to care worker visas being handed out \"like sweeties\".\n\nHe accused the care home sector of paying \"starvation wages of £20,000-a -year\" to foreign workers and called for the salary threshold for workers coming to the UK to be raised.\n\nSpeaking of the immigration minister, Sir Edward said: \"We know he is on the right side - he's just got to persuade the prime minister now.\"\n\nAnother Conservative MP, Jonathan Gullis, said Mr Jenrick had his \"full support\" and added that he was \"deeply concerned and confused\" by Mr Sunak's approach.\n\nSir John Hayes argued for further restrictions on the number of dependents allowed to accompany migrants working in the UK. Sir John said: \"We are relying on [Mr Jenrick] because we know he shares our concerns.\"\n\nDeputy Conservative chairman Lee Anderson and MP Marco Longhi both called for a cap on net migration, with Mr Anderson saying his constituents had \"had enough\".\n\nMr Jenrick expressed sympathy for the ideas saying there were \"strong arguments\" for a cap on migration numbers \"whether in general or in specific visas\".\n\n\"But these are conversations that we need to conclude within government,\" he added.\n\nOn salary thresholds for care workers, he said the government needed to \"take a more sensible, sustainable attitude to how we pay and look after people in such an important career\".\n\nAnd responding to questions about dependents, he said: \"There is a strong argument for saying that it is unsustainable for the country to continue to take so many dependents who, in turn, put pressure on housing, public services, school places and so on.\n\n\"With respect to care workers, we have seen a very substantial number of visas issued and an almost one-for-one in terms of those care workers bringing dependents with them. And that is something ... we're actively considering.\"\n\nMany of the ideas suggested by Conservative MPs echoed proposals Mr Jenrick has already drawn up - but which have not yet been adopted as government policy.\n\nConservative MPs queued up to urge the government to take action\n\nResponding to the debate in Parliament, a No 10 spokesman said: \"We always welcome contributions from MPs on this important debate. We are listening carefully to what they have got to say.\n\nDuring the question session, Yvette Cooper said: \"Net migration should come down. Immigration is important for Britain and always will be, but the system needs to be properly controlled and managed so it's fair and effective and is properly linked to the economy.\"\n\nShe urged the government to ensure salary thresholds for migrant workers would be reviewed.\n\nThe SNP's Alison Thewliss said migrants made \"our society and economy all the richer\".\n\nShe asked the government if they had \"thought this through - who is going to carry out the vital tasks of those who come to our shores as they raised the drawbridge and send people away.\n\n\"Pressures on services are helped by people coming here, not hindered.\"", "A huge explosion has destroyed at least one home in a suburb near Washington DC as police executed a search warrant.\n\nOfficers were called to the home in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday after reports of someone firing a flare gun.\n\nWhen they tried to enter, there were shots fired then a big explosion.\n\nOfficers on the scene reported only minor injuries while the suspect inside the home is unaccounted for.", "A former Tesla employee has told the BBC he believes the technology powering the firm's self-driving vehicles is not safe enough to be used on public roads.\n\nLukasz Krupski leaked data, including customer complaints about Tesla's braking and self-driving software, to German newspaper Handelsblatt in May.\n\nHe said attempts to highlight his concerns internally had been ignored.\n\nTesla did not respond to requests for comment.\n\nElon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, has championed its self-driving technology.\n\n\"Tesla has by far the best real-world AI,\" Mr Musk said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday.\n\nBut, in his first UK interview, Mr Krupski told the BBC's technology editor, Zoe Kleinman, he was concerned about how AI was being used - to power Tesla's autopilot service.\n\nIts autopilot feature, for example, includes assisted steering and parking - but, despite its name, it does still require someone in the driver's seat with their hands on the wheel.\n\n\"I don't think the hardware is ready and the software is ready,\" he said.\n\n\"It affects all of us because we are essentially experiments in public roads. So even if you don't have a Tesla, your children still walk in the footpath.\"\n\nMr Krupski said he had found evidence in company data which suggested that requirements relating to the safe operation of vehicles that had a certain level of autonomous or assistive-driving technology had not been followed.\n\nHe added that even Tesla employees had spoken to him about vehicles randomly braking in response to non-existent obstacles - known as \"phantom braking\". This also came up in the data he obtained around customer complaints.\n\nAccording to Tesla's own data, at the end of 2022 US customers using Autopilot averaged one crash where the airbag deployed roughly every 5 million miles travelled.\n\nIt claims that Tesla drivers not using it averaged once every 1.5 million miles or so.\n\nThe US driver overall average was once every 600,000 miles. The BBC cannot independently verify Tesla's figures.\n\nMr Krupski said he had felt compelled to share what he had found with data protection authorities.\n\nThe US Department of Justice have been investigating Tesla over its claims relating to its assisted driving features since January.\n\nTesla has also faced similar probes and questions from agencies including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about its autopilot system.\n\nGerman newspaper Handelsblatt published the \"Tesla Files\" after Mr Krupski shared 100GB of internal data he discovered.\n\nThe data protection authority in the Netherlands, where Tesla's European headquarters are based, confirmed to the BBC it had been notified of the data breach and was looking into the claim.\n\nMr Krupski said the last six months and experience of being a whistleblower had been \"terrifying\".\n\n\"I barely sleep at night sometimes,\" he told the BBC.\n\nBut his actions have been recognised by others - he has been awarded the Blueprint for Free Speech Whistleblowing Prize.\n\nJack Stilgoe, an associate professor at University College London who researches autonomous vehicles, said Mr Krupski's claims raised wider concerns about the technology.\n\n\"This is a sort of test case of artificial intelligence in the wild, on the open road, surrounded by all the rest of us,\" he said.\n\nThe UK Government announced plans for an Automated Vehicles Bill to outline a legal framework for self-driving cars in the King's Speech in early November.\n\n\"We'll have to see as the bill gets developed whether it grapples with all of the novel things about the technology,\" Prof Stilgoe added.", "Left to right: Hugh Grant, Timothée Chalamet, Olivia Colman and Rowan Atkinson all appear in Wonka\n\nWonka has tickled the taste buds of critics with several glowing reviews, but some noted the character lacks the darker elements of previous versions.\n\nTimothée Chalamet plays Willy Wonka in the origin story of Roald Dahl's famous chocolate factory owner.\n\nThe Telegraph described it as \"the most fun you'll have in a cinema all year\" in a five-star review.\n\nBut the Times awarded it just two stars and said the film was \"as hollow as a chocolate egg\".\n\nWonka, which will be released in the UK on Friday and the US a week later, is directed and written by Paul King and co-written by Simon Farnaby - the same team behind the successful Paddington 2.\n\nChalamet plays the character previously depicted by Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp in earlier adaptations of the children's novel.\n\nAwarding the latest film five stars, the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw said he \"enjoyed this more than either of the two earlier filmed versions\".\n\n\"Chalamet is elfin and puckish, unworldly and possessed of a Paddingtonian innocence and charm - and a nice singing voice - without being insufferable,\" he wrote.\n\nWhile the film delighted many critics, one described it as \"sickly sweet and hopelessly twee\"\n\nBut, Bradshaw added, the film steers clear of addressing what turned Wonka into the \"somewhat ambiguous, even sinister adult figure with a streak of Dahlian cruelty\" who punishes greedy children.\n\n\"This film doesn't answer that question and behaves as if it doesn't exist. Wonka is just really nice. End of story,\" he said.\n\nEmpire Ian Freer gave the film the same score, describing the titular character as the \"most kind-hearted on-screen hero in years\".\n\n\"Occasionally, [the film] veers too close to a Harrogate panto for comfort (see Olivia Colman's Mrs Scrubbit), but Chalamet keeps you invested, treading a nifty line between eccentricity and sincerity, embracing the twinkle of Wilder while avoiding the creepiness of Depp,\" he said.\n\nSeveral critics, including the Independent's Clarisse Loughrey, drew tonal similarities between Wonka and the two Paddington films.\n\n\"Much like those genteel, ursine escapades, Wonka is old-fashioned, cinematic magic writ large,\" she said in her four-star review.\n\n\"It whips up wit, warmth, and the beloved memories of classics past: there's a big dollop of Mary Poppins here, a little Matilda, some Oliver!, and, then, unexpectedly, a pinch of Les Misérables.\"\n\nHowever, she added: \"Chalamet may have been slightly miscast here. He reads as more of a Newsie than a Wonka, as an affable and pretty normal guy.\"\n\nHugh Grant appears in the film as an Oompa Loompa\n\nThe Times' Kevin Maher went further, suggesting Chalamet's \"thin and reedy\" singing voice ultimately \"lets him down\".\n\n\"Casting the dreamy Chalamet as a younger version of Gene Wilder's excitable, irascible and fundamentally dangerous Willy Wonka was always going to be a stretch,\" he said.\n\n\"Alas, it was also, as this wearisome musical prequel cruelly demonstrates, a mistake.\"\n\nBut there was far more enthusiasm for the actor's performance from NME's Nick Levine.\n\n\"Chalamet proves himself a very decent song and dance man. He has a clear, unobtrusive vocal style and never goes in for Broadway-style showboating, which bodes well for his performance in an upcoming Bob Dylan biopic.\n\n\"His Willy Wonka - bold, big-hearted and sometimes a bit befuddled - is fun to spend time with, which helps to smooth over the odd bump in the narrative.\"\n\nChalamet has previously starred in Dune, Little Women, Bones and All, Beautiful Boy and Call Me by Your Name, which earned him an Oscar nomination.\n\nChalamet scored an Oscar nomination for his performance in 2017's Call Me By Your Name\n\nThe film's six original songs have been written by The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon.\n\nSingling out the \"syrupy\" opening number as the only exception, the Evening Standard's Nick Howells said \"every other tune is a rollicking banger\".\n\nThe Telegraph's Robbie Collin was similarly enthusiastic, describing the new songs as \"witty and wondrous: a set of instant, hear-once, hum-forever classics\".\n\nHe said King and Farnaby had \"dusted it with enough details drawn from both Dahl's novel and the 1971 film to make the branding add up... Devout Wonkarians are rewarded with nods and winks: a turn of phrase here, a visual echo there.\"\n\nHe concluded: \"Like any good chocolatier, King has obsessively focused on texture and flavour. And it's those qualities - tuned to mass-market tastes, yet held in connoisseurish balance - that give his film its irresistible velvety sweetness.\"\n\nBut other critics echoed the sentiment that too little of Willy Wonka's original character remained in the latest depiction.\n\n\"Willy feels neutered here, stripped of any edge that might have made him interesting,\" said the Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney.\n\n\"His magical ability to make chocolates levitate or to turn a cavernous, dilapidated retail space into a cornucopia of wonders just seem like the kind of standard-issue CG doodling you see in TV commercials.\n\n\"Young audiences may well be enchanted, but I'm sad to report I found the whole confection sickly sweet and hopelessly twee.\"\n\nChalamet plays the character previously depicted by Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp\n\nVariety's Owen Gleiberman agreed. \"I'd wager that it might have been an even bigger hit had it been a little less sanded off for children, and had it tapped more into the Roald Dahlness of it all,\" he wrote.\n\nThe film does, however, feature \"the occasional darker digressions that are an homage to Dahl's more jaundiced view of humanity,\" noted Screen Daily's Tim Grierson.\n\nDigital Spy's Ian Sandwell concluded: \"While Wonka definitely has Big Paddington Energy and is full of pure imagination, it's not quite as magical.\n\n\"If you've come to Wonka expecting revelations about Willy Wonka's past, it's not really what the movie is interested in,\" he said. \"You get a brief backstory about Wonka's love of chocolate coming from his late mother (Sally Hawkins), but that's about it.\n\n\"Instead, it's an all-singing, all-dancing spectacular - King knows that you know how it ends, so he focuses entirely on you having fun instead.\"", "Jesse Darling has given crowd control barriers legs and made them look like they are running amok\n\nAn exhibition featuring crowd control barriers that have gone out of control, twisted railway tracks, barbed wire and tattered union jack bunting - all making a comment on modern British life - has won this year's Turner Prize.\n\nJesse Darling picked up the prestigious art award and its £25,000 cheque at a ceremony in Eastbourne, East Sussex.\n\nHe has spoken about being inspired by his view of the effects of austerity, Brexit and the pandemic on the town, and the \"hostile environment\" immigration policy.\n\nThe artist says he uses objects that are cheap and easy to find, but that hold meaning for viewers\n\nSpeaking to BBC News after his win, he explained: \"You have to love something to be able to critique it. I was born in this country and I'm looking at what's going on here.\n\n\"I wanted to make a work that reflected that, and I wanted to make work about Britain for the British public.\n\n\"Whether they like it or don't like it, it was a great honour and privilege to be able to do something so public for the British public.\"\n\nBarbed wire and a piece of net curtain hang above a crumbling mock checkpoint at the gallery entrance\n\nThe judges praised his use of common objects like barriers, hazard tape, office files and net curtains \"to convey a familiar yet delirious world\".\n\n\"Invoking societal breakdown, his presentation unsettles perceived notions of labour, class, Britishness and power,\" they said.\n\nDarling said he would spend his prize money on dentistry and rent\n\nThe chair of the judges, Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson, added that his art was \"bold\", \"engaging\" and partly a reflection on \"the state of the nation\".\n\n\"It's one element of it, one layer of it. I don't think it's the whole story. There is some sense, from his point of view, that these are times of crisis.\"\n\nTattered and faded union jack bunting hangs from the ceiling\n\nIn his acceptance speech, Darling also spoke up for the power of teaching children art in schools, and said Conservative governments had sent the message that self-expression and culture were \"only for particular kinds of people from particular socio-economic backgrounds\".\n\n\"Don't buy in. It's for everyone,\" he said.\n\nAt the end of his speech, Darling pulled a Palestinian flag out of his coat pocket and waved it.\n\nJesse Darling was many of the critics' favourite for the prize. His room of jaunty crash barriers and union jacks is inventive and original.\n\nDarling - who was born in Oxford but lives and works in Berlin - has said he is reflecting the hostile environment in the UK towards immigration in this work.\n\nThe exhibition entrances are turned into checkpoints complete with barbed wire. But the space itself feels alive and humorous.\n\nThat's down to the crowd control barriers Darling has sculpted at prancing angles. This is anthropomorphising writ large - the very things that are used to corral people by the police are given a life of their own, turned into creatures that can't be controlled.\n\nWe're also surrounded by frilly curtains and a maypole adorned with police tape and anti-pigeon spikes.\n\nDarling has said British towns these days are showing the effects of austerity, Brexit and Covid. He's riffing on that in a show that tackles nationhood and British identity.\n\nAll the four nominated artists were reflecting what's happening in Britain right now. In the end, Darling was felt by the judges to be a cut above.\n\nThe other nominated artists were Ghislaine Leung, Rory Pilgrim and Barbara Walker.\n\nThe Telegraph's art critic Alastair Sooke called Darling's room at Eastbourne's Towner gallery \"the most exhilarating presentation I've encountered at the annual exhibition in recent years\".\n\nFiles are filled with concrete as a comment on bureaucracy\n\nSooke wrote that the artist \"offers an unruly vision of contemporary Britain as both ruinous and suffused with impish magic\".\n\n\"Compared with such sculpturally compelling work, which boils and bubbles with brilliant ideas and touches, the offerings from the other shortlisted artists seem lukewarm.\"\n\nHowever, the Sunday Times' Waldemar Januszczak did not like Darling's entry. \"I suppose it's a glumly poetic interpretation of Britain today,\" he wrote.\n\n\"Where it fails is in its overall visual impact. It's too bitty.\"\n\nRollercoaster rails appear to crash through the gallery wall\n\nDarling, 41, who only went to art school in his 30s, was nominated for two exhibitions in Oxford and London last year.\n\nHe said he would use the prize money to \"get some dentistry [and] I'll probably pay my rent.\"\n\nA cabinet contains hammers that are decorated like toys, with colourful ribbons and bells", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lord Reed concludes: \"The home secretary's appeal is therefore dismissed.\"\n\nThe government's Rwanda asylum policy, which it says is needed to tackle small boats, is in disarray, after the UK's highest court ruled it is unlawful.\n\nThe Supreme Court upheld a Court of Appeal ruling, which said the policy leaves people sent to Rwanda open to human rights breaches.\n\nIt means the policy cannot be implemented in its current form.\n\nRishi Sunak said the government would work on a new treaty with Rwanda and said he was prepared to change UK laws.\n\nThe controversial plan to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda and ban them from returning to the UK has been subject to legal challenges since it was first announced by Boris Johnson in April 2022.\n\nThe government has already spent £140m on the scheme but flights were prevented from taking off in June last year after the Court of Appeal ruled the approach was unlawful due to a lack of human rights safeguards.\n\nNow that the UK's most senior court has agreed, the policy's chances of being realised without major revisions are effectively ended.\n\nBut Mr Sunak told MPs at Prime Minister's Questions that he was ready to finalise a formal treaty with Rwanda and would be \"prepared to revisit our domestic legal frameworks\" in a bid to revive the plan.\n\nA treaty - which Downing Street has said it will publish in the \"coming days\" - would upgrade the agreement between the UK and Rwanda from its current status as a \"memorandum of understanding\", which the government believes would put the arrangement on a stronger legal footing.\n\nThe new text would provide the necessary reassurances the Supreme Court has asked for, the prime minister's official spokesman said.\n\nMinisters have been forced to reconsider their flagship immigration policy after 10 claimants argued that ministers had ignored clear evidence that Rwanda's asylum system was unfair and arbitrary.\n\nThe legal case against the policy hinges on the principle of \"non-refoulement\" - that a person seeking asylum should not be returned to their country of origin if doing so would put them at risk of harm - which is established under both UK and international human rights law.\n\nIn a unanimous decision, the court's five justices agreed with the Court of Appeal that there had not been a proper assessment of whether Rwanda was safe.\n\nThe judgement does not ban sending migrants to another country, but it leaves the Rwanda scheme in tatters - and it is not clear which other nations are prepared to do a similar deal with the UK.\n\nThe Supreme Court justices said there were \"substantial grounds\" to believe people deported to Rwanda could then be sent, by the Rwandan government, to places where they would be unsafe.\n\nIt said the Rwandan government had entered into the agreement in \"good faith\" but the evidence cast doubt on its \"practical ability to fulfil its assurances, at least in the short term\", to fix \"deficiencies\" in its asylum system and see through \"the scale of the changes in procedure, understanding and culture which are required\".\n\nA spokesman for the Rwandan government said the policy's legality was \"ultimately a decision for the UK's judicial system\", but added \"we do take issue with the ruling that Rwanda is not a safe third country\".\n\nA flight was due to take off for Rwanda in June 2022 but was grounded after legal challenges\n\nIt leaves Mr Sunak - who has made tackling illegal immigration a central focus of his government - looking for a way to salvage the policy.\n\nIn a statement issued after the ruling, the prime minister said the government had been \"planning for all eventualities and we remain completely committed to stopping the boats\".\n\nHe continued: \"Crucially, the Supreme Court - like the Court of Appeal and the High Court before it - has confirmed that the principle of sending illegal migrants to a safe third country for processing is lawful. This confirms the government's clear view from the outset.\"\n\nMr Sunak is expected to hold a televised press conference in Downing Street at 16:45 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nThe Supreme Court decision comes amid the political fallout from the sacking of Suella Braverman on Monday, who, as home secretary had championed the Rwanda policy.\n\nFollowing the ruling, Mrs Braverman called on Mr Sunak to introduce \"emergency legislation\" which would block routes of legal challenge, including the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) - which some on the Tory right have called for the UK to withdraw from.\n\nNewly appointed Home Secretary James Cleverly told the Commons on Wednesday the government had been \"working on a plan to provide the certainty that the court demands\" for \"the last few months\".\n\nHe said upgrading the agreement to a treaty \"will make it absolutely clear to our courts and to Strasbourg that the risks laid out by the court today have been responded to, will be consistent with international law\".\n\nThe ruling comes less than 24 hours after Suella Braverman accused the prime minister of failing to plan for an alternative to the Rwanda policy\n\nLee Anderson MP, the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, urged the government to ignore the Supreme Court and \"put planes in the air\" anyway.\n\nNatalie Elphicke, Conservative MP for Dover, the landing point for many of the small boats, said the Rwanda policy is \"at an end\" and \"we now need to move forward\".\n\n\"With winter coming the timing of this decision couldn't be worse. Be in no doubt, this will embolden the people smugglers and put more lives at risk,\" she continued.\n\nBut charity Asylum Aid said the government must \"abandon the idea of forcibly removing people seeking asylum to third countries\", describing the policy as \"cruel and ineffective\".\n\nMore than 100,000 people have arrived in the UK via illegal crossings since 2018, though the number appears to be falling this year.\n\nIn 2022, 45,000 people reached the UK in small boats. The total is on course to be lower for 2023, with the total for the year so far below 28,000 as of November 12.", "Scientists Josie and Joan Ferrer Obiol says their dream of returning to the UK has been turned upside down\n\nCouples planning a new life in the UK have been left heartbroken by changes restricting who can apply to live here.\n\nFrom April 2024, British citizens or people already settled in the UK will need to show they earn £38,700 before their overseas partner can live here with them - a sharp jump from the current threshold of £18,600.\n\nThey also still need to show they are in a marriage or civil partnership when they apply for a family visa, intend to be within six months, or that they have been living together for at least two years.\n\nMinisters say the increased income threshold will help cut immigration levels, which have reached record highs in recent years, and ensure families can support themselves.\n\nLee, 24, from Belfast, told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"This policy means that the girl I want to marry, the girl I love...I cannot live with her and it's destroyed me.\"\n\nHe had planned to propose to his girlfriend Sarah, who lives in Malaysia, in the coming months. They met in Leeds three years ago, where he was studying engineering and she was studying law.\n\nLee was planning to pop the question in February next year\n\nThe couple were planning a new chapter together in the UK, but Lee said their plans for a family life are \"basically destroyed by this\".\n\nLee earns £26,000 as a researcher in Belfast, and said his chances of earning much more than that at his age and experience level are remote.\n\nHe continued: \"I just hate this, all this planning we've had and it's just now all crashing down. Now basically if I want to be with someone I love, I can't be in this country anymore.\n\n\"My mind has kind of went everywhere, to some very dark places I'll be honest.\"\n\nBritish citizen Josie lives with her Italian husband in Ancona, Italy. The couple - both scientists - married in December 2020 and were planning on moving to the UK to settle.\n\nBut Josie said the prospect of earning £38,700 as a lab assistant at a British university is highly unlikely, with going-rate salaries routinely below that level.\n\nAsked what her family's plan was now, the 33-year-old told 5 Live: \"I don't know, not come back? That would break my mum's heart. I don't know, I really don't know.\n\n\"Basically it's forcing us into a position that will make it very, very difficult - if not impossible - to come to the UK.\"\n\nJosie says the new threshold is a 'crazy' amount\n\nCam, 28, told the BBC how he is already looking for a new home in London where his American wife can come and join him after four years of long-distance relationship.\n\nThey were planning to apply for a family visa in March, by which time Cam would have been in his new job long enough to show he has a stable income - but with the new threshold due to come into force from April, they are facing uncertainty over whether their application will make it through in time.\n\nHe told BBC News: \"There's a huge amount of anxiety. This is going to cause a lot of hurt and pain to a lot of people.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, Rishi Sunak's spokesman said the new minimum threshold could be disapplied in \"exceptional circumstances where there would be unjustifiably harsh consequences for the applicant, their partner, a relevant child or another family member\".\n\nPersonal savings and benefits can also be taken into consideration when applicants have to demonstrate how they would be able to support their family, No 10 said.\n\nThe government argues the new £38,700 threshold - which is also being introduced as a minimum salary for many migrants seeking work visas - brings it into line with average earnings.\n\nAccording to the Office of National Statistics, median gross annual earnings for full-time employees in the UK were £34,963 in April 2023.\n\nThe change to family visas is expected by the government to reduce net migration by 10,000 a year. Family visas accounted for a net migration of 39,000 in the 12 months up to June 2023.\n\nOverall net migration for the same period was 672,000, a number the government is trying to cut by 300,000 with its wider reforms to legal immigration.\n\nDr Madeleine Sumption, director of the University of Oxford-based Migration Observatory, said the change will disproportionately hit those who are already less likely to be on higher wages.\n\nShe said: \"The largest impacts will fall on lower income British citizens, and particularly women and younger people who tend to earn lower wages.\n\n\"The income threshold will also affect people more if they live outside of London and the South East, in areas of the country where earnings are lower.\"\n\nOne of them is Katie, a 25-year-old supermarket worker from Lincoln, who was \"crying all night\" when the change was announced.\n\nKatie and Quinlan will at least be reunited over Christmas - just are unsure what the future holds\n\nIn 2020, she met Quinlan, from Indiana, US, on an online dating app. The pair got married in July 2023 and plans were under way for him to relocate to the UK.\n\nAs a supermarket worker, Katie earns £19,000 a year, including overtime pay - less than half of the new salary threshold.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"Everything we were planning for ages has just gone down the drain. We finally are stable enough to start doing more hours to get the amount needed and then it practically jumps up by 50%.\"\n\nThe couple's next steps are not certain. She continued: \"To stay here or go there. We shouldn't have to choose something like this. It's cruel.\"\n\nRuby and Furkan are in a similar position. When they met on holiday in Turkey in the summer of 2021, she thought it was \"a holiday romance - I didn't expect anything more to come of it\".\n\nFast forward two-and-a-half years and the pair are newly married, but forced to live apart.\n\nThe 31-year-old from Plymouth was self-employed, but decided she would stand a better chance of demonstrating she had a steady income to support her husband's visa application by taking a job as a veterinary receptionist, and now earns £23,000 a year.\n\nBut the changes announced this week have upended their plans completely, and they are still digesting what it means.\n\nRuby said: \"I woke up this morning and saw the news posted on Facebook. I was devastated. I thought that surely there is no way they have hiked it up that amount.\"\n\nStarting to cry, she told the BBC: \"I can't believe I have revolved my life around this and then they change the rules after 11 years. Now I just have to hope we can be approved before April.\n\n\"If that doesn't happen, there is no option but for me to move to Turkey. That is not the end of the world as it is a beautiful country but I would like it to be my decision, not Rishi Sunak's.\"", "Thames Water has said that reviving the business will \"take time\" as it reported sliding profits and an increase in its huge debt pile.\n\nProfits for the first half of its financial year more than halved to £246m, while debts rose 7% to £14.7bn.\n\nThames Water secured extra funds in July, but questions have been raised over the nature of the support.\n\nThe Environment Committee has called in the firm's bosses to be quizzed by MPs next week over the deal.\n\nConcern over Thames' financial strength earlier this year led to speculation it might be taken over by the government.\n\nBut the company's two interim chief executives have said that will not be necessary, as it has more than £3bn in cash and recently got a £500m cash injection from its shareholders.\n\nHowever, the Financial Times reported recently that the source of that money was a further loan to its parent company, Kemble Water Holdings.\n\nThe chairman of the Environment Committee, Sir Robert Goodwill, has questioned whether Thames has represented its finances accurately.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Today programme, Sir Robert said: \"The question I think we need to ask Thames Water is... how will that debt be serviced, because unless they increase dividends, to enable Kemble Water Holdings to service that debt, they could end up in an even more difficult situation.\"\n\nThe company has already written to Sir Robert saying that the £500m \"does not increase the debt burden\" on Thames Water, but after meeting the firm on Tuesday, the Environment Committee said in light of recent news reports, bosses would be called in for questioning on Tuesday, 12 December.\n\n\"The committee is keen to interrogate the full nature of this financing,\" a statement said.\n\nInvestors have also said they will pump in an additional £750m but that is contingent on the regulator agreeing to bill increases of 40% by 2030.\n\nThames Water's co-chief executives, Cathryn Ross and Alastair Cochran, said: \"It is clear that immediate and radical action is required.\"\n\nThey added: \"Turning around Thames will take time. We simply cannot do everything that our customers and stakeholders wish to see at a pace and for a price that everyone would like.\n\n\"We will continue to make the tough choices required to deliver what matters most to our customers and the environment.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Thames Water added the company was \"in a robust financial position and are extremely fortunate to have such supportive shareholders\".\n\nLast week, the auditors of Kemble Water Holdings warned there was a \"material concern\" over its future.\n\nThis was partly due to uncertainty over how a £190m loan, which is due for repayment in April 2024, will be refinanced.\n\nThames' latest results show that the number of pollution incidents increased during the six months to September.\n\nIt admitted performance had \"deteriorated\", with the number of category 1-3 pollutions - where category 1 is the most serious - had risen to 257 from 217 in the same period last year.\n\nThe company said its three-year turnaround plan \"addresses and mitigates the major drivers of pollutions across our wastewater network and sewage treatment works\".\n\n\"We are committed to tackling the root causes of pollutions to meet the expectations of our communities and the needs of the environment.\"\n\nEarlier this year, Thames Water was fined £3.3m after it discharged millions of litres of untreated sewage into two rivers near Gatwick in 2017, killing more than 1,400 fish.\n\nLater on Tuesday, Labour will table a motion calling on the government to give the water regulator, Ofwat, powers to ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses if their companies are discharging \"significant\" levels of raw sewage into UK waterways.", "Last updated on .From the section Sunderland\n\nChampionship side Sunderland have sacked head coach Tony Mowbray after 15 months in charge.\n\nThe Black Cats have won just two of their past nine league games and have slipped to ninth, having made the play-offs last season.\n\nMowbray, 60, took over at Sunderland in August last year after Alex Neil left the club to join Stoke City.\n\n\"This was a difficult decision to make,\" sporting director Kristjaan Speakman told the club website.\n\n\"But we remain loyal to our ambition and our strategy, and felt that now was the right moment to take this step.\n\n\"We are now focused on identifying the right candidate and we will continue to support our coaching team and players throughout the interim period.\"\n\nChairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus said Mowbray would \"always be welcome\" at Sunderland.\n\nHe added: \"As custodians of our great club, we believe in our long-term strategy that we hope will ensure sustainability and success for SAFC.\n\n\"Central to that approach is a relentless demand for a high performance culture to be implemented throughout the club and the development of a strong playing identity that you, our loyal supporters, can all be proud of.\"\n\nMowbray's long-time assistant, Mark Venus, has also left the club, with first-team coach Mike Dodds placed in temporary charge.\n\nSunderland, who play one of Mowbray's former clubs West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, were fourth in the table after beating Watford on 4 October.\n\nBut last weekend's 1-1 draw at Millwall made it five games without a win on their travels, with Jack Clarke's late penalty their first away goal in four matches.\n\nDespite slipping to ninth, Sunderland remain only three points off a play-off spot.\n\nAfter replacing Neil early last season, Mowbray guided the Black Cats to a sixth-placed finish in their first season back in the Championship.\n\nAlthough they beat Luton 2-1 at the Stadium of Light in the home leg of the play-off semi-final, they lost 2-0 at Kenilworth Road to the Hatters, who went on to win promotion to the Premier League by beating Coventry City on penalties at Wembley.", "Paddy McCourt, who played for Celtic, Derry City and Northern Ireland, denied the charge against him\n\nThe former Celtic star Paddy McCourt has had his sexual assault conviction overturned.\n\nMr McCourt, of Wheatfield Court in Muff, Donegal, was found guilty in May of inappropriately touching a woman in a bar in Londonderry in January 2022.\n\nThe former international, who had denied the charge, was given a three-month suspended sentence in July.\n\nOn Tuesday, a court in Derry quashed that conviction after prosecutors offered no evidence.\n\nDefence counsel Eoghan Devlin told the court there had been \"a series of failures\" in the case and said no one doubted the young woman had been assaulted but not by Paddy McCourt.\n\nJudge Philip Babington granted the appeal. He reminded everyone that there had been a victim in the case.\n\nPaddy McCourt and his solicitor Ciarán Shiels arriving at Bishop Street courthouse for the appeal\n\nPaddy McCourt played for Celtic between 2008 and 2013 and also represented Northern Ireland 18 times, scoring two goals.\n\nHis solicitor, Ciarán Shiels, described his conviction as a \"grave miscarriage of justice\".\n\nSpeaking outside the court, Mr Shiels said the former footballer had been \"very shabbily treated by the PSNI in this city\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"He should never have been charged, in relation to this case, never mind prosecuted,\" the solicitor said.\n\nHe added: \"This man should never have been charged let alone been put through the process and the ordeal he has had to face for the guts of two years.\"\n\nA police spokeswoman said the PSNI would not be issuing further comment.\n\nIn a statement, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said it had a duty to keep all decisions under continuous review.\n\n\"In light of evidential issues relating to key witnesses which arose after the conviction at the lower court, the prosecution reviewed the position in the case,\" the PPS spokeswoman said.\n\n\"Whilst it was considered that the prosecution had been properly brought in the first instance, it was determined that in view of these evidential issues, the test for prosecution was no longer met.\"\n\nThe spokeswoman added that all decisions by the PPS were taken \"strictly impartially, independently and fully in line with the PPS code for prosecutors\".", "Net migration into the UK was a record 745,000 last year, figures show - far higher than originally thought.\n\nOffice for National Statistics data published on Thursday show that experts have revised up previous estimates.\n\nIn May, it said net migration - the difference between the number of people coming to live in the UK and those leaving - for 2022 had been 606,000, 139,000 lower than the true figure.\n\nNo 10 said migration was \"far too high\" but it was taking action.\n\nPM Rishi Sunak's spokesman said migration was putting \"unsustainable pressure on communities and councils\" and it was clamping down on dependents of students arriving in the UK. \"We believe there is more to do,\" he added.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said \"shockingly high\" net migration represented \"a failure not just of immigration, but also of asylum and of the economy\".\n\nThe ONS said the population of England and Wales grew by an estimated 1% in the year to June 2022 - the fastest rate since the baby boom in the 1960s, but this time it was driven by international migration.\n\nBut it cautioned its estimates could be revised again - and provisional figures to June of this year suggest the rate of net migration may now be slowing.\n\nStatisticians said in the year to June net migration fell back to 672,000, after 1.2 million people came to live in the UK for at least a year, and 508,000 left.\n\nThe vast majority (968,000) arriving were from countries outside the European Union.\n\nStudents accounted for the largest group of non-EU migrants, also true of last year.\n\nBut there has been an increase in workers arriving with visas to fill chronic staff shortages in the NHS and social care, the ONS said.\n\nArrivals of people via humanitarian routes have fallen from 19% to 9% over the same period, the ONS said, with most of these made up of Ukrainians and British Nationals (Overseas) arrivals from Hong Kong.\n\nThey said estimates showed a marked change in immigration since 2021 following Brexit - when free movement for EU nationals ended, the easing of travel restrictions after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.\n\nHowever, the ONS said it was too early to know whether the latest falling net migration figure was the start of a downward trend, but recent estimates did indicate a slowing of immigration coupled with increasing emigration.\n\nWith more than a decade of Conservative-led governments promising to reduce numbers, these latest figures represent a political challenge for the prime minister.\n\nBack in 2010, David Cameron, former Tory PM now foreign secretary, pledged to get net migration below 100,000 - \"no ifs, no buts\". And the party's 2019 manifesto also committed to bring the rate down, without setting a specific target.\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly said the government remained \"completely committed\" to reducing levels of legal migration while also focusing on \"stopping the boats\", referring to the issue of people making dangerous English Channel crossings in small boats.\n\nHe said the ONS figures did not show a \"significant increase from last year's figures\" and pointed to \"a number of important and positive changes\" affecting them.\n\n\"The biggest drivers of immigration to the UK are students and healthcare workers - [they] are testament to both our world-leading university sector and our ability to use our immigration system to prioritise the skills we need,\" he said.\n\nHe added that he was \"proud\" the UK had welcomed more than half a million people through humanitarian routes, principally from Hong Kong, Ukraine and Afghanistan, over the last decade but said they still needed to reduce numbers by \"eliminating the abuse and exploitation of our visa system by both companies and individuals\".\n\nSome Conservative MPs are not convinced by his argument however.\n\nThe New Conservative group, on the right of the party, called for Rishi Sunak to \"act now\" on the \"do or die\" issue and propose a package of measures to bring down migration.\n\n\"Each of us made a promise to the electorate. We don't believe that such promises can be ignored,\" the group, led by Miriam Cates, Danny Kruger and Sir John Hayes, said in a statement.\n\nIt is understood the government is considering some new measures, including:\n\nDowning Street said any next steps needed to be carefully considered.\n\nLabour has criticised the government for the cost of using hotels to house asylum seekers who make up a tiny proportion of overall migration.\n\nHome Office figures, also published on Thursday, showed hotel use reached a record high in September - despite a slight fall in the asylum backlog.\n\nThere were 56,042 people in hotel accommodation, while 58,444 people were in \"dispersed\" accommodation - usually housing provided by the Home Office through private companies.\n\nThe number of people in hotels rose by 5,500 over three months while the number in housing stayed broadly the same.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the number of asylum seekers in hotels was 10,000 more than when Rishi Sunak promised to end hotel use - and was costing almost £3bn a year.\n\n\"Once again, the British taxpayer is footing the bill for the Conservatives' chaos,\" she said.\n\nThe population of England and Wales was estimated to be 60.2 million mid-2022, an increase of around 578,000 - or 1% - since 2021.\n\nThe ONS's Neil Park said: \"Unlike the baby boom driving population growth in the 1960s, the increases in our latest estimates are predominately being driven by international migration.\"\n\nHe said the picture varied across regions, with growth higher in the north of England than the south, and lowest in London.\n\nProf Brian Bell told the BBC's World At One programme net migration \"is very high in the UK relative to historical trends\", adding: \"But there's probably some indication it's beginning to fall. I wouldn't want to bet my house on it, but I think the indications are that we've reached the peak.\"\n\nHe said the Government should raise the salary thresholds related to the skilled worker route - which have not been increased for a number of years - as a way to reduce net migration.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Porn users could have their faces scanned to prove their age, with extra checks for young-looking adults, draft guidance from Ofcom suggests.\n\nThe watchdog has set out a number of ways explicit sites could prevent children from viewing pornography.\n\nThe average age children first view pornography is 13, a survey suggests.\n\nExplicit website Pornhub said regulations requiring the collection of \"highly sensitive personal information\" could jeopardise user safety.\n\nPrivacy campaigners have also criticised the proposals warning of \"catastrophic\" consequences if data from age checks is leaked.\n\nA large chunk of the UK population watch online pornography - nearly 14 million people, according to a recent report by Ofcom.\n\nBut the ease of access to online pornography has also raised concerns that children are viewing explicit websites - with one in ten children seeing it by age nine, according to a survey by the Children's Commissioner.\n\nThe Online Safety Act, which recently became law, requires social media platforms and search engines to protect children from harmful content online.\n\nIt will be enforced by Ofcom, who can issue large fines if firms fail to comply.\n\nOfcom has now outlined how it expects firms to become \"highly effective\" at complying with the new regulations, which come into force sometime in 2025.\n\nFacial age-estimation tech, that will scan users' faces and use software to infer if they are an adult, is also an option.\n\nIt is unlikely that any age assurance method will be impossible to circumvent, Ofcom notes, but websites must guard against simple tricks.\n\nFor systems that compare a photo ID such as a passport with a user's face, for example, they should do a \"liveness check\" to guard against children who try to use borrowed or fake ID and a photo of someone older to fool the system.\n\nYoung adults involved in sex education told the BBC they believed having these kinds of protections in place would help prevent children being exposed to pornography.\n\nJack Liepa, director of the charity Sexpression, which sends university students into schools to run workshops about sex and relationships, said the Online Safety Act was a positive step, but not a complete solution.\n\n\"Young people probably still will find ways to access this content: older siblings might provide access, and they're still going to turn 18 and suddenly have access, at still quite a young impressionable age\", Mr Liepa said.\n\nThe biggest concern among porn-using adults about proving their age is over the safety of their data, Ofcom says.\n\nThe draft guidance says sites must follow the data protection rules set out by privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).\n\nAylo, the owners of Pornhub, says it backs the principle of age verification but has voiced concerns about user safety and privacy.\n\n\"Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is putting user safety in jeopardy\", it said.\n\nPornhub is the 14th most visited website in the world, according to statistics from Similarweb, but faced serious allegations in 2020 relating to illegal content on the platform.\n\nWhen the US state of Louisiana instituted age verification, Aylo said Pornhub traffic dropped approximately 80 percent in the state.\n\nBut it said rather than stopping viewing porn altogether, users went instead to \"darker corners of the internet that don't ask users to verify age, that don't follow the law, that don't take user safety seriously, and that often don't even moderate content.\"\n\nThe company said in its view age-verification should take place \"on the device\" - in other words parental controls on phones and computers that stop children from accessing pornography.\n\nUsing a virtual private network (VPN), to mask the region in which they are located, is one way explicit site visitors might try and circumvent age-checks.\n\nSimon Migliano, head of research at VPN comparison site Top10VPN.com said \"In Louisiana demand for VPNs more than tripled while in Utah it surged by 847% the day after the new age checks came into effect.\n\nHowever, Mr Migliano's understanding from VPN providers, was that \"this increased demand was driven by adults not comfortable disclosing their real identity while watching adult content.\"\n\nAbigail Burke of campaigning organisation, the Open Rights Group said there was not enough emphasis on keeping data safe in the guidance.\n\n\"The potential consequences of data being leaked are catastrophic and could include blackmail, fraud, relationship damage, and the outing of people's sexual preferences in very vulnerable circumstances,\" she said.\n\nOfcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes, talking to Women's Hour on BBC Radio 4, said operators of explicit sites would need to \"balance getting the verification highly effective with preserving data privacy, which is a legal requirement.\"\n\nYoti a company which already provides age-estimation tech to some adult sites, said their tech respected users privacy rights:\n\n\"It takes about one second, there is no recognition of an individual and the image is instantly deleted\", said the firm's Julie Dawson.\n\nMs Dawson said there was no reason to wait until 2025 to enforce age-checks as \"all of the age assurance technology referenced by Ofcom is ready to use now\".\n\nHowever the guidance currently published only covers pornography websites and apps.\n\nDraft codes of practice to cover pornography on social media platforms - a way in which many teenagers encounter pornography - will be published in 2024.\n• None Children as young as nine exposed to pornography", "Prince Harry is challenging the fairness of how decisions over his security were made\n\nPrince Harry has made a High Court challenge against the Home Office over his security protection when visiting the UK.\n\nHe wants to overturn a ruling that saw his security status downgraded after he stopped being a \"working royal\".\n\nPrince Harry's lawyers, at the start of a three-day hearing in London, argued there has been unfairness in how the decision was made.\n\nThe Home Office said his security is decided on a case-by-case basis.\n\nThere will still be publicly-funded police security for Prince Harry, the Home Office lawyers told the court on Tuesday, but these will be \"bespoke arrangements, specifically tailored to him\", rather than the automatic security provided for full-time working royals.\n\nMuch of the legal proceedings, about security arrangements for senior figures, will be held in private.\n\nThe court hearing is considering the changes to publicly-funded protection that were made when Prince Harry stepped down from official royal duties and settled in the United States.\n\nThe committee that arranges security for members of the Royal Family and other VIPs - known as Ravec - decided in 2020 that Prince Harry would no longer have the automatic level of security for senior royals.\n\nInstead the level of security would be arranged depending on the perceived risk, as it is with other high-profile visiting dignitaries.\n\nBut Prince Harry's lawyers on Tuesday argued there had been a lack of transparency about the decision and the prince had been not been treated the same way as others.\n\nThere is \"no good reason for singling out the claimant [Prince Harry] this way,\" said his legal team.\n\nPrince Harry's barrister, Shaheed Fatima KC, told the court: \"Ravec should have considered the 'impact' a successful attack on the claimant would have, bearing in mind his status, background and profile within the royal family - which he was born into and which he will have for the rest of his life - and his ongoing charity work and service to the public.\"\n\nBut the Home Office's case argued that as the prince was no longer a working royal and lived overseas, \"his position has materially changed\".\n\n\"In those circumstances protective security would not be provided on the same basis as before,\" say lawyers for the Home Office.\n\nAn earlier hearing was told of claims from Prince Harry of \"procedural unfairness\" in how senior members of the Royal Household were part of the Ravec committee, along with police, counter-terrorism specialists and civil servants.\n\nAmong the royal aides on the committee was Sir Edward Young, private secretary to the late Queen Elizabeth.\n\nPrince Harry's lawyers argued there were tensions between Sir Edward and the prince and as such the royal official should not have been part of the decision making.\n\nThe lower level of security has made it difficult to bring his family to the UK, the prince has argued.\n\nBut lawyers for the Home Office have repeatedly rejected challenges to the Ravec ruling, saying there was nothing in the claims that was likely to lead to a different outcome.\n\nThe hearing will continue until Thursday, with a ruling from the judge expected to be reserved to a later date.\n\nEarlier this year Prince Harry lost a legal bid to be allowed to make private payments for police protection when he was visiting the UK, in a case that also focused on concerns about reduced security since ceasing to be a full-time working royal.", "A murder investigation has been launched following an incident in Lurgan, County Armagh, on Sunday, police have said.\n\nTwo women aged 35 and 43 and a 31-year-old man have been arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nEarlier, police said they were investigating a sudden death on Edward Street in the town on Sunday morning.\n\nSinn Féin MLA John O'Dowd said it was \"a shocking scene on a Sunday morning\".\n\n\"A family somewhere is going to get really bad news today and our thoughts and prayers are with those,\" he said.\n\nMr O'Dowd encouraged members of the public with information to contact police.\n\nThere is a burnt out car at the scene\n\nThis is clearly a major investigation.\n\nThe cordon covers a wide area, stretching across a number of housing estates.\n\nIt is understood that earlier there were at least 16 police vehicles at the scene, with officers sent from across Northern Ireland.\n\nA cordon is in place in the Edward Street area\n\nThere is a wide police cordon in place in the Edward Street area of the town.\n\nForensics officers have erected a tent at the top of Prospect Way - just across from the McDonald's in the town.\n\nAs the investigation gets underway, detectives have been going from door to door.\n\nAlliance MLA Eóin Tennyson described news of the incident as \"shocking and appalling\".\n\n\"The community is reeling at the loss of yet another life to the scourge of violence,\" he said.\n\nDetectives urged anyone who was in the area between 02:00 and 05:00 GMT on Sunday and noticed suspicious activity to get in touch.", "Police are still on the scene near Vine Close, Hackney\n\nA woman has died and a man and teenage boy have been wounded in a shooting in east London.\n\nThe woman, 42, died at the scene and the 20-year-old man and boy, 16, were taken to hospital.\n\nThe shooting happened on Vine Road which is in a small housing development in Lower Clapton, Hackney, at about 18:30 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police has launched a murder inquiry. No arrests have been made.\n\nInquiries are ongoing to establish the motive, the force added.\n\nDet Supt Vicky Tunstall said it was a \"shocking\" incident and appealed for witnesses, adding that officers would remain at the scene in the coming days.\n\n\"I do not underestimate the impact this incident will have on people in Hackney and I understand the community will want answers about what has happened this evening. We will share further information as our investigation progresses,\" she said.\n\n\"Gun crime has no place on the streets of London and we will do all we can to bring whoever is responsible for this despicable crime to justice.\"\n\nThe Met said officers were in the process of informing the female victim's next of kin.\n\nThe conditions of the man and boy are being assessed.\n\nAt the scene, a large police cordon is in place and a white tent has been erected to the side of one of the front doors.\n\nForensic teams have been spending time looking at a car in the entrance to the close.\n\nFive police officers have been standing guard at the cordon throughout the night and into the morning.\n\nMayor of Hackney Caroline Woodley and cabinet member for community safety Susan Fajana-Thomas said in a statement: \"We are deeply shocked and saddened to learn that a woman has died after a fatal shooting which left two others injured in Vine Close, Hackney Downs last night. Our thoughts and condolences are with all those affected, their family, neighbours and friends.\n\n\"While incidents like this are rare in Hackney, we know that the events of last night will cause concern for local people. We want to reassure everyone that we're committed to doing all we can to prevent what are fortunately isolated events.\n\n\"The police will be working in the area over the coming days to continue their investigation. Council officers will be supporting the police and helping to reassure those affected within the community.\"\n\nThe MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Diane Abbott said: \"This is clearly a terrible incident. My heart goes out to the victim and relatives.\n\n\"As the full detail cannot be known just yet, it is important that any witnesses come forward and help the police in their inquiries.\"", "Paramilitary intimidation has led to an increase in the number of homeless people in Northern Ireland, a report by the Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) has found.\n\nIt urged the need for \"a sustained focus\" to tackle paramilitarism.\n\nThe body added the situation is not being helped by political instability.\n\nIt stated it was shocking that 194 households were \"accepted\" as homeless by the Housing Executive in 2022-23 due to intimidation.\n\nThis is 45 more than the year before and a figure which \"only provided a snapshot\", according to the IRC.\n\n\"We are mindful of the life-changing effect of paramilitary threats forcing people to leave an area and that there is limited information available about this,\" the report continued.\n\nFigures show that 111 of the cases were in the Ards and North Down council area.\n\nEstablished in 2017, by the Irish and British governments, the IRC issues annual reports on efforts to tackle paramilitarism.\n\nThe report published on Tuesday is its sixth.\n\nIt repeated its call for the two governments to appoint an individual to \"prepare the ground\" for engagement with paramilitary groups on disbandment.\n\nIn March, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said the idea was under consideration.\n\n\"We urge them to progress the implementation of this as soon as possible,\" the report stated.\n\n\"We fear that if we do not move forward with scoping the potential for a formal group transition process, there is little or no chance of achieving the goal of ending paramilitarism once and for all.\n\n\"We feel that would be a major missed opportunity.\"\n\nIRC commissioner Monica McWilliams, speaking at a press conference marking the report, said she hoped there would be progress on an appointment soon.\n\n\"We are hoping that process will be taken forward in the next weeks or months... We await the announcement and that's over to the two governments.\"\n\nThe commissioners also responded to reports that the leadership of the east Belfast UVF had been stood down over its drug-dealing and other criminal activities.\n\nMs McWilliams said: \"It is good that this has happened. I am sure communities in east Belfast are breathing a sigh of relief.\n\n\"Clearly the question everybody will now ask is 'what comes next?'\"", "The Israelis have said that today was the fiercest fighting they've had since the start of the ground invasion and that they are now in centre of second biggest town in Gaza, Khan Younis.\n\nThere are people trying to move out of the path of the fighting and the UN is coming out with some of the most solemn and terrifying warnings we've heard from them so far about the massive humanitarian crisis that is undeniably taking place there. They're very concerned that they can't get to help the people who need it.\n\nIsrael's armed forces are now pushing further down the Gaza strip – the whole surface area of the strip is roughly the same as Isle of Wight – and more and more people are being pushed to the southern tip near Egypt.\n\nPalestinians pictured making their way through the rubble following strikes on Deir al-Balah Image caption: Palestinians pictured making their way through the rubble following strikes on Deir al-Balah\n\nNow the Egyptians are very, very concerned about the pressure of almost two million people in a very small area with not enough food or water, right on their border.\n\nOne of my colleagues has been in touch with a friend in Gaza today, who was saying: \"I cannot go on. I cannot hear my children saying, 'dad I need food please' – and I have nothing to give them.\"\n\nThis is someone who has a job, with money, and if there was food available to buy he could afford it. But there is nothing to buy.\n\nOne thing the UN says is that Israel should allow commercial suppliers in to revive the market, so that at least those people with money can buy food and the relief supplies can go to someone who doesn’t have money.", "A woman stabbed in a \"targeted attack\" remains in hospital following the arrest of a man on suspicion of attempted murder, police have said.\n\nAt a police press conference, Ch Insp Rob Miles said officers were called just before 09:10 GMT following reports a woman had been stabbed in Moy Road, in Aberfan.\n\nHe said: \"The suspect left the scene immediately and armed officers have been carrying out inquiries throughout the day to trace him.\n\n\"This afternoon a 28-year-old local man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.\n\n\"The man is known to the victim and is currently in police custody.\n\n\"Local schools activated their lockdown protocols to keep pupils safe.\n\n\"Neighbourhood officers have been in the area to ensure pupils have been able to leave the school safely at the normal time.\n\n\"This was done as a precaution and schools will reopen tomorrow as normal.\n\n\"This was a targeted attack. The woman remains in hospital with injuries which are not believed to be life threatening at this time.\n\n\"I want to thank the local community and partners for their patience and support throughout today's police operation to trace and arrest the suspect.\"", "Satellite images commissioned by the BBC reveal the extent of destruction across Gaza, showing that nearly 98,000 buildings may have suffered damage.\n\nThe satellite images were taken last Thursday - before the start of a seven-day suspension of hostilities, which has now ended.\n\nDrone footage and verified video also show buildings and entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble after Israeli air strikes and on-the-ground fighting.\n\nWhile northern Gaza has been the focus of the Israeli offensive and has borne the brunt of the destruction, widespread damage extends across the entire strip.\n\nIsrael says northern Gaza, which includes the major urban centre of Gaza City, was a \"centre of gravity of Hamas\", the group behind the deadly 7 October attacks on Israel. The Israeli military says its bombing campaign has successfully targeted Hamas commanders and fighters and accuses the group of embedding itself in civilian areas.\n\nSatellite data analysis suggests that almost 98,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip may have suffered damage, mostly in the north - as shown in the above map.\n\nAnalysis of the data was carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University. It is based on comparisons of two separate images, revealing changes in the height or structure of buildings which suggests damage.\n\nWe have analysed satellite imagery from several areas with extensive damage.\n\nThe cities of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the north and north-east of the Gaza Strip were among the first to be targeted by air strikes after the 7 October attacks by Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the area was a hideout for Hamas.\n\nParts of Beit Lahia, which overlooked olive groves and sand dunes stretching towards the border with Israel, were flattened. The satellite image below shows an area in the north-east of Beit Lahia, where a significant block of buildings was destroyed.\n\nBulldozers appear to have cleared roads through the rubble and the Israeli military cleared land and set up defensive positions in surrounding fields.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe IDF also struck the small nearby city of Beit Hanoun, less than 1.6km (1 mile) from the border. It said 120 targets were hit in the area on the first day of air strikes.\n\nAs the images above show, a skyline of multi-storey buildings and a mosque was gradually reduced to rubble between 14 October and 22 November.\n\nAfter weeks of air strikes on Gaza, Israel moved in on the ground - tanks and bulldozers going through areas which had been heavily bombarded. The IDF worked its way southwards along the coast towards Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in the Gaza City area.\n\nAs the image below shows, a whole series of craters are visible in what was once a residential area. Some of the buildings on the beach front, which boasted Gaza's first five-star hotel, the Al-Mashtal, as well as huts and restaurants, appear to have been partially destroyed.\n\nAbout a week after the air strikes began, the IDF warned Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south of a river known as Wadi Gaza for their own safety.\n\nDespite the warning and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Gaza City, areas in the south continued to be targeted.\n\nNuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza was hit several times before the temporary pause in hostilities began. The camp was said to be home to about 85,000 people, according to the UN.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn this verified video, which emerged online, people are seen picking through the rubble of collapsed and damaged buildings.\n\nThe distinctive black chimney stacks of the Gaza Power Plant, situated just north of the camp, are visible in the background.\n\nThe BBC has approached the IDF for comment.\n\nIn Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, thousands of people are living in tents or the rubble of bombed-out buildings.\n\nAlthough the damage was not as widespread as in the north, up to 15% of buildings across the city may have been damaged, according to Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek's analysis.\n\nAs well as pushing down from the north, Israeli forces also cut across the Gaza Strip westwards, isolating Gaza City from the south.\n\nIn this image below, taken to the south of Gaza City, we can see that a previously populated residential area was cleared by the IDF with heavy machinery and a road bulldozed towards the western Mediterranean shoreline.\n\nYou can also see dozens of military vehicles, including tanks, grouped behind fortifications made from earth.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nSatellite images also show an open square of land with a Star of David carved into the earth by vehicle tracks in Gaza City, near al-Azhar University.\n\nImages online from before the war showed children playing there and suggested it was a park, but IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said the ground was used by Hamas as a parade square near a base. The area was taken over by the IDF's Golani Brigade.\n\nA Star of David - which is used as a Jewish and Israeli symbol - was made by armoured vehicles in a ceremony in memory of Israeli soldiers who had been killed since the war began, according to a post by Rear Adm Hagari on X.\n\nAdditional reporting by Thomas Spencer, Paul Brown, Jake Horton, Alex Murray and Shayan Sardarizadeh and Jemimah Herd", "Robert Jenrick says he is prepared to \"take further steps\" if net migration does not come down.\n\nGaps in the labour market caused by new immigration plans will \"be filled by British workers\", the immigration minister has said.\n\nRobert Jenrick said the government's five-point plan will cut net migration to the UK \"by at least 300,000\", from its current record high.\n\nBusinesses can no longer rely on foreign labour to fill gaps, he said.\n\nBut the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said the plans fail to deal with the UK's labour shortages.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Mr Jenrick said the government did not want to cut net migration \"for abstract reasons\".\n\n\"We want to build an economy which is more productive where employers invest in their staff and in their skills and pay,\" he said.\n\nThe immigration plans were part of a broader mission set out in the Autumn Statement, which saw an increase in the national living wage increased and a £2.5bn overhaul of benefits for people with long-term health conditions or disabilities, or those facing long-term unemployment, Mr Jenrick said.\n\n\"My message for big business is it is not right that they reach for the easy lever of foreign labour in the first instance - we want them to be improving and investing in British workers,\" he said.\n\n\"We want to see a country in which business invest in the domestic workforce,\" Mr Jenrick said.\n\nMr Jenrick said the government is still committed to its 2019 manifesto promise to reduce net legal migration to 225,000, and he suggested further measures may be needed.\n\nThe migration plan comes after official figures last month showed net migration had soared to a record 745,000 in 2022.\n\nConservative MPs have since piled pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his government to bring down net migration, which is the difference between those entering and leaving the UK.\n\nMr Sunak has previously declined to say he wants to stick to the 2019 manifesto pledge. In May he said the numbers were \"too high\" but that he did not \"want to put a precise number on it\".\n\nOn Monday, Home Secretary James Cleverly announced plans to hike the minimum salary needed for skilled overseas workers to £38,700.\n\nHe also announced that from next spring, care workers will be banned from bringing family dependants to the UK.\n\nAccording to Mr Jenrick, overseas workers in the UK will be considered for \"short term placements\" without their families to avoid extra strain on public services.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing criticised the proposals, labelling it cruel and saying it \"will only add to the dire workforce crisis in the health and care sector\".\n\nBut Mr Jenrick said the scheme \"will see a reduction in the number of people coming to work in social care from overseas\".\n\nAny vacancies in health and social care \"we hope and expect will be filled by British workers,\" Mr Jenrick said.\n\nOn top of the new salary requirements and ban on dependents the government said it would:\n\nThe government was prepared to \"take further steps\" if net migration does not come down, Mr Jenrick said.\n\nThe government is still committed to its 2019 manifesto promise to reduce net legal migration to 225,000, according to Mr Jenrick.\n\nHealth Secretary Victoria Atkins told the House of Commons she had been consulted over the new migration plans, which she described as a \"tough and careful package to tackle legal migration\".\n\nShe said her department \"carefully\" monitors the level of overseas care workers.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Monday's announcement was \"an admission of years of Tory failure on both the immigration system and the economy\".\n\nShe said while net migration \"should come down\", the Conservatives were \"failing to introduce more substantial reforms that link immigration to training and fair pay requirements in the UK, meaning many sectors will continue to see rising numbers of work visas because of skills shortages\".\n\nProfessor Brian Bell, chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee, said some industries could struggle with recruitment because of the new visa rules.\n\nSpeaking on Times Radio, he said: \"I think we're going to see quite a lot of what you might describe as middle-skilled jobs that are going to struggle.\n\n\"Social care will still be allowed to employ people at lower wages; the big change is workers won't be able to bring their dependants with them, and that's a fundamental change.\"", "Trevor Jacob bailed out of a solo flight over the Los Padres mountains in California in 2021\n\nA YouTuber has been jailed for six months for deliberately crashing his plane for views, and then lying about it to US investigators.\n\nTrevor Jacob, 30, posted the video of the plane crash in December 2021, implying it was an accident. He ejected from the plane - selfie stick in hand - and parachuted down to land.\n\nThe clip was viewed millions of times.\n\nIn a plea agreement, Jacob said he filmed the video as part of a product sponsorship deal.\n\nThe former Olympic snowboarder pleaded guilty earlier this year to one felony count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation.\n\nJacob \"most likely committed this offence to generate social media and news coverage for himself and to obtain financial gain\", federal prosecutors in California said on Monday.\n\n\"Nevertheless, this type of 'daredevil' conduct cannot be tolerated,\" they added.\n\nIn a statement, Jacob said that \"this experience has been so humbling\" and described the sentence as the \"right decision\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn November 2021, Jacob left a Santa Barbara, California, airport on a solo flight with cameras mounted on his plane. Along with the cameras, Jacob took a parachute with him, as well as a selfie stick.\n\nHe \"did not intend to reach his destination, but instead planned to eject from his aircraft during the flight and video himself parachuting to the ground and his airplane as it descended and crashed\", the US Attorney's Office for the Central District of California said.\n\nThe plane crashed into the Los Padres National Forest 35 minutes after take-off. Jacob hiked to the site and recovered the footage.\n\nHe then uploaded the video entitled \"I crashed my airplane\" to YouTube on 23 December, which contained a promotion for a wallet company, prosecutors said.\n\nSome viewers were sceptical of the crash, noting that Jacob was already wearing a parachute and made no attempt to land the plane safely.\n\nHe reported the crash to the National Transportation Safety Board, who said he was responsible for preserving the wreckage. Jacob later claimed he did not know the location of the site.\n\nHe did, and returned by helicopter and secured and removed the wreckage, which he later destroyed, the plea agreement states.\n\nThe video racked up almost three million views before it was removed.\n\nJacob leaving the plane before the crash", "Joint military drills were held between Palestinian armed factions from 2020 onwards\n\nFive armed Palestinian groups joined Hamas in the deadly 7 October attack on Israel after training together in military-style exercises from 2020 onwards, BBC News analysis shows.\n\nThe groups carried out joint drills in Gaza which closely resembled the tactics used during the deadly assault - including at a site less than 1km (0.6 miles) from the barrier with Israel - and posted them on social media.\n\nThey practised hostage-taking, raiding compounds and breaching Israel's defences during these exercises, the last of which was held just 25 days before the attack.\n\nBBC Arabic and BBC Verify have collated evidence which shows how Hamas brought together Gaza's factions to hone their combat methods - and ultimately execute a raid into Israel which has plunged the region into war.\n\nOn 29 December 2020, Hamas's overall leader Ismail Haniyeh declared the first of four drills codenamed Strong Pillar a \"strong message and a sign of unity\" between Gaza's various armed factions.\n\nAs the most powerful of Gaza's armed groups, Hamas was the dominant force in a coalition which brought together 10 other Palestinian factions in a war games-style exercise overseen by a \"joint operation room\".\n\nThe structure was set up in 2018 to coordinate Gaza's armed factions under a central command.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Videos reveal how armed groups trained together before 7 October attacks\n\nPrior to 2018, Hamas had formally coordinated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Gaza's second largest armed faction and - like Hamas - a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK and other countries.\n\nHamas had also fought alongside other groups in previous conflicts, but the 2020 drill was billed in propaganda as evidence a wider array of groups were being unified.\n\nHamas's leader said the first drill reflected the \"permanent readiness\" of the armed factions.\n\nThe 2020 exercise was the first of four joint drills held over three years, each of which was documented in polished videos posted on public social media channels.\n\nThe BBC has visually identified 10 groups, including PIJ, by their distinctive headbands and emblems training alongside Hamas during the Strong Pillar drills in footage posted on the messaging app Telegram.\n\nFollowing the 7 October attack, five of the groups went on to post videos claiming to show them taking part in the assault. Three others issued written statements on Telegram claiming to have participated.\n\nThe role of these groups has come into sharp focus as pressure builds on Hamas to find dozens of women and children believed to have been taken as captives from Israel into Gaza by other factions on 7 October.\n\nThree groups - PIJ, the Mujahideen Brigades and Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades - claim to have seized Israeli hostages, alongside Hamas, on that day.\n\nEfforts to extend the temporary truce in Gaza were said to be hinging on Hamas locating those hostages.\n\nWhile these groups are drawn from a broad ideological spectrum ranging from hard-line Islamist to relatively secular, all shared a willingness to use violence against Israel.\n\nHamas statements repeatedly stressed the theme of unity between Gaza's disparate armed groups. The group suggested they were equal partners in the joint drills, whilst it continued to play a leading role in the plans to attack Israel.\n\nFootage from the first drill shows masked commanders in a bunker appearing to conduct the exercise, and begins with a volley of rocket fire.\n\nIt cuts to heavily armed fighters overrunning a mocked-up tank marked with an Israeli flag, detaining a crew member and dragging him away as a prisoner, as well as raiding buildings.\n\nWe know from videos and harrowing witness statements that both tactics were used to capture soldiers and target civilians on 7 October, when around 1,200 people were killed and an estimated 240 hostages were taken.\n\nThe first Strong Pillar drill propaganda video showed a command room overseeing the joint exercise\n\nThe second Strong Pillar drill was held almost exactly one year later.\n\nAyman Nofal, a commander in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades - the official name for Hamas's armed wing - said the aim of the exercise on 26 December 2021 was to \"affirm the unity of the resistance factions\".\n\nHe said the drills would \"tell the enemy that the walls and engineering measures on the borders of Gaza will not protect them\".\n\nAnother Hamas statement said the \"joint military manoeuvres\" were designed to \"simulate the liberation of settlements near Gaza\" - which is how the group refers to Israeli communities.\n\nThe exercise was repeated on 28 December 2022, and propaganda images of fighters practising clearing buildings and overrunning tanks in what appears to be a replica of a military base were published to mark the event.\n\nThe exercises were reported on in Israel, so it's inconceivable they were not being closely monitored by the country's extensive intelligence agencies.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have previously carried out air strikes to disrupt Hamas's training activities. In April 2023, they bombed the site used for the first Strong Pillar drill.\n\nWeeks before the attacks, female surveillance soldiers near the Gaza border reportedly warned of unusually high drone activity and that Hamas was training to take over observation posts with replicas of their positions.\n\nBut, according to reports in the Israeli media, they say they were ignored.\n\nBrigadier General Amir Avivi, a former IDF deputy commander in Gaza, told the BBC: \"There was a lot of intelligence that they were doing this training - after all, the videos are public, and this was happening just hundreds of metres from the fence (with Israel).\"\n\nBut he said while the military knew about the drills, they \"didn't see what they were training for\".\n\nThe IDF said they \"eliminated\" Nofal on 17 October 2023, the first senior Hamas military leader to be killed during the conflict.\n\nHamas went to great lengths to make sure the drills were realistic.\n\nIn 2022, fighters practised storming a mock Israeli military base built just 2.6km (1.6 miles) from the Erez crossing, a route between Gaza and Israel controlled by the IDF.\n\nBBC Verify has pinpointed the site in the far north of Gaza, just 800m (0.5 miles) from the barrier, by matching geographic features seen in the training footage to aerial images of the area. As of November 2023, the site was still visible on Bing Maps.\n\nThe training camp was within 1.6km (1 mile) of an Israeli observation tower and an elevated observation box, elements in a security barrier Israel has spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing.\n\nThe mock base is on land dug several metres below ground level, so it may not have been immediately visible to any nearby Israeli patrols - but the smoke rising from the explosions surely would have been, and the IDF is known to use aerial surveillance.\n\nHamas used this site to practise storming buildings, taking hostages at gunpoint and destroying security barriers.\n\nBBC Verify has used publicly available information - including satellite imagery - to locate 14 training sites at nine different locations across Gaza.\n\nThey even trained twice at a site less than 1.6 km (1 mile) from the United Nations' aid agency distribution centre, and which was visible in the background of an official video published by the agency in December 2022.\n\nOn 10 September 2023, the so-called joint committee room published images on its dedicated Telegram channel of men in military uniforms carrying out surveillance of military installations along the Gaza barrier.\n\nTwo days later, the fourth Strong Pillar military exercise was staged, and by 7 October, all the tactics that would be deployed in the unprecedented attack had been rehearsed.\n\nFighters were filmed riding in the same type of white Toyota pickup trucks which were seen roaming through southern Israel the following month.\n\nThe propaganda video shows gunmen raiding mock buildings and firing at dummy targets inside, as well as training to storm a beach using a boat and underwater divers. Israel has said it repelled attempted Hamas boat landings on its shores on 7 October.\n\nThe fourth and final Strong Pillar drill saw fighters training on raiding buildings\n\nHowever, Hamas did not publicise its training with motorcycles and paragliders as part of the Strong Pillar propaganda.\n\nA training video posted by Hamas three days after 7 October shows fences and barriers being demolished to allow motorcycles to pass through, a tactic they used to reach communities in southern Israel. We have not identified similar earlier videos.\n\nFootage of fighters using paragliding equipment was also not published until the 7 October attack was under way.\n\nIn a training video shared on the day of the attack, gunmen are seen landing in a mock kibbutz at an airstrip we have located to a site north of Rafah in southern Gaza.\n\nBBC Verify established it was recorded some time before 25 August 2022, and was stored in a computer file titled Eagle Squadron, the name Hamas uses for its aerial division - suggesting the paragliders plan was in the works for over a year.\n\nBefore 7 October, Hamas was thought to have about 30,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip, according to reports quoting IDF commanders. It was also thought that Hamas could draw on several thousands of fighters from smaller groups.\n\nHamas is by far the most powerful of the Palestinian armed groups, even without the support of other factions - suggesting its interest in galvanising the factions was driven by an attempt to secure broad support within Gaza at least as much as bolstering its own numbers.\n\nThe IDF has previously estimated 1,500 fighters joined the 7 October raids. The Times of Israel reported earlier this month the IDF now believes the number was closer to 3,000.\n\nWhatever the true number, it means only a relatively small fraction of the total number of armed operatives in Gaza took part. It is not possible to verify precise numbers for how many fighters from smaller groups took part in the attack or the Strong Pillar drills.\n\nWhile Hamas was building cross-faction support in the build-up to the attack, Hisham Jaber, a former Brigadier General in the Lebanese army who is now a security analyst at the Middle East Centre for Studies and Research, said he believed only Hamas was aware of the ultimate plan, and it was \"probable [they] asked other factions to join on the day\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAndreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at Kings College London, told the BBC: \"While there was centralised planning, execution was de-centralised, with each squad operationalising the plan as they saw fit.\"\n\nHe said people inside Hamas were said to be surprised by the weakness of Israel's defences, and assessed militants had likely bypassed Israel's surveillance technology by communicating offline.\n\nHugh Lovatt, a Middle East analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Israel would have been aware of the joint training drills but \"reached the wrong conclusion\", assessing they amounted to the \"standard\" activity of paramilitary groups in the Palestinian territories, rather than being \"indicative of a looming large-scale attack\".\n\nAsked about the issues raised in this article, the Israel Defense Forces said it was \"currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organisation Hamas\" and questions about any potential failures \"will be looked into in a later stage\".\n\nIt could be several years until Israel formally reckons with whether it missed opportunities to prevent the 7 October massacre.\n\nThe ramifications for its military, intelligence services and government could be seismic.\n\nAdditional reporting by Paul Brown, Kumar Malhotra and Abdirahim Saeed. Video production by Soraya Auer.", "Villagers have lost many family members in the airstrike by the military\n\nAt least 85 civilians were killed in Kaduna state, north-west Nigeria, in an air strike during a Muslim religious celebration on Sunday, the local emergency management authority said.\n\nThe civilians were killed in a \"bombing mishap\", President Bola Tinubu said without giving a death toll.\n\nState Governor Uba Sani said they were \"mistakenly killed\" by a military drone \"targeting terrorists and bandits\".\n\nMore than 60 people were admitted to hospital for treatment, officials said.\n\nThe defence ministry termed the operation a \"needless tragedy\" adding that a routine mission against militants \"inadvertently affected members of the community\".\n\nNigeria's military has for years been battling armed criminals and militants who has been operating in parts of northern Nigeria, raiding villages and kidnapping residents for ransom.\n\nThe airstrike happened when villagers from Tundun Biri gathered for a religious festival on Sunday evening.\n\nThe head of the army, Lt Gen Taoreed Lagbaja has apologised to the residents and paid a condolence visit to the village.\n\nHe expressed regret about \"the unfortunate mishap, describing it as a very disheartening occurrence\", the army said.\n\nGen Lagbaja said that troops were carrying out aerial patrols when they observed a group of people and \"wrongly analysed and misinterpreted their pattern of activities\" to be similar to that of the bandits, before the drone strike.\n\nPresident Tinubu has asked for a \"thorough and full-fledged investigation into the incident and calls for calm while the authorities look diligently into the mishap\" a statement from his office said.\n\nThe governor has also called for an investigation.\n\n\"The Northwest Zonal Office has received details from the local authorities that 85 dead bodies have so far been buried while search is still ongoing,\" a statement from the National Emergency Management Agency in the federal capital, Abuja, said.\n\n\"It is worthy of note that the casualties ranged from children, women and the elderly,\" it added.\n\nOne man, who witnessed what happened, told the BBC's Hausa service that there were two attacks.\n\n\"The aircraft dropped a bomb at the venue, it destroyed and killed our people including women and children,\" he said.\n\n\"The second bomb was dropped on some of us who went to bring dead bodies of the victims of the first blast. We lost about 34 people in my family and we have 66 injured people in the hospital.\"\n\nA woman who saw the aftermath of the bombing told the BBC that bodies were strewn all over the place.\n\n\"Some women died holding their babies, some of the babies survived while others died along with their mothers,\" she said.\n\nThe Nigerian military has in the past been accused of causing civilian casualties while battling militia gangs, known locally as bandits, in the north-west of the country. The government has labelled the gangs \"terrorists\".\n\nMore than 300 people have been killed since 2017 in accidental strikes by the Nigerian military, a report by SB Morgen, a research firm, said.\n\nIn 2021, at least 20 fishermen were killed accidentally in a Nigerian fighter jet strike on a jihadist camp in north-east Nigeria.", "Nella Rose has left the jungle after being eliminated from I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!\n\nThe influencer became the second contestant to be kicked off the ITV reality show after receiving the fewest public votes.\n\nHer 17 days in camp were marked by rows with politician Nigel Farage and First Dates star Fred Siriex after he said was he was old enough to be her dad.\n\n\"You shouldn't bring up sensitive topics,\" she told hosts Ant and Dec.\n\nRose, who has lost both her parents, said: \"In the middle of a disagreement, he brought up a sensitive topic. I didn't understand why he would do that.\"\n\nFred had been discussing his age with Nella when he said the common phrase \"I could be your dad\", which she took offence to because her father died in 2020. Their argument over the exchange attracted 861 Ofcom complaints.\n\nAsked in a post-elimination interview if it was a misunderstanding, she said: \"It could have been, but things are so heightened in the jungle that everything is a big thing.\"\n\nSpeaking about being around people from different backgrounds, she said: \"So when they have different mindsets, and I hear them, I'm shocked because I'm like, 'People think like this?'\"\n\nThe internet personality also addressed her row with Farage, the former UKIP and Brexit Party leader, over his views on immigration, which attracted 856 Ofcom complaints.\n\n\"I think that Nigel is an amazing person, until he speaks about what he really believes in, and it's like, 'You're a cool guy but why do you think like that?'\"\n\nShe is yet to address the much-talked about online abuse she received while in the camp.\n\nNella's exit follows that of jockey Frankie Dettori who left on Sunday.\n\nPreviously restaurant critic Grace Dent and Jamie Lynn Spears, sister of Britney Spears, left the show on medical grounds.", "Damion Johnson admitted charges of fraud and preventing a lawful and decent burial\n\nA man who kept his friend's body in a freezer for two years has been jailed.\n\nDamion Johnson, 53, had known John Wainwright for 27 years and lived with him at a flat in Birmingham.\n\nThe pair had a \"strong friendship\" and when Mr Wainwright, 71, died, Derby Crown Court was told Johnson had been \"overcome by grief\".\n\nThe defendant was jailed for two years after previously admitting preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body and three counts of fraud.\n\nProsecutor Darron Whitehead said he \"was not ready to let go\".\n\nThe pair lived together at a flat in Birmingham city centre\n\nThe pair moved into their shared flat in 2015 and Johnson was Mr Wainwright's registered carer.\n\nThe older man died in September 2018, but his body was not found until August 2020 when it was discovered in the freezer on the premises of a skip company.\n\nMr Whitehead said the pair had lived at Cleveland Tower, Holloway Head, in Birmingham city centre, and Johnson had described Mr Wainwright as a father figure to him\n\nThe prosecutor said Johnson had not been \"thinking rationally\" after his friend's death and added: \"As time passed, he had been unable to inform the authorities.\"\n\nJohnson ordered a chest freezer, the court was told, measuring approximately two feet by three feet, costing £462, but told relatives and friends Mr Wainwright had died and the funeral had already taken place.\n\nHe did not inform the emergency services nor obtain a death certificate.\n\nThe body was discovered after Johnson was arrested for other matters in December 2019 and the flat was boarded up. The freezer containing the body was left inside but unplugged.\n\nSeveral people later went to the flat to conduct safety checks and noted a strong smell, but the freezer was taken away by removal workers in August 2020, who assumed the smell was rotting food.\n\nThe body was eventually found by staff at Budget Skips Services Ltd in Exhall, Warwickshire.\n\nA post-mortem examination noted signs of blunt force trauma, but could not conclude how Mr Wainwright died.\n\nThe court was told Johnson, recently of Sun Street, Derby, had used his former flat-mate's bank account after his death.\n\nRaglan Ashton, mitigating, said the pair had had an \"informal agreement\" that they would still be able to access funds in a joint account, even after either of their deaths.\n\nJudge Shaun Smith KC said preventing a burial was an \"unusual offence\" but he was \"not suggesting at all\" the defendant had any involvement in Mr Wainwright's death.\n\n\"Had you accepted his death and gone about it in a normal way, he would have received a good and decent burial,\" the judge said.\n\n\"That was not what you did. You bought a chest freezer, a deliberate act on your part. You knew what you were going to do.\n\n\"Everything you did facilitated the hiding of that body. Nothing you did contributed to it being found.\"\n\nThe judge added preventing the burial of Mr Wainwright was \"an offence which is so serious that the only appropriate punishment can be achieved by immediate custody.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pauline Quinn, 73, was found after paramedics were called to Rayton Spur in Worksop\n\nA convicted double murderer who had been released on licence battered his neighbour to death with a coffee table, a jury has heard.\n\nLawrence Bierton was jailed in 1996 for the murders of two sisters.\n\nAfter being released in 2017 and recalled to prison in 2018, Bierton was released on licence again in 2020.\n\nIn November 2021, Pauline Quinn, 73, was found dead at her home. Bierton denies her murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.\n\nProsecuting, John Cammegh KC said Bierton, 63, offended repeatedly until his conviction at Sheffield Crown Court for murdering two elderly sisters.\n\nOn Tuesday, Nottingham Crown Court heard after his initial release from prison, Bierton was recalled in 2018 for \"repeated failures to address his behaviour\" and drug and alcohol misuse.\n\nHe was then released again on licence in May 2020 and, \"following concerns about his association with certain individuals\", was offered a bungalow next to Mrs Quinn's rented council property in Rayton Spur, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, in November 2020.\n\nThe court heard an \"alcohol tag\" to monitor Bierton was then removed eight months before Mrs Quinn's death, after Bierton complained of swelling in his legs.\n\nMr Cammegh said: \"What is unusual about this case is that the defendant admits that he killed the deceased.\n\n\"What he did is not in issue. The issue for you to decide will be whether or not he was of diminished responsibility at the time.\"\n\nMr Cammegh said blood staining on the ceiling and walls at the home of Mrs Quinn, and skull and facial fractures, proved the \"visceral\" nature of the attack on her.\n\nCCTV presented to the jury showed Mrs Quinn, who walked with a stick and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, returning to her home in her car at about 12:55 GMT on the day of her death.\n\nProsecutors say she was killed just after 16:00 on 9 November, when she pulled an emergency cord in her home.\n\nOf a recording of the \"lifeline\" activation, in which banging could be heard, Mr Cammegh said: \"This, we say, is when Lawrence Bierton murdered Pauline Quinn in her sitting room by striking her repeatedly about the head and about the face with a wooden coffee table.\"\n\nBierton is alleged to have removed remnants of the coffee table from Mrs Quinn's home in a carrier bag.\n\nHe is then said to have driven in her Renault Clio to a relative's property in Sheffield, arriving at about 21:00 on 9 November.\n\nThe court was told the relative, who knew nothing about Mrs Quinn's death, was given a lift to work in Barnsley by Bierton the following morning.\n\nBierton was arrested at 10:37 the same day, and taken to Sheffield's Shepcote Lane custody suite.\n\nWhile at the police station, the jury was told, Bierton informed a nurse he was alcohol dependent and that he had smoked crack cocaine and consumed two bottles of rum on the day of the alleged murder.\n\nIn initial police interviews, the court heard he offered no comment and denied wrongdoing, but later made \"various admissions\" about hitting the victim with a table to \"keep her quiet\".\n\nBierton denies murder but has admitted a charge of theft.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The A303 was flooded near Ilchester, Somerset, on Tuesday\n\nFlood warnings are in place across England as snow gave way to heavy rain.\n\nThirty-six flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected, are in force, mainly across Dorset, Somerset and the Midlands.\n\nThe flooding has affected rail services already hit by industrial action.\n\nThe RAC is also warning drivers to expect icy conditions on Wednesday, saying it expects to see a rise in breakdowns as older and faulty vehicles \"fail in the cold weather\".\n\nA total of 160 flood alerts, where flooding is considered possible, have also been issued across England.\n\nA driver was rescued after her car entered flood water at Buttsbury Wash on Tuesday\n\nCrossCountry Trains said heavy flooding was blocking lines between Edinburgh Waverley and Newcastle, with the strike action adding to disruption.\n\nMembers of train drivers' union Aslef at C2C and Greater Anglia have walked out as part of a series of rolling strikes affecting different companies on different days until 8 December. There is also an overtime ban lasting until 9 December.\n\nNetwork Rail confirmed on social media that trains in the west of England will start returning to schedule now the flood water on the railway is receding.\n\nServices between Bristol Parkway and Swindon, and Westbury and Taunton were affected by the flooding, and some trains may be cancelled or delayed due to the earlier disruption, Network Rail said.\n\nIn Somerset, several secondary schools opened late on Tuesday and at least four primaries were closed due to flooding.\n\nCouncillor Mike Rigby, the council's lead member for transport, told the BBC the authority was called out to more than 245 incidents on Monday - a higher number than during Storm Ciarán last month despite less rain this week.\n\nFirefighters in Buttsbury Wash near Billericay rescued a driver from her car earlier after she became stranded in flood water.\n\nWhile in Warwickshire the Environment Agency renewed it's flood warning for the River Swift at Rugby, and a warning for the River Alne remains but the flooding risk is reducing.\n\nA number of roads in Dorset were closed due to flood waters on Monday, including the A35, the main route through the county.\n\nIn Alsager, Cheshire, an emergency closure has been put in place on a main road, the A50 Linley Lane, after it flooded.\n\nThe Met Office said rain would ease across England and Wales throughout Tuesday, but another cold day would see wintry showers in the North and North West.\n\nA yellow rain warning will return for South West England on Thursday, forecast to last until 15:00.\n\nMet Office spokesman Grahame Madge said the risk of snow was lessening and would \"more or less be confined to Scottish mountains\" by the end of the week.\n\nA yellow warning of ice is in place for Central, Tayside and Fife, Grampian, South West Scotland and Lothian Borders from 15:00 today to 11:00 on Wednesday.\n\nBut snow is continuing to make life difficult in Cumbria, as the heavy snowfall that hit the county over the weekend thaws.\n\nHave you been personally affected by flooding or rail strikes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Home Secretary James Cleverly signed the new treaty with Rwanda's foreign affairs minister Vincent Biruta in Kigali\n\nThe home secretary says a new treaty with Rwanda addresses the concerns of the UK's Supreme Court, which ruled the government's plan unlawful last month.\n\nThe court said the policy, which would see migrants sent to Rwanda, was open to human rights breaches.\n\nJames Cleverly insisted Rwanda had made \"a clear and unambiguous commitment to the safety of people who come here\".\n\nThe policy is part of the government's plan to deter migrants from crossing the Channel in small boats.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has said \"stopping the boats\" is one of five main priorities for his government ahead of the next general election.\n\nBut the Rwanda scheme - which was first announced by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April 2022 - has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges and no asylum seekers have been sent to the country yet.\n\nLabour has also pledged to scrap the policy if it wins the next election, casting doubt over its long-term future.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the policy was \"failing\" - and funding for it would be better spent on \"going after\" the gangs that organise small boat crossings.\n\nThe Supreme Court, the UK's highest court, rejected the policy on the grounds that it could not be guaranteed the Rwandan government would honour a principle of international law known as non-refoulement.\n\nThe principle forbids a country that receives asylum seekers from returning them to any country if doing so would put them at risk of harm.\n\nFollowing the ruling, Mr Sunak said his government would work on a new treaty with Rwanda and said he would introduce emergency legislation to assert the country was safe.\n\nThe legislation is expected to be introduced in Parliament this week.\n\nMr Cleverly travelled to Kigali and signed the new legally binding treaty alongside Rwanda's foreign affairs minister Vincent Biruta on Tuesday.\n\nHe is the third home secretary to make his way to Rwanda - following in the steps of his predecessors Priti Patel and Suella Braverman.\n\nThe British government says the new treaty ensures that people relocated to Rwanda are not at risk of being returned to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened.\n\nThe treaty establishes a new appeal body, which will be made up of judges with asylum expertise from a range of countries, to hear individual cases.\n\nThe government says Rwanda's asylum system would be monitored by an independent committee, whose powers to enforce the treaty would be beefed up.\n\nThe Monitoring Committee will develop a system which will enable relocated people and their lawyers to lodge complaints, the government says.\n\nAt a press conference, Mr Cleverly insisted Rwanda was a safe country and said \"we feel very strongly this treaty addresses all of the issues of their lordships in the Supreme Court\".\n\nHe said this would be \"reflected in domestic legislation soon\".\n\nA spokesperson for the Rwanda's government said it had a \"proven record\" of offering a home to refugees, and the new treaty would \"re-emphasise, in a binding manner, already existing commitments\" on asylum seeker protection.\n\nThe asylum policy has already cost the UK government at least £140m, but Mr Cleverly said the UK has not paid Rwanda any additional money for the new treaty.\n\nThe home secretary said he could not see \"any credible reason\" to question Rwanda's \"track record\" of handling asylum cases and he hoped to see the scheme running \"as quickly as possible\".\n\nHe said Rwanda had a \"strong reputation\" of being humane and was \"uncomfortable\" at the \"tone\" of the criticism levelled at Rwanda.\n\nRwanda's foreign affairs minister suggested \"internal UK politics\" may have played a role in the asylum policy being blocked.\n\nBut Mr Biruta said: \"I would say there's always room for improvement to any system designed by human beings, Rwandan or British.\n\n\"This is the reason why we have worked on this treaty... to make sure we can improve our asylum system and that we have a fair and transparent asylum system in place.\"\n\nConservative MPs on the right of their party are putting pressure on Mr Sunak to stop migrant boat crossings.\n\nMore than 45,700 people crossed the Channel to come to the UK in 2022, the highest figure since records began.\n\nIn the coming days, the government will bring forward new legislation to try to avoid more legal challenges to its Rwanda plan.\n\nThe One Nation Caucus of Conservative MPs have expressed concerns about the legislation and fear it may seek to ignore UK and international human rights laws.\n\nSome Tory MPs argue that withdrawing the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), an international treaty, would stop the Rwanda scheme from being blocked by legal challenges.\n\nBut senior Tory MP Damian Green said Conservatives like him \"hold these treaties dear and they should be seen as fundamental to part of protecting the UK's democratic legacy\".\n\nThe UK government is also facing calls to slash net migration, which has soared to a record 745,000 in 2022.\n\nThe Conservatives have repeatedly promised to cut net migration since winning power in 2010, and \"take back control\" of the UK's borders following the Brexit vote.\n\nOn Monday, the home secretary announced a package of measures including raising the minimum salary needed for skilled overseas workers from £26,200 to £38,700.\n\nMr Cleverly claimed 300,000 people who were eligible to come to the UK last year would not be able to in future.", "The publisher of the Sun and the News of the World has agreed a \"six figure\" settlement to a phone-hacking claim from a former government minister.\n\nChris Huhne accused News Group Newspapers of \"knowingly orchestrating unlawful information gathering in the UK\" at executive level.\n\nOn Tuesday, the company apologised for the \"behaviour of individuals working for or on behalf of the News of the World\" but made no further admissions.\n\nThese included claims from the former Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm, and actors Keith Allen, Catherine Tate and Mathew Horne.\n\nThe News of the World closed suddenly in July 2011 as the phone-hacking scandal broke.\n\nMore than a decade on, dozens of cases are still being considered by the civil courts.\n\nChris Huhne was the Liberal Democrats' shadow home secretary in 2009 and entered government as energy and climate change secretary when the party formed a coalition government with the Conservatives in 2010.\n\nAt court on Tuesday, he said he had agreed a \"six figure sum\" in damages with News Corporation's legal entity News Group Newspapers and the company would pay his legal costs.\n\nHe accused News Corporation's legal entity News Group Newspapers of hacking his phone as part of an attempt to obtain embarrassing material about him and remove him as a political opponent.\n\nNews UK, the UK arm of News Corporation, said Chris Huhne and the pressure group Hacked Off, which has campaigned against the use of unlawful techniques by journalists, had been hostile to News Corporation for years.\n\nIn 2009, Mr Huhne called for the expansion of a police investigation into phone hacking by people working for the newspaper.\n\nHe also opposed News Corporation's bid at the time for UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB.\n\nHe said he believed the settlement \"vindicates my long-standing claim that News Corporation directors and managers targeted me to get rid of a political opponent.\"\n\n\"My case is unprecedented because the unlawful information gathering was directed not by journalists but by News Corp executives,\" he said.\n\n\"They had two objectives: corporate espionage to help Murdoch's bid for Sky, and bull-dozing pesky politicians out of the way.\"\n\nHe called on the Metropolitan Police to open a new investigation into directors and managers at News Corporation.\n\nNews Group Newspapers made no apology to Mr Huhne, in contrast to its legal response to other cases it had settled. A legal response contained no admissions relating to the former politician's allegations.\n\nIn a statement following the settlement, a spokesman said it \"strongly denied that there was any corporate motive or direction to obtain information unlawfully\", and that the stories published \"were legitimate and in the public interest\".\n\nMr Huhne said he had not requested a court apology but had settled because he would not achieve a bigger damages pay-out by going to trial.\n\nHacked Off chief executive Nathan Sparkes said dozens of politicians were \"unlawfully targeted by the press\" and \"yet rarely - if ever - was there any public interest justification\".\n\n\"Instead of holding power to account, News UK and other publishers involved in illegal activities were trying to manipulate politicians to their advantage and sell more newspapers,\" he said.", "The UK government has introduced measures it promised would deliver the biggest ever cut in net migration after levels soared to a record high.\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly announced a five-point plan to curb immigration, which he said was \"far too high\".\n\nThe changes included hiking the minimum salary needed for skilled overseas workers from £26,200 to £38,700.\n\nMr Cleverly claimed 300,000 people who were eligible to come to the UK last year would not be able to in future.\n\nThe minimum income for family visas has also risen to £38,700.\n\nIn a statement to MPs, the home secretary said migration to the UK \"needs to come down\" and there had been \"abuse\" of health and care visas for years.\n\n\"Enough is enough,\" Mr Cleverly said. \"Immigration policy must be fair, legal, and sustainable.\"\n\nThe migration plan comes after official figures last month showed net migration had soared to a record 745,000 in 2022.\n\nConservative MPs have since piled pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his government to bring down net migration, which is the difference between those entering and leaving the UK.\n\nThe sharp increase represents a huge political challenge for Mr Sunak and the Conservatives, who have repeatedly promised to reduce net migration since winning power in 2010, and \"take back control\" of the UK's borders since the Brexit vote.\n\nThe party's 2019 election manifesto committed to getting the number down, without setting a specific target, while David Cameron once pledged to bring net migration below 100,000 when he was prime minister.\n\nImmigration is shaping up to be a key issue ahead of the next general election, which is expected in 2024.\n\nWith Labour leading in opinion polls, Mr Sunak has vowed to \"do what is necessary\" to bring down net migration.\n\nWriting in the Sun newspaper, the prime minister wrote: \"If you can't contribute to the UK, you are not coming to the UK.\n\n\"Our plan will deliver the biggest-ever cut in net migration and curb abuse.\"\n\nOn top of the new salary requirements, the government said it would:\n\nThe home secretary told MPs the changes would take effect in the spring next year.\n\n\"In total, this package, plus our reduction in students dependants, will mean around 300,000 fewer people will come in future years than have come to the UK last year,\" Mr Cleverly told MPs.\n\nThe figure of 300,000 is an estimate, based on internal Home Office calculations.\n\nThe Home Office believes the previously announced ban on most overseas students bringing dependents with them will account for almost half of the overall reduction.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Monday's announcement was \"an admission of years of Tory failure on both the immigration system and the economy\".\n\nShe said while net migration \"should come down\", the Conservatives were \"failing to introduce more substantial reforms that link immigration to training and fair pay requirements in the UK, meaning many sectors will continue to see rising numbers of work visas because of skills shortages\".\n\nUnison general secretary Christina McAnea said the \"cruel plans spell total disaster for the NHS and social care\".\n\n\"Migrant workers were encouraged to come here because both sectors are critically short of staff. Hospitals and care homes simply couldn't function without them,\" she said.\n\nThe plans were welcomed by some Conservative MPs, with former cabinet minister Simon Clarke calling the changes \"serious\" and \"credible\" steps.\n\nBut Mr Cleverly's predecessor as home secretary, Suella Braverman, was less impressed.\n\nShe said the package was \"too late and the government can go further\" on salary requirements and \"shortening the graduate route\".\n\nMrs Braverman claimed she had put forward similar proposals six times when she was home secretary \"but the delay has reduced their impact\".\n\nShe has lambasted the government's record on immigration since she was sacked as home secretary by Mr Sunak last month.\n\nThe latest statistics show the challenge ministers will face in reducing migration into the health sector, which has come to rely heavily on hiring workers from abroad.\n\nThe government said in the year ending September 2023, 101,000 visas were issued to care workers.\n\nAn estimated 120,000 visas were granted to the family dependants of those care workers, the government said.\n\nThe care sector is facing staffing shortages and providers have resisted curbs on their ability to hire foreign workers.\n\nThe government's migration advisers have previously said \"persistent underfunding\" of local councils, which funds most adult social care, is the most important factor in the staffing crisis.\n\nMr Cleverly acknowledged some care workers might be deterred from coming to the UK because they would not be able to bring families under the new rules.\n\nBut he said he believed there would still be care workers who would be willing to work in the UK.\n\nDr Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory, said the decision to raise the family income threshold to £38,700 was \"the biggest surprise of the day\".\n\nThe government's changes to the minimum income for family visas mean that people may be blocked from bringing their relatives to stay in the UK under certain circumstances.\n\n\"Family migration makes up a small share of the total, but those who are affected by it can be affected very significantly,\" Dr Sumption said.\n\n\"The largest impacts will fall on lower-income British citizens, and particularly women and younger people who tend to earn lower wages.\"\n\nAre you affected by the decision to raise the salary threshold? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "\"We see women of all ages... We see the bruises, we learn about the cuts and tears, and we know they have been sexually abused,\" Captain Maayan told the BBC\n\nThe BBC has seen and heard evidence of rape, sexual violence and mutilation of women during the 7 October Hamas attacks.\n\nWARNING: CONTAINS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND RAPE\n\nSeveral people involved in collecting and identifying the bodies of those killed in the attack told us they had seen multiple signs of sexual assault, including broken pelvises, bruises, cuts and tears, and that the victims ranged from children and teenagers to pensioners.\n\nVideo testimony of an eyewitness at the Nova music festival, shown to journalists by Israeli police, detailed the gang rape, mutilation and execution of one victim.\n\nVideos of naked and bloodied women filmed by Hamas on the day of the attack, and photographs of bodies taken at the sites afterwards, suggest that women were sexually targeted by their attackers.\n\nFew victims are thought to have survived to tell their own stories.\n\nTheir last moments are being pieced together from survivors, body-collectors, morgue staff and footage from the attack sites.\n\nPolice have privately shown journalists a single horrific testimony that they filmed of a woman who was at the Nova festival site during the attack.\n\nShe describes seeing Hamas fighters gang rape a woman and mutilate her, before the last of her attackers shot her in the head as he continued to rape her.\n\nHamas fighters stormed the Nova festival on 7 October and killed hundreds\n\nIn the video, the woman known as Witness S mimes the attackers picking up and passing the victim from one to another.\n\n\"She was alive,\" the witness says. \"She was bleeding from her back.\"\n\nShe goes on to detail how the men cut off parts of the victim's body during the assault.\n\n\"They sliced her breast and threw it on the street,\" she says. \"They were playing with it.\"\n\nThe victim was passed to another man in uniform, she continues.\n\n\"He penetrated her, and shot her in the head before he finished. He didn't even pick up his pants; he shoots and ejaculates.\"\n\nOne man we spoke to from the festival site said he heard the \"noises and screams of people being murdered, raped, decapitated\".\n\nTo our question about how he could be sure - without seeing it - that the screams he heard indicated sexual assault rather than other kinds of violence, he said he believed while listening at the time that it could only have been rape.\n\nA statement he made through a support organisation describes it as \"inhuman\".\n\n\"Some women were raped before they were dead, some raped while injured, and some were already dead when the terrorists raped their lifeless bodies,\" his statement says. \"I desperately wanted to help, but there was nothing I could do.\"\n\nIsraelis are still grappling with the Hamas attack in October\n\nPolice say they have \"multiple\" eye-witness accounts of sexual assault, but wouldn't give any more clarification on how many. When we spoke to them, they hadn't yet interviewed any surviving victims.\n\nHamas has rejected Israel's accusation that its men sexually assaulted women during the attacks.\n\nIsrael's Women's Empowerment Minister, May Golan, told the BBC that a few victims of rape or sexual assault had survived the attacks, and that they were all currently receiving psychiatric treatment.\n\n\"But very, very few. The majority were brutally murdered,\" she said. \"They aren't able to talk - not with me, and not to anyone from the government [or] from the media.\"\n\nVideos filmed by Hamas include footage of one woman, handcuffed and taken hostage with cuts to her arms and a large patch of blood staining the seat of her trousers.\n\nIn others, women carried away by the fighters appear to be naked or semi-clothed.\n\nMultiple photographs from the sites after the attack show the bodies of women naked from the waist down, or with their underwear ripped to one side, legs splayed, with signs of trauma to their genitals and legs.\n\n\"It really feels like Hamas learned how to weaponise women's bodies from ISIS [the Islamic State group] in Iraq, from cases in Bosnia,\" said Dr Cochav Elkayam-Levy, a legal expert at the Davis Institute of International Relations at Hebrew University.\n\n\"It brings me chills just to know the details that they knew about what to do to women: cut their organs, mutilate their genitals, rape. It's horrifying to know this.\"\n\n\"It really feels like Hamas learned how to weaponise women's bodies from ISIS in Iraq, from cases in Bosnia,\" said Cochav Elkayam-Levy\n\n\"I spoke with at least three girls who are now hospitalised for a very hard psychiatric situation because of the rapes they watched,\" Minister May Golan told me. \"They pretended to be dead and they watched it, and heard everything. And they can't deal with it.\"\n\nIsrael's police chief Yaacov Shabtai said that many survivors of the attacks were finding it difficult to talk and that he thought some of them would never testify about what they saw or experienced.\n\n\"Eighteen young men and women have been hospitalised in mental health hospitals because they could no longer function,\" he said.\n\nOthers are reportedly suicidal. One of those working with the teams around survivors told the BBC that some had already killed themselves.\n\nMuch of the evidence has come from the volunteer body-collectors deployed after the attacks, and those who handled the bodies once they arrived at the Shura army base for identification.\n\nOne of the body-collectors volunteering with the religious organisation Zaka described to me signs of torture and mutilation which included, he said, a pregnant woman whose womb had been ripped open before she was killed, and her foetus stabbed while it was inside her.\n\nThe BBC has not been able to independently verify this account, and Israeli media reports have questioned some testimony from volunteers working in the traumatic aftermath of the Hamas attacks.\n\nAnother, Nachman Dyksztejna, provided written testimony of seeing the bodies of two women in kibbutz Be'eri with their hands and legs tied to a bed.\n\n\"One was sexually terrorised with a knife stuck in her vagina and all her internal organs removed,\" his statement says.\n\nAt the festival site, he says small shelters were \"filled with piles of women. Their clothing was torn on the upper part, but their bottoms were completely naked. Piles and piles of women. […] When you took a closer look at their heads, you saw a single shot straight to the brain of each.\"\n\nHundreds of bodies were collected from the attack sites by volunteers.\n\nMay Golan: \"For the first five days, we still had terrorists on the ground in Israel. And there were hundreds, hundreds of bodies everywhere.\"\n\nInvestigators admit that in those first chaotic days after the attacks, with some areas still active combat zones, opportunities to carefully document the crime scenes, or take forensic evidence, were limited or missed.\n\n\"For the first five days, we still had terrorists on the ground in Israel,\" May Golan said. \"And there were hundreds, hundreds of bodies everywhere. They were burned, they were without organs, they were butchered completely.\"\n\n\"This was a mass casualty event,\" police spokesman Dean Elsdunne told journalists at a briefing.\n\n\"The first thing was to work on identifying the victims, not necessarily on crime scene investigation. People were waiting to hear what happened to their loved ones.\"\n\nIt was staff at the army's Shura base, where bodies arrived for identification, who have provided investigators with some of the most crucial evidence.\n\nThis evidence emerged from a makeshift hub of tents and refrigerated shipping containers set up at the base to identify the bodies.\n\nWhen we visited, hospital trolleys, their iron skeletons topped with khaki stretchers, stood neatly lined up in front of the containers that housed the dead; the white plastic overalls of those on shift translucent under the floodlights.\n\nFighter jets roared overhead, drowning out the cicadas, as Israel's bombardment of Gaza continued.\n\nTeams here told us they'd seen clear evidence of rape and sexual violence on the bodies coming in, including broken pelvises from sustained violent abuse.\n\n\"We see women of all ages,\" one of the reservists on the forensic team, Captain Maayan, told the BBC. \"We see rape victims. We see women who have been through violation. We have pathologists and we see the bruises, we learn about the cuts and tears, and we know they have been sexually abused.\"\n\nI ask her what proportion of the bodies she's handled show signs of this.\n\n\"Abundant,\" she said. \"Abundant amount of women and girls of all ages.\"\n\nDebris litters the ground at the Nova festival site\n\nThe number of victims is hard to define, partly because of the state of the bodies.\n\n\"It's definitely multiple,\" said another serving soldier who asked us to use only her first name, Avigayil. \"It's hard to tell. I've dealt with more than a few burned bodies and I have no idea what they went through beforehand. And bodies that are missing the bottom half - I also don't know if they were raped. But women that were clearly raped? There are enough. More than enough.\"\n\n\"Sometimes we are left only with a very small part of the body,\" Dr Elkayam-Levy tells me. \"Maybe it's a finger, a foot or a hand that they're trying to identify. People were burned to ashes. Nothing was left. […] I want to say that we'll never know how many cases there were.\"\n\nPrivately some of those working on this talk in terms of \"dozens\" of victims but quickly caution that evidence is still being gathered and pieced together.\n\nThe civil commission headed by Dr Elkayam-Levy, to collect testimony on sexual crimes, is calling for international recognition that what happened on 7 October was systematic abuse, constituting Crimes Against Humanity.\n\n\"We see definite patterns,\" she told me. \"So it wasn't incidental, it wasn't random. They came with a clear order. It was […] rape as genocide.\"\n\nAvigayil agrees there were similarities in the violence visited on the bodies that arrived at the Shura base.\n\n\"There are patterns in that groups of women from the same place were treated in a similar manner,\" she said.\n\n\"There might be a set of women who were raped in one way, and we're seeing similarities in the bodies; and then a different set that were not raped but shot multiple times in the exact same pattern. So it seems that different groups of terrorists had different forms of cruelty.\"\n\n\"Israel on 7 October is not the same country that woke up the following morning\": police chief Yaacov Shabtai\n\nDavid Katz from Israel's cyber crime unit which is involved in the investigation, told journalists that it was too early to prove that sexual violence was planned as part of the attack, but that data extracted from the phones of the Hamas attackers suggested that \"everything was systematic\".\n\n\"It would be reckless to say we can already prove it […] but everything that was done there was done systematically,\" he said. \"Nothing happened by coincidence. Rape was systematic.\"\n\nIsrael's government points to documents it says were found on Hamas fighters that appear to support the idea that sexual violence was planned. It's released clips of interrogations with some captured fighters in which they appear to say that women were targeted for this purpose.\n\nLast week, UN Women put out a statement saying it \"unequivocally condemn[ed] the brutal attacks by Hamas\" and was \"alarmed by the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during those attacks\".\n\nDr Elkayam-Levy said before the statement that international women's rights organisations had taken far too long to respond to her call for support.\n\n\"This is the most documented atrocity humanity has known,\" she told me.\n\n\"Israel on 7 October is not the same country that woke up the following morning,\" said police chief Yaacov Shabtai.\n\nAmid the horror of what happened to women here, Captain Maayan from the Shura identification unit says the hardest moments are when she sees \"the mascara on their eyelashes, or the earrings they put on that morning\".\n\nI ask where that lands in her, as a woman.\n\n\"Terror,\" she replied. \"It terrorises us.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Swansea\n\nSwansea City have sacked head coach Michael Duff after less than six months in charge of the Championship club.\n\nDuff departs after a run of one win in eight matches and with Swansea sitting 18th in the table.\n\nThe 45-year-old had endured a difficult spell as Swansea boss, with the club struggling to find consistency this season.\n\nMartin Paterson has also left, with his fellow assistant head coach Alan Sheehan becoming caretaker boss.\n\nSheehan will start his temporary tenure on Saturday, as Swansea go in search of a first win in five league games at second-bottom Rotherham United.\n\nDuff's brief reign began with a seven-game winless streak in the league - including a miserable derby defeat at Cardiff City - before a run of four straight wins lifted his side into the top half of the table.\n\nBut they have since taken six points from a possible 24, a worrying run which has cost Duff his job.\n\nThe former Cheltenham Town and Barnsley boss was booed by sections of Swansea's support after last Saturday's draw with Huddersfield.\n\nSwansea City said \"the process to appoint a new head coach is already under way\".\n\nDuff left League One Barnsley to take over at Swansea in June following former boss Russell Martin's move to Southampton, signing a deal with the Swans until 2026.\n\nThe Welsh club made a host of changes behind the scenes and there was a major overhaul of the playing squad, with chairman Andy Coleman - who took up his role in May - suggesting Duff's side should be capable of challenging for promotion.\n\nHowever, Swansea are only five points clear above the relegation zone having won just five of their 19 league games this season.\n\nSwansea's style of play under Duff has been criticised, with the club moving away from the possession game which has been key to their successes in recent memory.\n\nThe former Cheltenham boss has also had an uneasy relationship with Swansea's fans.\n\nClub chairman Coleman said: \"This was a very difficult decision and one that was given considerable thought and attention.\n\n\"I acknowledge that there has been a significant amount of change at the club, both on and off the pitch, during Michael's tenure. I consistently asked for patience as we gave him time to implement his plans and bring the squad together.\n\n\"Unfortunately, we have seen neither the results that we expect nor the progress from the squad that we need. I believe it is now in the best interests of Swansea City to make a change of head coach.\n\n\"I have the greatest respect for Michael as a person and as a leader. I know how hard he and his staff have worked throughout this season for Swansea City.\n\n\"I want to personally thank Michael, Martin, and their families for the sacrifices they have made on behalf of this club and this city.\n\n\"I know that Michael will be successful in his next opportunity and on behalf of the board and the entire club, I wish him and Martin only the best in their future endeavours.\n\n\"I will learn from the experience of these last several months. My appreciation for how critical the Swansea identity is to this club has grown since the summer and it will be high in my mind as I make the decision on our new head coach.\"\n\n'From day one Duff appeared to be wrong for Swansea'\n\nSo Swansea City's hierarchy have acted to atone for their very own mistake.\n\nAlmost from day one, Duff appeared to be the wrong manager for the club.\n\nThe often mentioned 'Swansea Way' is not just a catchy phrase. There have been variations on the theme over the years since the days of Roberto Martinez and Brendan Rodgers.\n\nBut there is now something in the DNA at Swansea City where style matters, and Duff never appeared to be the correct fit.\n\nHis words before the south Wales derby, coupled with the abject performance against Cardiff City in the 2-0 away defeat in September, did him no favours. After the derby dominance in the Russell Martin era, that was always going to be a huge reverse to counter even for one so experienced as Duff.\n\nA four-game winning run late in September and running into October appeared to suggest Duff could turn the tide.\n\nBut even through that time, he struggled to give the side any identity. It was as if he was trying to impose a more direct style on the team - with players who just did not suit that system.\n\nHe was also less than inspiring in the media - a facet not as important as results, but a key element these days.\n\nChairman Andy Coleman seems to have admitted the style factor was as much to blame as one win in the last eight league games.\n\nYou would have thought the Swans football management would have realised that in the summer.\n\nMake no mistake, the Swans were heading for the crunch. Had Duff stayed, he would have rightly expected backing in the January transfer window.\n\nBut they have decided to act now and look for someone who, in the words of Coleman, can help \"reconnect the leadership of Swansea City Football Club with its supporters\".\n\nNo team is ever too good to go down. Swansea have some decent players who together should not be part of a side heading in the wrong direction near the foot of the table.\n\nThe Swans must act quickly, especially with games at Rotherham and Stoke in the next week. They would do well to seek the advice of those within the club or in the area who are familiar with the 'Swansea Way'.\n\nJudging by the jeers received from the fans at the final whistle last Saturday and the tone of the supporters who spoke on my Radio Wales phone-in following the 1-1 home draw with Huddersfield, this decision will be generally welcomed by the Jack Army.\n\nClub bosses have seen their error and - with this dismissal - have admitted they were wrong and will have paid for it given Duff's contract ran to 2026.\n\nBut in listening to the fans who were clearly at odds with Duff's style, acting this swiftly could prove invaluable and perhaps rescue the season.\n\nIt is difficult not to feel sympathy with Duff. At another club, his management ethos and method might work. But in so many ways, Swansea are different.\n\nNow Swans fans will have their fingers crossed the hierarchy get the next appointment right.\n• None The most eaten meat in the world: Dr Chris van Tulleken discovers how we changed chicken and how chicken changed us\n• None Brian Cox and Robin Ince uncover the amazing intelligence of these unusual creatures", "The number of delegates at this year's UN climate talks who are also linked to fossil fuel producers has quadrupled since last year, campaigners say.\n\nAround 2,400 people connected to the coal, oil and gas industries have been registered for the COP28 climate talks.\n\nThis record number is more than the total attendees from the 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change.\n\nThe jump is partly due to registration changes with attendees now required to be open about their employment.\n\nThe analysis was carried out by a coalition of green groups opposed to the presence of delegates linked to coal, oil and gas at the talks.\n\nCOP28 is the biggest climate conference ever held with some 97,000 politicians, diplomats, journalists and campaigners registered for the meeting,\n\nBut this new analysis suggests that 2,456 representatives of the coal, oil and gas industries and related organisations are also at the gathering in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.\n\nAt COP26, in Glasgow, there were some 500 delegates with fossil fuel backgrounds.\n\nLast year at COP27 in Egypt, the numbers had swollen by a quarter, with more than 600 representatives there.\n\nBut this year more than four times that number have registered for COP28.\n\nAhead of this year's talks, the UN introduced tougher registration procedures, meaning that more people had to state clearly who they worked for.\n\nAs a result of this greater transparency the numbers have shot up significantly. But campaigners say it is not the only reason for the rise.\n\n\"This does not account for the entire, significant uptick in lobbyist presence,\" said George Carew-Jones, from the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition.\n\n\"These talks are rumoured to deliver progress on a phase out of fossil fuels, and the fossil fuel industry is here to influence that outcome as much as possible,\" he said.\n\nCampaigners go through the list of registered attendees at each COP and analyse the affiliations that participants self-disclose.\n\nThey then verify that each link has been sponsored or paid for by a fossil fuel linked entity, such as a company or national oil producer. They say they take a conservative approach and apply a \"rigorous methodology\".\n\nThe future of fossil fuels is very much on the agenda at this meeting, with COP president Sultan al-Jaber seeking to land a deal that might refer to the phasing out or phasing down of these energy sources.\n\nHis appointment has been controversial as he is also the CEO of Adnoc, the UAE's state oil company.\n\nMr Jaber has had to defend himself after making statements that appeared to cast doubt on the science behind the idea of ending fossil fuels.\n\nCampaigners who compiled these new figures say that links to the oil, coal and gas industries at COP28 go far beyond the presidency.\n\n\"The sheer number of fossil fuel lobbyists at climate talks that could determine our future is beyond justification,\" said Joseph Sikulu, Pacific Managing Director, 350.org.\n\n\"Their increasing presence at COP undermines the integrity of the process as a whole. We come here to fight for our survival and what chance do we have if our voices are suffocated by the influence of big polluters? This poisoning of the process needs to end, we will not let oil and gas influence the future of the Pacific this heavily.\"", "Sharon Gordon was found at her home in Dudley in July\n\nA builder has admitted murdering his client with a hammer in a row over the extension he was building at her home.\n\nSharon Gordon, 58, was found dead at her home in Dudley, West Midlands, by concerned friends after she failed to turn up to work in July.\n\nShe was slumped at the bottom of the stairs with severe head injuries, police said.\n\nPeter Norgrove, from Sedgley, was due to face trial but pleaded guilty to her murder on Monday.\n\nHe changed his plea at Wolverhampton Crown Court earlier and will be sentenced at the same court on 26 January.\n\nBlood-stained items were found at an address connected to Peter Norgrove, police said\n\nThe 43-year-old, from Brownswall Road, Sedgley, met Mrs Gordon through mutual friends at the same church they both attended, West Midlands Police said.\n\nHe was building an extension at her home in Bromford Road which had taken several months and thrown up a number of problems.\n\nAfter she did not arrive at work on 21 July, her friends went to her home and found her body. She had died the previous day, the force said.\n\nNorgrove told police he had left the property the day before, however blood-stained items were found in a wheelie bin at a family address related to him and further searches revealed a hammer hidden in a shed.\n\nMrs Gordon, 58, was found by concerned friends after she didn't turn up to work\n\nDet Insp Damian Forrest, who led the investigation, said: \"This appears to have been a disagreement over work carried out at the victim's property which has escalated into violence.\n\n\"I am pleased the defendant has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and spared Mrs Gordon's family the ordeal of a trial.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Women's Football\n\nRuthless England thumped Scotland in their final Women's Nations League group match but it was not enough to top the table after the Netherlands scored two injury-time goals against Belgium to deny them in a dramatic finish.\n\nThat means the Dutch are through to the Nations League semi-finals and, as a result of England's exit, Team GB now will not be in the Paris 2024 Olympics football competition.\n\nEngland needed to better the Netherlands' result by three clear goals to reach the Nations League finals and keep Team GB's Olympic hopes alive.\n\nA determined first half saw goals from Alex Greenwood, Lauren James with two and Beth Mead before Fran Kirby made it 5-0 just after the break.\n\nBut as the game entered stoppage time, the Dutch went 3-0 up against Belgium and the Lionesses needed to produce a sixth goal to put qualification back in their sights.\n\nLucy Bronze delivered in the 93rd minute with a headed effort but, as relief seemed to take hold at full-time, the Netherlands scored a dramatic fourth goal to ensure they won the group ahead of England.\n\nEngland would have secured Team GB's place in Olympics football had they reached the Nations League final.\n• None England 'devastated' to miss out on goal difference - Mead\n• None Is Martinez Losa still man to lead Scotland to Euros?\n• None Women's Nation League finals: Who has qualified? And who has missed out?\n\nAs England huddled at full-time to await the result of the Netherlands match having scored six goals, they must have felt they had done enough to progress.\n\nThe odds were heavily stacked against the Lionesses with a three-goal margin separating them from the Dutch, but they were in fine goalscoring form in Glasgow and the mountain they had to climb started to look smaller.\n\nGreenwood's header had opened the scoring before James' deflected shot found the back of the net one minute before she curled an effort into the top corner.\n\nMead marked her first England start since recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury with a stunning finish into the top right corner before Kirby poked home from Georgia Stanway's cutback four minutes after the break to make it five.\n\nEngland did not celebrate any of the goals, each time picking the ball out of the back of the net and racing back to the halfway line to go again, knowing they needed a significant margin to top the group.\n\nUltimately, even a six-goal win was not enough and questions will be asked about England's performances in this Nations League campaign after they lost to the Netherlands and Belgium away and needed a last-minute goal to beat the Dutch at Wembley on Friday.\n\nWhen it mattered, the Lionesses were ruthless, but mistakes and missed opportunities earlier in the campaign will be scrutinised as the European champions miss out.\n\nIn the build-up to the match, both camps were quick to dismiss the idea that Scotland may go easy on their closest rivals as a heavy loss would benefit Scottish players' chances of appearing in Paris.\n\nScotland captain Rachel Corsie said on Monday it was \"disrespectful\" and \"outrageous\" to question her team's integrity while England defender Lucy Bronze said it was \"the rudest thing ever\".\n\nAlready consigned to last place and relegation to League B in the Nations League, Pedro Martinez Losa's side had nothing to play for but pride.\n\nBut while Scotland's efforts should not be questioned - Claire Emslie saw her effort flash just wide and Kirsty Hanson missed the target after beating Mary Earps - the gap in quality was exposed on a freezing night in Glasgow.\n\nScotland crumbled in a dominant first half from England but Kirby's goal just after half-time took some of the urgency out of the game and forward Martha Thomas' arrival from the bench woke the home side up.\n\nA nervy final period saw the Tottenham striker's header well saved by Earps and a goal from the home side at 5-0 would have denied England's progression - and in turn Team GB's hopes of competing at the Games.\n\nA six-goal defeat is, in itself, disappointing for Scotland but some of their players will be equally dejected not to have the chance to represent Team GB next summer in Paris.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: What have we learnt from the GTA VI trailer?\n\nA first glimpse of the sixth game in the Grand Theft Auto series has finally been revealed after the trailer for the long-awaited blockbuster was leaked.\n\nThe 90-second teaser confirmed the game will be set in Miami-inspired Vice City and star a female protagonist, Lucia, for the first time since the 1990s.\n\nBut the waiting isn't over, as the game isn't due to be released until 2025.\n\nThe latest main game in the series will be the sequel to 2013's smash hit GTA V, which became the second best-selling video game of all time, following Minecraft.\n\nThere have been seemingly endless rumours and leaks for the past decade about GTA VI.\n\nThe mere confirmation that a trailer was coming - an announcement of an announcement, if you will - was enough to spark global headlines in November as desperate fans sought out any information about the new game.\n\nThe trailer shows people racing cars, partying on boats and a man pulling an alligator out of a swimming pool, all to the Americana sounds of Love is a Long Road by Tom Petty.\n\nGrand Theft Auto VI looks set to contain the kind of content that has proved controversial in the past\n\nGamer Jess, known as \"Rage Darling\" online, usually streams multiplayer RPGs but said she's been \"keeping an eye on\" the upcoming game.\n\n\"If you're not at least intrigued by GTA, you're a bit of a black sheep at this point, because it's so big,\" she told BBC Newsbeat.\n\nShe said the series \"has always been a man's game\", but the new female perspective has left her intrigued.\n\nWhile it's been a long time since GTA had a female protagonist in a mainline game - the last was back on the original PlayStation - she thinks the impact on the wider industry will be big.\n\n\"I think this is just going to show a lot of other game developers and AAA developers that having a female front and centre is a non-issue,\" she said.\n\nBut while the trailer provides lots of things for fans to chew over, some questions have yet to be answered.\n\nChief among them is which consoles the game will release on, as this information was not revealed in the video.\n\nHowever, Take-Two Interactive, which publishes the game, has announced GTA VI will launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X when it releases in 2025.\n\nThere is no further information on the release date, or on a potential PC version - though if it follows the same pattern of previous games in the series, a PC release will follow.\n\nGTA IV and V both came out on PC several months after they launched on console.\n\nFans are also asking who provides the voice behind lead character Lucia, but the identity of the voice actor remains a mystery.\n\nIt has taken a long time for the new game to come, and James Binns, chairman of gaming media firm Network N, said that might be explained by the sheer success of GTA V, which sold 190 million copies worldwide.\n\n\"It's one of the biggest games in the world and it's kept alive now by GTA Online, an online game where you rob banks and build gangs,\" he said.\n\n\"That means it's at the top of the play charts most weeks now for Xbox, PlayStation and PC.\n\n\"They spent over a billion dollars on it, so it's going to be epic in scale. This is going to be the most expensive game ever made.\"\n\nPreviously the gaming giant's president Sam Houser said the December release for the trailer was intended to coincide with its 25th anniversary.\n\nOriginally developed in Dundee in 1997 by DMA Design, later known as Rockstar North, GTA has been as critically and commercially successful as it has been controversial.\n\nQuestions were even asked in the House of Lords about the first game's violent content.\n\nRockstar has separately announced a deal with Netflix to bring several of its titles to the streaming giant's gaming offering.\n\nGTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas - all much-beloved by gamers - will be made available to Netflix subscribers on mobile devices on 14 December.", "Jason Manford says leaving litter is \"unbelievable\" and \"you wouldn't treat your home like that\"\n\nComedian and stage star Jason Manford has called it \"shocking\" audiences leave rubbish on theatre floors after a show, asking: \"Why do people do this?\"\n\nHe is starring in Jack and the Beanstalk, at Manchester Opera House, and filmed the popcorn, plastic cups and empty packets left among the seats.\n\n\"Look at it. I even tidy up after the cinema. Unbelievable - you wouldn't treat your home like that,\" he said.\n\n\"Pick up your stuff at the end. That's what I do.\"\n\nManford said he used to work front of house at a cinema and suggested people could just find a bin at the end. \"Just a thought,\" he added with a smile.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jason Manford This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nReplying to Manford on X, formerly known as Twitter, one user said: \"Theatres should remind people that they must remove their litter at the end of the show.\n\n\"My local theatre has staff standing with binbags - and most of the audience pick up their litter and clean up.\"\n\nAnother X user blamed \"laziness\" for people leaving food and wrappers on the floor.\n\nAnd a third said: \"Honestly, this riles me. I feel like recently there's been a huge decline in manners and general etiquette at cinemas and theatres - and I don't just mean litter either.\"\n\nMusic festivals such as Glastonbury employ hundreds of volunteers to return the sites to their natural beauty.\n\nGlastonbury employs teams to clean up the festival site\n\nVenues such as theatres and cinemas also provide staff to pick up litter after audiences leave - but the company Waste Management Resources suggests if food is left behind, they should consider whether their portion sizes are too big.\n\nIt also suggests \"providing litter bins and bins that offer separate compartments for recyclable items such as plastic bottles, paper cups and popcorn holders\".\n\nThe UK Cinema Association told the BBC: \"While we would encourage audience members to take any rubbish with them when they leave the auditorium and put it in the waste bin, everyone should be confident that staff will be on hand to pick up any litter, and make sure the screen is clean and tidy before the next show.\"\n\nEnvironmental psychologist Lee Chambers told the BBC there were \"so many different factors\" influencing whether people drop litter.\n\nHe mentioned \"access to receptacles, preparation for being able to remove litter, social cues from seeing other people's litter and how people perceive the space\".\n\n\"If they see other people's litter, it makes people feel like they have a bit more permission to do it themselves\".\n\nCinema and theatre floors start off clean before the show starts\n\nMr Chambers added that conversely, if people see someone else cleaning a space, they are more likely to do the same.\n\nBut he said \"attitudes towards littering have changed\", and it's seen as a \"smaller issue than it once was\".\n\n\"We've got big world problems, where we see massive conflicts, lots of crises, the climate... so a bit of litter - it's just a tiny thing for some people, but the accumulation of tiny things is massive.\"\n\nHe also spoke about cultural attitudes towards littering.\n\n\"There are major water companies pumping stuff into the sea and rivers, and fast fashion companies dumping stuff in other countries... we have businesses and organisations that influence the wider culture not setting the best example,\" he added.\n\nLittering had surged after lockdown, environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy said, in 2020, after the collection of rubbish and recycling had been disrupted in some areas by the pandemic.\n\n\"If you see a place that's full of litter and a mess, you're more likely to think that it doesn't matter,\" coaching psychologist Stephen Palmer, of the International Academy for Professional Development and University of Wales, told BBC Worklife.\n\nIn countries such as Japan, not dropping litter is part of their culture, with the World Economic Forum saying: \"Most Japanese people will take their rubbish home with them rather than dispose of it when out and about.\"\n\nBut the UK won the inaugural litter-picking World Cup, in Tokyo, last month, which had participants from 21 countries.\n\nIt is aimed at raising awareness of environment protection, according to Euronews.\n\nBBC News has contacted several anti-litter groups in Manchester for comment, along with UK Theatre.", "The Princess of Wales has brought her children with her to a project helping families facing poverty this Christmas.\n\nThey joined volunteers at a \"baby bank\", which helps provide support for families with young children.\n\nPrince George, aged 10, Princess Charlotte, eight, and five-year-old Prince Louis helped pick toys and gifts to be given as presents.\n\nA video of the visit says \"a quarter of families with a child under five\" in the UK are now \"living in poverty\".\n\nThe Child Poverty Action Group says that according to official figures there are 4.2 million children living in poverty - with a majority of these in working families.\n\nThe royal children, accompanied by their mother Catherine, Princess of Wales, were taught the importance of volunteering, with a trip to the baby bank in Holyport, near Maidenhead in Berkshire.\n\n\"There's lots of people who give up their time and come and help out - and you're the volunteers for this evening,\" Catherine told her children.\n\nThe baby bank's co-founder Rebecca Mistry told them: \"What we would like you to do, is try and choose some presents for some children who are a similar age to you guys.\"\n\nLouis is seen holding up a large toy gorilla, as a potential gift for someone, saying: \"This is a big guy.\"\n\nThe project's Christmas campaign wants to support 1,600 children, with gifts including pyjamas, toys and chocolates.\n\n\"If you can't put the heating on, or not as high, the PJs are going to be thick and warm,\" Mrs Mistry said, adding: \"And chocolate - because you can't really go wrong with a bit of chocolate.\"\n\nThis visit has been recorded in an advertising-style video and released by Kensington Palace on social media.\n\nBut the public service message has echoes of when Princess Diana brought Prince William and Prince Harry to visit the Passage homelessness charity, an experience which Prince William has mentioned as a shaping influence for his own homelessness campaign.\n\nThe focus on supporting families with young children also follows on Catherine's early years campaign, called Shaping Us.\n\nOn Friday Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis posted Christmas cards to children who may struggle this festive season as part of the annual carol concert organised by their mother at Westminster Abbey.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nTurkish football bosses suspended all leagues after a referee was punched to the ground by a club president following a top-flight game on Monday.\n\nHalil Umut Meler was struck by MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca, who ran on to the pitch after his team conceded a 97th-minute equaliser in a 1-1 Super Lig draw with Caykur Rizespor.\n\n\"The matches in all leagues have been postponed indefinitely,\" Turkish FA [TFF] chairman Mehmet Buyukeksi told a news conference.\n\n\"This attack is a night of shame for Turkish football,\" he added.\n\nFifa president Gianni Infantino called the incident \"totally unacceptable\" and said that violence has \"no place in our sport or society\".\n\n\"Without match officials there is no football,\" he said. \"Referees, players, fans and staff have to be safe and secure to enjoy the game, and I call on the relevant authorities to ensure that this is strictly implemented and respected at all levels.\"\n\nMeler received several blows from others as he lay on the turf and suffered injuries including a minor fracture.\n\nKoca required treatment in hospital but \"detention procedures will be carried out after the treatment\", said Turkey's minister of internal affairs, Ali Yerlikaya.\n\nYerlikaya added others had been arrested for their part in the incident, which he \"strongly condemned\".\n\nMeler, 37, is one of Turkey's top referees and officiates international games for Fifa. He is also on Uefa's elite referee list.\n\nHe also required hospital treatment and the chief physician of the hospital where he was treated, Dr Mehmet Yorubulut, said: \"There is no life threat for the moment. He only has bleeding around his left eye and a small fracture.\n\n\"We will [monitor] our referee until the morning due to head trauma. We will discharge him from hospital after the necessary examinations in the morning.\"\n\nThe country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spoke out after the shocking scenes. \"I condemn the attack on referee Halil Umut Meler after the MKE Ankaragucu-Çaykur Rizespor match played this evening, and I wish him a speedy recovery,\" he said.\n\n\"Sports means peace and brotherhood. Sport is incompatible with violence. We will never allow violence to take place in Turkish sports.\"\n\nHome club MKE Ankaragucu expressed regret following their president's actions, saying in a statement: \"We are saddened by the incident that took place this evening.\n\n\"We apologise to the Turkish football public and the entire sports community for the sad incident that occurred after the Caykur Rizespor match at Eryaman Stadium.\"\n\nCaykur Rizespor sent a message of support to Meler and expressed general dismay, stating: \"We strongly condemn the undesirable events that occurred after the Ankaragucu match we played today.\n\n\"We convey our wishes to the entire referee community, especially the referee of the match, Halil Umut Meler, to get well soon.\"\n\nThe TFF chose to take a decisive course of action that it hopes will lead Turkish football to become a safer place.\n\nTFF chairman Buyukeksi added: \"Football matches are not a war, there is no death at the end. Not all teams can become champions at the same time. We all need to understand this. We invite everyone to take responsibility.\n\n\"[Ankaragucu] and its managers will be punished most severely.\"\n\nHe said the penalties will be discussed in the relevant decision-making committees starting on Tuesday.\n\nIn a statement on what it called the \"inhumane and despicable attack\", the TFF said: \"The irresponsible statements of club presidents, managers, coaches and TV commentators targeting referees have paved the way for this vile attack today.\n\n\"In coordination with our State, all the criminal proceedings they deserve have begun to be implemented against those responsible and instigators of this inhumane attack. The responsible club, its president, its managers and all criminals who attacked Meler will be punished in the most severe way.\"\n\nGalatasaray, one of the country's biggest teams, had earlier called for an emergency meeting to allow clubs to address what they say is a growing issue in the Turkish game.\n\n\"We must all come together today and act to solve the problems we are a part of,\" read a Galatasaray statement.\n\nThe Association of Active Football Referees and Observers of Turkey called on all referees not to take the fields, adding: \"The violent attack on Meler was not only against our referee Halil Umut Meler but also against the entire referee community.\"\n\nThe Turkish Super Lig Professional Football Clubs Foundation condemned the attack and said clubs were \"ready to take all steps to prevent violent incidents\".", "Two people have been killed and seven others injured in a \"deliberate attack\" on an aid convoy in Sudan's capital Khartoum, the Red Cross has said.\n\nThe vehicles - which the charity said were \"clearly marked with a Red Cross emblem\" - were due to evacuate more than a hundred civilians.\n\nThe wounded included three charity staff, the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said.\n\nIn a statement the ICRC said it was \"shocked and appalled\".\n\nSudan's civil war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces is now in its eighth month.\n\nEarlier on Sunday, the East African regional body Igad said it had secured a commitment from both sides to implement a ceasefire and hold face-to-face talks.\n\nIt said the army chief and the head of the RSF had both committed to a peaceful settlement. However previous commitments have been broken.\n\nThe attack happened in al-Shajara neighbourhood, located in the west of the city, on Sunday, the ICRC said. It added that \"over a hundred vulnerable civilians\" were due to be moved from Khartoum to Wad Madani.\n\nThe humanitarian operation was requested by, and co-ordinated with, the parties to the conflict, it said - and that both had given security guarantees.\n\nPierre Dorbes, the head of the ICRC delegation in Sudan, said the attack was \"unacceptable\", before adding: \"I am shocked by the total disrespect for the Red Cross emblem, which must be respected and protected in accordance with international humanitarian law.\n\n\"Our mission today was to bring these civilians to safety,\" Mr Dorbes continued.\n\n\"Instead, lives have been tragically lost. My heart goes out to the loved ones of the people killed, and we desperately hope those injured will make a full recovery.\"\n\nThose being evacuated included the sick, children, orphans and the elderly needed to be moved to a safer area.\n\nThe evacuation operation has now been cancelled until a fresh security assessment can be made.\n\nThe ICRC has called for immediate protection for all civilians, including humanitarian workers and medical personnel.\n\nA coup in Sudan two years ago saw the overthrow of a power-sharing arrangement between military and civilian leaders following the ousting in 2019 of long-term authoritarian President Omar al-Bashir.\n\nIt came at a time of deep economic crisis with high inflation and shortages of food, fuel and medicine.\n\nA council of generals took over - led by the two military men at the centre of current dispute: Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the armed forces and in effect the country's president, and his deputy and leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti.\n\nThey disagreed on the direction the country was heading and the proposed move towards civilian rule.\n\nFighting in Sudan started in April after members of the RSF were redeployed around the country in a move that the army saw as a threat.\n\nThere had been some hope that talks could resolve the situation but these never happened.\n\nIt is disputed who fired the first shot but the fighting swiftly escalated in different parts of the country.\n\nMore than six million people have so far been displaced by the war, the UN says.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Zelensky has animated chat with Orban this week in Argentina\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky has had a brief - but intense-looking - conversation with the man threatening to block Ukraine's EU aspirations.\n\nHe met Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the inauguration of Argentina's new president on Sunday.\n\nMr Orban has vocally opposed progressing Kyiv's application to join the EU.\n\nThere are now fears of a diplomatic debacle later this week.\n\nOnly professional lip-readers might understand what was said between President Zelensky and a man widely seen as an EU \"bad boy\".\n\nBut the exchange comes ahead of what could be a crucial week for Ukraine's war effort.\n\nPresident Zelensky will head to Washington DC on Tuesday as he seeks to rescue a $60bn (£47.9bn; €55bn) US defence aid package.\n\nUS President Joe Biden is urging lawmakers to approve the funds, but the aid has become embroiled in domestic, partisan politics.\n\nIt will be the Ukrainian leader's second visit to the White House since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022 - the previous one was in September last year.\n\nThe package is currently stalled in Congress, facing pushback from Republicans who argue that more money should be going to domestic security at the US-Mexico border.\n\nA vote in the Senate last week saw a package which included the funding blocked.\n\nPresident Zelensky is also expected to hold talks with Mike Johnson, the new Republican House Speaker, during his visit to Washington.\n\nOn Thursday, EU leaders will gather in Brussels where the plan, at least, is to green-light the start of formal \"accession\" talks for Ukraine.\n\nThat is the next step on a very long ladder towards full EU membership, though there are no guarantees of success.\n\nA €50bn (£43bn; $53.8bn) package of financial assistance - in loans and grants - was also due to be signed off.\n\nHowever, Viktor Orban has threatened to derail both, sparking frustration in EU capitals and anger in Kyiv.\n\nMr Orban's critics call him a \"mouthpiece\" for Vladimir Putin, having maintained ties with the Russian president despite Moscow's decision to launch an all-out, bloody invasion of Ukraine.\n\nDespite nodding through successive sanctions packages against Moscow, Mr Orban has also spoken out against sending more money and weapons to Ukraine.\n\nHe claims that EU chiefs are \"shoving\" Ukraine's accession \"down our throats\" and has called for a \"strategic discussion\" on the bloc's overall approach.\n\nHe has even described the aspiring member as \"one of the most corrupt countries in the world\".\n\nIt is an allegation that sparks outrage in Kyiv, given Mr Orban has been accused of overseeing democratic backsliding in his own country.\n\nSome believe Hungary's leader is using Ukraine as a bargaining chip, to try and extract more money out of the EU.\n\nIt's a high-stakes week for Ukraine, and officials I speak to in Kyiv say that, for now, the decision on membership talks will more deeply affect morale than EU economic assistance.\n\nPresident Zelensky wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that it would have a \"significant impact on the motivation of Ukrainian society and the army\".\n\nIn truth there are EU nations - aside from Hungary - who have reservations about expanding the bloc.\n\nBut according to one Brussels diplomat, it is Budapest that stands alone, for now, in holding up discussions: \"It's really a 26 versus one issue.\"\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Michelle Mone says she \"regrets\" not being more transparent about her links with a company that had UK government contracts during the pandemic.\n\nPPE Medpro is being sued by the UK government for £122m plus costs for \"breach of contract and unjust enrichment\".\n\nIt is also being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).\n\nIn December 2020 lawyers for the Tory peer said she had \"no role or function\" in the firm.\n\nThey also said this applied to the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro.\n\nBut in November 2021 the UK government revealed that Baroness Mone was the \"source of referral\" for the company getting a place on the so-called \"VIP lane\" for offers of personal protective equipment for the NHS.\n\nThe VIP lane - also known as the high-priority lane - was introduced to help the UK government choose between huge numbers of supplier offers during the pandemic.\n\nThe Scottish businesswoman has now spoken publicly for the first time - in a Youtube documentary - since the story emerged.\n\nThe production is funded by PPE Medpro - the company at the centre of the controversy.\n\nThe BBC approached Michelle Mone for comment, but were told she was not available for interview today.\n\nBaroness Mone has been on a leave of absence from the House of Lords since late last year\n\nThe Conservative peer has admitted making an \"error\" in her responses to press inquires, and has said that she regrets not initially telling the media of her involvement with the company.\n\nShe says she initially denied involvement due to legal advice.\n\nIn the PPE Medpro-funded documentary, which outlines Michelle Mone and her husband's version of events, the Conservative peer denies defrauding the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and insists that ministers were always aware of her links to PPE Medpro.\n\nBaroness Mone says she \"may indirectly benefit\" from PPE Medpro profits via her husband, who was chairman of the consortium that bid for contracts. But she added that she had not personally made money from supplying PPE during the pandemic.\n\nIn a separate interview with the Sunday Telegraph, she says \"I am ashamed of being a Conservative peer given what this Government has done to us.\"\n\nHer husband, the businessman Douglas Barrowman, also spoke to the documentary funded by the company he was involved with. In it he says he offered to secure PPE as he had contacts that could supply large volumes at \"competitive prices.\"\n\nHe has accused UK ministers of buying \"way too much\" from various PPE suppliers. He alleges they then tried to identify \"technicalities\" to avoid paying for what they had purchased.\n\nMr Barrowman has stressed that he believes all products PPE Medpro supplied were \"fully compliant\".\n\nThe company has said it will \"rigorously\" defend the claim. It has filed a defence asserting that the gowns supplied were in accordance with the contract.\n\nDouglas Barrowman has also alleged that an unnamed negotiator for the Department of Health and Social care had implied the NCA investigation would end if a significant enough settlement was reached.\n\nA DHSC spokesman told the BBC \"We do not comment on ongoing legal cases.\" They have stressed that their staff adhere to all laws and regulations.\n\nThe NCA opened its inquiries in May 2021 into potential criminal offences in relation to the procurement of PPE contracts.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, the cabinet minister Michael Gove said \"ministers did not take individual decisions about who should receive contracts during the pandemic\" adding that there was a \"painstaking process\" in place.\n\nHe said that during the pandemic \"everyone in the public realm was doing their very best to try to ensure that we protected those on the frontline. \"\n\nDavid Cameron made Baroness Mone a Conservative peer in 2015. She has been on a leave of absence from the House of Lords since late last year.\n\nThe entrepreneur, who founded lingerie firm Ultimo, is being investigated by the House of Lords commissioner for standards.\n\nShe has denied any wrongdoing and has said she wants to clear her name.\n\nA spokesman for the NCA told the BBC \"The NCA opened an investigation in May 2021 into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro.\n\n\"The NCA is operationally independent and our investigations are intelligence-led.\"", "Dinghies used in crossings stored in the UK Border Force facility at Dover docks\n\nThe Home Office has earmarked at least £700m to manage the arrival of migrants on small boats until 2030, according to previously unnoticed commercial plans.\n\nOfficials published the projections online last week, as Home Secretary James Cleverly flew to Rwanda to sign a new treaty to \"stop the boats\".\n\nThey predict the Channel crossings could continue up to 2034.\n\nUnder the plans, commercial partners would run extensive services at \"permanent\" facilities.\n\nA Home Office spokesperson said it would be \"inappropriate to comment\" on an ongoing procurement project.\n\nBut the publicly-available information, on the government's contracts website, shows that the Home Office wants at least one major partner to help run two large facilities in Kent until at least 2030 - and potentially to 2034.\n\nThe invitation to businesses is the clearest public sign yet that officials are planning for the small boats to continue arriving.\n\nThat invitation was launched on 4 December - the day before the UK signed a new treaty with Rwanda in an attempt to kickstart a policy, already blocked by the Supreme Court, to send some cross-Channel migrants to the country.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak says the new Rwanda treaty and linked legislation will stop small boats arriving in the UK. But Robert Jenrick, who recently quit as immigration minister, told BBC News the plan was \"weak\" and unlikely to work. MPs will vote on Mr Sunak's new legislation on Tuesday.\n\nThe first facility that the Home Office is asking for a partner to help run is the UK Border Force's rescue and arrivals base in Dover docks, known as Western Jet Foil.\n\nThis is a secure facility where migrants rescued from the English Channel are initially brought ashore, registered and given emergency medical treatment.\n\nThe second part of the contract covers the much larger and previously-criticised Manston centre which was designed to accommodate up to 1,600 migrants while officials work out where to house them.\n\n\"The purpose of the Disembarkation and Solas [Saving Lives At Sea centre] Centre at Western Jet Foil and the National Reception Centre at Manston are to register and process individuals arriving in the UK on small boats from across the English Channel,\" says the web page.\n\n\"The aim of these centres is to provide a safe and secure environment, allowing Border Force to process arrivals with dignity and respect.\n\n\"The Home Office is currently transforming the site at Manston to establish permanent, purpose-built facilities, co-ordinated by the Manston Transformation Programme.\"\n\nUnder the plan, the page explains, the Home Office's partners would run extensive \"wrap-around\" services at both locations, including catering, security and medical support.\n\nOfficials have calculated these services would cost £700m over the first six years - and contracts could be extended by a further four.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How dangerous are the small boats? The BBC looks at why they sink.\n\nIf the annual costs remained the same, the government could be preparing to pay out at least £1.16bn over 10 years - although that figure does not appear in the publicly available material.\n\nThe contract notice emphasises that the plan is still in development and is far enough advanced for potential bidders to be invited to meet officials at Manston in the new year. But they will need to keep the details of the government plans secret by signing a non-disclosure agreement.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: \"This shows even the Home Office doesn't believe Rishi Sunak's Rwanda plan is going to work. This is total Tory chaos and it's letting the country down.\n\n\"Instead of sending nearly £300m of taxpayers money to Rwanda for a failing scheme, the prime minister should be using the money to stop the criminal smuggling gangs who are organising boat crossings in the first place.\"\n\nLast week it emerged that the Home Office has paid £100m more to Rwanda than previously stated - and the department's permanent secretary, Sir Matthew Rycroft, will face MPs later on Monday over the scheme's costs.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Dr Claudine Gay has apologised for her controversial comments on Capitol Hill on 5 December\n\nHarvard University President Claudine Gay is facing mounting pressure to resign over her congressional testimony on antisemitism on campus.\n\nDr Gay, 53, was forced to apologise after she failed to say whether students calling for the genocide of Jewish people would be disciplined.\n\nHundreds of Harvard faculty rallied behind her over the weekend, urging the university not to fire her.\n\nHer fate may be decided at a meeting of the Harvard Corporation on Monday.\n\nDr Gay's comments, which were widely criticised, were made at a House of Representatives hearing last week alongside Elizabeth Magill and Sally Kornbluth, her counterparts from the University of Pennsylvania and MIT.\n\nDuring tense questioning from Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Dr Gay said she found calls for the genocide of Jews personally abhorrent but whether it would constitute a violation of Harvard's code of conduct regarding bullying and harassment depended on the context.\n\n\"I am sorry,\" Dr Gay said in a subsequent interview with the Crimson, Harvard's campus newspaper. \"When words amplify distress and pain, I don't know how you could feel anything but regret.\"\n\nThe 13-member Harvard Corporation - one of the institution's two governing bodies - is scheduled to meet later on Monday and will reportedly discuss Dr Gay's fate and the school's potential courses of action.\n\nOver the weekend, more than 500 faculty members signed a petition calling on Harvard to \"resist political pressures that are at odds with Harvard's commitment to academic freedom, including calls for the removal of President Claudine Gay\". By mid-morning on Monday, the number of faculty members who signed the letter had risen to nearly 700.\n\nAlison Frank Johnson, one of the petition's co-authors, told Reuters that staff \"don't want to lose her because of a political stunt\".\n\n\"I get the impression that many people don't know how much support she has as a scholar, colleague, and administrator within the university, including from people who sometimes disagree with her,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn July, Dr Gay became Harvard's first black president in its 368-year history.\n\nMore than 70 members of Congress have called for her resignation alongside Ms Magill's and Dr Kornbluth's, In a letter, the mostly Republican lawmakers referred to the college presidents' answers as \"abhorrent\" and standing \"in stark contrast to the principles we expect leaders of top academic institutions to uphold\".\n\n\"It is hard to imagine any Jewish or Israeli student, faculty or staff feeling safe when presidents of your member institutions could not say that calls for the genocide of Jews would have clear consequences on your campus,\" the letter added.\n\nOn Saturday, President Magill announced that she had \"voluntarily tendered her resignation\". It came after a major university donor withdrew a $100m (£80m) grant in protest over her comments.\n\nFollowing Ms Magill's announcement that she was stepping down, Ms Stefanik again took aim at Dr Gay and Dr Kornbluth.\n\n\"One down, two to go,\" she wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.\n\nCollege campuses across the US have been the scene of frequent pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli protests, raising concerns about both Islamophobia and antisemitism.", "Rishi Sunak has seen off, at least for now, the threat to his Rwanda legislation from various groups of Conservative MPs who were unhappy with it.\n\nIt was thought his bill, which would revive the plan to send some asylum seekers to the east African country after the Supreme Court ruled the previous version was unlawful, might be in jeopardy.\n\nBut it lives on and will return to the Commons in the new year.\n\nAt one stage before Tuesday's vote, five of the groups on the right of the party held a joint meeting in Westminster, describing themselves as the \"five families\".\n\nThis was widely seen as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the five Italian-American mafia crime families that operate in New York.\n\nAll political parties have factions - like-minded MPs who get together to campaign on issues they care about.\n\nTheir membership tends to be loose and sometimes overlaps. They don't all vote the same way, though in some cases they have been remarkably disciplined.\n\nAnd, despite a hefty Commons majority, the prime minister needs to keep most of them onside.\n\nBut who are these and other Conservative factions? And why do they exert so much influence?\n\nThe largest single group within the parliamentary party says more than 100 Conservative MPs are members, almost a third of the total.\n\nThe phrase, \"one-nation Tory\", goes back to 19th-century Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, but the caucus was formed only in 2019.\n\nChaired by former First Secretary of State Damian Green, it says it is \"committed to the values of the liberal centre right\".\n\nMany of its members represent traditionally Tory \"blue wall\" seats where the Liberal Democrats are the main challengers.\n\nSome were known to be unhappy that Mr Sunak's new Rwanda bill sets aside some of the UK's obligations in international law, but they backed the bill while warning the PM not to toughen it further.\n\nFormer Solicitor General Lord Garnier, who advised the caucus, had described the bill as political and legal \"nonsense\", equivalent to ruling \"all dogs are cats\".\n\nOther leading lights include Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, Security Minister Tom Tugendhat and Caroline Nokes, who chairs the women and equalities committee.\n\nOnce the most powerful grouping of Tory MPs, the ERG played a key role in blocking Theresa May's Brexit deal and then bringing her down as prime minister, which paved the way for successor Boris Johnson to strike a harder Brexit.\n\nIt does not publish information about its membership, but this is currently thought to be in the 30s, significantly down on its Brexit heyday.\n\nHowever, the ERG has often punched above its weight, and numerous leading lights have gone on to bigger things - including Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Suella Braverman. New illegal migration minister Michael Tomlinson was deputy chair of the group from 2016-2018.\n\nIt has been pressing for a hardline approach on the illegal migration issue and its so-called \"star chamber\" - a group of lawyers chaired by veteran Eurosceptic Sir Bill Cash - concluded the Rwanda legislation did not go far enough.\n\nThe ERG - chaired by Mark Francois - said \"very significant amendments\" were needed.\n\nIt is likely to push strongly for these in the new year.\n\nFormed only in May 2023, the New Conservatives have fast become one of the most vocal factions within the party.\n\nAround 30 MPs are members, including deputy Tory chairman Lee Anderson, and group co-chairs Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger.\n\nMost were elected in 2019, many in marginal, traditionally Labour, \"red wall\" seats in the north of England and the Midlands.\n\nThe New Conservatives have called for radical measures to cut migration and pressed the government to deliver deportations to Rwanda by \"unpicking\" many of the UK's international obligations.\n\nMs Cates and Mr Kruger were among the 29 Tories who refused to back the Rwanda bill in the Commons.\n\nOn broader policy, the group says the party needs to return its 2019 manifesto by delivering levelling up and reducing taxes, rein back on green measures, and ban \"gender ideology\" in schools.\n\nLaunched in 2020 and with around 30 members, the CSG is led by former Home Office minister Sir John Hayes, a close ally of Suella Braverman.\n\nLike her, he has been fiercely critical of Mr Sunak's Rwanda approach and, alongside the New Conservatives, the group has been pressing for tougher action on both illegal and legal migration.\n\nIt has also pushed hard on culture issues, such as Mr Sunak's plans to phase out smoking, other manifestations of what it regards as \"the nanny state\", and what it described as the National Trust's \"woke agenda\" on colonialism.\n\nSir John and Mrs Braverman both abstained on the government's bill.\n\nThought to number more than 50 MPs, the group was formed in 2019 to press for greater investment in \"red wall\" areas in the north of England, Wales and the Scottish borders.\n\nSenior figures include former party chairman and Northern Powerhouse minister Sir Jake Berry, former Brexit Secretary David Davis, and Esther McVey, who returned to the cabinet last month.\n\nThe NRG regards immigration as an important issue for many of its MPs' voters.\n\nSir Jake was one of those who withheld his support for the Rwanda bill.\n\nFormer prime minister Liz Truss addressed a packed fringed event at the Conservative Party conference in October\n\nAround 50 MPs are thought to be members of a group set up in the aftermath of Liz Truss's disastrous, short tenure at No 10.\n\nIts focus is chiefly economic: it advocates the libertarian policies it believes Ms Truss was prevented from introducing by the unravelling of her mini-budget in September-October 2022.\n\nIt says the policies needed to break out of a long period of low growth include slashing business taxes and stamp duty, toughening benefit requirements, relaxing planning, and reintroducing fracking.\n\nProminent figures include former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel and former Levelling-Up Secretary Sir Simon Clarke.\n\nShe backed the bill in the Commons; he abstained.\n\nThese include No Turning Back - formed as far back as 1985 - to promote Margaret Thatcher's policies.\n\nSince 2005, it has been chaired by Sir John Redwood, who has campaigned for the UK to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights to ensure the Rwanda plan can go ahead without further legal delays. He abstained on the bill.\n\nThe Conservative Democratic Organisation, launched a year ago, was widely thought to be front for an effort to restore Boris Johnson to Downing Street. It has denied this.\n\nIt calls for greater party democracy and condemned Mr Sunak's \"coronation\" as prime minister without a Tory members' vote. It has also described his sacking of Ms Braverman as \"political suicide\".\n\nDame Priti Patel, Nadine Dorries, who is no longer an MP, and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg are prominent. supporters. Sir Jacob voted for the bill.", "A cordon remains in place at the property in Ipswich where the baby was found\n\nA post-mortem is taking place later to establish the cause of death of a newborn baby found in Ipswich on Saturday.\n\nOfficers were called to a property on Norwich Road. The body of a baby was found outside and detectives say they are treating the incident as isolated.\n\nTwo men and a \"teenage female\" were arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nThe men, aged in their 30s, have been released on bail while the third person is still being questioned, police said.\n\nAs well as police, paramedics were also called to the scene on Saturday, where the baby was pronounced dead.\n\nDetectives said local residents will continue to see an increased police presence, including uniformed officers.\n\nMembers of the public are encouraged to approach officers and discuss any concerns they may have, Suffolk Police said.", "The rare space weather events can wreak havoc with electrical systems on Earth\n\nRare solar storms could cause chaos on the UK's railways by triggering \"powerful magnetic disturbances\", scientists have warned.\n\nA study at Lancaster University found the celestial events could disrupt the network's electrical systems and cause signals to switch from red to green.\n\nResearcher Cameron Patterson said the \"relatively rare\" storms needed to be \"taken seriously\" by the rail industry.\n\nHowever, Network Rail said it considered the risk to be \"very small\".\n\nSolar storms are caused by high-energy particles blasting the Earth after they are released in explosive outbursts from the Sun.\n\nThey can disrupt technology and power grids, as proved when a solar flare caused a nine-hour blackout for millions of people in the Canadian province of Quebec in 1989.\n\nThe Victorians also struggled with the effect of space weather in 1859 when a huge solar eruption caused a geomagnetic storm that interfered with railway signalling and telegraph lines.\n\nA team of researchers at Lancaster University looked at how these space weather events created geomagnetically-induced electrical currents which could cause rail signals to malfunction.\n\nThey tested this using a computer model of the Preston to Lancaster section of the West Coast Main Line, as well as the Glasgow to Edinburgh line.\n\nMr Patterson, a physics PhD researcher, said the study showed that \"high-impact, low frequency\" solar storms did pose risks.\n\nExpected in the UK every few decades, they could lead to \"significant signalling misoperation, which has an obvious safety impact,\" he added.\n\nSolar storms are more likely during the peak of an 11-year cycle of the sun's magnetic activity, know as the \"solar maximum\".\n\nThe Lancaster research team confirmed the next solar maximum is expected about 2025 or 2026, but said the space weather can also occur at other times\n\nJim Wild, professor of space physics at Lancaster University urged the rail industry to consider the risks of these space weather events, and how to protect their services against them.\n\n\"In future, we could see space weather forecasting being used to make decisions about limiting railway operations if an extreme event is expected, just as meteorological forecasts are used currently,\" he said.\n\nMartin Frobisher of Network Rail, which runs most of the country's rail network, said while the storms were theoretically a threat, the firm considered the storms to be a \"very small risk\".\n\n\"We need to focus our limited resources on higher priority issues such as climate change,\" he added.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Robert Jenrick on why he resigned from government\n\nFormer immigration minister Robert Jenrick has said Rishi Sunak is making \"a political choice\" to revive Rwanda asylum scheme in a way that is unlikely to work.\n\nIn his first interview since quitting his post, Mr Jenrick told the BBC the draft law was \"weak\" and would be \"bogged down\" by legal challenges.\n\nEveryone who \"understands\" asylum law thinks the bill will fail, he added.\n\nHe added that he would not support the bill at a crucial vote on Tuesday.\n\nThe government has introduced the legislation to revive its scheme to send people seeking UK asylum to the east African country, after the policy was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court last month.\n\nThe legislation seeks to declare in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country to send refugees to - thereby stopping flights being grounded on legal grounds.\n\nMr Sunak made \"stopping\" small boats crossing the English Channel one of his top pledges earlier this year, with figures showing 45,774 people made the journey last year.\n\nA total of 24,830 have continued to arrive in the first nine months of 2023 and, despite the dip in arrivals, it is expected to be a key issue ahead of the general election expected next year.\n\nBut, speaking to BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Jenrick said the legislation in its current form would still allow a \"range of legal claims that will bog down our scheme\".\n\n\"I'm afraid it's very clear to all those people who really understand how this system operates that this bill will not succeed,\" he told the programme.\n\nHe added that people under threat of deportation would still be able to appeal on the grounds that Rwanda, even if generally safe, is not individually safe for them.\n\n\"I think that a political choice has been made to bring forward a bill which doesn't do the job,\" he said.\n\nHe had quit as immigration minister because he couldn't ask MPs to vote for a legislation he deemed \"a weak bill that won't work,\" he added.\n\nThe government had already introduced two bills to deal with the issue of illegal migration, he said, adding: \"It's three strikes or you're out\".\n\nAlthough he conceded the Rwanda plan could eventually lead to some \"symbolic\" flights taking off, there would not be enough deportations to deter people from crossing the English Channel.\n\nThe bill to revive the scheme has divided opinions among Conservative MPs, whose support Mr Sunak will need to ensure the bill passes its first parliamentary stage next week.\n\nMinisters argue the threat of deportation to Rwanda will deter people from crossing the English Channel in small boats\n\nThe prime minister has previously insisted his legislation will only allow legal challenges from those who can prove they are at \"real and imminent risk of serious and irreversible harm\".\n\nSpeaking on the same programme, Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove echoed this point, adding that only a \"vanishingly small\" number of appeals would still be allowed.\n\nThe government's law had already been endorsed in a \"plethora of legal opinion,\" he said, and was a \"robust bill that is legally sound\".\n\nSome liberal Tories have argued it goes too far in trying to bypass the courts, and puts the UK at risk of breaching its international legal obligations towards refugees.\n\nBut others on the right of the party say it does not go far enough, and will continue to be derailed by legal challenges.\n\nMr Jenrick added that he, along with like-minded Conservative MPs, hoped to persuade ministers \"that there is a better way\" to design the new law, adding he wanted the bill to work and create a \"powerful deterrent\".\n\nThe different factions within the Tory party are taking legal advice on the legislation, and are expected to deliver their verdict on the bill before Tuesday's vote.\n\nOn Sunday, a leading member of the European Research Group (ERG) - a group on the right of the party - said its own legal advice found the law was not fit for purpose.\n\nWriting in the Sunday Telegraph, Sir Bill Cash said the current wording of the legislation was not \"sufficiently watertight\".\n\nAt the vote on Tuesday, MPs will be asked to decide whether the bill should be blocked completely, or allowed to progress to its next stage in Parliament.\n\nLabour and opposition parties have already said they will try and vote it down, meaning the government needs to ensure enough Tory MPs vote for it to allow it to pass.\n\nTory critics of the bill could decide to allow the bill to pass at this stage, possibly by abstaining, in the hope of securing concessions from the government as it goes through the Commons.\n\nMr Jenrick also warned the Tories would face \"red hot fury\" from voters unless the party is able to do more to tackle both legal and illegal migration.\n\nThe governmentunveiled measureslast week to reduce levels of legal migration, following a backlash within the party after official figures showed it reached a record 745,000 in 2022.\n\nLabour has also said it thinks legal migration is too high, blaming the current high levels on a lack of training and skills development for Britons.\n\nAlso speaking to Laura Kuenssberg, shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said the party agreed with a government decision to raise the £26,200 minimum salary to apply for a UK work visa.\n\nHowever she refused to say whether its proposed hike to £38,700 was the right level, adding her party would like official migration advisers to publish their evidence first.", "The vote on Rishi Sunak's flagship Rwanda bill is gearing up to be a major test of his authority within his own party\n\nHow much trouble is the government in over Tuesday's vote on the emergency Rwanda legislation?\n\nIt is always dangerous to call a potential rebellion. Especially one where some of the most seasoned parliamentary plotters are involved.\n\nBut one thing that is certainly safe to say is that the government is in much deeper peril than it appeared to be this morning.\n\nIn my conversations with potential rebels on the right of the Conservative Party, their resolve appears to have hardened.\n\nSome MPs who over the weekend appeared inclined to back the government tomorrow in the hope of amending the bill at a later stage now seem much more pessimistic about that possibility.\n\n\"There's no way we'd have the votes to amend it next year,\" one told me. \"It's now or never.\"\n\nAdd into that Rishi Sunak's own claim that this is the toughest possible bill, and the European Research Group's (ERG) legal advice which warns that some of the changes they desire may not be possible under the scope of this legislation, and you can see why some Conservatives are now demanding the bill be pulled.\n\nWould Mr Sunak really do that to his flagship immigration policy?\n\n\"It would be humiliating for the government,\" one former minister, who will be supporting Mr Sunak on Tuesday, told me.\n\nAnd, again, it is hard to see what would change. Constrain the right to appeal further and the One Nation group would begin to get even twitchier.\n\nThe One Nation group as good as confirmed this tonight. While saying their members would back the government in Tuesday's vote, Damian Green, the former cabinet minister, said that if Sunak budges any further towards the right then \"we won't stomach it\".\n\nPlus Mr Sunak himself has warned moves in that direction would mean the Rwandan government pulling the plug anyway.\n\nThen the crucial question is not just how many Tory rebels there are, but also in what way they rebel.\n\nTo vote against the bill at second reading would be a vote against the principles of the bill rather than just its details. Many Tory MPs will therefore be extremely reluctant to do so.\n\nThe rebels may instead prefer to abstain.\n\nOne MP on the right said: \"I'll vote against if enough colleagues are going to do that to defeat the government. But if just a few want to vote against then I'll abstain.\"\n\nClearly if the rebels went through with voting against the government in large enough numbers this would be near-apocalyptic for Mr Sunak in political terms.\n\nThat prospect, if the whips tell him it is imminent, may be enough for him to withdraw the bill after all.\n\nGoing ahead with the vote and being defeated would potentially presage a leadership election, perhaps even a general election.\n\nBut crucially the dizzying possibility of these consequences may well be enough to give many of the potential rebels pause for thought.\n\nSo there are still plenty of permutations to how Tuesday may play out.\n\nWe might get more clarity from the ERG MPs on how they plan to vote this evening.\n\nBut whatever happens, yet another day of public dissent in Parliament displays Sunak's fragile authority over his party.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Mark Francois and David Jones of the European Research Group calls on the government to scrap the bill\n\nA group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs have said the bill at the centre of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Rwanda asylum plan will not work as it stands.\n\nThe European Research Group (ERG) said a new law aimed at overcoming legal hurdles does not go \"far enough to deliver the policy\".\n\nBut the group has not decided whether to back the bill in a vote on Tuesday.\n\nTory MPs from different factions are divided and are considering whether to vote for the bill at its first stage.\n\nA rebellion by Tory MPs could sink this central policy of Mr Sunak's and seriously weaken his authority.\n\nThe ERG commissioned a so-called star chamber of lawyers to analyse the Safety of Rwanda Bill and held a meeting to present their findings ahead of Tuesday's vote.\n\nIn a setback for Mr Sunak, the group said the bill \"provides a partial and incomplete solution to the problem of legal challenges in the UK courts being used as stratagems to delay or defeat the removal of illegal migrants to Rwanda\".\n\nThe group said resolving the issues raised by their lawyers \"would require very significant amendments\".\n\nERG chairman Mark Francois said: \"The feeling very much in the meeting is that the government would be best advised to pull the bill and come up with a revised version that works better than this one which has so many holes in it.\"\n\nThe meeting also included other groups on the right of the Tory Party.\n\nDowning Street said the government would continue to listen to the views of MPs but it believed the bill was \"strong enough to achieve its aims\".\n\nThe ERG's legal analysis argues the bill still allows individuals to challenge their removal to Rwanda if their specific personal circumstances mean this would put them at risk of serious harm.\n\nIt says this represents \"a significant risk to delivery of the scheme\".\n\nIn an attempt to win over critics, the government has published a summary of its legal position on the scheme.\n\nThe document says the bill allows for \"an exceptionally narrow route to individual challenge\".\n\nIt gives examples such as people in the late stages of pregnancy who are unfit to fly or with very rare medical conditions that could not be cared for in Rwanda.\n\nThe document adds: \"In any case, completely blocking any court challenges would be a breach of international law and alien to the UK's constitutional tradition of liberty and justice.\"\n\nIt concludes that \"the government's approach is tough but fair and lawful\" and \"seeks to uphold our international obligations\".\n\nThe Rwanda bill has split Conservative MPs, with some more moderate Tories arguing the bill risks breaching the UK's international legal obligations towards refugees.\n\nThe centrist One Nation Conservatives will hold a separate evening meeting in Parliament before releasing a statement on their judgment.\n\nThe Rwanda policy aims to deter people crossing the Channel in small boats\n\nEarlier, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps urged MPs to support the bill and denied Mr Sunak's leadership was in \"chaos\" over the Rwanda policy.\n\nThe defence secretary said he had \"no doubt at all\" the legislation would pass in the House of Commons.\n\nIt is very rare for a bill to be defeated at its first Commons hurdle as there are opportunities for MPs to propose changes at later stages.\n\nHowever, Labour and opposition parties have already said they will try and vote it down, meaning the government needs to ensure enough Tory MPs vote for it to allow it to pass.\n\nTory critics of the bill could decide to allow it to pass at this stage, possibly by abstaining, in the hope of securing concessions from the government as it goes through the Commons.\n\nLast week, the government introduced the legislation which would see people seeking UK asylum sent to Rwanda, after the policy was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court last month.\n\nThe legislation seeks to declare in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country, with a view to stopping flights being grounded on legal grounds.\n\nThe Rwanda policy is part of the government's plan to deter migrants from crossing the Channel in small boats.\n\nMr Sunak has said \"stopping the boats\" is one of five main priorities, after a record 45,774 people made the journey last year.\n\nAhead of the vote, the government has been circulating modelling showing the projected effects of the Rwanda bill.\n\nAccording to Home Office modelling conducted earlier this year, 90% of those appealing against deportation to Rwanda would see their appeals rejected by the government between 10 and 12 days after arriving in the UK because they would fail to provide evidence they face serious harm if deported to the African country.\n\nOf the 10% given permission to appeal to an immigration tribunal, only 5% would be expected to have their appeals accepted, with the rest sent to Rwanda, the model claims.\n\nThe projections are part of a document prepared in March during discussions about the illegal migration bill when Suella Braverman was home secretary and Robert Jenrick was immigration minister.\n\nBoth Mrs Braverman and Mr Jenrick now argue the emergency legislation does not go far enough, with Mr Jenrick resigning from his government role last week over the issue.\n\nThe modelling, which has been seen by the BBC, was first reported by The Times.\n\nThe government will use the document to try to win over Conservative MPs concerned that there would be too many successful appeals.\n\nBut Mr Sunak's critics argue that the Supreme Court's ruling last month that Rwanda is an unsafe country for asylum seekers means the context has changed since the modelling was conducted, and more appeals would be successful.\n\nOne sceptical senior Tory source said the model was \"outdated and analytically flawed\".\n\n\"There was never any modelling done for the new Rwanda bill because they failed to plan,\" the source said. \"Even this old, optimistic model says it could take more than two months to remove a migrant. It would be laughable if it wasn't so serious.\"\n\nLast week, the Home Office's top civil servant Sir Matthew Rycroft revealed the UK had given Rwanda a further £100m this year to deliver the scheme.\n\nThe figure was on top of the £140m already paid to the country and a further £50m expected next year.\n\nAppearing in front of the Commons Public Accounts Committee earlier on Monday, Sir Matthew said the figure had been published after the government discovered it had been \"inadvertently\" disclosed to the International Monetary Fund by someone in Rwanda.\n\nHowever, he refused to say how much more money the UK had already agreed to pay Rwanda for subsequent years of the initial five-year deal.", "David Bonney is thought to be the last man in Britain ever to go to prison for being gay\n\nThe government has dropped a key commitment to veterans who were sacked or forced out of the military for being gay, sources have told the BBC.\n\nIn July - following an independent report - the then Defence Secretary Ben Wallace promised a Westminster debate about how best to make reparations.\n\nThe BBC has learned the debate is now scrapped, meaning MPs will not get to scrutinise the government's response.\n\nThe government says it will publish its full response to the report \"shortly\".\n\nLeading military charities have signed an open letter calling on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to honour the promise to hold a debate and \"bring an end to the shame and dishonour\" veterans have suffered.\n\nThey have also asked for the £50m compensation limit that was recommended in the review to be lifted.\n\nThey estimate that cap will mean veterans may receive less than £20,000 in financial settlements. They say this will leave many, who lost their income and future pensions when they were expelled from the forces, unable to find stable housing and facing \"impoverishment\" in older age.\n\nThe letter has been written by campaign group Fighting With Pride and signed by organisations including The Royal British Legion, Help for Heroes, Women's Royal Army Corps Association and Age UK.\n\nThe decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK began in 1967 but a ban continued in the armed forces.\n\nUntil 2000, those who were gay, or perceived to be gay, faced being dismissed or were otherwise forced to leave.\n\nThe LGBT Veterans Independent review, led by Britain's first openly gay judge Lord Etherton, heard about the experiences of 1,145 veterans who served between 1967 and 2000.\n\nIt found that there had been an \"incomprehensible policy of homophobic bigotry\" in the armed forces and found that veterans were subject to homophobia, bullying, blackmail, sexual assaults, \"disgraceful\" medical examinations, and conversion therapy.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rishi Sunak: \"On behalf of the British state I apologise\"\n\nFollowing the publication of Lord Etherton's report in July, the prime minister said the ban was an \"appalling failure\" of the British state.\n\nAddressing MPs, he added: \"Many endured the most horrific sexual abuse and violence, homophobic bullying and harassment all while bravely serving this country.\"\n\nBen Wallace, the then defence secretary, said that MPs would be given a chance to debate the report and the government's response, adding it was \"important that both opposition and our colleagues can hold me or my successor to account.\"\n\nSources have said the debate in Westminster will be replaced with a statement by new Defence Secretary Grant Shapps in Parliament on Wednesday, 13 December.\n\nThe Scottish Parliament will hold a debate in Holyrood on Wednesday evening.\n\nCraig Jones and Caroline Paige, co-directors of campaign group Fighting With Pride, who campaigned for the review, said: \"Over 1,000 veterans returned to their darkest days as they gave evidence to the LGBT Veterans Independent Review.\n\n\"In denying LGBT veterans the promised Parliamentary debate the government is failing to match their courage - this is an unacceptable act of erasure.\n\nCraig Jones and Caroline Paige, co-directors of Fighting with Pride have long campaigned for the review\n\n\"The £50m cap is a far cry from schemes proposed for those affected by tainted blood, Windrush and for Post Office workers affected by the Horizon scandal. The amounts for each veteran will be derisory and will deny these veterans the security of stable housing and the income needed to find enjoyment in their lives.\"\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"We have accepted in principle the vast majority of the Etherton report's recommendations.\"\n\n\"Many of the recommendations are complex and it is vital that the government carefully considers their delivery to ensure the best outcomes for those affected.\"\n\nDavid Bonney is thought to be the last man in Britain ever to go to prison for being gay, serving four months in a military prison in Colchester in 1995 after being convicted of \"homosexual conduct\" while working for the RAF as a medic.\n\nAlthough he was later freed on appeal, the conviction is still on his criminal record and is listed as a sexual offence. He also lost out on the ability to claim the pension built up during his years of service.\n\nDavid's conviction is still on his criminal record despite the law change in 2000\n\nHe told the BBC that submitting evidence to the enquiry had felt like \"going back to your childhood bully to ask for help\".\n\nReacting to the news, he added: \"Yet again the bullies win, why should they not make up my loss of pension and wages?\n\n\"I can't see how the House of Commons would agree with the cap on financial compensation, which probably explains why Rishi Sunak doesn't want a debate. I expected this delay and it proves that once again, homophobes must have the ear of the prime minister.\"\n\nA government spokesperson added: \"Responding to the LGBT Veterans Independent Review and delivering its recommendations remains a high priority and further detail on the delivery of recommendations will be included in our full response, which will be published shortly.\"\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "The PM said he looked forward to giving his evidence to the ongoing Covid inquiry.\n\nRishi Sunak denied a claim from Labour MP Tulip Siddiq, who read a quote to PMQs saying: “Rishi thinks just let people die and that’s OK.”\n\nHe told her that if she checked the evidence, the chief science adviser “confirmed” he did not hear him say it, adding: “That’s because I didn’t.”", "This is the week when the prime minister's past, present and future collide.\n\nAt 10:30 this morning, Rishi Sunak will sit down in a windowless room in west London and begin several hours of answering questions live on television and under oath.\n\nMr Sunak's interrogation at the Covid inquiry will scrutinise his time as chancellor during the pandemic.\n\nFurlough, lockdowns and his Eat Out To Help Out scheme are all topics central to his role in government back then.\n\nAnd remember, the government's now chief scientific adviser, Professor Dame Angela McLean, was of a sufficiently strong view about the then-chancellor incentivising nights out with Eat Out To Help Out that she called him \"Dr Death.\"\n\nAnd witness after recent witness have lined up to say they knew nothing about the scheme until it was about to be announced.\n\nAs Mr Sunak is questioned by Hugo Keith KC, three-and-a-half miles away in Parliament, Conservative MPs will gather to debate his plan to send some migrants to Rwanda.\n\nAt 12:00 - while Mr Sunak is away from his mobile phone - five groups of Tory MPs will file into the Thatcher Room in the Palace of Westminster:\n\nUnder discussion will be the government's latest plan to send migrants to Rwanda, which will go to a vote on Tuesday evening.\n\nThe MPs will listen to the verdict of the veteran Conservative MP Sir Bill Cash's so-called star chamber - a panel of lawyers that have assessed the proposed legislation.\n\nWe already have a sense of what it thinks. Sir Bill wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that \"at present\" the wording of the Rwanda Bill is not \"sufficiently watertight to meet the government's policy objectives\".\n\nTheir written conclusions could be published on Monday afternoon, before the MPs meet again in the evening.\n\nAlso gathering in the evening is the self-styled moderates of the Conservative parliamentary party - the One Nation group of just over 100 MPs.\n\nI am told we shouldn't expect white smoke and a decision behind which all of them will fall.\n\nThe One Nation group, like the others, isn't homogenous. But it is likely to set out a \"recommendation\" about what it makes of the government's plans.\n\n\"There isn't an option but to vote for it,\" one figure tells me.\n\nNote the lack of enthusiasm and an acknowledgement in that circumstance that this would be problems postponed for the government, not problems gone away.\n\nNot least because the concerns of some of the sceptics are mutually exclusive. Resolve one person's grumbles, and potentially create another grumbler.\n\nAnd so, to Rishi Sunak's future. Is he going to lose this vote?\n\nTuesday night is still some way off - and all of these meetings and plenty of other snatched conversations in corridors still have to happen.\n\nNo one is certain. Some people I've spoken to are currently working on the loose assumption that the government will sneak a win, rather than loses.\n\nBut, while it is easier for a government to lose if folk on their own side vote against them, it is still possible to lose if lots of folk abstain.\n\nFor those that don't like the Rwanda plan because they think it is too weak, there is a dilemma: if you kill it off now, it's gone. If it survives into the new year, it can be amended, and, as they might see it, improved.\n\nIf that happens, what is then presented to the House of Lords may be less palatable to them.\n\nBut Tuesday's vote will come first. The government is in listening mode and making sure its own MPs know that. Governments do this when they know they are in trouble.\n\n\"We will consider thoughtful suggestions about how the legislation can be improved if those suggestions do come forward,\" cabinet minister Michael Gove told Times Radio.\n\nConservative MPs are braced for a particularly intense whipping operation to try to get them on side.\n\nLabour will vote against the government, but expect the big battles on this to resume in the new year.\n\nThat is the best Rishi Sunak can hope for.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Three people who tortured, starved and beat to death a woman from west London have been found guilty of her murder.\n\nOn the evening of Monday 12 September last year, 35-year-old Shakira Spencer was driven back to her flat in a car boot by people she had once believed to be friends. A member of the public saw her fall as she was unable to walk from the car. It was the last time she was seen alive.\n\nShakira had suffered a campaign of cruelty and humiliation by her tormentors, who left her body to rot. It was found when neighbours reported maggots crawling under her front door two weeks later.\n\nAn Old Bailey jury has convicted Ashana Studholme, Lisa Richardson and Shaun Pendlebury of taking Ms Spencer's life and preventing her lawful burial.\n\nShakira Spencer had been a healthy young woman with a partner, two children and a home until she encountered evil. She fell under the control of Studholme, now 38, who had befriended her and went on to dominate and then abuse her in the year before her death.\n\nStudholme was the leader of the sadistic trio which included her friend, Lisa Richardson, 44, and one-time boyfriend, Shaun Pendlebury, 26.\n\nTheir trial heard how over a long period of time, they tormented, tortured, starved, burned and eventually battered Shakira to death. Prosecutor Allison Hunter KC, compared them to \"a pack of feral savages\".\n\nThey treated Shakira as their slave, ordering her to wake up in the early hours to run errands, feeding her only sachets of ketchup, while Studholme took control of her money.\n\n\"Shakira Spencer was clearly viewed as less than human by these three wicked defendants,\" Ms. Hunter told the Old Bailey jury.\n\nShakira Spencer (r) gradually fell under the control of Ashana Studholme (l)\n\nMonths of abuse came to a horrific conclusion in September 2022 at Ashana Studholme's flat in Harrow, north-west London, when their beatings took Shakira to the brink of death.\n\nStudholme and Pendlebury drove the dying young woman, in a car boot, back to her own flat in Ealing, west London, locked her in a hall cupboard. The killers later returned to move her to the bottom of a bunk bed. It is not known whether she was alive or dead at this point.\n\nThey left her body to rot. It was not found for two weeks.\n\nDet Ch Insp Brian Howie of the Metropolitan Police, who led the homicide investigation, says Shakira was vulnerable: \"I think she just wanted to be cared for, loved, have a friendship group around her and was just coerced and manipulated over a long period of time by these people.\"\n\nShakira Spencer first met Ashana Studholme when they became neighbours. Studholme targeted the young woman, described by another neighbour as \"a loveable person, but very slow and socially awkward who presented as someone with learning difficulties\".\n\nShe drew Shakira into what was described in court as her \"seedy\" social scene. She took her out drinking and introduced her to drugs, leading to a change in Shakira's behaviour.\n\nShakira's relationship broke up and so she became closer to Studholme who wound her tentacles around her, slowly isolating her.\n\n\"Ashana Studholme is a cruel, manipulative, coercive individual,\" says Det Ch Insp Howie. \"She seems to have a power over people and controls them. She is just a vile person.\"\n\nShakira Spencer, pictured on the left in 2017, was once a healthy young woman but was unrecognisable by the time she died in 2022\n\nAt the end of August, Shakira was stopped near Studholme's flat by police, who were concerned about her appearance and demeanour. She said nothing to them and returned to her solitary hell.\n\nTen days later, Studholme sent Richardson a message saying: \"I've buss her head I need you here I will go to jail.\" This was the signal for all three to gather at Studholme's flat.\n\nOver a weekend in September they carried out their final sustained attacks on Shakira, which would prove fatal. Boiling water was poured over her, a lighter and spray can was used as a blowtorch, burning her face and she was beaten around the head with a heavy massager.\n\n\"They have no remorse,\" says Det Ch Insp Howie. \"None of them gave her any medical assistance. None of them called any professionals, any doctors, tried to get any help for her at all, when they could have. That death could hopefully have been prevented at that point. But they didn't. And it was two weeks later that she was found in a badly decomposed state in her home.\"\n\nConcerned only for themselves, the killers tried to remove evidence of the \"beating, blood and torture\", he says. They scrambled to mount a clean-up operation. They were caught on CCTV buying products, using Shakira's bank card. Studholme was heard shouting: \"I can't go back to prison.\"\n\nSoon afterwards, the trio's bond of complicity was broken. Pendlebury confessed to members of his family what he and the two women had done. His uncle called the police. During the trial Pendlebury changed his story, saying he was not involved in Shakira's death.\n\nAt Studholme's flat, police found paperwork, showing she was receiving all Shakira's benefits and had control of her finances. Some documents were hidden under a mattress, others were in a bag emblazoned with the logo: \"It wasn't me.\"\n\nShakira Spencer's remains were so badly decomposed an exact cause of death could not be established. A post-mortem examination listed a catalogue of injuries to her head and feet. The prosecution said: \"Her body just simply wore out.\"\n\nThe smiling, healthy young woman, seen in photographs before she fell under the control of her abusers, died an emaciated wreck.\n\nThose who knew Shakira Spencer have been reflecting on her isolation and her slow degrading death.\n\nHer cousin, Tashica Loo, told the BBC: \"For someone who is bubbly and kind and caring, to just be taken away for what? It's heart-breaking.\"\n\nStudholme has a history of violence. The jury heard how she kicked and punched a woman in the back as she lay in the middle of the street, and was remanded in prison. Four years later, in 2017, she admitted a racially aggravated common assault on another female.\n\nNeighbours of Lisa Richardson in Northolt, west London describe her flat as a hive of anti-social behaviour, with visitors coming and going at all hours and fights in the stairwell. Shaun Pendlebury, whose attempt to distance himself from Shakira's killing has failed, has served a jail term for Class A drugs offences, intending to supply heroin and cocaine.\n\nJurors deliberated for nearly 18 hours to reach their verdicts, and were excused by the judge from jury service for life due to the \"harrowing nature\" of the case.\n\nPendlebury clapped the guilty of murder verdict twice ironically before walking out of the dock.\n\nHe and the two other defendants will be sentenced at a later date.\n\nTashica Loo says: \"No amount of time would be enough for what they have done. They have taken someone very special and what they have done is disgusting and sickening.\"\n\nEaling Council says it is carrying out a Safeguarding Adult Review into the case.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Polish parliament has given former Prime Minister Donald Tusk a mandate to form a new coalition government.\n\nThe incoming administration will be sworn in at the presidential palace by President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday.\n\nIt will put an end to the eight-year rule of the right-wing nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which repeatedly clashed with EU authorities.\n\nHowever, Mr Tusk may face difficulties in meeting his promise to undo the effects of PiS rule.\n\nMr Tusk's centrist coalition won most seats in October's elections but had been unable to take office until now.\n\nThe PiS, led by Mateusz Morawiecki, emerged as the single biggest party after the election, but other parties refused to work alongside it and it was not able to form a majority in parliament.\n\nMr Morawiecki lost a vote of confidence on Monday, paving the way for Mr Tusk to return to power.\n\nMr Tusk was previously prime minister of Poland between 2007 and 2014, later becoming European Council president.\n\nOctober's elections saw his pro-EU coalition win a majority of seats with a record turnout of more than 70%.\n\nThe grouping comprises three parties, Mr Tusk's Civic Coalition (KO), the Third Way and the Left.\n\nCoalition MPs chanted Mr Tusk's name and sang the national anthem after the vote to designate him as prime minister.\n\nAmong those expected to be nominated to the new cabinet is Radoslaw Sikorski, who previously served as foreign minister under Mr Tusk.\n\nExpectations for the new coalition are high. The new government has pledged to restore the independence of the judiciary, which it says has been systematically undermined under previous administrations.\n\n\"We are working… on a whole set of measures that will restore the rule of law as much as possible,\" Mr Tusk said.\n\nHe has also pledged to unblock €36bn (£30bn) of EU funds earmarked for Poland, which Brussels has refused to release over rule of law concerns.\n\nA 2020 court decision which banned abortion in almost all cases will also be reversed, he said, while protections for LGBT people will be strengthened.\n\nMr Duda's decision to nominate Mr Morawiecki to form a government without any hope of winning a vote of confidence indicates that the president, who will be in office until 2025, intends to stymie Mr Tusk's plans.\n\nTo become law, bills approved by parliament need to be signed by Mr Duda, who can veto them. Mr Tusk's coalition does not have enough MPs to override a presidential veto.", "Steve Etches has the skull. Now he wants the rest of the animal's body\n\nThe skull of a colossal sea monster has been extracted from the cliffs of Dorset's Jurassic Coast.\n\nIt belongs to a pliosaur, a ferocious marine reptile that terrorised the oceans about 150 million years ago.\n\nThe 2m (6ft 5in)-long fossil is one of the most complete specimens of its type ever discovered and is giving new insights into this ancient predator.\n\nThe skull will be featured in a special David Attenborough programme on BBC One on New Year's Day.\n\nArtwork: Pliosaurs had the speed and power to take down other big marine reptiles\n\nThere are gasps as the sheet covering the fossil is pulled back and the skull is revealed for the first time.\n\nIt's immediately obvious that this pliosaur is huge and beautifully preserved.\n\nThere isn't a specimen anywhere else to match it, believes local palaeontologist Steve Etches.\n\n\"It's one of the best fossils I've ever worked on. What makes it unique is it's complete,\" he tells BBC News.\n\n\"The lower jaw and the upper skull are meshed together, as they would be in life. Worldwide, there's hardly any specimens ever found to that level of detail. And if they are, a lot of the bits are missing, whereas this, although it's slightly distorted - it's got every bone present.\n\nSteve Etches shows Sir David Attenborough the snout - the first piece to be found\n\nThe skull is longer than most humans are tall, which gives you a sense of how big the creature must have been overall.\n\nYou can't help but focus on its 130 teeth, especially those at the front.\n\nLong and razor sharp, they could kill with a single bite. But look a little closer - if you dare - and the back of each tooth is marked with fine ridges. These would have helped the beast to pierce the flesh and then quickly extract its dagger-like fangs, ready for a rapid second attack.\n\nExperiments show the grooves really do aid incision and withdrawal\n\nThe pliosaur was the ultimate killing machine and at 10-12m long, with four powerful flipper-like limbs to propel itself at high speed, it was the apex predator in the ocean.\n\n\"The animal would have been so massive that I think it would have been able to prey effectively on anything that was unfortunate enough to be in its space,\" says Dr Andre Rowe from Bristol University.\n\n\"I have no doubt that this was sort of like an underwater T. rex.\"\n\nMeals would have included other reptiles such as its long-necked cousin, the plesiosaur, and the dolphin-like ichthyosaur - and fossil evidence reveals that it would have even feasted on other passing pliosaurs.\n\nHow this fossil skull was recovered is extraordinary.\n\nIt started with a chance find during a stroll along a beach near Kimmeridge Bay on southern England's famous World Heritage Jurassic Coast.\n\nSteve Etches' friend and fellow fossil enthusiast Phil Jacobs came across the tip of the snout of the pliosaur lying in the shingle. Too heavy to carry, he went to fetch Steve and the pair rigged a makeshift stretcher to take the fossil fragment to safety.\n\nThe whole excavation was conducted on ropes high above the Dorset beach\n\nBut where was the rest of the animal? A drone survey of the towering cliff face pinpointed a likely location. The problem was the only way to excavate it was to abseil down from the top.\n\nRemoving fossils from rock is always painstaking, delicate work. But to do this while dangling on ropes from a crumbling cliff, 15m above a beach, requires another order of skill.\n\nThe courage, dedication, and the months spent cleaning up the skull, have certainly been worth it. Scientists from across the globe will be clamouring to visit the Dorset fossil to gain fresh insights into how these amazing reptiles lived and dominated their ecosystem.\n\nPalaeobiologist Prof Emily Rayfield has already examined the large circular openings at the rear of the head. They tell her about the size of the muscles operating the jaws of the pliosaur, and the forces generated as its mouth snapped shut and crushed its prey.\n\nAt the top end, this comes out at about 33,000 newtons. For context, the most powerful jaws in living animals are found on saltwater crocodiles, at 16,000 newtons.\n\n\"If you can generate a really powerful bite, you can incapacitate your prey; it's less likely to get away. A powerful bite means you're also able to crunch through tissue and bone quite effectively,\" the Bristol researcher explained.\n\n\"As for feeding strategies: crocodiles clamp their jaw shut around something and then twist, to maybe twist a limb off their prey. This is characteristic of animals that have expanded heads at the back, and we see this in the pliosaur.\"\n\nThe small pits could have been part of the animal's sensory system\n\nThis newly discovered specimen has features that suggest it had some particularly acute, and very useful, senses.\n\nIts snout is dotted with small pits that may have been the site of glands to help it detect changes in water pressure made by prospective prey. And on its head is a hole that would have housed a parietal, or third, eye. Lizards, frogs and some fish alive today have one of these. It's light-sensitive and might have helped in locating other animals, especially when the pliosaur was surfacing from deep, murky waters.\n\nSteve Etches will put the skull on display next year at his museum in Kimmeridge - the Etches Collection.\n\nIt has some vertebrae poking out at the back of the head but trailing off after just a few bones. They are a tantalising clue that more of the fossil might still be in the cliff. Steve is keen to finish what he started.\n\nDorset's Kimmeridge Clay cliffs were once the bottom-muds in warm Jurassic seas\n\n\"I stake my life the rest of the animal is there,\" he tells BBC News.\n\n\"And it really should come out because it's in a very rapidly eroding environment. This part of the cliff line is going back by feet a year. And it won't be very long before the rest of the pliosaur drops out and gets lost. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity.\"\n\nAttenborough and the Giant Sea Monster will air on BBC One and iPlayer at 20:00 on 1 January - a BBC Studios Natural History Unit production for the BBC and PBS with The WNET Group.", "A UK branch of a Christian church has been secretly filmed trying to cast out evil spirits from a 16-year-old.\n\nA Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) pastor was seen reciting what looked like so-called \"strong prayers\" to rid the boy of a demon.\n\nBBC Panorama was also told by a gay ex-member he was given \"strong prayers\" at 13 to try to make him straight.\n\nThe UCKG says under-18s are not allowed into \"strong prayers\" services and it does not perform \"conversion therapy\".\n\nThe UCKG has branches around the world, including 35 in the UK, where it is registered as a charity. It says it has more than 10,000 members across the country and describes itself as a Christian Pentecostal church.\n\nPrayers to cast out evil spirits are not unusual in the Christian world. Some churches call them deliverance or exorcisms - although the latter is not a term the UCKG uses.\n\nDr Joe Aldred, a Pentecostal bishop who works to bring together different Christian traditions, says: \"Christians believe, I believe, there are forces for good and for evil in the world.\"\n\n\"Strong prayers\" in the UCKG usually involve a pastor laying hands on a member of the congregation and demanding an evil spirit leaves their body. The church says it conducts the prayers at so-called \"spiritual cleansing\" services each week to \"remove the root cause of problems\".\n\nThe UCKG came under scrutiny following the murder of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie, who was murdered by her great-aunt and the woman's boyfriend.\n\nIn the week before her death in 2000, the couple had taken Victoria - who was showing signs of abuse - to a branch of the church.\n\nA pastor said he thought she could be possessed and initially suggested she be taken to a service where \"strong prayers\" were performed. Later, before the service took place, the pastor told the great-aunt to take Victoria to hospital.\n\nA Charity Commission report highlighted that \"the seriousness of Victoria's condition was not fully realised or reported to the relevant authorities\" in the days before she died. It said it was \"concerned\" the church did not have a formal child protection policy.\n\nFollowing this criticism, the church introduced a safeguarding policy. Now, it promises not to perform strong prayers on anyone under 18 - or in their presence.\n\nBBC Panorama visited a UCKG youth group service in Brixton, south London, attended by young adults and teenagers.\n\nA service led by Bishop Edir Macedo, the founder of the UCKG\n\nThe undercover filming shows the pastor splitting up the group according to age.\n\nA boy, who told the undercover reporter he was 16 at the time, is seen receiving what looks like \"strong prayers\" from the pastor. \"My God, let your fire burn the evil spirit that hides,\" the pastor says.\n\nThe boy's head is held by the pastor, who then prays for the evil spirit that has entered the boy to leave.\n\nThe BBC showed the filming to Jahnine Davis, who sits on an independent government child safeguarding review panel.\n\nShe says: \"Given that the death of Victoria Climbie occurred over two decades ago, based on the footage you've shared, UCKG may want to ask themselves how much have they learnt.\n\n\"Safeguarding policies are one thing but they mean nothing if they're not being implemented. They're meaningless.\"\n\nIn a statement, the UCKG said: \"Strong prayers… are mainly performed at deliverance specific services\" and \"anyone under the age of 18 is not allowed\" in. It said it strongly rejects the suggestion it has breached its safeguarding policy.\n\nWith more than 30 branches in the UK, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God claims to transform lives.\n\nWatch at 20:00 on BBC One on Monday 11 December (20:30 in Wales and Northern Ireland) or catch up later on iPlayer\n\nBBC Panorama spoke to 40 former UCKG members - some of them left years ago, others in the past few months.\n\nSharon joined the London Stratford branch when she was 19.\n\nShe says she told a pastor about her clinical depression and says he never advised her to seek professional help.\n\nShe was subjected to \"strong prayers\", she says - contrary to the UCKG's safeguarding policy, which says they should not be performed on people with mental health problems.\n\n\"It got to the point where I was very scared of going to those services because I was one of the targets all the time,\" Sharon says.\n\nThe church says \"strong prayers\" are not intended to be frightening or harmful and no-one should feel targeted. It also says if it is aware that \"mental health concerns are involved\", its \"safeguarding team helps with referrals\".\n\nThe BBC has also spoken to a former UCKG member, \"Mark\", who asked to remain anonymous because he was concerned about how the church might react. He says \"strong prayers\" were performed on him from the age of 13 to try to make him straight.\n\n\"When they found out I was gay, they started telling me that it was a demon causing it, that I needed to attend the Friday services where they would perform exorcisms,\" he says.\n\nMark says the prayers were performed every week for more than four years and that he tried to convince himself he was attracted to women. \"I would cry myself to sleep,\" he says. \"And it was a really hard time because the amount of self-hate was huge.\"\n\nThe UCKG told the BBC it does not perform \"conversion therapy\" and that \"strong prayers are not given for matters of sexuality or gender alignment\". It adds that it \"welcomes people from all sexual preferences\".\n\nIf you've been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.\n\nAt a healing service secretly recorded by the BBC where \"strong prayers\" were conducted, Bishop James Marques - the leader of the UCKG in the UK - tells the congregation some sickness is a spiritual problem and mental health problems are linked to evil spirits.\n\nHe told an undercover reporter: \"Depression is a spiritual problem. Behind depression there is an evil spirit.\"\n\nHe also said, \"We know that epilepsy is a medical condition but in the Bible the Lord Jesus casts out an evil spirit that was causing epilepsy. So we can understand that epilepsy in reality is a spiritual problem that has a physical, visible manifestation.\"\n\nIn a statement, the UCKG said \"strong prayers\" are never \"promoted as a replacement for medical or... professional help\".\n\nMany former members spoken to by the BBC say they found leaving the church incredibly difficult.\n\nRachael, who left the church and now leads a campaign against the UCKG, warning of the dangers she says it poses to other young people.\n\n\"They say, 'Do you remember that assistant who was sitting here? Well, they left the church and now they are getting a divorce. Now they have cancer.'\"\n\nSharon says she was shown a graphic video about a former member who was in a motorcycle incident that showed \"all their organs out\".\n\nShe adds: \"They said this is what happens when you leave the church, the devil will come and take your soul.\"\n\nAt an event secretly filmed by the BBC, Alvaro Lima - one of the UCKG's bishops - tells followers that straight after leaving the church, \"my mother became very sick, cancer in the lungs\".\n\nHowever, he said, she later came back to the church \"and now the cancer is shrinking and she's getting better and better\".\n\nThe UCKG told the BBC it \"does not employ scare tactics\", is \"based on (voluntary) devotions\" and \"does not have any interest in coercion\".\n\nThe church says its many current members appreciate it and the good work it does.\n\nBut many of the former members the BBC spoke to say they would not go back.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Images of detained and stripped Palestinians apparently surrendering some weapons to Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip have prompted speculation about the circumstances of the events and the filming.\n\nInitially, two videos of what appeared to be the same scene - a man in his underwear obeying instructions to lay down a weapon - but with slight differences, sparked speculation it may have been filmed repeatedly for separate \"takes\".\n\nBBC Verify has examined the footage and established that both clips came from a continuous sequence in which three guns in total appear to be handed over. But questions remain about the exact circumstances and the release of the videos.\n\nTwo separate clips depicting the same scene but with minor discrepancies circulated on social media on Saturday 9 December. This led to accusations that different \"takes\" had been filmed. Some pointed to how the man in the video was holding the gun in a different hand in the two scenes.\n\nBBC Verify has found that in fact these videos are different sections of a continuous sequence, not separate takes, and the same man is going to and fro bringing different guns to the pavement with their detached ammunition.\n\nIn the footage, dozens of other men are seen standing across the road watching, also in their underwear, many of them with their arms aloft and holding identity cards. BBC Verify has established they are in front of a UN school in Beit Lahia, north of the Jabalia refugee camp.\n\nOne video, which we know was shot first because of the position of the sun, shows the man placing a gun from his right hand on top of another on the pavement. In the next video, with the sun lower, the man places a different gun on top of those from his left hand. Still images corroborate and bookend this sequence, with one showing the very first gun being placed, and another showing the resulting three guns and magazines on the pavement.\n\nThere are still some questions raised by the footage. Notably, the man is being held at gunpoint and issued directions from off-screen, so it's unclear whether he is \"surrendering\" the weapons or just moving them as instructed. Given he is already in his underwear and he cannot have been concealing them on his person, it's unlikely Israeli troops did not know about these weapons, suggesting this may be performed for the camera, rather than as an act of authentic surrender. We also don't know if he, or any of the other individuals in the video, have any involvement with Hamas or the 7 October attack.\n\nIn one of the videos, the end of what seems to be a DSLR zoom lens is briefly visible. There were also photographs circulating alongside the videos which were captured from a slightly different angle. This suggests the events were filmed or photographed by more than one person or camera.\n\nOver the past week, emotive images of Palestinians being detained in Gaza have provoked strong reactions - with some expressing concern over the treatment of the prisoners, and the Red Cross saying all detainees must be treated in accordance with international law.\n\nBut Israel has been keen to show evidence it's making progress against Hamas in Gaza. On Sunday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: \"In recent days, dozens of Hamas terrorists have surrendered to our forces. They are laying down their weapons and handing themselves over to our heroic fighters.\n\n\"It will take more time, the war is in full swing, but this is the beginning of the end for Hamas.\"\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not respond directly to questions about the circumstances of these videos but a spokesperson told the BBC that detained individuals \"are treated in accordance with international law\".\n\n\"It is often necessary for terror suspects to hand over their clothes such that their clothes can be searched and to ensure that they are not concealing explosive vests or other weaponry.\"\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "A video shared online appears to show swimmers at Leighton beach, near Perth in Australia, approaching a sperm whale that is swimming \"dangerously close\" to the shore.\n\nIn the footage, the whale can be seen straying into shallow waters and attracting the attention of beachgoers, before heading back out to sea.\n\nMarine biologist Dr Natalie Sinclair told the BBC that the mammal could have been at risk of stranding, and that this kind of behaviour was \"unusual and perilous\".\n\nShe also warned that people swimming that close risk disorientating the whale, and that the best thing to do in this situation is to \"leave the whale alone\" and leave any rescue attempts to professionals.\n\n\"The proximity of individuals to the whale poses risk, not only to the animal, but also to the people involved,\" she added.", "A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a man near a Tube station in May 1984, days after police launched a new appeal for information.\n\nAnthony Littler, 45, was attacked after leaving East Finchley Underground in north London.\n\nThe executive officer with Customs and Excise, who lived locally, was found with with head injuries in an alleyway.\n\nThe Met Police said the 58-year-old man was arrested on Sunday and bailed until January pending further inquiries.\n\nOn Wednesday this week the force renewed an appeal for information surrounding Mr Littler's death.\n\nDet Ch Insp Neil John, who is leading the investigation, thanked \"everyone who has already come forward with information\".\n\n\"However,\" he said, \"we still need to speak with anyone who may have witnessed the events leading up to Anthony's murder.\"\n\nWith a lack of surviving forensic evidence, detectives are relying primarily on re-examining original statements from the case.\n\nMr Littler's family have said that until his killer is found, they will not be able to find closure.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"We hope we can count on you,\" Zelensky says to US\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued an impassioned appeal for continued US military aid as he arrived in Washington on Monday.\n\nAddressing military officials, he said Ukraine is not fighting just for its own freedom but for global democracy.\n\nHis comments come as an aid package worth billions languishes in Congress amid a partisan political row.\n\nRebuking Republicans, who are blocking the aid, Mr Zelensky called the delay a \"dream come true\" for Vladimir Putin.\n\n\"If there's anyone inspired by unresolved issues on Capitol Hill, it's just Putin and his sick clique,\" the Ukrainian leader argued.\n\nMr Zelensky is expected to make similar remarks in a meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Tuesday. He will also meet House Speaker Mike Johnson, a noted sceptic of additional military aid.\n\nThe visit marks Mr Zelensky's third trip to the US since Russia's 2022 invasion, and the White House said in a statement on Sunday that his visit was meant \"to underscore the United States' unshakeable commitment to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Russia's brutal invasion\".\n\nThe US military aid package, worth $60bn (£47.9bn; €55bn), is currently stalled in Congress, facing pushback from Republicans who argue that more money should be going to domestic security at the US-Mexico border.\n\nA vote in the Senate last week saw a package, which included the funding but no border measures, blocked by Republicans.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How US lawmakers are divided on Ukraine funding\n\nIn addition to more funds for border enforcement, Republicans are seeking reforms to the way in which undocumented migrants seeking political asylum in the US are processed.\n\n\"Quite frankly, we're not going to go help other countries and not look at actually what's happening in the United States,\" Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, told an NBC reporter on Monday.\n\nMr Lankford said that Americans don't want US national security on the border to be ignored while Congress focuses on Ukraine's interests.\n\nHe added that he doubted Mr Zelensky's visit will change any lawmakers' minds.\n\nAlthough the Biden administration has expressed a willingness to accept some asylum policy changes, such concessions risk angering liberal lawmakers and further dividing a party that has already been fractured by the president's support of Israel in the Gaza War.\n\n\"We are concerned about reports of harmful changes to our asylum system that will potentially deny lifesaving humanitarian protection for vulnerable people, including children, and fail to deliver any meaningful improvement to the situation at the border,\" a group of 11 Democratic senators wrote in a statement issued on 30 November.\n\nDemocratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, an ally of Mr Biden's, has said that the White House is becoming \"more engaged\" in the ongoing negotiations, seeking a comprehensive funding agreement that includes money for Ukraine before Congress leaves for its holiday recess on Friday.\n\nEven if the Senate can strike a deal, however, the package would have to also be approved by the House of Representatives, where opposition to more Ukraine aid is even more intense.\n\nMr Biden has been urging lawmakers to approve the funds. In an impassioned televised address last Wednesday, he said the package could not wait and warned that Russia would not stop at victory over Ukraine.\n\nThough Ukraine fended off Russia's original attack, its much-vaunted counter-attack this year has stalled and there have been signs of fatigue from some of the Western nations which have stepped up to support it militarily.\n\nNonetheless, Mr Zelensky insisted on Monday that his troops could still overrun Russian forces if US military aid continued.\n\n\"American Bradleys, HIMARS, 155-caliber shells and ATACMS missiles, Patriots, and F-16s can get the job done in Europe, exactly how global freedom needs it,\" he said. \"The whole world is watching us, observing what destiny other free nations could face - to live freely or to be subjugated. Ukrainians haven't given up and won't give up.\"\n\nThe week is a crucial one for Ukraine, with the EU also deciding whether to open accession talks to the bloc.\n\nHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has signalled that he opposes the move, and has the power to block such a decision.\n\nMr Orban and Mr Zelensky had an apparently intense conversation when they met on Sunday at the inauguration of Argentina's new president. The details of their discussion have not been revealed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Zelensky has animated chat with Orban this week in Argentina\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Armed police have been deployed to the Swiss town of Sion after the incident\n\nA man has been arrested in Switzerland after two people were shot dead and another person was injured in the southern town of Sion.\n\nPolice in the Valais region said several shots were fired in two different locations on Monday.\n\nA woman, 34, was killed in a car park shortly after 07:00 (06:00 GMT), and a man, 41, was shot dead shortly after.\n\nThe alleged gunman was found just north of Sion at 15:43 following an eight-hour manhunt.\n\nValais cantonal police said it received a call at 07:15 that a person had been injured in a car park on Rue Oscar-Bider.\n\nShots were reportedly fired at the Sarosa painting company in the Ronquoz area, followed by a second location in the Potence area, local newspaper Le Nouvelliste reports.\n\n\"This was a woman who suffered a fatal gunshot wound,\" the police statement said.\n\n\"A few minutes later, a man was also shot dead, while a woman was also injured by a gunshot.\"\n\nBoth lived in the Valais region. A 49-year old woman from Valais was also injured.\n\nThe suspect was stopped and arrested in the St-Léonard region on Monday afternoon.\n\nPolice had set up road blocks around Valais in an attempt to stop the alleged gunman from leaving the country.\n\nThe town of Sion is located close to the Italian and French borders.\n\nThere has also been a large police presence in the town itself, with armed officers stationed at the crime scenes.\n\nSwitzerland, a country of around nine million people, has a high rate of gun ownership.\n\nSmall Arms Survey, a Swiss-based organisation that monitors global trends in armed violence, estimates the number of firearms in civilian possession at 2.3 million.", "At the end of the war that started on 7 October lies a big, unknown place called the future. The old status quo was dangerous and painful, especially for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. But it was familiar. Then after 7 October it was smashed by the Hamas attacks, and Israel's response.\n\nThe shock of war can speed up change, when it sweeps away old thinking, forcing difficult choices for a better future. Or it drives leaders and their citizens deeper into their bunkers, as they prepare for the next round.\n\nFor more than a century, Jews and Arabs have been confronting each other, and sometimes going to war, over control of the small, highly coveted piece of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Perhaps the safest, saddest bet is to assume that the conflict, reshaped, will go on. After all, that is what has happened after every other Middle East war since 1948, when Israel won its independence.\n\nBut there are other options. Here are some of the arguments made by individuals at the centre of events.\n\nIsrael's prime minister has not spelt out his plan for the day after, if he has one. His opponents in Israel, who blame him for security and intelligence failures that made the Hamas attacks on 7 October possible, say Netanyahu's only real plan is to stay in power and avoid conviction on the serious corruption charges he faces.\n\nNetanyahu built his career on the message he was Mr Security, the only man who could keep Israel safe. Hamas shattered his brand, which was already badly damaged by political strife inside Israel.\n\nNetanyahu has not spelt out his plans for Gaza after the war ends\n\nThe prime minister's broad statements about what happens after the war, assuming Israel can declare victory, all point to continued occupation of Gaza. Israeli officials have reportedly talked about setting up buffer zones along the border, without offering any details.\n\nNetanyahu has rejected a role for foreign peacekeepers, assuming they can be found. Jordan's foreign minister Ayman Safadi has already said that Arab states would not \"clean the mess\" left by Israel.\n\n\"There will be no Arab troops going to Gaza. None. We are not going to be seen as the enemy.\"\n\nNetanyahu has also dismissed US President Joe Biden's plan to replace Hamas with the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas. Netanyahu claims the PA cannot be trusted and supports terrorism, even though it recognises Israel and cooperates with it on security.\n\nPresident Biden's vision of the future is very different to Benjamin Netanyahu's. Biden continues to give considerable military, diplomatic and emotional support to Israelis. He visited, embraced the families of hostages and has ordered his diplomats at the United Nations Security Council to use the US veto to block ceasefire resolutions. Biden ordered two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region and has sent Israel vast amounts of weaponry.\n\nIn return, the US president wants Israel to return to some kind of revitalised peace process. He wants the Palestinian Authority (PA) eventually to run Gaza while Israel agrees arrangements for an independent Palestine alongside Israel.\n\nThe Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas agrees. He has largely been a bystander since 7 October. In a rare interview this week, with Reuters, he said there should be a peace conference after the war to work out a political solution that would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.\n\nBiden wants a revitalised peace process in the region\n\nThe \"two state solution\" has been the official objective of America and its western allies since the early 1990s. Years of negotiations to make it happen failed. For almost a quarter of a century, since the peace process collapsed, the phrase has been an empty slogan. Biden wants to revive it, arguing correctly that only a political solution will end the conflict.\n\nBiden sent his vice president, Kamala Harris, to Dubai last week to make a speech laying out America's red lines for Gaza on the day after.\n\nShe laid out five principles.\n\n\"No forcible displacement, no re-occupation, no siege or blockade, no reduction in territory, and no use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism.\"\n\n\"We want to see a unified Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian voices and aspirations must be at the centre of this work.\"\n\nIn and out of office, Benjamin Netanyahu has worked consistently hard to thwart Palestinian independence. It is safe to say he is not about to change his mind. If the two-state solution can be revived, it won't happen while he is prime minister.\n\nI went to see Simcha Rotman at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, where he is a prominent MP for the far-right Religious Zionist Party. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu depends on the support of Rotman's party and other hard-line Jewish nationalists. Their power comes from the dynamism of the movement to settle Jews on the land captured in 1967. From that moment of victory, some Israelis were set on extending the Zionist enterprise into the newly occupied Palestinian territories: the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.\n\nSince 1967 they have been highly successful, despite being forced to leave Gaza when Israel pulled out in 2005. Around 700,000 Israeli Jews now live in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Settler leaders are in the cabinet, and their enterprise is at the centre of Israeli politics.\n\nSimcha Rotman is a prominent MP for the far-right Religious Zionist Party\n\nNow that Israel is fighting Hamas, vowing to smash the organisation once and for all, Jewish nationalists see the biggest opportunity they have had since 1967, when Israel beat all its Arab neighbours in a war that lasted for six days.\n\nSince 7 October, armed settlers in the West Bank, backed by soldiers and police, have prevented Palestinian farmers from harvesting their olives or tending their fields. Settlers have paved illegal roads and sought to entrench themselves even deeper by consolidating outposts that are illegal under Israeli as well as international law. Posters are everywhere demanding the return of Jewish settlers to Gaza.\n\nSettlers have also killed Palestinians and invaded their homes. Men with bulldozers came at night to destroy the tiny village of Khirbet Zanuta, near Hebron. Its population of 200 Palestinians had already left, forced out by armed and aggressive settlers.\n\nInternational law says an occupying power should not settle its citizens in land it has captured. Israel says the law does not apply.\n\n\"Occupation is not the word,\" Simcha Rotman told me at the Knesset.\n\n\"You cannot occupy your own land. Israel is not an occupier in Israel because that's the land of Israel.\"\n\nFor Simcha Rotman and other Jewish nationalists, Gaza is also part of the land of Israel.\n\n\"We need to make sure that the only people that are in charge of our security in the land of Israel are the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]. We cannot have any terrorist organisation, doesn't matter what its name. Would it be Hamas? Would it be Fatah? Doesn't matter. The terrorist organisation cannot have control of our lives.\"\n\nIf there are Palestinian elections after the 7 October war ends, Mustafa Barghouti is likely to run for president. He is the secretary general of the Palestine National Initiative. It wants to be the third force in Palestinian politics, an alternative to the Islamist extremists in Hamas and to Fatah, the faction led by President Mahmoud Abbas, which it regards as corrupt and incompetent. Barghouthi believes resistance to occupation is legitimate and legal, though he wants it to be non-violent.\n\nIn his office in Ramallah on the West Bank, Mustafa Barghouthi told me that Israel is using the war to deliver a crushing blow not just to Hamas but to the idea of Palestinian independence and freedom. Like many Palestinians, Barghouthi sees what's happening as a grim echo of the events of 1948 when Israel won its independence and more than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced at gunpoint to leave their homes in what became Israel. Palestinians call it al-Naqba, \"the catastrophe\" and believe Israel wants it to happen again.\n\nMustafa Barghouti is the secretary general of the Palestine National Initiative\n\n\"I am 100% sure that their main goal right from the beginning was the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza, trying to push people to Egypt, a terrible war crime. And if they managed to do so, I think their next goal will be to try to ethnically cleanse the West Bank and force people to join them.\"\n\n\"If they fail to ethnically cleanse all Gazans, I am sure that Netanyahu's plan B is to annexe Gaza City and the north of Gaza completely to Israel and claim it as a security area.\"\n\nBarghouthi warns that Israel faces dire prospects if its troops stay in Gaza long term.\n\n\"Israel did that before and it didn't work. And there will be resistance to their occupation, which they cannot tolerate. And that's why Netanyahu's goal really is to ethnically cleanse people. He wants to have military control of Gaza without people. He knows very well that Gaza with people is something that is unmanageable.\"\n\nBarghouthi believes Gaza should be part of a democratic Palestinian state.\n\n\"We Palestinians are grown up people. We don't need any patronage of anybody. And no, we don't need any other country to tell us how we should rule ourselves.\"\n\nThis crisis looks as if it will have more chapters. The US veto of the latest ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council gives Israel more time to wage war. But that extra time is not indefinite, and continued Biden support for Israel carries a political price in America's coming election year. Influential members of his own Democratic party oppose what he's doing, and so do younger voters whose support he needs. The Biden Administration is already deeply uncomfortable that Israel is ignoring its repeated requests to protect civilians and respect the laws of war.\n\nIsrael may struggle to achieve the crushing victory Benjamin Netanyahu has promised. He set a high bar for victory; not just annihilating Hamas as a military force, but also destroying its capacity to govern. Israel's vast military power, reinforced by American resupply, has not yet destroyed the capacity of Hamas to fight. The Hamas creed of Islamist nationalism is also embedded in the minds of many Palestinians. Guns often don't kill ideas but reinforce them.\n\nThe future is messy and dangerous. The war in Gaza will not end neatly.", "The findings of an independent review into a major data breach within the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) were published on Monday\n\nA major data breach within the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has been described as \"a wake-up call\" for forces across the UK.\n\nA report into the data leak has made 37 recommendations for improving information security within the PSNI.\n\nIn August, the surnames and initials of all the PSNI's 9,500 staff were released by mistake.\n\nPolice later confirmed that the information was in the hands of dissident republicans, among others.\n\nThe PSNI and the Policing Board commissioned an independent review of the incident - which was carried out by Pete O'Doherty, temporary commissioner of the City of London Police.\n\nHis report, which was published on Monday, said the leak was \"a wake-up call for every force across the UK to take the security of data as seriously as possible\".\n\nThe PSNI released the information in the form of a vast data spreadsheet, which was attached in error to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request asking for a breakdown of staff roles.\n\nIt was then published on an FoI website, where it was viewable for two-and-a-half hours before the police had it removed.\n\nIt included details of where people worked and their roles.\n\nMr O'Doherty's report said the leak was \"not the result of a single isolated decision or act by one person, team or department\".\n\n\"It was the consequence of many factors, and fundamentally a result of [the] PSNI not seizing opportunities to better and more proactively secure and protect its data,\" the report added.\n\n\"At the time of the incident, these factors had not been identified by risk management or scrutiny mechanisms, internal or external.\"\n\nJon Boutcher described the breach as an \"organisational failing\"\n\nCurrent Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said the report \"was difficult reading but I accept and indeed embrace the learning within it\".\n\n\"As the report shows, no individual, team, department, decision or act caused this breach - this is an organisational failing, an accumulation of issues,\" he said.\n\nHe said every PSNI officer and staff member would be offered a one-off payment of £500 to help with home security measures following the data leak.\n\n\"Because of the support of the Department of Justice and the Secretary of State, we are able to make that offer,\" he told a news conference.\n\n\"It has yet to be finalised. I want to make sure we provide them with the reassurance they deserve.\n\n\"We need to show them that we support them.\n\n\"For what is required for most people, it will be sufficient around some cameras and security measures that they would want.\"\n\n\"We must take responsibility as a leadership team for this and prioritise information security in our day to day business.\"\n\nThe FoI request was answered by the PSNI's human resources department.\n\nAn individual within the department did not remove a hidden tab containing the spreadsheet of raw data used to compile the FoI response.\n\nThe tab was visible as three dots, and was also missed by others.\n\nSome of the report's recommendations deal with how FoI requests are handled, including file formats.\n\nThere also needs to be \"clarity [as] to who has responsibility for data sign off\", it said.\n\nThe Police Federation for Northern Ireland, which represents rank and file officers, warned it would cost millions of pounds to address the deficiencies which led to the breach.\n\nMr Kelly said given the PSNI already had a significant budget deficit, it would be \"impossible for any of these costs to be absorbed by the service, either now or in the future\".\n\nHe said there was an onus on the UK government to allocate funding to implement the report's recommendations.\n\nThe Catholic Police Guild of Northern Ireland said staff \"need and deserve to feel safe\" because \"nobody should be unable to visit their families, friends and places of worship, especially at this time of year\".\n\nThe PSNI apologised at the time for what was described by senior officers as a \"major data breach\".\n\nIt caused considerable concern among PSNI officers and staff, who face a continuing threat from paramilitaries and must be extremely vigilant about their personal security.\n\nIn September, MPs were told that the breach could cost the service up to £240m in extra security for officers and potential legal action.\n\nMr O'Doherty's report said that following the leak, more than 4,000 PSNI staff contacted the organisation's threat assessment group.\n\nOne officer \"felt it necessary to relocate\" and others did so \"temporarily\", the report revealed.\n\n\"The review team heard of officers and staff now too frightened to visit friends or family, who have withdrawn from social aspects of their lives and who fear visiting their place of worship,\" it added.\n\nThe report described \"the potential\" for operational consequences for the force as high.\n\n\"With recruitment and retention already problematic, especially amongst certain communities, this incident is unlikely to provide confidence to those wanting to become part of the service but fearing identification,\" it added.\n\n\"There is a risk to the free flow of intelligence, the lifeblood of policing, if those providing it cannot be reassured that they can do this in confidence.\"\n\nThe data breach contributed to the resignation of the chief constable at the time, Simon Byrne.\n\nHe stood down in September, following increasing pressure - with Jon Boutcher subsequently appointed to the role.\n\nEarlier on Monday, he said the force had \"already taken action\" on one of the report's recommendations.\n\n\"The role of SIRO (Senior Information Risk Owner) has been elevated to the post of deputy chief constable.\n\n\"This will ensure that information security and data protection matters will be immediately visible to the deputy chief constable, chief operating officer and chief constable, and they can be afforded the support and attention they critically deserve.\"\n\nHe added: \"The service executive team will now take time to consider the report and the recommendations contained within it.\n\n\"We will work with the Northern Ireland Policing Board to consider the implications of the report and a timeframe for the completion of relevant actions that have been identified.\"", "Honey Boo Boo, real name Alana Thompson, said her sister \"was a fighter & still is\" (Alana pictured in 2018)\n\nAnna Cardwell, the sister of reality TV star Honey Boo Boo and co-star of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, has died aged 29.\n\nCardwell had been diagnosed with adrenal cancer in January 2023.\n\nIn an Instagram post, Honey Boo Boo, real name Alana Thompson, 18, said: \"Anna was in so much pain last night but now we all know she is at peace.\"\n\nThe family found fame on child beauty pageant show Toddlers & Tiaras before appearing on their own show, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.\n\n\"My heart is completely broken,\" Honey Boo Boo wrote underneath a photo of her family. Watching my 29-year-old sister this last year battle this horrible disease hasn't been easy. Anna was a fighter & still is.\"\n\nShe added: \"I would've loved for you to get to see me graduate college but i know you will forever cheer me on in heaven! We will all make sure your legacy lives on forever.\"\n\nHer mother, June Shannon, 44, also posted the same photo on Instagram and said her daughter \"gave one hell of a fight for 10 months\".\n\nIn May, Shannon confirmed that Cardwell's cancer had developed and was now stage four.\n\nThe family had their own reality TV show that ran from 2012 to 2014 that followed Thompson, a child beauty pageant contestant, from the age of six.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by annamarie35 This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe show featured Alana with her mother, father and three sisters, one of whom was Anna Cardwell, then Anna Shannon, known as Chickadee.\n\nIt came under regular criticism for and concerns were raised over child exploitation. The show was cancelled after four seasons as reports surfaced that Honey Boo Boo's mother was in a relationship with a registered sex offender.\n\nThe family went on to appear on other reality TV shows including, Marriage Boot Camp and The Masked Singer.\n\nThey currently appear on Mama June: From Not to Hot, a US reality show documenting June Shannon's weight loss.", "Foreign Secretary David Cameron has threatened to withdraw co-operation with Scottish ministers after Humza Yousaf met with Recep Tayyip Erdogan.\n\nThe first minister met the Turkish president at COP28 without a UK official present, which Lord Cameron said was a breach of protocol.\n\nIt comes amid ongoing tensions between Scotland and the UK government over meetings with foreign officials.\n\nA spokesperson for Mr Yousaf said a UK official was invited to the meeting.\n\nMeanwhile a UK government source told the BBC Lord Cameron wants to take a \"harder line\" approach than his predecessor James Cleverly.\n\nThe BBC has seen a letter which Lord Cameron, who returned to the cabinet as foreign secretary last month, has written to the SNP's External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson.\n\nIn that letter, Lord Cameron said the Scottish government had assured the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) that it would give \"sufficient advance notice\" of the meeting with Mr Erdogan.\n\nHe said this was to allow one of his officials to attend the meeting and \"was not done\".\n\n\"The absence of an FCDO official at this meeting contravenes the protocols in our guidance on FCDO support to devolved government ministers' overseas visits,\" the letter reads.\n\n\"Any further breaches of the protocol of ministerial meetings have a FCDO official present will result in no further FCDO facilitation of meetings or logistical support.\n\n\"We will also need to consider the presence of Scottish government offices in UK government posts.\"\n\nLord Cameron at a press conference in Washington in December - he was appointed foreign secretary last month\n\nJames Cleverly made a similar threat when he was foreign secretary after Mr Yousaf met the Icelandic prime minister in August, again without UK diplomats.\n\nHowever a UK government source said this latest intervention represents an \"escalation\" over the issue and the foreign secretary wishes to take a \"harder line\" approach than Mr Cleverly.\n\nOn the meeting with President Erdogan, the source said that Foreign Office officials were not told where it would take place \"until it was too late\".\n\nThe move \"undermined UK foreign policy\", they said.\n\nA UK government spokesperson added: \"Foreign affairs is reserved under the Scotland Act and in such turbulent times, the need for the UK to speak on the world stage with one consistent voice is more important than ever.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the first minister said a UK official was aware of and invited to the meeting, and that the same arrangements were in place for Mr Yousaf's engagements with other world leaders.\n\nThey added: \"The nature of events such as COP is that timings can change at the last minute, and the FCDO representative was elsewhere at the time it was convenient for the Turkish president to meet.\n\n\"Any threat by the UK government to curtail the Scottish Government's international engagement is misguided and would work against Scotland's interests.\"\n\nA Scottish government source said Lord Cameron's letter was a \"gross overreaction\", adding: \"You can hardly say to a president, 'Can you wait a second while we find our chaperone?'\"\n\nThey said that the FCDO representative was \"very late\" for a couple of meetings at the summit, but that was \"the nature of fast moving things like Cop.\"\n\nThe meeting between Mr Yousaf and Mr Erdogan had already proven controversial within the first minister's party.\n\nSNP councillor Roza Salih said she was \"disgusted\" by the meeting, as Turkey had stepped up attacks on Kurdish groups in Syria.\n\nThe Kurdish-born politician was elected in 2022 and became the first councillor to have moved to Scotland as a refugee.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Humza Yousaf This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe first minister posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he had discussed the climate crisis and the Israel-Gaza conflict with Mr Erdogan and the Lebanese prime minister during their meeting on 1 December.\n\nHe said he had called for an immediate ceasefire in the region. The BBC understands this contradiction of the UK government position has caused particular concern in the foreign office.\n\nMr Erdogan has taken a critical stance of Israel, accusing it of behaving like a \"war criminal\".\n\nHe made the comments while addressing thousands of demonstrators at a pro-Palestinian rally in Istanbul in October.\n\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has \"the most moral army in the world\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson has finished giving evidence at the public inquiry looking into how his government handled the Covid crisis.\n\nOver two days at the hearing, the former prime minster admitted some mistakes were made but defended his overall approach.\n\nHere are key points that emerged from around 10 hours of questioning.\n\nMr Johnson was highly combative during his grilling by a committee of MPs over Partygate in March, a tactic that did not stop them ultimately concluding he misled Parliament over the scandal.\n\nThis time, Mr Johnson - who reportedly spent hours with his publicly-funded lawyers preparing for his appearance at the inquiry - took a more measured approach.\n\nThere were occasional theatrics, however, such as when he accused the lead inquiry lawyer of saying he had \"his feet up\" at his country retreat in February 2020 - before Mr Johnson admitted he had confused the comment with someone else.\n\nAnd he choked up when he described the return of the virus after the first national lockdown, describing 2020 as a \"tragic, tragic year\".\n\nHe also drew on his own experience of being moved into intensive care with the virus to insist he \"did care\" about the fate of those who suffered with Covid, and he understood \"what an appalling disease this is\".\n\nHe opened his testimony by saying he was sorry for the \"pain and the loss and the suffering\" people experienced during the pandemic.\n\nBut his comments were interrupted by protesters, who were ordered to leave the inquiry room.\n\nSome members of bereaved families stood up holding pieces of paper, spelling out the message: \"The dead can't hear your apologies.\"\n\nThere were also protests outside the inquiry building during his evidence, and his departure from the venue on both days was greeting with jeers and boos.\n\nFamilies bereaved by Covid held up pictures of lost loved ones outside the inquiry building\n\nThe main point he wanted to get across was that ministers did their \"level best\" to respond to the virus, in difficult circumstances.\n\nHowever, he admitted he - along with scientists and advisers - should have \"twigged\" the seriousness posed by the disease earlier than he did.\n\nHe also said his Downing Street operation had a problem with gender balance, adding that \"too many meetings were male-dominated\".\n\nHe conceded that, as a \"symbol of government earnestness\", mass gatherings should perhaps have been banned earlier than they were in 2020.\n\nAnd he also apologised for describing long Covid as \"bollocks\" in a previously-published handwritten note from October 2020.\n\nHe was more relaxed, however, about some of the foul language revealed in WhatsApp messages disclosed during the course of the inquiry so far.\n\nHe denied his No 10 had been a toxic place to work, and said bad-tempered exchanges between advisers showed \"naturally self-critical\" people anxious to do their best, even adding it was \"creatively useful\".\n\nAnd he shrugged off messages in which he was urged to sack Matt Hancock as health secretary, saying that as prime minister he was \"constantly being lobbied by somebody to sack somebody else\".\n\n\"It's just what, I'm afraid, happens, and it's part of life,\" he told the inquiry.\n\nHe did reveal, however, he had apologised to Helen MacNamara, the former official who accused him of failing to tackle \"misogynistic language\" used about her in a WhatsApp group by his former top adviser Dominic Cummings.\n\nHe said that, whilst understandable, the different messages in different parts of the UK - where there were different Covid rules - risked being \"confusing\" for the public.\n\nHe insisted that he had always enjoyed a \"friendly\" relationship with then-Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon, despite suggestions earlier in the inquiry that No 10 was reluctant for them to hold meetings.\n\nIn England, he said the tier system was \"divisive and difficult to implement\" involving \"laborious\" negotiation over local financial support.\n\nOne eye-catching revelation during Mr Johnson's testimony came over diary extracts from Sir Patrick Vallance, his chief scientific adviser at the time.\n\nAccording to one entry, the former prime minister blamed high infection rates in Wales during the pandemic on \"the singing and the obesity\".\n\nHowever, he was not asked about that alleged remark about Wales, which appeared in a diary extract dated 11 September 2020.\n\nInstead, the inquiry lawyer quizzed him on a different part of the entry.", "Would Sunak really do that to his flagship immigration policy?\n\n“It would be humiliating for the government,” one former minister who will be supporting Sunak tomorrow told me.\n\nAnd, again, it’s hard to see what would change. Constrain the right to appeal further and the One Nation group would begin to get even twitchier. Plus Sunak himself has warned moves in that direction would mean the Rwandan government pulling the plug anyway.\n\nSo suppose Sunak presses ahead. Then the crucial question is not just how many Tory rebels there are, but also in what way they rebel.\n\nTo vote against the bill at second reading would be a vote against the principles of the bill rather than just its details. Many Tory MPs will therefore be extremely reluctant to do so.\n\nThe rebels may prefer instead to abstain. One MP on the right said: “I’ll vote against if enough colleagues are going to do that to defeat the government. But if just a few want to vote against then I’ll abstain.”\n\nClearly if the rebels went through with voting against the government in large enough numbers this would be near-apocalyptic for Sunak in political terms.\n\nThat prospect, if the whips tell him it is imminent, may be enough for him to withdraw the bill after all.\n\nGoing ahead with the vote and being defeated would potentially presage a leadership election, perhaps even a general election.\n\nBut, crucially, the dizzying possibility of these consequences may well be enough to give many of the potential rebels pause for thought.\n\nSo there are still plenty of permutations to how tomorrow may play out. We might get more clarity from the ERG MPs on how they plan to vote this evening.\n\nOther chats are less formal: at lunchtime in the House of Commons Sir Bill Cash, the veteran eurosceptic, was publicly briefing colleagues including Jonathan Gullis, Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates next to the parliamentary canteen.\n\nBut whatever happens, yet another day of public dissent in Parliament displays Sunak’s fragile authority over his party.", "Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie star in Barbie, which took $356m (£283m) globally in its opening weekend\n\n2023 was the year of big films and celebrity deaths - if Google's yearly review is to be believed.\n\nBarbie and Oppenheimer were the most searched films in 2023, at least when people weren't looking for news about those who passed.\n\nFootballers Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane were heavily searched for while Shakira was most Googled in music.\n\nThe results are based on the terms that had the highest spike in search in 2023 when compared to previous years.\n\nCinema-goers broke records by seeing Barbie, about the doll's feminist awakening, and Oppenheimer, about the development of the atomic bomb, back-to-back.\n\nThe films took £30m in their opening weekend, which was the best for the industry since 2019.\n\nMeanwhile, Shakira was in the news twice in 2023, first making headlines in January for her song about ex-partner Gerard Pique, which broke YouTube records in Latin America.\n\nShe then found herself in the spotlight throughout the second half of the year after she was accused of tax fraud in Spain - which she settled for €7.5m (£6.5m) out of court, while denying any wrongdoing.\n\nThe considerable interest in Barbie and Oppenheimer resulted in the creation of a new word - Barbenheimer - to capture how many people were talking about them at the same time. The two films are now leading the way in Golden Globe nominations.\n\nAnd while Barbenheimer was the big cultural moment in film, people in the UK also searched for Guardians of the Galaxy 3 - which came out in May - while the 9th most-searched movie was Netflix special Bank of Dave, an optimistic story based on Burnley businessman Dave Fishwick.\n\nUnsurprisingly, many of the searches made in 2023 were looking for information on those who passed away.\n\nFriends star Matthew Perry, who died in October, aged 54, garnered most searches globally in this category.\n\nPerry was also much loved by gamers for his appearance as Benny in Fallout: New Vegas.\n\nTina Turner, Sinead O'Connor and Paul O'Grady were also the subject of many searches in the UK, as was S Club 7 star Paul Cattermole, who died weeks after the band announced a comeback tour.\n\nMeanwhile, Smash Mouth was the fourth-most-searched music act globally in 2023, after frontman Steve Harwell died aged 56 in September.\n\nThe band is most-known for their hit All Star which, amongst other things, appeared in 1999 films Mystery Men and Inspector Gadget, and served as the title music of 2001 cult classic Shrek.\n\nFrench footballer Kylian Mbappe - considered to be one of the best in the world - was one of the most-searched for athletes in 2023, while Englishman Harry Kane also made the list after his high-profile £86.4m move to Bayern Munich in August.\n\nKane has had a fantastic season so far in Germany, having scored 18 times in just 13 league games for Bayern.\n\nBut the most-searched for athlete is a name that might not be familiar to many in the UK - American football star Damar Hamlin.\n\nThe Buffalo Bills player collapsed during a National Football League game in January and was resuscitated on the field.\n\nAfter a long period of rehabilitation, he made his first regular season appearance for the Bills in October, drawing international interest.", "As Israel presses its military offensive across Gaza, the army has been repeatedly advising some two million civilians to move to a \"humanitarian zone\" smaller than London's Heathrow Airport.\n\nAl-Mawasi is a narrow strip of land by the Mediterranean Sea. It has few buildings and largely consists of sandy dunes and agricultural land.\n\nThe zone designated as safe by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is just 8.5 sq km (3.3 sq miles).\n\nReem Abd Rabu has spent the last few weeks sleeping on the ground and sharing a tent with four other families in the area.\n\nShe is one of the 1.8 million Palestinians who have been displaced since the war began on 7 October after Hamas's attack on Israel.\n\nShe first travelled to Khan Younis after fleeing northern Gaza, but after nearby houses were bombed, she said she felt she had to go to the place the Israeli army identified on the map as safe.\n\nReem told the BBC al-Mawasi was an abandoned place, \"not a place for human beings\".\n\nShe thought it would be safe from the intense bombardment and fighting, but when she arrived, she found little to no basic services.\n\n\"Water comes one day and not for the next 10 days, even in the bathrooms. And it's the same thing for electricity,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThe IDF has urged civilians to move to al-Mawasi on at least 15 occasions on social media, the last on 2 December.\n\nAlthough the UN is distributing some supplies, civilians say there is a lack of basic necessities in the area\n\nThe first mention of the humanitarian zone was on 18 October, when the IDF's Arabic spokesperson posted on X: \"The IDF orders Gaza residents to move to the humanitarian zone in the area of al-Mawasi, to which international humanitarian aid will be directed if necessary.\"\n\nAnother post, from 21 October, stated: \"If your life and the lives of those you love are important to you, head south of Wadi Gaza. We advise you to arrive at the humanitarian area in Mawasi according to our instructions.\"\n\nLittle to no internet connectivity has made it difficult for people to find safe areas in other parts of Gaza.\n\nHowever, even the IDF instructions on al-Mawasi have changed several times. Civilians say the changing messaging has made it difficult for them to know exactly where to find safety there too.\n\nEach IDF post has been accompanied by a map pinpointing a small area within al-Mawasi that Gazans should evacuate to.\n\nBut different areas in al-Mawasi have been designated as \"humanitarian zones\" by Israel on different dates.\n\nOn 18 October, the IDF designated the humanitarian zone marked in purple below. But three days later, the IDF declared a different area - shown in blue.\n\nThen, on 30 October, the area changed again - to the one marked in green.\n\nMona al-Astal, who has also fled to al-Mawasi, says she is kept awake all night by the sound of shelling.\n\nShe is a doctor who says she was forced to leave Khan Younis after her neighbour's home was bombed.\n\nMona also describes a lack of water, electricity and supplies in the humanitarian zone. She said she had been forced to buy a tent and other supplies for $300 (£238).\n\nMona said that she had seen people breaking into a UN agency storehouse because \"they were so hungry, they have nothing to eat\".\n\nTo make matters worse, diseases including lice, chicken pox and intestinal infections have become widespread among children, she says.\n\n\"With every day that passes, the danger for us here increases,\" Mona added.\n\nMohammed Ghanem fled from an area near al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza where he said more than 25 strikes occurred next to his house.\n\nHe said he came to al-Mawasi because \"the Israeli army has been directing people here\" but said the area was \"neither humane nor safe\".\n\nHe described seeing Israeli tanks less than a kilometre away and said there had been strikes on an area just 500 metres (1,640ft) from the humanitarian zone.\n\nThe BBC has identified at least one area of damage approximately 500m away from the designated area of al-Mawasi since the IDF began directing people there.\n\nThe BBC has contacted Israeli forces, but has not received a response.\n\nThe IDF does claim that on 6 December Hamas \"launched a rocket from a humanitarian zone toward Israel\", and released a map with al-Mawasi marked.\n\nThe BBC has not been able to independently verify this.\n\nInternational agencies have been voicing concerns about the viability of humanitarian zones in Gaza when fighting and air strikes extend across so much of the territory.\n\nIn mid-November the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the plan for al-Mawasi was \"a recipe for disaster\".\n\nWHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: \"Attempting to cram so many people into such a small area with such little infrastructure or services will significantly increase risks to health for people who are already on the brink.\"\n\nThe United Nations also has wider concerns about the plan.\n\n\"The situation in Gaza is catastrophic; no one and no place is safe,\" Andrea de Domenico, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) told the BBC.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. More than half of the site at St Kentigern's has been closed since the spring due to Raac\n\nWest Lothian Council says it cannot afford the £35m cost of rebuilding its largest secondary school following the discovery of crumbling concrete there.\n\nThe local authority wants the Scottish government to meet a £15m shortfall on the work at St Kentigern's Academy in Blackburn.\n\nOtherwise, it says local services will face further cuts.\n\nThe local authority says it is \"inconceivable\" that it is the only Scottish council facing such a bill.\n\nReinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (Raac) was used in building projects across the UK between the mid-1950s and the early 1980s.\n\nIt is a lightweight form of concrete which has a lifespan of around 30 years. After this time it is prone to crumbling and failure, especially if it gets wet.\n\nEarlier this year the Scottish government confirmed that 16 local authority areas had discovered Raac in their schools.\n\nMinisters say work is under way to understand the scale of Raac problems across the public sector estate with the aim of reaching a \"considered solution\".\n\nMore than half of the site at St Kentigern's - including the gymnasium, assembly hall and a number of practical classrooms - has been closed since the spring after surveys revealed that deteriorating Raac roof panels posed an unacceptable safety risk.\n\nBuilt in 1973, more than 1,100 pupils currently attend the school.\n\nStaff describe the situation as \"challenging\" and have praised the resilience of the children who are being taught in temporary classrooms and are bussed elsewhere for PE and other subjects.\n\nSally Cameron, an education officer based at St Kentigern's, said staff and pupils were having to move from one building to another, sometimes with very little notice.\n\nEducation officer Sally Cameron says the school has had many challenges\n\n\"Staff have had to remain very adaptable and pupils have had to be very resilient to accept these changes and ensure that their learning and teaching can continue to a really high standard. It hasn't been easy,\" she said.\n\n\"We have had many challenges and sometimes we've had very little notice about what's about to happen.\"\n\nMs Cameron said exam preparation had been particularly difficult.\n\n\"The pupils are still being taught by their own teachers so that is a real strength. However we're on a construction site so we're having to think carefully about where they sit their prelim exams so that they're not interrupted.\n\n\"We're having to plan very carefully for next year's SQA exams and we're having to conduct those off site,\" she added.\n\nWest Lothian Council said it had been \"pro-active\" in dealing with an issue which has generated a £70m repair bill across its school estate.\n\nThe work to demolish and rebuild a large section of St Kentigern's - the only secondary on a list of five affected schools - is expected to take more than two years.\n\nAndrew Maguire, the executive councillor for education, describes it as a \"colossal\" project.\n\n\"The council can't afford it. If the Scottish government doesn't step in and offer us additional financial resource then the reality is that we'll need to make cuts to other services to be able to afford to do it,\" he said.\n\n\"The situation at St Kent's cannot be left unresolved, so depressingly we'll be looking at yet further cuts to council services.\n\n\"Nothing will be off the table given the extreme financial pressures the council is under.\"\n\nCouncillor Maguire believes it is \"inconceivable\" that other Scottish councils will not face a similar financial burden when it comes to dealing with Raac.\n\nWork could continue at St Kentigern's for another two years\n\nThe BBC has learned that Argyll and Bute Council is spending £3m to replace the Raac roof at John Logie Baird Primary in Helensburgh. Highland Council says repairs to Charleston and Nairn Secondary Schools will cost at least £500,000.\n\nMoray Council has budgeted £624,000 for repairs to Forres Academy, while a committee at Perth and Kinross has been told the price of replacing the Raac roof at Perth Grammar will be £500,000.\n\nThe remaining councils either have not published costs or have not carried out any significant repair work.\n\nPeter Drummond, a member of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) and part of a Scottish government working group on Raac, says \"very many\" public sector bodies in Scotland are exactly the same position as West Lothian.\n\n\"All hands are on deck surveying these buildings but because it's tricky, because it's involved, because it's disruptive to building users, it's not something that can be done overnight,\" he said.\n\n\"It needs skilled structural engineers to undertake the process assisted by surveyors and we've only got a limited number of such skilled professionals in the UK today.\"\n\nThe Scottish government says it takes the issue of Raac \"very seriously\" and will work on a \"considered solution\" once reviews of the public sector estate are complete.\n\nIn response to West Lothian Council's request for money to fund the rebuild of St Kentigern's Academy, a spokesperson said the Scottish government has increased the resources available to local government this financial year by more than £793m.", "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky can be seen having an intense-looking conversation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban inside Argentina's Congress.\n\nThe moment was captured by the Senate of Argentina's video feed as the two politicians met at the inauguration of Argentina's new president on Sunday.\n\nMr Zelensky said he had a frank discussion with Mr Orban, \"focused on our European affairs.\"\n\nMr Orban has threatened to block European Union plans to begin formal accession talks with Ukraine.", "Sam Thompson said winning was \"a dream come true\"\n\nAn average audience of 6.6 million watched this year's finale of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, overnight ratings show.\n\nMade In Chelsea star Sam Thompson was crowned king of the jungle in the ITV reality show's final on Sunday.\n\nThompson held off competition from boxer Tony Bellew and former UKIP and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage.\n\nViewing figures will be significantly higher when those watching later and on other platforms are added.\n\nAlthough overnight figures have been lower than last year's, consolidated figures show episodes have generally attracted audiences of well over eight million - making it still one of the most popular programmes ITV makes.\n\nOf the three finalists, Thompson was the bookmakers' favourite to win. The reality star and DJ, who has ADHD, endeared himself to many viewers with his positive personality and attitude.\n\nFormer heavyweight Bellew was second, with Farage - who was the best-paid campmate with a reported £1.5m fee - in third.\n\nFigures released by ITV show Thompson won with 56.6% of the vote, to Bellew's 43.4%.\n\nThe earlier vote, before Nigel Farage was eliminated, saw the politician take 25.8% of the vote share, against Bellew's 30.9% and Thompson's 43.3%.\n\nThe three finalists were among 12 celebrities who entered the Australian jungle three weeks ago - although Bellew and Frankie Dettori joined a few days after the launch.\n\nThompson said he was \"really overwhelmed\" by his win, adding: \"I didn't think I was even going to be invited onto this show, let alone be sat here [on the winner's throne].\"\n\nHe told viewers: \"I am so grateful, thank you so much. I've dreamed of doing this show and being invited on for years and years, and you've just made a boy's dream come true.\"\n\nThompson's likeable and enthusiastic personality proved to be a hit with viewers.\n\nEarlier on Sunday's final, he said being on the show had been \"like a dream that I don't even want you to wake me up from\".\n\n\"I've had the best time and I'm the luckiest person in the world,\" he told hosts Ant & Dec.\n\nThat positivity came despite being asked to eat items including a pig's vagina and a camel's penis in the last bushtucker trial.\n\nLeft-right: Sam Thompson, Tony Bellew and Nigel Farage were in the final\n\nThompson has improved on his third-place finish on Celebrity Big Brother in 2017. He left Made In Chelsea in 2019 and currently hosts a show on Hits Radio and co-presented the official Love Island podcast.\n\nThompson's girlfriend is Zara McDermott, who found fame on Love Island before moving to Made In Chelsea and then this year's Strictly Come Dancing.\n\nShe posted a video of herself with other supporters cheering when Thompson was named the I'm A Celebrity... winner.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by zara_mcdermott This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn the way to the I'm A Celebrity final, Thompson was praised for talking about receiving an ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) diagnosis last year.\n\n\"I'm not ashamed of having ADHD in any way,\" he said last week. \"But I know that I would have felt better about myself at school if I had been diagnosed with it at a younger age.\n\n\"Because I really was just like, 'I just suck at everything.'\"\n\nFarage's supporters rallied for him to win, but the GB News presenter said he \"couldn't be more thrilled\" with the third-placed finish.\n\nDespite some disagreements during the show, the divisive political figure said he was surprised the other contestants were so nice to him.\n\n\"It was interesting. Obviously there were people there that have very different views on Brexit and other subjects, and I never raised one political debate in there - not one in the whole time I was there,\" he said.\n\n\"Others did with me, but I think I managed to persuade them that we should respect the right of the other person to have a different point of view. And I had no screaming arguments... But we had proper debates. And I think in the end, I hope, the other candidates respected my point of view.\"\n\nHowever, a heated conversation about immigration between Farage and YouTuber Nella Rose attracted more than 800 complaints to media regulator Ofcom.\n\nAn average of 8.3 million people watched the show every night during the first two weeks of the series, according to consolidated ratings, which are not yet available for the final week.\n\nThat is down by more than two million on the same period last year, when footballer Jill Scott went on to win.\n\nHowever, the 2022 series attracted a higher audience than the previous year due to the huge media interest in former Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who finished third.\n\nFollowing Hancock and Farage's controversial involvement, the show's presenters Ant and Dec recently called for a year without politicians in the line-up.\n\nAsked recently whether Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was a potential future campmate, Dec said: \"I think we do a year without any politicians.\"\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is the biggest box office hit of 2023\n\nBarbie and Oppenheimer lead the nominations at the Golden Globe Awards, with nine and eight nominations respectively.\n\nKillers of the Flower Moon and Poor Things are also among the contenders, with seven nominations each.\n\nEmma Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy and Da'Vine Joy Randolph are among the acting nominees.\n\nThe ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on 7 January.\n\nSuccession leads the TV nominations with nine in total, including best TV drama series.\n\nOnly Murders in the Building, The Diplomat, The Morning Show and The Crown are among other TV shows to be recognised.\n\nSouth Korean film Past Lives is the most nominated non-English language film with a total of five nominations.\n\nBarbie's nine nominations include Margot Robbie as best actress in a musical or comedy, Ryan Gosling for best supporting actor, and Greta Gerwig for best director.\n\nThe feminist satire about the all-conquering line of plastic dolls has received three nominations for best original song - namely Dance The Night by Dua Lipa, I'm Just Ken by Ryan Gosling and What Was I Made For? by Billie Eilish.\n\nOppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Cillian Murphy (pictured) has eight nominations\n\nOppenheimer is nominated for cinematic and box office achievement - a new category introduced for the 2024 ceremony which aims to give more recognition to films popular with the public.\n\nChristopher Nolan is nominated for best director, while Emily Blunt has also been nominated for her supporting role in the film.\n\nCillian Murphy is one of the six nominees for best actor in a drama for his role in the biographical movie about J Robert Oppenheimer, the inventor of the nuclear bomb.\n\nOthers nominated in the category include Bradley Cooper who plays composer Leonard Bernstein in Maestro.\n\nColman Domingo is also nominated for Rustin, the true story of the man who helped Martin Luther King organise the 1963 March on Washington.\n\nAndrew Scott is one of the nominees in the same category for his role in British romantic fantasy film All of Us Strangers, which is set to be released in January and also stars Paul Mescal.\n\nNatalie Portman and Julianne Moore are recognised for their performances in May December\n\nIn the TV categories, Elizabeth Debicki in The Crown, Hannah Waddingham in Ted Lasso and Meryl Streep for her role in Only Murders in the Building have all been nominated for best supporting roles.\n\nWith 33 nominations, Streep is the record holder for the most Golden Globe nominations.\n\nTaylor Swift has also been received her fifth nomination, this time in the new box office category, for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. Her previous nominations were all for best original song.\n\nAs well as Oppenheimer, films nominated for box office achievement include summer blockbusters Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One.\n\nThe other newly added category for 2024 is best performance in stand-up comedy. Ricky Gervais, Trevor Noah and Amy Schumer are among nominees.\n\nBy distributor, Netflix are leading the nominations with 28 in total, 13 for film and 15 for television shows. HBO l Max have the most TV nominations with 17 in total.\n\nWhile many of the expected films and TV series were nominated, a few of this year's big hitters missed out.\n\nNotably, Ridley Scott's biopic of Napoleon featuring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby received no nominations.\n\nPhoenix instead sprung a surprise nod for best actor in a comedy or musical for his role in Beau is Afraid, a three-hour long black comedy that split critics, with NME calling it the \"most bonkers movie of the year\".\n\nAlthough musical drama The Colour Purple received two nominations, for best actress in a musical or comedy and best supporting actress, it failed to make the nominees for best picture.\n\nSaltburn scored two acting nominations for its stars Barry and Keoghan and Rosamund Pike, neither of whom were considered frontrunners.\n\nNicolas Cage's nod for Dream Scenario was also unexpected. But Ferrari, another awards favourite starring Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz, was snubbed altogether.\n\nNetflix's WWII drama All the Light We Cannot See was nominated for best TV series despite critics giving it the thumbs down, with the Guardian calling it \"a terrible mess\".\n\nLily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio are both nominated for Killers of the Flower Moon\n\nIt had looked as if the 81st Golden Globes would not be televised this year, after organisers struggled to find a broadcast partner following recent controversies.\n\nBut producers recently struck a deal with US network CBS, which also broadcasts the Grammy Awards, and the ceremony will also stream on Paramount+.\n\nThe organisation which was behind the Golden Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), attracted controversy in recent years due to allegations of corruption and a lack of diversity within its membership.\n\nThe Globes have introduced changes as a result - membership of the voting body has increased from around 90 to 300 since 2021 and was now significantly more diverse.\n\nIt has not yet been announced who will present the 2024 Globes, but the ceremony has a history of hiring acerbic hosts who make cutting jokes at the expense of the A-list nominees in attendance - much to the delight of audiences at home.\n\nPrevious Globe hosts have included Ricky Gervais, Jerrod Carmichael, Seth Myers, and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.\n\nColman Domingo is among the nominees for his performance in Rustin\n\nThe Golden Globes are traditionally a more light-hearted event than many of the other ceremonies in film awards season.\n\nTaking place in the first week of January, celebrity guests are usually in a good mood, fresh from their Christmas break.\n\nIn contrast, the Bafta Film Awards and the Oscars are much more formal events - and the prizes more prestigious.\n\nBut a win at the Golden Globes can add significant momentum to an awards campaign, with the recipients given the opportunity to deliver a rousing acceptance speech on TV at a time when Oscar voters are considering their own nominations.\n\nThere is a much higher chance of a Golden Globe nomination than an Oscar nod - the Globes split their film and lead acting categories into drama and musical or comedy, with six slots available in each instead of the Academy's five.", "Health workers staged a noisy protest demanding politicians \"get back to work\" as parties arrived for crucial talks with the government.\n\nProtesters cornered the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) delegation after shouting \"shame on you\".\n\nThey also chanted slogans calling for a return to Stormont as other parties, including Sinn Féin, arrived.\n\nThe talks involved the five largest Stormont parties and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.\n\nAt the meeting, Mr Heaton-Harris told the parties the UK government was offering £2.5bn to support the return of Stormont.\n\nIt would include a lump sum to settle public sector pay claims and a new \"needs-based\" funding formula for public services.\n\nStormont government departments are facing financial pressures and the responsibility for setting a budget has lain with Mr Heaton-Harris in the absence of devolved government.\n\nThe DUP has been boycotting power sharing for 22 months in protest at post-Brexit trade arrangements.\n\nThe party says the current plans undermine Northern Ireland's position in the UK internal market.\n\nIt has refused to nominate a deputy first minister to allow an executive to be formed and has also blocked the election of an assembly Speaker on a number of occasions.\n\nStephanie Greenwood of Unison speaks to Michelle O'Neill about public sector pay on the way into the talks\n\nMr Heaton-Harris said separate talks with the DUP aimed at ending the devolution hiatus had not ended, but were making progress.\n\nThose discussions are taking place in parallel with discussions about finances.\n\n\"I want to agree the basis upon which the Northern Ireland Executive can return on a stable financial footing,\" Mr Heaton-Harris said before the talks with the five parties began.\n\n\"I also want to ensure that public services are able to meet the needs of the people of Northern Ireland.\n\n\"The UK government is willing to help, but all these issues can best be addressed by the return of locally accountable institutions built on secure foundations.\"\n\nThree has been speculation that the DUP is preparing to agree to re-enter government, however, the party has denied this.\n\nIts leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and deputy leader Gavin Robinson were heckled by health workers as they arrived at Hillsborough Castle.\n\nThe workers also shouted \"fair pay\" as other politicians, including Sinn Féin's leader and deputy leader, arrived.\n\nOne protester told deputy leader Michelle O'Neill to tell Mr Heaton-Harris that he was \"playing hide and seek\".\n\nMs O'Neill said he was \"playing hide and seek with everybody\".\n\nStephanie Greenwood, chairperson of Unison, told Ms O'Neill: \"You promised us in 2019 pay parity, we're just asking you to deliver on that promise.\"\n\nThe Sinn Féin deputy leader said she would be making that case to Mr Heaton-Harris.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jayne McCormack This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFollowing the meeting, Ms O'Neill said the financial package offered by the UK government did not even \"touch the surface\" in terms of aiding public services.\n\n\"Public sector workers are standing behind us striking for fair pay and safe working conditions - that's not an acceptable position for them to be in,\" she said.\n\nSpeaking of returning to an executive, she said \"We have a battle, but it's a battle the parties must fight together and take this right to the British government.\"\n\nSir Jeffrey Donaldson says his party feel the UK government's financial package isn't enough to restore devolution\n\nThe leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said his party felt the UK government's financial package was not enough to restore devolution.\n\n\"Our initial reaction is that it fall short of what is required to enable our public services to be placed on a sustainable basis in terms of the funding of those public services\".\n\nThe DUP leader said there was \"some way to go\" on discussions both about finances and on the and Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nAlliance leader Naomi Long said the party was \"heartened\" by some of the financial offers put forward but it was \"not sufficient\" to address issues.\n\n\"This is not about a short-term fix, it is not about dangling baubles at us before Christmas and getting everybody to rush back,\" she said.\n\nShe added it was essential the parties get this deal right as it will have \"generational impact\".\n\nThe UUP leader, Doug Beattie, said the figures were \"eyewatering but it's what happens next year and the year after that\".\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie talks to health care workers outside the talks' venue\n\n\"Initially it's quite attractive, but in the long term were not quite sure - we have to do a little bit more looking through it and negotiating around it,\" he said\n\nHe added he did not believe an executive could be established before Christmas.\n\nSDLP leader Colum Eastwood said that there was still \"work to do\".\n\nOn the financial package being offered, he said: \"In every discussion I have ever been in with the British government about money, everyone says that it is not enough.\"\n\nMr Eastwood said: \"Most of the parties were clear that we have to get Stormont back up and running immediately.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jayne McCormack This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn Sunday, Sinn Féin said the government had told it that post-Brexit arrangement talks with the DUP had ended.\n\nBut the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) said this was \"totally incorrect\".\n\nThe DUP said there was \"further work yet to be completed\" before negotiations with the government were over.\n\nBut Doug Beattie said he understood the talks were making good progress and were \"nearing an end\".\n\nThe government may believe it's offered the parties an early Christmas present with the promise of lots of cash - but it's clear the parties have a much bigger wish list.\n\nOne local leader described it as London trying to \"dangle baubles before Christmas\", in the hopes of turning up the heat on the DUP to bring Stormont out of cold storage.\n\nWhile Sinn Féin wants these discussions done within the next two days, the DUP has suggested that the process could run much longer.\n\nParty leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson still has another deal to finalise with the government and crucially, sell that to his party members and unionist grassroots.\n\nWhen it comes to financial packages in Northern Ireland, memories run long and the parties still point out that the last agreement they reached in 2020 saw the promise of more money than was delivered.\n\nSo while we're now officially in another Christmas talks process, in the view of one source who was in the room today there's not a \"snowball's chance\" of this being wrapped up before the new year.", "Elizabeth Donowho was unable to walk for six weeks after the crash in Herefordshire\n\nA US citizen \"associated with the secret service\" has departed the UK despite \"assurances\" he would not leave following a car crash in Herefordshire that left a nurse unable to walk.\n\nIssac Calderon, 22, was due to appear before magistrates on 1 December.\n\nHe is accused of causing Elizabeth Donowho serious injury by dangerous driving.\n\nPolice have told Ms Donowho that he was working on matters \"that might come under the Official Secrets Act\".\n\nA warrant has been issued for his arrest after he failed to appear in court.\n\nMs Donowho, a 56-year-old mental health nurse who was hurt on the A4103 near Shucknall on 31 July, said she felt \"really let down\" by events earlier this month.\n\nThe mother of Harry Dunn - a teenager killed in a crash involving a US citizen who was later afforded diplomatic immunity - said she was in contact with Ms Donowho.\n\nWest Mercia Police, which told Ms Donowho of the secret service link, also informed her that an \"extradition process\" had commenced after Mr Calderon left the country to return to Houston, Texas, on a commercial flight on 25 November.\n\nThe force also told her it had received \"assurances\" from military police that he would not leave the country, but did not confirm the identity of his employer.\n\nHe has been described by the US Embassy as a \"private citizen\". Police said he had been in the UK on a work visa.\n\nDuring the court hearing, the accused's occupation was given as an American soldier, according to the Hereford Times newspaper.\n\nMs Donowho, of Malvern, Worcestershire, said she was left unable to walk for six weeks following the crash in which she broke both of her ankles and suffered a fractured sternum and a broken bone in her hand.\n\nElizabeth Donowho broke both of her ankles in the crash, as well as suffering a fractured sternum and a broken bone in her hand\n\nThe case follows that of Anne Sacoolas, who was able to leave the UK when diplomatic immunity was asserted on her behalf by the US government after killing teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn in August 2019 while driving on the wrong side of the road.\n\nHarry Dunn's mother, Charlotte Charles, said she was \"horrified to hear what happened to Elizabeth\".\n\nShe said \"this takes me right back to the weeks following Harry's death\", adding: \"I am now in close contact with Elizabeth and am giving her all the support I can, as are my team.\"\n\nIn matters relating to Mr Calderon, it is understood there are no issues surrounding diplomatic immunity. It is also understood police were not advised of his intentions to depart.\n\nHe was interviewed by police on 15 August - 15 days after the crash as he had required immediate hospital treatment.\n\nConfirming Mr Calderon's departure, West Mercia Police said: \"On Friday 1 December at Kidderminster Magistrates' Court, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Issac Calderon, 22, who is wanted for failure to appear at court on a charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.\n\n\"Mr Calderon is an American citizen who, we understand, was in the UK on a work visa.\n\n\"Our inquiries have established that he left the UK on [25 November] and flew to the United States.\n\n\"We are engaging with his solicitor to inform him of the warrant and the need for him to return to the UK.\n\n\"We have also prepared appropriate paperwork should we need to request extradition, to ensure that the case can be heard in court.\"\n\nA US Embassy spokeswoman said: \"The US Embassy does not comment on law enforcement matters involving private US citizens.\n\n\"The US and UK co-ordinate closely on law enforcement matters.\"\n\nThe Home Office said it would neither confirm nor deny whether an extradition request had been made until the suspect had been arrested, as a matter of longstanding policy and practice.\n\nMs Donowho said of her injuries: \"I had multiple fractures, which included my sternum, my right hand and both my ankles.\n\n\"I had to have surgery on my left ankle which was broken in two places and I couldn't walk for six weeks.\n\n\"I had two and a half weeks in hospital and had to rely on the kindness of others to get by.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "It is just gone 00:30 here in London and 02:30 in Gaza where we can hear the occasional thud of an explosion on a live video feed, set up across the boundary in Israeli territory.\n\nMany civilians in Gaza have gone to bed hungry after another day of serious shortages of food, water and medicine, while Israel stepped up its bombardment of targets both in the north and south of the territory.\n\nIsraeli tanks moved towards the centre of the southern city of Khan Younis, where hundreds of thousands of Gazans have sought shelter. Israel has now told them to move to al-Mawasi but international aid organisations criticise the call, since the area is a small strip of land with few buildings and no infrastructure to provide for basic human needs.\n\nThe rest of the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a \"total breakdown of civil order\" when it comes to the delivery of limited humanitarian aid, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees says.\n\nAt least 18,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, since 7 October when Hamas launched its devastating surprise attack on Israel.\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Hamas fighters have been surrendering to IDF forces and it is the \"beginning of the end\" for the group which has controlled Gaza for years. However, one military analyst speaking to the BBC described the claim as “wildly optimistic”.\n\nThe UK and the EU said they were planning to impose sanctions on Israelis responsible for violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Violent attacks there, including fatal shootings of Palestinians by armed Jewish settlers, have risen sharply.\n\nAnd protests over the war go on, with pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Chile demanding a ceasefire outside the US embassy in the cpaital, Santiago.\n\nPolice in Chile hold off protesters demanding a ceasefire outside the US embassy in Santiago Image caption: Police in Chile hold off protesters demanding a ceasefire outside the US embassy in Santiago", "A display at a Zara store in Spain uses props similar to those in its online campaign for \"The Jacket\"\n\nZara is facing a backlash about an advertising campaign which some people claim resembles images from the Israel-Gaza war.\n\nThe Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it had received 50 complaints about the social media campaign called \"The Jacket\".\n\nOne image shows the model holding a mannequin wrapped in what appears to be white plastic.\n\nIn a series of images, the model is pictured against a background of cracked stones, damaged statues and broken plasterboard.\n\nSome on social media have suggested they are similar to images emerging from Gaza following Israeli bombing in retaliation for the 7 October attack by Hamas when 1,200 people were killed.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said Israel has killed about 18,000 people.\n\nThe campaign for Zara's Atelier line is no longer on the company's app or website.\n\nThe BBC understands the advertising campaign was conceived in July and filmed in September, before the Israel-Gaza war began.\n\nSome images appear to have been removed from Zara's Instagram account, though others remain.\n\nIn the comments several users call for a boycott of the firm.\n\nOne Zara shop in Spain has a window display with some props similar to those used in the campaign.\n\nThe company describes its thinking behind \"The Jacket\" as \"an exercise in concentrated design that is conceived to showcase the finest aspects of Zara's creative and manufacturing capabilities, Zara Atelier offers one garment, six ways - and with unlimited possibilities\".\n\nA spokesperson for the ASA said: \"We've received 50 complaints about this ad. Complainants argue that the imagery references the current Israel-Hamas conflict and is offensive.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added that the ASA was reviewing the complaints but was not currently investigating the advert.\n\nRecently, M&S apologised after the retailer was accused of posting an Instagram photo of Christmas party hats in the colours of the Palestinian flag on fire.\n\nThe ASA said that it had received 116 complaints about the image.\n\nIt said that following a review, it determined that M&S had not broken ASA rules and \"no additional investigation was warranted\".\n\nNevertheless, M&S said it had \"removed the post following feedback and we apologise for any unintentional hurt caused\".\n\nZara's Spanish parent company, Inditex, is scheduled to announce its latest quarterly results on Wednesday.", "Heather Mills' vegan food business VBites has collapsed into administration after being hit by rising costs.\n\nMs Mills said she was devastated by the collapse and paid tribute to her team, who she said had put \"blood, sweat and tears\" into the business over 30 years.\n\nThe company was founded in 1993 as Redwood Wholefoods.\n\nIt was bought by Ms Mills - the former wife of Sir Paul McCartney - in 2009 and subsequently rebranded as VBites.\n\nMs Mills said the collapse was \"extremely distressing for me on a personal level but also for my wonderfully loyal and hard-working staff\".\n\nShe said she had personally invested \"tens of millions of pounds into the business\" and offered \"every solution I feasibly could to keep it going, but sadly mine and my staff's efforts have been thwarted\".\n\nSales of vegan food, which is often more expensive than competing meat or dairy products, have been hit as shoppers grapple with higher food prices.\n\nIn August, Beyond Meat, which is stocked in supermarkets and supplies McDonald's, said that its sales had fallen by almost a third over the previous three months.\n\nSausage maker Heck announced in May it was slashing its range of meat-free products from ten to just 2.\n\nOver the last year, Pret A Manger has closed half its vegetarian and vegan-only outlets.\n\nHowever, according to the Vegan Society, there are about 700,000 vegans in the UK and vegan food has a wider appeal, popular with vegetarians.\n\nAdministrators from Interpath Advisory were appointed on Monday after talks to raise new funding for VBites collapsed.\n\nThe company operates from two manufacturing sites, in Peterlee, County Durham, and Corby, Northamptonshire.\n\nInterpath Advisory said the company would continue to trade from the site in Peterlee whilst it looked for a buyer for the business and its assets.\n\nIt said that 29 members of staff based at the Peterlee site had been kept on to help with trading.\n\nThe joint administrators have also kept 25 employees at the site in Corby to fulfil outstanding orders.\n\nA total of 24 employees across the business have been made redundant.\n\nJames Clark, joint administrator and managing director at Interpath Advisory, said: \"VBites is one of the UK's leading manufacturers of vegan food products but unfortunately, and in common with many other companies across the food manufacturing sector, had seen trading impacted by rising commodity and energy prices.\"\n\nCorrection 13 December 2023: This article was amended to make clear that Heather Mills did not launch VBites in 1993, but rebranded RedWood Holdings as VBites after she bought the company in 2009.", "Expert lawyers who have been involved in the Rwanda case - or supported the challenge to the policy - have described new legislation as potentially setting up a politically explosive fight with both the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.\n\nIn last month's Supreme Court ruling, five justices unanimously ruled that the country was not safe - and they listed the detailed evidence about how its asylum system was deeply flawed.\n\nThe key element of the government's package tries to deal with this part of the defeat by asking Parliament to declare Rwanda to be \"conclusively\" safe and simultaneously banning British judges from ever saying it is not.\n\nThat is aimed at preventing the courts from once again considering documented evidence about injustices in Rwanda's asylum system. Taken to a hypothetical extreme, if Rwanda exploded with civil war like in 1994 (not something currently likely to happen), British law would still state the country was a safe place to send people.\n\nThe plan then orders British judges and courts to ignore the sections of the Human Rights Act that set out how they should interpret safeguards set out in the European Convention of Human Rights. That includes the right not to be tortured, or the right to a fair hearing before a court.\n\nIt also prevents judges from considering other international laws - most importantly the Refugee Convention and the United Nations' ban on torture.\n\nThis is quite a move to pull off legally and politically on the world stage. On the one hand, the UK freely entered into these laws because it wanted to set a global example for others to follow. On the other, the government has designed a law, say critics, that allows it to pick and choose when it adheres to such global rules - while demanding that Rwanda sticks to the letter all the time.\n\nOne highly-respected legal thinker, Professor Mark Elliott of Cambridge University, has already blogged that this is \"an astounding level of hypocrisy\".\n\nFinally, it says our courts must ignore any other British law that stands in the way of finding the country to be safe - this is important because the Supreme Court said such laws exist.\n\nSo where does this leave the plan?\n\nThe front page of the bill gives it away. Every piece of new legislation must carry a statement as to whether the plan is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.\n\nThis bill comes without that assurance - and that means government lawyers have warned ministers it is more likely than not to fall apart under sustained legal challenges.\n\nSo if the bill is passed, many experts are gearing up for a new and profoundly messy court battle - if not lots of them. Some of those battles might even start in Edinburgh if the plan runs roughshod over some part of Scots law that Downing Street has not thought of. If that sounds like a plot twist, it happened to Boris Johnson when he was roundly defeated over illegally closing down Parliament amid the Brexit crisis.\n\nAt worst, it could lead to an unprecedented constitutional stand-off between Parliament and judges.\n\nThe Supreme Court cannot strike down primary legislation - but it has the power to make a \"Declaration of Incompatibility\". This is a rare judgment that says an Act of Parliament should be rethought because it is incompatible with the basic European Convention of Human Rights safeguards embedded in British law.\n\nTwo such rights that come to mind in relation to the Rwanda plan are the right not to be subject to inhuman treatment and the right to have a fair hearing of your case before you are put onto a plane to equatorial Africa.\n\nIf the Supreme Court makes a Declaration of Incompatibility, in theory a government should then ask Parliament to amend the offending law. But it does not have to do so - hence the potential stand-off.\n\nSo if ministers pressed ahead with flights, it is a racing certainty that claimants would then try to take their case, as would still be their right under the law, to the European Court of Human Rights.\n\nThe court in Strasbourg would then have to consider whether it wants to block the plan - and flights - while it considers the case.\n\nIf it did that, the bill includes a measure that says ministers can ignore such an order and send a plane skywards anyway.\n\nBut two massive obstacles stand in the way of the plan becoming reality.\n\nThe first is politics. They need to get this through Parliament - and there is no certainty the House of Lords will comply.\n\nSome observers are already wondering why Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, and Victoria Prentice, the Attorney General, have stood by the bill when they both have constitutional roles in upholding international laws that may soon be ignored. A lot of votes in the Commons may rest on their shoulders.\n\nSecondly, just supposing it did become law, some of the best legal minds in the country have fought the government over Rwanda. The plan could become so mired in challenges in court that it never gets to a final judgment before the General Election clock runs out.", "Brianna's body was discovered by dog walkers at Culcheth Linear Park after she was stabbed 28 times\n\nA girl accused of murdering Brianna Ghey has told a jury she was walking away from the teen when she was stabbed and only saw the attack because she \"heard a noise like someone screaming\".\n\nManchester Crown Court has heard Brianna was stabbed in a park in Culcheth, Cheshire, in February.\n\nA 16-year-old, identified for legal reasons as girl X, became upset as she said she saw her co-accused, identified as boy Y, attacking Brianna.\n\nThe pair, who were aged 15 at the time of the attack, allegedly lured Brianna, who was transgender, to Linear Park in Culcheth, near Warrington, on the afternoon of 11 February before she was stabbed her 28 times.\n\nWarning: Some readers might find the following report distressing\n\nThe court has previously been shown what the prosecution said was a handwritten \"murder plan\" found in girl X's bedroom.\n\nIt has also seen text messages sent between her and boy Y, which allegedly showed the plan to lure Brianna to the park and kill her.\n\nNotes were also made on serial killers including Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez and Harold Shipman in a notebook and jurors have heard the pair had a fixation with torture, violence and death, with girl X describing herself as a \"satanist\".\n\nA crumpled, handwritten note of an alleged \"murder plan\" to kill Brianna was found in her bedroom\n\nGiving evidence, Girl X wiped away a tear as she denied murder and told the court that any talk of harming Brianna had been just \"a fantasy\".\n\nShe said she thought she, boy Y and Brianna were going to the park to \"hang out\" and the three of them had stopped near a bench, but she had become a bit bored and walked away to stretch her legs.\n\nRichard Pratt KC, defending girl X, said: \"Did something attract your attention?\"\n\n\"When I walked off, I heard a noise like someone screaming and that's when I turned around.\"\n\nAsked what she then saw, she said she \"saw boy Y stabbing Brianna\", adding that he had done so \"around five times\".\n\n\"I saw her fall and land face down on the floor,\" she said.\n\n\"I saw him stood next to her, leaning over, looking down at her.\"\n\nShe said the attack left her \"in shock\" and agreed it was not what she expected or wanted to happen.\n\nShe added that if she had tried to \"step in\", boy Y \"could easily have overpowered\" her.\n\nShe said that after the attack, she \"walked over to see whether I could see her breathing\", but she could not and when she saw boy Y run off, she \"panicked\" and also fled.\n\nThe pair, who were aged 15 at the time of the attack, allegedly lured Brianna to Linear Park in Culcheth, near Warrington\n\nJudge Mrs Justice Yip asked girl X if she was alright as she appeared to wipe tears away with the sleeves of her cardigan, before being handed a tissue by her intermediary.\n\nThe court heard that the following day, she told her mother, and then the police, that Brianna had been with her but left to meet someone from Manchester.\n\nAsked why she did not tell the truth, she said had been \"scared because obviously I knew how bad it would look, just based off of text messages, so I was defending myself as well as boy Y at the time\".\n\nShe said she sent messages via Snapchat to Brianna after her death because she started to get \"really paranoid\".\n\nFinishing his questioning, Mr Pratt asked her how she felt about the fact Brianna had died.\n\n\"I do feel really upset about it,\" she replied.\n\nThe court has previously heard from boy Y, who denied attacking Brianna with a hunting knife.\n\nRichard Littler KC, defending boy Y, said girl X had told Brianna to buy a single ticket, not a return, when she travelled to meet the pair on the day she died.\n\nHe told the court that boy Y had never met Brianna before that day and, addressing girl X, he said: \"It was your idea to kill Brianna. It was your idea to stab her.\"\n\n\"There was no intent,\" she replied.\n\n\"Put aside intent. It was your idea?\" he said\n\nGirl X also admitted she had \"lured\" Brianna to the park and admitted lying to her mother, boyfriend and police about what had happened.\n\nMr Littler also cited a notebook found at girl X's house of her describing boy Y as being both \"very, very smart, genius level\" and a \"sociopath\", who lacked emotion, was socially awkward and had only three followers on Instagram.\n\nGirl X denied the suggestion she tried to control or manipulate boy Y.\n\n\"He did not have many friends did he? But he had you as a friend?\" Mr Littler said.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The workers were confronted by members of the public. Credit: @damocrat\n\nA homeless man who was filmed being soaked by a McDonald's security guard has said he was made to feel \"like I was nothing\".\n\nAaron McCarthy, 25, said his bedding was left unusable after the worker threw water over the pavement where he was sitting.\n\nA McDonald's spokesperson said the firm had \"permanently removed\" the \"third-party security guards involved\".\n\nMr McCarthy said McDonald's had also bought him new bedding.\n\nAfter the incident, Mr McCarthy said he was given money which enabled him to stay in a hotel for the night.\n\nHe said he didn't blame the fast-food chain, and said it had apologised to him. Mr McCarthy said he did plan to follow up with the yet unnamed external security company.\n\nA video of the guard's actions, filmed by a bystander, showed the worker kicking Mr McCarthy's belongings away as he cleaned the ground on Victoria Street on Saturday.\n\nMr McCarthy told the BBC: \"Most people think we're just all drug addicts; no, I don't chose to be out here, I don't want to be out here.\"\n\n\"I'm only 25 years old - I've been out here since I was 17.\"\n\nAaron McCarthy said he doesn't leave his usual spot outside McDonald's\n\nHomeless charity Crisis told the BBC it condemned the actions of the security guard.\n\nCrisis CEO Matt Downie said: \"It's appalling to see people mistreated like that.\"\n\nWestminster Council said it would also be offering support.\n\nIt said it was very concerned to see the video and would also be raising the issue with McDonald's.\n\nFootage of the incident posted on social media showed the security guard soaking the pavement where the man had been sitting with his sleeping bag outside a Nationwide bank branch, next door to the McDonald's.\n\nIn the video, the rough sleeper said \"leave me alone\" before one security guard kicked his blanket out of the way and splashed more water along the pavement.\n\nMr Downie from Crisis said \"There's a climate of this going on at the moment.\n\n\"The recent comments from the (now former) home secretary saying that homelessness was a lifestyle choice have not helped at all.\n\n\"Words really do have consequences and we end up in situations like this where people are more likely to be abused and mistreated in this way.\"\n\nDamon Evans, who filmed the incident, could be heard telling the security guard \"you're covering his sleeping bag\" and he and other witnesses described the situation as \"outrageous behaviour\" and called it \"disgusting\" and \"bang out of order\".\n\nA spokesperson for McDonald's said they were \"shocked and saddened by this incident\".\n\nThey added: \"The restaurant team has been reminded of the importance of treating all people with respect including vulnerable people both in the restaurant and within the wider community.\n\n\"We would like to wholeheartedly apologise to the gentleman in the video and will work with the council to locate him and make amends, as part of our continued support for homelessness charities and organisations across London.\"\n\nSuella Braverman's office has been approached for comment.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "File image from 2016 shows HMS Pembrok, a Sandown-class minehunter of the Royal Navy\n\nThe Royal Navy will transfer two of its minehunter ships to Ukraine in a bid to strengthen the country's sea abilities, the Ministry of Defence has said.\n\nDefence Secretary Grant Shapps said the vessels would help to reopen \"vital export routes\" - limited since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.\n\nBut questions remain over how they will be able to enter the Black Sea.\n\nThe MoD said the UK was also launching a \"maritime coalition\" with Norway, to garner long-term support for Ukraine.\n\nGrant Shapps, the defence secretary, told BBC One's Breakfast that the ships would make a \"significant difference\", boosting efforts to clear mines from the Black Sea, and that the coalition would help build a Ukrainian navy fit to defend the country in the future.\n\nHe dismissed suggestions that western nations were losing interest in the war in Ukraine.\n\n\"We believe that we simply can't have an outcome where an autocratic dictator walks into a neighbouring democratic country and then the West gets bored of it,\" he said.\n\n\"That is an unacceptable outcome. That is why the UK will keep reminding people that that can't happen.\"\n\nThe defence secretary earlier said that the bid to improve Ukraine's navy \"marks the beginning of a new dedicated effort by the UK, Norway and our allies to strengthen Ukraine's maritime capabilities... enhancing their ability to operate in defending their sovereign waters and bolstering security in the Black Sea\".\n\n\"As an island nation with a proud maritime history, the UK and Royal Navy are particularly well-placed to support this endeavour, which will form part of a series of new coalitions formed between allies to ensure an enduring military commitment in support of Ukraine.\"\n\nThe provision of two Royal Navy minehunters to Ukraine has been in the works for a long time. They were part of a package of UK maritime support, promised before Russia invaded Ukraine.\n\nThe Royal Navy has been training Ukrainian crews over the summer in how to use the ships.\n\nHowever, there are still questions as to how or when they will be able to enter the Black Sea - with Turkey controlling access through the Bosphorus.\n\nIt highlights concerns about the immediate impact of maritime support on the war in Ukraine. Over the last six months, Ukraine has successfully targeted Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea - using drones and long range missiles.\n\nThe eastern European country still needs to rebuild its own navy, though, and to do that it will need not just support from western nations - such as the UK and Norway - but access to sail through the narrow strait between the Mediterranean and Black Seas.\n\nAfter invading Ukraine last February, Russia's navy blockaded the country's Black Sea ports, causing both naval and export issues - including trapping 20 million tonnes of grain.\n\nUkraine is one of the world's biggest suppliers of crops such as sunflower oil, barley, maize and wheat.\n\n\"Strengthening the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU)'s maritime capabilities, in particular countering the threat from Russian sea mines, will help restore Ukraine's maritime exports,\" the MoD said.\n\nIn July 2022, a deal brokered by Turkey and the UN was agreed, allowing Ukraine to safely export grain from its Black Sea ports.\n\nBut Russia later pulled out, accusing Ukraine of a \"massive\" drone attack on its fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea.\n\nAs part of the new coalition between the UK and Norway, the MoD said there would be a focus on \"the rapid development of a maritime force in the Black Sea, continuing to develop a Ukrainian Marine Corps, and river patrol craft to defend coastal and inland waterways\".\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The workers were confronted by members of the public. Credit: @damocrat\n\nA McDonald's security guard mopping a street in London soaked the ground where a homeless man was sitting.\n\nA worker was filmed kicking the man's belongings away as he cleaned the floor outside the fast food restaurant on Victoria Street on Saturday.\n\nIn the footage, the security guard gestured to the homeless man to move further down the street.\n\nA McDonald's spokesperson said the firm has \"permanently removed\" the \"third party security guards involved\".\n\nFootage of the incident posted on social media showed the security guard soaking the pavement where the man had been sitting with his sleeping bag outside a Nationwide bank branch, next door to the McDonald's.\n\nIn the video, the rough sleeper said \"leave me alone\" before one security guard kicked his blanket out of the way and splashed more water along the pavement.\n\nAnother security guard attempted to prevent a bystander from filming.\n\nDamon Evans, who filmed the incident, could be heard telling the security guard \"you're covering his sleeping bag\" and he and other witnesses described the situation as \"outrageous behaviour\" and called it \"disgusting\" and \"bang out of order\".\n\nA spokesperson for McDonald's said they were \"shocked and saddened by this incident\".\n\nThey added: \"The restaurant team has been reminded of the importance of treating all people with respect including vulnerable people both in the restaurant and within the wider community.\n\n\"We would like to wholeheartedly apologise to the gentleman in the video and will work with the council to locate him and make amends, as part of our continued support for homelessness charities and organisations across London.\"\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sighs and groans from public gallery - while Sunak sticks to script\n\nUnlike the scrutiny of some recent witnesses, the questioning of Rishi Sunak by Hugo Keith KC hasn’t been strictly chronological and has appeared broader in its framing. The prime minister — rarely less than disciplined and cautious in public and even more rarely lured by the temptation to use colourful language — stuck to his principal and unsurprising argument that the country’s economic welfare was his primary concern. We heard of real worry in the Treasury in March 2020 that the government was briefly struggling to borrow money. This was resolved but Sunak pointed out the consequences of having to do so then still has economic consequences now. And without ever saying it pithily, there is a recurring theme of the prime minister saying he constantly emphasised in private the downsides of lockdown measures while accepting that public messaging had to be more simply expressed, especially in the early months. The frequency with which Sunak has said he is unable to recall particular meetings has become a source of irritation in the public gallery — the sighs and groans from some of the relatives of the bereaved became louder during the morning session.", "Parts of the UK could become home to mosquitoes capable of spreading dengue fever, chikungunya and zika virus by the 2040s and 2050s, health officials warn.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency's report is based on a worst-case scenario, which would see high emissions and temperatures rising by 4C by 2100.\n\nIt says other effects include a rise in heat-related deaths and flooding.\n\nBut many potential problems are still avoidable with swift action, it says.\n\nSteep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions could avert some of the worst consequences, it adds.\n\nThe report, involving 90 experts, pulls together the \"substantial and growing\" evidence of the current effects of climate change on our health.\n\nIt also makes projections based on what it says is a \"plausible worst-case scenario\" that could happen if international commitments to tackle climate change are not properly kept.\n\nCurrent United Nations Environment Programme estimates suggest the world is on track for about a 2.7C warming by 2100, based on current pledges, although the exact numbers are uncertain.\n\nProf Nigel Arnell, professor of climate change at the University of Reading, says: \"Whilst we clearly hope temperatures won't get that far, it is prudent to prepare for the worst case when planning health resources, if the consequences of us underestimating the risk are so significant.\"\n\nOne major health concern is the UK becoming more suitable for invasive species such as the Asian tiger mosquito, also known as Aedes albopictus.\n\nWhile the mosquito only carries harmful viruses after biting infected people, London could see regular cases of dengue fever by 2060, the report says.\n\nThe virus is most commonly seen in tropical regions and can make people seriously ill.\n\nEngland would be the first country in the UK to be affected, with Wales, Northern Ireland and parts of the Scottish Lowlands also becoming suitable habitats later in the century.\n\nThe mosquitoes have already been responsible for cases of dengue in France and chikungunya virus in Italy in recent years.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) already has a surveillance system in place to rapidly spot invasive mosquitoes, including a network of traps placed at UK borders that detect mosquito eggs.\n\nThis would need to be expanded in the worst-case scenario, says Dr Jolyon Medlock, from the UKHSA.\n\nIf the insects go on to establish a home in the UK, people would also need to consider how to store water safely, as it is a common breeding ground for mosquitoes.\n\nThis would mean making sure buckets are not collecting stagnant water in gardens, paddling pools being covered and any potential rain-collecting vessels being upturned, he added.\n\nSlower and reduced warming is likely to delay these risks by decades or beyond this century - but once these mosquitoes have arrived, their establishment is largely irreversible, the report says.\n\nUnder the high-warming scenario and without action, it says there could be:\n\nExperts also warn the impact of climate change will be unequal, with the worst effects felt by vulnerable people, including older people, those with medical conditions or living in deprived areas and children.\n\nSome risks, such as drought and wildfires, will likely emerge earliest in the southern regions of the UK.\n\nUKHSA says targeted interventions and adaptations are key and many of the risks can be averted.\n\nIt says actions that may help include:\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Navalny has frequently appeared in court by video link, but recently he has been absent\n\nImprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been removed from the penal colony where he was serving his sentence and his whereabouts are unknown, his spokeswoman has said.\n\nKira Yarmysh wrote on social media that officials at the Melekhovo colony said he was no longer registered there.\n\nThe White House said it was \"deeply concerned\" by the reports.\n\nMr Navalny's aides were expecting him to be moved to a stricter regime jail, after his prison sentence was extended.\n\nThey say his disappearance is linked to recent announcements about elections.\n\nOn Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared his intention to stand for re-election next March.\n\nIn August, Mr Navalny was found guilty of founding and funding an extremist organisation, which he denies, and was given an extra 19 years to serve.\n\nHe had already been sentenced to nine years for parole violations, fraud and contempt of court. All the charges against him are widely viewed as politically motivated.\n\nHe was told he would have to continue his incarceration in a \"special regime colony\", a type of prison which is normally reserved for dangerous criminals, reoffenders and those subject to life imprisonment.\n\nMr Navalny's associates said earlier on Monday they had had no news of him for six days.\n\nHe had been absent from several recent court appearances, which he has in the past attended by video link. Prison authorities blamed the absences on technical problems at the colony.\n\nThen Ms Yarmysh said lawyers waiting for news outside Melekhovo, 235 km (145 miles) east of Moscow, and another nearby colony, had been told that he was not registered in either place.\n\nHis aide Leonid Volkov said this was \"0% coincidence and 100% direct manual political control from the Kremlin\".\n\n\"It's not a secret for Putin who his main opponent is in these 'elections',\" he said.\n\n\"And he wants to make it so that Navalny's voice is not heard. So each one of us must become the voice of Navalny.\"\n\nFor more than a decade, Mr Navalny sought to expose corruption at the heart of Russian power. His video investigations have received tens of millions of views online.\n\nA charismatic campaigner, he seemed to be the only Russian opposition leader capable of mobilising people in large numbers across Russia to take part in anti-government protests.\n\nBut in 2020, he was poisoned in Siberia by what Western laboratories later confirmed to be a nerve agent.\n\nA later report by the investigative outlet Bellingcat and Russian news site The Insider implicated several agents of Russia's internal security service, the FSB, in the attack.\n\nAfter recovering from the attack, Mr Navalny returned to Russia in 2021 despite warnings that he could face arrest. He was immediately arrested upon arrival at an airport in Moscow.", "Following the reform's defeat, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin offered to step down\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron's government is in crisis after opposition parties united to defeat a key immigration bill.\n\nMPs from the far right, far left and moderate parties voted on Monday to reject the draft law.\n\nThe left argued its measures were too repressive, while the right said they were not tough enough.\n\nFollowing the defeat, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin offered to step down.\n\nViewed as a hardliner on immigration issues, he had strongly supported the draft law. However, Mr Macron rejected his resignation.\n\nThe government argued the bill would both control immigration and better integrate migrants.\n\nThe bill would have made it easier for the government to expel migrants who are sentenced to prison sentences of five years or longer and would have made it more difficult for migrants to bring family members to France.\n\nIt was, however, significantly more lenient than a draft proposed by the Senate, the upper house of parliament dominated by the right, which would have severely reduced access to healthcare and benefits for migrants.\n\nBefore the vote, Mr Darmanin said on X (formerly Twitter) that, if passed, the bill would allow the government to deport \"very dangerous\" foreign nationals, including drug dealers.\n\nBut his efforts to convince opposition MPs to back him failed when disparate factions voted for a motion to reject the bill. MPs from the far-right National Rally joined those from the far-left France Unbowed, the right-wing Republicans and smaller parties to defeat the government by 270 votes to 265.\n\nBefore the vote, Arthur Delaporte, an MP for the Socialist party, said his party would vote against the bill as it was \"unjust, scandalous and a threat to freedom\".\n\nMr Macron's centrist Renaissance party lost its a majority in parliament in elections in June 2022. Since then, the government has frequently found itself unable to win votes in parliament.\n\nThe government has said it will now seek to redraft the bill. A measure used by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne to pass laws without a vote cannot be used to clear this version.\n• None Dying for the right to be French", "Kiana and Ali Rahmani, 17, collected the prize on behalf of their mother who they have not seen for years\n\nThe teenage twins of jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi have accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.\n\nMs Mohammadi - who is serving a 10-year jail term in Tehran - won this year's prize for her work fighting against the oppression of women in Iran.\n\nIn a speech smuggled from prison and read out by her children, she denounced Iran's \"tyrannical\" government.\n\n\"The Iranian people, with perseverance, will overcome repression and authoritarianism,\" she said.\n\n\"Have no doubt, this is certain.\"\n\nThe prestigious peace prize was handed out in Oslo on Sunday, along with the other Nobel prizes for literature, science and economics.\n\nMs Mohammadi has for years been a prominent human rights figure in Iran. The 51-year-old has been in jail almost continuously since 2010 - and in total has been arrested 13 times, convicted five times, and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison.\n\nShe is currently in jail for \"spreading propaganda\".\n\nHer husband, political activist Taghi Rahmani, lives in exile in Paris with their two children and they have not seen one another for years.\n\nIn a speech smuggled out of Iran and delivered by her 17-year-old children Kiana and Ali Rahmani in French, Ms Mohammadi said: \"I write this message from behind the high, cold walls of a prison.\"\n\nShe praised young Iranians who she said have \"transformed the streets and public spaces into a place of widespread civil resistance\" - referring to the protests that began last year following the death of Mahsa Amini.\n\n\"The resistance is alive and the struggle is not weakening. Resistance and non-violence are our best strategies - it is the same difficult path that Iranians have walked until today, thanks to their historical consciousness and their collective will.\"\n\nThe twins collected the prize - which includes a cheque for 11 million Swedish crowns (about £837,000, or $1m) - at a ceremony in Oslo's City Hall attended by several hundred guests.\n\nThere was an empty chair on the podium between her children, to mark her absence.\n\nAli and Kiana Rahmani - next to the empty chair for their mother - live in exile in France\n\nOn Saturday, Ms Mohammadi's husband, Mr Rahmani, told BBC Hardtalk that his wife had once written a letter to their children expressing the hope \"they would forgive her\" for not being able to \"be a mother to them\".\n\nHe said she was among a group of imprisoned human rights activists \"standing up against the tyranny of the Islamic Republic\".\n\nA month ago, Ms Mohammadi began a hunger strike in the notorious Evin prison where she is being held.\n\nSpeaking to Radio 4's Today programme on Monday, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe - the British-Iranian national who spent six years in an Iranian jail accused of spying and who attended the ceremony in Oslo on Sunday - said Ms Mohammadi was an individual everyone relied on.\n\nMs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who met Ms Mohammadi while in prison, said: \"What she gave others was the support and the love and the peace of mind that you are going to be looked after the moment you enter this space.\"\n\nShe said Ms Mohammadi was known for her kindness and how much she cared for people. \"But I think more than that, one thing that if you have lived with Narges, you would know is, that Narges would live life to its fullest, with all its beauty, and at the same time she would choose to fight if she would want to... I think that's remarkable.\"\n\nIran's foreign ministry previously said the Nobel award was \"biased\" and in line with \"the interventionist and anti-Iran policies of some European countries\".\n\nAlso on Sunday, Norwegian author Jon Fosse is being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, while three scientists are receiving the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work in developing what are called quantum dots.\n\nThis year's Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier, whose work demonstrated a way to create extremely short pulses of light that can be used to capture and study rapid processes inside atoms.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Israeli forces have focused on the city of Khan Younis in the south of Gaza\n\nIsrael's bombardment of Gaza is \"narrowing the window\" for a new truce, the Qatari prime minister has said.\n\nSpeaking at the Doha Forum, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said Qatar would continue its efforts to pressure both sides into a ceasefire.\n\nThe Gulf state played a key role negotiating the week-long pause in violence at the end of November, which allowed the release of hostages.\n\nIsraeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday \"the war is in full swing\".\n\nHe said in recent days \"dozens of Hamas terrorists\" had surrendered, and were \"laying down their weapons and handing themselves over to our heroic fighters\".\n\n\"This is the beginning of the end for Hamas,\" he said.\n\nThe comments come as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen.\n\nOn Sunday afternoon, the Hamas-run health agency in Gaza said almost 18,000 Palestinians had now been killed.\n\nIn an audio message to Al Jazeera, Hamas's armed wing said the temporary ceasefire had \"proved its credibility\" and that no more hostages would be freed until Israel engaged in talks.\n\nIn the message, spokesman Abu Ubaida also said Hamas fighters had fully or partially destroyed 180 military vehicles and killed \"a large number\" of Israeli soldiers, and that it is still inflicting blows on Israel, and \"what is coming is greater\".\n\nCivilians have been called on to evacuate the centre of Khan Younis\n\nAt the conference in Doha, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said the area had become \"hell on earth\" and was \"definitely the worst situation I have ever seen\".\n\nAlso speaking at the conference, Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh said Israel \"should not be allowed to keep violating international humanitarian law\", and called for international sanctions.\n\nMr Shtayyeh represents the Palestinian Authority, the organisation which operates in the West Bank and which is separate to the Hamas government operating in Gaza.\n\nAs the meeting took place in Doha, in the south of Gaza fighting continued to rage.\n\nThe city of Khan Younis, the place people were told to head to to escape the fighting in the north, is now under heavy bombardments - with Israel asking civilians to leave its centre.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News, senior Israeli adviser Mark Regev said there was going to be \"difficult fighting\" in Khan Younis, and urged civilians to \"move to safe zones\" - with Israeli tanks reaching the centre of the city on Sunday evening.\n\nCivilians in the city have been pictured collecting bodies and mourning family members killed in fighting.\n\nAddressing his cabinet on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said international allies had been inconsistent\n\nWhen asked about the situation in what Israel calls safe areas, Mr Regev said his country has made a maximum effort to try to safeguard civilian lives.\n\nCivilians in Gaza have formerly been advised to make their way to a \"safe zone\" at al-Mawasi. Measuring just 8.5 sq km (3.3 sq miles), the area is smaller than London's Heathrow Airport, has few buildings and largely consists of sandy dunes and agricultural land.\n\nMeanwhile, Israel has also been engaging in international diplomacy - calling out its allies for an inconsistent approach.\n\n\"You cannot on the one hand support the elimination of Hamas and on other pressure us to end the war, which would prevent the elimination of Hamas,\" said Mr Netanyahu while briefing his cabinet.\n\nHe was speaking two days after 13 members of the UN Security Council supported a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, with the US vetoing the move and the UK abstaining.\n\nIsrael also denied a claim by UNRWA chief Mr Lazzarini that it was trying to force Gazans out of the region and into Egypt - something previously reported in Israeli media.\n\nThe World Health Organization has also taken the unusual step of passing a resolution calling for immediate medical access to Gaza, with its director-general earlier calling the situation in the area \"catastrophic\".", "US singer Alicia Keys has surprised commuters in London with a performance of some of her biggest hits inside St Pancras International.\n\nWatch this video to see her sing If I Ain't Got You and No One, on a public piano donated to the station by Sir Elton John.", "Field, pictured in 2004, starred in Alfie, Man in the Moon and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning\n\nActress Shirley Anne Field has died aged 87, her family has said.\n\nShe starred in films such as Alfie, opposite Sir Michael Caine, and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - alongside Albert Finney.\n\nField also appeared in a huge number of popular TV series including The Bill, Doctors, Murder She Wrote, Last of the Summer Wine and Upstairs, Downstairs.\n\nA statement from her family said she would be \"greatly missed\".\n\n\"It is with great sadness that we are sharing the news that Shirley Anne Field passed away peacefully on Sunday... surrounded by her family and friends,\" the family said.\n\n\"Shirley Anne will be greatly missed and remembered for her unbreakable spirit and her amazing legacy spanning more than five decades on stage and screen.\"\n\nField pictured with Steve McQueen (left) and Robert Wagner in 1966 filming L'homme qui aimait la guerre\n\nBorn in Forest Gate, Newham, in 1936, Field first established herself as a model in the 1950s.\n\nShe later moved into acting, featuring in the 1956 comedy Loser Takes All and musical film It's A Wonderful World.\n\nField's breakthrough came in the 1960s following her role as Tina Lapford in The Entertainer opposite the late Laurence Olivier.\n\nShe went on to star in a string of films, television series and stage productions.\n\nAmong her other hit films were 1962's The War Lover alongside the late Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner and 1985's rom-com My Beautiful Laundrette with Daniel Day-Lewis.\n• None Michael Caine confirms he has retired from acting", "Chief Constable Chris Rowley said Mr Lawson had been \"highly respected and admired by all who knew him\"\n\nTributes have been paid to one of Lancashire's most senior police officers, who led the investigation into the disappearance of Nicola Bulley.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson died on Sunday at the age of 50.\n\nHe was described by as being \"highly respected and admired\" by his peers.\n\nA review into Ms Bulley's case found the release of \"highly sensitive\" personal information by officers about her was \"avoidable and unnecessary\".\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Lawson headed the investigation into the disappearance of the 45-year-old, who drowned after falling into cold water while walking her dog in St Michael's on Wyre in January.\n\nHe died at home on Sunday, a force representative said.\n\nThey added that his death was \"believed to be medical-related and has been referred to the coroner\".\n\nPaying tribute, Chief Constable Chris Rowley said it was \"incredibly sad and tragic news\".\n\n\"Pete's death will come as a shock to the entire force and the wider police family across the country,\" he said.\n\n\"He was an outstanding officer who served the communities of Lancashire with pride.\n\n\"He was also highly respected and admired by all who knew him and worked with him.\"\n\nHe added that the force's \"deepest condolences go out to his family and we will support them as much as we can\".\n\n\"We will offer support to all our staff and those who worked with Pete, as we mourn his loss,\" he said.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Smile Direct Club has shut down months after filing for bankruptcy in the US, leaving some customers confused and stranded as their treatment is ongoing.\n\nBest known for selling clear aligners remotely, the firm said it had made the \"incredibly difficult decision\" to wind down operations late on Friday.\n\nThe US-based dentistry company was offering aligners for about £1,800 without the need to visit a dentist.\n\nA last-ditch rescue attempt failed though as it was weighed down by debt.\n\nFounded in 2014, the orthodontics company styled itself as a disruptor to the \"bricks-and-mortar\" dental industry.\n\nIn traditional dentistry, \"train-track\" braces and clear aligners are fitted by dentists and orthodontists themselves, or a trained orthodontic therapist, after an in-person consultation.\n\nMany customers were drawn to Smile Direct Club because of the lower price point and the fact they could take the moulds for their aligners themselves at home.\n\nTreatment with the company typically takes between four to six months and customers have online check-ins with registered dentists.\n\nIn a statement on its website, the company says that it has \"improved more than two million smiles and lives\".\n\nHowever, customers in the US, UK and elsewhere have been left confused as the firm says that its customer support line will no longer be available, despite the fact that customers may need check-ins or adjustments for their aligners.\n\nIt recommends that if people want to carry on with their treatment, they should get in touch with a local dentist.\n\nIt has also angered some customers by saying that the \"lifetime smile guarantee\" it previously offered was no longer valid, while those with payment plans set up are expected to continue making payments.\n\nThere will be more information on refunds, it said, as the bankruptcy process continues and \"next steps\" are determined.\n\nOn Facebook, several users questioned what to do about their treatment and complained about having made recent payments.\n\nOne wrote: \"Disgusting how we have all been treated... I only just signed up for my aligners, made my first payment and now I won't even be receiving my braces\".\n\nAnother said his wife had paid for her treatment in full and needs a new retainer, but she was now unsure whether or not she would receive this at all.\n\nOn Instagram, another customer questioned: \"I did six months [of] treatment - and now what? I can't finish?... This is heart-breaking.\"\n\nIn the statement on its website, Smile Direct Club apologised for the inconvenience caused.\n\nLisa Webb, consumer law expert at the organisation Which? said that many customers would feel \"adrift\" due to the company going bust.\n\nShe pointed out that where refunds would be available, they will be handed by liquidators. \"But customers will be at the back of a long queue of creditors so this is unlikely to amount to much, if anything at all,\" she said.\n\nShe recommended that anyone in the UK who is still waiting for products, and has not had their order cancelled and paid via credit card, could also try to claim their money back via Section 75 under the Consumer Credit Act.\n\nSmile Direct Club was forced to file for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US in late September, which postpones a company's obligations to its creditors, giving it time to reorganise its debts or sell parts of the business.\n\nBut on Friday, it emerged that a last-ditch attempt rescue deal had failed.\n\nAttorney Spencer Winters told a judge in bankruptcy court that a deal for its founders to provide fresh funds and buy Smile Direct Club out of bankruptcy had not come through after it could not get its most important lender to agree.\n\n\"We pushed very, very hard this week and it just didn't come together,\" he said.\n\nIt had once been valued at as much as $8.9bn (£7bn), but failed to turn a profit and had nearly $900m worth of debt at the time it filed for bankruptcy, according to Fortune magazine.\n\nThe firm, boosted by selfies and positive reviews online, had also faced issues with patent clashes and dentists' concerns ranging from aligners fitting poorly to claims of permanent nerve damage and tooth loss.\n\nIt vigorously defended its practices throughout and said consistently that customers' treatments are reviewed by licensed professionals, while risks were listed as well.\n\nAre you worried about your treatment plans, or the possibility of getting a refund? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "\"Is this it? Is this the moment?\" I shouted to my colleague in disbelief over the rapturous applause breaking out just moments after COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber began speaking here in Dubai.\n\nAfter almost 40 hours of deadlock over the future of fossil fuels, many were bracing for a messy fight on the conference floor. But as Jaber banged the gavel, it was all over.\n\nThe host country, the United Arab Emirates, had built expectations sky-high in the first few days, with Jaber proposing a deal to \"phase out\" fossil fuels.\n\nIn the end, the final pact doesn't go so far. It \"calls on\" countries to \"transition away\" from fossil fuels, and specifically for energy systems – but not for plastics, transport or agriculture.\n\nMoments later, the applause had turned to stunned silence when a delegate representing small island states, who are particularly vulnerable to climate change, accused the president of pushing through the text while they weren't in the room. The final text had a “litany of loopholes”, they said.\n\nTheir speech kicked off several hours of symbolic statements made from countries – but they had all accepted the compromise.\n\nWell, the remaining team here at COP28 are going to unfold ourselves from the novelty-sized rocking chairs we've found - one of the last remaining pieces of furniture at Expo 2020 - and head home.\n\nBut there's plenty more to help you understand exactly what happened here in Dubai:\n• My colleague Georgina Rannard has the full story here\n• What does this mean for the future? Environment correspondent Matt McGrath takes a look here\n• New episodes of Newscast and the Climate Question will drop soon - our climate editor Justin Rowlatt will be digging into the detail\n\nFrom the team here in Dubai, thanks for joining us. See you in Azerbaijan for COP29.", "Prince Harry will have to pay more than £48,000 in legal costs to the publishers of the Mail on Sunday, after losing part of a libel battle.\n\nIt follows a failed attempt by his lawyers to strike out part of a defence against a libel claim he is bringing against the newspaper.\n\nThe libel claim itself can still go ahead to a trial, to be heard between mid-May and the end of July next year.\n\nThe dispute relates to an article about Prince Harry's security arrangements.\n\nThe Mail on Sunday article had discussed changes to the prince's publicly funded security that had happened after he had stopped being a working royal and had moved to the United States.\n\nIn this long-running libel case, the prince has claimed the story falsely suggested he had \"lied\" and \"cynically\" tried to manipulate public opinion.\n\nThe headline said the duke had \"tried to keep his legal fight with the government over police bodyguards a secret\", but that his \"PR machine tried to put a positive spin on the dispute\" after the story broke.\n\nThe prince's lawyers had sought to throw out Associated Newspapers' defence, arguing it had \"no real prospect of success\" - but in a ruling last week, the judge rejected this, saying that the case should go forward to a trial.\n\nMr Justice Nicklin said the newspaper group's argument that this was \"honest opinion\" had a \"real prospect\" of successfully defending the case.\n\nHe also said there was a real prospect of the newspaper proving its side of a dispute over the timing of when Prince Harry first offered to make a private payment towards the cost of his police protection.\n\nThe libel claims will now be decided in a trial, expected to last three to four days.\n\nThe costs in this part of the case, £48,447 to be paid this month, will be only a small fraction of the overall legal costs.", "Mr Sunak has made deterring migrants from crossing the Channel one of his key priorities\n\nRishi Sunak is racing to shore up support for his Rwanda bill among right-wing Conservative MPs, ahead of a crucial vote later.\n\nThe PM has been meeting potential rebels, as he tries to convince them to back the legislation.\n\nThe bill seeks to revive the government's plan to send some asylum seekers to the east African country.\n\nBut some on the right of the Tory party say a tougher law is needed to ensure the scheme works.\n\nDanny Kruger and Miriam Cates, who chair the New Conservatives group of Tory MPs, said they could not vote for a bill \"that fails to establish the superiority of our democratically-elected UK Parliament over foreign courts\".\n\nWriting in the Telegraph, the pair said the draft law did not block off the right to individual appeals over removals and was highly unlikely to ensure significant numbers of migrants were sent to Rwanda before the next election.\n\nThey called on the government to come forward with amendments to address its limitations.\n\nMeanwhile, Tory MPs from the more liberal end of the party say they will support it in its current form, but have warned against any changes further down the line, arguing they could breach international law.\n\nIt means Mr Sunak is facing the biggest challenge to his authority from his MPs, who could inflict humiliation on the PM over one of his key policies.\n\nMPs are currently debating the bill in the Commons, with a vote due from 19:00 GMT onwards.\n\nThe government's legislation has been drawn up to revive the Rwanda scheme, after the Supreme Court ruled it unlawful last month over fears it could lead to human rights breaches.\n\nThe legislation seeks to declare in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country to send asylum seekers to, and stop flights being grounded for legal reasons.\n\nThe aim of the policy is to deter migrants crossing the Channel in small boats - something Mr Sunak has made a key priority of his government.\n\nHowever, some Tory MPs are concerned it does not go far enough to prevent further legal challenges derailing deportations.\n\nWith Labour and other opposition parties opposing the bill, and with several Tory MPs indicating they could abstain, the parliamentary maths is looking tight for the government.\n\nA bill has not been defeated at second reading since 1986.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer says he will scrap the Rwanda plan if his party wins the next election, arguing the £290m due to be given to the east African country as part of the scheme would be better spent tackling people-smuggling gangs.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAhead of the vote, several senior Tories, including former defence secretary Ben Wallace and attorney general Sir Geoffrey Cox, have called on MPs to unite, warning disunity would spell disaster for the party ahead of the next election.\n\nThe New Conservatives group, whom Mr Sunak met for around an hour on Tuesday morning, has said the bill requires \"major surgery or replacement\".\n\nAccording to MPs present at the meeting, the prime minister told potential rebels he was willing to discuss \"tightening up\" the draft law.\n\nSome MPs told Mr Sunak they would abstain or vote against the bill later. However, it is understood others are planning to vote for the bill, in the hope it gets amended further down the line.\n\nThe European Research Group (ERG) - another group on the party's right - has argued \"very significant amendments\" are needed to prevent legal challenges to Rwanda deportations.\n\nThe group have not yet revealed how they plan to vote and have been meeting to decide their next steps.\n\nRobert Jenrick - who quit as immigration minister over the legislation last week - said it was \"not a bad bill,\" but needed strengthening to prevent individual claims against deportation.\n\nSpeaking in the Commons, he said deportees would \"stop at nothing\" to avoid being sent to Rwanda, telling MPs: \"give them an inch, and they'll take a mile\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Mark Francois and David Jones of the European Research Group calls on the government to scrap the bill\n\nHowever, agreeing to the demands of MPs on the right of the party would risk losing the support of more centrist Tories.\n\nThe One Nation group, which includes more than 100 Tory MPs, said it was recommending its members vote for the bill at this stage, but warned it would oppose any future amendments \"that would mean the UK government breaching the rule of law and its international obligations\".\n\nA defeat of such a key piece of legislation would potentially presage a leadership election for Mr Sunak, perhaps even a general election.\n\nDowning Street said the government was listening to the views of MPs but insisted it would not pull the vote.\n\nThose who want the Rwanda bill to go further argue it could still leave the scheme open to legal challenge by individuals, who could argue deportation to Rwanda would put them at risk of serious harm.\n\nIn an attempt to win over critics, the government took the unusual step of publishing a summary of its own legal advice on the scheme.\n\nThe advice argues that the grounds for individual challenges to deportation will be \"exceptionally narrow\" under the bill, and a blanket ban on appeals would breach international law.\n\nIt gives examples such as people in the late stages of pregnancy who are unfit to fly or with very rare medical conditions that could not be cared for in Rwanda.\n\nHowever, critics argue that even if only some of these claims succeed, they would still clog up the courts and delay removals.", "The Ritz in Paris is one of the most famous luxury hotels in the world\n\nA ring worth €750,000 (£643,000) which went missing at the Ritz hotel in Paris has been found in a vacuum cleaner.\n\nThe owner, a Malaysian businesswoman who was a guest at the hotel, filed a police complaint on Friday after suspecting an employee of stealing it.\n\nRitz security guards found the ring lying among the dust in a vacuum bag on Sunday, Le Parisien reported.\n\nThe newspaper added that the guest had travelled to London on Friday, but will now return to Paris for her ring.\n\nThe Ritz said it has offered three more nights to the guest to make up for the inconvenience, though it is understood she does not intend to take up the offer.\n\nIn a statement to Le Parisien, the hotel said: \"Thanks to the meticulous work of security guards, the ring was found this morning.\n\n\"We would like to thank the staff at the Ritz Paris who mobilised for this search and who work each day with integrity and professionalism.\"\n\nThe businesswoman told police she left the ring on a table in her hotel room on Friday when she went shopping in the city for a few hours, and when she returned it was gone.\n\nPolice are looking after the ring until the woman can collect it.\n\nIt is not the first time that jewellery has been reported missing at the hotel.\n\nIn 2018, five armed men seized more than €4m (£3.5m) worth of merchandise from a jewellery shop inside the famous establishment.\n\nLater that year, an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family reported the theft of hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of jewellery from her hotel room suite.", "Soldiers in the CF333 unit, pictured training with British troops, are now in hiding in Pakistan\n\nAbout 200 members of Afghan special forces, trained and funded by the UK, face imminent deportation to their Taliban-controlled homeland, the BBC has learned.\n\nThe figures - gathered by a network of Afghan veterans - reveal the scale of what one former UK general calls a \"betrayal\" and a \"disgrace\".\n\nThe soldiers fled to Pakistan, which now says it will expel Afghan refugees.\n\nThe UK says it has brought thousands of Afghans to safety.\n\nGen Sir Richard Barrons, who served the British Army in Afghanistan for over 12 years, told BBC Newsnight that the failure of the UK to relocate these soldiers \"is a disgrace, because it reflects that either we're duplicitous as a nation or incompetent\".\n\n\"Neither are acceptable,\" he said. \"It is a betrayal, and the cost of that betrayal will be people who served with us will die or spend their lives in prison.\"\n\nFollowing the BBC Newsnight investigation, MPs tabled an Urgent Question in the House of Commons on Monday.\n\nIn 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had told Parliament that the service of these Afghan special forces had been \"incredibly important\", adding the UK would do \"whatever we can\" to get \"safe passage\" for them.\n\nThe fears for the Afghan commandos come as it was revealed the government also rejected calls from senior British diplomatic and military figures to offer asylum to key Afghan civilian leaders whose lives were in danger.\n\nThe BBC has obtained a private letter sent in March 2022 to the Foreign Office, which called for urgent help to be given to a group of 32 former governors, prosecutors and officials who worked with the UK and US in Helmand Province during operations between 2006 and 2014.\n\nLike most of the 200 special forces soldiers, these 32 officials had applied to come to the UK through the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Programme (ARAP), intended for those employed by the UK government, or who \"worked in Afghanistan alongside a UK government department, in partnership with or closely supporting it\".\n\nMany of the officials and the soldiers were rejected, while others are still waiting for a decision after more than a year.\n\nOne of the officials, a former district governor, told the BBC his application for help through the scheme was refused two weeks ago, more than 20 months after he first applied.\n\nSir Richard, one of the private letter's signatories, said: \"We made a special commitment to these people, and we have not honoured it with an efficient, effective or even compassionate system.\"\n\n\"Ali\", one of the Afghan special forces soldiers facing expulsion from Pakistan, told the BBC he felt abandoned and betrayed by the UK.\n\nSpeaking from a one-room safe house, he said of his work with the UK military: \"We were together day and night. During training we slept under one tent, eating from the same dish.\n\n\"During operations we fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the British, as members of one family.\"\n\nAli was a member of an elite unit known as Commando Force 333, set up in 2003 by the UK to counter Afghanistan's growing problems with opium production.\n\nAli and his CF333 colleagues were pictured with British special forces as they worked together. Faces are obscured to protect their identities.\n\nAlong with its sister unit, Afghan Territorial Force 444, they became known as \"the Triples\". They quickly gained a reputation for effectiveness, honesty and courage.\n\n\"The Triples were at the front end of the UK-supported counter-terrorism operation,\" said Gen Sir Richard Barrons. \"They did the most dangerous, the most difficult, the most important missions, accompanied by British soldiers.\"\n\nIn August 2021 as the Afghan state collapsed, one of the few units that held firm was CF333. Along with his colleagues, Ali headed to the Baron Hotel in the capital Kabul to protect British passport holders as they escaped the country.\n\nBut he was unable to board an evacuation flight himself, and eventually made it to Pakistan by land. Ali assumed his nearly two decades fighting alongside the British would mean he would soon be offered help. He was wrong.\n\n\"We never thought that heroes would be abandoned. We took all those risks. We were ready to help the international community, we respected freedom of speech and human life, then everything turned upside down. It is really disappointing,\" he said.\n\nGen Sir Richard Barrons said \"the Triples\" worked with UK soldiers on the most dangerous missions\n\nNow, as the Pakistani authorities crack down on undocumented Afghans, threatening to deport any they catch, Ali said: \"I can't work. I live inside this one room with my wife and five kids due to fear of the police. I've sealed myself at home for three months now.\"\n\nThe estimated figures suggesting there are about 200 commandos like Ali facing deportation by the end of the year have been gathered through a secret network of former members of Afghan security forces and given to the BBC.\n\nIt is impossible to know for certain, but we have been told by senior British diplomatic sources that these figures are the best estimates yet.\n\nIt is not just former members of Afghan special forces who say they have been left in the cold, but also Afghan civilians who helped the UK.\n\nMohammad Fahim was one of the political faces of the front-line fight against the Taliban, as governor of Helmand's Garmsir district - which was a key Taliban territory before 2001, and where Prince Harry served while in Afghanistan.\n\nMohammad Farim (r) worked with the UK and US military, such as the US Marines in this 2011 photo\n\n\"We arrested a number of Taliban leaders when I was governor,\" he said, speaking from a secret location. \"They knew that we were fighting together with the international forces, so the threat to me is real.\"\n\nOne time, he wrapped his arms around a would-be suicide bomber, preventing him from detonating his explosive vest and likely saving dozens of lives, including women and children.\n\nLike Ali, Mr Fahim said he had bought into the idea of a shared mission with the British, even using the same phrase to describe the relationship: \"We ran programmes shoulder-to-shoulder, with the shared aim of bringing security for the people who lived in Helmand, giving them a good life and making peace.\"\n\nThat work put him in great danger. He said his brother and two cousins were murdered by the Taliban, and in 2018 he was beaten so badly he thought he would die.\n\nMr Fahim spent 25 days in hospital after being attacked\n\nAnd so, when it became clear the Taliban were returning to power, Mohammed Fahim was afraid of further reprisals.\n\n\"I feel scared just remembering it. I didn't cry when my brother was killed, but I cried a lot that night,\" he says, of the moment he realised the Taliban would regain control.\n\nMr Fahim said he assumed the years of close partnership with the British forces would mean he would be given sanctuary, but he was rejected by the ARAP scheme.\n\nHe now finds himself in hiding in a country neighbouring Afghanistan, his visa expired and his options dwindling.\n\n\"I was betrayed,\" says Mr Fahim. \"I never thought that I would be left alone like this.\"\n\nThe refusal came despite the support of British military and diplomatic figures who had worked with him.\n\nGen Sir Richard Barrons said: \"I'm personally ashamed because I feel very deeply that we made an obligation to them and we have not fulfilled it.\n\n\"It's beyond absurd to say they don't qualify and that they should be left behind to a fate at the hands of the Taliban.\"\n\nHe said if a governor who worked with UK forces does not qualify, \"it makes you wonder whether anybody ever satisfies the rubric of this particular scheme\".\n\nAli was also rejected by ARAP, which is run by the Ministry of Defence. He was told he did not qualify as someone directly employed by the UK or working with a UK government department.\n\nLt Gen Abdul Hadi Khalid, the first commanding officer of CF333 who has been resettled in the US, told the BBC that the decision was \"completely unjust\". He said his men had been directly paid by the British.\n\n\"All equipment, clothing, food, all expenditure, including the pay, everything came from the UK. The donor for this mission was the British government. It is crystal clear,\" he said.\n\n\"I didn't expect that from the British government… They promised a lot, but when they forget it, what can I call it? It is dishonesty.\"\n\nLt Gen Khalid said the treatment of the Triples will be a black stain on the reputation of the West. \"I'm 100% sure that when other nations, other progressive forces, see Afghanistan, when they look at Afghan people, Afghan miseries, how can they trust the West?\"\n\nLt Gen Abdul Hadi Khalid, who led CF333, said he did not expect \"dishonesty\" from the British government\n\nDuring an Urgent Question in the Commons earlier, Labour's Shadow Defence Minister Luke Pollard described the handling of the Afghan troops as a \"shameful saga of failure\".\n\n\"And today we've learnt from reports that former Afghan special forces that served alongside British troops are possibly facing deportation back to Afghanistan,\" he said.\n\n\"Let's be clear, that means lives could be put at serious harm from the Taliban.\"\n\nHe said: \"They (the Triples) are therefore a component of the Afghan national security forces and are not automatically in scope for relocation under ARAP.\"\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said the UK has made an \"ambitions and generous commitment\" to help eligible people in Afghanistan.\n\n\"So far, we have brought around 24,600 people to safety, including thousands of people eligible for our Afghan schemes,\" a spokesman said.\n\n\"Each ARAP application is assessed individually and in accordance with published policy, and we do not automatically make a decision on eligibility based on a job role.\"\n\nDespite everything, Ali and Mr Fahim said they were proud of the work they have done with UK forces.\n\n\"I will not forget how we looked after one another in remote villages,\" said Ali. He recalled how a commander in the UK and US forces had put his own blanket around Ali's shoulders during the cold. \"It is a sweet memory for me, but it makes what happened later so disappointing.\"\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Simeon McAnoy was found unresponsive after taking a synthetic opioid drug, his mother says\n\nSuper-strength street drugs more powerful than heroin have been linked to at least 54 deaths in the UK in the last six months, the BBC has been told.\n\nThe deaths are all linked to synthetic opioids called nitazenes, which experts fear are being manufactured in labs and then imported into the UK from China.\n\nHowever, the true total could be higher - the National Crime Agency (NCA) said 40 more cases awaited further testing.\n\nThe UK government plans to classify 15 new synthetic opioids as Class A drugs.\n\nNitazenes first made news in the UK in 2021, when an 18-year-old patient was treated for a non-fatal overdose.\n\nExperts say the new drugs can be stronger than both heroin and fentanyl, another synthetic opioid, which is a leading killer in the US - contributing to 75,000 deaths last year.\n\nWarning: This article contains descriptions of drugs use\n\nFollowing a sudden spike in UK deaths this summer, the government put out a warning across the NHS and drug services - the second National Patient Safety Alert in three years.\n\nIn Birmingham, where 16 deaths occurred in two months this summer, the city's director of public health said use of the drug could be a \"turning moment in the drug market\".\n\nBBC News has spoken to a user of nitazenes, who, despite being a long-term heroin addict, says she was shocked by the strength of the new drugs.\n\nAmy first took heroin at the age of 16 and has dealt with addiction for 20 years. She compared the first time she took nitazenes to her first hit of heroin. \"It was like a blanket - that's why it's been so addictive,\" she added.\n\nShe said dealers were incorrectly referring to heroin laced with nitazenes as \"fentanyl\" and selling it for £10 a bag in Birmingham. Some charged £20 for three bags.\n\n\"It looked a bit different, like a brown wet powder, like grains of a dark mud,\" Amy said. \"With heroin - if you get a strong batch - you get a warm pins and needles at the back of your head but with this - they call it 'gouching' - you're just out of it for at least an hour. I don't get that with heroin.\"\n\nShe said she has felt in danger when taking it. \"I wasn't expecting it [the strength]. I've lost four or five people over the past few months. I've got to stop it.\"\n\nSimeon McAnoy sold windows door to door. After pay day, he would take three buses to visit his mother, bringing her flowers.\n\n\"When he was younger, he wanted to design computer games. He was funny, pretty, and he was a brilliant dancer - so kind,\" his mother Jackie told BBC News.\n\nSimeon was found unresponsive by paramedics, in October. Before he died, his family did not know he had taken heroin. He was aged 33.\n\nAn inquest will determine the cause of his death, but Ms McAnoy says the coroner told her a nitazene was found in Simeon's system.\n\nSimeon was the second of Jackie's four children\n\n\"We will never ever be the same as a family,\" she said. \"For every one of us, something's gone. We are all more isolated. Christmas is coming up and no one wants to celebrate.\"\n\nShe has called for the government to step in. \"This is going to become an epidemic and we're going to lose a lot of young people,\" she warned.\n\nThe NCA believes nitazenes are being produced in illicit labs in China and often enter the UK in the \"post\". In most cases, it is then mixed with heroin by organised gangs, strengthening the drugs being sold on the street.\n\nCharles Yates, NCA deputy director, said he did not believe there was currently a direct link between the availability of nitazenes and the ban of harvesting opium poppies in Afghanistan, which some have suggested.\n\nHowever, he said that could change in the future. \"That's the reason we are looking to take robust action now.\" He said law enforcement agencies were already sharing information from nitazene-related cases with one another.\n\nDr Justin Varney said drug users had no sense of the strength of nitazenes\n\nThere are an average of 42 drug poisoning deaths each week involving opiates - such as heroin, oxycodone and fentanyl - across England and Wales, latest official figures suggest.\n\nIn February, the government said it wanted to classify 11 synthetic opioids as Class A drugs. Last month, the Home Office published an updated list, adding four more.\n\nThat announcement came after police said the largest UK seizure of synthetic opioids had been made in raids in Waltham Forest and Enfield, north London.\n\nMs McAnoy said she had never heard of nitazenes before Simeon died. \"Now I have, it seems to me people are dropping like flies,\" she added.\n\n\"I'm trying to make him [Simeon] proud and not to let him die in vain. If this helps one person not touch it, then I've done my job.\"\n\nSigns that someone may have taken one of these drugs:\n\nAnyone who has consumed synthetic opioids and experiences the symptoms described should seek urgent medical treatment.\n\nIf you have been affected by the issues raised in this story help and support is available via the BBC Action Line\n\nBBC News agreed not to use Amy's full name\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Maggie and Bob Abrahart have been campaigning since their daughter, Natasha, took her own life in 2018\n\nA court case this week could change the way universities are expected to look after their students - including their mental health.\n\nThe High Court is considering whether universities owe what is called a duty of care to their students.\n\nLawyers acting for the parents of Natasha Abrahart, who took her own life, will make the case in court.\n\nThe University of Bristol, where she studied, says that no such duty exists.\n\nA judge will examine whether \"reasonable steps\" must be taken to avoid students coming to harm, and whether universities have a duty not to cause such harm.\n\nThe three-day hearing in Bristol calls into question what, exactly, falls under a university's remit.\n\nIt seeks to provide clarity on where universities' limitations lie, and how responsible they ought to be for their students - the majority of whom are young adults living away from their family homes for the first time.\n\nIt comes at the end of a sixth year of campaigning for Maggie and Bob Abrahart.\n\nTheir daughter, Natasha, had social anxiety, and had been due to give a presentation in a large lecture theatre on the day she died in 2018.\n\nLast year, a judge ruled that the University of Bristol had failed to make reasonable adjustments for Natasha - a decision against which the university is now appealing.\n\nBut the judge also said it was not clear that the university owed Natasha a duty of care, saying there was \"no statute or precedent which establishes the existence of such a duty of care owed by a university to a student\". The Abraharts are appealing against that decision.\n\nPhysics student Natasha was 20 years old when she died\n\nDr Abrahart told the BBC there should be a duty of care as a \"minimum standard of legal protection\".\n\n\"The world has changed. Students have changed. The law needs to catch up,\" he said.\n\nMrs Abrahart said: \"We know what universities are aiming for - and there's an awful lot the government is looking at, you know, what is best practice. But what we really need to see is, what is the minimum that you can expect?\n\n\"No matter what you read in your prospectus, don't ever assume that's what's going to happen - because without a duty of care, it doesn't have to happen.\"\n\nThe University of Bristol said it was \"deeply sorry\" for the Abraharts' loss, and stressed that Natasha was offered alternative options to giving a presentation.\n\nA spokesman said the university was concerned by the prospect of a \"major additional burden on staff who are primarily educators, not healthcare professionals\".\n\n\"Higher education staff across the country share our concern about the wider impact this judgement could have,\" he added.\n\n\"It is important that students and their families are clear on what universities can and cannot do, and that students receive appropriate specialist care under the NHS, should they need it.\"\n\nMore than 100,000 people signed a petition from the Abraharts and other families of students who had killed themselves, prompting a debate among MPs in June.\n\nDuring the debate, Higher Education Minister Robert Halfon said a statutory duty of care \"may not be the most effective intervention\", but that he was \"not closing the door on future legislation\".\n\nMental health campaigner Ben West, who was among the petition's signatories, told the BBC a duty of care - which would apply in England and Wales - would not affect most students.\n\nBen West was 17 when his brother, Sam, died by suicide\n\n\"What we're really focusing on here is the minority of students that are in a vulnerable position that are potentially suicidal, struggling with their mental health, struggling with issues outside of university. Maybe they've experienced sexual assault,\" he said.\n\n\"They need protection that's not given currently under the law.\"\n\nOfficial estimates suggest 64 students killed themselves in England and Wales in 2019-20 - a lower proportion than among the general population of similar ages - but families say reporting issues mean the number is higher.\n\nUniversities UK (UUK), which represents more than 140 institutions, said it wanted to see progress on student mental health and suicide protection.\n\nBut a statement added: \"We do not believe a proposed additional statutory duty of care, beyond the existing duties that already apply to universities, would be practical, proportionate, or the best approach to supporting students.\"\n\nLast year, UUK advised universities to introduce information-sharing policies, giving staff the ability to reach out to students' loved ones listed as \"trusted contacts\" if they were concerned about a student's mental health - with or without the student's permission.\n\nHowever, it is not clear how many universities have implemented the guidance.\n\nMr Halfon has also asked universities to sign up to the University Mental Health Charter - a set of principles developed by the charity Student Minds to help institutions prioritise mental health.\n\nDominic Smithies, a spokesman for the charity, told the BBC his understanding was that there was already a duty of care for universities \"not to be negligent or harmful\".\n\n\"Why we're here at the moment is we haven't really seen many tests of this duty in the courts,\" he said.\n\n\"We're watching, as is the rest of the higher education sector, how this plays out.\"\n\nMr Smithies said the Abraharts' campaign was \"identifying a lot of challenges and gaps that we do need to address\" but the idea of a statutory duty of care \"feels very theoretical\".\n\n\"The question that we have is, is this the right solution to the problems that are being raised? And without seeing this fully mapped out, without seeing how this would manage the risks and the concerns and apprehensions that we have, it's very hard to provide proper comment and ultimately provide support for this call without seeing what it looks like,\" he said.\n\nThe concerns, he said, included implementing legislation across the board when universities differ in size and student population, and staff feeling as though they would be \"picking up risk and personal liability\" when speaking to students about their mental health.\n\nThe Department for Education said it would \"carefully consider the court's judgement when it is handed down\".\n\nThe three-day hearing in Bristol Civil and Family Justice Centre ends on Wednesday, although it is not clear when a ruling will be made.", "A Catholic priest has died after being attacked in a church rectory in the US state of Nebraska.\n\nPolice said they found the Reverend Stephen Gutgsell and his alleged attacker in the church after answering a 911 call early Sunday morning in the small Fort Calhoun community.\n\nThe 65-year-old priest succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Omaha following the assault.\n\nThe suspect was taken into custody at the church, police said.\n\nThey later named him as Kierre Williams, 43, of Sioux City, Iowa.\n\nHe was arrested on suspicion on homicide and use of a weapon to commit a felony, they added.\n\nFather Gutgsell made headlines in 2007 after pleading guilty to stealing $127,000 from another parish.\n\nHe was sentenced to probation, ordered to pay back the money and later reassigned to a different church.\n\nChurch officials said at the time Father Gutgsell had learned his lesson. And Washington County Sheriff Mike Robinson, who is investigating the attack, said police did not believe his death was related to the case.\n\nThe priest's brother and fellow priest the Reverend Michael Gutgsell has also fallen foul of the law, pleading guilty to six-figure theft charges last year.", "Argentina's new far-right president has vowed to deliver economic \"shock treatment\" in his first speech after formally taking office.\n\nJavier Milei warned Argentines \"there is no money\" and recommitted to a programme of harsh austerity measures.\n\nThe populist outsider won a surprise election victory in November with radical pledges to overhaul the South American nation's ailing economy.\n\nMr Milei's inauguration was held in Buenos Aires on Sunday.\n\nIn a day of pomp and ceremony, the 53-year-old capped his extraordinary rise to power with a speech which left Argentines in no doubt he intends to embark on an economic path unlike any previous president.\n\nHe said he would undo \"decades of decadence\" with deep spending cuts, designed to slash huge public debts and drive down inflation, which is now higher than 140%.\n\n\"The bottom line is that there is no alternative to austerity and there is no alternative to shock treatment,\" Mr Milei said.\n\n\"We know that in the short term the situation will worsen. But then we will see the fruits of our efforts.\"\n\nMr Milei waved to supporters during a procession to the presidential palace alongside his sister Karina, the confidant who is expected to play an influential role behind the scenes in his new administration.\n\nHe addressed the crowd and chanted campaign slogans from the balcony, and was presented with the blue and white presidential sash and baton - which he had personalised with engravings of his five dogs.\n\nMr Milei has risen rapidly from relative obscurity to Argentina's highest office on a right-wing platform which includes restricting abortion rights, liberalising gun laws and climate change denial.\n\nHe was frequently pictured wielding a chainsaw on the campaign trail, and his unflinching statements have been likened to former US President Donald Trump and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.\n\nDuring the campaign he said he would replace Argentina's currency with the dollar and abolish the country's central bank, along with a host of government departments.\n\nBut while the presidency comes with sweeping powers, Mr Milei will face political limitations as he attempts to fix a set of daunting problems.\n\nThe peso - Argentina's embattled currency - is in long-term freefall, poverty levels have soared to 40% and, according to IMF data, the economy is in a deep recession.\n\nThere is little doubt that Mr Milei has inherited an economy in crisis. What is not clear is whether he will continue along the path of radical solutions he proposed during his campaign or whether he will moderate his promises so as not to rock the boat.\n\nThe new president will likely face opposition in Argentina's Congress, where the coalition of small right-wing and libertarian parties he leads has only minority representation.\n\nMr Milei was seen embracing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the inauguration\n\nSome observers have noted a more moderate tone since his victory was confirmed. However, hours into the job, the new president signalled he intends to govern as he campaigned by signing a decree to reduce the number of departments from 18 to nine, making good on a key pledge.\n\nAmong the guests at the swearing-in ceremony was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has met several Latin American leaders as he seeks to shore up global support for his country's war effort.\n\nThe pair were pictured embracing and Mr Zelensky later told reporters they had discussed ways Argentina could support Ukraine.\n\nHungary's President Viktor Orban - who Mr Milei has been likened to ideologically - was also in attendance.\n\nWith the pomp and ceremony of the inauguration over, Argentines will now focus on how their new president approaches the job in practice.\n\nAnd while Mr Milei was buoyed by the frustration of voters with previous administrations, he will now have to deliver to avoid disappointing those who backed him. His honeymoon period will likely be short.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Defending Eat Out to Help Out - Rishi Sunak's day at the Covid inquiry\n\nRishi Sunak has robustly defended his Eat Out To Help Out scheme, implemented in summer 2020, saying it prevented \"devastating\" job losses.\n\nThe scheme encouraged people to attend pubs and restaurants by subsidising meals after lockdown rules were eased.\n\nMr Sunak said it was introduced after the safe reopening of restaurants.\n\nHe dismissed criticism that senior advisers were not consulted, saying they had had \"ample opportunity\" to raise concerns.\n\nIn previous sessions of the inquiry Matt Hancock and Sir Patrick Vallance - the health secretary and the government's chief scientific adviser during the pandemic - have both said they did not know about the Eat Out To Help Out Scheme before it was announced.\n\nThe inquiry has also been told that chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty referred to the scheme as \"eat out to help out the virus\" and Sir Patrick said it was \"highly likely\" to have fuelled deaths.\n\nHowever, Mr Sunak - who was chancellor during the pandemic - strongly backed his decision to introduce the scheme.\n\nMore on Covid and the Covid Inquiry\n\nHe said it was announced on 8 July and came into force at the beginning of August, and that in that period the chief medical officer had identified children returning to school, and winter, as \"two significant risk moments\".\n\n\"He did not mention Eat Out To Help Out,\" Mr Sunak said.\n\nHe also argued it was a \"micro policy\" introduced along with other safety measures such as table-only service, contactless payments and one-way systems.\n\n\"This was a very reasonable, sensible policy intervention to help safeguard those jobs in that safe reopening.\n\n\"I didn't believe that it was a risk. I believe it was the right thing to do.\n\n\"All the data, all the evidence, all the polling, all the input from those companies suggested that unless we did something, many of those jobs would have been at risk with devastating consequences for those people and their families.\"\n\nHe added that the evidence \"conclusively demonstrates that this was in no way, shape or form responsible for a second wave\".\n\nProtestors gathered outside the inquiry where Mr Sunak was giving evidence\n\nRishi Sunak served food at Wagamama as part of a promotional event for Eat Out to Help Out\n\nMr Sunak was also asked about claims the Treasury had been nicknamed the \"pro-death squad\" due to its stance on keeping hospitality and retail sectors open.\n\nThe prime minister said that wasn't \"a fair characterisation\", adding that the Treasury had worked \"very hard\" and \"done things to save millions of people's livelihoods\".\n\nHe argued that the sectors most impacted by the lockdown, such as retail and hospitality, were more likely to employ \"the most vulnerable in society\" such as those on the lowest incomes.\n\nHe said trying to protect jobs in those areas was a \"matter of social justice\".\n\nThe inquiry has also heard criticism about Boris Johnson's leadership style, with advisers saying he had a tendency to change his mind.\n\nHowever, Mr Sunak defended his former boss, saying his interactions with No 10 \"felt fine\" and that Mr Johnson was right to \"go over the arguments\".\n\nHe added he was not aware of complaints from advisers about Mr Johnson's approach.\n\nThe prime minister began his evidence by saying he was \"deeply sorry\" to all of those who lost loved ones and family members in the pandemic.\n\nHe also offered an apology to \"all those who suffered in the various different ways throughout the pandemic as a result of the actions that were taken\".\n\nHe added it was \"important we learn the lessons so we can better prepare in the future\".\n\nSpeaking after the six-hour hearing, Aamer Anwar, the lead solicitor for the Scottish Covid Bereaved group, said: \"Rishi Sunak's one-man mission to torpedo lockdown to gain a competitive advantage resulted in the false economy of sacrificing tens of thousands of lives to save the economy.\n\n\"Today the Covid bereaved do not accept his empty words of sorrow.\"", "A senior UN aid official has warned that half of Gaza's population is starving, as fighting there continues.\n\nCarl Skau, deputy director of the UN World Food Programme, said only a fraction of supplies needed have been able to enter the Strip - and nine out of 10 people cannot eat every day.\n\nConditions in Gaza have made deliveries \"almost impossible\", Mr Skau said.\n\nIsrael says it must continue air strikes on Gaza to eliminate Hamas and bring Israeli hostages home.\n\nIsrael Defence Forces spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht told the BBC on Saturday that \"any death and pain to a civilian is painful, but we don't have an alternative\".\n\n\"We are doing everything we can to get as much as possible inside the Gaza Strip,\" he said.\n\nHerzi Halevi, chief of staff of the IDF, was filmed telling soldiers the army has to \"press harder\" because \"we're seeing terrorists surrendering... a sign their network is collapsing\".\n\nMeanwhile, the Biden administration has used an emergency law to bypass Congress and authorise the sale of some 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106m (£85m) to Israel.\n\nMovement in and out of Gaza has been heavily restricted since 7 October, when Hamas fighters broke through Israel's heavily-guarded perimeter fence - killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages.\n\nIn response, Israel closed its borders with Gaza and began launching air strikes on the territory, restricting aid deliveries which Gazans heavily relied on.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry says Israel has killed more than 17,700 Gazans in its retaliatory campaign, including more than 7,000 children.\n\nOnly the Rafah crossing bordering Egypt has been open, allowing limited quantities of aid to reach Gaza. This week Israel agreed to open the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza in the next few days - but only for the inspection of aid lorries. The trucks would then go to Rafah to cross into Gaza.\n\nMr Skau said nothing had prepared him for the \"fear, the chaos, and the despair\" he and his WFP team encountered during their trip to Gaza this week.\n\nThey witnessed \"confusion at warehouses, distribution points with thousands of desperate hungry people, supermarkets with bare shelves, and overcrowded shelters with bursting bathrooms,\" he said.\n\nInternational pressure and a temporary seven-day ceasefire last month had allowed some badly-needed aid to enter the Gaza Strip, but the WFP insists a second border crossing is now needed to meet demand.\n\nNine out of 10 families in some areas are spending \"a full day and night without any food at all\", according to Mr Skau.\n\nPeople in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, a city now surrounded on two fronts by Israeli tanks, say the situation there is dire.\n\nDr Ahmed Moghrabi, head of the plastic surgery and burns unit in the city's only remaining health facility, Nasser hospital, fought back tears as he spoke to the BBC about the lack of food.\n\n\"I have a daughter, three years old, always she ask me (for) some sweets, some apple, some fruits. I can't provide. I feel helpless,\" he said.\n\n\"There is not enough food, there is not enough food, only rice, only rice can you believe? We eat once, once a day, only.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dr Ahmed Moghrabi told the BBC there's a scarcity of food, water, medicine and he cannot operate on patients\n\nKhan Younis has been the focus of heavy air strikes in recent days and the boss of Nasser hospital there said his team had \"lost control\" over the numbers of dead and wounded arriving at the facility.\n\nIsrael says Hamas leaders are hiding in Khan Younis, possibly in an underground network of tunnels, and that it is fighting house to house and \"shaft to shaft\" to destroy the group's military capabilities.\n\nSpeaking on Saturday, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, accused the United States of being complicit in war crimes, after it vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.\n\nOut of 15 of the Security Council members, 13 countries voted in favour of the resolution calling for a ceasefire. The UK abstained from the vote and the US was the only country to vote against the resolution.\n\nMr Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, said he held Washington responsible for \"the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women, and elderly in Gaza at the hands of [Israeli] occupation forces\".\n\nThe US ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, defended the veto, and said the resolution was calling for an \"unsustainable ceasefire\" which \"would leave Hamas in place able to repeat what it did on October 7\".\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Saturday he appreciated the \"correct stance\" the US had taken at the security council.\n\nA seven-day temporary ceasefire ended just over a week ago. Under the truce, 78 hostages were released by Hamas in exchange for 180 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.\n\nThere are still more than 100 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nOn Saturday, it was confirmed that Israeli hostage Sahar Baruch, 25, had been killed, his kibbutz and a hostages' group said in a statement.\n\nIt comes after the armed wing of Hamas released a video on Friday which it said showed the bloody aftermath of a failed IDF operation to free an Israeli hostage.", "Residents in Mallaig felt a 'weak trembling' during the quake\n\nAn earthquake measuring 2.1ML on the Richter scale has hit parts of the Highlands.\n\nThe event was felt just before 15:30 on Saturday in Mallaig and Morar and by islanders on Lismore in the Inner Hebrides.\n\nThe British Geological Survey asked for people to share their experiences of the quake online.\n\nVillagers in Mallaig and Morar said they also \"felt a weak trembling\", as well as experiencing the same noise.\n\nSince 10 October, Morvern has been hit by 10 earthquakes.\n\nOn 3 December, a quake measuring 1.1ML was recorded, and all the previous ones were smaller.\n• None Where and why earthquakes occur in Scotland", "First Minister Humza Yousaf dismissed criticism from the UK government\n\nHumza Yousaf has branded David Cameron \"petty\" and \"misguided\" over a threat to withdraw UK support for Scottish ministers during overseas visits.\n\nThe first minister responded to claims from the foreign secretary that he breached protocols by meeting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan without a UK official present.\n\nThe SNP leader dismissed the criticism from an \"unelected lord\".\n\nLord Cameron has also threatened to close Scottish offices in UK embassies.\n\nThe former prime minister, who returned to the cabinet as foreign secretary last month, said in a letter to the Scottish government that ministers had failed to provide \"sufficient advance notice\" of the meeting with Mr Erdogan at COP28 in the United Arab Emirates.\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack has accused the Scottish government of five breaches of protocol during the climate summit.\n\nMr Yousaf said the meeting had been rearranged at short notice by the Turkish president's team but that he would have \"no problem\" with a UK government official - including Lord Cameron himself - attending.\n\nHe said a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) official \"chose not to stay with the Scottish delegation the whole day, and because of that they ended up missing the meeting\", which was described as a brief \"brush-by\".\n\nMr Yousaf said that a UK representative had been at the \"vast majority\" of discussions he held during the climate summit.\n\n\"Nothing was discussed that hadn't been discussed at other meetings, such as the climate crisis, and in this particular meeting the issue of the Israel-Gaza conflict,\" the first minister said.\n\nHe warned Scotland's economy would be harmed if the FCDO withdrew support for the Scottish government overseas.\n\n\"For Lord Cameron to say he's basically going to stop Scotland's international engagement because of one meeting, where one FCDO official wasn't able to attend - because, of course, at events like COP, diaries can change quite last minute - is really petty, really misguided,\" Mr Yousaf told reporters.\n\n\"I suggest to Lord Cameron that next time, if he has an issue like that, he should just pick up the phone, I'm sure it can be resolved.\"\n\nIn his letter, the foreign secretary warned there would be no further FCDO \"facilitation of meetings or logistical support\" for the Scottish government if there were any \"further breaches\" of protocol, adding he would also \"consider the presence of Scottish government offices in UK government posts\".\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack told MPs on the Scottish Affairs Committee that the Erdogan meeting had not been the first minister's only \"offence\" during COP28.\n\nHe said Mr Yousaf also met four other foreign ministers - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Pakistan Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar - without FCDO officials present.\n\n\"Foreign affairs is reserved under the Scotland Act and it's important for the UK to speak on the world stage with one consistent voice,\" Mr Jack told MPs.\n\n\"It is wholly unacceptable for the Scottish government to promote foreign policies which are at odds with those of the United Kingdom government. It risks causing confusion and it damages the UK's standing in the world.\"\n\nThe Conservative minister said FCDO officials had only been given \"very last minute\" notice that the Erdogan meeting had been rescheduled, and claimed Scottish officials had more advanced warning of the change.\n\nFormer foreign secretary James Cleverly made a similar threat to cut diplomatic support to the Scottish government after Mr Yousaf met the Icelandic prime minister in August without UK diplomats present.\n\nHowever a UK government source said this latest intervention represented and \"escalation\" over the issue and the foreign secretary wished to take a \"harder line\" approach than Mr Cleverly.\n\nMr Yousaf posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he had discussed the climate crisis and the Israel-Gaza conflict with Mr Erdogan and the Lebanese prime minister during their meeting on 1 December.\n\nHe said he had called for an immediate ceasefire in the region. BBC Scotland News understands this contradiction of the UK government position has caused particular concern in the foreign office.\n\nA Scottish government source said Lord Cameron's letter was a \"gross overreaction\", adding: \"You can hardly say to a president, 'Can you wait a second while we find our chaperone?'\"\n\nThey said that the FCDO representative was \"very late\" for a couple of meetings at the summit, but that was \"the nature of fast moving things like COP\".", "Stuart Stephens and Lorin LaFavre are campaigning for tougher laws\n\nParents of children who died in circumstances linked to social media and gaming have accused the government of \"watering down\" online safety laws.\n\nThey claim Science Secretary Michelle Donelan is making a \"callous\" decision to retract a \"personal commitment\".\n\nIn a reply to the group, Ms Donelan said she took the commitments she made to them \"incredibly seriously\".\n\nBut, she added in a letter, she believes the changes they wanted are covered by existing laws.\n\nIn June, the government announced plans to give coroners new powers to access information on bereaved families' loved ones held by tech companies, where there is a reasonable suspicion that the online world is relevant to their deaths.\n\nBut under the Data Bill, set to be debated in parliament next week, this provision would be clarified so it only applies to children who have taken their own lives, and not children who have died in other ways with social media potentially involved.\n\nIn a letter to Ms Donelan, sent at the end of November, Bereaved Families for Online Safety said they had been \"gratified and moved\" by the government's original commitment in June, with many of them travelling to parliament to see it announced.\n\n\"Our children died in different ways, but the tragedy for each of us remains,\" the group of 10 parents wrote.\n\n\"So, we were devastated by the government amendment that it has changed this measure in the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill to children who have taken their own lives.\"\n\nBreck Bednar met his killer online before travelling to to meet him in 2014\n\nOn Thursday, Ms Donelan replied to the families.\n\n\"I take the commitments we made during the passage of the Online Safety Act incredibly seriously and am committed to ensuring that there is a comprehensive set of powers and processes in place,\" she wrote.\n\n\"The government believes that the amendment tabled to the data bill, combined with existing powers, achieves this\".\n\nMs Donelan said that the proposed laws do not cover cases of murder \"because the coroner's inquest would usually be postponed until criminal proceedings had concluded\".\n\nShe said that the police had \"extensive powers of investigation\" into tech companies which were strengthened last year by a data access deal with the US.\n\nOne of those who signed the parents' letter was Lorin LaFave, whose 14-year-old son Breck Bednar was murdered in 2014 by a boy he had met through online gaming.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"We celebrated as campaigners in a big group. We felt so proud and pleased at the work that we had done, and made these changes that were so important for other families.\n\n\"So then to find out that that moment was all false or fake is quite hurtful.\n\n\"And we're angry. As a group, as individuals, we're angry. It's not right to backtrack.\"\n\nMichelle Donelan says police had 'extensive powers of investigation'\n\nAnother signatory was Stuart Stephens, whose 13-year-old son Olly Stephens was murdered by two boys in 2021, with social media at the heart of the case.\n\nHe said that being able to understand his son's online interactions was an important part of the grieving process.\n\n\"You need to understand. You need to know what happened, no matter how traumatic or how brutal it is to hear. You need to hear about it because that was your child.\n\n\"You raise that child. You love that child. And you thought you'd done a good job. But somebody else through another medium was able to step in and take your child. So why don't we have the rights to access that data?\"\n\nThe data bill will be debated in the House of Lords on Tuesday, where Baroness Kidron, a filmmaker turned online safety campaigner, is leading the pressure on the government to back down.\n\nShe said she believes Ms Donelan is trying to fix the problem but has failed to grapple with the issues so far.\n\n\"I know the secretary of state would like to see this happen in a good way, but I am not convinced,\" she said.\n\n\"These parents who battled for this, who were promised this, are still going to have Christmas without that child. They are not doing it for themselves, they are doing it for others, and the government should not be pitting itself against bereaved parents of murdered children\".\n\nLabour accused the government of \"breaking the trust of bereaved parents\".\n\nPeter Kyle, the shadow science secretary, said: \"Ministers must explain why they want to limit coroners who are looking into deaths of children.\n\n\"Labour will use every opportunity to stop this bill watering down previous online safety commitments.\"\n\nAntony Walker, the deputy CEO of techUK, which represents technology companies, said: \"Access to data to support investigations is important and we want to ensure that the law allows for this.\"\n\nAre you affected by the issues raised in this story? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Sam Ryder says it's \"bonkers\" how hard his song is to find\n\nSam Ryder says he's hopeful his festive song can reach number one, even though \"no-one knows that it even exists\".\n\nIf you haven't heard You're Christmas To Me yet, chances are you're not alone.\n\nSam wrote it for an Amazon Prime film and it was released exclusively through Amazon Music, so you won't find it on Spotify or Apple.\n\nBut his fans have tracked it down and it's climbed to number 10 in the Official Singles Chart this week.\n\n\"It's somehow caught on,\" he tells BBC Newsbeat.\n\n\"People seem to be liking it but at the same time, the amount of people that don't know this song exists is bonkers.\"\n\nCan the 34-year-old pull off a miracle?\n\nHe'll have to compete with classics like current number one Last Christmas, by Wham, and \"Queen of Christmas\" Mariah Carey, who's at number three with All I Want for Christmas Is You.\n\nAnd Fairytale of New York has climbed to number five, after the death of Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan inspired a push to get it to the top spot.\n\nBut an upset could come from Noah Kahan - the US singer-songwriter whose song Stick Season has shot to second place after Olivia Rodrigo covered it on Radio 1's Live Lounge.\n\nAs well as his new song, Sam treated fans to a Christmas medley in the Radio 1 Live Lounge\n\nAlthough he's dreamed of having a festive hit, Sam says he knew his track from Your Christmas or Mine 2 \"may only exist in that little bubble of the audience that watch the film\".\n\n\"It may not permeate into the culture or the charts or anything like that. So we recorded it simply for love,\" he says.\n\nThe Essex singer wrote the song in August but says getting into the festive spirit in summer wasn't as challenging as you might think.\n\n\"Remember how bad our summer was this year?,\" he says.\n\n\"It was quite a gloomy day and I was like, 'this is actually quite perfect'. I can just pretend it's Christmas.\"\n\nSam says he's not too interested in appearing \"cool\" at the expense of his natural energy\n\nYou're Christmas To Me could be Sam's first Christmas number one, but it's also his first release as an independent artist.\n\nHis split from label Parlophone Records in September after completing a one-album deal, and says it's been \"the most freeing experience\".\n\n\"Your team becomes so much smaller, it becomes so much more potent because it's made up mostly of your pals,\" he says.\n\n\"And even if you get battered and bruised by the end of whatever it is that you're after, it doesn't matter because you're in it together. And it's such a lovely experience.\"\n\nIt's often been said about Sam that he's a glass-half-full kind of guy, one with buckets of \"golden retriever energy\".\n\n\"When I was in college, my tutors used to call me Tigger,\" he says. \"I think I was always just a bit too, like, annoyingly enthusiastic about things.\"\n\nHe doesn't plan on limiting that any time soon.\n\n\"Cool is the enemy,\" he says. \"I've always thought that, especially in the arts, people put this currency on being deep and mysterious and aloof.\n\n\"Life's too preciously short to not be bounding for joy and gratitude.\"\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Police raided six locations in Berlin as part of the operation\n\nGerman authorities say they have made four arrests of suspected Hamas members linked to an alleged plot to attack Jewish sites.\n\nProsecutors said the suspects intended to store weapons in Berlin for possible use in an attack.\n\nDanish authorities also said they had arrested three people accused of preparing an attack.\n\nDenmark's intelligence agency said the Danish and German investigations were not directly linked.\n\nGerman prosecutors said in a statement that three suspects linked to Hamas were arrested in Berlin and one in the Netherlands. Hamas, which runs Gaza, is banned across Europe as a terrorist group.\n\nThe arrests came after police raided five apartments and a restaurant in Berlin, German media reported.\n\nThe three held in Berlin were Lebanese and Egyptian, according to German prosecutors.\n\nThe fourth suspect, a Dutch national, was picked up in Rotterdam by Dutch police who were acting on information from the German authorities.\n\nAll four are believed to be long-standing members of Hamas.\n\nThe German prosecutors said the four were \"closely linked\" to the leadership of Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.\n\nThey added that one of the four, named as Abdelhamid Al A, had been tasked by Hamas leaders in Lebanon with locating a \"depot with weapons in Europe, which the organisation had covertly set up there in the past\".\n\n\"The weapons were due to be taken to Berlin and kept in a state of readiness in view of potential terrorist attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe.\"\n\nCh Insp Flemming Drejer of the Danish police said the three suspects arrested in Denmark as part of its own investigation would be charged with terror offences.\n\nDanish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the threat was \"as serious as it gets\".\n\nLater, Denmark's PET security and intelligence agency clarified that there was \"no direct connection\" between the arrests in Denmark and those in Germany.\n\nThe office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a statement on X (formerly Twitter) that the seven people arrested were \"acting on behalf of Hamas\". But while federal prosecutors in Germany have linked the plot to Hamas, Danish authorities have not said the group is connected to their own investigation.\n\nDanish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said the alleged plot \"tragically confirms that Danish Jews are under threat\".\n\nThose arrested in Denmark were scheduled to appear in closed court hearings on Thursday.\n\nCh Insp Drejer said an investigation had uncovered a transnational network of people preparing an attack, with links to criminal gangs.\n\nSecurity around Jewish sites would be reinforced and police patrols in Copenhagen made more frequent, he added.\n\nDanish intelligence chief Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen said the terror threat was linked to the Israel-Gaza war and burnings of the Quran in Denmark and neighbouring Sweden.\n\nEarlier this month, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson warned that Europe faced a \"huge risk\" of terrorist attacks over the Christmas period.\n\nIn 2015, two people were killed in an attack on a cultural centre and a synagogue in Copenhagen.\n\nThe terror threat in Denmark currently stands at level four out of five, the second-highest. The PET security and intelligence agency says the main threat to Denmark comes from militant Islamists, most likely from\" a small group or a lone actor\" inspired by propaganda.\n\nMr Hummelgaard said the government currently saw no reason to raise the threat level.", "Samer Talalka and Yotam Haim - whose deaths were announced by the IDF Image caption: Samer Talalka and Yotam Haim - whose deaths were announced by the IDF\n\nThe Israeli military says it killed three hostages who were being held in Gaza after they were “mistakenly identified as a threat” in the northern town of Shejaiya.\n\nThe bodies have been returned to Israel, and two of the victims were identified as Yotam Haim, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and as Samer Talalka, who was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Am.\n\nThe family of the third hostage asked for the name to not be revealed.\n\nThe Israeli military says the incident is under investigation. Its statement says that \"the IDF expresses deep remorse over the tragic incident and sends the families its heartfelt condolences\".\n\n\"Our national mission is to locate the missing and return all the hostages home,\" it adds.\n\nMore than 100 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza after being captured in the 7 October attacks in Israel.", "British teen Alex Batty, found after six years missing, decided to leave his mother because she wanted to move to Finland, French officials said.\n\nThe 17-year-old said he was constantly on the move with his grandfather and mother after they disappeared in 2017, and wanted to get his UK life back.\n\nAlex was found by a motorist in southern France on Thursday.\n\nThe officials said he should be able to return to his family in the UK on Saturday or Sunday at the latest.\n\nThe current whereabouts of Alex's mother - who does not have parental guardianship of him - are unknown.\n\nAlex himself has not said where she is. They lived in Morocco for two years and then in the French Pyrenees but he has not said exactly where.\n\nHis grandfather is believed to have died six months ago.\n\nGreater Manchester Police (GMP) said Alex's Oldham-based relatives were \"massively relieved\" and going through a \"whole host of emotions\".\n\nIn a statement issued through GMP on Friday afternoon, Alex's grandmother Susan Caruana, who is also his legal guardian, said: \"I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found safe and well.\n\n\"I spoke with him last night and it was so good to hear his voice and see his face again. I can't wait to see him when we're reunited.\"\n\nRequesting privacy for the family, she added: \"The main thing is that he's safe, after what would be an overwhelming experience for anyone, not least a child.\"\n\nAlex Batty, centre, disappeared with his mother, Melanie Batty, and grandfather, David Batty\n\nToulouse Assistant Public Prosecutor Antoine Leroy told journalists the French authorities were still trying to piece together Alex's life since he went missing.\n\nHe said that the teenager came across as a very intelligent boy who was very easy to engage with, despite having no formal education since his disappearance.\n\nAlex told French officials how the three of them were always moving around as part of a small community of about 10 people, Mr Leroy said.\n\nThe area in the foothills of the Pyrenees is known for attracting people in search of alternative lifestyles.\n\nIt appears the group had a phobia for certain types of energy and took solar panels wherever they went. He says that at no time during his disappearance was he enrolled at a school.\n\nBut he spoke about the community as being \"spiritual\" and the word cult was not mentioned, Mr Leroy added. He said he suffered no physical violence.\n\nThe assistant prosecutor said that when Finland was mentioned, the teenager decided to \"get his life back in the UK\".\n\n\"When his mother indicated that she was going to leave with him to Finland, this young man understood that this had to stop,\" he said.\n\n\"So he then decided to leave the place where he was with his mother and he went walking for four days and four nights.\"\n\nHe walked during the night and slept in the day, getting food from fields and gardens, Mr Leroy added, until he was offered a lift by delivery driver Fabien Accidini.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Fabien Accidini says he found Alex Batty in a remote mountainous area in the Pyrenees\n\nMr Accidini spoke earlier about their encounter, saying that they talked for more than three hours in which Alex told him his story.\n\nThe delivery driver said he lent the teenager his phone and let him use his Facebook account to contact his grandmother.\n\nHis first words to his grandmother for six years were: \"Hello Grandma, it's me Alex. I'm in France Toulouse. I really hope that you receive this message. I love you, I want to come home.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Chris Sykes said on Friday morning GMP was \"relieved and overjoyed\" to receive the news that Alex was safe and well.\n\n\"This is a huge moment for Alex, for his family and for the community in Oldham,\" he said in a news conference.\n\n\"The young man and Alex's grandmother spoke on a video call last night and whilst she is content that this is indeed Alex, we obviously have further checks to do when he returns to the United Kingdom,\" he said.\n\nMelanie and David Batty left Greater Manchester with Alex for a pre-agreed week-long holiday to Marbella in Spain on 30 September 2017.\n\nHe was last seen at the Port of Malaga on 8 October that year, the day they were expected to return to the UK.", "The award-winning comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm, created by and starring Larry David, is coming to an end after 24 years.\n\nThe 12th season of the show will be its last, said Warner Brothers-Discovery, which owns the HBO network.\n\nThe comedy, which premiered in 2000 and stars David in a fictionalised version of his own life, is HBO's longest-running scripted comedy series.\n\nComedians including Jeff Garlin and Susie Essman have featured on the show.\n\nThey will be returning for the final season to reprise their roles.\n\nThe season will be comprised of 10 episodes and will premiere on 4 February, streaming on Max, with new episodes airing on Sundays at 22:00 EST until the series finale on 7 April.\n\nThe first episode of the show aired to critical acclaim in 2000, garnering 51 Emmy nominations and two wins, along with five Golden Globe nominations and one win.\n\nDavid is also well-known for having created the show Seinfeld alongside comedian Jerry Seinfeld. David was head writer and executive producer on the sitcom for its first seven seasons.\n\n\"As Curb comes to an end, I will now have the opportunity to finally shed this 'Larry David' persona and become the person God intended me to be - the thoughtful, kind, caring, considerate human being I was until I got derailed by portraying this malignant character,\" said David.\n\nThe show previously took a six-year hiatus between its eighth and ninth seasons before coming back. But this time it seems it really is the end of series.\n\n\"Your misanthropy will not be missed. And for those of you who would like to get in touch with me, you can reach me at Doctors Without Borders.\"\n\nHBO and Max content chairman Casey Bloys said it was \"hard to say farewell to such a ground-breaking, brilliantly funny and iconic series\".\n\nPaying tribute to David, executive producer Jeff Schaffer and the rest the team, he added he would \"always treasure\" the \"comedic masterminds\" that created the show.\n\nDavid has remained in the limelight in the US since Curb Your Enthusiasm was last broadcast, parodying Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders on Saturday Night Live.", "Key Mirror execs knew about hacking - and covered it up\n\nThe judge says two executives concealed hacking from Mirror board. We have already reported the judge's ruling that Piers Morgan knew about and was involved in hacking - but what did he say about other top figures at the Mirror Group? Justice Fancourt said two directors knew before the end of 2011: Paul Vickers, group legal director, and Sly Bailey, the chief executive officer. “The board as a whole was not told about it,” the judge told the court. “That was because the editors of the three newspapers, the editorial managers of the company and Bailey and Vickers did not report what they knew, or suspected, to the board. \"I have found that Mr Vickers certainly knew about phone hacking from about the end of 2003, but quite possibly before then. \"Ms Bailey knew or – what in law amounts to the same thing – turned a blind eye to it from about the end of 2006. \"The likelihood of extensive illegal activity should have been investigated properly. \"Instead, it was concealed from the board, from Parliament in 2007 and 2011, from the Leveson Inquiry, from shareholders, and from the public for years - and the extent of it was concealed from claimants in the Mirror Newspapers hacking litigation and even from the court at and before the trial in 2015.\"", "Ukraine's President Zelensky called the vote a \"victory\" for his country and for Europe\n\nEuropean leaders have decided to open EU membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant candidate status to Georgia.\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the decision, made at a summit in Brussels, as \"a victory\" for his country and Europe.\n\nA spokesperson for Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, said that agreement was unanimous.\n\nHungary has long opposed talks starting with Kyiv, but did not veto the move.\n\nPrime Minister Viktor Orban left the room momentarily in what officials described as a pre-agreed and constructive manner, while the other 26 leaders went ahead with the vote.\n\nHe then distanced himself from his colleagues with a video message on Facebook: \"EU membership of Ukraine is a bad decision. Hungary does not want to participate in this bad decision, and therefore stayed away from the decision today.\"\n\nMr Zelensky was delighted by the EU's announcement: \"This is a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe. A victory that motivates, inspires and strengthens,\" he said on X.\n\nUkraine and Moldova applied to join the EU after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They were both given candidate status last June, while Georgia was passed over at the time.\n\nMoldovan President Maia Sandu said it was an honour to share the path to EU accession with Ukraine. \"We wouldn't be here today without Ukraine's brave resistance against Russia's brutal invasion,\" she wrote.\n\nEarlier this year, Moldova warned that Russia was seeking to seize power in Chisinau. Ms Sandu said Moldovans were now feeling Europe's \"warm embrace\" and congratulated her compatriots on what she called \"an award for all of society, all those who choose democracy and prosperity\".\n\nMoldova's President Maia Sandu said the decision to start talks opened a \"new page\"\n\nWhite House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan welcomed the EU's \"historic\" move to open accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova, calling it a \"crucial step toward fulfilling their Euro-Atlantic aspirations\".\n\nTalks on joining the European Union can take years, so Thursday's decision will not guarantee Ukraine membership.\n\nPeople in Ukraine know that the path to full membership is a long one, but this decision in Brussels will be a boost for morale.\n\nEU candidate countries have to pass a series of reforms to adhere to standards ranging from the rule of law to the economy, although the EU's executive has already praised Kyiv for completing more than 90% of the steps taken so far on justice and tackling corruption.\n\nGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz praised his fellow leaders for showing a \"strong sign of support\", adding that it was clear that both Ukraine and Moldova belonged to \"the European family\". A diplomat at the summit said it was Mr Scholz's idea for Mr Orban to leave the room to enable the vote to go through.\n\nThis was some much-needed good news for Ukraine, after almost 22 months of Russia's war and a continuing struggle to secure Western military and financial aid.\n\nFinnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said it was a historic moment and an \"important message of hope\" for the citizens of Ukraine and Moldova.\n\nMr Zelensky travelled to the US earlier this week in a vain attempt to persuade the US Congress to push through $61bn in military funding, blocked by Republican lawmakers.\n\nUkraine's counter-offensive against Russia's occupying force has ground to a halt at the start of winter.\n\nEarlier on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin mocked Ukraine and claimed Western support was running out: \"Excuse my vulgarity, but everything is being brought in as a freebie. But those freebies could run out at some point.\"\n\nBut President Zelensky will at least now be able to point to this political win as proof that Ukraine is not steadily being abandoned by its partners.\n\nThe European Council president said it was a \"very powerful signal... to the people of Ukraine we are on their side\".\n\nMany in Kyiv see their fight against Russia's invasion as a defence of European values and they firmly view their future as an active and effective member of the European Union.\n\nUkraine's 2014 \"Revolution of Dignity\", toppling its pro-Kremlin president, was rooted in a desire to move away from Russia's political orbit and towards Europe.\n\nPresident Putin reacted by sending troops into eastern Ukraine and Crimea and then staging a far wider invasion in 2022.\n\nFor Georgia too, invaded by Russia in 2008, the EU vote was a \"monumental milestone\", said pro-EU President Salome Zurabishvili.\n\nGeorgia has a broadly pro-EU population, its government has a complex relationship with Moscow and has refrained from imposing sanctions on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine began.\n\nAsked if President Putin had ambitions to do to Georgia what he was doing to Ukraine, pro-Putin Russian lawmaker and TV host Yevgeny Popov told BBC Newsnight, \"We are not going to.\"\n\n\"We have enough territory,\" he said. \"We are the biggest country in the world and we don't need any other territories. But all we need is security guarantees.\"\n\nOn Thursday, Mr Michel said the EU also intended to open negotiations with Bosnia-Herzegovina once it met criteria for membership. Bosnia was given candidate status a year ago but a progress report last month has listed further steps Sarajevo needs to take on electoral and judicial reforms.\n\nBosnia has the added issue of the leader of its majority-Serb area, Republika Srpska, threatening to secede.\n• None Eyes on Orban as EU decides on support for Ukraine", "Journalist Piers Morgan has said he has \"never hacked a phone or told anyone else to\", after a judge ruled he knew about the practice - and was involved - while editor of the Daily Mirror between 1995 and 2004.\n\nSeparately, the High Court ruled Prince Harry was the victim of phone hacking by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) and awarded him £140,600 in damages.\n\nMirror Group Newspapers has admitted phone hacking took place, but insists blame cannot be pinned on executives or editors because it says the unlawful activity was deliberately concealed by the journalists.", "The death of Berkshire head teacher Ruth Perry has led to calls for better working conditions for school leaders\n\nSchool leaders are being \"pushed to the edge of despair\" by inspections and workload, a union has said.\n\nThe National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) warned of a mass exodus from top school jobs without reforms.\n\nIt says a snapshot of school leaders' views found almost half needed support for their mental health or wellbeing in the last year.\n\nIt comes after an inquest found an Ofsted inspection contributed to head teacher Ruth Perry taking her own life.\n\nOfsted boss Amanda Spielman has apologised \"for the distress that Mrs Perry undoubtedly experienced as a result of our inspection\" and said reforms have already been rolled out.\n\nThe 53-year-old's death in January has led to renewed calls for better support for senior school leaders - and now the NAHT has warned low morale is prevalent across the profession.\n\nIt has gathered evidence from 1,890 school leaders in England, with 38% of respondents saying they sought professional support for their mental health or wellbeing in the previous year.\n\nAnother 11% of respondents said they would have accessed support but did not know how, or that it was not available to them.\n\nThe union said almost half of all school leaders who responded were considering leaving their jobs in the next three years. It warned there was a shrinking pool of senior staff who would be willing to replace them.\n\nIt claimed the number of assistant head teachers who do not aspire to run a school has risen to almost two-thirds, with the vast majority saying the impact on their personal wellbeing and concerns about Ofsted inspections deter them from wanting to move up a level.\n\nThe snapshot of opinion among school leaders is based on responses gathered in September and October.\n\nAmanda Spielman says Ofsted is committed to reform following Ruth Perry's death\n\nPaul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said that \"decisive action\" was needed on inspections, workload and pay to prevent a staffing crisis at the top of the system.\n\n\"These dire findings paint a really bleak picture of the unacceptable toll school leadership is taking on our members and their mental health and wellbeing,\" he said.\n\n\"Parents and carers will no doubt be equally alarmed that school leaders are being left seeking support with their mental health, feeling worried, stressed and unvalued, struggling to sleep, and considering quitting the profession.\n\nHe said reluctance to take on the role of head teacher was an \"established and rising trend\" which would affect the system and children's education.\n\nOfsted said it has already introduced a number of changes in the wake of Mrs Perry's death, including a commitment to inspect schools again after three months if they had been graded inadequate over safeguarding concerns, and would work hard to address all the concerns raised by the coroner.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ruth Perry's sister reacts after inquest returns conclusion into her death\n\nOther reforms adopted by Ofsted include a commitment to provide schools with a telephone service where they can raise concerns about how an inspection was being conducted, allowing draft findings to be shared with close colleagues, and developing training for inspectors on how to identify signs of anxiety in school staff.\n\nHeidi Connor, the senior coroner for Berkshire, will issue a more detailed report with recommendations for Ofsted and the government designed to prevent future deaths.\n\nSpeaking in the Commons on 11 December after the conclusion of Mrs Perry's inquest, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said the government would \"build on her legacy to help ensure that such a tragedy never happens again\".\n\nLabour says it would scrap the current one-word grading system - which critics say can produce unduly harsh outcomes for schools - and move to a \"report card\" inspection, where strengths and weaknesses are broken down.\n\nThe Department for Education (DfE) said the government was \"taking action to reduce the pressures on [school leaders] where we can\".\n\nIt said £1.1m of funding had doubled the capacity of a mental health and wellbeing scheme for school leaders, while an education staff wellbeing charter had also been launched.\n\nSir Martyn Oliver is set to take over as the head of Ofsted in early 2024, and MPs are due to publish a report following an inquiry into how the inspectorate works with schools.\n\nAre you affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "We're about to bring our live coverage to an end. Thank you for joining us. But we'll bring you news of any further developments on the BBC Norfolk page. This page was edited by Jon Welch, with reporting by Kathryn Hamlett, Rachael McMenemy and James Gregory.", "A younger Alex Batty, pictured before he went missing.\n\nA British teenager missing in France for six years messaged his grandmother: \"I love you, I want to come home\" after he was picked up by a driver.\n\nAlex Batty vanished in 2017 on a holiday in Spain with his mother and grandfather.\n\nThe pair do not have parental guardianship of the 17-year-old and remain wanted over his disappearance.\n\nAlex is at a young person's centre in Toulouse and may return to the UK later with police and consular officials.\n\nA police source earlier told BBC News the boy had been taken to a police station by the concerned motorist who had spotted him on a road in the foothills of the Pyrenees early on Wednesday morning.\n\n\"He explained that he had been walking for four days, that he set off from a place in the mountains, though he didn't say where,\" delivery driver Fabien Accidini said.\n\n\"I typed his name into the internet and saw that he was being looked for,\" he said.\n\nMr Accidini told local media the teenager's plan had been to find a big city with an embassy to ask for assistance. Instead, Mr Accidini contacted French authorities for help.\n\nAlex used Mr Accidini's Facebook account to contact his grandmother back in the UK.\n\nHe wrote: \"Hello Grandma, it's me Alex. I'm in France Toulouse. I really hope that you receive this message. I love you, I want to come home.\"\n\nThe BBC understands that Alex's grandmother, Susan Caruana, who is also his legal guardian, is too frail to travel to Toulouse, but she told The Sun newspaper she had been in touch with him.\n\n\"I am so happy. I have spoken to him and he is well,\" she said. \"It is such a shock.\"\n\nThe BBC also understands that the French prosecutor's office in Toulouse have officially handed the case over to British police and it is no longer under French jurisdiction. A team of British police officers and consular staff are expected to pick Alex up and bring him back to the UK as early as Friday.\n\nAlex Batty, centre, disappeared with his mother, Melanie Batty, and grandfather, David Batty\n\nIt is understood that Alex had been living in the remote Pyrenean valleys, travelling about from place to place in a kind of itinerant commune.\n\nThe area in the foothills of the Pyrenees is known for attracting people in search of alternative lifestyles.\n\nAlex, from Oldham in Greater Manchester, won't say where his mother is or exactly where he had been living in the Pyrenees, the prosecutor's office told the BBC.\n\nMs Caruana told the BBC in 2018 that she believed Alex's mother Melanie Batty and grandfather David Batty had taken him to live with a spiritual community in Morocco.\n\nShe said at the time they were seeking an alternative lifestyle and did not want Alex to go to school.\n\nMelanie and David Batty left Greater Manchester with Alex for a pre-agreed week-long holiday to Marbella in Spain on 30 September 2017.\n\nHe was last seen at the Port of Malaga on 8 October that year, the day they were expected to return to the UK.\n\nBritish police were contacted via the UK embassy in Paris.\n\nGreater Manchester Police confirmed it was in touch with French authorities to put \"safeguarding measures in place\".\n\n\"This is a complex and long-running investigation, and we need to make further enquiries as well as putting appropriate safeguarding measures in place,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nIn a statement, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said: \"We are supporting a British national in France and are in contact with local authorities.\"", "Amy fears the donkeys could die from the stress of being separated from each other\n\nThe owner of a stolen 20-year-old former Blackpool donkey has pleaded for his safe return, warning he could die of heartbreak.\n\nA £1,000 reward has been offered to return Winston, who was reportedly stolen from a field near Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, on 9 December.\n\nBoth Winston and his companion Rudy were bought by Amy Doran's family when they moved to Wales from Kent.\n\nAmy, 39, said Rudy was \"pining\" and warned donkeys could die of separation.\n\nWinston disappeared from a field in Taliaris when Amy and her family were away for the weekend.\n\nAmy's four-year-old daughter, Bella, has written to Santa as part of their appeal\n\nShe said she feared someone had taken the \"very trusting, elderly donkey\" for a nativity play or similar event.\n\n\"What the person who's stolen him probably doesn't realise is that donkeys can die from separation, they can die from a broken heart. They don't realise the after-effects,\" she said.\n\nAmy's four-year-old daughter, Bella, has issued a photo appeal with the caption: \"Dear Santa, this Christmas please bring my donkey home.\"\n\nAmy said her daughters, Bella and Gracie, three, were \"absolutely devastated\" by the theft of a much loved family pet.\n\n\"I don't care if somebody dumps him in a field. All I care about is getting him back,\" she said.", "Danish shipping company Maersk has said it is pausing all journeys through the Red Sea.\n\nThe decision comes after a spate of attacks on vessels launched from a part of Yemen controlled by the Houthis - an Iran-backed rebel movement.\n\nThe group has declared its support for Hamas and say it is targeting ships travelling to Israel.\n\nThe Red Sea is one the world's most important routes for oil and fuel shipments.\n\nGerman transport company Hapag-Lloyd later said it was making a similar move.\n\nThe firm owns a ship that recently came under attack, and confirmed to the BBC later on Friday it was also suspending operations in the area until Monday.\n\nIn a statement to the BBC, Maersk, one of the world's biggest shipping companies, said: \"The recent attacks on commercial vessels in the area are alarming and pose a significant threat to the safety and security of seafarers.\n\n\"Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to pause their journey until further notice.\"\n\nThe Bab al-Mandab strait - also known as the Gate of Tears - is a channel 20 miles (32km) wide, and known for being perilous to navigate.\n\nIt sits between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea on the African coast.\n\nIt is the route by which ships can reach the Suez Canal from the south - itself a major shipping lane. Avoiding it means vessels must take much longer routes, for example navigating around southern Africa.\n\nAbout 17,000 ships and 10% of global trade pass through it every year. Any ship passing through Suez to or from the Indian Ocean has to come this way.\n\nMaersk pausing its Red Sea shipping journeys \"could not come at a more difficult time\", director general at the Institute of Export & International Trade Marco Forgione said.\n\n\"This impacts every link in the supply chain... and will only increase the chances of critical products not making their destinations in time for Christmas,\" he added.\n\nAt least two other cargo ships in the strait came under attack on Friday. The US says one was hit with a drone and another by missiles, blaming the Houthis for both attacks.\n\nThe Houthis did not confirm the drone strike, but said they did fire missiles at two boats.\n\nThe group has controlled parts of Yemen since seizing power from the country's government in 2014, triggering an ongoing civil war.\n\nSpeaking before the announcements by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan - who is on a trip to the Middle East - said the Houthis were threatening freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, which is vital for oil and goods shipments.\n\n\"The United States is working with the international community, with partners from the region and from all over the world to deal with this threat,\" he said.\n\nEarlier this month, a US warship shot down three drones fired from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen after three commercial vessels came under attack in the Red Sea.\n\nJust days before that incident, the US said another warship had captured armed men who had earlier seized an Israeli-linked tanker off Yemen's coast.\n\nLast month, the Houthis released video footage showing armed men dropping from a helicopter and seizing a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Danielle Evans was described as a fiercely loyal and loving wife\n\nA woman whose body was found at the site of an explosion in Treforest, south Wales, has been named as 40-year-old Danielle Evans.\n\nHer body was found after a police search following the blast at Treforest Industrial Estate in Rhondda Cynon Taf on Wednesday evening.\n\nIn a tribute, her family said she was a \"whirlwind of a woman\".\n\nThey said she was a \"fiercely loyal and loving wife\" and an \"intelligent, caring and beautiful soul\".\n\nThey added she had started her own business, Celtic Food Labs, saying she \"poured her heart and soul into it, but the most important things to her were her husband, family, dogs and friends\".\n\n\"She met strangers and friends with the same positive, infectious and loving energy, she pulled you into her orbit like nobody you will ever meet or will again, a magnet that pulled us all together.\"\n\nThey said her passions were science, camping, partying with her friends and quality time with her beloved family.\n\nHer family added: \"She was an amazing aunty and cherished every second with her nieces.\n\n\"She came from a loving family and was so close to her mum, dad, brother, aunties and uncles - her love was boundless.\n\n\"She touched so many lives. She will be so sorely missed but, my word, do we all have some amazing memories that we made and cherish.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAt least one building was destroyed and a major incident declared after the \"massive\" blast on Severn Road at about 19:00 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nThe fire was in a 60,000 sq ft (5,574 sq m) warehouse called Rizla House which houses 13 commercial units including a gym, a towel manufacturer and a telecoms service company.\n\nShe founded Celtic Food Laboratories, which specialised in the microbial testing of food, in 2009.\n\nThe blast and fire on Treforest Industrial Estate took place on Wednesday evening\n\nFloral tributes were left at the site on Friday, while tributes have been paid to Ms Evans on social media.\n\nDet Supt Richard Jones of South Wales Police said: \"Our thoughts remain with Danielle's family, friends and work colleagues, at what is a very difficult time for them.\n\n\"Our enquiries are ongoing to establish the cause of the incident, and these enquiries are being carried out in partnership with relevant agencies.\"\n\nHe thanked businesses and residents for their patience and understanding.\n\nThe force added that it was working with the fire service and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to establish the cause of the explosion.\n\nIt said there were no other reports of serious injuries.\n\nA two-storey building on Treforest Industrial Estate was devastated by the explosion and fire\n\nA business affected by the blaze, Mindset Gym, posted on Facebook: \"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the lady's family and community after such a tragic accident.\n\n\"Mindset will do everything to show support to the lady's family and keep her legacy alive.\"\n\nPolice have appealed for anyone with CCTV, doorbell or dashcam footage to contact them.\n\nEarlier on Friday, Pontypridd MP Alex Davies-Jones reiterated her call to prevent the sharing of distressing images and speculation on social media.\n\n\"This week has been incredibly challenging for our community, but we all have a role to play in looking after each other during this very difficult time,\" she said.", "The meeting was being livestreamed on Facebook when the attack took place\n\nA village councillor in western Ukraine has thrown grenades on to the floor of a council meeting, wounding 26 people, police say.\n\nThe attack took place on Friday morning at the village council headquarters in Keretsky in the western Transcarpathian region.\n\nPolice have not yet commented on a possible motive for the attack, which has left six seriously wounded.\n\nThe meeting was being livestreamed on Facebook when the incident took place.\n\nCouncillors had been holding a heated discussion about their budget for 2024 as well as this year's financial results and holding a vote on awarding the council chief a bonus.\n\nAlmost 90 minutes into the meeting, the footage shows one of the village councillors shouting, objecting to the budget. The man, wearing a dark jacket, then leaves the room, taking another man with him.\n\nA few minutes later he returns and stands in front of the door. Shortly afterwards he takes several grenades out of his jacket pockets.\n\nHe briefly tries to attract people's attention, saying \"May I, may I?\", before tossing the grenades into the middle of the room. Moments later they explode.\n\n\"As a result, 26 people were wounded, six of whom are in a grave condition,\" the police statement said, adding that medics were trying to resuscitate the man who threw the grenades.\n\nPolice later said the attacker was taken to a hospital to an intensive care unit in a serious condition.\n\nMany Ukrainians have access to weaponry due to the war with Russia, but there is no evidence yet that the attack was related to the conflict.\n\nKeretsky is a village of some 4,000 people not far from the Hungarian border.\n\nUkrainian police say the SBU security service will investigate the incident as a \"terrorist attack\".", "People - some in costume - arriving for the event\n\nHundreds of people have gathered to celebrate the life of Barry Humphries - the man behind Dame Edna Everage - at a Sydney Opera House state memorial.\n\nThe 89-year-old died in April of complications from hip surgery.\n\nOver seven decades, the Australian entertainer built a global reputation as one of the greatest raconteurs and comedians of his age.\n\nAmong those who sent tributes were King Charles, Sir Elton John and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.\n\nIn a message read out at the extravagant service, the King said \"no-one was safe\" from the wit of Humphries, who elicited both \"fear and fun\" in his subjects.\n\n\"Barry Humphries, through his creations, poked and prodded us, exposed pretensions, punctured pomposity, surfaced insecurities, but most of all, made us laugh at ourselves,\" he wrote.\n\n\"Like so many, I have been deeply saddened by his passing. Life really won't be the same without him.\"\n\nMr Albanese called the performer a \"comedy giant\", while Sir Elton remembered him as a great friend.\n\n\"Barry Humphries was one of the funniest people in the world... but he was also one of the kindest and most generous [people] to me,\" Sir Elton said in a video message.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFans too turned out in droves, celebrating with laughs, tears and champagne. They spoke of how in Humphries and his creations, they caught glimpses of themselves.\n\nOne woman who had travelled in from out of town likened the performer to the late Queen. \"He's an icon... I'm so sad he's gone,\" she told the BBC, decked out in a pair of Edna's signature glasses.\n\n\"He captured who were and took us to the world,\" another man said.\n\nBorn in Melbourne in 1934, Humphries began inventing fictional characters from an early age.\n\nHe acted in the Australian theatre, but it was after moving to London in 1959 that he exploded onto the international art scene.\n\nA gifted creative, he dabbled as a writer, painter, and scholar, but it was his comic caricatures - which played on Australian stereotypes - that brought him adoration.\n\nThere was the lecherous drunk Sir Les Patterson and the charmingly boring Sandy Stone, but no persona was as beloved as the shrill-toned and sequined Dame Edna Everage.\n\nFirst debuted in 1955, she became more flamboyant as the years went on, and was famed for her lilac-rinsed hair, gaudy outfits and snappy catchphrase: \"Hello possums!\"\n\nHumphries tested the limits of political correctness - he had revelled in being \"outrageous\", according to his son Rupert.\n\n\"He loved to torment his audiences, but it was from a place of love,\" he said.\n\nHis brand of humour was both an inspiration to and the envy of his peers, said comedians David Walliams and Jimmy Carr: \"He was a genius,\" the latter said.\n\nThe star's other credits included voicing shark Bruce in the 2003 animated film Finding Nemo, and appearances in films such as Bedazzled, Spice World, The Hobbit and Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie.\n\nHe has been recognised as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) and Commander of the British Empire (CBE), but among his proudest achievements was his sobriety. After a near-death experience in 1970, he was treated for alcohol addiction at a hospital in Melbourne and swore off drinking.\n\nHowever, Humphries' life was not without controversy. His marriages often made headlines and, in his later years, he drew criticism for comments about transgender people, sexual harassment, and people of colour.\n\nHe is survived by his fourth wife Lizzie Spender, four children and 10 grandchildren. They say they've been moved by the outpouring of love.\n\n\"His was a brilliant and kaleidoscopic life... to see how much he meant to people has been a buffer against grief,\" his eldest son Oscar said.\n\nThe service, which took place months after Humphries' death at the request of his family, will culminate in the illumination of the Sydney Opera House sails in his honour on Friday night.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nRebecca Welch will become the first female referee for a Premier League fixture when she officiates Fulham's match against Burnley on 23 December.\n\nWelch, 40, began refereeing in 2010, and in January became the first woman to referee a men's Championship game.\n\nSam Allison will also take charge of a top-flight match in December, making him the Premier League's first black referee for 15 years.\n\nHe will oversee Sheffield United's match against Luton on 26 December.\n\nUriah Rennie - the league's last black referee - retired from officiating in English football's top four divisions in 2009. The EFL's last non-white referee - Jarnail Singh - retired in 2010.\n\n\"These are pivotal moments for Rebecca and Sam, who are two officials of real quality,\" referees' chief Howard Webb told BBC Sport.\n\nIn July, the Football Association laid out plans to recruit 50% more referees from \"historically under-represented\" backgrounds by 2026, targeting an increase of 1,000 women referees and 1,000 black or Asian referees at all levels of football in three years.\n\nCurrently, 8% of officials are of black or Asian ethnicity, but only 3% in professional football. No black or Asian referee has taken charge of a Premier League game since Rennie's final match in 2008.\n\nFormer firefighter Allison, who has previously spoken about encouraging more officials from under-represented backgrounds, was promoted to the Football League in 2020 and was moved up to the Championship earlier this year.\n\nWelch has also refereed in the Championship this year, as well as taking charge of Women's Super League and Women's Champions League matches and refereeing at the Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in the summer.\n\nShe was the first woman to take charge of an FA Cup third-round tie in 2022 after being added to the EFL's national list for men's football, which oversees both League One and League Two fixtures.\n\nWelch made history in November when she became the first woman to be involved in the Premier League in a refereeing capacity, taking up the role of fourth official when Manchester United beat Fulham 1-0 at Craven Cottage.\n\n\"Rebecca has been exposed to some big games and I am really confident she will deliver a game in the Premier League and be a really good model for women and girls to think refereeing is for them,\" said Webb.\n\n\"Sam deserves his chance as well. Maybe that will serve as a role model for other young people who maybe previously thought refereeing might not be for them.\n\n\"Hopefully they can show that refereeing can be for anybody - if you have the love of the game and the qualities required, you can make it to the very top.\"\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Andre Braugher was known for his roles in Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Homicide\n\nTwo-time Emmy Award winning actor Andre Braugher died of lung cancer after being diagnosed with the disease several months ago, his publicist has confirmed to the BBC.\n\nBraugher was best known for his roles as Captain Ray Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Detective Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life on the Street.\n\nHe won an Emmy for his role in Homicide in 1998 and another in 2006 for his work in the crime thriller Thief.\n\nBraugher also received four Emmy nominations for his role in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which ran for eight seasons, in addition to Golden Globe nominations for his role in Thief and in ABC's series Gideon's Crossing.\n\nMost recently, he starred opposite Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan in the biographical drama She Said, which documents the story of the investigative journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein story.\n\nHis Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-star, Terry Crews, paid tribute to Braugher's \"irreplaceable talent\" earlier this week.\n\n\"I'm honoured to have known you, laughed with you, worked with you and shared eight glorious years watching your irreplaceable talent,\" Crews posted on Instagram.\n\n\"You showed me what a life well lived looks like.\"\n\nBorn in Chicago, Braugher graduated from Stanford University before attending The Juilliard School for drama in New York.\n\nBraugher told The New York Times Magazine in 2014 that he had \"stopped drinking alcohol and smoking years ago\".\n\nHe is survived by his wife, actress Ami Brabson, whom he met on the set of Homicide, and his three sons.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rudy Giuliani says he plans to appeal 'absurd' penalty\n\nRudy Giuliani, a longtime associate of former President Donald Trump, has been ordered to pay more than $148m (£116m) to two women over false claims they tampered with votes in 2020.\n\nA judge had already found Mr Giuliani liable of making defamatory claims about Georgia poll workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea \"Shaye\" Moss.\n\nMs Moss said after the verdict that the past few years had been \"devastating\".\n\nThe verdict came after a four-day trial to determine the penalty.\n\nOn Friday, the eight-person jury ordered $20m payments for defamation to be made to each victim.\n\nThey were also each awarded over $16m for emotional distress, the jury ruled. Another payment of $75m in punitive damages was ordered to be split between them.\n\nThey had originally sought between $15m and $43m in damages from Mr Giuliani, Mr Trump's former personal lawyer.\n\nAddressing reporters outside the court, Mr Giuliani said: \"I don't regret a damn thing.\"\n\nMichael Gottlieb, the lawyer for Ms Freeman and Ms Moss, said during closing arguments on Thursday that Mr Giuliani was \"patient zero\" of the misinformation.\n\nHe said that, during three days of evidence and testimony, the jury had \"experienced a sliver of the unspeakable horror that [Ms Freeman and Ms Moss] suffered\".\n\nHe said a stiff financial penalty was necessary to \"send a message\" to Mr Giuliani and to \"any other powerful figure with a platform\".\n\nMr Giuliani had been expected to testify in his own defence on Thursday, but those plans were abruptly cancelled.\n\n\"Honestly, I didn't believe it would do any good,\" Mr Giuliani said after the verdict on Friday, adding that he planned to appeal the \"absurd\" penalty.\n\nMr Giuliani is worth about $50m, according to an estimate by CBS News, the BBC's US partner.\n\nHis lawyers earlier urged the jury to be measured as they considered the penalty.\n\nThey said that, although the former mayor of New York did spread lies after the 2020 presidential election, he was not as responsible - or as malicious - as lawyers for the two women argued.\n\nIn courtroom testimony in Washington DC on Wednesday, Ms Freeman recounted having to flee her home after a group of Trump supporters gathered outside and the FBI told her she was in danger.\n\nThe incident happened after Mr Giuliani shared a video of them, which he falsely said showed evidence of ballot tampering.\n\nRuby Freeman (in front) and her daughter Shaye Moss say they are still rebuilding their lives\n\n\"I took it as though they were going to hang me with their ropes on my street,\" Ms Freeman said. \"I was scared. I didn't know if they were coming to kill me.\"\n\nMs Freeman said that she was left isolated by Mr Giuliani's actions. Friends and acquaintances grew afraid to be linked to her, she said, and she has felt forced to live a life of seclusion because of lingering fears she will be recognised publicly.\n\nAddressing reporters on Friday, the women said that more lawsuits may be forthcoming for other public figures that had spread lies about them.\n\n\"They must be held accountable too,\" said Ms Freeman.\n\n\"Money will not solve all of my problems,\" she continued. \"I can't move home, I will always have to be careful... I miss my home, I miss my neighbours and I miss my name.\"\n\nThe trial in Washington DC was just one of the legal cases Mr Giuliani is facing.\n\nIn Georgia, Mr Giuliani faces criminal charges, including making false statements, in an election-subversion case against Mr Trump. Mr Giuliani has pleaded not guilty.\n\nA former business associate is also suing him for $10m over sexual harassment claims.\n\nAnd according to recent court filings from the Internal Revenue Service, Mr Giuliani owes more than half a million dollars in federal taxes.\n\nIn September, Mr Trump reportedly hosted a $100,000-a-plate dinner at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to raise money for a legal defence fund for Mr Giuliani.\n\nBack in 2018, Mr Giuliani's divorce case heard claims of his lavish spending. His ex-wife, Judith Giuliani, said that in a five-month period he spent nearly a million dollars.\n\nThis was said to include $12,012 on cigars, $7,131 on fountain pens, $286,000 on an alleged mistress, $447,938 \"for his own enjoyment\" and $165,000 on travel.", "Joshua, 5, has made and delivered more than 700 Christmas cards for care home residents and hospital patients\n\nA five-year-old boy has spread Christmas cheer by making and hand-delivering more than 700 cards.\n\nJoshua from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, created the cards for care home residents and hospital patients.\n\nHis mum Claire said: \"We normally make cards, and then he came up with the idea of sending a card to everyone in Barry.\"\n\nAs Claire works in the care sector, they decided to focus his idea on the older generation.\n\nPeople staying at 12 care homes in Barry, plus Bethel House, Dinas Powys, and Barry and District Hospital were the chosen recipients.\n\nJoshua, who started his mammoth task at the end of October, finished his deliveries this week.\n\nJoshua's mum Claire said the card-making process began in October and involved a lot of sequins\n\nHe was often invited into the care homes to give out his Christmas cards.\n\nHe also made 200 extra cards for the annual Christmas charity Shoebox Appeal.\n\nClaire added: \"Joshua has written his name in all of the cards and his age. There's been a lot of sequins around in the making of them.\n\n\"When we went to the care homes some of the residents said they don't get many cards so we have had lots of happy tears.\"", "Yazen Alhasnat, 17, the morning after his release from prison. \"It is still possible to have hope,\" he said\n\nIn a family home in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, Yazen Alhasnat was sitting next to his mother rubbing sleep from his eyes.\n\nThe 17-year-old had been released from prison the night before, nearly five months after being arrested in a 4am Israeli military raid on the home.\n\nYazen had been held under \"administrative detention\" - a longstanding security policy, inherited from the British, that allows the Israeli state to imprison people indefinitely without charge, and without presenting any evidence against them.\n\n\"They have a secret file,\" Yazen said. \"They don't tell you what's in it.\"\n\nHe was back at home because he was among the 180 Palestinian children and women released from prison by Israel in the recent exchange for hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nBut at the same time the Palestinian prisoners were being released, Israel was detaining people at its highest rate in years. In the weeks since 7 October, the number of people in administrative detention - already at a 30-year high of 1,300 - has shot up to more than 2,800.\n\nIsraeli soldiers detain a young boy during demonstrations in Hebron, 2022. Israel has been accused of heavy-handed tactics\n\nWhen Yazen was released, his family was told not to publicly celebrate in any way or to talk to the media. The same instructions were given to the families of two other teenagers who spoke to the BBC about their experiences. But all three families said they wanted to highlight the issue of administrative detention.\n\nIsrael says that its use of the policy is compliant with international law and a necessary preventative measure to combat terrorism. Maurice Hirsch, a former director of military prosecutions for the West Bank, from 2013 to 2016, told the BBC that Israel was \"not only meeting international law but far surpassing it\", by allowing detainees to appeal and ensuring that their detentions were reviewed every six months.\n\nBut human rights groups say Israel's expansive use of the measure is an abuse of a security law not designed to be employed at such scale, and that detainees cannot effectively defend themselves, or appeal, because they have no access to the evidence against them.\n\n\"Under international law, administrative detention should be a rare exception,\" said Jessica Montell, the executive director of HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organisation that monitors detention of Palestinians.\n\n\"You are supposed to use it when there is a present danger and no other way to prevent that danger than detaining someone. But it is clear Israel is not using it that way. It is detaining hundreds, thousands of people, without charge, and using administrative detention to shield itself from scrutiny.\"\n\nMusa Aloridat in his bedroom in Jericho, where Israeli soldiers fired a bullet into the wardrobe as they raided the house\n\nPalestinians have been subject to administrative detention in this region since 1945, first under the British Mandate and then in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The law has in some very rare instances been used against Israeli settlers, but it is overwhelmingly used to detain West Bank Palestinians, including children.\n\nAdministrative detainees are granted a hearing - at a military court, in front of an Israeli military judge - but the state is not required to disclose any of its evidence to the detainees or their lawyers. The detainees can then be sentenced to up to six months. But the six months can be extended indefinitely by the military court, meaning that administrative detainees have no real idea at any point how long they are going to be locked up.\n\n\"What really gets to you is the uncertainty,\" Yazen said, sitting in his living room. \"Will you finish your six months and leave? Or will you be extended for a year, for two years?\"\n\nThe detainees can mount an appeal, all the way up to Israel's Supreme Court, but with no access to the evidence against them, they have nothing to base it on. Palestinians who are formally tried in the military courts have more access to evidence, but the courts boast a roughly 99% conviction rate.\n\n\"Defending Palestinians in the military courts is an almost impossible task,\" said Jerusalem-based defence lawyer Maher Hanna.\n\n\"The entire system is designed to limit a Palestinian's capacity to defend himself. It imposes harsh constraints on the defence and relieves the state prosecutor of the burden of proof.\"\n\nIsrael's use of the policy in the West Bank had \"crossed all lines - red, green, every colour\", Yazen's mother Sadiah said.\n\n\"We are living under a parallel system of justice.\"\n\nA photograph taken by Musa Aloridat's parents shows him being detained by the IDF following an early-morning raid\n\nWhen 16-year-old Osama Marmesh was detained, he was pulled off the street and into an unmarked car, he said. So for the first 48 hours of Osama's detention, his father Naif had no idea where he was. \"You call everyone you know to ask if they have seen your son,\" Naif said. \"You don't sleep.\"\n\nOsama asked repeatedly during his arrest for the charges against him, he said, but was told each time to \"shut up\".\n\nWhen 17-year-old Musa Aloridat was arrested, in a 5am raid on his family home, Israeli forces pulled apart the bedroom he shared with his two younger brothers and fired a bullet into the wardrobe, smashing the glass, he said.\n\n\"They took him away in his underwear,\" Musa's father Muhannad said, holding up a picture on his phone. \"For three days we knew nothing.\"\n\nNeither Yazen, Osama nor Musa, nor their parents or lawyers, were shown any evidence against them during their months of detention. When Israel published lists of the detainees to be released in the recent exchanges, in the column detailing the charges, against Yazen, Osama and Musa's names there was only the vague line, \"Threat to the security of the area\".\n\nAnother version of the list said Yazen and Musa were suspected of being affiliated with Palestinian militant groups. When Osama was released, he was handed a brief charge sheet which said that on two occasions, months earlier, he had thrown a stone, \"half the size of his palm\", towards Israeli security positions.\n\nOfer Prison, where Yazen and Musa were held alongside hundreds of other administrative detainees are held.\n\nMaurice Hirsch, the former director of military prosecutions, said that it would be wrong to draw any conclusions from the limited information available. \"There's a very stark difference between the openly available evidence against these terrorists and what the intelligence information carries,\" he said.\n\n\"We see administrative detention being used by the Americans in Guantanamo, so we know that this measure is internationally recognised and accepted,\" he added. \"And since this is an internationally accepted measure, why should it be only Israel that is prevented from using it, when we are dealing with probably the highest terror threat that anyone has ever seen?\"\n\nIn the end, Yazen, Osama and Musa spent between four and seven months in prison. All three said that conditions had been relatively comfortable until the Hamas attack on 7 October, when their bedsheets, blankets, extra clothes and most of their food rations were removed, and all communication with the outside world was cut off, in what they described as collective punishment for the attack.\n\nOther detainees have alleged that they were beaten, tear-gassed or had dogs set on them.\n\nThe Israeli Prison Service confirmed that it had put the prisons into emergency mode and \"reduced the living conditions of the security prisoners\" in response to the Hamas attack.\n\nOsama Marmesh at his home in the West Bank. \"All countries are standing with them, we are alone,\" he said.\n\nYazen, Osama and Musa were all released early, because the exchange for Israeli hostages prioritised women and children. But, according to the most recent numbers from the prison service, there are still 2,873 people being held under administrative detention in Israeli jails.\n\nThe day after he got home, Musa was back in his room, where he had been grabbed from his bed by the Israeli military four months earlier. The wardrobe doors, smashed by a bullet, had been taken off to be replaced, but the room had otherwise been put back together carefully by his parents. Musa had expected to be in prison much longer, he said. His lawyer had told him there was a 90% chance his detention would be extended.\n\nAll three boys said they wanted to try to finish school. But living under the constant threat of being locked up again was its own \"kind of psychological detention\", Musa said.\n\n\"They released us into a bigger prison\", Yazen said.\n\n\"There is no peace,\" Yazen's mother said, looking over at him. \"They can take you at any time.\"\n\nMuath al-Khatib contributed to this report. Photographs by Joel Gunter.", "Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson's families still do not know what happened\n\nOn 15 December 2022, a crush at Brixton Academy concert claimed two lives, and a third person remains critically ill.\n\nSocial media footage showed long queues of people, many thought to be ticketless, trying to gain entry to the sold-out gig by Afrobeats artist Asake.\n\nA year later, the victims' families feel they still don't have answers and they've had no contact with the artist.\n\nThe police and the families are calling on the public for further evidence to find out how it happened.\n\nIn the days and weeks that followed, concerns were raised over the strength of the venue's doors and staffing levels, including whether there was enough medical cover.\n\nGaby Hutchinson, 23, from Kent was a security contractor working that night.\n\nGaby's sisters, Nina and Kelsey Hutchinson, say they don't believe that Asake has done as much as he could.\n\nKelsey (left) and Nina Hutchinson have said they wished artist Asake would do more\n\nKelsey said: \"The main person who can help is Asake.\n\n\"He's not done nearly enough for the families. Maybe enough for himself.\n\n\"He's used Gaby's name in his speeches and concerts but he's not done anything to support the investigation.\n\n\"He has a voice, he can use it for good. He could come forward to his fans and ask for support with the appeals.\n\n\"These people had cameras and there are statements that they can give.\"\n\nNina added: \"Reliving everything happened a year ago, it never gets any easier. Gaby will always be the person who should be there and who is missing.\n\n\"We're living this real time and we still don't have those answers.\"\n\nRebecca's parents were not told the venue is reopening\n\nMother-of-two Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, from Stratford, east London, also died in the crush.\n\nSpeaking of Asake, Rebecca's parents, Yetunde Olodo and Anthony Ikumelo, said the musician had not reached out to them either.\n\nMr Ikumelo said: \"Asake has been back to the country twice since the incident and twice he hasn't checked in to the families to ask us how we're coping.\n\n\"Maybe he doesn't want to contact us but he should do what he thinks is right.\n\n\"It's been a year but for us it feels like last week.\n\n\"What makes it so painful is that we are still waiting for answers: we don't understand why this happened.\n\n\"Rebecca went to see her idol and never returned home.\"\n\nThe south London music venue's licence was suspended shortly after last December following heavy criticism in the aftermath of the incident.\n\nThe venue faced permanent closure after the Met Police urged the council to remove its licence.\n\nFollowing a two-day hearing in September, Lambeth Council's licensing sub-committee voted to allow the venue to continue operating - so long as it met \"77 extensive and robust new conditions\".\n\nSpeaking about the building's reopening, Mr Ikumelo, said: \"We understand that eventually it's going to open - but why can't we wait for the police investigation to finish?\n\n\"Secondly, we weren't contacted at all when they concluded that it was going to reopen.\n\n\"We don't have a say on this. But at least they could have the decency to tell us and ask how we are coping. Not doing this, I think, was wrong.\"\n\nKelsey agreed, adding: \"We understand that it is a historic building and that it needs to reopen. But they need to commemorate the people [who were] lost there.\n\n\"Gaby and Rebecca lost their lives and possibly a third person, we don't know.\"\n\nShe called for some respect to be shown towards the victims.\n\nNina said: \"They say it's 'lessons learnt'. But for us it's not a lesson. It's completely changed our lives and shredded our family.\n\n\"Maybe it should not be [the venue's owner] in [charge in] the future. Maybe it should be someone [else] or at least they should have a massive reshuffle.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the venue's owner, Academy Music Group (AMG), said a timeline for when it will reopen will be announced.\n\nDet Ch Insp Nigel Kenny from the Met Police said the investigation is continuing.\n\n\"We're still going through thousands of documents to ascertain how this happened. But we still need help from [those who] were there. Even though it's 12 months, we still need people to come forward,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the force has CCTV images of 13 people it would like contact who, the police believe, can answer questions about what they saw.\n\nThe Met Police have released images of 13 people to they think can help\n\nA spokesperson for ANG said: \"ANG continues to be devastated by the events of 15 December 2022 and our heartfelt condolences remain with the family and friends of Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson.\n\n\"What happened was and is a tragedy. Over the past year we have been driven by determination to learn all appropriate lessons from that night to ensure it can never be repeated.\n\n\"We are pleased that the comprehensive plan for reopening the venue met with the approval of Lambeth licensing sub-committee.\n\n\"AMG is working hard to implement the new conditions before welcoming fans back to O2 Academy Brixton.\n\n\"There will be an announcement for the reopening timeline in due course.\"\n\nA Lambeth Council spokesperson said: \"We stand ready to meet with the bereaved families to listen to their concerns and discuss the issues. In making its decision the licensing sub-committee was clear that its role wasn't to assign blame or punishment to individuals or other bodies for past failings. It was not to exonerate them either.\n\n\"Their decision had to focus on what, if any, appropriate measures are needed for the venue to safely re-open. They also emphasised that their decision was based solely on what was put before them at the hearing.\"\n\nAsake's representatives have been approached for comment.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "It was so good to hear his voice again, grandmother says\n\nMore now from the statement released a moment ago by Alex Batty's grandmother, who is his legal guardian. “I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found safe and well,\" says Susan Caruana, who lives in Oldham in north west England. \"I spoke with him last night and it was so good to hear his voice and see his face again. I can’t wait to see him when we’re reunited,\" she says. Caruana adds that the experience would have been overwhelming for anyone, not least a child. She issued a plea for privacy as Alex returns \"so we can make this process as comforting as possible\". \"The main thing is that he's safe,” she says.", "Leiha Shaw, with her partner Andrew, says her experience of giving birth to son Orson at Singleton Hospital made her not want to have another baby\n\nA maternity unit has failed to meet safe staffing levels for four years and had insufficient measures to stop baby abductions, a report says.\n\nA regulator highlighted \"significant patient safety concerns\" at the unit at Singleton Hospital in Swansea.\n\nOne mother told the BBC she was so traumatised by her own experience she never wanted to give birth again.\n\nSwansea Bay health board said extra staff have been recruited and it is focused on making improvements.\n\nSingleton's maternity and neonatal service was placed into enhanced monitoring by the Welsh government on Tuesday due to concerns raised by families.\n\nThe report by Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) listed a number of concerns including:\n\nLeiha Shaw describes being in a \"trauma bubble\" after her time with Swansea Bay's maternity service\n\nLeiha Shaw, 37, gave birth to Orson, now five, at the hospital, where difficulties during his birth meant he was placed in the special care baby unit for the first few weeks of his life.\n\nHer experience at its baby unit left her feeling that she did not want to have another child - until her surprise pregnancy with her now one-year-old son, Ozayiah.\n\n\"Ozayiah was the best surprise ever, but I never actually wanted to birth another child because I was so traumatised,\" said Ms Shaw, from Swansea.\n\n\"The whole pregnancy was consumed with anxiety.\n\n\"You're meant to be in the baby bubble after you had a child. I think I was just in a trauma bubble, because I was just reliving what I'd gone through previously.\"\n\nMs Shaw said the care she had from midwives when they were available was \"brilliant\", and that she hopes a recruitment drive by the health board will make a difference to other mothers.\n\nShe said of the staff: \"They're so burnt out. With Ozayiah, I went in at six-thirty in the morning and my midwife left my side at eleven o'clock in the evening and was back in at seven o'clock the next morning. How can they sustain that lifestyle?\"\n\nThe health minister has placed Singleton's maternity and neonatal services under \"enhanced monitoring\"\n\nAn inspection at Swansea's maternity service in September found unsafe staffing levels since 2019, a lack of staff sticking to mandatory training, and not enough being done to ensure babies were kept safe and secure.\n\nIt found that staff were working hard under pressure, but fewer than half of them who were surveyed said they would be happy if their own family members received the same care.\n\nThe HIW report said: \"Many staff members we spoke to told us they were exhausted and concerned about the impact of low numbers of midwifery staff on patient safety.\"\n\nOne patient told inspectors she had had good support from her midwife, but that she also had to wait more than eight hours to be taken to theatre to be stitched following a grade three tear.\n\nInspectors also raised concerns about the risk of harm posed by having the maternity unit at Singleton, while critical care, intensive care and the emergency department are based at Morriston Hospital - roughly eight miles (12.8km) away.\n\nRhys Jones says the HIW report did not only find issues related to staffing levels at the maternity ward\n\nRhys Jones, from HIW, acknowledged staffing issues have been seen on a national level, but said \"at the point of time of the inspection, the staffing levels were posing too much risk, and more acutely felt in Swansea Bay than we've seen in other inspections\".\n\nLeadership, security and infection control measures also needed addressing, he said.\n\nSwansea Bay health board said the report provided a snapshot of the service during September, and that improvements it has since made meant it is a different picture today.\n\nThe health board said that HIW has described their improvement plan as \"providing sufficient assurance\".\n\n\"Since the HIW unannounced visit on 5-7 September, we have successfully recruited 23 midwives and 14 maternity care assistants, all of whom are already making a valuable contribution to the work of the service and who have already relieved much of the pressure the service has faced over the last couple of years,\" it added.", "Eluned Morgan has confirmed she will not be standing to be the next first minister of Wales\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan has ruled herself out of the running to be Wales' next first minister.\n\nShe confirmed she will not enter the race to replace Mark Drakeford, in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.\n\nThe Mid and West Wales Member of the Senedd (MS) was third in the last Welsh Labour leadership contest in 2018.\n\nBut Education Minister Jeremy Miles secured the required number of backers to put himself forward, after Mr Drakeford said he would stand down.\n\nHannah Blythyn, deputy minister for social partnership, announced she would not run on Friday evening, and said she was backing Mr Miles.\n\nMs Morgan said she was \"humbled by the support from fellow MSs, MPs, councillors and party members\" who encouraged her to stand again.\n\nIn the health role Ms Morgan has faced major problems, including record waiting lists and the troubled Betsi Cadwaladr health board in north Wales.\n\nShe said her \"unwavering focus remains dedicated to navigating the health service through what will undoubtedly be one of the most challenging winters, exacerbated by the severe financial constraints and economic challenges brought about by the Tories' mismanagement of the economy\".\n\nShe added: \"I stand ready to support the next Labour leader in Wales to deliver a political programme that will focus on delivering social justice, growing the economy and protecting the most vulnerable in society.\"\n\nSo far only Economy Minister Vaughan Gething has officially confirmed he is running, although Mr Miles also has the required support from fellow MSs to get his name on the ballot paper to be sent to Welsh Labour Party members.\n\nThe contest was triggered after Mark Drakeford announced he would quit.\n\nMSs can join the contest if they can get the backing of five of their colleagues in the Welsh Parliament, also known as Senedd Cymru.\n\nMr Gething won eight supporters from the Labour Senedd group on Thursday.\n\nAs of Friday morning Mr Miles, who is expected to confirm his candidacy in the coming days, has the required five.\n\nJeremy Miles, like Vaughan Gething, has long been seen as a potential future Welsh Labour leader\n\nMinisters Julie James and Lesley Griffiths declared their support for Mr Miles on Thursday, while Rhondda MS Buffy Williams, Ogmore MS Huw Irranca Davies and Senedd deputy presiding officer David Rees announced they were backing him overnight.\n\nMs Williams said: \"We need to be grown-ups, we need to work together, we need to build on the relationships we have already developed with opposition parties to make it through this difficult time.\n\n\"For me, this can only be achieved with Jeremy Miles as our first minister.\"\n\nMr Miles' campaign has also been backed by the former Welsh Secretary Lord Hain.\n\nMr Miles, 52, has been education minister since May 2021.\n\nBorn and brought up in Pontarddulais, he studied law in Oxford and worked in legal and commercial jobs in media organisations including ITV and NBC Universal.\n\nHe was elected to the Senedd in 2016 as Neath MS.\n\nA Welsh Labour committee will agree the timetable for the election on Friday.\n\nMr Drakeford plans to resign in March, with a new first minister set to be in place before the Senedd's Easter recess.", "Halliwell was the second longest-serving cast member of Emmerdale\n\nActor Steve Halliwell, known for his long-running role as Zak Dingle in Emmerdale, has died at the age of 77.\n\nHe first made his appearance on the ITV soap in October 1994 and remained in the show for 29 years.\n\nIn a statement, his family said he had passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones.\n\n\"He was making us laugh to the end, the most amazing father and grandfather you could ever wish for,\" they said.\n\nJames Hooton, who has played Halliwell's on-screen son Sam Dingle since 1995, led the tributes to the late actor, calling him a \"soap icon\".\n\n\"Steve Halliwell was the first person I met when I walked through the door into the Emmerdale studios and we remained friends until the end,\" he wrote on social media.\n\nFellow Emmerdale star Danny Miller, who plays Aaron Dingle, shared a photo of him with Halliwell on Instagram and wrote: \"From day one he took me under his wing and helped guide me on and off set.\"\n\nHe added: \"We'll miss you mate. On and off set. Rest well Steve and leave one in the pump for me.\"\n\nITV drama executive John Whiston said the actor was \"one of those rare human beings who was as wonderful off screen as on\", and was the \"undoubted father of the show, but also its fun mischievous uncle\".\n\nHalliwell was born in Lancashire and worked in cotton and paper mills before retraining as an actor.\n\nBetween the 1970s and 90s, he appeared in television series including Here I Stand, Heartbeat and Coronation Street, before joining Emmerdale.\n\nKnown for his flat cap, wellies and wax jacket attire, he played the head of the Dingle household and became the Yorkshire-based soap's the second longest-serving cast member.\n\nHis character was involved in a number of dramatic storylines, including divorcing his first wife Nellie (played by Sandra Gough) and later marrying Lisa (Jane Cox) before having an affair and marrying Joanie Wright (Denise Black).\n\nThe actor said the turbulent storylines were not too far from his own personal life, having had issues with alcohol and his mental health.\n\nHe told the Mirror in 2014: \"I was born to play Zak Dingle - the cap really does fit. Most of the storylines I've lived in real life. I've been broke, evicted, in trouble with the law.\n\n\"Then there's depression, drinking and having to fight your way out of situations. I've lived all those things and more.\n\n\"I can't blame anyone else. I pressed the self-destruct button.\"\n\nHe also described himself as a \"functioning alcoholic\" because he could work and live his life but admitted he was \"too reliant on drink\".\n\nIn 2018, Halliwell left the show for five months to have a pacemaker fitted after being diagnosed with a serious heart condition.\n\nHis family paid tribute to staff at St James's Hospital in Leeds and Wheatfield Hospice for \"their love and kindness in his final days\".", "Dr Ranj, who has also appeared as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, left This Morning in 2021\n\nTV personality Dr Ranj Singh has said the culture on This Morning \"wasn't good for people's mental health\".\n\nThe ITV daytime programme has had a tumultuous year after losing both of its presenters - Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.\n\nDr Ranj left the show in 2021 and later said the \"culture at This Morning had become toxic\".\n\nITV's chief executive has previously said she \"did not recognise\" claims of a toxic culture on the programme.\n\nSchofield left the series in May following reports of a rift with Willoughby. A week after his exit, he admitted having an affair with a younger colleague.\n\nWilloughby returned to the show, but left in October. The programme is currently being hosted by guest presenters.\n\nWilloughby and Schofield have both left the ITV daytime programme this year\n\nAt the time of Schofield's affair, which dominated the headlines, some former staff including Dr Ranj raised wider concerns about a toxic work environment they claimed to have experienced on the show.\n\nSpeaking in a new BBC iPlayer documentary about imposter syndrome, Dr Ranj said while working on This Morning he \"really invested myself into it\".\n\n\"Some days [I had] done a night shift and gone straight into the studio and done something because I loved it so much,\" he said.\n\n\"And then I was doing stuff behind the scenes as well because I felt passionately about so many of the values that we were doing across the channel - diversity and pride stuff, you know, anti-bullying stuff.\"\n\nBut Dr Ranj left the show two years ago. \"When it went away it was really painful,\" he said.\n\nHe's a TV personality and a kids doctor - but Dr Ranj has always had imposter syndrome.\n\n\"When you lose something you really care about, you grieve for it, right? So I think there's always going to be that sense of grief there for a while.\n\n\"For me, it was the culture that had developed, in many ways about the way people were being treated and being made to feel, and it wasn't good for people's mental health.\"\n\n\"And, you know, I was a mental health ambassador, anti-bullying ambassador on this channel, whose job it is to look after people. It's my job to say something and say, 'Look, things aren't quite right and now we need to do something about this.'\"\n\nAsked if he had spoken to Schofield or Willoughby, he said: \"Not for a long time, we wouldn't really have that kind of relationship.\"\n\nITV has been contacted for comment about Dr Ranj's latest remarks.\n\nSpeaking in June in response to claims of a \"toxic\" workplace, chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall said \"we do not recognise that\" in the programme, adding the \"vast majority\" of people working there are \"extremely engaged and very motivated\".\n\nDame Carolyn told a House of Commons committee that when Dr Ranj complained, she \"asked for internal investigation\", which happened and \"was not able to be upheld\".\n\nMeanwhile on Friday, the Sun newspaper reported that Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley are set to be hired as Schofield and Willoughby's permanent replacements. ITV described that as \"speculation\".", "There are no more state-sponsored women's shelters in Afghanistan\n\nThe Taliban government in Afghanistan is putting women abuse survivors in prison and claiming it is for their protection, according to a UN report.\n\nThe UN said the practice harms the survivors' mental and physical health.\n\nThere are also no more state-sponsored women's shelters as the Taliban government sees no need for such centres, the report noted.\n\nThe Taliban's suppression of women's rights in Afghanistan is one of the harshest in the world.\n\nThe United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan's (UNAMA) said that gender-based violence against Afghan women and girls was known to be high even before the Taliban took over Afghanistan.\n\nBut since then, such incidents have become even more common, given the impact of economic, financial and humanitarian crises which have afflicted the country, UNAMA said. Women have also been increasingly confined to their homes, which heightens their vulnerability to domestic and intimate partner violence.\n\nBefore the Taliban retook power in 2021, there were 23 state-sponsored women's protection centres or shelters in Afghanistan, according to UNAMA, but these have since vanished.\n\nTaliban officials told UNAMA there was no need for the shelters as the women must be with their husbands or male family members. One said such shelters were \"a western concept\".\n\nThe officials said they would ask for male members of the family to make a \"commitment\" to not harm the woman survivor.\n\nIn instances where she had no male relatives to stay with, or where there were safety concerns, the survivor would be sent to prison \"for her protection\". This would be similar to how some drug addicts and homeless people are housed in the capital Kabul, noted UNAMA.\n\nBut UNAMA said this \"would amount to an arbitrary deprivation of liberty\".\n\n\"Confining women who are already in a situation of vulnerability in a punitive environment would also likely have a negative impact on their mental and physical health, re-victimisation and put them at risk of discrimination and stigmatisation upon released.\"\n\nUNAMA also noted that for a one-year period from 15 August 2021, the Taliban administration's handling of gender-based violence complaints was \"unclear and inconsistent\".\n\nFor example, there is no clear distinction between criminal and civil complaints, which does not ensure effective legal protection for women and girls.\n\nThe complaints are mostly handled by male personnel, and UNAMA noted that the absence of women personnel \"discourages and inhibits survivors from lodging complaints\".\n\nSurvivors are now no longer guaranteed redress for their complaints, including civil remedies and compensation. They are reportedly more afraid of the Taliban government and their arbitrary actions and thus choose not to seek formal justice, said UNAMA.\n\nWhile there were efforts to advance women's rights between 2001 and 2021 - including law and policy reforms - these have \"all but disappeared\".\n\nSince retaking power in 2021, the Taliban government have all but broken their earlier promises to give women the right to work and study.\n\nGirls in Afghanistan are only allowed to attend primary school. Teenage girls and women have also been barred from entering school and university classrooms.\n\nThey are not allowed in parks, gyms and pools. Beauty salons have been shut, while women must dress in a way that only reveals their eyes. They must be accompanied by a male relative if they are travelling more than 72km (45 miles).", "Hungary has blocked €50bn ($55bn; £43bn) in EU aid for Ukraine - just hours after an agreement was reached on starting membership talks.\n\n\"Summary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine,\" Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said after Thursday's talks in Brussels.\n\nEU leaders said Ukraine would not be left without support.\n\nUkraine is critically dependent on EU and US funding as it continues to fight occupying Russian forces.\n\nMr Orban announced his block shortly after the EU leaders decided to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant candidate status to Georgia.\n\nHungary - which maintains close ties with Russia - has long opposed membership for Ukraine but did not veto that move.\n\nMr Orban left the negotiating room momentarily in what officials described as a pre-agreed and constructive manner, while the other 26 leaders went ahead with the vote.\n\nHe told Hungarian state radio on Friday that he had fought for eight hours to stop his EU partners but could not convince them. Ukraine's path to EU membership would be a long process anyway, he said, and parliament in Budapest could still stop it happening if it wanted to.\n\nTalks on the financial package ended in the early hours of Friday. EU leaders said negotiations would resume early next year, reassuring Kyiv that support would continue.\n\nSpeaking later that day, European Council President Charles Michel said he was \"confident and optimistic\" the EU would fulfil its promise to support Ukraine.\n\nBelgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo echoed him: \"The message to Ukraine is: we will be there to support you, we just need to figure out a few of the details together.\"\n\nMr Michel had earlier confirmed that all but one EU leader had agreed on the aid package and wider budget proposals for the bloc - although Sweden still needed to consult its parliament. He vowed to achieve the necessary unanimity for the deal.\n\nA long delay in financial aid for the country would cause big problems for Ukraine's budget, Kyiv-based economist Sergiy Fursa told the BBC.\n\n\"It pays for all social responsibilities of the government - wages for teachers, doctors, for pensions,\" he said.\n\nUkraine is also desperately seeking the approval of a $61bn US defence aid package - but that decision is also being delayed because of major disagreements between Democrat and Republican lawmakers.\n\nUkraine's counter-offensive against Russia's occupying forces ground to a halt at the start of winter, and there are fears that the Russians could simply outgun Ukraine.\n\nOlena Zelenska, Ukraine's first lady, warned in a BBC interview last week that Ukrainians were in \"mortal danger\" of being left to die without further Western support.\n\nOn Thursday, President Putin mocked Ukraine and claimed Western \"freebies\" were running out.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Zelensky had an animated chat with Orban this week in Argentina\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was delighted by the EU's announcement on the membership. \"This is a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe. A victory that motivates, inspires and strengthens,\" he said.\n\nUkrainian politician Kira Rudik added that \"we were really elated\" following the news about EU membership talks, but she said the feeling was now \"bittersweet\" because of the funding being blocked. \"It is impossible to have a European future without winning the war,\" she told the BBC.\n\nEarlier this week, a senior Ukrainian official told the BBC that EU membership talks were more important that the €50bn because of the message it sends to both the Ukrainian people and Vladimir Putin.\n\nUkraine and neighbouring Moldova applied to join the EU after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They were both given candidate status last June, while Georgia was passed over at the time.\n\nMoldovan President Maia Sandu said it was an honour to share the path to EU accession with Ukraine. \"We wouldn't be here today without Ukraine's brave resistance against Russia's brutal invasion,\" she wrote.\n\nShe also told the BBC that Moldova's ability to \"stay part of the free world\" depended on it being part of the EU.\n\nGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz praised his fellow leaders for showing a \"strong sign of support\", adding that it was clear that both Ukraine and Moldova belonged to \"the European family\".\n\nA diplomat at the summit said it was Mr Scholz's idea for Mr Orban to leave the room to enable the vote to go through.\n\nThe Hungarian leader later distanced himself from his colleagues with a video message on Facebook: \"EU membership of Ukraine is a bad decision. Hungary does not want to participate in this bad decision.\"\n\nMr Orban has also argued that Ukraine should not get large funds from the EU as it is not part of the bloc.\n\nTalks on joining the EU can take years, so Thursday's decision will not guarantee Ukraine membership.\n\nEU candidate countries have to pass a series of reforms to adhere to standards ranging from the rule of law to the economy, although the EU's executive has already praised Ukraine for completing more than 90% of the steps taken so far on justice and tackling corruption.\n\nThere are also other countries, aside from Hungary, who are sceptical about expanding the EU beyond the current 27.\n\nAnd talk of expansion often comes alongside airy proposals for root-and-branch reform of a bloc that's often unwieldy on far less fundamental issues.\n\nBut it's still a boost for morale and comes just in time as Ukraine heads into a second winter following Russia's full-scale invasion, and as the world's attention is drawn elsewhere by war in the Middle East.", "A woman abused by Jimmy Savile has said new laws in Northern Ireland offer a potential \"protection\" for sexual offenders and risk silencing survivors.\n\nThe law stops the publication of claims against alleged perpetrators until 25 years after they die, unless they have been convicted or charged during their lifetime.\n\nSavile was investigated by detectives across the UK but was never charged.\n\nSamantha Brown was abused by Savile from the age of 11.\n\nShe said some survivors were too afraid to speak out while their abusers were still alive and there was a chance they could lose that opportunity after their death.\n\n\"I think it's a complete protection clause,\" she told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.\n\n\"These people who abuse children, young people and vulnerable people - they don't just do this to one person.\n\n\"They do it to multiple people and let's be fair how much of this gets to court anyway?\n\n\"You can't silence people…you'd be in silence for 25 years.\"\n\nIt is now widely accepted that Savile used his celebrity status to prey on hundreds of people, many of them children.\n\nIt was only after the DJ and television presenter's death that his crimes were made public.\n\nSavile was the subject of investigations by a number of different police forces and some were subsequently criticised for their handling of those complaints.\n\nThe new legislation - which was introduced by officials at Stormont after a review of sexual offences - only applies to crimes allegedly committed in Northern Ireland.\n\nSavile died in 2011 and because the new laws also apply retrospectively he would be entitled to anonymity until 2036 if any allegations had been made against him within the jurisdiction.\n\nOfficials in Stormont's Department of Justice were unable to tell us if we could legally report whether or not he had been investigated by police in Northern Ireland.\n\nThey refused to respond directly to a number of questions from BBC News NI.\n\nInstead the department issued a statement which said: \"A notice of intended legal proceedings has been received with regard to this matter.\n\n\"Accordingly, at this time it would not be appropriate for the department to comment on the issue.\"\n\nThe review of offences which led to the new legislation was led by retired judge Sir John Gillen.\n\nThe Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Act Northern Ireland 2022 is a wide-ranging bill which contains a series of changes to the law.\n\nSir John did recommend providing anonymity for alleged offenders before they were charged.\n\nHowever he never suggested extending that beyond their death.\n\n\"My heart bleeds for somebody who has been [falsely] accused of a heinous crime,\" said Ms Brown.\n\n\"I'm so sorry for you but I'm also sorry for the multitude of people that aren't believed, [the case] hasn't gone to court and it's wrecked their lives.\n\n\"What is the meaning for the 25 years?\"\n\nIt is not clear who introduced the part of the legislation that extends the protection for more than two decades after an alleged offenders death and Stormont's Department of Justice was unable to tell us.\n\nSir John Gillen refused a request to be interviewed saying he believed it was \"inappropriate\" given the pending legal proceedings.\n\nAlliance Party leader Naomi Long was justice minister when the bill was introduced and a spokesperson for her party pointed out there were ways of challenging the right to anonymity.\n\n\"This legislation explicitly allows for anyone wishing to publish material relating to a suspect after their death to apply to the court to do so, and we would encourage any journalist or publisher to avail of this provision where publication is in the public interest,\" they said.\n\n\"If the party held the justice ministry again in any restored executive, we would of course be open to reviewing the impact and any concerns about unintended consequences raised in relation to this or any other piece of legislation, as is good practice.\"\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, help and advice is available at BBC Action Line.", "A major incident was declared as emergency services tackled the blaze at Treforest Industrial Estate\n\nAn MP is calling for sharing of distressing incidents on social media to be banned following a \"difficult week\" in her area.\n\nA body has been found after an explosion and fire at Treforest Industrial Estate, Rhondda Cynon Taf.\n\nIt comes after three teenagers died in a car and bus crash in Coedely.\n\nAlex Davies-Jones, MP for Pontypridd, said not all \"horrendous\" content had been promptly removed by social media platforms.\n\nShe described social media posts \"with really, really graphic footage\" of scenes and victims being shared.\n\nMs Davies-Jones added: \"Everyone is already grieving and distressed, and this is inflaming tensions in the community.\"\n\nShe said she had raised her concerns with the police.\n\nSpeaking in the House of Commons on Thursday, she urged UK ministers \"to close the gaps\" in online safety.\n\nThe UK government said social media companies must take their responsibilities seriously.\n\nPontypridd MP Alex Davies-Jones says it's been a \"difficult week\" for her constituency\n\nA major incident was declared for several hours on Wednesday as firefighters worked to tackle the two-storey building blaze in Treforest.\n\nOne crew remains at the scene on Friday as the fire service works on three hotspots.\n\nPolice have appealed for anyone with CCTV, doorbell or dashcam footage to contact them.\n\nMeanwhile, tributes have poured in throughout the week for crash victims Callum Griffiths, 19, and Jesse Owen and Morgan Smith, both 18, and two others are in hospital with life-threatening injuries.\n\nMs Davies-Jones said: \"This awful news has hit our close-knit community very hard and all our thoughts are with [their] loved ones at this very difficult time, as well as all those still recovering.\"\n\nShe added: \"Sadly, in the wake of these accidents, distressing footage from both scenes and malicious, cruel posts about the victims have been uploaded to social media.\"\n\nThe MP requested a meeting with UK ministers to discuss a \"way forward\" to \"close the gaps\" in online safety.\n\nCommons Leader Penny Mordaunt MP replied: \"I am sure that I speak for all of us when I say how sorry we are and how much our thoughts are with all those who have been affected by these appalling tragedies in the honourable lady's constituency.\n\n\"It is terrible when one terrible thing happens, and I know it rocks a whole community, but to have two such terrible events take place together is truly shocking.\"\n\nTributes have been paid to Morgan Smith, Jesse Owen, and Callum Griffiths\n\nMs Mordaunt said she would be \"very happy to meet… to discuss what more can be done\".\n\n\"I take a personal interest in ensuring that social media companies take their responsibilities very seriously,\" she said.\n\nA Snapchat spokesperson said: \"These incidents are tragic and our hearts go out to the families and friends of those impacted by these events.\n\n\"There is no place for harmful content on Snapchat. If we find this content we remove it straight away and we encourage anyone who sees it to report it to us immediately using our in-app tools so we can take action.\"\n\nFacebook has also been approached for comment.", "A two-story building on Treforest Industrial Estate was devastated by the explosion and fire\n\nA barber whose shop and tools were destroyed in a deadly blaze has been \"overwhelmed by the kindness and support\" of the local community, he said.\n\nOne person was found dead following an explosion and fire on Treforest Industrial Estate in Rhondda Cynon Taf on Wednesday night.\n\nAt least one building was destroyed and a major incident was declared.\n\nBarber Andrew Cox posted on Facebook that his business was unsalvageable.\n\n\"Firstly myself and my family would like to send condolences to everyone who knew the lady who horrifically lost her life last night in the explosion,\" he said.\n\n\"Words cannot describe how sorry we are, and we send our thoughts to her family.\"\n\nA body was found following the blast and fire on Treforest Industrial Estate\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by Andrew Cox Barbering This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nMr Cox said he had had \"hope of my barber shop or my barbering tools etc being somewhat salvageable\", but \"the whole room has gone including everything in it\".\n\nHe added that after being inundated with messages of support, he was grateful to \"local barbers and hairdressers in the area who have offered a chair for me to work from\".\n\nMindset Gym was another business affected by the blaze.\n\nIt posted on Facebook: \"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the lady's family and community after such a tragic accident.\n\n\"Mindset has a very strong veteran community and one thing we do really well at Mindset is make sure that those who pay the ultimate sacrifice are never forgotten and are always remembered.\n\n\"Mindset will do everything to show support to the lady's family and keep her legacy alive.\"\n\nA major incident was declared as firefighters worked to tackle the two-storey building blaze.\n\nOne crew remains at the scene on Friday as the fire service works on three hotspots.\n\nFloral tributes were left at the site on Friday, and one, from Eventclean, reads: \"We are so sad to find out.\"\n\nFlowers left at the scene of the explosion and fire on the Treforest Industrial Estate\n\nPolice have appealed for anyone with CCTV, doorbell or dashcam footage to contact them.\n\nPontypridd MP Alex Davies-Jones reiterated her call to prevent the sharing of distressing images and speculation on social media.\n\n\"This week has been incredibly challenging for our community, but we all have a role to play in looking after each other during this very difficult time,\" she said.\n\n\"I kindly ask residents to be considerate to the victims of the terrible tragedies residents have endured this week, and avoid speculating on ongoing investigations out of respect for the families and loved ones who are grieving.\n\n\"Social media can be a difficult place sometimes - remember it's okay to take a break if it's affecting your wellbeing.\"", "Left to right: Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka\n\nThe Israeli military says it has mistakenly killed three hostages during its campaign in Gaza after they were mis-identified as a \"threat\".\n\nThey were named as Yotam Haim, 28, Samer Talalka, 22, and Alon Shamriz, 26.\n\nThe military shared its remorse and said the three were shot by troops operating in Shejaiya, in Gaza's north.\n\nMore than 100 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza after being captured in the 7 October attacks on Israel.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Friday's incident was under investigation, and that it \"expresses deep remorse over the tragic incident and sends the families its heartfelt condolences\".\n\n\"Our national mission is to locate the missing and return all the hostages home,\" it added.\n\nHundreds of people gathered in central Tel Aviv following the announcement and marched to an IDF military base in the city, calling on the government to secure a deal for the release of the remaining hostages.\n\nDemonstrators held candles and carried placards that read \"Bring [them] home\" and \"Hostage exchange now!\"\n\nThe bodies of the three men have been returned to Israeli territory, where checks confirmed their identities.\n\nYotam Haim, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on 7 October, was a musician who loved animals and cooking Italian food.\n\nOn the morning of the Hamas attack, he called his family and told them that his house was on fire. When he opened the window for some fresh air, Yotam was kidnapped by Hamas.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC before her son's death, his mother said they had messaged each other as they hid in their home shelters - before their connection was lost.\n\nAlon Shamriz was also at Kfar Aza at the time of the attack. His family gave permission for him to be named after asking earlier that his identity not be revealed.\n\nSamer Talalka, a Bedouin, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Am. An avid motorcycle enthusiast, he loved to travel in the countryside and spend time with friends.\n\nHe lived in the town of Hura and worked at a chicken hatchery in the kibbutz. On the morning of 7 October, he was at work. He called his sister after the attack to tell her that he had been injured by gunfire.\n\nHis father told local media they lost touch at 07:00 local time on the morning of the attacks. A photograph of him being led through Gaza was shared on Telegram.\n\nHundreds of people marched through central Tel Aviv on Friday calling on the Israeli government to secure the release of the remaining hostages\n\n\"Even on this difficult evening, we will bind up our wounds, learn the lessons and continue with a supreme effort to return all our abductees home safely,\" he said.\n\nWhite House spokesperson John Kirby said the killings were a \"tragic mistake,\" and that the US did not have \"perfect visibility on exactly how this operation unfolded\".\n\nMore than 100 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza after being captured on 7 October when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages - some of whom were released during a brief truce.\n\nThe Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 18,800 people have been killed and 50,000 injured in the enclave so far in the war that followed.\n\nHen Avigdori, whose wife and daughter were among the released, said he often heard people say hostages could be rescued \"by military means.\"\n\nBut \"there is no military way\" that would bring them back safely, he wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.\n\n\"The conclusion for every person who has both heart and mind is the same: Israel must initiate a deal to bring them back alive and not in coffins.\"", "Children queuing to receive food in Rafah, near the Gaza border with Egypt\n\nBritish-Palestinian families have urged the government to create a visa scheme for stranded relatives in Gaza.\n\nA letter, sent to Foreign Secretary David Cameron on behalf of 80 families, calls for a scheme similar to the Ukraine Family Scheme visa.\n\nA petition on Parliament's website calling for a new visa scheme also has more than 22,700 signatures.\n\nThe government said it was \"working around the clock\" to get those \"who want to leave\" out of Gaza.\n\nMore than 270 British nationals and their dependants have left Gaza so far, it added in a statement to the BBC.\n\nBritish nationals currently need to apply for visas for their spouses, partners and children who are in Gaza through the existing family visa route, before they come to the UK. British children under the age of 18 can also sponsor their parents for a visa.\n\nThis visa route carries fees - someone outside the UK wanting to join their British spouse, for example, generally needs to pay £1,840. There is also a health surcharge to pay on top of that, which is at least £1,560 for adults.\n\nRelatives such as siblings, parents of adult children and extended family, are not eligible in most cases.\n\nThe Ukraine Family Scheme was set up in March 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to allow people fleeing the war in Ukraine to move to the UK to join family members. This can be either an immediate or extended family member, including a parent of an adult child.\n\nIt is free to apply to the Ukraine Family Scheme, and additional fees such as the health surcharge are waived. About 71,400 visas have been issued under the scheme so far.\n\nThe letter, co-written and signed by British citizens and residents with family members in Gaza, calls for an equivalent scheme to be set up for Palestinians.\n\n\"While acknowledging the complexities of each conflict, it is disheartening for us, as British citizens and UK residents, to witness the disparity in our government response,\" it said.\n\nNot having a specific visa scheme for Palestinians, the letter said, \"stands in stark contrast to the swift and supportive actions taken in similar circumstances, such as in the Ukrainian conflict\".\n\nPalestinians in the UK \"are currently feeling a profound sense of abandonment and neglect\" as a result, it said.\n\nOne of the people who signed the letter, Ibrahim Assaliya, told BBC News that his 71-year-old mother is trapped alone in Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza.\n\nIbrahim Assaliya and his mother, who is stranded in Gaza\n\n\"It's a horrible situation,\" he said. \"The shelling and bombardment... she's been asked two times to leave her house to go to another place. But she can't do it, because she's disabled.\"\n\nHe added that \"it's miserable there - there's no food, no water. They're starving\".\n\nDr Assaliya, his wife and five children - all British nationals - were visiting his mother in Gaza when the war broke out.\n\nThey were eventually able to evacuate through the Rafah crossing last month, but this meant leaving Dr Assaliya's mother behind.\n\nIn a statement sent to the BBC, the government said: \"We are working at pace to support British families who have crossed the border into Egypt, making sure any dependants who need a visa can apply for one and that appropriate checks are carried out in a timely manner.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA rush hour collision between two subway trains in Beijing has left 102 people with broken bones, Chinese state media reported.\n\nMore than 500 people were sent to hospital after the incident, which occurred at about 19:00 local time (11:00 GMT) on Thursday.\n\nThe trains collided during heavy snowfall while going downhill on the Changping subway line.\n\nAs of Friday morning, 423 people have been discharged from hospital.\n\nWhile such accidents are not common on the Chinese capital's transport network, snowstorms reportedly led to slippery tracks.\n\nThis then caused a \"signal degradation\" which led the first train to brake suddenly, China Daily reported, citing Beijing transport authorities.\n\nThe following train was unable to brake in time while coming down the icy tracks, causing it to slam into the rear of the first train.\n\nThe impact caused the last two carriages of one of the trains to detach. It is unclear which train was decoupled.\n\nView of the tracks from one of the carriages that broke away from the train\n\nImages and footage posted online show commuters crowded in carriages, left in the dark due to power cuts. A few were seen using emergency hammers to smash out windows for some fresh air.\n\nIn a clip posted on Chinese social media network Weibo, a woman who appears to have fainted is seen lying across several train seats.\n\nSixty-seven people remain in hospital for treatment, while 25 are \"under observation\", reports said. There were no deaths.\n\nThe incident sparked furious comments from Chinese netizens. Some were shocked by the number of injuries, while others lamented the inconvenience caused by the collision.\n\n\"Does Beijing Subway have no maintenance staff? No routine inspection?... Are we taking the lives of hundreds of people too lightly,\" wrote a Weibo user. Beijing Subway, owned by the municipal government, operates the 27 subway and rail lines that run through the city.\n\nBeijing Subway apologised for the incident, adding that the company will cover the medical bills of those injured.\n\nGiven the current \"extreme weather\", the operator has also instructed that trains traveling above ground be driven in manual mode and for intervals between trains to be widened. The section of the subway line affected by the incident - spanning three stations - was closed on Friday.\n\nRoad, rail and air transport have all been disrupted by snowfall in Beijing.\n\nTemperatures are expected to plummet across northern China in the coming days.\n\nMeteorological authorities warned that temperatures will fall by 8C to 12C in most parts of the country from Thursday through Sunday. This means the temperature in Beijing could dip below -20C over the weekend.\n\nIn some cities, authorities have shut schools and suspended train services.\n\nPictures and videos online show commuters crowded in the carriages, left in the dark due to power cuts", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA friend of missing woman Gaynor Lord said she \"feels terrible\" after cutting short a phone call from her on the last day she was seen.\n\nThe mother-of-three was reported missing in Norwich on Friday after failing to return home from work.\n\nPolice officers and specialist dive teams are continuing to search a river and park in the city.\n\nJulie Butcher said her friend seemed \"fine\" when they last met on Tuesday.\n\nPolice, who have released new CCTV footage of Ms Lord, say there is a \"high probability\" that the 55-year-old went into the River Wensum.\n\nMs Butcher, who spoke to officers on Saturday, also received a \"pocket call\" from Ms Lord on Friday where she could just hear movement.\n\nPolice say specialist officers are working with Ms Lord's family\n\nShe received the first call from her friend at 14:15 GMT on Friday but had to cut it short to speak to a client.\n\n\"I said 'I'm at home' and I explained I was sorting out the internet and my phone rang and it was one of my clients and I had to speak to them,\" she said.\n\n\"I said I would call her back and she said 'yes'.\"\n\nAbout seven or eight minutes later, she called Ms Lord but could not get through.\n\nMs Butcher tried again and got through to voicemail before also sending a WhatsApp message to her friend to say she was free.\n\n\"I think she was still at work when she called me, I don't know but maybe that's why she couldn't answer,\" she said.\n\nShe received another call from Ms Lord at 16:15 but it \"sounded like a pocket call - I could hear movement in her pocket\".\n\nJulie Butcher said Ms Lord did not pick up the phone when she rang back\n\nMs Butcher said: \"I keep going over the conversation. If I hadn't answered that call [from the client] would she have talked to me? I feel terrible. I feel so sorry for the family.\"\n\nShe said Ms Lord seemed \"fine\" when they last met on Tuesday at her workplace, Jarrolds department store in Norwich.\n\nShe said: \"We were talking. She was a bit busy but we were talking about Christmas and she seemed fine, no different to the usual Gaynor. She was quite upbeat and happy.\n\nPolice have been outlining the \"extraordinarily challenging\" conditions faced by specialist divers searching the river.\n\nCh Supt Dave Buckley, from Norfolk Police, said: \"Visibility is between zero and 1ft (0.3m) with temperatures as low as 4C (39F).\n\n\"So it's slow and methodical at the moment.\n\n\"Then there's obviously leaves, branches, debris, and the flow of the river to contend with, which is the biggest problem because there's been so much rainfall.\n\n\"Everything we know is pointing to a high probability that Gaynor went into the water.\"\n\nHis conclusion came from CCTV and the \"very limited witnesses\" they have available, along with details about her behaviour in the lead-up to her disappearance.\n\nBut while that remained the working hypothesis, officers were exploring other lines as well, he added.\n\nAs well as coping with low visibility and debris, the specialist divers are also swimming against the flow of the river\n\nNorfolk Fire and Rescue has been helping the search, assisted by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service's specialist under water drone.\n\nThree types of sonar - a technique that uses sound to detect objects - have been used.\n\nCh Supt Buckley said this \"quite detailed\" approach allowed divers to target where they think there might be objects.\n\nHe confirmed it was still a missing person inquiry and that 30 people had come forward with information.\n\n\"People are very shocked. No-one knows why she has done [this] or what she has done and we'll have to work to see if we can find out,\" said Supt Buckley.\n\nSome of Ms Lord's behaviour had been \"out of character\" and specialist officers were supporting her friends and family, the force added.\n\nThe investigation team has also spoken to colleagues from Lancashire Constabulary about their investigation into Nicola Bulley's disappearance earlier this year.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Perry was a fan favourite as Chandler Bing in Friends\n\nActor Matthew Perry's death was an accident caused by the \"acute effects of ketamine\", medical officials in Los Angeles have confirmed.\n\nThe star was found unresponsive in the pool of his LA home in October, but a post-mortem examination was inconclusive at the time.\n\nDrowning was listed as a contributing factor in his death.\n\nHe was best known for playing the wise-cracking Chandler Bing in the sitcom Friends.\n\nThe show followed six young friends living in New York City and aired from 1994 until 2004. Its finale was watched by 52.5 million in the US, making it the most watched TV episode of the 2000s.\n\nAt the height of his fame, Perry was battling with addiction to painkillers and alcohol, and attended rehabilitation clinics on multiple occasions.\n\nIn 2016, he told BBC Radio 2 that he could not remember three years of filming during Friends, because of drink and drugs.\n\nAfter attempts at treatment, he wrote in his memoir that he had been mostly sober since 2001 - \"save for about 60 or 70 mishaps\".\n\nOther contributing causes of the 54-year-old's death were given as coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid use disorder, the LA County medical examiner said in a statement.\n\n\"At the high levels of ketamine found in his post-mortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression,\" senior deputy medical examiner Raffi Djabourian wrote, according to the Press Association.\n\n\"Drowning contributes due to the likelihood of submersion into the pool as he lapsed into unconsciousness; coronary artery disease contributes due to exacerbation of ketamine induced myocardial effects on the heart.\"\n\nHe was found unresponsive at his home on 28 October, and paramedics pronounced his death when they were called to the scene.\n\nA day later, the medical examiner's office updated its file to say his case had been deferred, which usually means that the post-mortem is complete but more detail is needed.\n\nHis fellow Friends actors paid tribute to Perry in the weeks following his death, with actress Jennifer Anniston - who played Rachel in the sitcom - writing that \"having to say goodbye to our Matty has been an insane wave of emotions that I've never experienced before\".\n\nDavid Schwimmer, who played Ross, thanked Perry \"for 10 incredible years of laughter and creativity\".\n\nHe was laid to rest at an LA cemetery following a private funeral, US media reported in November.\n\nFilms he starred in included crime caper The Whole Nine Yards and sequel The Whole Ten Yards with his friend Bruce Willis. He played the lead in romantic comedy Fools Rush In with Salma Hayek, and he played the older Zac Efron in 17 Again.\n\nIn 2016, he also wrote a play called The End of Longing - which the Times noted \"explores his characters' search for love and commitment and the damage that can be wrought when those things continue to be absent from life\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Matthew Perry appeared on Newsnight in 2013 to debate addiction", "TV sports quiz show Question of Sport has been shelved after more than 50 years on air, the BBC has confirmed.\n\nThe corporation said production on the show had stopped, and that \"difficult decisions\" had been necessary.\n\nBut a BBC spokesman insisted it was \"not the final whistle\" and the programme could come back in the future.\n\nThe first episode of the BBC One programme was broadcast in 1970, presented by David Vine.\n\nQuestion of Sport was not on screens for two years in the 1970s but has remained in continuous production since 1978.\n\nIt was one of the most popular shows in the 1980s when David Coleman was the host - with Princess Anne's appearance as one of the guests in 1987 attracting its highest-ever viewing figures of 19 million.\n\nFormer tennis player Sue Barker took over in 1997 and spent 24 years as host, before being replaced by actor Paddy McGuinness in 2021.\n\nSue Barker - seen here with team captains Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell - stood down as host in 2020\n\nQuestion of Sport also underwent a revamp, with non-sporting celebrities being invited to appear as guests.\n\nThe most recent team captains were GB hockey star Sam Quek and former England rugby union international Ugo Monye.\n\nFormer team captains include rugby union players Matt Dawson and Sir Bill Beaumont, cricketers Ian Botham and Phil Tufnell, and ex-footballers Ally McCoist and Emlyn Hughes.\n\nThe BBC said that \"due to inflation and funding challenges, difficult decisions have to be made, therefore Question of Sport is currently not in production at the moment\".\n\nIt is understood the decision to cease production was connected to falling viewing figures and low audiences on iPlayer.\n\nAudience numbers dropped below one million last year, having regularly hit four to five million under Barker.\n\nReacting to the news, Sir Bill, who was a captain on the show for 14 years, said: \"I still enjoy the programme. I think it's a pity it's finishing now, it is sad because it's the end of an era.\n\n\"It's amazing how many come up to me now when I'm going through railway stations and things like that and [say] 'I use to watch it with my dad'.\"\n\nPaddy McGuinness is the most recent host of Question of Sport\n\nA spokesman for the corporation insisted the show was \"not being cancelled - it is just not in production at the moment\".\n\nHe cited the example of another quiz show, the Weakest Link, which has had gaps in production.\n\n\"Question of Sport is not going to appear on any other channels,\" he added. \"It is the BBC's intellectual property.\"\n\nThe decision to bench Question of Sport comes just weeks after the BBC announced its flagship motoring show Top Gear would not return \"for the foreseeable future\".\n\nIn a statement in November, the BBC said it had \"decided to rest the UK show\".\n\nTop Gear presenter Andrew \"Freddie\" Flintoff was seriously injured in a crash while filming the show last year.", "An owl was discovered living in a Kentucky family's Christmas tree.\n\nThe bird was discovered when carpet cleaner Bob Hayes was working in the house and noticed the tree branches moving.\n\nThe family says the bird was able to go undetected for four days because it blended into the tree's branches.", "James Wray and William McKinney were among 13 people shot dead at a civil rights march\n\nThe High Court in Belfast has quashed a decision by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) to discontinue the case against Soldier F, who is accused of two murders on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry in 1972.\n\nIt follows a legal challenge brought by the family of one of the victims.\n\nThe PPS said in 2021 that it was seeking to drop the case after reviewing the evidence.\n\nBut the High Court has said that decision should be reconsidered.\n\nIt said it may be for the trial judge to rule on the issue of whether key evidence was admissible or not.\n\nSolider F had been facing trial for the murders of William McKinney and James Wray, plus five counts of attempted murder, in Derry on 30 January 1972.\n\nIn response to Wednesday's High Court ruling, the director of the PPS said the team involved in the Soldier F case would \"take time to consider the full detail of the written judgement\" and \"its impact on these proceedings\".\n\nStephen Herron said the PPS would update the district judge and the parties directly involved in the Soldier F prosecution on the outcome of this process \"at the earliest opportunity\".\n\n\"I would like to acknowledge the lasting pain and frustration of the families involved in these judicial review proceedings and their wider campaign for truth and justice,\" he said.\n\nThirteen people were killed and 15 wounded on Bloody Sunday\n\nIn her ruling earlier on Wednesday, Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan said the PPS must reconsider its decision, which it based on concerns over the admissibility of evidence in the case.\n\nShe said: \"We consider that the decision crosses the threshold of irrationality where it simply does not add up, or in other words there is an error of reasoning which robs the decision of logic.\n\n\"It follows that the matter should remain with the PPS to reconsider the decision\".\n\nHowever, a separate legal bid to overturn the PPS's decision not to prosecute five other soldiers for the deaths of six people on Bloody Sunday failed.\n\nThirteen people were shot dead and at least 15 others injured when members of the Army's Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside - a predominantly Catholic part of Derry - on Sunday 30 January 1972.\n\nThe day became known as Bloody Sunday.\n\nIt is widely regarded as one of the darkest days of the Northern Ireland Troubles.\n\nWilliam McKinney's brother Mickey says there is now an onus on the PPS to reconsider their decision following the High Court ruling\n\nWilliam McKinney's brother Mickey said he was delighted for his own family and for the family of Jim Wray.\n\n\"It was with regret that we were forced to bring these proceedings in the first place but the PPS did not engage with us properly in respect of its decision making, but in fact came to Derry last July and presented us with a determination it had already decided upon,\" he said.\n\nMr McKinney told BBC Radio Foyle there was now an onus on the PPS to reconsider their decision.\n\nHe said the family and their legal team would \"wait and see what happens\".\n\nJames Wray's brother Liam says the decision relating to Soldier F is \"another step in trying to get justice\"\n\nLiam Wray, who is the brother of James Wray, described the High Court ruling relating to Soldier F as \"another step in trying to get justice for Jim and William McKinney and the others wounded\".\n\nMr Wray said he was \"disappointed\" for some of the other Bloody Sunday families.\n\nKay Duddy, who is the sister of Jackie Duddy who was also killed on Bloody Sunday, said she was delighted for the families of James Wray and William McKinney.\n\nSolicitor Ciaran Shiels, who represents a number of the Bloody Sunday families, said the PPS must \"move immediately to re-institute the proceedings against Soldier F and to secure his committal for trial in the Crown Court\".\n\n\"The families continue to be vindicated in their long pursuit of justice,\" he added.\n\nFoyle MP Colum Eastwood welcomed the High Court ruling in relation to Soldier F, but said he was \"keenly aware that there are others who will be bitterly disappointed today\".\n\n\"My thoughts are with the families of Jackie Duddy, Michael Kelly, John Young, Michael McDaid and Bernard McGuigan.\" Mr Eastwood said.\n\n\"I know that they will continue to defend the dignity and memory of their family members.\"", "A 17-year-old British boy missing for six years has been found in France.\n\nAlex Batty is at a young person's centre in Toulouse and could be back in the UK within hours, the prosecutors' office in the city told the BBC.\n\nAlex used a motorist's phone to message his grandmother in the UK, saying \"I love you, I want to come home\".\n\nHe had been missing since 2017, but was found on Wednesday morning by the motorist who spotted him walking through rain near Toulouse.\n\nThe boy disappeared after going on holiday with his mother and grandfather in Spain.\n\nThe pair, who do not have parental guardianship of Alex, have not been located but remain wanted in connection with his disappearance.\n\nA police source earlier told BBC News the boy had been taken to a police station by the concerned motorist who had spotted him on a road in the foothills of the Pyrenees early on Wednesday morning.\n\nThe motorist, delivery driver Fabien Accidini, saw Alex walking along a road in the foothills of the Pyrenees in the early hours of Wednesday morning.\n\n\"He explained that he had been walking for four days, that he set off from a place in the mountains, though he didn't say where,\" Mr Accidini said.\n\n\"I typed his name into the internet and saw that he was being looked for,\" he said.\n\nMr Accidini told local media Alex's plan had been to find a big city with an embassy to find assistance. Instead, Mr Accidini contacted French authorities for help.\n\nAlex used Mr Accidini's Facebook account to contact his grandmother back in the UK.\n\nHe wrote: \"Hello Grandma, it's me Alex. I'm in France Toulouse. I really hope that you receive this message. I love you, I want to come home.\"\n\nAlex Batty, centre, disappeared with his mother, Melanie Batty, and grandfather, David Batty\n\nThe boy said he had been in France for two years, the police source said, adding that he bore a resemblance to the last known picture of Alex.\n\nHe had been living in the remote Pyrenean valleys, travelling about from place to place in a kind of itinerant commune.\n\nThe area in the foothills of the Pyrenees is known for attracting people in search of alternative lifestyles.\n\nAlex won't say where his mother is or exactly where he had been living in the Pyrenees, the prosecutors' office told the BBC.\n\nHis grandmother - and legal guardian - Susan Caruana told The Sun newspaper she had now been in touch with Alex.\n\n\"I am so happy. I have spoken to him and he is well,\" she said. \"It is such a shock.\"\n\nMs Caruana told the BBC in 2018 that she believed Alex's mother Melanie Batty and grandfather David Batty had taken him to live with a spiritual community in Morocco.\n\nShe said at the time they were seeking an alternative lifestyle and did not want Alex to go to school.\n\nMelanie and David Batty left Greater Manchester with Alex for a pre-agreed week-long holiday to Marbella in Spain on 30 September 2017.\n\nHe was last seen at the Port of Malaga on 8 October that year, the day they were expected to return to the UK.\n\nBritish police were contacted via the UK embassy in Paris.\n\nGreater Manchester Police confirmed it was in touch with French authorities to put \"safeguarding measures in place\".\n\n\"This is a complex and long-running investigation, and we need to make further enquiries as well as putting appropriate safeguarding measures in place,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nIn a statement, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said: \"We are supporting a British national in France and are in contact with local authorities.\"\n• None Missing boy 'may be in Morocco commune'", "Police who found a body in the search for missing Gaynor Lord do not suspect any \"third-party involvement\".\n\nDivers made the discovery on Friday morning in the River Wensum in Norwich - a week after the mother of three was last seen.\n\nFormal identification has not taken place but the 55-year-old's family has been informed.\n\nHe said: \"Whilst we establish her identity, our thoughts are with Gaynor's family at this difficult and distressing time.\n\n\"We have specialist family liaison officers supporting the family and keeping them updated with what we are doing at all stages.\n\n\"We remain open-minded to the circumstances of Gaynor's disappearance and will continue to pursue all lines of inquiry to ascertain why she went missing.\"\n\nSpecialist divers had been searching the river for three days\n\nCh Supt Buckley said: \"I am keen to say that this remains a missing person inquiry at this stage. I am also satisfied, at the moment, based on the evidence we have, that Gaynor did not meet anybody on the way to the park and we now have a better understanding of her movements through the city centre.\"\n\nHe said a post-mortem examination would now take place.\n\n\"I would reiterate at this stage, there is no evidence of third part involvement - nothing in our inquiries has changed this position,\" he added.\n\nCh Supt Dave Buckley has said police do not suspect any third party involvement in the case\n\nMs Lord was reported missing after her belongings were found in Wensum Park.\n\nTwo members of the police dive team were seen recovering a body from the river after marking the area of water with an orange buoy.\n\nPrevious searches had focused on the river, close to the park where a member of the public reported seeing a woman matching Ms Lord's description at about 16:00 GMT last Friday.\n\nMembers of the public laid flowers outside the park after it emerged a body had been found.\n\nA body was found in the river near to St Martins Close, about 400m from Wensum Park\n\nMs Lord was reported missing after failing to return home from Jarrolds department store in Norwich where she worked on a gin counter as a retail assistant.\n\nCCTV footage showed her leaving work more than an hour earlier than expected before hurrying through the city on foot.\n\nShe spent 33 minutes in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral before heading in the direction of Wensum Park via St Augustines Street.\n\nMoments later, a member of the public reported seeing a woman matching Ms Lord's description in the park doing a \"yoga pose\".\n\nFlowers have been laid outside Wensum Park after a body was found on Friday morning\n\nHer friend, Julie Butcher, said Ms Lord phoned her at about 14:15 on the day she disappeared.\n\nShe told the BBC on Thursday that she \"feels terrible\" after cutting the conversation short to take a work call and was unable to reach her after that.\n\nMs Butcher, who spoke to officers on Saturday, also received a \"pocket call\" from Ms Lord at about 16:45.\n\n\"I keep going over the conversation. If I hadn't answered that call [from the client] would she have talked to me? I feel terrible. I feel so sorry for the family,\" she said.\n\nOn Thursday, police said there was a \"high probability\" that Ms Lord had entered the water and that her disappearance was \"out of character\".\n\nHer family will \"continue to be supported\" by specially trained officers, Norfolk police confirmed.\n\nMs Lord's children had previously posted on social media and said \"we want her home\".\n\nStore cameras show Gaynor Lord at work shortly before she left\n\nA large search operation began on 8 December when her belongings, including clothing, two rings and a mobile phone were found scattered across Wensum Park.\n\nNorfolk Fire and Rescue has been helping the search, assisted by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service's specialist underwater drone.\n\nThree types of sonar - a technique that uses sound to detect objects - have been used.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Prince Harry has hailed the phone hacking ruling as a \"great day for truth\".\n\nAnd the truth is, according to the judgement, that editors and powerful executives at the Mirror Group Newspapers knew of phone hacking - and the judge accepted evidence that it included former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan.\n\nIn the time it took Mr Justice Fancourt to deliver a summary of his judgement in open court, the celebrity TV presenter's years of claiming it was nothing to do with him withered, legally-speaking, on the vine.\n\nOver the course of the seven weeks, the High Court heard lawyers for Prince Harry argue that there was an evidence trail that linked knowledge of hacking to Mr Morgan and a string of other executives and in-house lawyers.\n\nNot all of that case has been proven - and the allegations against Mr Morgan were fragmentary.\n\nThere was no smoking gun - but there was a tapestry of limited but well-sourced incidents.\n\nFollowing the judgement Mr Morgan insisted he \"never hacked a phone or told anyone else to hack a phone\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Morgan was the Daily Mirror's editor between 1995 and 2004 - and, as my colleague Tom Symonds has previously reported, he was largely unscathed by the outcome of first hacking case against the group in 2015.\n\nThe most important of the claims against him this time around came from the now royal author Omid Scobie.\n\nBack in 2002 he was a student intern who fancied a career in entertainment journalism.\n\nHe told the court, while working on the Mirror's \"3am\" entertainment desk, he had witnessed Mr Morgan discuss with a journalist an article about Kylie Minogue - and the then editor asked how confident they were about the story.\n\nMr Morgan was told, Mr Scobie recalled, that the source had been a voicemail.\n\nMr Justice Fancourt said an article about Ms Minogue appeared in the paper around the time Mr Scobie had been on work experience, under the byline of \"a well-known phone hacker\", James Scott.\n\nThere was also evidence that a private investigator had billed the paper for obtaining Ms Minogue's mobile phone number and that of her then partner, James Gooding.\n\nMr Justice Fancourt said: \"I found Mr Scobie to be a straight-forward and reliable witness and I accept what he said about Mr Morgan's involvement in the Minogue/Gooding story.\n\n\"No evidence was called by MGN to contradict it.\"\n\nAnother crucial piece of evidence came from Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, who was once communications chief for Tony Blair in Downing Street.\n\nIn the same year that Mr Scobie had witnessed the chat about Ms Minogue, Mr Wegg-Prosser had dinner with Mr Morgan and asked him how his newspaper had discovered that the England football manager Sven Goran-Eriksson had an affair with television presenter Ulrika Jonson.\n\n\"Mr Morgan responded to my question by initially asking me which network provider I used for my mobile phone,\" he wrote in his witness statement to the court.\n\n\"Mr Morgan told me the default PIN for that network. He then explained that the default PIN numbers were well known and rarely changed, which is how mobile phone messages could be accessed remotely. He said to me, 'That was how we got the story on Sven and Ulrika', with a smile, or words to that effect.\"\n\nThat evidence was not challenged by MGN and was said by the judge to \"speak for itself\".\n\nPiers Morgan in 2003 when he was editor of the Daily Mirror\n\nDavid Seymour was once the Mirror's political editor. He was not involved in phone hacking and gave evidence about his observations and concerns about Piers Morgan.\n\nHe told the court that his former boss was \"unreliable and boastful [and] apt to tell untruths when it suited him\".\n\nHe recalled that in March 2001 Mr Morgan had played a recording of a voicemail in the newsroom of Paul McCartney singing a Beatles song to Heather Mills, his soon-to-be wife.\n\nThe court head that the recording had been lent to Mr Morgan by Neil Wallis, then editor of The People.\n\nThe Mirror Group's lawyer later challenged Mr Seymour's account of once hearing that Piers Morgan had shown off about phone hacking to the head of BT.\n\nThe judge's conclusion? \"Mr Seymour struck me as a man of intelligence and integrity. I accept his evidence without hesitation.\"\n\nBut Mr Morgan was not the only one who knew what was going on, said the judge.\n\nMr Justice Fancourt said other editors were aware of hacking and two directors knew before the end of 2011: Paul Vickers, group legal director, and Sly Bailey, the chief executive officer.\n\n\"The board as a whole was not told about it,\" the judge told the court.\n\n\"That was because the editors of the three newspapers, the editorial managers of the company and Ms Bailey and Mr Vickers did not report what they knew, or suspected, to the board.\n\n\"I have found that Mr Vickers certainly knew about phone hacking from about the end of 2003, but quite possibly before then.\n\n\"Ms Bailey knew or - what in law amounts to the same thing - turned a blind eye to it from about the end of 2006.\n\n\"The likelihood of extensive illegal activity should have been investigated properly.\n\n\"Instead, it was concealed from the board, from Parliament in 2007 and 2011, from the Leveson Inquiry, from shareholders, and from the public for years - and the extent of it was concealed from claimants in the Mirror Newspapers hacking litigation and even from the court at and before the trial in 2015.\"\n\nHours after the ruling was delivered Mr Morgan gave a forceful statement outside his home, denying his involvement in phone hacking.\n\nAs well as taking aim at the prince among others, Morgan denied personally hacking a phone or ordering someone to and said \"nobody has produced any actual evidence to prove that I did\".\n\nHe added he had not been called as a witness by either side in the case or been asked for a statement and said he would have \"very happily agreed to do either or both of those things had I been asked\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBritish teen Alex Batty is due back in the UK in the next few days, after he was found in France having been missing for six years, police said.\n\nThe 17-year-old vanished in 2017 on a holiday in Spain with his mother and grandfather.\n\nHis family in the UK is \"massively relieved\" and going through a \"whole host of emotions\", Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said.\n\nIts priority was his safe return to the UK, the force said.\n\nHe was found on Wednesday morning by a motorist close to Toulouse in the south of France.\n\nChris Sykes, assistance chief constable of GMP, said the force was \"relieved and overjoyed\" to receive the news that Alex is safe and well.\n\n\"This is a huge moment for Alex, for his family and for the community in Oldham,\" he said in a press conference.\n\n\"The young man and Alex's grandmother spoke on a video call last night and whilst she is content that this is indeed Alex, we obviously have further checks to do when he returns to the United Kingdom,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the force's main priority is now to see Alex return home.\n\n\"We still have some work to do in establishing the full circumstances surrounding his disappearance and where he has been in all those years,\" he said.\n\nHe added that Alex's mother - who does not have parental guardianship of him - is \"part of\" the investigation. Her whereabouts are unknown.\n\nA police source earlier told BBC News the boy had been taken to a police station by a concerned motorist who had spotted him on a road in the foothills of the Pyrenees early on Wednesday morning.\n\n\"He explained that he had been walking for four days, that he set off from a place in the mountains, though he didn't say where,\" delivery driver Fabien Accidini said.\n\n\"I typed his name into the internet and saw that he was being looked for,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Fabien Accidini says he found Alex Batty in a remote mountainous area in the Pyrenees\n\nMr Accidini told local media the teenager's plan had been to find a big city with an embassy to ask for assistance. Instead, Mr Accidini contacted French authorities for help.\n\nHe added that they talked for more than three hours, in which Alex told him his story.\n\nThe delivery driver said he lent the teenager his phone and let him use his Facebook account to contact his grandmother, Susan Caruana, who is also his legal guardian.\n\nHis first words to his grandmother for six years were: \"Hello Grandma, it's me Alex. I'm in France Toulouse. I really hope that you receive this message. I love you, I want to come home.\"\n\nIt is understood that Alex had been living in the remote Pyrenean valleys, travelling about from place to place in a kind of itinerant commune.\n\nThe area in the foothills of the Pyrenees is known for attracting people in search of alternative lifestyles.\n\nAlex, from Oldham in Greater Manchester, will not say where his mother is or exactly where he had been living in the Pyrenees, the prosecutor's office told the BBC.\n\nAlex Batty, centre, disappeared with his mother, Melanie Batty, and grandfather, David Batty\n\nMs Caruana told the BBC in 2018 that she believed Alex's mother Melanie Batty and grandfather David Batty had taken him to live with a spiritual community in Morocco.\n\nShe said at the time they were seeking an alternative lifestyle and did not want Alex to go to school.\n\nMelanie and David Batty left Greater Manchester with Alex for a pre-agreed week-long holiday to Marbella in Spain on 30 September 2017.\n\nHe was last seen at the Port of Malaga on 8 October that year, the day they were expected to return to the UK.\n\nBritish police were contacted via the UK embassy in Paris.\n\nIn a statement, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said: \"We are supporting a British national in France and are in contact with local authorities.\"", "Some British Army members who say they tried to vouch for Afghan special forces, who are now in danger of being sent back to the Taliban, were never contacted by the Ministry of Defence.\n\nMultiple sources have told the BBC that some people who offered to give Afghan soldiers references never heard back.\n\nMany of the soldiers were subsequently denied help by a scheme designed to settle those in danger in the UK.\n\nThe Cabinet Office says it is \"working across government to meet our commitment to resettle eligible Afghans in the UK\".\n\nThe issue has resulted in tensions between two senior ministers.\n\nAbout 200 members of Afghan special forces, trained and funded by the UK, currently living in Pakistan face imminent deportation to Afghanistan, BBC Newsnight reported this week.\n\nThe men were told they did not fall under the UK's Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which was designed to help those who served alongside the UK military.\n\nBut members of the armed forces who served with them have called their treatment a betrayal.\n\nOver the course of nearly two decades, the British trained, funded and worked with two units of Afghan special forces, CF-333 and ATF-444, collectively known as the Triples.\n\nThey were elite troops who went on the most challenging missions, often alongside British special forces.\n\nWhen the Taliban returned to Afghanistan in 2021, the Triples were considered to be top of their list for retribution. Some managed to escape in the chaotic evacuation of Kabul, but many did not.\n\nThose who were left behind either in Afghanistan or neighbouring countries were told to seek help from the UK's ARAP scheme.\n\nThe policy states it was set up to help \"Afghan citizens who worked for or with the UK government in Afghanistan in exposed or meaningful roles\", a criteria any of those who fought alongside the Triples were certain they met.\n\nMany Triples were given references by their British colleagues. One of them was Alex, a former British soldier, who said: \"I provided details about the individual that I served with on the ground in Afghanistan to the ARAP team and never got a response.\n\n\"I am aware of a number of other people who served alongside the Triples and never received any contact from the MoD or ARAP.\n\n\"The cases were all rejected in the first place and were then rejected on appeal.\"\n\nBBC Newsnight has heard evidence from multiple sources that people who offered to provide those references were never contacted by the ARAP team, before the case was rejected.\n\nSupporters of the Triples have said it led to a large number of former special forces being left in limbo in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries.\n\n\"We talk a lot about veterans and their mental health,\" said Alex.\n\nBritish and Afghan special forces fought together in Afghanistan\n\n\"To think that you've left these people behind, you hear what they're going through. They were looking after you on the ground and you can't help them.\"\n\nPreviously it has said: \"Each ARAP application is assessed individually and in accordance with published policy, and we do not automatically make a decision on eligibility based on a job role.\"\n\nFollowing the BBC's report, armed forces minister James Heappey defended the government's record in the Commons on Monday.\n\nHe said that identification was a huge issue, telling MPs: \"There is also the reality of how hard it is to verify the service of those who just served in the unit rather than explicitly alongside UK personnel.\"\n\nAlex said: \"It makes me so angry, particularly to hear the minister say that it's hard to verify these people, when they've clearly made no attempt to verify them, not even reaching out to their own people.\"\n\nThe armed forces minister also told the Commons: \"CF333 and ATF444, known as the Triples, were Afghan-led taskforces set up to counter drug trafficking and organised crime and they reported into the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs. They are therefore a component of the Afghan national security forces and are not automatically in scope for relocation under ARAP.\"\n\nBut on Wednesday, his government colleague Johnny Mercer, the minister for veterans, appeared to contradict him.\n\nMr Mercer said: \"I am clear that we have a duty to these individuals. While technically the minister for armed forces was right that they were led and had direct command chains into the Afghan government, there will be no attempt whatsoever from this government to close down avenues for those who served in 333 and 444.\"\n\nSecurity Minister Tom Tugendhat weighed in behind Mr Mercer, posting on X: \"Many of us served alongside TF333/444. They were integral to our combat strength. Good to hear @JohnnyMercerUK's words.\"\n\nThe pair are among a number of MPs who served alongside the Triples, resulting in clear tensions within government.\n\nAnother issue at the heart of the row was pay. The Ministry of Defence has maintained that the Triples were employed by the Afghan interior ministry, rather than the British.\n\nTory MP Adam Holloway said in the Commons that he had been told by a friend that the MoD position was \"the most ludicrous argument I have heard in my life. If it was not so sad, it would be hilarious.\"\n\nBBC Newsnight has been told by a former officer, who had intimate knowledge of the Triples, that they were explicitly paid by the British.\n\nThe officer told us the money \"would be apportioned and delivered in person by a British officer and then signed for by the Afghan personnel who would then take it away and we would keep the invoice, which would then be sent back so that it was it was above board and the money was all accounted for.\"\n\nThe cash payments ranged from a few hundred dollars for a soldier to around $1,000 for an officer, at least doubling their wage.\n\n\"We didn't store that amount of cash in and just deal with it autonomously,\" the officer told me. \"It came from high headquarters in London.\"\n\nThis new evidence contradicts one of the key arguments made in relation to the Triples, namely that the records of their employment do not exist.\n\nThe officer said it would be \"fairly easily derived information to the effect that the money changed hands and the audit for the money exists somewhere. If they needed to find out, they could find out.\"\n\nNames have been changed to protect the identity of those involved.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "The tree is a reminder that Christmas does not require extravagance, auctioneers said\n\nA sparse vintage Christmas tree has sold at auction for £2,600, well above its list price of £60 to £80.\n\nThe modest tree, with just 25 branches, was gifted in 1920 to Dorothy Grant who kept it until she died in 2014.\n\nHer daughter, Shirley Hall, 84, said she was selling the 31in (79cm) tree as a \"humble reminder of 1920s life\".\n\nHansons Auctioneers, in Banbury, Oxfordshire, said it was an \"astonishing\" price for \"the humblest Christmas tree in the world\".\n\nDorothy Grant, pictured at the age of 21 in 1933\n\nThe firm's owner, Charles Hanson, said the tree would have been bought for a few pence, probably from a London department store.\n\nHe said: \"It reminds us that extravagance and excess are not required to capture the spirit of Christmas.\n\n\"It survives as a reminder of 1920s life - a boom-to-bust decade.\n\n\"The Roaring Twenties saw major advances in science and technology. But the decade also brought the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.\"\n\nMrs Grant's daughter, Shirley Hall, said the tree was a \"humble reminder of 1920s life\"\n\nMrs Grant, who was given the tree when she was eight years old and living in Loughborough, Leicestershire, kept it until she died at the age of 101.\n\nShe decorated it economically, using cotton wool to mimic snow, the auctioneers said.\n\nAn anonymous UK buyer paid £3,411, including fees and tax, at the auction earlier.\n\nSimilar trees have attracted winning bids of £150 and £420 in recent years, Mr Hanson said.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, X, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The \"wheel of death\" performer fell in front of a family audience\n\nA circus acrobat who fell several metres from a rotating apparatus is making \"a good recovery\" despite a broken shoulder, arm and leg, the show's ringmaster has said.\n\nThe performer, in his 20s, fell while riding the \"Giant Wheel of Death\" at the Hippodrome Circus in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on Wednesday night.\n\nJack Jay said he was \"really pleased\" he did not suffer more severe injuries.\n\nHealth and safety officials were investigating, he said.\n\nMr Jay, who is also circus manager, said the cause seemed to be \"human error\" and that no fault had yet been found with the equipment or rigging.\n\nThe brothers pictured performing their act earlier in the week at the Hippodrome Circus in Great Yarmouth\n\n\"Maybe [it was] a very unfortunate momentary lapse, maybe a slight adjustment to the timing and a very serious outcome,\" Mr Jay said\n\n\"But we're thrilled the news coming out is positive, given what happened, that he's in a good recovery state.\"\n\nWitnesses described how they initially thought the fall was part of the show.\n\nNorfolk Constabulary - which was called at 19:37 GMT - said the artist \"sustained serious, potentially life-changing injuries\" but was stable in hospital.\n\nThe performer, who is from Colombia, was fully conscious after the fall and was helped by two audience members.\n\nThe show is a Christmas tradition for many families\n\nA witness, who had seen the act at the Hippodrome before, said the performer was blindfolded.\n\n\"I was recording it as [the performance] was so brilliant,\" said the woman, who wished to remain anonymous.\n\n\"He slipped or tripped and fell to the ground and to begin with I thought it was part of the act, so continued recording.\n\n\"They often miss on purpose to get the audience sort of riled up and on the edge of their seats, but then we realised something was wrong.\"\n\nThe witness said a screen was quickly brought on to the arena to shield the acrobat while he was attended to.\n\nHe was initially taken to the local James Paget Hospital and later transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.\n\nHis partner in the act was his brother, who accompanied him to the James Paget, along with circus staff.\n\nMr Jay said: \"There's nothing that should provide any long-term concern once he's had a long recovery process.\n\n\"I'm confident knowing his mindset he'll be back even stronger.\"\n\nThe circus performed on Thursday night, but without its \"Giant Wheel of Death\".\n\nGreat Yarmouth Borough Council, as the local environmental health authority, was contacted for comment.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n• None Watch: Circus acrobat falls from 'wheel of death' Video, 00:00:07Watch: Circus acrobat falls from 'wheel of death'\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Edward Little admitted the offences in May\n\nA man who planned a gun attack at central London's Hyde Park has been jailed for at least 16 years.\n\nEdward Little, 22, had intended to kill Christian preacher Hatun Tash after travelling from Brighton to the capital on 23 September last year.\n\nHe travelled by taxi with £5,000 to buy a firearm and bullets in south London when he was stopped by police and arrested.\n\nIn May, Muslim convert Little admitted preparing to commit acts of terrorism.\n\nHe was sentenced in his absence after he refused to attend Friday's Old Bailey hearing.\n\nThe defendant had planned to target Ms Nash after deciding against an attack on the late Queen's funeral in Westminster, the court heard.\n\nIn a televised hearing, Mrs Justice McGowan gave Little a life sentence with a minimum prison term of 16 years.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Gun attack plotter Edward Little lunges at detective during police interview\n\nShe said Little knew that Speakers' Corner was famous for freedom of speech and that an attack there would have sent a strong message.\n\nIt also would have risked the lives of many people of all faiths and struck terror, Mrs Justice McGowan said.\n\nThe judge found Little's plan was \"viable\" and he posed a danger to members of the public.\n\nLast month, three members of a crime gang were jailed for conspiring to provide Little with a gun.\n\nThree men were convicted last month for conspiring to provide Little with this firearm\n\nPreviously, the court heard how Little converted to Islam at Cookham Wood Young Offender Institution in Kent and at HMP Deerbolt in County Durham, after he turned 18.\n\nLast summer, he downloaded extremist propaganda including copies of the al-Qaida publication Inspire.\n\nThe defendant spoke of his desire to get hold of a submachine gun and assault rifle, in encrypted chats on the Threema messaging platform.\n\nAt one point, he wrote: \"I don't think there has been an attack in the UK with guns so a semi-automatic rifle would send a even stronger message.\"\n\nProsecutor Duncan Penny KC had told the court how Little planned to kill Hatun Tash, as well as anyone with her, and any police officers or soldiers in the area.\n\nIn his chats on Threema, Little referred to the preacher, who has described Islam as an \"evil witch\", and said he could shoot her \"point blank\" and \"everyone with her\".\n\nLittle said he would wear a camera so he could live-stream the attack.\n\nOn 17 September 2022, he claimed he \"100%\" had a \"brother in prison\" who would be joining in the \"operation\".\n\nHe said he would travel to London for reconnaissance and see if it was best to \"have us hit separate targets\".\n\nLittle had a rucksack containing £5,000 when he was arrested\n\nOn 18 September 2022, Little identified the Queen's funeral - due to be held at Westminster Abbey the following day - as a possible alternative target.\n\nIt was suggested that \"tyrants of the earth\" would be there, to which Little responded: \"I was just thinking that but unfortunately it's too late.\"\n\nFive days later, Little set off with £5,000 in cash to buy a gun.\n\nHe agreed to pay a taxi driver £300 to take him from Brighton to Lewisham, saying money was no problem.\n\nThe plan was scuppered when armed police moved in to arrest him in south London.\n\nLittle declined to answer questions in police interviews but his mood changed when he was shown a YouTube video of the preacher.\n\nHe launched himself from his chair across the table at an officer, swinging repeatedly with his fists before being restrained.\n\nHe went on to admit assaulting the officer, at Newbury police station on 28 September 2022, and was sentenced to eight months in prison.\n\nLittle had also pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent to a fellow inmate at Belmarsh prison on 3 April.\n\nHe attacked the victim with boiling water mixed with sugar and with two razor blades for \"disrespecting\" his religion.\n\nMrs Justice McGowan jailed Little for four years for that offence to run concurrently with his life sentence.\n\nPreviously, Little had been convicted of 14 offences in seven separate cases, including for robbery, having a knife and drug-dealing, dating back to 2017.\n\nReis Forde, Caleb Wenyeve and Tyler King conspired to provide Little with a gun\n\nSpeaking after sentencing at the Old Bailey, Det Ch Supt Olly Wright said: \"This is a very, very dangerous man who's been stopped from carrying out a terrorist attack.\n\n\"I'm absolutely convinced of that - and lives have been saved as a result.\"\n\nDet Ch Supt Wright added: \"Obviously, he had a target at Speakers' Corner but anyone who got in his way, like a police officer or members of the public, could have been at risk.\"\n\nDuring mitigation, Little's barrister Tom Godfrey said the defendant had been under surveillance by security forces or police.\n\nHe said: \"While I accept Mr Little was unaware that his activities were being monitored, the fact that he was being monitored demonstrates the unsophisticated nature of his planning.\"\n\nIn a separate case at Inner London Crown Court, Reis Forde, 27, Caleb Wenyeve, 21, and Tyler King, also 21, were jailed after admitting being party to a plot to sell Little a gun, although it was accepted they did not know it was for a terror attack.\n\nForde was jailed for 13 years and six months, Wenyeve for 12 years and King for 10 years and nine months. All three admitted conspiring to transfer a prohibited firearm.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A jump in ticket prices may feel particularly unwelcome, after costs for everything have risen at near-record rates.\n\nThe next price rise for regulated fares is due in March 2024. Regulated fares cover about 45% of fares, including season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long-distance journeys and anytime tickets around major cities.\n\nIt may seem like little consolation - especially after months of disruption from rail strikes and poor service - but the government has promised that the increase will be below the rate of price inflation for a second year.\n\nWhile some people will try to cram in buying their season tickets just before the price rise, here are five tips for getting the cheapest deals at any time of the year.\n\nAdvance train tickets are usually released up to 12 weeks before your departure date, although some go on sale as far as 24 weeks in advance.\n\nThese types of tickets are often the cheapest way to travel on the railways if you're happy to go during a fixed time. Sometimes they can be available to buy up to an hour before your journey.\n\nPersonal finance website Money Saving Expert says that London North Eastern Railway (LNER) often releases advance tickets up to six months ahead for routes from stations north of York to London.\n\nSome ticket purchasing apps can send alerts to your phone as soon as tickets for a specified journey go on sale.\n\nSplit ticketing means you can take the same number of trains you normally would for your journey, but can save money by splitting your journey into multiple tickets between the stations the service stops at on the way.\n\nSome websites like Split My Fare and Split Train Tickets do it for you without you having to work it out.\n\nSplit My Fare says on average, customers save 26% by doing this - although it's not always possible on some journeys.\n\nAlso, checking to see whether it is cheaper to buy two single tickets rather than a return might save you money.\n\nRail cards can offer discounts when booking, though they cost money to purchase in the first place, so benefit those who travel often.\n\nThere are several types of rail card available: national, regional, those for students and those for pensioners.\n\nFor example, the regional Cotswold Line Railcard costs £9.95, is valid for one year and gives you a 34% discount on off-peak single and return tickets.\n\nMore information on the different types of railcard are here.\n\nYou can get up to a third off the ticket price when travelling in groups of three to nine adults.\n\nThe group must be travelling together, and individual rail cards cannot be used when booking a group ticket.\n\nGroups of over 10 people can also get discounts - contact the train company directly for those. Group off-peak day travelcards for London are also available, but the origin station on the ticket needs to be in fare zones one to nine.\n\nNational flexible rail tickets could save passengers hundreds of pounds, says watchdog Transport Focus.\n\nThe flexible season tickets will allow travel on any eight days in a 28-day period, with no need to select the days of travel in advance.\n\nTrain companies have also introduced a range of flexible tickets aimed at commuters and workers who have seen their travel patterns change post-pandemic.\n\nThe Flexi Season ticket will offer a minimum of 20% discount on an equivalent monthly season ticket, according to National Rail.\n\nFor those making the same journey multiple times in a week regularly, monthly or season tickets can be cheaper. Check with your employer to see if they offer a season ticket loan to help you spread the cost, interest free.", "Bob, Jim and Joyce, who are adult characters in the TV series, are shown as teenagers in the play\n\nStranger Things took Netflix by storm in 2016 - now it's the turn of London's West End to be dazzled, with the world premiere of a spin-off stage show getting a string of five-star reviews.\n\nStranger Things: The First Shadow is a prequel to the hit 1980s-set TV series.\n\nIt follows a group of young friends who witness supernatural events in 1959 in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.\n\nThe Telegraph said it is the West End \"event of the year\", and The Guardian said \"this parallel world is a winner\".\n\nThe paper's chief theatre critic Arifa Akbar wrote that the play was \"breathtaking theatre with its own arresting imagination\" and \"not just a clever parlour game for fans\".\n\nShe added: \"If you come at it afresh, it is still irresistible.\"\n\nIn another five-star review, Dominic Cavendish of the Telegraph wrote: \"I can't claim that, as a piece of drama, this is more than high-class hokum but what we get, as spectators, is a game-changing experience...\n\n\"It's not so much the play, as the unforgettable atmosphere that's the thing,\" he added, making reference to the \"jaw-dropping coups, fog-shrouded start and acts of levitation and jolting violence\".\n\nThe play follows Henry Creel, played by Louis McCartney\n\nBased on a story co-created by Matt and Ross Duffer, the brothers who created the TV series, the play follows Bob Newby, Jim Hopper and Joyce Maldonado as high school teenagers investigating the mysterious deaths of pets.\n\nIt also tells the origin story of troubled teenager Henry Creel, who goes on to become Vecna, the ruler of the Upside Down in season four of the TV series.\n\nVariety's David Benedict praised Louis McCartney for his performance as Henry, \"a shuddering, terrified nerd whose monster creates havoc without and horror within\".\n\nBenedict said the success of the play \"is due in no small part to the way he holds focus even in the midst of one coup-de-theatre after another\".\n\nThe play is directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Kate Trefry\n\nIn a more balanced review, the New York Times said: \"One is left simultaneously impressed and a little bewildered.\"\n\nHouman Barekat called the production \"lavish to the point of embarrassment\" and added that the \"gaudy, vertiginous fairground ride of a play is exactly what you'd expect from a show co-produced by Netflix: Cheap thrills, expensively made\".\n\nIn her four-star review, the Independent's Alice Saville also mentioned how the play pulls out all the stops, saying it \"spares no bombastic effect\" with its \"humungous projections, a big musical score, an onslaught of foam, dry ice and flare\".\n\nHowever, the Times awarded the play two stars and said it \"doesn't begin to make the story accessible to newcomers\", and the three-hour play has \"little sense of depth to the individual characters or how they relate to one another\".\n\nThe TV show has been renewed for a fifth season, and filming will start in January.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA body has been found at the site of an explosion on an industrial estate in Treforest, south Wales.\n\nThe person was located after a search by South Wales Police following Wednesday night's blaze.\n\nFormal identification has not taken place and officers are supporting the family of a person who had been missing.\n\nDet Supt Richard Jones said the force would now begin investigating the cause of the explosion and fire.\n\nA body has been found following the blast and fire on Treforest Industrial Estate\n\nEmergency services remain at the scene on Severn Road on the estate in Rhondda Cynon Taf.\n\nAt least one building was destroyed and a major incident was declared for several hours after the explosion at about 19:00 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nThe fire service said a two-storey building was at risk of collapse and it had seven pumps at the scene, along with an incident command unit.\n\nThe fire was in a 60,000 sq ft (5,574 sq m) warehouse called Rizla House.\n\nPlumes of smoke could be seen rising from the site of the fire\n\nDet Supt Jones said: \"Our thoughts are with the family of the missing person.\n\n\"Now that the fire has been brought under control, we will move to the investigative phase to find out what caused this explosion and subsequent fire.\n\n\"Roads are gradually being re-opened although some roads and businesses in the area will still be affected.\n\n\"I want to thank local residents and businesses for their patience and understanding while this incident is being dealt with.\"\n\nAlex Davies-Jones, MP for Pontypridd, called the discovery of the body \"heartbreaking\" and \"devastating for all involved\".\n\nStephen Davies, who was at a nearby gym when the explosion happened, said: \"We were going about our usual gym class and then about quarter past seven we sat down and we had a coffee in the cafe area, the next thing we knew a massive explosion\".\n\nHe said he and his friend saw the stairwell by the entrance of the cafe explode.\n\n\"All the walls caved in, it was carnage... it was very scary,\" he said.\n\n\"The staff were excellent in terms of getting everybody out, shouting and making sure everybody escaped out the back entrance.\n\n\"It's a bit surreal, because you are sort of in something, you don't actually realise how life and death that was.\n\n\"You don't think it's ever going to happen to you.\"\n\nSeveral ambulances were at the scene of the fire on Wednesday night\n\nPet store PetWise, which is near the building, said on Facebook that staff had been escorted into the building to check on the animals and they were safe and well.\n\nThey have now been fed and watered.\n\nCwm Taf Morgannwg health board had put all its emergency departments on high alert for several hours, standing down late on Wednesday.\n\nIt also asked people to \"continue to make appropriate use of urgent care services to ensure those that most need our care can receive it in a timely way\".\n\nBarber Andrew Cox posted on Facebook that he was trying to work out what the next steps were on appointments.\n\nHis shop, Andrew Cox Barbering, is in the building underneath the gym where the explosion happened.\n\nEmergency services were still at the scene of the burnt-out gym on Thursday\n\nOne nearby business owner said her shop \"just exploded\".\n\nLucy Artiss, tattooist at Sixteen Circles, said she had \"lost everything\" but all of her colleagues made it out of the building unhurt.\n\n\"I feel numb, to be honest. Looks like I'll need to find a new shop.\"\n\nNearby Integer Telecom, a telecommunication provider, said in a Facebook post its building was destroyed in the explosion, adding: \"All our staff are safe and unharmed and business will resume as normal.\"\n\nPhilip Thomas, who runs the Trefforest Brewery on the industrial estate, said he was \"very fortunate\" not to have been affected by the blaze, but was concerned about business at a crucial time of year.\n\n\"Christmas is when we get a huge amount of our trade in the brewery shop, people buying gift packs and beer,\" he said.\n\n\"So the roads that connect this business to the western side of the Pontypridd area are really important. If they continue to be shut it will have an effect.\n\n\"I think a lot of people are staying away, because that's been the message. But this part of the industrial estate is open and I really hope that people come back and use our shop in the brewery as usual.\"", "Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said progress had been made in talks with the government\n\nA meeting of the Democratic Unionist Party's (DUP) officers took place on Friday as the party considers a potential return to Stormont.\n\nThe party collapsed the executive 22 months ago in protest against post-Brexit trade arrangements.\n\nThe DUP has been asking for new legislation to address its concerns.\n\nThe government is lobbying hard to restore Stormont before next Tuesday, so the legislation can be laid before Parliament before its Christmas recess.\n\nThe recess period runs from 20 December to 7 January.\n\nOn Thursday, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said it was \"approaching the time\" for a decision.\n\nThe DUP is Stormont's second largest party but it has been blocking a functioning assembly and executive since February 2022.\n\nIts boycott began as a protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol, and later the Windsor Framework - two international agreements which set out how Northern Ireland trades with Great Britain after Brexit.\n\nThe DUP has argued the rules undermine Northern Ireland's place in the UK internal market by introducing additional checks on the movement of goods.\n\nOn Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government was ready to legislate to protect Northern Ireland's position and would work \"at pace\".\n\nSir Jeffrey said he had been \"refining\" those issues with the government.\n\n\"Significant progress\" had been made he told BBC News NI, but any deal would need the approval of DUP officers.\n\nThis body has 12 members, including Sir Jeffrey and the DUP's deputy leader, Gavin Robinson.\n\nBBC News NI understands that Sir Jeffrey has given a guarantee to his party executive - which is made up of more than 100 members - that they will be able to discuss any decision made by DUP officers.\n\nMr Sunak said new legislation must go hand-in-hand with a deal to restore Stormont, with the government offering £2.5bn in a financial package.\n\nStormont's largest parties have said the £2.5bn is not enough, which the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he will discuss with the prime minister.\n\nThe DUP do not like their officer board meetings taking place under a microscope.\n\nPerhaps they knew how critical and how sensitive this particular board gathering was and the last thing they wanted was to have cameras outside the door pinning officer board members as they left to ask them what exactly happened inside.\n\nWe know Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has been writing to members via email pretty often lately, and some of those emails have found their way into the public domain.\n\nThat's one to watch out for to get a handle on what exactly has happened.\n\nWhatever happened in Friday's meeting will, at some stage, have to be conveyed to the wider party.\n\nOn Thursday, Sinn Féin MP John Finucane said \"there never has been and there is no excuse now\" for the DUP to continue its Stormont boycott.\n\nSpeaking to BBC's The View, he said despite the fact Sir Jeffrey said he is not in any rush, many people do not have the luxury of time.\n\n\"What the people want to see is an executive and an assembly formed without delay so that we can begin to tackle the problems that are there that we all know about that grow on a daily basis,\" he added.\n\nJohn Finucane said the DUP should accept the deal and get back into Stormont\n\nAlliance Party MLA Andrew Muir said he was \"tired and fed up\" with the DUP's 22-month protest. He said the party had been turning its back on opportunities for Northern Ireland.\n\nUlster Unionist Party deputy leader Robbie Butler said he believed the DUP will go for the deal, adding: \"If any unionist was serious about protecting the union, they need to be making people's lives better here, and not impacting [them].\"\n\nSir David Sterling, a former head of Northern Ireland's civil service, said the \"hugely significant\" financial package offered by the government suggests the endgame is close, and any decision should be made as soon as possible.\n\n\"History shows, experience shows, that if you allow too much time between getting close to the end and actually getting over the line, the mice can get at it,\" he told The View.\n\n\"I just get the sense that the parties all individually now have reached this place where they feel now is the time to do this deal, including the DUP.\"\n\nMomentum to restore Stormont could be lost if discussions continue over Christmas break, Sir David warned\n\nOn Friday, Social Democratic and Labour Party leader Colum Eastwood said he thinks a deal to restore Stormont is \"nearly there\" and the assembly could be recalled as early as next week.\n\n\"That is with all the usual caveats because the DUP could do anything but I think they are now at the point where they have to do this deal,\" he told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today.\n\nHe added legislation could be laid before Westminster on Monday or Tuesday.\n\n\"There's no other way of doing this,\" he continued. \"We have a week left before Christmas and and I just don't believe this could go on beyond Christmas.\"", "Police have released video footage of a man, who has since been convicted of plotting a gun attack in Hyde Park, lunging at a detective during a police interview.\n\nEdward Little was arrested on his way to south London to buy a gun.\n\nOn Friday, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison, after admitting preparing to commit acts of terrorism.", "MP Scott Benton says he will appeal against a proposed 35-day suspension from the House of Commons, after he was found to have breached standards rules.\n\nA report by the Commons Standards Committee said he had given the message he was \"corrupt and 'for sale'\" in a meeting with undercover reporters posing as gambling industry investors.\n\nMr Benton said the inquiry was \"anything but fair and transparent\".\n\nThe MP for Blackpool South has said he does not believe he broke any rules.\n\nHe was suspended as a Conservative MP in April, after the Times newspaper published its story on the meeting, and he currently sits as an independent.\n\nIf MPs approve the suspension it could lead to a by-election in Mr Benton's constituency.\n\nThe committee's report, which was published on Thursday, said that in the meeting Mr Benton had suggested he could lobby ministers, set up meetings with government advisers, table parliamentary questions and provide access to confidential documents.\n\nIt said his comments suggested he would be willing to breach Commons rules in return for payment from the company, which turned out to be fake, as well as giving the impression that other MPs had disregarded the rules in the past.\n\nThe report concluded this was \"a very serious breach\" of rules which require MPs not to do anything that causes significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the Commons.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Benton said: \"Time and time again, this process has demonstrated itself to me to be anything but fair and transparent.\"\n\nThe MP said he had been \"sworn to secrecy\" by the committee during the process and was only allowed to see its judgement an hour before it was published.\n\nHowever, he said details of the report were leaked to a journalist before they were made public, while other information was also leaked during the investigation.\n\n\"This process is designed to be open, fair, honest and transparent so the public and MPs can have trust in the process,\" he said.\n\n\"This trust has been breached by members of the committee. I can't have faith in a standards process that doesn't adhere to its own ethics, standards and principles.\"\n\nHe said the committee's decision was \"heavily influenced\" by an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, which he said \"makes several pivotal statements that are completely factually inaccurate\".\n\nIn a letter to the committee published alongside its report, Mr Benton insisted he did not suggest other MPs would be willing to breach or circumvent rules or that he had previously done so himself.\n\nHe stressed that he had not agreed to undertake any activity that would breach rules during the meeting, which was secretly filmed.\n\nHe added that he did not have any further communications with the fictitious company following the meeting because during the conversation \"it became apparent that the opportunity was a non-starter as it would not be compliant with the rules\".\n\nMr Benton said he would be submitting a formal complaint to the Commons authorities, as well as appealing the committee's decision through the Independent Expert Panel (IEP).\n\nHe added: \"I will happily fully submit myself to a process that considers the actual facts in my case, and which relies on indisputable evidence.\"\n\nA Standards Committee spokesperson said MPs found to have breached the Code of Conduct had a right to appeal to the IEP, which is independent of the committee.\n\nUnlike the cross-party Standards Committee, the IEP is made up only of experts and does not include any MPs.\n\nAny proposed suspension must be approved by MPs in a Commons vote, which would only take place after an appeal process has concluded.\n\nA suspension of more than 10 days triggers a recall petition, with a by-election called if more than 10% of eligible voters in the constituency sign it.\n\nMr Benton's Blackpool South seat has a majority of 3,690 and was held by Labour between 1997 and 2019.\n\nWith the Conservatives trailing in national polls, it is an area Labour would hope to win back.", "Stephen McKinney had denied murdering his wife in 2017\n\nA man who murdered his wife during a boating holiday in County Fermanagh has lost an appeal against his conviction.\n\nStephen McKinney was jailed for a minimum of 20 years for murdering 35-year-old Lu Na McKinney in April 2017.\n\nHer body was recovered from Lough Erne near a jetty at Devenish Island, where the couple were moored on a hire cruiser with their two young children.\n\nMcKinney, 47, who is originally from Strabane, was seeking to overturn his conviction and challenge the sentence.\n\nHe claimed his wife fell into the water while on deck to check mooring ropes and that he tried to save her.\n\nBut in 2021 a jury at Dungannon Crown Court found him guilty of his wife's murder after accepting the prosecution case that it was not a boating accident.\n\nAt the Court of Appeal in June McKinney's lawyers advanced a number of grounds in his attempt to have the verdict declared unsafe.\n\nThe prosecution argued he was convicted after an \"overwhelmingly strong case\" was presented to the jury.\n\nThe three appeal court judges listened to the recording of the 999 calls McKinney made on the night his wife drowned which were played during his trial.\n\nThey considered seven grounds of appeal that his conviction was unsafe but these were all rejected.\n\nIn dismissing the appeal, Mr Justice O'Hara said they had not been persuaded by any of the grounds advanced on behalf of McKinney.\n\nHe said the crown court judge had shown skill and care in the many legal rulings she made and her analysis of the evidence during a lengthy and complex trial.\n\n\"Having rejected the grounds of appeal individually we conclude by recording our view that even taken collectively there is nothing in this appeal which makes us doubt the safety of the jury's verdict,\" he said.\n\nA further hearing will take place in the new year to consider an appeal against the length of his sentence.", "Russian energy giant Gazprom earned €45m (£39m) from its gas field in the North Sea last year, accounts show.\n\nGazprom has been producing gas from the Sillimanite field, which is spread across UK and Dutch waters, since 2020.\n\nSir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats said it was \"totally unacceptable\" that gas from UK territory was supporting \"Putin's illegal war against Ukraine\".\n\nThe government said it would \"ratchet up economic pressure\" on Russia.\n\nThe Sillimanite field, which is 200km from the Dutch coast, is operated in a joint venture between Russian firm Gazprom and German company Wintershall. Gas produced from the field is taken onshore in the Netherlands.\n\nWhile there is no suggestion the arrangement is illegal, the UK, the US and the EU have introduced tough economic sanctions designed to restrict Russia's ability to profit from energy exports, aimed at limiting its ability to fund its war in Ukraine.\n\nA number of Gazprom executives, including the chief executive Alexei Miller, are under sanctions from the UK government, though Gazprom itself is not. The company still supplies gas to continental Europe via pipelines, though the volumes are much reduced since the war began.\n\nAccounts show that Gazprom International UK, a subsidiary of the Russia energy giant, made a pre-tax profit of €45m in 2022, and paid a €41m dividend to Gazprom International Projects BV, the company's immediate owner in the Netherlands. A further dividend of €1.7m was paid in June this year.\n\nThe company's ultimate owner is PJSC Gazprom, based in Moscow.\n\nGazprom is majority-owned by the Russian state, and is the country's largest taxpayer, contributing $80bn (£63bn) to the Russian government, according to the state news agency TASS. It has also recruited and financed its own militias which have fought on the frontline in Ukraine.\n\nSir Ed, a former energy secretary, said it was \"totally unacceptable that gas taken from UK territory is bolstering the coffers of Putin's illegal war against Ukraine\".\n\nCampaign group Global Witness called it \"an indictment of the UK's approach to Russian oil and gas\".\n\n\"Whilst the government decries the war, it's absurd to allow the subsidiary of a Russian state enterprise which has its own militia fighting in Ukraine to enrich Putin's regime from the North Sea,\" it added.\n\nA government spokesman said it would \"continue to work alongside our partners to deny Russia access to any of our goods or technologies that it could use in its war machine, restricting Russia's ability to fight a 21st century war\".\n\n\"Putin and his supporters must - and will - pay the price for their illegal invasion of Ukraine,\" he added.\n\n\"We will continue to ratchet up economic pressure and come down hard on all emerging forms of circumvention until Ukraine prevails and peace is secured.\"\n\nThe company's total tax bill was €29m, divided between the UK and Dutch governments. This includes €4m under the UK windfall tax imposed on energy companies after prices surged following the war in Ukraine, and €5m under the Dutch equivalent.\n\nAll Gazprom International UK's revenues are from sales outside the UK, the accounts say. The company ended its agreement to sell gas to Wintershall in September this year, and replaced it by an agreement to sell gas to the Swiss-based trading company Gunvor, the accounts show.\n\nGazprom's UK energy supply business, which had thousands of business customers, was nationalised by the German government last year when its parent company was close to bankruptcy. It has been renamed SEFE Energy.\n\nWintershall and Gazprom did not respond to the BBC's requests for comment.", "Barry Humphries has been remembered for his comedic “genius” but also his kindness, at a state memorial in Sydney.\n\nIn a message read out at the service, King Charles said: “Life really won’t be the same without him.”\n\nMusician and friend Elton John, in a recorded video, told those at the service to “celebrate with laughter because that was what Barry was all about”.\n\nThe 89-year-old comedian and raconteur died in April of complications from hip surgery.", "Strikes are being held on Friday and Saturday, with another day of action scheduled for 22 December\n\nPublic transport workers in Northern Ireland are staging a 48-hour strike in a dispute about pay.\n\nTrade unions Unite, GMB and Siptu are involved in the action on what is traditionally one of the busiest weekends before Christmas.\n\nTranslink has apologised for \"any inconvenience\" that will be caused.\n\nDr Graham Gault, from the National Association of Headteachers, said many hundreds of pupils could not attend school as a result of the strike.\n\nHe added there were additional impacts on school meals and school trips.\n\n\"The employers really should have settled this dispute long before now, thereby avoiding the widespread impacts across education,\" Dr Gault told BBC News NI.\n\nThe Education Authority said it was expecting \"significant disruption\" to school transport given the \"scale of the action\", which has affected bus, rail and Glider services.\n\nA further strike is also scheduled for 22 December.\n\nEamon Sturgeon, a bus driver on a picket line in Belfast, said workers felt they had \"no other option but to strike\".\n\n\"The support from the public is great, they understand that we deserve to be paid right,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bus and rail strikes: Why NI's public transport isn't running (in 109 seconds)\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has been engaged in talks with Stormont's largest parties this week about the restoration of the executive, with a £2.5bn financial package on offer from the UK government.\n\nThis would include provision for public sector pay increases.\n\nThe unions previously took strike action on 1 December.\n\nOn Friday, Davy Thompson from Unite said the action being taken is \"both proportionate and reasonable\".\n\nHe said that strike action is a \"very last resort\", adding: \"The secretary of state with the stroke of a pen could fix this.\"\n\nTranslink staff gathered at Belfast's Lanyon Place station to demonstrate over pay\n\nDamien Doherty, a bus driver in Londonderry, said on Friday: \"There isn't anybody standing on a picket line this morning that actually wants to be on a picket line, we've been forced out on to it.\"\n\nHe told BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster workers \"are sick to the back teeth of potential, we want concrete pay talks\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI at the picket line in Derry on Friday morning, Brian Warke, a bus driver at Pennyburn bus depot in the city, said his colleagues are struggling.\n\n\"People can't pay their mortgages,\" he said.\n\n\"We have been offered a zero per cent pay rise this year from April. And that's why we have had to make this decision today to come out together.\n\n\"We just need help here.\"\n\nBus driver Eamon Sturgeon in Belfast said workers had \"no other option but to strike\"\n\nDavid Shearer, a train conductor and union representative with SIPTU in Londonderry, added: \"We are frontline workers and have worked all through the Covid-19 pandemic and the government aren't taking us seriously.\"\n\nHe was joined by conductors, train signallers and porters on the picket line at the city's North West Transport Hub on Friday.\n\n\"I've been here from 06:30 this morning and we haven't had one complaint from anyone who missed a train or anyone walking past,\" he said.\n\nThe action has faced criticism from representatives of the hospitality and retail sectors as it falls during one of the most lucrative periods for both.\n\nStephen Margorrian, of hospitality collective Horatio Group, said the latest round of strikes could lead to some closing their doors for good.\n\n\"We're expecting to be down quite a considerable amount,\" he explained.\n\n\"I know for a lot of businesses in our sector, they were already pessimistic about next year and for some people this will just be destruction.\"\n\nChristmas is the busiest time of year for many hospitality businesses, Stephen Margorrian says\n\nRetail NI chief executive Glyn Roberts said the timing of strikes \"leaves a lot to be desired\" as it targets some of the industry's busiest days.\n\n\"There are independent retailers that are on life support who are depending on this Christmas to help them through to keep the doors open and to keep workers employed,\" he said.\n\nHe urged unions to reconsider planned action for next week and wait for a political breakthrough.\n\nJanice Gault, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation, said her industry had not reported many room cancellations so far but the strike had affected staff travel and some passing trade.\n\n\"We would like to see people dropping in for that ad hoc drink - a glass of wine, cup of coffee, and if people aren't coming in to shop, that's a big impact,\" she said.\n\n\"We aren't a standalone business; we're relying on bars, restaurants and the retail industry who have no doubt been very severely impacted by this.\"\n\nTranslink said it was \"fully committed to entering constructive pay negotiations,\" adding: \"This can only be done once the budget issue has been resolved\".\n\n\"This situation impacts all public sector workers and needs to be resolved at the NI Executive level,\" it said.\n\n\"We have urged our colleagues to reconsider and pause this action in light of the social and economic impact it will have at this time and to await the outcome of political talks.\"\n\nThe key to why we have seen so much disruption in the public sector is because people have seen the real value of their wages eroded quite substantially in a short period of time.\n\nIf Stormont was to come back next week, people, for example, would not expect to see their pay increasing in their January pay packet.\n\nThere's certainly money on the table, but there would have to be a process; an agreement reached between employers and unions, before you would actually see that pay flowing through to people.\n\nSo you could even be talking up into the spring before all that's sorted out.\n\nThe president of the Secondary Students Union NI (SSUNI) said young people were among the hardest hit as they were among the main users of public transport.\n\n\"Some schools have closed today, further disrupting education, while many students will not have been able to get into school,\" said Ellen Taylor from SSUNI.\n\n\"However, while we do not appreciate this disruption to education, we also acknowledge that Translink workers are underpaid and undervalued, and we support their calls for a pay rise.\n\n\"This is an endemic issue across Northern Ireland,\" she added, stating that public sector workers were taken for granted.\n\nOne of the private companies which operates services linking City of Derry, Belfast International and Dublin airports says it will be doubling its capacity on Friday and Saturday.\n\nMany have called for cars to be allowed to use the bus lanes as the volume of traffic is expected to increase considerably on Friday and Saturday.\n\nIn a statement the Department for Infrastructure said bus lanes would remain operational during the industrial action for \"cyclists, motorcyclists, permitted taxis, any operating buses, which could include buses provided by health and education authorities, and the emergency services\".\n\n\"Bus lane enforcement will continue as normal,\" it continued.", "President Putin did not take any of BBC Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg's questions\n\nFor the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I'm invited to a Kremlin event. I'm in a room with Vladimir Putin.\n\nAt an exhibition hall opposite the Kremlin, in a specially built TV studio packed with video screens and electronic tickers, Russian journalists - and some foreign correspondents - are watching the Kremlin leader host an end-of-year news conference combined with a TV phone-in. He's taking questions from members of the public and selected media.\n\nYou can't miss the spectacular - that is, if you're in Russia and have your TV set on. The programme is being carried live by all main Russian TV channels.\n\nIt's called \"Results of the Year with Vladimir Putin.\" In effect, it is the world according to Vladimir Putin.\n\nA world in which the Kremlin leader is right about absolutely everything.\n\n\"I've learnt to identify what's most important,\" President Putin announces, \"and then do everything to achieve those aims, without paying attention to the unimportant.\"\n\nHis war aims haven't changed. The anchor puts a question to Putin which has been sent in by a viewer. It's about Russia's \"special military operation\" in Ukraine: \"When will there be peace?\"\n\n\"When we achieve our goals,\" replies the president.\n\nThis time last year, Vladimir Putin was under intense pressure. His \"special operation\" had gone badly wrong.\n\nBy the Kremlin's own admission, the Russian army had suffered \"significant\" losses. Ukraine was clawing back Russian-occupied territory: the situation had forced the Russian president into a \"partial mobilisation\", drafting hundreds of thousands of Russian men to fight in Ukraine.\n\nNo surprise, then, that the Kremlin cancelled last year's Putin phone-in and end of year news conference, which are normally two separate events.\n\nFast forward a year. The Russian authorities sense growing war fatigue across Europe and in the United States. And Ukraine's counter-offensive has failed to make the impact Kyiv had been hoping for.\n\nVladimir Putin is sounding increasingly confident about the situation on the battlefield.\n\n\"Practically along the whole line of contact our armed force are, to put it mildly, improving their situation,\" the president says.\n\nThe phone-in part of the show is designed to portray President Putin as Russia's Mr Fix-it and to boost his popularity ahead of next March's presidential election.\n\nIn a video message, one Russian pensioner complains about the rising price of eggs.\n\n\"My favourite president,\" she declares, \"please influence the situation.\"\n\nI look away from the president and up at a giant screen that's showing text messages sent in by viewers. They make fascinating reading.\n\nThere's plenty of praise for Putin.\n\n\"How do we make sure Putin lives forever?\" one message reads. \"A strong Putin is a strong Russia.\"\n\nBut there are critical texts, too: \"Does Putin want to end the war?\"\n\n\"Vladimir Vladimirovich, you've been in the job too long.\"\n\n\"When will power change in Russia?\"\n\n\"Could you tell me how to move to the Russia that we see on TV here?\"\n\nNone of these criticisms is put to the president during the broadcast or read out on air. Hardly surprising. This TV extravaganza is designed to promote Putin, not cast doubt on his work.\n\nBut the fact they've made it to the video screen suggests the Kremlin, at least, feels the need to hint at the existence of different views - without giving them too much prominence.\n\nThe four-hour marathon is carefully choreographed. I may have been invited, but the president won't take any of my questions.\n\nPity. Nearly two years on from the invasion he ordered, there was so much to ask.", "Campaigners calling for cots to be given to homeless families with infants say they're frustrated ministers are refusing to make stronger commitments.\n\nThe government is looking to update its guidance to make it clear that councils must provide \"space for a cot\".\n\nBut campaigners want cots provided, in an effort to tackle child deaths.\n\nHomelessness and temporary accommodation were factors in the deaths of at least 34 children between 2019 and 2022, records show.\n\nThe majority of those children were less than a year old at the time of their death, according to a review of the National Child Mortality Database carried out on behalf of a parliamentary group (APPG) which focuses on Households in Temporary Accommodation.\n\nSince then, the number of children living in temporary accommodation has increased.\n\nThe most up-to-date government statistics suggest there were 138,930 children living in temporary accommodation in England at the end of June, the highest since records began in 2004.\n\nCouncils in England are obliged to help anyone who is homeless, or in danger of becoming homeless within the next eight weeks.\n\nThey are not currently required to provide a cot or Moses basket for children under two, though some do choose to do so. Babies under 12-months-old do not count at all when considering whether a home is big enough for families to live in.\n\nThis week, campaigners hoping for a change in the Homelessness Code of Guidance met the Homelessness Minister Felicity Buchan.\n\nIn a social media post she wrote: \"The death of a child is heart-breaking. All temporary accommodation must be safe and suitable for households with babies.\"\n\nMinutes of the meeting, which the BBC has seen, suggests the existing guidance will be revised \"to make it explicit that there should be adequate space in line with the suitability regulations and encouraging the provision of a cot.\"\n\nThe chair of the APPG for Households in Temporary Accommodation, Labour MP Siobhan McDonagh, welcomed the progress, but said it did not go far enough to have an impact.\n\n\"It's the wild west out there in terms of getting any temporary accommodation. Councils are under such pressure that just 'encouraging' isn't going to be effective\", she said.\n\nBut campaigners are now calling on the Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove to intervene. They say that \"encouraging\" there to be enough \"space\" isn't good enough, highlighting that many temporary accommodation placements are arranged at the last minute.\n\nEvidence suggests there is a \"strong link\" between sudden infant death syndrome and inadequate sleeping arrangements. They believe that even just one night without a cot could be fatal for an infant.\n\n\"We wouldn't expect people to take their own beds so why would we expect them to take their own cot?\" said Dr Laura Neilson, founder of the Shared Health Foundation.\n\n\"There should never be a night where a kid doesn't have a cot. We're paying landlords hundreds of pounds a night. Providing cots is implementable and cheap. These deaths are morally indefensible so why aren't we doing it.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Department of Levelling Up and Housing said: \"Everyone deserves to live in a home that is safe, decent and warm and temporary accommodation helps to ensure that no family is without a roof over their head.\n\n\"But local authorities must ensure temporary accommodation is suitable for families, who have the right to appeal if it doesn't meet their needs.\n\n\"We are determined to end the practice of putting families with children in B&Bs, and we are committed to addressing poor quality housing in all its forms.\"", "This migrant boat - in a separate incident - tried to cross the Channel in October\n\nOne person has died and another is in a life-threatening condition after a boat carrying migrants partially deflated in the Channel.\n\nMore than 60 people were on board the boat, which got into trouble about 8km (5 miles) from the French coast, according to the French coastguard.\n\nA group of 66 survivors was taken to Calais, where the injured person is being treated in hospital.\n\nThe French coastguard said two other people may still be missing.\n\nOne female casualty could not be resuscitated and a second person was flown by helicopter to a Calais hospital in a life-threatening condition, the French coastguard said.\n\nA spokesperson said no other people had been found in the search for survivors.\n\nSearches are continuing by air and sea, they said.\n\nA spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: \"Thoughts are with all those affected\".\n\nThey added the incident \"serves as a stark reminder of how dangerous these crossings are.\"\n\nFrench officials said they reached the boat at 01:15 local time (00:15 GMT), finding that one of the boat's tubes was deflated and there were people in the water.\n\nTwo of the rescued migrants were found unconscious, with one in a life-threatening condition evacuated by helicopter to a Calais hospital.\n\nThe other could not be resuscitated.\n\nThe others on the boat were taken to Calais for treatment, and the coastguard said sea and air searches would continue.\n\nThe rescue occurred a few miles off the French coast near Grand-Fort Philippe, 20km east of Calais.\n\nEnver Solomon, chief executive officer of the Refugee Council, said: \"This is yet another terrible and avoidable tragedy.\n\n\"These appalling deaths are becoming too common and there is an urgent need to put in place safe routes so people don't have to take dangerous journeys across the world's busiest shipping lane.\"\n\nHome secretary James Cleverly said in a post on X: \"The incident in the Channel last night is a horrific reminder of the people smugglers' brutality. 25,000 people have been averted from crossing this year - but we must and will do more.\n\nIt was the first attempted crossing for 11 days due to windy weather in the Channel.\n\nBut 730 people made the journey in the first three days of December when the sea was calm.\n\nSo far this year more than 29,000 people have reached the UK in small boats - though this represents a fall of about a third on the same period last year.\n\nThe UK government has said that \"stopping the boats\" crossing the English Channel is a key political priority.\n\nAs part of this, it is pushing ahead with a plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, despite the Supreme Court ruling that the policy is unlawful.\n\nThe English Channel is one of the most dangerous and busiest shipping lanes in the world, with 600 tankers and 200 ferries passing through it every day.\n\nFrench authorities confirmed two people had died in a similar incident off the coast of France last month.\n\nIn August, at least six people died after a boat carrying migrants sank off the French coast.\n\nIn November 2021, at least 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK from France, the highest recorded number of deaths from a single incident.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "More than 300,000 people in England are likely to spend Christmas experiencing some form of homelessness, according to a housing charity.\n\nShelter's estimated figure is 14% up on last year, with most of those affected being in temporary accommodation.\n\nThe charity said a lack of social housing and unaffordable private rents was some of the reasons for the rise.\n\nThe government said it was spending £2bn on tackling homelessness and plans to end rough sleeping completely.\n\nShelter estimates suggest that, across 2023, an average of 309,550 people are in some form of homelessness - with nearly 280,000 of those in temporary accommodation arranged by councils.\n\nIt collated the figures using government statistics, data collected by other homelessness charities, and responses from 40 out of the 317 local authorities in England to Freedom of Information requests to find out the number of people living in accommodation provided by social services.\n\nShelter said the numbers could be higher due to some \"hidden homelessness\" such as sofa-surfing.\n\nPolly Neate, Shelter's chief executive said many people will \"spend this time of year in a tiny hostel room or freezing in a doorway\".\n\nShe said: \"The housing emergency is out of control. Chronic under-investment in social homes has left people unable to afford skyrocketing private rents and plunged record numbers into homelessness.\"\n\nGovernment figures published in November showed that the numbers of households and children living in temporary accommodation in England have hit new record highs.\n\nIt showed that 105,750 households were in temporary accommodation at the end of June, a new high since records began 25 years ago and an increase of 10.5% compared with the end of June 2022.\n\nThe total number of children in temporary accommodation - a measure which was first recorded in 2004 - was 138,930 as of the end of June this year.\n\nVictoria Fitzsimons, from near Manchester, told the BBC she and three of her children were living in noisy temporary accommodation above a pub, after the landlord of the house she was privately renting suddenly increased the price.\n\nShe said she was initially placed in two different B&Bs - one of which she described as \"disgusting\" - before they were moved to a three-bedroom property.\n\nShe was happy with the situation there, but was told to move again after what she was told was an administrative error.\n\n\"I felt suicidal. I'm in a better place now, but I can't believe how bad my mental health was,\" she said, adding that she came out in stress-induced hives.\n\nThe family has since been moved to new temporary accommodation above a pub, which has mould and damp and was \"really noisy\".\n\nShe said that her children often cannot sleep, and that their mental health had deteriorated.\n\n\"My 10-year-old has panic attacks. Her mental health is horrific,\" she said.\n\nThey are now waiting to be moved to new temporary accommodation, before they are eventually settled in permanent accommodation.\n\nShe said she had complained to Trafford Council about the noise, as well as about mould and damp in the property, but had been ignored.\n\nIn a statement, Trafford Council said it has been been in contact with the family since they were told to leave, as they have been \"awarded the highest priority band on our housing register to access social housing and have been offered financial assistance towards a deposit and the first month's rent for a private rented property\".\n\n\"While we continue to assist the family to secure settled housing, we have provided temporary accommodation for them,\" a spokesperson for the council told the BBC.\n\n\"Due to the exceptional demand on homelessness services, and limited availability of temporary accommodation, we are restricted to what we can offer at any one time.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added it will contact the family again to arrange a time for to treat the damp and mould.\n\nLiz Rutherfoord, chief executive of Single Homeless Project, which focuses on London, said there had been a \"big increase\" in the number of people rough sleeping in recent months, which she described as \"just the tip of the iceberg\", with many of those classed as homeless living in temporary accommodation.\n\nShe also cited a decline in social housing as being behind the problem, as well as a freeze on the Local Housing Allowance - used to work out housing benefits - which had been in place since 2020.\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt ended the freeze in his Autumn Statement, and the increase will come into effect in April, but Ms Rutherfoord called for it to be introduced \"immediately\".\n\nShe said \"people are not always a very long way from homelessness, and the circumstances that can lead you into homelessness,\" adding: \"Some people will have something to fall back on, but not every has. So you can end up with very short notice with nowhere to live.\"\n\nIn response to the Shelter figures, a spokesman for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said that \"everyone deserves a safe place to call home\".\n\nHe said £1bn was being made available to councils to provide financial support for people to find a home and move out of temporary accommodation.\n\n\"Temporary accommodation is an important way of making sure no family is without a roof over their head, but councils must ensure it is temporary and suitable for families, who have a right to appeal if it doesn't meet their household's needs,\" the spokesperson said.\n\n\"Through our Rough Sleeping Strategy, we will continue to work to end rough sleeping completely.\"\n• None Braverman wants to curb use of tents by homeless", "This is the most significant moment so far in Prince Harry's legal battles with newspapers\n\nPrince Harry has won 15 claims in his case accusing Mirror Group Newspapers of unlawfully gathering information for stories published about him.\n\nA judge has ruled in his favour on almost half of the sample of 33 stories used in his claims of phone hacking and other methods.\n\nA High Court ruling found evidence of \"widespread and habitual\" use of phone hacking at the Mirror newspapers.\n\nPrince Harry described it as a \"great day for truth\" and accountability.\n\nHe was awarded £140,600 in damages and in a statement read out on the Duke of Sussex's behalf outside the High Court, his lawyer David Sherborne called the ruling \"vindicating and affirming\".\n\nPrince Harry won on his claim about how this story was obtained\n\n\"This case is not just about hacking - it is about a systemic practice of unlawful and appalling behaviour, followed by cover ups and destruction of evidence, the shocking scale of which can only be revealed through these proceedings,\" he said.\n\n\"I've been told that slaying dragons will get you burned. But in light of today's victory and the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press - it's a worthwhile price to pay,\" Prince Harry's statement said.\n\nHe also called on the police and prosecuting authorities to \"investigate bringing charges against the company and those who have broken the law\".\n\nIn a statement, the Metropolitan Police said it would \"carefully consider the civil judgment handed down today at the High Court. There is no ongoing investigation.\"\n\nThe stakes have also been high for the Mirror newspapers - the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People - with estimates that £100m has already been spent on damages and legal costs over previous hacking cases.\n\nMr Justice Fancourt ruled that unlawful information gathering had been \"widespread\" at all three of the Mirror titles and had become \"habitual\".\n\nAmong the headlines of articles on which Prince Harry won his claims was \"Harry is a Chelsy fan\" - about his relationship with Chelsy Davy - and \"Davy stated\" about the couple arguing.\n\nPrince Harry has complained about his personal relationships being targeted and he also won his claim over the story \"Harry's date with Gladiators star\", which was about him visiting television presenter Caroline Flack.\n\nIn response a Mirror Group Newspapers spokeswoman said it welcomed the judgement which gave the business \"clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago\".\n\n\"Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid appropriate compensation,\" she said.\n\nThe landmark ruling follows Prince Harry's appearance at the High Court in June, where he became the first senior royal of modern times to give such extensive evidence in court in person.\n\nOver two days, he was grilled about his claims that the group's newspapers had published many stories about him, over several years, based on phone hacking and other unlawful ways of obtaining information.\n\nPrince Harry faced questions from the Mirror lawyers in court\n\nIn his findings, Mr Justice Fancourt concluded that Prince Harry had faced phone hacking - although to \"a modest extent\" - and other forms of dishonest gathering of information.\n\nPrince Harry had told the court a sustained breach of his privacy had undermined his relationships, such as with ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, and he had faced \"intrusion and hate\".\n\n\"For my whole life, the press has misled me and covered up the wrongdoing,\" he said.\n\nThe Mirror Group's lawyers had called the allegations \"wildly overstated\", unsuccessfully arguing that the prince's evidence had failed to definitively prove a single example of being hacked.\n\nDamages have been awarded - but this has been about much more than the money, with the prince wanting his day in court to prove his allegations of phone hacking and other dishonest intrusions, which he has blamed for much anxiety and disruption in his life.\n\nPrince Harry's success could open the door to dozens of others said to be considering claims.\n\nAlthough two people who brought claims alongside Prince Harry - Nikki Sanderson and Fiona Wightman - were ruled out of time.\n\nThe judge's ruling said that the newspaper group's board \"as a whole\" did not know about the use of phone hacking, but he believed former chief executive officer Sly Bailey and former group legal director Paul Vickers were aware.\n\nMr Justice Fancourt also ruled that he accepted the evidence of journalist Omid Scobie, who gave evidence that then-Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan had been told about a use of phone hacking relating to Kylie Minogue.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBut Mr Morgan robustly rejected the claims made in court as being made by people with an \"axe to grind\", labelling Prince Harry as \"hypocritical\" in his privacy battle when he had \"trashed his family in public\".\n\nMr Morgan denied any knowledge of the hacking claims: \"I've never hacked a phone or told anybody else to hack a phone.\"\n\nPrince Harry's claim against Mirror Group is one of several legal battles he is fighting against newspaper groups, including Associated Newspapers and News Group Newspapers.\n\nHe has had many procedural legal skirmishes and claims and counter-claims - but this was the most significant ruling so far, with a judge reaching a decision after a full trial.\n\nYou can see more royal stories in the free BBC Royal Watch newsletter emailed each week - sign up here from within the UK. or here, from outside the UK.", "Simon Cheng, a former employee of the UK's Hong Kong consulate, is among the five activists that Hong Kong police have put bounties on\n\nHong Kong police have offered rewards of HK$1m (£100,400; $128,000) for information leading to the arrests of five pro-democracy activists.\n\nThey include Simon Cheng, a former UK consulate employee detained in 2019 in a high-profile case.\n\nThe others are Frances Hui, Joey Siu, Johnny Fok and Tony Choi. All are accused of violating the harsh National Security Law.\n\nThe move was condemned by the US and UK where several of the activists reside.\n\nThe five individuals have been accused of various offences including \"inciting secession\" and \"colluding with foreign forces\" to endanger national security.\n\n\"They sold their country and Hong Kong, and neglected Hongkongers' interests,\" National Security Department Chief Superintendent Li Kwai-wah said at a press conference. \"The National Security Department will pursue them until the end.\"\n\nMr Li added that the activists have continued to \"engage in activities endangering national security\" after they went overseas.\n\nMr Cheng was detained for two weeks in mainland China while on a business trip in August 2019. The former employee of the UK's Hong Kong consulate was accused of inciting political unrest in the city.\n\nMr Cheng told the BBC later that year that he was \"shackled, blindfolded and hooded\" while under detention.\n\nThe 33-year-old was later granted asylum in the UK and went on to set up Hongkongers in Britain, a UK-wide non-profit organisation that supports Hongkongers moving to the UK.\n\nIn response to the bounty announcement, Mr Cheng said: \"Being hunted by China (Hong Kong)'s secret police, under a one-million-dollar bounty, is a lifelong honour.\n\n\"If the government deems the quest for democracy and freedom a crime, we embrace the charges to reveal the genuine face of social justice, unyielding to authority,\" he wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.\n\nMs Siu said on X: \"I will never be silenced, I will never back down.\" The 24-year-old played a key role in the Hong Kong protests of 2019 before she fled to the US.\n\nUK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has called the Hong Kong police's move \"a threat to our democracy and fundamental human rights\".\n\n\"We will not tolerate any attempt by any foreign power to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities in the UK,\" he said in a statement on Thursday.\n\nMr Cameron added that he had instructed officials in Hong Kong, Beijing and London to \"raise this issue as a matter of urgency with the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities\".\n\nIn response, the Chinese embassy in the UK said it \"firmly opposes the UK side's denigration of the rule of law\" in Hong Kong and \"its sheltering of persons on the wanted list and interference in Hong Kong-related affairs\".\n\nMeanwhile US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the move shows \"blatant disregard\" for international norms.\n\n\"We deplore any attempt to apply the Beijing-imposed national security law extraterritorially and reiterate that Hong Kong authorities have no jurisdiction within United States borders,\" he said.\n\nIn July, Hong Kong announced similar bounties for eight other activists, sparking international criticism.\n\nNone of them have been arrested, though authorities have detained several people accused of supporting them.\n\nThe earlier batch of wanted activists include Nathan Law, who was Hong Kong's youngest lawmaker before he was jailed for his involvement in the pro-democracy Umbrella Protests of 2014.\n\nHuman rights group Amnesty International on Thursday called on Hong Kong to withdraw the bounties and release those accused of assisting the exiled activists.\n\n\"These bounties not only threaten the liberty and safety of the activists targeted, they also have far-reaching consequences on other activists who are now left feeling increasingly uncertain about their security, whether in Hong Kong or overseas,\" said Sarah Brooks, the group's deputy regional director for China.\n\nShe called on host countries of the targeted activists to \"protect them against long-arm persecution by the Hong Kong authorities for simply exercising their human rights\".\n\nClose to 300 people have so far been arrested under Hong Kong's controversial National Security Law. These include Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai who is facing trial on Monday on allegations of colluding with foreign forces including the US.\n\nThe 76-year-old founder of now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper could be sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted.\n\nAnother 47 people including the city's most prominent activists, such as Joshua Wong and Benny Tai, are also currently on trial.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDetectives investigating the disappearance of Gaynor Lord say they still \"can't explain\" why she left work early on the day she went missing.\n\nThe mother-of-three's belongings were found by a member of the public scattered across Wensum Park in Norwich last Friday evening.\n\nHours before, the 55-year-old left work an hour early and is seen on CCTV hurrying through the city centre.\n\nNorfolk Constabulary said her behaviour was \"out of character\".\n\nThe force added there was a \"high probability\" she had entered the River Wensum, which runs alongside the park.\n\nStore cameras captured Gaynor Lord at work shortly before she left\n\nCh Supt Dave Buckley said: \"We can't explain some of her behaviour that day.\n\n\"We're working really closely with the family, her friends and anyone else that we know may have had contact with her in recent days and weeks to try and understand why this may have happened.\"\n\nMs Lord worked as a retail assistant on a gin concession at Jarrolds department store in Norwich city centre.\n\nShe was due to finish work at 16:00 GMT but left via a loading bay at 14:45.\n\nPolice say Ms Lord did not take her usual route home from work\n\nPolice and specialist divers are continuing to search the area where Ms Lord's belongings were found.\n\nNorfolk Constabulary said it might take another \"couple of days\" to complete its search.\n\nOn Thursday, officers released more CCTV footage of her last known movements in the hope it would \"jog the memories\" of anyone who might had seen her.\n\nThirty members of the public are known to have come forward with information about her disappearance.\n\nThe police CCTV appeals have not yet led to any new lines of inquiry, Ch Supt Dave Buckley said.\n\n\"Nobody knows why she's done what she's done and we'll just have to work to see if we can find out,\" he added.\n\nSpecialist divers have been scouring the river for three days\n\nPolice have been outlining the \"extraordinarily challenging\" conditions faced by specialist divers searching the river.\n\nVisibility is said to be between zero and 1ft (0.3m) with temperatures as low as 4C (39F).\n\nThe rapid flow of the river caused by recent rainfall was the biggest problem, the force said.\n\nNorfolk Fire and Rescue has been helping the search, assisted by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service's specialist under water drone.\n\nThree types of sonar - a technique that uses sound to detect objects - have also been used.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A skier just missed hitting a bear on the slopes of Lake Tahoe, California, when it quickly crossed the ski path.\n\nNo one collided with the bear and Tao Feng, who filmed the close encounter, says he saw the bear reunite with its mother on the other side of the trail.", "Haiti - pictured here after heavy rain in June 2023 - is one of the countries featured in the ODI study Image caption: Haiti - pictured here after heavy rain in June 2023 - is one of the countries featured in the ODI study\n\nThe scale of the impacts of climate change on some small islands and developing states can be seen in new research, shared exclusively with the BBC live team.\n\nA study from the ODI global affairs think tank links almost 4,000 lives lost in extreme weather events over the past two decades directly to climate change. It also found that around 39% of economic losses caused by these events are linked to rising temperatures, amounting to some $41bn.\n\nThese losses are very much at the forefront of discussions here at COP28, where countries on Thursday backed - and pledged money for - the launch of a \"loss and damage\" fund that was agreed at COP27 last year in Egypt.\n\nBut experts say the type of finance is just as important as the cash itself.\n\n“These losses are nothing to do with poor governance or vulnerability to extreme weather events that were there anyway, these were directly as a result of climate change,” said ODI lead author Emily Wilkinson.\n\nQuote Message: I think there is a strong moral argument for loss and damage finance to be made available as grants and not loans for particularly vulnerable developing countries.\" from Emily Wilkinson ODI I think there is a strong moral argument for loss and damage finance to be made available as grants and not loans for particularly vulnerable developing countries.\"", "Pontins says customers affected by the closure will be contacted\n\nA north Wales holiday park is to close immediately, its owner has announced.\n\nPontins said its site at Prestatyn, Denbighshire, would shut \"with immediate effect\".\n\nIt also announced that another park at Camber Sands in East Sussex would also close straight away.\n\nOn its website Pontins said: \"Customers whose bookings will be affected by these closures will be contacted by our team and refunded. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.\"\n\nRecord label Tidy Trax had been planning to hold a \"wet and wild weekender\" at the site and said it was \"shocked and concerned\" by the news.\n\nIt said on Facebook it was notified by email at 15:00 GMT about the closure.\n\n\"Our team is actively working to engage with Pontins to gather more information and clarity on the situation,\" a spokesman said.\n\nTidy Trax said it would update its customers within the next 24 hours.\n\nVale of Clwyd MP James Davies called the closure \"unexpected\" and said he was asking for further information from owners Britannia Hotels.\n\nHe wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: \"The site has had a bad reputation for some time and I hope this news brings the potential for welcome change to benefit the town.\"\n\nThe area's Senedd member, Gareth Davies, said the closure was \"sad and sudden\" in a post on X.\n\n\"My thoughts are with the staff, their families and all involved with Pontins Prestatyn at this difficult time,\" he said.", "The Christmas version of the series features notable alumni competing on behalf of their former universities\n\nAn episode of Christmas University Challenge has been pulled after two contestants complained about a lack of provision for their disabilities.\n\nOne of the contestants, who is blind, called the experience \"distressing\".\n\nAudio description, which they said had been promised, was not provided, while a request for subtitles for another contestant, who is neurodivergent, is understood to have been turned down.\n\nThe BBC said it had apologised to the individuals concerned.\n\nThe show's production company Lifted Entertainment, which is part of ITV Studios, also offered its \"sincere apologies\".\n\nChristmas University Challenge, a festive spin-off from the BBC Two quiz show, features teams of distinguished alumni who compete on behalf of their former universities.\n\nBBC News understands that the two contestants flagged disabilities to the producers before the recording.\n\nIt is understood that the production team said subtitles were not possible but that audio description would be provided. However, in the event, audio description did not happen.\n\nOne of the affected contestants said: \"One minute before the show, we were told there was no audio description and that your captain will instead have to explain everything.\"\n\nThe contestant said the visual images, which needed describing, included a pie chart and maps. \"It was distressing,\" they added.\n\nThe other contestant, who is neurodivergent and has challenges with audio processing, said they had requested subtitles in advance, so they wouldn't be at a disadvantage when trying to answer questions at speed.\n\n\"Unfortunately, I was told this wasn't possible,\" they said.\n\nThey also asked for some other accommodations to help manage their sensory needs but say these weren't fully provided.\n\nThey still agreed to participate, but said, due to lack of accommodations and last minute changes, the experience was \"overwhelming and overstimulating\", and that it impacted their ability to function for a week afterwards.\n\nAfter the show was recorded, the two contestants - who have asked not to be named - complained to the BBC and asked for the episode not to be broadcast.\n\n\"I was in touch to say I'd prefer not to have the manifestation of my disability broadcast on network TV in the run-up to Christmas,\" the first contestant said.\n\nOn Friday, the decision was made to pull the episode.\n\nBoth contestants said the decision not to air it was greatly appreciated, and that they had offered to help make the programme more inclusive.\n\nAmol Rajan took over University Challenge hosting duties from Jeremy Paxman earlier this year\n\nA BBC spokesperson said: \"We can confirm that an episode in the upcoming series of Alumni University Challenge will not be broadcast because two of the contestants felt their access requirements were not sufficiently met by the production.\n\n\"We are working closely with producers to improve cross industry access on our programmes to ensure a consistent approach is implemented.\n\n\"We would like to apologise to the individuals and teams concerned, and they have been written to personally by the producers.\"\n\nLifted Entertainment said: \"During the pre-filming briefing for this episode, two contestants requested that certain adjustments be made in order for them to be able to fully participate.\n\n\"However, following the recording, we were made aware that the adjustments made fell short of their requirements. We have spoken to the individuals involved and offered our sincere apologies.\n\n\"Having listened very carefully to their descriptions of their experiences, we agreed with the BBC that the fairest course of action was not to screen this particular edition.\"\n\nFourteen teams are competing in seven first-round matches of Christmas University Challenge. The four top teams go through to the semi-finals, before the last two battle it out to be named Christmas series champions.\n\nThe contestants compete in the same format as the parent show, with teams pitted against each other as they take on a series of questions.\n\nIn the episode in question, which was filmed in November, two Oxford and Cambridge colleges were pitted against each other.\n\nBBC News understands the rest of the festive series is not affected by the decision to pull the episode. The show is presented by the BBC's Amol Rajan.", "Ukraine's security service has blown up a rail connection deep inside Russia, a senior official has told the BBC.\n\nSuccessive explosions are said to have happened on trains running first through a tunnel and then on a bridge in Russia's far east.\n\nRussia has reportedly begun an inquiry into a \"criminal case of terrorism\" after the attacks on the Baikal Amur line running to the border with China.\n\nThe extent of the damage has not been verified by the BBC.\n\nUkrainian sources said that the intention was to \"disable\" an important piece of infrastructure that the Russians sometimes use for military purposes.\n\nAfter the first incident in the Severomuysky tunnel, on Wednesday evening, Russian railway officials said that crew had noticed smoke in a fuel tank and the train was stopped.\n\nAt 15km, Severnomuysky is the longest railway tunnel in Russia and lies in the region of Buryatia, north of Mongolia.\n\nA senior Ukrainian official told the BBC that the freight train had in fact exploded in the tunnel.\n\nThe Russians then fell into the \"trap\" - claimed the official - of using an alternative bridge route.\n\n\"This is exactly what the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) was counting on,\" said the official.\n\n\"During the passage of the train on this 35m-high bridge, explosive devices planted in it went off.\"\n\nThe second explosion has not been corroborated elsewhere although Russian telegram channel Baza has reported that another train was later blown up in the same area.\n\nThe incidents appear to have happened on Wednesday and Thursday, with no known casualties.\n\nAccording to reports, the explosions have caused damage to fuel tanks and rail lines.\n\nThere's been no official or public comment from the Russian government.", "Ahed Tamimi, 22, was seen reuniting with her mother in Ramallah in the West Bank\n\nActivist Ahed Tamimi was one of 30 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel on Wednesday, as part of the truce deal with Hamas.\n\nIsrael's prison service said a mixture of men and women had been freed \"from a number of [its] facilities\".\n\nMs Tamimi, 22, was arrested earlier this month over an Instagram post, which her family say she did not write.\n\nAs of Wednesday night, 102 hostages have been freed, while 210 Palestinian prisoners have been released.\n\nImages showed Ms Tamimi, who had been held in Damon Prison, near the Israeli city of Haifa, returned to the West Bank late on Wednesday.\n\nThe prominent activist was pictured having an emotional reunion with her mother.\n\nOther prisoners, whose names have not yet been shared, were also seen reuniting with family members.\n\nThe social media post Ms Tamimi was detained over is no longer visible online, nor is the account it came from, which carried her name and photo.\n\nIsraeli media reported that she had threatened to \"slaughter\" Jewish settlers, but her mother said the account did not belong to her daughter.\n\n\"There are dozens of [online] pages in Ahed's name with her photo, with which she has no connection,\" she told AFP news agency at the time of her arrest.\n\nIsrael's military told AFP she was arrested on suspicion of \"inciting violence and terrorist activities\".\n\nAs a teenager, Ms Tamimi became a symbol of resistance to Israel's occupation of the West Bank.\n\nWhen she was 14 years old she was photographed biting an Israeli soldier who was trying to detain her younger brother.\n\nTwo years later, she was filmed slapping and kicking an Israeli soldier in an altercation outside her home and was subsequently arrested and sentenced to eight months in prison.\n\nHer father, Bassem Tamimi, is an activist who used to regularly organise protests against the Israeli occupation and has been repeatedly jailed.\n\nMs Tamimi is one of hundreds of Palestinians who have been arrested in the West Bank since 7 October, when Hamas gunmen from Gaza attacked southern Israel.\n\nIsrael says the arrests have been made to limit violence during a time when unrest has surged in the West Bank.\n\nOn Thursday, three Israelis were killed when two Hamas gunmen opened fire at a crowded bus stop in West Jerusalem during morning rush hour.\n\nThe two attackers had come from occupied East Jerusalem.\n\nSixteen Israelis were injured and the attackers were killed by police and an armed civilian.\n\nEarlier on Wednesday, two Palestinian boys, aged eight and 14, were shot and killed during a raid by the Israeli army in the West Bank city of Jenin.\n\nThe Israeli military said explosive devices were thrown at its soldiers and that they responded with live fire.", "Lawrence Jones drugged the women so they were \"partially conscious\" before raping them, the trial heard\n\nMulti-millionaire tech entrepreneur Lawrence Jones has been jailed for 15 years for committing two rapes and a sexual assault.\n\nJones, 55, former boss of Manchester-based web hosting provider UKFast, was convicted in January of assaulting a female employee.\n\nA second trial found him guilty of drugging and raping two women when he was a hotel bar pianist in the 1990s.\n\nThe father-of-four set up UKFast with his wife in September 1999.\n\nJones, of Hale, Greater Manchester, had already spent 10 months in jail.\n\nA reporting restriction was imposed by a judge at Manchester Crown Court stopping the media from reporting on the first case, so as not to prejudice the jury in his second trial.\n\nThe trial heard Jones had left the two women \"stupefied and partially conscious\" before attacking them.\n\nOne woman said she was given something to sniff at his flat which had an \"immediate impact\" on her, while the other was overly affected by a glass of wine and a few puffs of what she believed was cannabis.\n\nShe told police she \"felt frozen, as if she were made of lead\" as Jones had sex with her so could not fight back. Jones had told her he could do what he wanted to her because no-one knew she was there.\n\nLawrence Jones was convicted of sexual assault in an earlier trial in January which can only be reported now\n\nThe other woman was \"not completely conscious\", telling police: \"It was so bizarre and so fast, and so sort of opportunistic.\"\n\nThe jury in the first trial heard that in January 2019 an ex-employee told police Jones forced himself on her in 2010.\n\nA second woman said Jones sexually assaulted her in a hotel on a 2013 business trip while she worked at UK Fast.\n\nHe was cleared of raping and sexually assaulting the first complainant but convicted of one count of sexual assault against the second complainant.\n\nPassing sentence, Judge Sarah Johnston told Jones: \"The three offences highlight that you thought you could behave with impunity.\n\n\"They are characterised by entitlement, dominance and a total lack of regard for the rights and freedoms of these three women and, in my view, an element of sinister premeditation.\"\n\nJones received a 14-year sentence for one of the rapes, a seven-year concurrent jail term for the second and a 12-month consecutive custodial sentence for the sexual assault\n\nGreater Manchester Police praised his victims for their \"immense bravery\" which \"held Jones accountable for his heinous actions\".\n\nIsla Chilton, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said Jones was a \"sexual predator\" who had caused \"lasting emotional trauma\" to his victims.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mark Lovell was shot a number of times at close range in his car in Newry on 1 December\n\nPolice investigating the \"ruthless\" murder of Newry man Mark Lovell have revealed his killers tailed him home from a visit to his sick mother.\n\nFootage of the gunmen's car has been released in a new appeal for information on the first anniversary of the 58-year-old's killing.\n\nMr Lovell's widow, Eileen Hughes, said in a statement that his devotion to his mother \"was cruelly used against him\".\n\nShe urged anyone with information to come forward to the police.\n\nSix people were arrested following the attack, but so far no-one has been charged.\n\nPolice have not disclosed what they believe the motive was, but one possibility is that the murder is linked to a cross-border feud involving drugs.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mark Lovell: Police release CCTV footage in connection with the murder\n\nMr Lovell, a father-of-three, was known to the the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) prior to his killing.\n\nThe car used in the attack, a black Mercedes, had been stolen in Dublin in July 2022 and after the attack was found burned out in Dundalk.\n\nDet Ch Insp Anthony Kelly said CCTV footage showed the killers following Mr Lovell in south Armagh on the day of the shooting.\n\nHe said: \"I now know they followed Mark earlier that afternoon to Meigh where he was spending time with his sick mother.\n\nDet Ch Insp Kelly says this was a \"planned, ruthless and targeted attack which shocked an entire community and which has left a loving family bereft\"\n\nAfter leaving Meigh, Mr Lovell headed to Ardcarn Park in Newry, where gunmen, lying in wait, shot him multiple times outside his home.\n\nDet Ch Insp Kelly added: \"This was a planned, ruthless and targeted attack which shocked an entire community and which has left a loving family bereft.\n\n\"This violence has no place in our society. One life was taken and any passer-by could easily have been injured or killed by the reckless volley of bullets.\"\n\nMs Hughes added: \"Each day Mark made his way to look after his mother in Meigh. Ultimately, this devotion of care was cruelly used against him by his murderers.\n\n\"Mark was an only child and was his elderly mother's carer. Since his murder she has been in hospital, broken-hearted. She remains there still today.\"\n\nThe car used in the attack, a black Mercedes, had been stolen in Dublin in July last year\n\nPolice hope by releasing the CCTV footage, people may come forward with information to help the investigation, which also involves An Garda Síochána in the Republic of Ireland.\n\nDet Ch Insp Kelly said: \"I am appealing to anyone with information, or who may have captured dashcam footage, to come forward.\n\n\"I understand that people may be afraid to speak up, but please be assured that information can be given to Crimestoppers with total anonymity.\"\n• None Man shot dead in attack in Newry was Mark Lovell", "Former head teacher Frances Akinde believes Isaac's death could have been prevented\n\nA former head teacher has spoken out after an autistic student, whose family had been pleading for support, died.\n\nIsaac Uzoegbu, 16, was hit by a car after he ran from his house into the road. His parents were struggling to manage as his behaviour became increasingly out of control.\n\nHe is the third autistic boy BBC News has identified to die in the Kent and Medway area over the past three years.\n\nMedway Council said it had given prompt support to the family.\n\nIsaac, who also had learning disabilities, died five days after the accident outside his house in Gillingham, Kent, just after Christmas two years ago.\n\nThe head teacher of his special needs school at the time, Frances Akinde, believes his death could have been prevented if his local authority, Medway Council, had put in extra behaviour support for him.\n\nExperts have told BBC News that autistic children are far more likely to flee and put themselves in danger if they feel overwhelmed. Too often local authorities fail to recognise the risks and ways to manage a child's behaviour, they say.\n\nIsaac Uzoegbu, who was autistic and had learning disabilities, died aged 16 after running into the road\n\nMrs Akinde contacted BBC News after reading about our investigation which highlighted the dozens of autistic people who had died following serious failings in their care by their local health and social services across England and Wales.\n\nOf the 51 we identified, we highlighted the deaths of two boys from the Kent and Medway area - Sammy Alban Stanley, 13, and 15-year-old Stefan Kluibenschadl - after the same coroner called for action to prevent future deaths.\n\nThe coroner said if children with complex needs were not given access to the care and treatment they needed, it was \"predictable that a similar incident may arise\". Mrs Akinde said the failings in Isaac's care resembled those in Sammy's death two years earlier.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"I said to myself, if I stay quiet on this, I'm part of that system.\"\n\nSammy and Stefan died within two years of each other. Both were autistic, both went to the same school, both were under the care of NHS Kent and Medway and both experienced serious failings in their care.\n\nSammy died in April 2020, nearly two years before Isaac. He fell from a cliff near his house in Ramsgate.\n\nHis autism - combined with Prader-Willi Syndrome, which causes learning disabilities and behavioural challenges - meant he could often run away after becoming overwhelmed and would disassociate from the world around him. At these times, he would lose any understanding of danger. Sammy's mum had begged for more support.\n\nSix months before Stefan's death, he began to really struggle with his mental health. Despite a referral from his GP, NHS Kent and Medway rejected his family's pleas for help.\n\nThe coroner ruled Stefan had died as a result of his own actions, but she said she could not be sure of his intention.\n\nIsaac's family have given Mrs Akinde permission to tell Isaac's story on their behalf.\n\n\"He was just the most joyful young boy,\" recalls the former head teacher of Rivermead School in Gillingham. \"Everyone remembers Isaac for his smile.\"\n\nHis behaviour began to change as he hit adolescence. Mrs Akinde says as he started to struggle socially, he became increasingly anxious, frightened and began to lash out.\n\nThe coroner examining the deaths of Sammy Alban Stanley and Stefan Kluibenschadl warned of the risk of other fatalities\n\nIsaac's behaviour began to escalate in early September 2021, and Mrs Akinde says the school was doing all it could to manage it. She says she was in regular contact with the local authority but, despite her pleas, little support came. Medway Council disputes this, saying it was not made aware of Isaac's issues until late November.\n\nHis family adapted their small, terraced home, by changing the living room into a bedroom and living area for Isaac - to give him more space and to try to prevent him from feeling so overwhelmed.\n\nMrs Akinde says the situation reached crisis point in early December, just a few weeks before the accident. A referral to the local authority had been made on 25 November and assessments were still taking place.\n\nWith the Christmas holidays approaching, Mrs Akinde and her team were worried how Isaac would cope without the structure and routine of school.\n\nThe school offered respite provision over the holiday to help Isaac and his family, which would have had to be paid for by Medway Council.\n\nThe former head teacher says this offer was turned down because it was not seen as financially viable.\n\nThe local authority told the family to lock the door every night in case he ran away, as his behaviour became more unpredictable and volatile.\n\nMrs Akinde says they felt they tried everything they could. \"We had begged the local authority for help at school and at home, we checked in with the parents,\" she says.\n\nBut their worst fears materialised. On 28 December, his father, who was also caring for his three other children, fell asleep and didn't lock the door.\n\nIsaac escaped barefoot and ran into the path of an oncoming car.\n\nHe died five days later after suffering major head injuries.\n\nHolding a card from Isaac, in which he had drawn a big smiley face, Mrs Akinde says tearfully, \"he shouldn't have died in this way\".\n\nIsaac sent this card to Mrs Akinde to thank her for helping him feel safe while he was at school\n\nDr Sarah Cassidy, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham who specialises in autism research, says between 30% and 50% of autistic children may flee an area when they are overwhelmed - which researchers call \"elopement\".\n\n\"As many as a third who elope experience severe or even fatal injuries,\" she says.\n\n\"There is a clear lack of understanding of autism in this case and it's something we see time and time again.\"\n\nShe says even ordering the family a magnetic lock so the front door was secured automatically might have made a difference.\n\nMrs Akinde highlighted the lack of support for Isaac's family in a child death review - a process which takes place after any child dies in England and which should inform the coroner's investigations at the inquest.\n\nBBC News has obtained an audio recording of Isaac's inquest. Neither the school or the local authority were asked to give evidence.\n\nThe coroner ruled that Isaac's death was due to a road traffic collision.\n\nThe BBC approached Kent and Medway Coroner Service for comment but it did not respond.\n\nThe accident that killed Isaac took place on the road where he lived in Gillingham, Kent\n\nMedway Council told the BBC it had acted promptly to provide direct support to the family, and it arranged an emergency review about Isaac's future education after becoming aware of the former head teacher's concerns, adding it was \"truly a tragic accident\".\n\nWhile Medway Council has responsibility for social services provision, NHS Kent and Medway oversaw Isaac's child death review.\n\nAlison Cannon, Kent and Medway's chief nurse, said the loss of a child is traumatic and it took its statutory role very seriously, adding that it had \"followed all national guidance and law\".\n\nAnne Longfield, the former children's commissioner, told BBC News that having so many different organisations involved in a child's care often means it is hard to find who was responsible after a tragedy.\n\nShe said: \"No-one is clear enough whose job it is to keep these children safe.\"\n\nMrs Akinde says she was not only devastated by Isaac's death, but also by the lack of accountability afterwards.\n\nShe says: \"I want Isaac to be an example of what happens when you don't care enough.\"", "Aisha and Bilal Zyadna were among about 240 people taken hostage by Hamas gunmen in the 7 October attack\n\nEach evening, Naeema Zyadna waits for the phone to ring. Since the Israel-Hamas temporary truce deal began last week, she's been expecting word that her children who were taken hostage by Hamas - 16-year-old Aisha and 18-year-old Bilal - are coming home. But they haven't yet.\n\nThere are only a handful of child hostages left inside Gaza. Under the agreement struck between Israel and Hamas, under-19s were supposed to be released from captivity. On the sixth day, five more were freed, and almost 40 have now been returned home in total. But so far, Aisha and Bilal haven't been among them.\n\nNaeema told me she desperately hopes to feel that happiness herself, and can't understand why it hasn't happened yet. With just minutes until the ceasefire was due to end on Thursday morning the deal was extended again, for a seventh day. The publication of each additional hostage list brings fresh hope that her children's names will be on it.\n\nOn the morning of 7 October, Aisha and Bilal had gone with their father - Naeema's husband, Yousef - to work in a cowshed near the Israel-Gaza perimeter. Another son joined them, 22-year-old Hamza. Aisha was only there to have a picnic with her father. All four were kidnapped.\n\nThe family's older son, Hamza, who is 22, is also being held\n\nThe Zyadna family live in a modest Bedouin village in the southern Negev desert, near the city of Rahat.\n\nArabs make up around a fifth of Israel's population, with many of them preferring to be called Palestinian citizens of Israel. Fewer than 10 of the hostages taken by Hamas and other factions in Gaza during the brutal attacks were from the Bedouin community, and double that number are believed to have been killed. A private, nomadic community, their stories of that day have been heard far less than others.\n\nArabic-speaking and Muslim, the Bedouin are fiercely proud of their heritage, and the Zyadnas talk of the difficulties they've faced in trying to protect their culture and their land. Naeema says her faith gives her strength, and describes her belief that the fate of her husband and children is in the hands of Allah.\n\nNaeema's eyes fill with tears as we sit and talk outside her home, with the sound of her grandchildren playing nearby.\n\n\"Why during these 54 days has neither my daughter nor my son been released? Their father wasn't either. Why does Hamas not set them free? Why does Israel not call for their release like it did with others?\" she asks. \"They are young, in their teens and early 20s. Their father is diabetic and suffers from hypertension. He takes injections. Why were they not released?\"\n\nBilal's car sits close to his mother's house. Locked and empty, the family have left it in exactly the same place as he last parked it. They don't want to move it - they're waiting for him to be freed to come back and drive it again himself.\n\nThe children's father Yousef was also kidnapped by Hamas\n\nAbove the small village is a piece of flat land, where a few coloured flags flutter in the wind. It's where marriage ceremonies are normally held, and where the community are hoping to hold a huge party to celebrate the return of their loved ones when they come back home.\n\nA short walk away, past a pen filled with curious, chattering white geese, Ali Zyadna sits drinking tiny cups of dark coffee. He is Yousef's brother, and holds up a poster covered with photos of his relatives' faces.\n\nThe family shared a photo with us - a dark and distressing contrast to the smiling images from the placard. Taken from Hamas media channels and widely circulated, it shows Bilal and Hamza lying on their stomachs on the ground, the clothing removed from their upper bodies.\n\nA Hamas photo showed gunmen standing over Bilal and Hamza Zyadna, as well as two Thai men, on 7 October\n\nTwo Thai hostages lie close by, and two armed men loom over the group. One points his rifle at the ground with his finger close to the trigger. Extra ammunition is tucked into the green body armour he's wearing, and a Palestinian flag is visible on the front. The other man trains his weapons directly on the captives.\n\nAli's message is clear: \"I'm speaking these words so Hamas will hear. I want to ask them to regard this as humanitarian and bring back our kids. They have returned two more Russians without any connection to the agreement. They brought back the Thais without anything in return. What's the problem for them to return the Muslims? We're asking, we're begging, give us back our kids safe and well.\"\n\nNaeema too wants the world to focus on her family, and her Bedouin community, during their ordeal. She knows that telling people stories about her children, of Aisha's love of tea and cake, and Bilal's devotion to his pet horse and dog, is necessary to bring attention to their plight.\n\n\"I'm asking Hamas to bring back my children, enough is enough,\" she cries, her voice loud and loaded with emotion. \"Every night I feel bad, I can't take this any more, I'm losing my mind.\"\n\nAli Zyadna, the children's uncle, says the Israeli government should insist that Hamas releases them\n\nAli wants Israel's leaders to increase their efforts too.\n\n\"The government always give us the answer that it's all in the hands of Hamas. But no, you are the state. Insist. You should insist. We're not jealous of anyone, we're happy that they've been returned, may they all come back. But it can't be right that there are adults in the groups who are being returned while a girl is left behind in captivity.\"\n\n\"It's very hard for us. It's two months already. We thought they would have come back already. But everyone returned and they didn't. The wives, the women of the family, are crying, they want them home with us.\"", "School closures in January 2021 could have been avoided if ministers had taken action earlier the previous autumn, Matt Hancock has said.\n\nThe former health secretary told the Covid inquiry that avoiding a lockdown led to tougher measures later on.\n\nWhatsApp messages from October 2020 showed he was worried then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak was putting \"pressure\" on Boris Johnson \"not to do enough again\".\n\nHe also accused local leaders of putting \"politics over public health\".\n\nThe West Suffolk MP suggested that politicians in Greater Manchester such as the mayor, Andy Burnham, had been \"actively unhelpful\" when the government tried to put local restrictions in place.\n\nThis was the inquiry's second day of hearing evidence from Mr Hancock, who was health secretary for the bulk of the pandemic.\n\nHe was forced to resign in June 2021 after being caught breaching social distancing guidance by kissing his aide, Gina Coladangelo.\n\nAsked about the incident, he acknowledged it could have damaged public confidence in the rules.\n\nMore on Covid and the Covid Inquiry\n\nQuestions at the start of Friday's session focused on decisions made from September 2020, when Covid cases started to rise after a lull in the summer.\n\nWhatsApp messages from October 2020 show Mr Hancock asking civil service head Simon Case for information about a meeting, from which he claims he was \"blocked\".\n\n\"Rishi is in the room... so the PM will be under enormous pressure to not do enough once again,\" he wrote.\n\nMr Case responded: \"Rishi has already resigned himself to the choice ahead... his only question (and a fair one) is about nonessential retail - where obviously we have no evidence of transmission.\n\n\"He thinks better to do something in secondary schools (where we know transmission takes place) instead of closing all shops (where we know it doesn't seem to).\"\n\nSpeaking to the inquiry counsel, Hugo Keith KC, Mr Hancock rejected suggestions that there was a trade-off between health and economic considerations, saying: \"If we don't lock down there will be more deaths and we will have to have a tougher lockdown in the future.\"\n\n\"So on reflection and with hindsight if we had taken action sooner in September of 2020, then we might for instance have avoided the need to close schools, which in the end we had to because cases were so high by January.\"\n\nMr Hancock added that, by January, the situation had become so serious that \"every lever had to be pulled\".\n\nThere has been concern about the damaging effect of schools closures on children - particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.\n\nEarlier this year, MPs warned it could take 10 years for the gap between disadvantaged children and others to narrow to what it was before the pandemic.\n\nIn mid-October 2020, in a bid to slow the spread of the virus, the government introduced the tier system, whereby different rules were implemented in areas depending on the local case numbers.\n\nIn his statement to the inquiry, Mr Hancock said he was \"in despair\" when the policy was announced because he knew it \"would not work\".\n\nHe argued that was because the toughest restrictions were not strong enough, but also because negotiations with local leaders had led to delay and confusion.\n\nHe had praise for Joe Anderson, who was Liverpool mayor at the time, saying they were able to work together to put in place an \"effective\" package of support.\n\nHowever, he raised eyebrows when he said Mr Anderson was \"sadly, no longer with us\", despite the fact the former mayor is still alive.\n\nMr Anderson responded by posting a message on social media: \"Just took my pulse and I seem to still be here and I feel ok.\"\n\nAndy Burnham gave evidence to the inquiry earlier in the week\n\nComparing Mr Anderson to other local leaders, Mr Hancock, said they were \"not so constructive and in some cases actively unhelpful\".\n\nMr Keith KC asked if that is what former Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance was referring to when, in his diaries, he mentioned \"difficult negotiations in Manchester\".\n\nMr Hancock said it was and stressed that his comments related to the local leadership, adding \"I have got no beef with the fine city of Manchester.\"\n\nGreater Manchester was placed into tier three restrictions on 20 October, meaning pubs and bars had to close and household mixing was restricted.\n\nThe decision triggered a row between Mr Burnham and the government over how much financial support should be provided for the area.\n\nResponding to the criticism, Mr Burnham said: \"That may be Mr Hancock's opinion, but he's wrong.\n\n\"The mayor and 10 leaders in Greater Manchester, including a Conservative leader, spent many hours trying to negotiate a deal with the government... it would not have been right to place further restrictions on the residents of Greater Manchester without the financial package to support them.\"\n\nMr Hancock also said the way then-First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon communicated UK-wide decisions was \"unhelpful and confusing\" and \"undermined\" the response to Covid.\n\nThe inquiry was shown messages in which Mr Hancock said he wanted to make a particular announcement as soon as possible, saying: \"It will leak anyway - and the Scots will try to get their announcement out first.\"\n\nHe told the inquiry: \"Sometimes, [she] would leave a meeting and begin communication of a decision, for instance, sooner than agreed.\"\n\nHe said he had a good relationship with health ministers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and compared their meetings to \"therapy sessions\".\n\nMs Sturgeon appeared at the inquiry in June this year but is expected to make further appearances, with public hearings continuing until 2026.\n\nBoris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are expected to give evidence to the inquiry before the end of the year.", "A former AFC Wimbledon managing director has been found by police after he had been reported missing.\n\nDanny Macklin, 42, had last been seen in Great Notley, near Braintree, Essex, on Friday morning.\n\nBut on Friday night he said on X that he had been found \"safely\" by police in Looe, Cornwall, hundreds of miles from where he was last seen.\n\nLeyton Orient Football Club, where Mr Macklin had also once worked, also confirmed he had been \"found safe\".\n\nMr Macklin, who also previously held posts at Southend United and Essex County Cricket Club, left his role at AFC Wimbledon on 8 September.\n\nOn Tuesday, the Football Association charged him with misconduct in relation to an allegation that he made abusive and sexist comments about a female colleague.\n\nPosting on X, Mr Macklin said he had been found \"safely\" by police and would now \"seek the help I need and sorry for the terrible pain I have caused so many and then seek to rebuild my career / life\".\n\nLeyton Orient, also posting on the platform, said: \"Danny has been found safe this evening. Thank you to all supporters for the help you have provided today.\"\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mohammed Nazzal says he was beaten by Israeli prison guards\n\nPalestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails say that guards carried out abuse and collective punishment in the weeks after the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October.\n\nThey have described being hit with sticks, having muzzled dogs set on them, and their clothes, food and blankets taken away.\n\nOne female prisoner has said she was threatened with rape, and that guards twice tear-gassed inmates inside the cells.\n\nThe BBC spoke to six people in total, all of whom said they were beaten before leaving jail.\n\nThe Palestinian Prisoners Society says some guards are alleged to have urinated on handcuffed prisoners. And that six prisoners have died in Israeli custody in the past seven weeks.\n\nIsrael says all its prisoners are detained according to the law.\n\nEighteen-year-old Mohammed Nazzal was one of those released by Israel this week, in exchange for Israeli women and children held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nHe had been held in custody in Nafha Prison without charge since August, and says he does not know why he was arrested.\n\nIsrael has been releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages held by Hamas\n\nMohammed invited me to his home, down a winding alley in the village of Qabatiya near Jenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank.\n\nThe family reception room at the top of the old house was fogged by the smoke of a dozen cigarettes - a cousin circled the visitors with a flask of coffee and a tall tower of tiny paper cups.\n\nMohammed sat flanked by rows of male relatives, both his hands heavily bandaged, held up in front of him stiffly like a boxer, the tip of his thumbs peeking out.\n\nTen days ago, he says, Israeli prison guards came into his cell with a microphone and speaker, and tried to provoke the prisoners by clapping and screaming their names.\n\n\"When they saw we weren't reacting,\" he says, \"they started to beat us.\"\n\n\"They arranged us so that the elderly prisoners were put in the back and the young in front. They took me and started beating me. I was trying to protect my head, and they were trying to break my legs and my hands.\"\n\nThe family showed us medical reports and X-rays from Palestinian doctors in Ramallah who examined Mohammed after he was released on Monday.\n\nWe showed the X-ray pictures to two doctors in the UK, who confirmed that they showed fractures in both hands. It was no surprise to Mohammed.\n\nMohammed Nazzal says his hands were broken during beatings in jail\n\n\"In the beginning, I was in a lot of pain,\" he tells me. \"Then after a while, I knew that they were broken, so I stopped using them. I only used them when I went to the toilet.\"\n\nHe says the other prisoners helped him eat, drink and use the bathroom, and that he did not ask the guards for medical help out of fear that he would be beaten again.\n\nThe Israel Prison Service has disputed Mohammed's story, saying that he had been examined by a medic before leaving prison, with no medical problem diagnosed.\n\nThe prison service also released a video of the teenager leaving prison and boarding a Red Cross bus before his release, which it says proves that his claims are false.\n\nIn the footage, the teenager's hands are unbandaged, and appear to be hanging by his sides - including as he climbs onto the bus - but are out of shot for most of the video.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Israel has released a video that it claims proves that Mohammed was not beaten in jail\n\nMohammed told us that the first medical treatment he received was on that Red Cross bus.\n\nA medical report from a hospital in Ramallah the day he arrived back home advised that a plate might have to be fitted, if his fractures did not heal by themselves.\n\nWe asked the Red Cross to confirm Mohammed's story. They said in a statement: \"We speak directly with the detaining authorities if we have any concerns about the medical condition of detainees. Due to this dialogue, we do not speak publicly about individual cases.\"\n\nMohammed says the behaviour of guards inside Israeli jails changed after the Hamas attacks on 7 October.\n\nHe says guards kicked them, and used sticks to hit them, and describes one guard stepping on his face.\n\n\"They came in with their dogs,\" he continues. \"They let the dogs attack us and then they started beating us.\"\n\n\"They took out mattresses, our clothes, our pillows, and they threw our food on the floor. People were terrified.\"\n\nHe shows me the marks on his back and shoulder that he says were the result of these beatings.\n\n\"The dog attacking me wore a muzzle with very sharp edges - his muzzle and claws left marks all over my body,\" he tells me.\n\nMohammed showed the BBC injuries he says he sustained in Israeli detention\n\nBeatings like this happened twice at Megiddo Prison, he says, and more times than he could count at Nafha Prison.\n\nOther Palestinian prisoners we have spoken to have described a similar shift inside Israel's jails after the Hamas attacks, saying they understood it as \"revenge\" against Palestinian prisoners for the actions of Hamas.\n\nThe head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, Abdullah al-Zaghary, told us that many prisoners had witnessed cellmates being violently beaten on their faces and bodies, and that he had heard allegations of guards urinating on handcuffed prisoners.\n\nWe asked the Israel Prison Service for a response to these allegations. They said all prisoners were detained according to the law and had all the basic rights legally required.\n\n\"We are not aware of the claims you described,\" the statement said. \"Nonetheless, prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined by official authorities.\"\n\nThe Israel Prison Service says all inmates are detained according to the law\n\nLama Khater, released from prison earlier this week, published a video on social media alleging that an intelligence officer had \"explicitly threatened her with rape\" immediately after her arrest in late October.\n\n\"I was handcuffed and blindfolded,\" she told an interviewer in the video. \"They threatened to rape me... It was clear the goal was to intimidate me.\"\n\nIsrael said these claims were made by her lawyer and had been denied by the prisoner herself. The prison service had filed a complaint for incitement, it said.\n\nBut Lama Khater told us by telephone that women prisoners - including herself - had indeed been threatened with rape, and that tear gas had been used against prisoners in their dormitory at Damon Prison.\n\nThe Palestinian Prisoners Society says there has been a sharp rise in the number of Palestinian deaths in custody since the 7 October attacks, with six people dying in jail since that date.\n\nIsrael did not address our question about this directly, but said that four prisoners had died on four different dates over the past weeks, and that the prison service had no knowledge of the causes of death.\n\nIn Qabatiya village, Mohammed Nazzal says his hands still give him pain, especially at night.\n\nHis brother Mutaz told me the teenager he knew before had not returned from jail.\n\n\"This is not the Mohammed we know,\" he said. \"He was brave, courageous. Now his heart is broken and filled with terror.\"\n\nThe previous night, he said, the Israeli army had carried out an operation in the city of Jenin, 4km (2.5 miles) away: \"You could see how scared he was.\"", "A dual US-Israeli citizen held hostage in Gaza has been released as part of a temporary ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.\n\nThe hostage, Liat Beinin Atzili, was taken from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel on 7 October.\n\nShe was among 12 Israeli and four Thai hostages released by Hamas on Wednesday.\n\nEight other US citizens are believed still to be in captivity.\n\nMs Atzili's release was confirmed by the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum and US President Joe Biden.\n\n\"I talked with her mother and father. They're very appreciative, and things are moving well,\" Mr Biden said. \"She'll soon be home with her three children.\"\n\nIt was believed Ms Atzili's husband Aviv was being held hostage as well after her release, Kibbutz Nir Oz announced on Friday that he had been killed on 7 October. His death has yet to be confirmed by US or Israeli officials.\n\n\"May his soul rest in peace,\" Kibbutz Nir Oz said in a Facebook post announcing Aviv's death. They said he was the \"backbone of the Nir Oz community\", a \"painter, cyclist, lover of people and land\".\n\nThirty Palestinians held by Israel were also released on Wednesday as part of the Qatari-mediated ceasefire deal.\n\nAbout 1,200 people were killed and some 240 hostages taken when Hamas raided Israel on 7 October.\n\nMrs Atzili, 49, is a teacher at a school near Gaza and youth guide at Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial to victims of the Holocaust.\n\nDani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, called for the release of more than 100 hostages still in captivity as well as Mrs Atzili's Yad Vashem colleague Alex Dancyg, a historian and Holocaust educator.\n\nIn a November interview with Politico, Ms Atzili's father, Yehuda Beinin, said she reported that the situation on 7 October was \"crazy\" and that one of her friends recorded a conversation with her shortly before she was abducted.\n\n\"You can hear the desperation in her voice as to the situation around her house,\" he said. \"I've never heard her speak like this. It was very, very desperate, very low tone of voice. She may very well have been trying to be quiet, not to make noise.\"\n\n\"That was basically the last anybody heard from her,\" Mr Beinin added.\n\nA statement from the Israeli security forces says the released hostages arrived back in Israeli territory via Egypt - accompanied by special forces troops.\n\nThe statement says the group will undergo medical tests, before being taken to hospitals - where they will be reunited with their families.\n\nThe group included three women with German-Israeli nationality and a minor with Dutch-Israeli nationality. Earlier, two Russian-Israeli citizens were released.\n\nAnother US hostage, four-year-old Abigail Edan, was released earlier this week.\n\nTwo other US hostages, Judith and Natalie Raanan, were released by Hamas \"for humanitarian reasons\" in late October.\n\nEight other Americans are believed to be in captivity, the White House said earlier this week.\n\nIn a statement on Wednesday, President Biden said the US is \"determined to secure the release of every person taken hostage by Hamas during its brutal terrorist assault on Israel on October 7\".\n\nWednesday marked the sixth day of a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Talks are ongoing in an effort to extend the ceasefire before it expires.\n\n\"The deal has delivered meaningful results,\" Mr Biden said. \"Nearly 100 hostages have been returned to their loved ones. And the United States has led the international community to use this pause to accelerate the delivery of additional humanitarian assistance into Gaza.\"", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nElla Toone scored a late winner for England as they came from two goals down to beat the Netherlands in a crucial Women's Nations League tie, keeping alive Team GB's hopes of qualifying for the Olympic Games.\n\nThe World Cup runners-up were 2-0 down after 35 minutes when Lineth Beerensteyn punished defensive errors and took advantage of a passive midfield to score twice for the Netherlands.\n\nBut England responded through Georgia Stanway and Lauren Hemp, who netted within two minutes of each other in the second half, before Toone fired in a dramatic late goal and received a roar of celebration from supporters at Wembley Stadium.\n\nOn a stage that has produced so many successful moments for the Lionesses, Sarina Wiegman's side did just enough to edge past a Netherlands team who had outwitted them before the break.\n\nOn a bitterly cold evening at Wembley, the Lionesses knew only victory would be enough to keep alive Team GB's hopes of competing in Paris.\n\nAs the nominated nation to qualify on behalf of Team GB, England need to win their Nations League group and reach the final - or finish third if Olympic hosts France make the final - in order to secure a place.\n\nBut having already suffered defeats by Belgium and the Netherlands in the competition, England's hopes were in major doubt and nothing short of victory against Andries Jonker's side would have been enough at Wembley.\n\nEuro 2022 stars Beth Mead, Alessia Russo and Toone all came off the bench to help inspire a comeback and it was the Manchester United midfielder, who scored the opening goal in that European success at Wembley, who delivered the goods again.\n\nEngland will qualify for the semi-finals if they beat Scotland on Tuesday and the Netherlands drop points in their final match with Belgium.\n\nHowever, even if the Netherlands beat Belgium at home, England could still go through if they defeat the Scots by a sufficiently large scoreline to take their goal difference above the Dutch.\n• None I really let the team down with error - Earps\n• None 'England get job done but mistakes could prove costly'\n\nLionesses do enough but job not done\n\nThere had been concern about England's form for several months with criticism even coming during their World Cup campaign, which ended in defeat by Spain in August's showpiece.\n\nWith just two wins in their previous five matches - having lost only once in their first 30 games under Wiegman - pressure was on England to perform.\n\nTheir first-half display was nowhere near good enough and they were duly punished by Beerensteyn's ruthlessness, with Wiegman also paying for some questionable team selections.\n\nLauren Hemp, making her 50th appearance for the Lionesses, was preferred in central attack over mainstay Russo, while Chelsea centre-back Jess Carter was the chosen replacement for injured club team-mate Millie Bright.\n\nBut England were all over the place for the majority of the opening 45 minutes as gaps broke in defence.\n\nThe Netherlands were able to carve through the midfield and England's forwards could not get into the game.\n\nGoalkeeper Mary Earps, wearing the armband in Bright's absence, was at fault for Beerensteyn's second goal as she allowed the ball to squeeze between her hands at the near post, after the Dutch striker had got the better of Carter and Lucy Bronze for her opener.\n\nHowever, a much-needed half-time break seemed to mark a reset for England and Stanway was unmarked in the box when she headed in Lauren James' curling cross, before Hemp's low strike beat goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar to make it 2-2.\n\nWiegman's wildcards - her substitutions - were all used, including a return for winger Mead for the first time in a year, and it eventually paid off with Toone's driven strike nestling into the far corner with minutes remaining.\n\nEngland's job is still not complete and they travel to Scotland knowing there is still much to do.", "The Norwegian spruce arrived at the Port of Immingham after its journey from Scandinavia\n\nA giant Christmas tree destined for London's Trafalgar Square has arrived in England.\n\nThe 62ft (19m) Norwegian spruce grew in Nordmarka, the forests north of Oslo, and will be officially unveiled in the capital next Thursday.\n\nThe tree, which is sent each year as a token of thanks for Britain's support during World War Two, is at the Port of Immingham after arriving by boat.\n\nIt will undergo checks before being taken to London on Saturday.\n\nJonathan Lowden, DFDS Seaways director of operations at Immingham Terminal, called the cargo its \"VIT - very important tree\".\n\n\"It's something we've done for a number of years now and something we're very proud of,\" he said.\n\n\"We put it onto our vessel in our Brevik terminal on Monday. It sailed and stopped at Gothenburg en-route.\"\n\nThe tree has been sent as a gift from Norway to Britain since the end of World War Two\n\nA haulier will collect the 70-year-old tree on Saturday and take it down to London ahead of installation on Monday.\n\n\"We've been looking after it since it arrived, it's nice and protected in one of our dock sheds,\" Mr Lowden told BBC Radio Lincolnshire.\n\n\"The weather is cold at the minute so it's currently almost in its natural habitat, we had a bit of snow yesterday so that helped as well.\"\n\nThe tree grew for 70 years in the forests north of Oslo in Norway\n\nThe tree will be decorated in traditional Norwegian fashion with vertical strings of energy-efficient lights, Westminster Council said.\n\nThis year marks the 76th anniversary of King Haakon VII sending the first spruce to London.\n\nWhen Norway was invaded in 1940, the king sought refuge in Britain and the Norwegian government-in-exile was established in London.\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The Vivienne won the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race UK in 2019\n\nAn attack on a Drag Race UK star has been found by a court to have been motivated by homophobia.\n\nJames Lee Williams, who performs as The Vivienne, was punched in the face at a McDonald's in Liverpool in June.\n\nAlan Whitfield, 51, of Tom Mann Close, Everton, admitted assault by beating at a hearing earlier this year, but denied the attack was motivated by homophobia.\n\nLiverpool Magistrates' Court ruled the attack was motivated \"by hostility towards a perceived sexuality\".\n\nDuring proceedings, the court was shown CCTV footage of the altercation, which took place at the Edge Lane branch of the fast food restaurant.\n\nIt showed Whitfield turning around to Mr Williams, who won the first series of Drag Race UK, a number of times before punching him in the face and leaving the restaurant.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe court heard that Whitfield, a former scaffolder, had initially made a comment about Mr Williams' appearance.\n\nHe admitted comparing him to an Oompa Loompa - a character from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - later adding \"look at the state of that\" and asking \"who are you trying to impress?\".\n\nAfter a back and forth between the two, Mr Williams said he eventually retaliated by making a comment about Whitfield's skin. Whitfield then punched Mr Williams in the jaw and left the restaurant.\n\nBoth Mr Williams and Whitfield agreed that at no time homophobic slurs were used during the exchange, but the prosecution argued Mr Williams' \"flamboyant\" dress sense, including his hair and make-up, were the cause of Whitfield's hostility.\n\nThomas Quirk, prosecuting, said: \"In reality Mr Whitfield, the spark that lit the fire was you presuming he was a homosexual male.\"\n\nWhitfield, who cried during some of the evidence being read, claimed he had not noticed that Mr Williams was gay and was trying to have \"banter\".\n\nWhitfield denied he was homophobic, adding: \"I've got members of my family mate that will disrepute that.\"\n\nDefending, Richard Derby said the attack was due to Whitfield, who has been diagnosed with skin cancer and has scarring from treatment as well as several moles, feeling upset and angry after the comments made about his appearance.\n\nWhitfield told the court: \"It was nothing to do with him being gay, I've got gays in me [sic] family.\"\n\nDescribing the impact of the attack, Mr Williams said it took a number of days to realise the full extent.\n\nAppearing from behind a screen separating him from the defendant, he told the court: \"I moved away from home at 16 and have always been so confident and never let my surroundings dictate what I do with my life.\n\n\"The Saturday or Sunday after the attack I was at Chester train station travelling on my own, and I wasn't aware it was Chester races and there were a lot of people around getting lairy.\n\n\"It was the first time in my life I've ever shied away from any situation. I found myself hiding at the end of the platform away from the public because I was dealing with you know, what if this happens again?\"\n\n\"I think that was the moment where it really sunk in how much this had affected me. As a 31-year-old man that's quite difficult to come to terms with.\"\n\nDelivering the magistrates' verdict, Chair of the Bench Anthony Canning said that the defendant's evidence was \"not credible\".\n\nHe said: \"Having considered this incident from beginning to end we believe beyond reasonable doubt that the hostility shown by yourself from the outset was motivated by the perceived homosexuality of the complainant and was homophobic in its nature.\"\n\nFollowing the verdict, Senior District Crown Prosecutor Emily Lloyd said: \"The finding that the offence was a hate crime enables the court to increase the sentence against Mr Whitfield to reflect this fact.\n\n\"We would not have been able to prosecute this offence without the courage of the victim making a statement and coming to court to give evidence.\n\n\"Hate crime has devastating consequences for individuals and affects the whole community. It targets an intrinsic part of who a person is. Tackling hate crime is a priority for the CPS and we are committed to bringing perpetrators to justice. Homophobia has no place in our society, and it will not be tolerated in any form.\"\n\nWhitfield will be sentenced on 3 January 2024.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video footage was captured as police came under attack outside Villa Park\n\nAston Villa fans said \"all hell broke loose\" before the European fixture with Legia Warsaw.\n\nFour police officers and police dogs were hurt in the clashes, with one officer hit by a burning flare.\n\nForty-six Polish fans were arrested after the violence erupted when about 1,000 away supporters were not given tickets, West Midlands Police said.\n\nVilla has lodged a complaint with Uefa over \"Legia club officials' complete lack of co-operation\" before the game.\n\nThe violence outside Villa Park was the worst officers had seen at a football match in more than two decades, the deputy chair of West Midlands Police Federation said.\n\nPolice said they faced 90 minutes of \"sustained violence\" with barred fans hurling missiles into the stadium from surrounding streets.\n\nAll those arrested remain in custody and no home fans were detained in connection with events.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Damian Barratt said he had \"no doubt\" the failure of Legia Warsaw representatives to distribute the tickets to fans had sparked the \"high levels of violence\".\n\nThe force had intelligence beforehand that Legia Warsaw fans were coming over to \"cause problems\", said Jase Dooley, deputy chair of West Midlands Police Federation.\n\nFlares were thrown outside the stadium and fans said bottles had been hurled into Villa Park from nearby roads\n\nOfficers from Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and West Mercia took part in last night's operation as well as mounted officers from Gloucestershire and Thames Valley.\n\nThe West Mercia police officer who was concussed was later taken to hospital with smoke inhalation after the smoke from the flare entered his helmet.\n\nThe flare set his jacket on fire, but it was removed quickly to minimise his injuries.\n\nAnother officer is suspected to have sustained a broken hand.\n\nVilla fan Justin told BBC Radio WM he had been walking to the ground ahead of the game and had just reached the north stand car park when \"literally all hell broke loose\".\n\n\"I turned round and there were flares thrown, things coming over the top. [The police] reacted very, very quickly to shut that down,\" he said.\n\nTwo police horses were punched and kicked, and several police dogs were also injured walking on broken glass after bottles were thrown at officers. They are not thought to be seriously hurt.\n\n\"This is unprecedented violence we've not seen for years and years,\" Mr Dooley said.\n\n\"You've got elderly people, families trying to go to a game and these fans, I would call them hooligans, were intent on causing damage to any person who was walking their way.\n\nForty one people were detained for violent disorder, four for possession of a knife or offensive weapon and four for assaulting emergency workers. All were fans of the Polish side.\n\nPhil Strickley was in Villa's Holte End and said fans outside the stadium had started throwing bottles in, including some picked up from a burger van.\n\n\"They were literally picking up all their ketchup bottles and launching them into the stadium, trying to hit our fans,\" he said.\n\nDamage around Villa Park was evident after the night's violence, which had involved parts of police uniforms being ripped off\n\nIn a statement Aston Villa confirmed it had lodged a complaint with Uefa about the conduct of Legia Warsaw fans, and the lack of co-operation from club officials.\n\nThe statement said the \"shocking behaviour\" followed Legia club officials' \"complete lack of cooperation\" with West Midlands Police, Aston Villa and UEFA throughout the day.\n\nThe club said Legia officials had been advised on a call on 2 November that they would receive an allocation of 1002 tickets.\n\nBut Chris Heck, president of business operations at the club, said: \"The lack of cooperation and prevarication from Legia Warsaw officials prior to the match was entirely unacceptable and deeply disappointing.\n\n\"This behaviour increased the danger that West Midlands Police officers and our own fans were subjected to before the game and the scenes of disorder from the Legia fans have no place in modern football or civilised society.\"\n\nMr Heck said the club would be making further representations to Uefa in order to ensure that other clubs and police forces across Europe are not exposed to similar serious safety risks.\n\nHe also said police will make their own representations to Uefa, via the UK police authorities.\n\nBirmingham councillor Waseem Zaffar was at the game with his son and said some visiting fans had got into the ground\n\nVilla's Europa Conference League game went ahead and the Legia Warsaw fans were stopped from entering Villa Park over safety fears.\n\nBirmingham councillor Waseem Zaffar was at the game with his eight-year-old son and said some away fans had managed to get into the ground.\n\n\"As soon as their team scored, they jumped up and then there was little spats here and there and a few of them got kicked out,\" he added.\n\nSome Legia Warsaw fans who got into the stadium were removed from a Villa supporters stand during the game\n\nProf Clifford Stott, from Keele University, who is an expert on the policing of football crowds, was at the game.\n\n\"Some of the most serious disorder I've ever witnessed in a Uefa competition context tonight. Legia Warsaw have serious issues to confront and I can't see how Uefa cannot act,\" he posted on X.\n\nUefa - European football's governing body - said it strongly condemned the \"unacceptable violence\" around the game.\n\n\"Uefa is in the process of gathering all official reports from the game before deciding on potential next steps,\" a spokesperson added.\n\nDutch police officers were injured during large-scale disorder during Legia Warsaw's match against AZ Alkmaar last month.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The pickup truck - Tesla’s latest offering - had its windows smashed during a demonstration in 2019, but CEO Elon Musk insisted the company “try it again” at an event in Texas on Thursday.\n\nHe called on chief designer Franz von Holzhausen to throw a baseball at the vehicle’s windows.\n\nThis time, the glass did not shatter upon impact. However, this is not a like-for-like experiment as the ball used in 2019 was made of metal.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe last time Tesla boss Elon Musk took the stage to promote the electric car company's planned \"cybertruck\", its window ended up being smashed.\n\nIt was a shattering debut for the vehicle, meant to stake Tesla's claim to the lucrative US truck market.\n\nFour years later, as the company starts delivering the futuristic product to buyers, that problem has been fixed.\n\nBut questions linger over whether the truck's unusual design will help or hurt its chances of success.\n\nMr Musk has said the truck - which is angular and made of rocket-like, bullet-proof steel materials - might be the company's \"best product ever\".\n\nBut speaking to Wall Street analysts last month he also said he wanted to \"temper expectations\", warning there would be \"enormous challenges\" before the company was producing the vehicle in big numbers and turning a profit.\n\n\"It is going to require immense work,\" he said. \"It's not a demand issue, but we have to make it, and we need to make it at a price that people can afford - insanely difficult things.\"\n\nThe \"bells and whistles\" of the truck, which starts at a higher-than-promised list price of roughly $61,000 (£48,320), have complicated manufacturing and added to cost, he added later.\n\n\"We dug our own grave with the cybertruck,\" Mr Musk said.\n\nTrucks are among the most popular vehicles sold in the US - with traditional sedans so out of favour that some carmakers have stopped making them for the country.\n\nBut Tesla's offer is entering the market at a difficult moment - some two years behind schedule - as the highest interest rates in decades dampen buyers' ability to make new purchases.\n\nIn recent months, rivals such as General Motors and Ford have said they will ramp up production of electric vehicles more slowly than initially planned, citing the weakness in the market.\n\nMr Musk has said the company has more than one million reservations for the cybertruck.\n\nBut it is unclear how many will translate into sales.\n\nSince the cybertruck's inauspicious 2019 launch event, rival companies have rolled out their own electric truck offerings, while Mr Musk's controversial social media presence has, according to critics, tarnished the car company's brand.\n\nQuestions have already been raised about whether the truck will be as functional as some of the other pickups available.\n\n\"It's not going to have the market to itself,\" said Stephanie Brinley, an associate director at S&P Global Mobility.\n\n\"For some, the draw of Tesla, the draw of a futuristic product will be more meaningful than some of the functional issues,\"she added. \"But for the majority of pickup truck buyers, functionality is what's going to win the day.\"\n\nAt an event in Austin, Texas to celebrate the first deliveries, the company put the truck's windows to another shatter test - this time without incident - and promoted its hauling power and speed.\n\n\"It's an incredibly useful truck - it's not just some grandstanding showpiece, like me,\" Mr Musk joked. He added: \"This is really going to change the look of the roads.\"\n\nInterested buyers face a wait. Only about 10 trucks were handed off to buyers on Thursday,\n\nMr Musk said last month that it would take until 2025 for the company to be producing the truck at a rate of 250,000 a year.\n\nMs Brinley said that provides time to resolve other issues that have clouded electric vehicle sales - like the need to expand charging infrastructure - and for Tesla to win people over to the truck's \"different\" look.\n\n\"There's time to grow interest in the product,\" she said, adding: \"Love it or hate it, it's better than being boring.\"\n\nSean Tucker, senior editor at the auto research publication Kelley Blue Book, said that for Tesla, the launch of the truck is less about sales than about maintaining buzz around the brand, which has seen its dominance of the electric vehicle market shrink.\n\nOn a recent visit to a Tesla show room, he noted that he encountered people queuing for the chance to take a photo with the distinctive-looking truck.\n\n\"It's always going to be a relatively rare sight and what in the industry they call a 'halo car' that gets people into the dealership,\" he said. \"It's a hype exercise - it's just a question of, is it too expensive a hype exercise.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Hackers are increasing their attacks on Booking.com customers by posting adverts on dark web forums asking for help finding victims.\n\nCyber-criminals are offering up to $2,000 (£1,600) for login details of hotels as they continue to target the people who are staying with them.\n\nSince at least March, customers have been tricked into sending money to cyber-criminals.\n\nNew research shows the sneaky tactics being used by the unknown hackers.\n\nBooking.com is one of the largest websites for holidaymakers, but customers from the UK, Indonesia, Singapore, Greece, Italy, Portugal, the US and Netherlands have complained online about being victims of fraud through the website.\n\nCyber-security experts say Booking.com itself has not been hacked, but criminals have devised ways to get into the administration portals of individual hotels which use the service.\n\nA Booking.com spokesman said the company is aware that some of its accommodation partners are being targeted by hackers \"using a host of known cyber-fraud tactics\".\n\nHackers on darknet forums are advertising ways to increase attacks on Booking.com customers\n\nResearchers at cyber-security company Secureworks say hackers are first tricking hotel staff into downloading a malicious piece of software called Vidar Infostealer.\n\nThey do this by sending an email to the hotel pretending to be a former guest who has left their passport in their room.\n\nCriminals then send a Google Drive link to the staff saying that it contains an image of the passport. Instead the link downloads malware on to staff computers and automatically searches the hotel computers for Booking.com access.\n\nThen the hackers log into the Booking.com portal allowing them to see all customers who currently have room or holiday reservations. The hackers then message customers from the official app and are able to trick people into paying money to them instead of the hotel.\n\nHackers appear to be making so much money in their attacks that they are now offering to pay thousands to criminals who share access to hotel portals.\n\n\"The scam is working and it's paying serious dividends,\" says Rafe Pilling, director of threat intelligence for Secureworks Counter Threat Unit.\n\n\"The demand for credentials is likely so popular because it's seeing a high success rate, with emails targeting genuine customers and appearing to come from a trusted source. It's social engineering at its best,\" he said.\n\nLucy Buckley was contacted through the Booking.com app in September by hackers using broken English, who convinced her to send them £200. She says they pretended to staff at the Paris hotel where she had booked a room, saying that she must pay the money or her reservation would be lost.\n\nAfter she sent the money, the real hotel staff informed her they had no knowledge of the payment. Acting quickly, she managed to get a refund from her bank, which revealed her money had been sent to an account in Moldova.\n\nA Booking.com spokesman said: \"While this breach was not on Booking.com, we understand the seriousness for those impacted, which is why our teams work diligently to support our partners in securing their systems as quickly as possible and helping any potentially impacted customers accordingly, including with recovering any lost funds.\"\n\nCyber-security expert and podcaster Graham Cluley was also nearly tricked into sending money to hackers.\n\nHe says Booking.com hotels should implement multi-factor authentication to make it harder for criminals to log in illegally.\n\n\"Booking.com has started displaying a warning message on the bottom of chat windows, but they could be doing much more than this. For instance, not allowing any links to be included in chat which go to websites that are less than a few days old would prevent freshly-made fake sites being used to trick customers into paying,\" he said.\n\nAre you affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Jon Bridge, chief executive, says Brains is in a \"really good position\" after a tough few years\n\nThe head of Brains brewery - who \"grew up smelling the hops and the malt\" in Cardiff - says he brought the company back from the brink of collapse.\n\nChief executive Jon Bridge says he had spent the past three years trying to repay loans and turn the business around since Covid.\n\n\"I'm Cardiff born and bred,\" he said.\n\n\"I remember my first pint of Brains with my dad. And I think there are many people across south Wales and beyond that have that emotional connection.\n\n\"It is one of those brands that gets under your skin,\" he said.\n\nOnly in recent months has the 141-year-old brewery business managed to be free of millions of pounds of debt under Mr Bridge's Project Phoenix.\n\nBut the restructure dramatically reduced the company from 1,600 staff to just 30.\n\nThe running of almost all of the 250 Brains pubs was transferred to Marston's, though customers still see the Brains sign above the door and find the beer at the bar.\n\nOffloading the pubs was part of Mr Bridge's attempt to deal with tens of millions of pounds of debt, and a pandemic which shut down the bulk of the business overnight.\n\n\"It was really challenging for a long period of time,\" Mr Bridge said.\n\n\"Quite simply, the Brains brand had a bit too much debt. And then when the pandemic hit, it was a real challenge when you couldn't trade a business.\n\n\"So when the pubs closed, it was a real problem.\"\n\nBrains has been an established name in Wales for more than 140 years, spanning generations of families\n\nThe company had debts of £76.4m, most of which had accumulated before the pandemic.\n\nMr Bridge worked with a number of banks to restructure and agree repayment of all of the debt, with the chief executive finally feeling confident about the company's financial health by the summer of 2023.\n\n\"We've managed to navigate those challenging times. And it wasn't just us, it was the whole drinks and hospitality industry that went through those challenges,\" Mr Bridge said.\n\nBrains is more than beer in Wales. Having been brewing in Cardiff since 1882, the company is still owned by the descendants of Samuel Arthur Brain.\n\nA pint of Brains stores a lot of memories for many people from Cardiff and beyond\n\nThe Welsh capital is adorned with Brains slogans painted on railway bridges, while the iconic brewery chimney on the banks of the River Taff remains emblazoned with the Brains name.\n\nThe brand also appeared on the chests of Wales' rugby union team of the 2000s, with Gavin Henson's winning kick against England in the 2005 Grand Slam season flashing its logo to TV viewers around the world.\n\nFor a company steeped in cultural heritage, you would not need to be a Brains drinker to miss the beer, had it gone bust.\n\nBrains' logo appeared on Wales's rugby union team kit in the 2000s - including during Gavin Henson's winning kick against England\n\nBut a pint of Brains SA - widely known as Skull Attack - is not for everyone.\n\nThe thought of nursing a gently warming pint of SA in a stuffy pub may be dreamy nostalgia for some, but it will not win over some of its newer customers.\n\nThe company knows that too, and the resurgence of the Brains brand hopes to strike a careful balance between its traditional appeal, and a desire to branch out.\n\n\"We're very conscious of our loyal consumers that have drunk the beers for decades. So there are no plans to change those beers,\" he said.\n\nBrains has been brewing in Cardiff since 1882\n\nAs a brewer that no longer runs its own pubs, part of Brains' challenge will be to ensure its beers are available at the bar.\n\n\"I think we're more agile, we're leaner than we used to be,\" said Mr Bridge. \"It really feels like we turned a corner, and it is about the positivity of the future.\n\n\"I like to be visionary, I like to be able to move forward rather than looking back.\"\n\nAnother one from the archives... this old advert shows how the brand has appealed to the culture and community of Wales", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe US House of Representatives will vote within hours on whether to expel New York Republican George Santos after a damning ethics report, fraud charges and fabrications about his past.\n\nHe has been accused of spending campaign funds on luxury expenses such as Botox and stealing charity money for a veteran's dying service dog.\n\nThe Republican-led body failed in two previous attempts to oust Mr Santos.\n\nIn a defiant news conference on Thursday, he said he wouldn't quit.\n\n\"If I leave, they win,\" the 35-year-old Long Island lawmaker said.\n\nBut the embattled congressman has conceded it may well be third time lucky for his political enemies.\n\nEarlier this month, the House ethics committee found he \"blatantly stole from his campaign\" and exploited \"every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit\".\n\nAmong the many allegations in its final report, the panel accused him of spending campaign money on Botox treatments, OnlyFans, a web porn site, and holidays in the Hamptons, an elite seaside enclave in New York state.\n\nIn Thursday's debate, the ethics committee's Republican chairman Michael Guest strongly defended the report and urged lawmakers to expel Mr Santos.\n\nExpulsion votes are rare in Congress and require a two-thirds supermajority - only five lawmakers have ever been removed this way.\n\n\"If I am to get expelled tomorrow, I will be number six in history, the first Republican and the only one without a conviction or without having committed treason,\" Mr Santos told reporters on Thursday.\n\nHe is currently facing 23 federal felony charges, including wire fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds, as well as separate allegations of campaign finance violations.\n\nAfter he won election in November 2022, reports emerged that Mr Santos had lied about a Wall Street career, a college degree and having Jewish ancestry.\n\nThe scandals swirling around the lawmaker have pulled off the rare feat of uniting lawmakers on both sides of the aisle as they club together to have him removed.\n\nIn Thursday's debate, Susan Wild, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, said the ethics report shows that he \"repeatedly, egregiously and brazenly violated the public's trust\".\n\nRepublican lawmakers from New York also denounced Mr Santos. Marc Molinaro accused him of denying voters \"an honest choice\" by allegedly lying about his background when running for Congress.\n\nAnother Republican congressman, Michael Lawler, said: \"He can defend himself in the court of law, but for the purposes of this body, he's got to go.\"\n\nThere were some lawmakers who argued that he has not been convicted of any crimes and deserved \"due process\".\n\n\"We're talking about the removal of a member of Congress,\" said Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican.\n\n\"Are the American people to believe the opinions of congressmen is a higher standard than the delivered vote of the American people?\"\n\nOn Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he had \"real reservations\" about the ousting of Mr Santos.\n\n\"We're going to allow people to vote their conscience,\" he added. \"I trust that people will make the decision thoughtfully and in good faith.\"\n\nSeveral members, who previously voted down expulsion until the House ethics panel completed its work, told US media they are reversing their positions and now support Mr Santos' removal.\n\nSpeaker Johnson and other party leaders have begged Mr Santos to resign so they can avoid another vote.\n\nBut the besieged Republican has rebuffed their pleas, venting online and bashing colleagues.\n\nAt his Thursday news conference, he accused them of rushing to judgement and creating a precedent that would \"haunt\" them.\n\nMr Santos called the vote \"theatre for the American people at the expense of the American people\", and said he felt \"oddly calm\" about the vote.\n\nHe added that he would introduce his own expulsion motion against Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat accused of pulling a fire alarm to sabotage a vote.\n\nMr Bowman, who paid a $1,000 fine over the incident, shot back with a statement railing against \"another meaningless stunt in his long history of cons, antics, and outright fraud\".\n\nMr Santos also later told reporters he was considering an appearance on Dancing with the Stars, according to the New York Times.\n\nThe prospect of voting to remove Mr Santos is, however, a tricky matter for his party.\n\nFor one, it will further pare down Republicans' narrow nine-seat House majority.\n\nAnd there is no guarantee another Republican will win the congressional seat he holds, which was easily won by Joe Biden in the 2020 general election.\n\nIf Mr Santos is expelled, New York's governor has 10 days to call for an election, which would take place 70 to 80 days later.", "Littlestone beach in Kent was given a \"poor\" rating\n\nThe number of English bathing sites rated as unfit to swim has risen to its highest level since a new rating system was introduced in 2015.\n\nA total of 423 popular swimming sites, mostly beaches, were tested by the Environment Agency (EA) this summer for types of pollution that are known to be a risk to bathers' health.\n\nEighteen were \"poor\", the highest since the new rating system was brought in.\n\nThe EA said the wet summer could have contributed to the results.\n\nThis is because an increase in rain means more water running off roads and fields, which can bring more pollution into waterways.\n\nA total of 281 bathing sites were rated \"excellent\" by the UK government's environment watchdog, which is 21 fewer than last year.\n\nA similar number of bathing sites reached minimum standards - \"sufficient\" or better - when compared to 2015, but in each of the last three years the number of bathing sites rated as \"poor\" has gone up.\n\nResponding to the data, Water Minister Robbie Moore said \"our bathing waters have improved significantly in recent years\" and highlighted government plans for more investment and stronger regulation of water companies.\n\nAsked to clarify the minister's comments given the increase in \"poor\" ratings, an EA spokesperson said the reference to \"recent years\" was a comparison to water quality more than a decade ago.\n\nThe increase in the number of bathing sites being rated poor comes amid growing awareness of the amount of untreated sewage being discharged by water companies.\n\nLast year, there were an average of 825 sewage spills into waterways per day.\n\n\"You know things are bad when even our dodgy testing system can't cover up the miserable state of water quality in England,\" says Giles Bristow, the head of campaign group Surfers Against Sewage.\n\n\"With a 50% rise in the number of bathing waters failing to meet minimum standards, and a significant drop in those rated excellent, it's clear that government and the regulator have been asleep at the wheel, all whilst water companies continue to profit from the pollution of our rivers and seas.\"\n\nIt is legal for water companies to discharge sewage after heavy rainfall, to stop the system being overwhelmed, but earlier this year a BBC investigation uncovered evidence that suggested it was also happening during dry weather.\n\nAlan Lovell, the chair of the Environment Agency, said: \"The slight fall in standards this year shows we must go further to drive improvements and that this takes time and investment.\n\n\"While overall bathing water quality has improved over the last decade due to targeted investment, robust regulation from the Environment Agency and work carried out by partners, these results show there is significant work still to do to ensure the quality of our bathing waters is increasing every year.\"\n\nAlmost all the designated bathing sites are on the coast, but three are rivers. All three have been given \"poor\" status, meaning people are being advised not to swim there.\n\nJames Wallace, chief executive of the River Action campaign group, said: \"Sadly, that tells its own story, that the UK's rivers are in a very fragile state.\n\n\"Today only 14% of the UK's rivers are considered healthy. Many others like the iconic River Wye are so polluted they are at risk of ecocide.\"\n\nThe River Wharfe was the first river in the UK to be given bathing water status, at Ilkley in Yorkshire, but its water quality has now been rated as \"poor\"\n\nThe government is under mounting pressure to show it is taking concerns about the impact of discharges of sewage and agricultural run-off seriously.\n\n\"Our Plan for Water is delivering more investment, stronger regulation, and tougher enforcement to clean up our waterways and continue to improve our bathing waters,\" says Water Minister Mr Moore.\n\n\"We have also set stringent targets for water companies to reduce sewage spills from storm overflows which frontloads action at designated bathing waters to make the biggest difference to these sites as quickly as possible.\"", "Satellite images commissioned by the BBC reveal the extent of destruction across Gaza, showing that nearly 98,000 buildings may have suffered damage.\n\nThe satellite images were taken last Thursday - before the start of a seven-day suspension of hostilities, which has now ended.\n\nDrone footage and verified video also show buildings and entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble after Israeli air strikes and on-the-ground fighting.\n\nWhile northern Gaza has been the focus of the Israeli offensive and has borne the brunt of the destruction, widespread damage extends across the entire strip.\n\nIsrael says northern Gaza, which includes the major urban centre of Gaza City, was a \"centre of gravity of Hamas\", the group behind the deadly 7 October attacks on Israel. The Israeli military says its bombing campaign has successfully targeted Hamas commanders and fighters and accuses the group of embedding itself in civilian areas.\n\nSatellite data analysis suggests that almost 98,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip may have suffered damage, mostly in the north - as shown in the above map.\n\nAnalysis of the data was carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University. It is based on comparisons of two separate images, revealing changes in the height or structure of buildings which suggests damage.\n\nWe have analysed satellite imagery from several areas with extensive damage.\n\nThe cities of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the north and north-east of the Gaza Strip were among the first to be targeted by air strikes after the 7 October attacks by Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the area was a hideout for Hamas.\n\nParts of Beit Lahia, which overlooked olive groves and sand dunes stretching towards the border with Israel, were flattened. The satellite image below shows an area in the north-east of Beit Lahia, where a significant block of buildings was destroyed.\n\nBulldozers appear to have cleared roads through the rubble and the Israeli military cleared land and set up defensive positions in surrounding fields.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe IDF also struck the small nearby city of Beit Hanoun, less than 1.6km (1 mile) from the border. It said 120 targets were hit in the area on the first day of air strikes.\n\nAs the images above show, a skyline of multi-storey buildings and a mosque was gradually reduced to rubble between 14 October and 22 November.\n\nAfter weeks of air strikes on Gaza, Israel moved in on the ground - tanks and bulldozers going through areas which had been heavily bombarded. The IDF worked its way southwards along the coast towards Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in the Gaza City area.\n\nAs the image below shows, a whole series of craters are visible in what was once a residential area. Some of the buildings on the beach front, which boasted Gaza's first five-star hotel, the Al-Mashtal, as well as huts and restaurants, appear to have been partially destroyed.\n\nAbout a week after the air strikes began, the IDF warned Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south of a river known as Wadi Gaza for their own safety.\n\nDespite the warning and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Gaza City, areas in the south continued to be targeted.\n\nNuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza was hit several times before the temporary pause in hostilities began. The camp was said to be home to about 85,000 people, according to the UN.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn this verified video, which emerged online, people are seen picking through the rubble of collapsed and damaged buildings.\n\nThe distinctive black chimney stacks of the Gaza Power Plant, situated just north of the camp, are visible in the background.\n\nThe BBC has approached the IDF for comment.\n\nIn Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, thousands of people are living in tents or the rubble of bombed-out buildings.\n\nAlthough the damage was not as widespread as in the north, up to 15% of buildings across the city may have been damaged, according to Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek's analysis.\n\nAs well as pushing down from the north, Israeli forces also cut across the Gaza Strip westwards, isolating Gaza City from the south.\n\nIn this image below, taken to the south of Gaza City, we can see that a previously populated residential area was cleared by the IDF with heavy machinery and a road bulldozed towards the western Mediterranean shoreline.\n\nYou can also see dozens of military vehicles, including tanks, grouped behind fortifications made from earth.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nSatellite images also show an open square of land with a Star of David carved into the earth by vehicle tracks in Gaza City, near al-Azhar University.\n\nImages online from before the war showed children playing there and suggested it was a park, but IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said the ground was used by Hamas as a parade square near a base. The area was taken over by the IDF's Golani Brigade.\n\nA Star of David - which is used as a Jewish and Israeli symbol - was made by armoured vehicles in a ceremony in memory of Israeli soldiers who had been killed since the war began, according to a post by Rear Adm Hagari on X.\n\nAdditional reporting by Thomas Spencer, Paul Brown, Jake Horton, Alex Murray and Shayan Sardarizadeh and Jemimah Herd", "Donald Trump again attacked a New York judge's law clerk online on Wednesday\n\nA US court has reinstated a gag order that prevents Donald Trump and his team from criticising court personnel in his ongoing civil fraud trial in New York.\n\nJudge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the trial and claims his chambers have been \"inundated\" with threats, had issued the limited order in October.\n\nBut it was put on hold two weeks ago by an appellate judge, who said he had concerns over free speech rights.\n\nMr Trump's attorney said it marks \"a tragic day for the rule of law\".\n\n\"In a country where the First Amendment is sacrosanct, President Trump may not even comment on why he thinks he cannot get a fair trial,\" Christopher Kise told the BBC's US partner CBS News on Thursday.\n\n\"Hard to imagine a more unfair process and hard to believe this is happening in America.\"\n\nJudge Engoron imposed the gag order after Mr Trump posted disparaging remarks about the judge's principal law clerk, with her name, photo and a link to her social media, as he sat in court on the trial's second day.\n\nFollowing the order, Mr Trump's lawyers sued the judge and called for a mistrial over \"astonishing departures from ordinary standards of impartiality\".\n\nAn appeals court judge in New York temporarily lifted the gag order over \"the constitutional and statutory rights at issue\".\n\n\"I intend to enforce the gag orders rigorously and vigorously, and I want to make sure counsel informs their client,\" Judge Engoron said in court.\n\nBut how he will do so is less clear. He has already fined Mr Trump $15,000 (£12,000) over violations and even extended the order to include his attorneys.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn a trial that poses a threat to his real-estate empire, the former president has argued that Judge Engoron is \"biased\" and will likely rule against him in the end anyway.\n\nMr Trump is closely following the court proceedings, in person on some days and with critical online commentary on others.\n\nOn Thursday, Mr Trump posted critical statements about Judge Engoron's wife and adult son, skirting the ban on criticising court employees, and called the case \"the most unfair Trial in the History of New York, and I've had some pretty unfair Trials!\"\n\nA day earlier, on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump had slammed what he referred to as the judge's \"very disturbed and angry law clerk\".\n\nThe judge and lead prosecutor, New York Attorney General Letitia James, \"should be impeached and removed from office\", he argued in another post.\n\nThe former president, his two adult sons and the wider Trump Organization are accused of massively inflating the value of their properties by over $2bn, in order to secure favourable loans.\n\nShould they lose, the Trumps face $250m (£201m) in fines and the possible dissolution of their New York real estate empire.\n\nDefence lawyers are currently making arguments, with the former president expected to return to the stand in December before his lawyers rest their case.\n\nThis week a witness for Deutsche Bank, which the former president is accused of defrauding, testified that his over-valuations of property did not affect their loan terms and he never missed a payment.\n\nThe high-profile trial in Manhattan, which has also seen three of Mr Trump's adult children testify, is not expected to conclude until January.\n\nMr Trump, the Republican frontrunner for president, is also fighting a gag order in the federal case in Washington DC that charges him with meddling in the 2020 election.\n\nThat limited order, which bars him for targeting court staff, prosecutors or potential witnesses, is currently under appeal.", "Gavin Henson (left) and Colin Charvis are among the almost 300 ex-players suing the sport's authorities over brain injuries\n\nFormer Wales stars Gavin Henson and Colin Charvis are among 295 ex-players suing the rugby authorities over brain injuries, it has emerged.\n\nThe High Court heard on Friday that an application for the cases to be heard collectively would be made next year.\n\nThe application by the athletes' lawyers may be heard in April or May.\n\nIt would allow all the lawsuits against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) to be managed together.\n\nEx-players across Wales, Scotland and England are part of the case, including Wales' Grand Slam-winning captain Ryan Jones and England's Rugby World Cup winner Steve Thompson.\n\nMark Regan and Phil Vickery, members of England's 2003 World Cup-winning team, and Sean Lamont, who won more than 100 caps for Scotland, were also named as being part of the group.\n\nThe claimants allege the governing bodies failed to put in place reasonable measures to protect their health and safety.\n\nSusan Rodway, representing them, said in court filings the defendants \"ought to have known of the likelihood of long-term neurological complications due to cumulative concussive or sub-concussive blows to the head\".\n\nThis alleged failure is said to have caused disorders such as motor neurone disease, early onset dementia, epilepsy and Parkinson's disease.\n\nEngland's Rugby World Cup winner Steve Thompson is among those suing the sport's authorities\n\nWorld Rugby, the RFU and WRU said earlier this week they could not comment on the case or contact players as they had not received full details.\n\nBut in a joint statement on Friday, they said: \"Whilst today's case management hearing was necessarily about legal process, we must not forget about the people and players at the heart of this case.\"\n\nThey added that legal action \"prevents us reaching out to support the players involved, many of whom are named publicly for the first time today\".\n\n\"We want them to know that we care deeply about their struggles, that we are listening and that they are members of the rugby family.\"\n\nThe rugby union case is one of three similar cases brought by law firm Rylands Garth, which also represents former rugby league and football players.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEntering lockdown three weeks earlier would have cut deaths in the first Covid wave by 90%, former health secretary Matt Hancock has said.\n\nMr Hancock told the Covid inquiry that with the benefit of hindsight the UK should have locked down much sooner.\n\nHe also said a \"toxic culture\" existed in government driven by Dominic Cummings, the PM's chief advisor.\n\nBut he denied accusations he lied to colleagues during the pandemic.\n\nMr Cummings - who left No 10 in December 2020 after falling out with then PM Boris Johnson - has been particularly scathing of Mr Hancock.\n\nOffered a chance to respond, Mr Hancock called Mr Cummings a \"malign actor\" who subjected Health Department staff to abuse as they grappled with the emergence of Covid.\n\nHe argued it was having to do the work of other departments, for example on school closures, and that its \"hard work\" was hindered by \"a toxic culture that we had to work with\".\n\nHe said Mr Cummings sought to grab power from Mr Johnson while shutting out ministers from key meetings.\n\nThere was an \"unhelpful\" assumption that \"when anything was difficult or a challenge... there was somehow fault and blame\", Mr Hancock said.\n\nThe West Suffolk MP was health secretary from 2018 until June 2021, when he was forced to resign after breaching Covid guidance.\n\nHe was suspended as a Conservative MP, after appearing on ITV's I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in 2022 and later said he would not stand for re-election.\n\nMore on Covid and the Covid Inquiry\n\nDuring his testimony Mr Hancock said \"many, many lives\" could have been saved if the UK government had initiated the first coronavirus lockdown around 2 March 2020, rather than 23 March.\n\nHowever, he stressed that there was still \"enormous uncertainty\" and only 12 cases had been identified in the country by this point.\n\nHe told the inquiry he was speaking with \"hindsight\" and robustly defended his role in the pandemic and that of the department he led.\n\n\"From the middle of January, we were trying to effectively raise the alarm,\" he said, adding: \"We were trying to wake up Whitehall to the scale of the problem.\"\n\nPushed on when he advised Mr Johnson that immediate action would be needed to contain the virus, Mr Hancock said he raised the alarm bell on 13 March.\n\nHowever, the inquiry's lawyer, Hugo Keith KC, questioned the statement, noting that this was not mentioned in the entry for 13 March in Mr Hancock's book, Pandemic Diaries.\n\nMr Hancock replied that the evidence only came to light after his diary was published and cited an email he sent the prime minister calling for a \"suppression strategy\".\n\nMr Keith argued that this did not amount to calling for an immediate lockdown.\n\nAsked about the existence of pre-prepared plans for a pandemic, Mr Hancock said they existed but repeated his previous assertion that they were not \"adequate\".\n\nMr Hancock will continue his evidence on Friday.\n\nMr Johnson will give evidence to the inquiry on 6 and 7 December. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is also expected to give evidence before the end of the year.\n\nThe inquiry has been bruising for the politician, with past witnesses accusing Mr Hancock of \"nuclear levels\" of overconfidence and a lack of honesty.\n\nHelen MacNamara, a senior civil servant during the pandemic, said he would say things that would turn out not to be the case.\n\nSir Patrick Vallance, the former chief scientific adviser, said Mr Hancock had \"a habit of saying things which he didn't have a basis for\".\n\nMr Hancock said there was no \"evidence whatsoever\" that he lied during the pandemic.\n\nIn the session, the inquiry was shown extracts from Sir Patrick's diary which described a \"massive internal mess\" inside the health department and reported that then-civil service head Sir Mark Sedwill complained of the department's \"clear lack of grip\".\n\nMr Hancock has been criticised for saying in the early days of the pandemic that a \"protective ring\" had been thrown around care homes.\n\nHe said he used that phrase to refer to actions including giving the sector £3bn and providing protective equipment.\n\nHowever, he appeared to agree with suggestions that the protections did not amount to \"an unbroken circle\".\n\nHe also told the inquiry that he did not know about the \"Eat Out to Help Out scheme\" - whereby the government subsidised people to go to restaurants in the summer of 2020 - until the day it was announced.\n\nHe acknowledged he had concerns about how it impacted infection rates, however he said he did not express those publicly because he abided by \"collective responsibility\".\n\nMr Hancock was also questioned about apparently contradictory evidence on when the government knew people without symptoms could transmit the virus.\n\nReferring to a report by the US's Centre for Disease Control, he said there was not clear evidence until the beginning of April and up to then he had been advised not to base policy on the assumption that transmission could be asymptomatic.\n\nMr Hancock said it was his \"single greatest regret with hindsight\" that he didn't overrule the advice.\n\n\"I was in the pro-let's worry about asymptomatic transmission camp. The frustration was that, understandably from their point of view, and here I'm putting myself in their shoes, the Public Health England scientists said we have not got concrete evidence.\"\n\nThe inquiry was shown messages between Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick in which they suggest the government had known about asymptomatic transmission.\n\nPosting on X as the inquiry was going on, Mr Cummings said Mr Hancock was \"talking rubbish\".", "President Zelensky has spoken of winter marking a new phase in the war\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said defences must be quickly beefed up across the front line, after meeting commanders in some of the main pressure points in the south and east.\n\n\"In all major sectors where reinforcement is needed, [we must] speed up building of structures,\" he said in his nightly address.\n\nRussian forces are trying to encircle the eastern town of Avdiivka.\n\nAnd they are targeting the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.\n\nOvernight Ukraine's air force said it had shot down 18 out of 25 Russian drones and one of two cruise missiles.\n\nWith temperatures falling below freezing and Ukraine cloaked with snow, President Zelensky has said \"winter as a whole is a new phase of war\".\n\nThe Ukrainian leader said \"maximum attention\" would be paid to eastern towns coming under fire in the Donetsk region as well as a key defensive line in the north-east between Kupyansk and Lyman.\n\nHe also included the region around the capital Kyiv where fortifications would be bolstered.\n\nPresident Zelensky's emphasis on strengthening defensive lines may lend weight to fears of an increasingly \"frozen\" conflict, despite some continued fierce fighting.\n\nUkraine counter-offensive since the summer is widely viewed as having failed to quickly deliver hoped-for gains.\n\nFrontline morale on both sides will hinge to some extent on how well soldiers are equipped to cope with these colder months.\n\nThe military said 20 attacks had been repelled near Avdiivka alone and villages had come under attack around Bakhmut.\n\nThe industrial hub of Avdiivka has been almost encircled in recent weeks by Russian forces, who now control areas to the north and south, as well as the east of the town.\n\nDmytro Lazutkin, the spokesman for Ukraine's 47th Mechanised Brigade said the situation had become constantly difficult.\n\nOne community to the north-west of Avdiivka, Stepove, was coming under repeated attack, and Russia was sending significant forces in a bid to seize a nearby coke plant just outside Avdiivka.\n\n\"Without taking the coke plant, they can only dream about [capturing] Avdiivka... I'm not convinced they have such power to do that, although very many of them are concentrated there,\" he told Ukraine's public broadcaster.\n\nIn the south-east as well, Russian forces have sought to regain areas lost during Ukraine's counter-offensive around Robotyne, according to Ukrainian officials, who say they are managing to maintain positions they recaptured recently on the east bank of the River Dnipro.\n\nMr Zelensky said Ukraine was not backing down after its summer operations, although he was unhappy with the extent of casualties.\n\n\"We are losing people, I'm not satisfied. We didn't get all the weapons we wanted, I can't be satisfied,\" he told the Associated Press.\n\nUkraine forces regained a foothold the village of Krynky last month after they crossed the Dnipro, and have since come under relentless Russian attack.\n\nRussia's defence ministry has meanwhile said its navy repelled a Ukrainian naval attack on occupied Crimea via the Black Sea.\n\nPart of the peninsula, seized and then annexed by Russia in 2014, was placed under a state of emergency this week after a storm left five people dead. Coastal areas were worst hit, according to Russian-appointed leader Sergei Aksyonov.", "Tributes for Alistair Darling have poured in from all sides of the political spectrum\n\nAlistair Darling, the Labour chancellor who steered the UK through the 2008 financial crisis, has died aged 70, a family spokesperson has said.\n\nFollowing Labour's landslide 1997 election win, Lord Darling served in cabinet for 13 years under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.\n\nHe was best known as the steady pair of hands who shepherded the UK economy as half its banking system collapsed.\n\nThe ex-Edinburgh MP died after a short spell in hospital, his family said.\n\nA statement issued on behalf of his family called Lord Darling a \"much-loved husband of Margaret and beloved father of Calum and Anna\".\n\nThe family said he died in \"Western General Hospital under the wonderful care of the cancer team\".\n\n\"I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have benefited from Alistair's counsel and friendship,\" added Sir Keir.\n\n\"He was always at hand to provide advice built on his decades of experience - always with his trademark wry, good humour.\"\n\nThe whole Labour movement felt a \"profound\" wave of shock, he added.\n\nMr Brown, who after becoming prime minister brought Lord Darling in as chancellor, said he was \"deeply saddened\" to hear of his death.\n\nHe told the BBC: \"In times of crisis Alistair was the person you would want in the room because he was calm and he was considered and he had great integrity.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Alistair Darling \"showed great wisdom in everything he did\" says Gordon Brown\n\nTony Blair added his voice to the tributes, calling Lord Darling \"a rarity in politics\".\n\n\"I never met anyone who didn't like him. He was highly capable though modest, understated but never to be underestimated, always kind and dignified even under the intense pressure politics can generate.\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak said Lord Darling's passing \"is a huge loss to us all\", while Chancellor Jeremy Hunt described him as \"one of the great chancellors\", who did \"the right thing for the country at a time of extraordinary turmoil\".\n\nAlistair Darling was born in London in 1953 and but moved to Scotland to attend the prestigious Loretto school in Musselburgh.\n\nDespite becoming known as the mild-mannered New Labour centrist, Mr Darling was associated with far-left policies as a student activist in Aberdeen - reportedly distributing \"Marxist\" leaflets at railway stations.\n\nA lawyer by profession, he first entered politics in 1982 after being elected to the former Lothian Regional Council.\n\nFive years later he became an MP, and was seen as a key ally of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as they sought to modernise their party and transform it into New Labour.\n\nEntering government 10 years later Mr Darling served as chief secretary to the Treasury, putting in place wide-ranging reforms to financial regulation, after the collapses of Barings and BCCI.\n\nHe then replaced Harriet Harman as social security secretary - a role now known as work and pensions secretary - delivering Labour's welfare reforms and taking responsibility for spending a third of the government's budget.\n\nWhile in this role Mr Darling once said he hoped to be remembered as \"the minister who began to eradicate poverty\".\n\nAlistair Darling was elected as a Labour MP in 1987 after a youth spent in radical left-wing politics\n\nDespite a long career in government little could have prepared Lord Darling for his near three-year stint as chancellor - the job for which he was handpicked by Mr Brown in June 2007.\n\nHe was appointed amid seemingly calm economic times. But it was a Number 11 tenure marked by financial chaos, unseen in Britain for decades.\n\nHis decision to nationalise Northern Rock at first, and then effectively the bulk of British banking amid runs on banks by the public and financial markets set the tone for the global response to the 2008 financial crash.\n\nLooking back on the financial crisis, Lord Darling said the \"scariest\" moment was when the Royal Bank of Scotland called to tell him they would run out of money that afternoon.\n\nIn his memoirs he wrote: \"My initial reaction must have been a bit like that of the captain of the Titanic when he was told by the ship's architect that it would sink in a couple of hours. There were not enough lifeboats for all the passengers.\"\n\nMr Darling, predicted by many commentators to be a Brown \"yes man\" he fell out with his neighbour and boss over the need for spending cuts after the significant increase in government borrowing during the financial crisis.\n\nIn his memoirs, published after Labour was voted out of office, Mr Darling said there was a \"permanent air of chaos and crisis\" when Mr Brown was prime minister.\n\nDespite leaving government, Lord Darling did not leave frontline politics for long.\n\nHe led the successful Better Together Campaign in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.\n\nFormer first minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, who led the opposing Yes Scotland campaign said he never had a \"cross word\" with Mr Darling outside the \"intense\" televised debates.\n\nMr Salmond said: \"When the moment of test came, Alistair passed with flying colours.\"\n\nFormer Lib Dem Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael said Lord Darling \"was not the flashiest of politicians but he gave one hundred per cent to any job he did and always left things better than he found them\".\n\nLord Darling was a vocal advocate for remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum - launching the Stronger In campaign with Conservative chancellor George Osborne.\n\nWhen he left the House of Commons in 2015 he was made a peer, but eventually retired from the House of Lords in 2020.", "The ICRC requires the trust of all sides when each side do not trust the other\n\nWith intense focus on the hostages released by Hamas, a quiet but crucial part has been played by an organisation at the centre of their handover, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).\n\nFootage of the releases shows Red Cross staff, in their distinctive white vests emblazoned with its internationally recognised emblem, taking the hostages from masked gunmen, carefully helping them into their vehicles, giving them first aid and even playing with children in their first moments of freedom.\n\nThe organisation was in contact with Hamas ever since it seized about 240 people during its massive attack on Israel on 7 October and took them back to Gaza. It has repeatedly called for their release, or at least to allow the ICRC to visit them.\n\nSo far, 58 hostages - 40 Israeli and 12 Thais - have been released to the ICRC. The organisation was not involved in the negotiations around the terms for a release, but was standing by to facilitate the release once those terms had been agreed.\n\nFrom Israel, there has been some criticism that the ICRC has not done more.\n\nBut the organisation said \"the ICRC cannot force its way in to where hostages are held, nor do we know their location\".\n\nThe statement reflects frustration in Geneva that not everyone understands what the Red Cross can and cannot do.\n\nIt is trying to fulfil its traditional role under the Geneva Conventions, asking to visit the hostages, deliver medical supplies, and bring news to desperate families. None of that can happen unless both Hamas and Israel agree. The ICRC is unarmed, and relies entirely on the trust of the warring parties - and civilians caught up in conflict - to carry out its work.\n\nAnd in the same way as it has transported hostages out of Gaza, it has also taken to their West Bank homes Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in exchange.\n\nThe logistics are a complicated but the ICRC is no stranger to such complexities. Last year it facilitated the release of almost 900 prisoners in Yemen held by Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed government troops.\n\nThe Red Cross has been facilitating prisoner releases in Yemen\n\nThe operation took two days; the ICRC visited each prisoner to ensure they were well enough to travel and actually wanted to return home and then chartered planes to fly into conflict zones to pick them up.\n\nAt the time Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC's regional director for the Middle East, admitted how relieved he had been that the exchange went quite smoothly. Often, he said, the life of an aid worker is \"about frustration… it's about saying more often 'no' than 'yes'\".\n\nThe preparations the ICRC has been making for the Gaza hostages are part of a long history.\n\nIn the Red Cross museum in Geneva, there is an archive of six million registration cards, with details of the prisoners and the missing from two world wars.\n\nIt's a fascinating collection: one card confirms that Charles de Gaulle, France's World War Two leader and later its president, had been taken prisoner at the battle of Verdun in 1916. Others show the anxiety of mothers looking for their sons, and the sad replies confirming they had been killed.\n\nThe collection illustrates the ICRC's key role under the Geneva Conventions: tracing the dead and missing, visiting prisoners of war, checking on their welfare, and exchanging messages between POWs and their families.\n\nIn a quiet building in the hills above Geneva, the Red Cross tracing agency is now doing exactly the same for Russian and Ukrainian families as the war resulting from Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022 continues.\n\nA Red Cross staff member walks with civilians who left a steel plant that was besieged by Russian forces attacking the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in May 2022\n\nBut in the century between World War One and today, the ICRC's work has expanded.\n\nWarfare has changed. Traditional armies are often replaced by armed militias, and civilians as well as fighters are detained, abducted or simply go missing.\n\nThe Red Cross aim remains the same: to bring news of missing loved ones, and - if possible - to reunite families separated by war.\n\nDuring Nelson Mandela's long imprisonment in apartheid South Africa, the ICRC visited him regularly on Robben Island.\n\nUntil the Good Friday agreement for peace and power sharing in Northern Ireland, the ICRC visited members of paramilitary groups who had been imprisoned there.\n\nThe Red Cross also helps with prisoner exchanges, and the release of those abducted or taken hostage.\n\nWhen hundreds of schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2014, the ICRC helped facilitate the release of some of them two years later.\n\nBut, as with the hostages in Gaza now, supporting, or facilitating, did not mean negotiating.\n\n\"We were not involved in the negotiation for their release… we transferred the girls with the agreement of both parties involved,\" the ICRC said at the time.\n\nMr Carboni, who accompanied his boss Mirjana Spoljaric to Qatar earlier this week, explained how the Red Cross sees its fundamental role, relatively unchanged for more than a century.\n\n\"I look at my kids, I look at my brothers, and I say 'imagine now there is a front line between us, they are captured, and I can't see them'. Or worse, you have no news, you don't know.\n\n\"So when we manage to reunite people, it's something hard to describe, this sense of purpose,\" he says.", "U2, Paul Weller and Pete Doherty are among the stars who have paid tribute to Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan.\n\nThe singer-songwriter died on Thursday at the age of 65 following a recent stay in hospital.\n\nHe was best known for hits including 1987's Fairytale of New York and A Pair of Brown Eyes.\n\nU2 frontman Bono shared a sketch of the star on X/Twitter, writing: \"Shane MacGowan's songs were perfect so he or we his fans didn't have to be.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by U2 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nLibertines frontman Doherty told the BBC World Service he \"loved and respected\" the Pogues singer, who he said was \"up there in the top three or four lyricists in the last 30 or 40 years\".\n\nMacGowan had \"a gift for melody\" and was a \"kind of an old romantic [who] told tales, told stories in songs, strong characters, he painted a lot of pictures and fairytales\", Doherty said.\n\nHe told Newshour that the song Fairytale of New York, which remains one of the UK's best-loved Christmas songs, was an \"absolute belter\" and one \"you never get tired of hearing\".\n\nDoherty recalled performing on stage with MacGowan, saying they made the \"strongest connections\".\n\nHe said: \"For a long time I was sitting at his feet in awe... In certain difficult times of my life I could speak to him. When I was in jail, he knew some people, who knew some people and he helped me out of a few spots and I just felt close to him.\"\n\nDoherty added: \"I knew he was ill but I thought he was bulletproof.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Paul Weller This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMacGowan's former Pogues bandmate James Fearnley described the singer as \"a tearaway\" who \"had a lot of concern for the state of the world\" and who \"spoke very deeply and incisively to a lot of people\".\n\nFearnley told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"I'm privileged to have worked with somebody like that, and lived with somebody like that, and drank with somebody like that, and shared a lot of experiences with somebody like that. I'm very sorry he's gone.\"\n\nA statement from MacGowan's spokesperson confirmed he died peacefully on Thursday.\n\nHis wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, wrote: \"I am going to miss him so much! His smile, his eyes his laugh his sense of humour and his voice, every little part of him.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video has been removed for rights reasons\n\nMacGowan revealed he was diagnosed with encephalitis, a serious condition in which the brain becomes inflamed, last year in a video posted to social media on New Year's Eve.\n\nOthers who have paid tribute to MacGowan include Irish musician and actress Camille O'Sullivan, who told 5 Live he was \"a lovable, gentle kind of soul, and he was a sweetheart\".\n\n\"He was a complex guy. He didn't say much, but when he did say stuff it was really astute,\" she added. \"He had a little cackley laugh and he was a bit like a young boy when he talked to you.\n\n\"You'd always think Shane was not listening or thinking something else and then he'd come out with [something] - he was very astute about stuff, and very learned about films and books. And so he'd be quiet, and suddenly he'd blow everybody away in the room.\"\n\nNick Cave called him \"a true friend and the greatest songwriter of his generation\", adding that it was \"a very sad day\".\n\nThe Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess also paid tribute, saying MacGowan had \"a life lived to the full\" and was \"a lyrical genius\".\n\nIrish President Michael D Higgins described MacGowan as one of \"music's greatest lyricists\".\n\n\"His words have connected Irish people all over the globe to their culture and history, encompassing so many human emotions in the most poetic of ways,\" he said.\n\nTV presenter Carol Vorderman shared a picture of MacGowan and the late Sinead O'Connor on X, calling them \"the incredible rebel of my generation\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A woman shares her experience of growing up in care to improve the system for others.\n\nA young woman who spent six years in the Northern Ireland care system says there were \"more dark times than good\".\n\nRhianna Brown had 26 social workers by the time she turned 18 and says \"it was hard to learn to trust somebody\".\n\nThe number of children in care here is at an all-time high, according to Department of Health figures.\n\n\"A lot needs to be changed in the care sector at the minute. The time for covering over the cracks is over,\" said Rhianna.\n\nThe 20-year-old has been contributing to an independent review of children's social care services.\n\nShe says entering the care system when she was 12 years old was \"scary and \"tough\".\n\nRhianna spent the majority of her teenage years in kinship care which is when a child lives with a relative or friend who is not their parent.\n\nHowever, she also had 18 different foster placements within the three months before she turned 18.\n\nRhianna says that she was bullied for being in care when she was a child\n\n\"I do hope a lot of the stigma and a lot of the attitudes change,\" Rhianna said.\n\n\"I was bullied in school for being in care and I don't want anybody else to feel the way I did.\"\n\nSince turning 18, Rhianna says her experience has changed for the better.\n\n\"I've had the same social worker since I started the 18-plus team. They helped me get a really good job and my first house as well.\"\n\nShe wants her experience to help shape the system for young people currently in care.\n\nSome 3,801 children and young people were recorded as being in care in March this year, 177 more than in 2022.\n\nA charity believes the rise is partly because of cost-of-living pressures and long-term effects of the pandemic.\n\nVoypic's Alicia Toal says high levels of deprivation are fuelling an increase in children in care\n\nVoice of Young People in Care (Voypic)'s chief executive also says it is due to a rise in the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children in Northern Ireland.\n\nAlicia Toal said: \"Our families and communities are experiencing a level of deprivation and hardship that we probably haven't encountered over the last number of decades.\"\n\nShe listed poor mental health, higher rates of domestic abuse and \"a significant number of families living in extreme poverty\".\n\n\"All of these impact on a parents ability to look after children safely.\"\n\nEarlier this year, a major independent review found a much higher rate of children being referred to services in Northern Ireland than in the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland.\n\nProf Ray Jones, who led the review, said: \"Children only have one childhood and the clock is ticking.\"\n\nThere are 53 recommendations in Prof Jones' report including the need for more support for families to help them care well for children\n\nThe report put forward 53 recommendations including the need for more support for families to help them care well for children.\n\nHowever, Voypic's Alicia Toal says the absence of Stormont has \"exacerbated the current problems.\"\n\n\"Ray Jones has set out a road map of how he sees change could improve outcomes for young people and families.\n\n\"There are a lot of recommendations within that report that we will not be able to progress with unless there is legislative change for which we need a functioning assembly.\n\n\"But we also need investment in the services and the workforce and unfortunately that is not going to happen unless power sharing is re-established.\"", "Neighbours in the US state of Minnesota called the local fire department to report a deer stuck on a frozen lake. The fire and rescue team stepped in - on all fours.", "A public transport strike in the run up to Christmas, will cause \"extensive damage\" to the hospitality trade, a representative group has warned.\n\nColin Neill of Hospitality Ulster said the strike which has been called from Friday 1 December at 00:01 GMT, \"couldn't come at a worse time\".\n\nUnite, GMB and Siptu unions voted in favour of the strike over a possible pay-freeze for Translink workers.\n\n\"It couldn't come at a worse time, we have seen a hospitality industry that has struggled to get back on its feet for all sorts of reasons since Covid and this is our busiest time of the year,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\n\"To be hit by this now, really will do damage.\n\n\"We have obviously appealed to the unions about the timing, but also it's a call to the secretary of state - get round the table and negotiate with the unions.\n\n\"These people just can't be ignored, they have a justifiable claim.\"\n\nBoyd Sleator, co-founder of Free the Night, a group aimed at improving Northern Ireland's nightlife, said Translink was \"under incredible pressure and the secretary of state does need to stand up and address this\".\n\n\"Bus drivers are frontline workers, they are part of our late night creative economy by shipping people in and out of our cities,\" he added.\n\n\"They deserve the respect and they deserve a pay rise.\"\n\nPreviously, one union leader said members had no alternative but to strike due to attempts to \"instigate a pay freeze\".\n\nStrike action will affect Ulsterbus, Metro and Glider services from 00:01 on Friday 1 December.\n\nTranslink said it did not receive a budget for a pay offer from the Department for Infrastructure and therefore could not make a pay offer at this time.\n\nSharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, called on Mr Heaton-Harris to \"properly fund public transport in order to avoid what will be debilitating and disruptive strikes\".\n\nAll three public transport unions said members had also agreed to industrial action short of strike.\n\nAlbert Hewitt, Unite's regional officer for Translink, said it was the first of a series of planned strikes over the coming weeks.\n\n\"Unless management returns to the negotiating table with an offer of a real-terms pay increase, our members will be left with no alternative but to escalate industrial action to defend their incomes,\" he added.\n\nPeter Macklin, GMB's regional organiser, said unions would meet in the coming days \"to agree a schedule and strategy for strike action to secure an improvement to members' pay\".\n\nNiall McNally, Siptu senior organiser, added that the union recognised the disruption a public transport strike would cause but added members could accept a pay-freeze.\n\nIn a statement, Translink said: \"Ultimately this issue needs to be resolved for many public sector workers at the NI Executive level.\"\n\nIt added that it \"understood and recognised\" the concerns that led to the strike but urged workers \"not to rake action which could further exacerbate the financial pressures on Translink, impact on school children and damage the livelihoods of many businesses in the retail and hospitality sectors who depend on the busy Christmas period\".\n\n\"We remain committed to working with our colleagues in the trade unions to avoid disrupting services that so many of our passengers rely on,\" a spokesperson added.\n\nThe industrial action by public transport workers is the latest in a number of strikes in Northern Ireland.\n\nAt the start of November, school support staff across four unions walked out in strike over failure to reform their pay and cuts to the education budget.\n\nThe 48-hour strike caused the closure of four special schools and unions said it would be one of the biggest strikes among non-teaching unions in years.", "Inbar Haiman, 27, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, and Carmel Gat, 39, were all kidnapped on 7 October\n\n\"She doesn't deserve to wait for the next deal, just because she's not somebody's mother or grandmother,\" writes Or Neko Maymon on Facebook in Hebrew.\n\nOr is talking about 27-year-old street artist and art student Inbar Haiman, who is his partner's sister.\n\nInbar was kidnapped by Hamas from the Supernova music festival in Israel on 7 October, and was seen days later in a hostage video circulated on social media, with blood on her face.\n\nShe is one of 16 women BBC Verify has identified as still being captive in Gaza, following a seven-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. This pause in fighting saw Hamas agree to release 110 hostages (including 78 women and children), in return for 240 Palestinian prisoners being freed from Israeli jails.\n\nIsrael's focus on securing the release of female hostages has raised and dashed hopes for the families of the women who are still left behind.\n\nSince her kidnap, Inbar's friends and family have been campaigning for her release, and using the hashtag #FreePink, a reference to her street artist name.\n\n\"I'm really not ready for you to take away my hope to see Inbar come back,\" Or wrote in another post three days ago.\n\nInbar Haiman is one of 16 women who are still being held captive in Gaza\n\nIn November, Inbar's boyfriend, 24-year-old Noam Alon, camped for 10 days in front of the central military headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling for the Israeli government to do more to secure Inbar's release.\n\nOf the 237 people taken hostage by Hamas and five other armed Palestinian groups during the 7 October attacks, BBC News has verified that 115 are left in Gaza. An Israeli government spokesman says 135 people remain captive. There is no official published list of hostages, so the BBC has had to confirm names itself.\n\nAmong the remaining hostages are at least 16 women and 95 men. This number includes French-Mexican Orión Hernández Radoux, the boyfriend of 22-year-old Shani Louk, who was killed after being kidnapped from the Supernova musical festival.\n\nSoon after the festival was attacked, a video began circulating widely on social media showing the body of a young woman being paraded through the streets. Shani's family was able to identify her in the footage from her dreadlocks and distinctive tattoos.\n\nOrión Hernández Radoux pictured with his girlfriend Shani Louk, who was killed in the 7 October attacks\n\nAt the end of October, Shani's mother Ricarda said she had been told by the Israeli military that a piece of skull bone belonging to her daughter had been found. Shani's body has not yet been recovered.\n\nIn November, her boyfriend Orión turned 31 in captivity.\n\n\"Today is Orión's birthday,\" wrote family friend Gabriel De la Fuente on Facebook in Spanish, \"already a month since his kidnapping, may God return you well.\"\n\nOrión is believed to have been snatched at the festival, and the Sun newspaper says it has seen threatening messages written in Arabic sent from his phone.\n\nHis friends and family join together in prayer each night at 7pm, in a WhatsApp group created to help them support each other.\n\n\"Only by uniting together in prayer will we provide the spiritual strength and support that your soul needs right now, wherever it may be,\" writes Gabriel.\n\nFamilies waiting for loved ones to come home have become a great source of support to each other, says Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat has been captive since 7 October.\n\nCarmel Gat was visiting her parents when she was taken\n\n\"We became like a real large family of families,\" he told the BBC News channel. \"It feels as though, when their relatives are getting released, so are mine.\"\n\nCarmel, a 39-year-old occupational therapist from Tel Aviv, had been visiting parents in Be'eri on 7 October.\n\nHer sister in law, Yarden Roman-Gat, was released by Hamas on Wednesday, and reunited with her husband and three-year-old daughter.\n\n\"I wasn't even sure that she was alive until I saw her,\" Gil says of Yarden.\n\nWhen the 36-year-old German-Israeli, her husband and daughter were captured, they managed to break out of the gunmen's car near the Gaza-Israel barrier, Gil explains.\n\nThe family then began to run away while being shot at. Realising she couldn't run fast enough, Yarden gave her daughter to her husband and surrendered so that the others could make their escape.\n\nYarden Roman-Gat initially escaped with husband Alon and daughter Gefen but went missing during the chase\n\n\"We were very, very happy to see her,\" says Gil.\n\nBut now the ceasefire is over, Gil grows more and more scared for his cousin Carmel, who has not yet come home.\n\n\"We were very, very worried by the fact that the truce is ended,\" Gil says. \"I'm personally very worried for her.\"\n\nMany people whose loved ones remain hostages in Gaza have been using social media to campaign for their release, share feelings and support each other in grief.\n\nThe mother of dual US-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin has been posting videos of herself talking about her son on his family's Bring Hersh Home Facebook page.\n\n\"I wanted to share with you what happened last night when I woke up at 2:13 in the morning,\" Rachel told the Facebook page's 17,000 followers on Wednesday. \"I started to think about how much pain Hersh must be in.\"\n\nHersh lost his dominant arm during a grenade explosion before being kidnapped\n\nAccording to eye witnesses Rachel spoke with, Hersh lost half of his arm in a grenade explosion before he was kidnapped from the Supernova festival.\n\nEyewitness accounts say the 23-year-old was seen being forced onto a white pick-up truck. The last-known signal from his phone came from just inside Gaza.\n\n\"It is really important that we get him home so that he can start the process of learning how to live his life in a very different way than he ever lived it before,\" says Rachel in one of her latest videos.\n\n\"It's just another reason why we are tenaciously and tirelessly fighting for him to come home.\"", "Less than a year after he was elected, New York Republican George Santos has been booted from the US House of Representatives.\n\nHis colleagues voted to expel him by a vote of 311-114.\n\nSantos had survived two prior attempts to oust him, but could not survive a third. A scathing ethics report into his conduct seemed to be the catalyst for many Republicans to change their minds and say, he needs to go.\n\nAnd while he is gone from the House, he won't be out of the spotlight just yet. Santos still faces multiple criminal charges.\n• For all the details on how today's vote happened, you can read this article.\n• And you can read this article to hear from constituents, friends and staff who have felt betrayed by Santos' lies.\n\nOur reporters at Capitol Hill today were Sam Cabral and Nomia Iqbal. Anthony Zurcher provided analysis from Washington DC, and Ece Goksedef contributed from London.\n\nThis page was edited by Brajesh Upadhyay and myself. Thanks for following along.", "Elliott Erwitt at work, backstage at the Tropicana, Las Vegas 1957\n\nCelebrated photographer Elliott Erwitt, known for his candid and often funny black and white images, has died at 95.\n\nHe died \"peacefully at home surrounded by family,\" Magnum, the collective of photographers that he had been part of since 1953, said in a statement.\n\nBorn in Paris to Russian parents, Erwitt moved to the US as a child.\n\nHe captured major moments including an infamous spat in 1959 between then US Vice-President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.\n\nIn 2017, on the centenary of Russia's October Revolution, he spoke to the BBC about what it was like to witness two world leaders having a spat during the Cold War.\n\n\"They were grandstanding - they were playing for their audience,\" he said of the moment.\n\nAs well as political standoffs, Erwitt was known for capturing sorrow (Jacqueline Kennedy at her husband's funeral), animals (especially dogs) and significant cultural moments.\n\nMarilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, Arthur Miller and John Huston on the set of The Misfits, Reno, Nevada, 1960\n\nIn 1960, aged 32, he took promotional shots for Western classic The Misfits - a film starring none other than Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift and Clark Gable.\n\nThe images, shot on location in the Nevada desert, show Monroe, Clift and Gable laughing and interacting with one another.\n\nOne of his best known pictures was taken in California in 1955, a couple of years after he joined the agency Magnum Photos\n\nIn an extended remembrance of his life, Magnum said Erwitt would be remembered for \"seeking out the most absurd and charming moments of life\".\n\n\"It was Erwitt's firm belief that photography should speak to the senses and emotions rather than intellect,\" the statement read.\n\nMagnum added that it would \"proudly protect the inspiring legacy that his image-making will keep on playing in the history of art and photography\".\n\nElliott Erwitt at his exhibition titled \"To The Dogs\" in 1994. Erwitt's dog obsession started half a century ago with a shot chihuahua wearing a sweater.\n\nA collection of Erwitt's work is on show at La Sucrière in Lyon, France, until March 2024.\n\nHe was married and divorced four times, and is survived by his six children, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.", "Actress Brigit Forsyth, best known for appearing in TV sitcoms Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads and Still Open All Hours, has died aged 83.\n\nLater that decade, she played Thelma in comedy Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and a Likely Lads film.\n\nHer other credits included TV dramas Playing the Field and Boon.\n\nForsyth's character Thelma was married to Bob, played by Rodney Bewes, in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?\n\nThe actress died peacefully in her sleep on Friday, surrounded by family, her agent Mark Pemberton said.\n\nIn a statement, Pemberton noted that she \"had a varied and notable career in stage, screen and radio\", including roles in theatres \"from the West End to the National Theatres of England & Scotland\".\n\nOn screen, she appeared in 1980s sitcoms Tom, Dick and Harriet, and Sharon and Elsie, and played a doctor in short-lived ITV soap opera The Practice.\n\nAnd in later life, she played Madge in Still Open All Hours, appearing in the BBC comedy from 2013 to 2019.\n\nForsyth pictured as Madge in the corner shop in Still Open All Hours\n\nPemberton added: \"She was in many radio plays on the BBC over the years and also featured in the Radio 4 sitcom Ed Reardon's Week. A talented musician, Brigit played the cello, sang and composed, and in later years played with several bands including The Fircones.\"\n\nShe \"loved collaboration and helping to develop new works with actors, writers and directors\", and set up theatre company Word Mills Productions in 2016, he said.\n\nForsyth also had guest TV appearances in The Bill, Doctor Who, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Coronation Street, and was the subject of the biographical show This Is Your Life in 2002.", "His appearance was much anticipated and Matt Hancock’s evidence in a marathon session lasting a day and a half has thrown up many talking points, some unexpected.\n\nHis response to allegations by some other witnesses, including Dominic Cummings, that he had at times been hugely overconfident and less than truthful was robust.\n\nHe pointed the finger at a “malign” actor in Downing Street and condemned what he called a “toxic” culture. So far so predictable. The inquiry and the court of public opinion will weigh up those claims and rebuttals.\n\nThe big surprise was his contention that lockdown should have happened three weeks earlier in March 2020 and this could have saved thousands of lives. He was also adamant that firmer action could have been taken earlier in the autumn and this could have reduced the need to take such draconian action in early January 2021 which, controversially, included school closures.\n\nThis sets the scene for the evidence to be given by Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak over the next two weeks. Their responses on the lockdown timing questions will be watched closely.\n\nOn the care home issue Hancock was candid, he admitted that the protective ring he had talked of was less robust than first suggested. But he said the choices were very difficult, leaving the elderly in hospital rather than discharging them to care homes might have exposed them to a greater risk of getting the virus.\n\nFor bereaved families this is a critical issue. They will have to wait for a later stage of the inquiry for it to be examined more closely.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Sandra Day O'Connor's legacy in her own words\n\nSandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to sit on the US Supreme Court, has died aged 93.\n\nShe died on Friday morning in Phoenix, Arizona due to complications related to dementia and a respiratory illness, a statement by the US Supreme Court said.\n\nA moderate conservative, Justice O'Connor was appointed to America's highest court by former president Ronald Reagan in 1981.\n\nShe served as justice for more than 24 years until her retirement in 2006.\n\nShe left the bench to care for her husband, John Jay O'Connor, who was battling Alzheimer's disease. President George W Bush appointed Justice Samuel Alito as her replacement.\n\nIn a statement, US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts called Justice O'Connor \"a daughter of the American Southwest\" who \"blazed a historic trail as our Nation's first female Justice.\"\n\n\"She met that challenge with undaunted determination, indisputable ability, and engaging candor,\" Justice Roberts said. He added that she was a \"fiercely independent defender of the rule of law, and an eloquent advocate for civics education.\"\n\nJustice O'Connor was born in El Paso, Texas, and grew up on her family's cattle ranch near Duncan, Arizona. She then went on to receive her law degree from Stanford University.\n\nIn her first job, she said she had agreed to work for nothing, with no office, for a county attorney in San Mateo, California.\n\n\"No-one gave me a job,\" Justice O'Connor told the International Bar Association in 2011. \"It was very frustrating because I had done very well in both undergraduate and law school and my male classmates weren't having any problems.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'Because I was a women I couldn't get an interview'\n\nDespite the difficulties of being a woman in law, she went on to become Deputy County Attorney of San Mateo County in California and later Assistant Attorney General of Arizona.\n\nA Republican, she was appointed to the Arizona State Senate in 1969 and was re-elected to two two-year terms. A groundbreaking politician, she became the first woman anywhere in the US to serve as a majority leader in a state senate.\n\nIn 1974, she left party politics and was elected to the Maricopa County Superior Court, before being appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979.\n\nDuring his campaign for the presidency, Ronald Reagan vowed to appoint a woman to the US Supreme Court, in what some reporters at the time said was a bid to tackle his low polling among women.\n\nWhen nominating her to the court in 1981, Mr Reagan said that she was \"truly a person for all seasons, possessing those unique qualities of temperament, fairness, intellectual capacity, and devotion to the public good\". The Senate approved her nomination in a unanimous vote of 99-0.\n\nShe was regarded by many as the most powerful woman in the country at the time, as Justice O'Connor was a decisive vote on influential Supreme Court cases.\n\nAmong her most impactful decisions was her 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v Casey, which reaffirmed women's right to abortion. Her replacement, Justice Alito, would go on to author the majority decision that overturned that right in 2022.\n\nJustice O'Connor was also the deciding vote in the Bush v Gore case in 2000.\n\nThat year, Republican George W Bush and Democrat Al Gore fought a closely contested election for the presidency, and legal battles over a recount ensued.\n\nJustice O'Connor voted with the 5-4 majority to halt any legal challenges to the results of the election, effectively putting President George W Bush in the White House.\n\nBut she ruled against the Bush administration's post-9/11 detainee policy in 2004, in which the court decided that due process was required for US citizens who are detained.\n\n\"A state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the Nation's citizens,\" Justice O'Connor wrote in the court's plurality opinion.\n\nIn an open letter in 2018, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with dementia, saying it marked the end of her role in public life.\n\n\"How fortunate I feel to be an American and to have been presented with the remarkable opportunities available to the citizens of our country,\" she wrote. \"As a young cowgirl from the Arizona desert, I never could have imagined that one day I would become the first woman justice on the US Supreme Court.\"\n\n\"I hope that I have inspired young people about civic engagement and helped pave the pathway for women who mayhave faced obstacles pursuing their careers.\"\n\nOn Friday, senior politicians of major both parties were quick to pay tribute to O'Connor.\n\n\"Sandra Day O'Connor was a trailblazer,\" wrote House Speaker, Republican Mike Johnson. \"Justice O'Connor inspired a generation of women - including the five female Justices that succeeded her - to chart a path that previously seemed unattainable.\"\n\nAlaska Senator Lisa Murkowski hailed O'Connor as \"an inspiration who impacted an entire generation of young women who saw that it was possible to serve our country in the highest office\".\n\nAnd Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said the late justice's \"example showed us that anything and everything is possible\".\n\nJustice O'Connor is survived by three sons and six grandchildren. Her husband died in 2009.\n• None Sandra Day O'Connor: A ranch girl whose swing vote changed the US", "Pontins Prestatyn site was closed \"with immediate effect\" on Thursday\n\nWhat was once a staple of British holidaying has now shrunk further to a shadow of its former self.\n\nPontins has announced both its Prestatyn and Camber Sands sites are closing with \"immediate effect\".\n\nIt leaves the former holiday park giant, which at its height offered 30 destinations, with only four left.\n\nFounder Fred Pontin ran the company from 1946 until its sale in 1978, it then passed through various owners before it was saved from administration by current owners Britannia Hotels in 2011.\n\nFollowing speculation, the Home Office has clarified that the closed parks will not be used to house asylum seekers.\n\nThe Prestatyn site, in Denbighshire, opened in 1971 and soon became a popular with holidaymakers across the country.\n\nThe holiday parks were known for their distinctive \"bluecoat\" staff members\n\nMany British stars, including Shane Richie and Bobby Davro, got their start in showbusiness as bluecoats, as its staff members were affectionately known.\n\nPauline Thompson, 69, from Immingham in Lincolnshire, worked as a bluecoat at the park from 1973 to 1976.\n\nShe said the memories she made there were \"absolutely terrific\" and it used to be one of the most popular and bustling holiday destinations around, with packed bingo halls and swimming pools.\n\nPrestatyn's Pontins was opened by Fred Pontin in 1971\n\n\"It had a 5,000 capacity and we used to be full all through the school holidays… It was terrific,\" said Pauline.\n\n\"There was a lot for people to do, there was competitions all day, a swimming Pool - bingo, of course - there was shows, there was something to do every day.\n\n\"Everybody was friends, it was a very good atmosphere and I'm actually still in touch with people that I worked with.\"\n\nPauline said she made friends for life while working at the park, and also a husband\n\nEveryone got to know each other so well at the park that Pauline even met her future husband while working at the site in her early 20s.\n\n\"We're divorced now, but I did meet [him] there, so I've got children who originated from there really,\" she joked.\n\nHowever, Pauline is still in touch with friends she made during her bluecoat summers in the 1970s, with a group even making the trip back to north Wales for a reunion last year.\n\n\"We went up to Pontins and asked if it'd be possible to have a look around and the woman didn't let me, probably because it was in such a state,\" she added.\n\n\"It is sad that we never got back to have a look before it closed.\"\n\nJust last year Pauline met up in north Wales with friends Graham, Sue and Colin, all of whom worked with her at Pontins in the 70s\n\nLisa Lacking, from Winsford, Cheshire, first starting holidaying at Prestatyn Pontins with her family as a child in 1984 and then returned with her own children.\n\n\"We went about every year until I was about 12, so then, when my kids were born, I took them every year... we've had two generations going,\" said the 46-year-old.\n\n\"There was always loads to do when I was a kid, loads of competitions. There was that much going on you didn't know what to do,\" said Lisa.\n\n\"It's just a very special place... I will miss it a lot.\"\n\nHowever, Lisa said she had noticed the quality of the park taking a dip over the decades.\n\n\"It has declined a lot. I mean there's just not an awful lot to do. You have to go outside of the camp to find something to do.\"\n\nLisa says the Prestatyn park is a \"special place\" that unfortunately declined over the years\n\nThose who live near the site told the BBC they were not too surprised at the sudden closure.\n\n\"It's been going downhill for years,\" said Gill Bannister.\n\n\"I think it would probably be a relief because it is an embarrassment, the only time you get reviews of Pontins it was bad reviews.\"\n\nLisa, who last visited the site earlier this year, said it declined massively from its heyday in the 1980s\n\nAnn Boorman said: \"I think it's going to cause a lot of problems for Prestatyn.\n\n\"Obviously a lot of people from Prestatyn are employed here... so I think it will have a detrimental effect on the town itself.\"\n\nLynne Macdonald, who worked at the site as a teenager, added: \"It's not a complete shock to be honest, because I think it's gone completely run down from what it used to be so it isn't a shock.\"", "Tree has been head of Taylor's publicity team since 2014\n\nTaylor Swift's publicist has hit out at rumours that the popstar secretly married ex-partner Joe Alwyn.\n\nTree Paine accused anonymous celebrity gossip account, Deuxmoi, of causing \"pain and trauma\" after it made the claims.\n\nIn an Instagram Story, Deuxmoi said the Cruel Summer hitmaker married Joe in 2020 or 2021 in a non-legal ceremony.\n\n\"Enough is enough with these fabricated lies about Taylor from Deuxmoi,\" Tree wrote on X/Twitter.\n\n\"There was NEVER a marriage or ceremony of ANY kind.\"\n\nNews of Taylor and Joe splitting made headlines in May 2023, with the Shake It Off star since being linked with NFL player Travis Kelce.\n\nDeuxmoi later responded to Tree's post, writing that they \"make zero dollars from lying\", then querying \"can publicists say the same\".\n\n\"Either way, I apologise to Taylor,\" the post ended.\n\nNews of Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn's split hit headlines earlier this year\n\nTree has led Taylor's publicity team since 2014, and has often been seen at events with Taylor, such as the London premiere of Beyoncé's Renaissance tour film.\n\nThe 12-time Grammy award winner previously told a fan that Tree \"tells me what to do\".\n\nTaylor has just released You're Losing Me on streaming services, which many fans think is about the decline of her and Joe's relationship.\n\nBut Jack Antonoff, Taylor's collaborator, said the song was recorded on 5 December 2021 - before Joe and Taylor split.\n\nThe account has over two million followers on Instagram and claims to be a \"curator of pop culture\".\n\nIt's known for posting anonymous messages from unverified sources about celebrities - covering everything from relationship news to music, film and product releases.\n\n\"Some statements made on this account have not been independently confirmed,\" Deuxmoi's Instagram bio reads.\n\n\"This account does not claim information published is based in fact.\"\n\nIt also posts pictures of celebrities submitted by followers, which fans have snapped when they're out and about.\n\nThe owner of the account prefers to stay anonymous, though MailOnline claimed it was a woman behind the account in 2022.\n\nSpeaking to the site, Deuxmoi said she wasn't an \"investigative journalist\".\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Flares were thrown at police officers outside an Aston Villa match\n\nThirty-nine people have been arrested after violence broke out in the build-up to Aston Villa's game with Legia Warsaw in Birmingham on Thursday night.\n\nFour police officers were hurt in clashes with away fans near Villa Park.\n\nWest Midlands Police said officers were \"faced with disgusting and highly dangerous scenes\", including having flares thrown at them.\n\nThe Europa Conference League tie went ahead with away fans blocked from entering the stadium over safety fears.\n\nOfficers with batons and shields were seen trying to regain control of the area while missiles were launched at them as fans of the Polish side attempted to force their way through barriers.\n\nSeveral videos posted on social media showed the disorder, including missiles being thrown at fans in the ground from a road adjacent to a stand.\n\nWest Midlands Police said one of the injured officers had been taken to hospital, and said two police horses and two police dogs had also been hurt.\n\nMissiles were thrown at officers outside the ground\n\nDisorder is believed to have been triggered by tensions over restrictions on the number of away fans who were going to be permitted to enter Villa Park for the match.\n\nPolice said the allocation for visiting supporters had been reduced to 1,000 tickets on the advice of local emergency services, adding Legia fans had \"been involved in previous match day disorder\".\n\nIn a statement posted on the club website ahead of the game, the Polish side accused Aston Villa of restricting access to their fans despite assurances, calling the move \"counterproductive and baseless\".\n\nIt said the club's owner and other senior executives who were due to be at the game were boycotting it in response to the move.\n\nLegia Warsaw fans were blocked from entering the stadium\n\nIn a statement released after the match, Chief Inspector Tim Robinson said: \"This should have been a great evening of football which was enjoyed by fans from both clubs.\n\n\"Unfortunately, there were appalling scenes which saw away fans dangerously throw flares and other missiles at our officers.\"\n\nHe said \"due to the extreme violence\" police were left with \"no other choice but to prevent away fans entering the stadium. The safety of everyone is our priority, and clearly we had no other option.\"\n\nAston Villa said in a statement: \"In spite of numerous requests for cooperation from Legia Warsaw concerning their travelling supporters, especially in the last two days, no assistance on the serious safety matter of away fans attending Villa Park was forthcoming from the visiting club.\n\n\"The club has repeatedly, including this morning, raised concerns in conjunction with Uefa and all the relevant authorities to Legia that ticketless away supporters were attempting to attend Villa Park.\"\n\nWest Midlands mayor Andy Street urged Uefa - European football's governing body - to \"swiftly... take strong action\" against Legia Warsaw.\n\nDutch police officers were injured during large-scale disorder during their match against AZ Alkmaar last month.\n\nAston Villa won the game 2-1 courtesy of a 58th minute goal by Alex Moreno.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Kissinger has visited China more than 100 times\n\nThe death of contentious former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has drawn nostalgia and compliments in China at a time when relations between the two countries have nosedived.\n\n\"You are forever a friend of Chinese people, rest in peace,\" a top-liked comment on the country's social media platform Weibo reads.\n\nHours after news of the death broke, the related hashtag became the most searched trend in China, with millions of views.\n\n\"This is the end of an era,\" a top-liked comment says. \"He witnessed decades of ups and downs. What would he think about current China-US relations?\" another user asked.\n\nRelations between Washington and Beijing have perhaps hit their lowest point since the two sides began talking officially in 1979 - a culmination of efforts kicked off by Mr Kissinger. While ties were \"normalised\" under President Jimmy Carter, it was his predecessor Richard Nixon who made that first historic trip to Beijing to meet Mao Zedong in 1972, putting an end to decades of hostility.\n\nMr Kissinger, who shaped US foreign policy during some of the most crucial Cold War years, was instrumental in brokering that trip, which many see as a pivotal moment in China's decision to engage with the West. In 1971, he paid a clandestine visit to Beijing to arrange the meeting.\n\nLargely respectful and solemn, the comments on Chinese social media portray Mr Kissinger as an old and trusted friend from a time when the US and China had eagerly embraced each other.\n\nIt was also a time when America was trying to talk to the Soviet Union, and hoped better relations with China would increase the pressure. The Vietnam war was still raging - Mr Kissinger has both been lauded for crafting a peace deal, and also denounced for not ending the war earlier. And he was called a war criminal for his role in the bombing of Laos and Cambodia, which killed tens of thousands of civilians.\n\nDisliked in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, he was nevertheless lionised in China for his role in launching what was the honeymoon period in US-China relations.\n\nMr Kissinger was one of the most well-known Americans among Chinese people. To this day, his name is taught in history lessons across the country, and so many see him as a friendly Western face - something that they believe has become increasingly rare.\n\nThroughout his decades-long career, Mr Kissinger saw engagement with China as one of his main legacies.\n\n\"China is the country with which I have the longest and most in-depth contact. China has become a very important part of my life,\" he said in a 2011 interview with Chinese state media Can Kao Xiaoxi.\n\nHe was one of very few foreign leaders who met five generations of Communist leaders, from Mao to Xi Jinping. In a post on Weibo, state broadcaster CCTV called him a \"living fossil\" who witnessed the evolution of the countries' bilateral relationship.\n\nHis support for engagement between the two countries was so strong that he called the brutal crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen student protests \"inevitable\".\n\n\"Its brutality was shocking,\" he wrote in the Washington Post in August 1989, but he also said \"No government in the world would have tolerated having the main square of its capital occupied for eight weeks by tens of thousands of demonstrators.\"\n\nHe had written then that \"China remains too important for America's national security to risk the relationship.\"\n\nIn recent years too, Mr Kissinger called for easing tensions between the US and China. He pushed for it even as China grew to become the world's second-largest economy and challenged the very American power Mr Kissinger had wielded for much of his life.\n\nAnd he was always welcome in Beijing - both a reminder of the era of US engagement and a consistent advocate of it.\n\nHe visited China more than 100 times, long after he retired - the last visit was this July, where the 99-year-old former diplomat was welcomed by Mr Xi in Beijing despite the chill in relations between China and the US.\n\nMr Xi said to him China would never forget \"our old friends\" and China's top diplomat Wang Yi said that the US needed \"Kissinger-style diplomatic wisdom\" in its China policy.\n\nThe meeting took place just weeks after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's high-stakes visit to China to rekindle contacts, and irked the White House. Mr Kissinger appeared to have better access in Beijing than current US government officials.\n\n\"China and the US must inherit and carry forward Dr Kissinger's strategic vision, political courage and diplomatic wisdom,\" foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Thursday after hailing Mr Kissinger as an \"old and good friend of the Chinese people\".\n\nThe Chinese Communist Party has been unabashed in its compliments to Mr Kissinger - a stark contrast to the reactions America usually draws.\n\n\"History will remember what the centenarian had contributed to China-US relations,\" Chinese ambassador to the US Xie Feng said.\n\nState media outlet China News Service described him as someone who had \"a sharp vision and could see through the world's affairs\".\n\nThe view just across the strait - in Taiwan, where fear of Beijing's threats has grown - is less kind.\n\nWhen the US normalised relations with China in 1979, it switched diplomatic recognition from the self-governed island of Taiwan, agreeing that there was only one China, whose government sat in Beijing.\n\n\"From a historical perspective, he is a negative figure,\" wrote one user on Facebook.\n\nAnother top comment reads: \"He made Taiwan suffer too much.\"", "The Angel of the North statue in Gateshead covered in snow\n\nWeather warnings for snow and ice have come into force for parts of England and Scotland as forecasters predicted freezing temperatures this weekend.\n\nThe yellow warnings cover northern and southern Scotland and the east of England, down to London and Kent.\n\nTemperatures could fall as low as -10C in north-east Scotland and -4 to -8C across much of the UK overnight.\n\nIt comes as snow swept across parts of the UK on Friday, causing 30 schools in Cornwall to close or open late.\n\nOn Saturday morning Glasgow Airport had to ground all flights due to heavy snowfall overnight.\n\nTwo inbound flights had to be diverted to Prestwick and Edinburgh, as teams in Glasgow work to clear snow from the airfield.\n\nIt comes after parts of the UK experienced the coldest night in the UK on Thursday since mid-March, with temperatures in Cumbria dipping to -9.4C (15F) overnight.\n\nFlossie the Giant Schnauzer having fun in the snow in North Yorkshire\n\nThe Met's Office yellow warnings, which are in force from 17:00 on Friday until just before noon on Saturday, mean people could face hazardous conditions, with disruption and delays likely on roads and railways and icy patches on roads and pavements.\n\nThe weather agency has warned freezing rain, a rare type of precipitation which freezes on impact, could make driving dangerous.\n\nIn a post on X, the London Fire Brigade advised taking \"extra care\" while out and about \"as conditions could be icy\", warning people to \"keep well away from water\".\n\nMany areas have seen temperatures of 0C (32F) throughout the day. But as the evening begins - with clear skies and light winds expected - temperatures will quickly drop to well below freezing.\n\nThe Met Office said there could be 2cm (0.79in) to 5cm (2in) of snow for areas 100m (328ft) to 200m (656ft) above sea level, particularly in Northern Ireland and western Scotland.\n\nThere will be further wintry downfalls of snow for a time around North Sea coasts but into the weekend some rain or sleet and snow showers will start coming in from the west.\n\nThere is the chance of some significant snow in Wales, the Midlands and parts of northern England by Sunday morning, even at low levels.\n\nThe Angel of the North statue covered in snow in Gateshead\n\nSeparately, the UK Health Security Agency has issued an amber cold-health alert for the health sector for a number of regions in England, meaning \"significant impacts are probable\".\n\nThe alert indicates that the cold weather is likely to affect the whole health service, with the potential for the entire population to be at risk, the agency says.\n\nThe alert is in place for the East Midlands, West Midlands, North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber until 5 December.\n\nTemperatures of between -3C (27F) to -6C (21F) were widely seen across the UK on Friday, even in major towns and cities. It was -5C (23F) in Manchester and Edinburgh and -3C (27F) in south-west London and Birmingham.\n\nSnow swept across south-west England, parts of Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland, while hilly areas - including the North York Moors and parts of Scotland - will see more snow later, forecasters said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMany areas of the North East woke up to a blanket of snow, causing delays for motorists and some schools to close.\n\nIn County Durham, police said snowy conditions led to some crashes on the roads, while North Yorkshire Police reported 100 cars stuck between Whitby and Scarborough.\n\nOvernight from Thursday into Friday morning, some of the coldest places were:\n\nPeople in the snow in Gateshead\n\nYellow warnings for ice for Northern Ireland and south-west England ended at 10:00, but in some central and south-eastern areas of England freezing fog posed an additional hazard on Friday morning.\n\nBy Friday lunchtime, large parts of the UK were experiencing crisp, cold and sunny weather.\n\nDespite the alerts, this year has joined 2021 and 2022 as one of the warmest autumns on record in the UK, with the temperature for the past three months standing at 10.8C (51F) according to provisional data from the Met Office.\n\nHave you been affected by the cold snap? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFind out the weather forecast for your area, with an hourly breakdown and a 14-day lookahead, by downloading the BBC Weather app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nThe BBC Weather app is only available to download in the UK.", "Joint military drills were held between Palestinian armed factions from 2020 onwards\n\nFive armed Palestinian groups joined Hamas in the deadly 7 October attack on Israel after training together in military-style exercises from 2020 onwards, BBC News analysis shows.\n\nThe groups carried out joint drills in Gaza which closely resembled the tactics used during the deadly assault - including at a site less than 1km (0.6 miles) from the barrier with Israel - and posted them on social media.\n\nThey practised hostage-taking, raiding compounds and breaching Israel's defences during these exercises, the last of which was held just 25 days before the attack.\n\nBBC Arabic and BBC Verify have collated evidence which shows how Hamas brought together Gaza's factions to hone their combat methods - and ultimately execute a raid into Israel which has plunged the region into war.\n\nOn 29 December 2020, Hamas's overall leader Ismail Haniyeh declared the first of four drills codenamed Strong Pillar a \"strong message and a sign of unity\" between Gaza's various armed factions.\n\nAs the most powerful of Gaza's armed groups, Hamas was the dominant force in a coalition which brought together 10 other Palestinian factions in a war games-style exercise overseen by a \"joint operation room\".\n\nThe structure was set up in 2018 to coordinate Gaza's armed factions under a central command.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Videos reveal how armed groups trained together before 7 October attacks\n\nPrior to 2018, Hamas had formally coordinated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Gaza's second largest armed faction and - like Hamas - a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK and other countries.\n\nHamas had also fought alongside other groups in previous conflicts, but the 2020 drill was billed in propaganda as evidence a wider array of groups were being unified.\n\nHamas's leader said the first drill reflected the \"permanent readiness\" of the armed factions.\n\nThe 2020 exercise was the first of four joint drills held over three years, each of which was documented in polished videos posted on public social media channels.\n\nThe BBC has visually identified 10 groups, including PIJ, by their distinctive headbands and emblems training alongside Hamas during the Strong Pillar drills in footage posted on the messaging app Telegram.\n\nFollowing the 7 October attack, five of the groups went on to post videos claiming to show them taking part in the assault. Three others issued written statements on Telegram claiming to have participated.\n\nThe role of these groups has come into sharp focus as pressure builds on Hamas to find dozens of women and children believed to have been taken as captives from Israel into Gaza by other factions on 7 October.\n\nThree groups - PIJ, the Mujahideen Brigades and Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades - claim to have seized Israeli hostages, alongside Hamas, on that day.\n\nEfforts to extend the temporary truce in Gaza were said to be hinging on Hamas locating those hostages.\n\nWhile these groups are drawn from a broad ideological spectrum ranging from hard-line Islamist to relatively secular, all shared a willingness to use violence against Israel.\n\nHamas statements repeatedly stressed the theme of unity between Gaza's disparate armed groups. The group suggested they were equal partners in the joint drills, whilst it continued to play a leading role in the plans to attack Israel.\n\nFootage from the first drill shows masked commanders in a bunker appearing to conduct the exercise, and begins with a volley of rocket fire.\n\nIt cuts to heavily armed fighters overrunning a mocked-up tank marked with an Israeli flag, detaining a crew member and dragging him away as a prisoner, as well as raiding buildings.\n\nWe know from videos and harrowing witness statements that both tactics were used to capture soldiers and target civilians on 7 October, when around 1,200 people were killed and an estimated 240 hostages were taken.\n\nThe first Strong Pillar drill propaganda video showed a command room overseeing the joint exercise\n\nThe second Strong Pillar drill was held almost exactly one year later.\n\nAyman Nofal, a commander in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades - the official name for Hamas's armed wing - said the aim of the exercise on 26 December 2021 was to \"affirm the unity of the resistance factions\".\n\nHe said the drills would \"tell the enemy that the walls and engineering measures on the borders of Gaza will not protect them\".\n\nAnother Hamas statement said the \"joint military manoeuvres\" were designed to \"simulate the liberation of settlements near Gaza\" - which is how the group refers to Israeli communities.\n\nThe exercise was repeated on 28 December 2022, and propaganda images of fighters practising clearing buildings and overrunning tanks in what appears to be a replica of a military base were published to mark the event.\n\nThe exercises were reported on in Israel, so it's inconceivable they were not being closely monitored by the country's extensive intelligence agencies.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have previously carried out air strikes to disrupt Hamas's training activities. In April 2023, they bombed the site used for the first Strong Pillar drill.\n\nWeeks before the attacks, female surveillance soldiers near the Gaza border reportedly warned of unusually high drone activity and that Hamas was training to take over observation posts with replicas of their positions.\n\nBut, according to reports in the Israeli media, they say they were ignored.\n\nBrigadier General Amir Avivi, a former IDF deputy commander in Gaza, told the BBC: \"There was a lot of intelligence that they were doing this training - after all, the videos are public, and this was happening just hundreds of metres from the fence (with Israel).\"\n\nBut he said while the military knew about the drills, they \"didn't see what they were training for\".\n\nThe IDF said they \"eliminated\" Nofal on 17 October 2023, the first senior Hamas military leader to be killed during the conflict.\n\nHamas went to great lengths to make sure the drills were realistic.\n\nIn 2022, fighters practised storming a mock Israeli military base built just 2.6km (1.6 miles) from the Erez crossing, a route between Gaza and Israel controlled by the IDF.\n\nBBC Verify has pinpointed the site in the far north of Gaza, just 800m (0.5 miles) from the barrier, by matching geographic features seen in the training footage to aerial images of the area. As of November 2023, the site was still visible on Bing Maps.\n\nThe training camp was within 1.6km (1 mile) of an Israeli observation tower and an elevated observation box, elements in a security barrier Israel has spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing.\n\nThe mock base is on land dug several metres below ground level, so it may not have been immediately visible to any nearby Israeli patrols - but the smoke rising from the explosions surely would have been, and the IDF is known to use aerial surveillance.\n\nHamas used this site to practise storming buildings, taking hostages at gunpoint and destroying security barriers.\n\nBBC Verify has used publicly available information - including satellite imagery - to locate 14 training sites at nine different locations across Gaza.\n\nThey even trained twice at a site less than 1.6 km (1 mile) from the United Nations' aid agency distribution centre, and which was visible in the background of an official video published by the agency in December 2022.\n\nOn 10 September 2023, the so-called joint committee room published images on its dedicated Telegram channel of men in military uniforms carrying out surveillance of military installations along the Gaza barrier.\n\nTwo days later, the fourth Strong Pillar military exercise was staged, and by 7 October, all the tactics that would be deployed in the unprecedented attack had been rehearsed.\n\nFighters were filmed riding in the same type of white Toyota pickup trucks which were seen roaming through southern Israel the following month.\n\nThe propaganda video shows gunmen raiding mock buildings and firing at dummy targets inside, as well as training to storm a beach using a boat and underwater divers. Israel has said it repelled attempted Hamas boat landings on its shores on 7 October.\n\nThe fourth and final Strong Pillar drill saw fighters training on raiding buildings\n\nHowever, Hamas did not publicise its training with motorcycles and paragliders as part of the Strong Pillar propaganda.\n\nA training video posted by Hamas three days after 7 October shows fences and barriers being demolished to allow motorcycles to pass through, a tactic they used to reach communities in southern Israel. We have not identified similar earlier videos.\n\nFootage of fighters using paragliding equipment was also not published until the 7 October attack was under way.\n\nIn a training video shared on the day of the attack, gunmen are seen landing in a mock kibbutz at an airstrip we have located to a site north of Rafah in southern Gaza.\n\nBBC Verify established it was recorded some time before 25 August 2022, and was stored in a computer file titled Eagle Squadron, the name Hamas uses for its aerial division - suggesting the paragliders plan was in the works for over a year.\n\nBefore 7 October, Hamas was thought to have about 30,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip, according to reports quoting IDF commanders. It was also thought that Hamas could draw on several thousands of fighters from smaller groups.\n\nHamas is by far the most powerful of the Palestinian armed groups, even without the support of other factions - suggesting its interest in galvanising the factions was driven by an attempt to secure broad support within Gaza at least as much as bolstering its own numbers.\n\nThe IDF has previously estimated 1,500 fighters joined the 7 October raids. The Times of Israel reported earlier this month the IDF now believes the number was closer to 3,000.\n\nWhatever the true number, it means only a relatively small fraction of the total number of armed operatives in Gaza took part. It is not possible to verify precise numbers for how many fighters from smaller groups took part in the attack or the Strong Pillar drills.\n\nWhile Hamas was building cross-faction support in the build-up to the attack, Hisham Jaber, a former Brigadier General in the Lebanese army who is now a security analyst at the Middle East Centre for Studies and Research, said he believed only Hamas was aware of the ultimate plan, and it was \"probable [they] asked other factions to join on the day\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAndreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at Kings College London, told the BBC: \"While there was centralised planning, execution was de-centralised, with each squad operationalising the plan as they saw fit.\"\n\nHe said people inside Hamas were said to be surprised by the weakness of Israel's defences, and assessed militants had likely bypassed Israel's surveillance technology by communicating offline.\n\nHugh Lovatt, a Middle East analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Israel would have been aware of the joint training drills but \"reached the wrong conclusion\", assessing they amounted to the \"standard\" activity of paramilitary groups in the Palestinian territories, rather than being \"indicative of a looming large-scale attack\".\n\nAsked about the issues raised in this article, the Israel Defense Forces said it was \"currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organisation Hamas\" and questions about any potential failures \"will be looked into in a later stage\".\n\nIt could be several years until Israel formally reckons with whether it missed opportunities to prevent the 7 October massacre.\n\nThe ramifications for its military, intelligence services and government could be seismic.\n\nAdditional reporting by Paul Brown, Kumar Malhotra and Abdirahim Saeed. Video production by Soraya Auer.", "Tens of thousands of Three mobile customers in the UK have reported they cannot get signal on their phones.\n\nDowndetector, which tracks websites, showed more than 20,000 people had reported their mobile service was affected on Friday afternoon.\n\nCustomers have complained on social media that they are unable to make calls, send texts or use mobile internet.\n\nThe firm has apologised for the outages.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Three UK This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Three UK\n\nAccording to Three's website the firm has more than 10 million customers across the UK.\n\nIt is unclear how many of them are affected by the outages, however, as those who rely on mobile internet may be unable to report the issue.\n\nReports of a problem first emerged on Friday morning in low numbers, and increased substantially by Friday afternoon.\n\nThe outages are also understood to affect some people using smaller providers which use Three's network.\n\nThere have been 3,000 reports from customers of one such firm - Smarty - according to DownDetector.\n\nIt is unclear whether customers will be able to claim compensation for the outage, although regulator Ofcom - the nation's communications regulator - says it \"may be appropriate\" for providers to offer refunds \"while repairs are being made\".\n\nThis is the second major technology outage in a week in the UK, after HSBC customers were left unable to use the mobile app or online banking for much of Black Friday.\n\nSome users also reported issues with their 4G and 5G, as well as some customers having problems with \"no signal\" and \"total blackout\" on Smarty, which operates on the Three network.\n\nIn 2016, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Commission blocked Three's attempted takeover of O2, arguing that it would have risked higher prices.\n\nBut now Vodafone is seeking to merge its UK businesses with Three - in a deal worth £15bn. The deal could be completed by the end of 2024.\n\nThe companies are the UK's third and fourth biggest mobile operators.\n\nThree UK is owned by the Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nNow that King Charles and Catherine, the Princess of Wales have been widely identified as the names in the race row mistakenly included in the Dutch edition of Omid Scobie's Endgame book, how can the Royal Family respond?\n\nIt is not helped by the Dutch publisher still not explaining how it happened - on Friday now saying it would not go further than previous, not very enlightening, comments about an \"error\". Is that the shadow of legal concerns?\n\nPrince Harry and Meghan, who have stayed away from any association with the book, have yet to give their views on the trustworthiness of the allegations, stemming from their Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021.\n\nBut it is understood that they are strongly rejecting any suggestion that they or their team provided Scobie with the private letters supposedly identifying the two members of the Royal Family.\n\nIn terms of a response from Buckingham Palace, \"all options are open\", was the message on Friday. That does not rule out legal action, but the spread of the story is being driven as much by social media as by mainstream news organisations, which initially did not name names.\n\nAnd how could you publicly respond to a book already pulped as a mistake?\n\nAll options are open, says Buckingham Palace about its response to what has appeared in the book's Dutch edition\n\nWhat has made the reverberations so far-reaching is because it is over one of the most sensitive possible subjects for the royals - about race and possible perceptions of racism.\n\nIt goes back to the unresolved question that followed the Oprah Winfrey interview about who in the Royal Family had raised questions about the skin colour of the baby that Prince Harry and Meghan were expecting.\n\nAlthough Prince Harry later emphasised this was about \"unconscious bias\" rather than racism, it still left a storm-cloud of questions.\n\nThe publishers have still not explained the differences in the Dutch edition\n\nIt was not helped by the race row over black British charity boss Ngozi Fulani being asked about where she was \"really from\" at a Buckingham Palace reception. And Commonwealth trips are now dogged with questions about the legacy of colonialism and slavery.\n\nThe timing is excruciatingly bad for the King too. It coincides with one of his biggest international speeches of the year, making the keynote address to the COP28 climate change summit, in front of world leaders gathered in Dubai.\n\nThe King should have been having a broadsheet moment, but instead is back in the tabloids again.\n\nLike some kind of toxic oil-spill that began as a couple of lines buried in a book in Dutch, the leak has now spread everywhere.\n\nBut there should be big flashing hazard warning lights about all this. Because so much of this story remains speculative, unexplained and contradictory.\n\nIt is not at all clear what happened in the Royal Family conversations surrounding the skin colour of Prince Harry and Meghan's baby. The couple themselves have been adamant in not wanting to disclose who was involved.\n\nThe late Queen's observation was that \"recollections may vary\". And perceptions on racism can vary too.\n\nPrince Harry, in an interview about his memoir Spare, said it had been the press that had called these family questions \"racist\", not the couple.\n\nMeghan told Oprah Winfrey in their interview about the questions about her baby's skin colour\n\nBut Meghan's comments in the Oprah interview in 2021 about these conversations about her baby's colour had a different feeling.\n\nOprah asked: \"Because they were concerned that if he were too brown, that that would be a problem? Are you saying that?\"\n\nMeghan replied: \"I wasn't able to follow up with why, but if that's the assumption you're making, I think that feels like a pretty safe one, which was really hard to understand.\"\n\nThis was serious enough for Meghan not to reveal the names of those involved, saying: \"I think that would be very damaging to them.\"\n\nScobie has repeatedly said he had never included any names in his manuscript. If that is the case, it is not the result of an earlier draft or previous version that was meant to have been changed.\n\n\"The book I edited didn't have names in it,\" he told the BBC's Newsnight programme on Thursday. It was a position he had put strongly on other interviews on UK and Dutch television.\n\nHe also said emphatically that it was not a marketing stunt.\n\nThe publishers initially blamed a mistake with the translation. But when it was evident that these lines, particularly about King Charles, were added to the Dutch edition, and not present in the English version, the position shifted to being a more general \"error\".\n\nAdding to the confusion, the translator of the book told the Daily Mail she had simply translated what she was given.\n\nIf there had been some mix-up and the names were in a line that should have been removed, it still seems strange from a journalistic perspective that such a colossal revelation would have been carried in a couple of lines in the middle of the book.\n\nWhile the reference to naming the King as part of this row is very clear, it is given in a short, unexplained line. The reference to the Princess of Wales is equally brief, but even vaguer.\n\nIt does not feel part of the rest of the text, when you would expect it to be the biggest part of the story.\n\nWhich is all to say, we do not know if these are the \"real\" names, alleged to have taken part in this uncertain conversation.\n\nIf this was found to be a false accusation - inserted at some point in the production process - it would fundamentally change the story.\n\nBut it will not be easy to reverse what is already out there.\n\nThe palace will be well aware of the so-called \"Streisand Effect\" - taking its name from an ill-fated attempt by Barbra Streisand to remove information about her property from online view, which in the process drew even more attention.\n\nBut the old royal approach to awkward news stories - \"never explain, never complain\" - becomes ever harder to maintain.", "Last updated on .From the section Everton\n\nEverton have appealed against the decision to dock them 10 Premier League points for financial rule breaches.\n\nThe Toffees were handed the punishment - the biggest in Premier League history - by an independent commission.\n\nThe club have lodged their appeal with the Premier League's judicial panel, and an appeal board will now be appointed to hear the case.\n\nThe club admitted the breach but said they were \"shocked and disappointed\" at the severity of the punishment.\n\nThe appeal will be heard and concluded before the end of this season.\n\n\"Everton Football Club has today lodged with the chair of the Premier League's judicial panel its appeal of the decision by a Premier League commission to impose a 10-point deduction on the club,\" Everton said.\n\nBBC Sport understands the club have not been told how the figure of 10 points was reached by the independent commission which decided the sanction, and feel a sporting penalty for breaking financial limits is unjust.\n\nThe appeal will go before a panel which will review the ruling of the commission, assessing the process and whether, in its opinion, the penalty issued was fair or not.\n\nThe points deduction dropped Everton from 14th in the Premier League table to 19th.\n• None 'Dogs of War reborn' - Everton gear up for another challenge\n\nThousands of Everton fans held anti-Premier League protests before and during Sunday's 3-0 defeat against Manchester United over the scale of the punishment.\n\nA number of regional politicians have also raised concerns, including Mayor of Liverpool Steve Rotheram and Mayor for Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who is an Everton season ticket-holder.\n\nThe independent commission found Everton's losses to 2021-22 amounted to £124.5m, with English top-flight clubs only permitted to lose £105m over three years.\n\nEverton believe interest payments on money borrowed to build the club's new £760m stadium at Bramley Moore Dock were permissible 'add backs' for profit and sustainability calculations in the 2021-22 financial year.\n\nBut the commission disagreed and did not accept the club's claim of mitigating factors such as compliance with the Premier League process over the past two years, the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, which resulted in the loss of the lucrative USM sponsorship, and the impact of the Covid pandemic on the transfer market.\n\nEverton may also face further financial concerns with possible compensation claims from Burnley, Leeds, Nottingham Forest, Leicester and Southampton after a ruling from David Phillips KC in May, in which he said he was \"satisfied\" that the clubs have a case.\n\nBurnley, Leeds, Leicester and Southampton have all been relegated over the past two seasons, although the Clarets have since returned to the top flight.\n\nClubs have 28 days from the date of this month's ruling to decide if they want to pursue a claim.\n• None Our coverage of Everton is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Everton - go straight to all the best content", "A senior Israeli doctor has told the BBC that some of the youngest hostages released from captivity by Hamas in recent days looked like \"shadows of children\" upon their arrival at hospital.\n\nDr Efrat Bron-Harlev, head of the Schneider Children's Medical Center in Tel Aviv, said 26 of the 100 or so hostages released so far had been taken to recover at her hospital. She told the BBC that while many had since been released from medical care, their recovery was proving to be a \"painful process\" - especially for younger hostages.\n\n\"I would say that when they come, they don't really look like children, I would say they would look more like shadows of children, kind of hollow children, they have no impression on their face,\" Bron-Harlev observed. \"Not sad, not happy, just no impression, they hardly speak, very, very quiet. If they do speak, it's very, very quiet.\"\n\n\"Some of them are having a hard time getting up from a chair, you know, like little like older people that need some help while they get up from a chair.\"\n\nTheir experience of captivity in Gaza varied, Bron-Harlev said, noting that some hostages were kept in one location, while others were frequently on the move. All reported living under \"very strict conditions\" in captivity.\n\n\"It takes them quite a while to really believe that they are no longer in a place that might hurt them, that they're in a safe place,\" she said. \"I don't think that there is a lot of experience around the world of so many children and families being in captivity... for such a long time, either as individuals or as a group.\"", "Police say the man died after an incident in the grounds of Belton House in an area not open to the public\n\nInvestigations are taking place in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire after a 28-year-old man died following an altercation in the grounds of a National Trust property.\n\nLincolnshire Police said the victim was involved in an assault at Belton House, near Grantham, on Thursday in an area not open to the public.\n\nThe force said the man returned home but later became unwell and died.\n\nA 29-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder has been released on bail.\n\nPolice said work was ongoing \"at a number of locations\" in the two counties, including at Belton House.\n\n\"Part of our investigation is around establishing the exact cause of death, which will be done following a formal Home Office post mortem examination at some point next week,\" a force spokesperson said.\n\nOfficers previously said it was believed the people involved knew each other, with the incident not involving National Trust staff or Belton House visitors.\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Chauvin is serving concurrent prison sentences over the death of George Floyd\n\nA US prison inmate has been charged with attempted murder after stabbing Derek Chauvin, the ex-police officer convicted in the death of George Floyd.\n\nProsecutors said ex-gang member John Turscak used an improvised blade to knife Chauvin 22 times on 24 November at a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona.\n\nChauvin survived the attack and was said to be in a stable condition.\n\nHe is serving multiple sentences for Floyd's death, which triggered nationwide protests and rioting.\n\nTurscak, a former member of a Mexican Mafia gang, allegedly targeted Chauvin in the prison's law library at lunchtime. He later said that he had been considering killing Chauvin for about a month because of his status as a high-profile inmate.\n\nHe told correctional officers he would have killed Chauvin had they not reacted quickly, but later denied to FBI agents he had wanted to take the former officer's life, according to court papers.\n\nTurscak, 52, told FBI agents he attacked Chauvin on Black Friday - as the day after US Thanksgiving is known - as a symbolic connection to Black Lives Matter and the Black Hand symbol linked with the Mexican Mafia, according to prosecutors.\n\nAccording to the Bureau of Prisons inmate database, Turscak is white. An article in the Los Angeles Times says he was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in 2001 after admitting to carrying out crimes while working as an undercover FBI informant.\n\nBlack Lives Matter led nationwide racial justice rallies in the aftermath of the May 2020 killing of Floyd, an unarmed black man, by Chauvin, a white Minneapolis policeman.\n\nMinnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office prosecuted Chauvin, said in the aftermath of the stabbing that he was \"sad\" to learn of the attack.\n\n\"He was duly convicted of his crimes and, like any incarcerated individual, he should be able to serve his sentence without fear of retaliation or violence,\" Mr Ellison said in a statement from his office.", "The songs of The Pogues are what happens when rural folk songs are hit over the head by the amphetamine punk spirit of 70s London.\n\nBut they are more than that.\n\nThese \"gutter hymns\" of the Irish abroad are celebrations of tough lives that are sprinkled with wit, literary references and simple truth telling.\n\nShane MacGowan once said: \"I couldn't believe that nobody else were doing it, so we went on doing it ourselves…\"\n\nBut the problem is that the story of Shane MacGowan the legendary drinker has overshadowed Shane the songwriter - and his best songs are remarkable.\n\nShane MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl performing Fairy Tale of New York.\n\nTake Fairy Tale of New York, it's a masterpiece because it captures the Christmas other festive tunes ignore.\n\nIt's a celebration of those bleak December days of rumination on mistakes made or married:\n\n\"I could have been someone.\n\n\"You took my dreams from me when I first found you.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video has been removed for rights reasons\n\nIt takes a rare talent to turn a grim truth of this midwinter festival of drink, regret and loneliness into the one Christmas song that never seems to overstay its welcome.\n\nHowever, the man himself almost went out of his way to keep us from seeing it.\n\nInterviews and profiles begin with stories of journalists waiting for hours in Dublin bars.\n\nThere are descriptions of stained clothing, missing teeth and his laugh, which the Daily Mirror compared to \"a cross between a rattlesnake's hiss and a portable toilet being flushed\".\n\nBut there's not much about how well-read he was, or what his songs were about.\n\nFor a man who came from a culture that prizes conversation as a high art form, and has provided more than its fair share of hyper-articulate storytellers, he was famously uncommunicative with journalists and writers.\n\nMacGowan is captured in action performing with The Pogues\n\nHis official biographer, Richard Balls, once compared interviewing him to making a wildlife documentary.\n\nIt was a matter of waiting hours and hours in the hope he might give you some brief insight into a songwriter who had quite clearly read a lot books. Thankfully, we can get a sense of his literary tastes by listening to the records.\n\nThe Pogues' album, Red Roses for Me, is named after a Sean O'Casey play.\n\nStreams of Whiskey is a tribute to a MacGowan hero and inspiration, the poet and playwright Brendan Behan, who once described himself as a \"drinker with a writing problem\". (Which is perhaps a fair description of Shane himself).\n\nThe dark humour lurking in the descriptions of hardship and squalor is an echo of another favourite of his, Flann O'Brien. His songs are a reminder of the time before the Celtic Tiger when young people fled Ireland in search of work. a world that has inspired a library of books, plays and poetry.\n\nAnd listening to his songs it's no surprise that MacGowan was, in his youth, a reader.\n\nShane's father, Maurice, who also described himself as something of a \"roustabout\", would, he said, try to read James Joyce's famously impenetrable, Finnegan's Wake with an 11-year-old Shane.\n\nAnd, if you waited long enough, and won his confidence, MacGowan the reader might occasionally emerge with his views on Yeats, Joyce and Beckett.\n\nTake the moment when a roomful of dentists burst into a round of applause when Shane finally managed to eat an apple after seven years of total toothlessness.\n\nHis 28 new teeth were described as the \"Everest of Dentistry\", there was even a special TV programme devoted to the story of their nine-hour installation, and the anxiety that the new teeth might wreck the distinctive rasp of what was left of the MacGowan voice.\n\nAnd, along with the teeth, were the endless stories of the drinking.\n\nIn one biography, written by his wife, Victoria, there was a description of why travelling was so difficult; the airlines frequently refused to allow him on the aircraft.\n\nOn one attempt to reach a gig with Bob Dylan, four planes came and went. And Shane himself was, at times, happy to add to the stories of \"Shane the Drinker\", recounting that he was given Guinness when he was five years old and downing whiskey at eight.\n\nHis departure from The Pogues was also, inevitably, preceded by an epic bender. It took place on a Japanese train where MacGowan discovered the joys of sake, and fell out of the carriage knocking himself unconscious.\n\nHe was using a wheelchair in 2022\n\nBut while the endless cycle of drinking and drying out clinics destroyed his relationship with the band it did not seem to puncture the admiration or allure.\n\nHe was, he said, wary of strangers but he never seemed short of famous friends. It was U2's Bono who lent him a Martello Tower to live in when he parted from The Pogues and it was Sinead O'Connor who famously reported him to the police when she despaired of his heroin habit.\n\nHe was not too happy about that but on his 60th birthday party in Dublin, there she was, along with Bono, Nick Cave, Johnny Depp and the Irish President, Michael D Higgins all paying honour.\n\nNobel laureates would have been jealous of the adulation.\n\nAt the end of the evening it felt like the arrival of royalty as the musician was wheeled on stage and everyone stood around staring at this ravaged, immobilised figure.\n\nHe had some years before broken his pelvis in a dancing accident. One can assume strong drink may have been involved.\n\nMacGowan is pictured, drink in hand, in 1997\n\nIt seems everyone who ever met him has a story.\n\nHe shares a place in culture alongside Dylan Thomas, George Best and Keith Richards. It's a pity his drink, drugs and near death excesses have overshadowed the music, because in an era of glossy, MTV friendly, over-produced, rah-rah skirted pop, he was the perfect counterpoint.\n\nThe 1980s really needed a peg toothed, dishevelled, drunken Irish punk poet in the charts, albeit one who was actually born in Tunbridge Wells.\n\nOnce again, the story rather than the music grabs your attention.\n\nHis birthplace, leafy, well-to-do Kent, was not a fact he often volunteered. It happened, he said, only because his mother had gone into labour on Christmas Day while visiting family.\n\nHe was a proud Irishman. Nevertheless, while his early childhood was in Tipperary, his schooling was a prestigious English prep school, Holmewood House and then a scholarship to public school, Westminster. He was soon expelled.\n\nAt 12 he was reading Dostoyevsky, at 17 he had his first spell in rehab after developing an addiction to Valium. The cycle had begun.\n\nHe was first told he had six weeks to live in the late 80s. MacGowan's survival defied medical science and became part of the myth.\n\nHis story is a page-turning catalogue of events both fascinating and frightful, but don't forget the songs.\n\nAnd so, let's end with a MacGowan lyric, a little something for this moment of farewell, to what felt like a near immortal hell raiser, from The Pogues' song The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn.\n\n\"They'll take you from this dump you're in and stick you in a box.\n\n\"Then they'll take you to Cloughprior and shove you in the ground.\n\n\"But you'll stick your head back out and shout, 'We'll have another round.'\"", "Mum-of-two Lisa said she thinks school meals should continue throughout the Christmas holidays\n\nA mum has called for free school meals to continue during the Christmas holidays.\n\nMum-of-two Lisa, 38, from Fochriw in Caerphilly county, said free school meals had helped her and other families who are \"worse off than me\".\n\nThe Royal College of Paediatricians and Child Health (RCPCH) said it was an \"own goal\" for the Welsh government to stop funding the scheme.\n\nThe Welsh government said the decision was due to \"financial pressure\".\n\nLisa, whose daughters are 12 and 15, said she had recently received a letter saying the meals would stop over Christmas.\n\n\"They used to give such a range, you'd get fresh salad, frozen food, a bit of everything, fresh fruit - everything was there,\" she said.\n\n\"A lot of families are going to find it hard without that to help. There are kids out there that are probably only having that one meal a day.\n\n\"I'm a single parent with two children, I do struggle sometimes and it was a big help to me but then you've got other families that are worse off than me.\"\n\nDr Nick Wilkinson said the RCPCH was seeing more children with conditions linked to a lack of adequate food.\n\nPaediatricians had noticed an increase in type 2 diabetes and tooth extractions, said Dr Wilkinson.\n\nDr Nick Wilkinson said he was seeing more over and underweight young people\n\n\"We're seeing more young people who are both underweight and overweight,\" he told BBC Wales Live.\n\n\"The reason for being overweight is that when you're hungry, then you go to perhaps the wrong food choices.\n\n\"We see families making difficult food choices. We see the effects on their mental health.\n\n\"There are also decisions as well around reaching for vapes, for smoking, which act as appetite suppressers as well.\"\n\nNatasha, 35, has two toddlers who are not in school yet but recently set up a playgroup in Fochriw which meets once a week.\n\nIt offers free meals and has seen lots of parents coming for company and the food.\n\n\"To some families, it's absolute gold dust. The majority of people are struggling these days,\" she said.\n\n\"The food parcels that were previously given and are now going to stop, people actually use them, they don't waste them.\n\nNatasha says \"most people\" are struggling at the moment\n\n\"This area is quite forgotten about, so I do think those parcels that go to those families are very much appreciated.\"\n\nDuring the Covid-19 pandemic, the Welsh government became the first in the UK to extend free school meal provision into the holidays.\n\nHowever, it cut the funding off in June this year, saying it had no money and the holiday scheme had been time-limited.\n\nDuring the summer, some councils in Wales opted to fund the scheme themselves, but three of those that did, Caerphilly, Gwynedd and Powys, told Wales Live they would not be able to do it again.\n\nMark Pritchard, the independent leader of Wrexham council, also confirmed his authority could not afford to pay for free school meals over Christmas.\n\nCouncils in Wales are expected to face a funding shortfall of hundreds of millions over the next two years.\n\nDr Wilkinson said paediatricians were \"very concerned\" about the long-term consequences the cuts could have on the \"most vulnerable in society\".\n\n\"We have so many young people disengaging from education. We know the importance of food on educational attainment and educational engagement, it just seems like an own goal to withdraw food at such a key time,\" he said.\n\nAnthony Hunt, leader of Torfaen council, said funding free school meals over the summer cost them £250,000 and it \"can't go on forever\".\n\nHe said the pressures that Welsh councils were facing was having an impact on what they can do.\n\n\"Given the huge pressures elsewhere in the system I don't want to promise to do something I can't then deliver and then have to take money out of core services like schools, like social care,'' he said.\n\n\"There is an £820m pressure on Welsh councils going into the next financial year.\n\n\"Funding those basic public services that people rely on and that people value is becoming increasingly difficult.\"\n\nIn recent budget announced by Welsh government, education and Welsh language budget had the largest cut of £74.7m.\n\nThat includes £11.5m from the free school meals budget, although officials said there would still be enough cash to continue its plans to roll out meals to more children.\n\nSioned Williams, Plaid Cymru's spokesperson for social justice, called for funding for free school meals over the Christmas period, and said it would cost £6m over two weeks.\n\nWelsh Conservative shadow education minister Laura Anne Jones accused the Welsh government of \"letting vulnerable families down\".\n\n\"They cannot pat themselves on the back for delivering free school meals, when it is clear there are fundamental flaws, especially over the extended holiday periods,\" she said.\n\nThe Welsh government said: \"Holiday provision was a time-limited intervention introduced during the pandemic.\n\n\"Unfortunately, due to the significant financial pressures facing the Welsh budget, it is not possible to reinstate the provision of free school meals.\"", "Two days into the resumption of military operations in Gaza, it’s becoming clearer how Israel says it intends to avoid civilian casualties - which are once again rising rapidly.\n\nIsrael is no longer calling on Palestinians to move to al-Mawasi, a thin strip of territory along the Mediterranean coast which officials for weeks described as the only “safe zone.”\n\n“Unfortunately, we’ve not seen huge amounts of people going there,” Major Peter Lerner told me this afternoon, “so we are adjusting our operational assessment of the situation on the ground.”\n\nDuring his visit to Israel on Thursday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged Israel to take steps to protect civilians, including “clearly and precisely designating areas….where they can be safe.”\n\nBut the new concept is probably best described as clearly designated un-safe areas, with Israel’s new grid map of the Gaza Strip showing areas where Israel intends to carry out military operations on any given day.\n\nMark Regev, a senior advisor to Israel’s prime minister, said Israel’s messaging – including leaflets, phone calls and online messages – would mean that Gazans would always know where to go to be safe.\n\n“News travels fast,” he told journalists. “The minute one person hears it, it goes to another family and then another family.”\n\nBut with airstrikes still happening up and down the Gaza Strip, Gazans feel that no-where is genuinely safe.\n\nMaj Peter Lerner said Israel would continue to hit other “high quality targets”.", "Meta says it recently removed a network of thousands of fake and misleading accounts based in China.\n\nThe users posed as Americans and sought to spread polarising content about US politics and US-China relations.\n\nAmong the topics the network posted about were abortion, culture war issues and aid to Ukraine.\n\nMeta did not link the profiles to Beijing officials, but it has seen an increase in such networks based in China ahead of the 2024 US elections.\n\nChina is now the third-biggest geographical source of such networks, the company said, behind Russia and Iran.\n\nThe recent takedowns were outlined in a quarterly threat report released on Thursday by the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.\n\nThe China-based network included more than 4,700 accounts and used profile pictures and names copied from other users around the world.\n\nThe accounts shared and liked each other's posts, and some of the content appeared to be taken directly from X, formerly Twitter.\n\nIn some cases the accounts copied and pasted verbatim posts from US politicians - both Republicans and Democrats - including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Reps Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan, and others.\n\nIn examples released by Meta, an account in the China-based network reposted the words contained in a tweet earlier this year by Democrat Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia. She criticised Texas's abortion laws and wrote: \"Let's remember - abortion is healthcare.\"\n\nBut another account in the network copied-and-pasted a tweet from Republican Representative Ronny Jackson, who wrote: \"Taxpayer dollars should NEVER fund travel for abortions.\"\n\nMeta's report stated: \"It's unclear whether this approach was designed to amplify partisan tensions, build audiences among these politicians' supporters, or to make fake accounts sharing authentic content appear more genuine.\"\n\nThe company's moderation rules forbid what Meta calls \"co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour\" - posts by groups of accounts that work together and use false identities to mislead other users.\n\nOften the content shared by such networks is not false and references accurate news stories from major media outlets. But instead of being used for legitimate comment or debate, the posts are meant to manipulate public opinion, push division and make particular viewpoints seem more popular than they really are.\n\nMeta said the large Chinese network was stopped before it took off among real users.\n\nBen Nimmo, who leads investigations into inauthentic behaviour on the company's platforms, said such networks \"still struggle to build audiences, but they're a warning\".\n\n\"Foreign threat actors are attempting to reach people across the internet ahead of next year's elections, and we need to remain alert.\"\n\nThe company said it also discovered two smaller networks, one based in China and focusing on India and Tibet, and one based in Russia which posted primarily in English about the invasion of Ukraine and promoted Telegram channels.\n\nRussian networks, which prompted the company to focus on inauthentic campaigns following the 2016 election, have increasingly focused on the war in Ukraine and have attempted to undermine international support for Kyiv, the report said.\n\nMeta also noted that the US government stopped sharing information about foreign influence networks with the company in July, after a federal ruling as part of a legal case over the First Amendment that is now under consideration by the Supreme Court.\n\nThe case is part of a larger debate about over whether the US government works with tech companies to unduly restrict the free speech of social media users.", "After Mr Sunak's Greek row, eyebrows were raised by the pattern on the King's tie\n\nKing Charles's choice of neckwear at the COP28 conference has sparked speculation that it was a coded message to Rishi Sunak.\n\nThe King's tie had a pattern based on the Greek flag - after a week-long row between the UK PM and the Greek PM over the Parthenon Sculptures.\n\nThe dispute is over whether the sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, should return to Athens.\n\nBuckingham Palace suggested it was just a random choice of ties.\n\nDid the tie look like the Greek flag?\n\nRoyal sources noted that the tie, worn on Friday at the COP28 summit in Dubai, had also been worn by the King when he met the South Korean delegation on their state visit last week.\n\nThey insisted the tie worn by the King when he met Mr Sunak did not have any connection with Greece or the diplomatic row about the sculptures.\n\nMr Sunak cancelled a meeting with Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the last minute on Monday because Mr Mitsotakis said he wanted to talk about the return of the sculptures - something the UK prime minister is firmly against.\n\nIt sparked an angry backlash in Greece and claims by the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer that Mr Sunak had tried to \"humiliate\" an important European ally.\n\nFormer Chancellor George Osborne, who chairs the British Museum where the Marbles are currently housed, described Mr Sunak's actions as a \"hissy fit\".\n\nHe said the Museum was exploring a deal \"whereby they spend part of their time in Athens and part of their time in London\".\n\nKing Charles and Rishi Sunak met at the COP summit in Dubai\n\nMr Sunak has, however, ruled out a loan arrangement, saying: \"Our position is very clear - as a matter of law the Marbles can't be returned and we've been unequivocal about that.\"\n\nThe King has family connections with Greece - his father, the late Prince Philip, was born in Greece and was a member of the Greek royal family.\n\nThere were questions about whether the late Queen's hat had similarities to the EU flag\n\nThe King had given the keynote speech to the climate change summit. Although now, as head of state, he has to speak on the advice of ministers and there has been speculation about the King's private thoughts about delivering a government-approved message.\n\nIt's been said that nothing in the royal world is ever accidental - and with royals unable to speak out directly on political matters, there have been previous debates about hidden messages.\n\nThe late Queen was seen as saying it with flowers with blooms in Ukrainian colours\n\nIn 2017, with fierce debates running about Brexit, there were claims that the late Queen Elizabeth had opened Parliament wearing a hat that resembled the European Union flag.\n\nAfter the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the late Queen was pictured meeting Canadian premier Justin Trudeau, standing in front of a vase full of blue and yellow-coloured flowers, the Ukrainian national colours.\n\nAlthough saying nothing in public, the flowers were seen as an eloquent if unspoken message.\n\nBut in the case of the blue and white motif worn by the King in Dubai, sources were adamant that there were no political ties.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAn author whose book triggered a row over allegations of racism within the Royal Family has said the naming of two people in one edition was not a deliberate publicity stunt.\n\nOmid Scobie said he did not know how a Dutch translation of Endgame came to include the names of King Charles and Catherine, Princess of Wales.\n\nThey are reported to have allegedly discussed the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's unborn baby.\n\nScobie insists the naming was an error.\n\nHe told BBC Two's Newsnight a \"full investigation\" was under way to discover how the names were included, adding the English version of the book \"I wrote, the book I edited, didn't have names in it\".\n\nThe passage relates to allegations made by Prince Harry and Meghan during their tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021. The circumstances and context of the alleged conversation about their baby's skin colour are unclear.\n\nIn the English version of the book, Scobie claimed there had been two people involved and that he knew their identities, but he said for legal reasons the names could not be disclosed.\n\nHowever, the Dutch language edition of his book, entitled Eindstrijd, appeared to identify the two royals alleged to have been involved in the conversation. The BBC has seen a copy of the Dutch translation, which names the King and Catherine as being the two royals that discussed the baby.\n\nThey were identified earlier this week by broadcaster Piers Morgan.\n\nWhen asked about reports that Buckingham Palace was considering legal action over Morgan naming the two royals, a Palace spokesperson said \"we're exploring all options\".\n\nSpeaking to TalkTV, security minister Tom Tugendhat said the claims against the King and the Princess of Wales were \"completely unproven\".\n\n\"The King's done a brilliant job for us, not just in the last year since he's been King, but he's been absolutely fantastic for many, many years in arguing in the interests of the British people as Prince of Wales,\" he said.\n\nHe added he saw it as \"rumour, hearsay and an attempt to disparage somebody who's served our country with enormous dignity and enormous grace for many, many years\".\n\nScobie told the BBC he \"found out on social media\" about controversy surrounding the Dutch translation, and said he is \"looking forward to finding out more.\"\n\nAsked whether the names had been deliberately included in the Dutch version to generate interest in the book, Scobie said he was \"hurt\" by \"conspiracy theories that this is a publicity stunt\".\n\nHe continued: \"All of this is frustrating because it feeds into something that couldn't be further from the truth. And also, quite frankly, I've always felt the names weren't needed to have this discussion\".\n\nPublisher Xander Uitgevers said on Tuesday it was \"temporarily withdrawing\" Endgame in the Netherlands\n\nScobie said the row has \"overshadowed\" the release of the book, and that he has received several death threats in the aftermath.\n\nAsked if he would apologise for the naming, he said: \"It's not for me to apologise because I still want to know what has happened.\"\n\nOn Thursday morning, Scobie told ITV's This Morning he had \"never submitted a book that had their names in it\".\n\nThe Dutch version has been withdrawn from sale. Publishing house Xander Uitgevers said the book would be re-released on Friday in a \"rectified\" version.\n\n\"An error occurred in the Dutch translation and is currently being rectified,\" said its managing director, Anke Roelen, on Tuesday night.\n\nRepresentatives of Prince Harry and Meghan have not responded to the BBC's request for comment on the book.\n\nDuring her interview in 2021, Meghan told Oprah Winfrey that Harry had been asked by an unnamed family member \"how dark\" their son Archie's skin might be.\n\nThe claims were explosive - Buckingham Palace called them \"concerning\" and said they were being \"taken very seriously\".\n\nHowever, in subsequent interviews, Prince Harry was asked whether he would describe the comment about his son's skin colour as racist, he told ITV's Tom Bradby in January: \"No, I wouldn't.\"\n\nEndgame is not Scobie's first book about the Royal Family. In 2020, he and Carolyn Durand co-wrote a biography of Meghan, called Finding Freedom.\n\nThe book later made headlines when Meghan was forced to apologise to a court for saying she \"did not contribute\" to the biography .\n\nShe told the court that she had forgotten having provided \"briefing notes\" to one of her aides who she knew was in touch with Scobie and Durand.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "Sir James told court the article was \"a personal attack on all that I have done and achieved in my lifetime\"\n\nSir James Dyson has lost his libel claim against the publisher of the Daily Mirror.\n\nThe inventor was suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for libel over an article published in January 2022.\n\nSir James told court the article was \"a personal attack on all that I have done and achieved in my lifetime and is highly distressing and hurtful\".\n\nMr Justice Jay dismissed the claims. MGN said the judgement upheld \"the right of columnists\" to share opinions.\n\nMr Justice Jay said: \"In the present case the claimant cannot demonstrate that he has suffered financial loss as a result of these publications.\n\n\"Nor can he show that his philanthropic work, particularly directed to young people and schools, has been harmed in any way.\"\n\nThe article, by Brian Reade, referred to Sir James as \"the vacuum-cleaner tycoon who championed Vote Leave due to the economic opportunities it would bring to British industry before moving his global head office to Singapore\".\n\nDyson has a UK headquarters at Malmesbury in Wiltshire\n\nMr Reade continued: \"Kids, talk the talk but then screw your country and if anyone complains, tell them to suck it up.\"\n\nDuring the two-day trial, Justin Rushbrooke KC, for Sir James, said in written submissions that the articles, both in print and online, \"constituted a serious and unjustified slur on Sir James's reputation, business and personal\".\n\nHowever, MGN defended the claim, including by arguing that Mr Reade's article was \"honest opinion\".\n\nAdrienne Page KC, for MGN, said the words in the article were \"substantially correct\" and that Sir James could not dictate how the commentator posed them.\n\nFollowing the decision, an MGN spokesperson said: \"We welcome today's judgment which upholds the rights of our columnists to share honestly held opinions, even about powerful or wealthy individuals.\"\n\nFollowing the verdict, a Dyson spokesperson said: \"The facts are that Dyson is a highly successful global technology company which employs 3,700 people in the UK, paid more UK Corporation Tax after 2019 than before, continues to invest vast sums in the UK [and] files more patents than any other company.\"\n\nThe statement added the firm \"founded a university in Malmesbury which has educated hundreds of undergraduates who pay no tuition fees while earning a salary and even paying tax\".\n\nSir James set up his Dyson Ltd company in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, in 1993 and has since opened bases at Hullavington Airfield in Wiltshire, as well as Bristol city centre.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Russian military is planning to step up efforts at recruitment\n\nSome 170,000 will be added to the number of serving personnel in stages, bringing the total to 1,320,000.\n\nThe defence ministry said the move was a response to an increase in threats, including from the expansion of Nato.\n\nRussia is thought to have sustained heavy casualties in more than a year-and-a-half of fighting in Ukraine, even though it does not release figures.\n\nThe Russian defence ministry statement posted on the Kremlin's website said the numbers would be increased gradually through a recruitment drive, and not by mobilisation or changes to conscription.\n\n\"The increase in the number of servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is being implemented in stages, based on citizens who express a desire to undergo military service under a contract,\" it added.\n\nIt explained the increase by the \"growth of the joint armed forces of [Nato] near Russia's borders\" and threats associated with the \"special military operation\", which is how Russia describes its war in Ukraine.\n\nNato has recently expanded to include Finland, which has a long border with Russia. Sweden has also applied to join.\n\nThe alliance says Ukraine can join \"when conditions are met\", though it has given no timeframe. Ukraine cannot join Nato while it is still at war with Russia.\n\nEarlier on Thursday Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for reinforcements and stronger defences along the front line with Russia, as temperatures in the region fall below freezing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Strike action will affect Ulsterbus, Metro and Glider services from 00:01 on Friday 1 December.\n\nNorthern Ireland's bus and rail services could be brought to a standstill for a day due to a 24-hour strike in the run up to Christmas, unions have said.\n\nThe strike has been called from Friday, 1 December at 00:01 GMT.\n\nUnite, GMB and SIPTU unions voted to in favour of the strike over a possible pay-freeze for Translink workers.\n\nOne union leader said members had no alternative but to strike due to attempts to \"instigate a pay freeze\".\n\nTranslink said it did not receive a budget for a pay offer from the Department for Infrastructure and as such cannot make a pay offer at this time.\n\nSharon Graham, general secretary of Unite the union, called on Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris to \"properly fund public transport in order to avoid what will be debilitating and disruptive strikes\".\n\nAll three public transport unions said members have also agreed to industrial action short of strike.\n\nAlbert Hewitt, Unite's regional officer for Translink, said this is the first of a series of planned strikes over the coming weeks.\n\n\"Unless management returns to the negotiating table with an offer of a real-terms pay increase, our members will be left with no alternative but to escalate industrial action to defend their incomes,\" he added.\n\nPeter Macklin, GMB's regional organiser, said unions will meet in the coming days \"to agree a schedule and strategy for strike action to secure an improvement to members' pay\".\n\nNiall McNally, SIPTU senior organiser, added that the union recognises the disruption a public transport strike will cause but added members cannot accept a pay-freeze in the current cost-of-living crisis.\n\nIn a statement, Translink said: \"Ultimately this issue needs to be resolved for many public sector workers at the NI Executive level.\"\n\nIt added that it \"understood and recogised\" to concerns that led to the strike but urged workers \"not to rake action which could further exacerbate the financial pressures on Translink, impact on school children and damage the livelihoods of many businesses in the retail and hospitality sectors who depend on the busy Christmas period\".\n\n\"We remain committed to working with our colleagues in the trade unions to avoid disrupting services that so many of our passengers rely on.\"\n\nThe industrial action by public transport workers is the latest in a number of strikes to hit public services in Northern Ireland.\n\nAt the start of November school support staff across four unions walked out in strike over failure to reform their pay and cuts to the education budget.\n\nThe 48-hour strike caused the closure of four special schools and unions said it would be one of the biggest strikes among non-teaching unions in years.", "The Irish-American officers of the New York Police Department Pipes and Drums band had never heard of The Pogues on the night that they featured in the band's most famous and beloved music video.\n\nFairytale of New York was filmed in Manhattan's Washington Square Park in November 1987 on one of the coldest days of the year, recounts drummer and bagpipe player Kevin P McCarthy.\n\nMcCarthy, a now-retired NYPD detective, says the group arrived for their second gig of the night and were surprised to discover that they would not need to play their instruments during the frigid two-hour film shoot.\n\nThe Pogues, he says, \"wanted some authenticity\" to go with their song, which features the line: \"The boys of the NYPD choir were singing Galway Bay.\"\n\nBut there was one problem - the NYPD does not have any such choir, says McCarthy, whose own grandparents came to the US from County Galway in the Republic of Ireland.\n\n\"So they said: 'Well, the next best thing is we can get a group of, you know, cops that do something significant for the Irish heritage,'\" he says.\n\nThat is how the bagpipers and drummers of the NYPD came to play a starring role in the classic video, which is a mainstay of every Christmas playlist in the UK and Ireland.\n\nThe group, acting like a choir, stood beside their instruments in full regalia as they mouthed the words to what was supposed to be the song Galway Bay.\n\nThe director just told them to sing Irish songs, says McCarthy. But there was another problem.\n\nGroup members only knew a handful of Irish tunes, but none of the songs were known by all, \"and my Danny Boy sounds a lot different\" than the next man's Danny Boy.\n\n\"The director goes, as long as you're all singing one song that you all know the words to,\" he tells BBC News.\n\n\"So I yelled out 'why don't we sing Mickey Mouse'. We all know that. We're all kids at once you know.\"\n\nSo they began singing the classic theme song to the Mickey Mouse Club children's TV programme.\n\nMcPherson and MacGowan on the night they met\n\nTo match the music, the group had to slow down their singing.\n\n\"We had no idea what The Pogues were gonna do,\" he says.\n\n\"We had no idea what the song was about. We couldn't even pretend we knew it 'cause we never heard of them or the song.\"\n\nShane McGowan, the group's frontman who died on Thursday at 65, kept the group entertained with his drunken - \"legless\" - antics that night, McCarthy fondly recalls.\n\nAt one point MacGowan asked to inspect an officer's mace, the fragile wand used to direct bandmates, and threw it high into the air before spectacularly and effortlessly catching it in one hand.\n\n\"We all gasped when he threw it,\" he laughs, explaining how they were certain it would break into pieces when it landed and his fellow officer would then \"kill Shane MacGowan\".\n\n\"It was basically a fun night. A lot of laughs,\" he says.\n\nEight months later it was past midnight and he was sitting at a bar in Queens after getting off a late shift on patrol when he saw the video on MTV.\n\n\"I instantaneously loved the song. The video was nice\", he says, but, \"the song really hooked me right off the bat\".\n\n\"It really hit me, because the song's about New York and a couple down on their luck.\"\n\nFairytale of New York blew up on the charts in the UK and Ireland. Every year at Christmas, he gets a call from his cousin in Ireland, who he says \"went berserk\" when the song first debuted.\n\nShane MacGowan and other bandmates kept in touch for a few years after filming the video, occasionally calling to ask for advice about the safety of certain neighbourhoods in New York.\n\nAfter filming the video, McCarthy and the NYPD Pipe and Drums band went on to appear in films such as The Departed and Ghostbusters 2.\n\nThe group's Facebook account, reacting to MacGowan's death, praised the \"poet, singer and songwriter\" for having \"introduced an entire generation to Irish music\".\n\n\"'Good night and God guard you forever' Shane,\" the band posted.\n\nAnd every five years or so, McCarthy gets a call from a UK journalist or documentarian asking him to recount his participation in the historic song.\n\nAnd every Christmas he gets a \"big reminder\" of how he first discovered the classic lines:\n\n\"The boys of the NYPD choir still singing Galway Bay\n\n\"And the bells are ringing out for Christmas Day.\"", "Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told the BBC's Today programme that any political briefings against the late Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling were \"completely unfair\".\n\nMr Brown hailed the \"integrity\" and \"wise judgement\" of Lord Darling following his death aged 70 this week.\n\nLord Darling is best known for steering the UK through the 2008 financial crisis in Mr Brown's government.\n\nBut the relationship became rocky after disagreements over economic policy.\n\nIn the summer of 2008 - and not long before the collapse of major banks that floored the global economy - Lord Darling warned of the worst financial crisis in decades.\n\nThis resulted in a backlash from those close to Mr Brown, with Lord Darling later remarking that the \"forces of hell\" had been unleashed on him.\n\nLord Darling also fell out with Mr Brown over the need for spending cuts after the significant increase in government borrowing during the financial crisis.\n\nIn an interview for BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Brown said he did not \"know much about\" the political hits against Lord Darling.\n\nIn government, Mr Brown said, some people brief information to journalists \"on your behalf who you don't even know the names of\".\n\n\"So some of these things happen and you've got to apologise afterwards,\" Mr Brown said.\n\nWhen asked if he had apologised to Lord Darling afterwards, Mr Brown said: \"If there had been a briefing against him that was attributed to me, yes of course.\n\n\"It was completely unfair. And I never believed this surreptitious way of dealing with politics is in any way honest or something that can be defended at all. It's difficult.\"\n\nDamian McBride was Mr Brown's spin doctor in Downing Street and recalled the incident in his book Power Trip.\n\nHe said Mr Brown was \"incredulous\" about his chancellor's warnings on the economy and they agreed to say he had been misquoted and misinterpreted.\n\n\"The idea that anyone was authorised by Gordon to do 'background briefing' against Alistair - or that anyone unleashed the attack dogs against him - is not only totally untrue, it wouldn't have made any sense.\n\n\"Now, I freely admit to several occasions when I did or said things without Gordon's knowledge or approval, so I can see people thinking it's not inconceivable I could have done some freelancing on this occasion, too.\n\n\"But if Gordon gave me a script and a set of marching orders, I followed them to the letter. I didn't add little private postscripts or give my own take.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Radio 4 Today This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Brown said at one stage, he offered Lord Darling the role of foreign secretary but he refused it because he wanted to remain chancellor.\n\nThe former Labour prime minister said he did not think Lord Darling \"got much credit\" for shepherding the UK economy as half its banking system collapsed.\n\n\"Alistair deserves a huge amount of credit for the economy recovering so quickly after the fatal blows of the banking collapse so that by 2010 the economy was growing again,\" Mr Brown said.\n\nYou can hear the full interview with Gordon Brown on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday, or listen later on BBC Sounds", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A look at the life and work of artist John Byrne, who has died aged 83.\n\nThe artist and writer John Byrne, who created the acclaimed TV series Tutti Frutti, has died at the age of 83.\n\nHis family said he died peacefully on Thursday with his wife Jeanine by his side.\n\nHe was born in Paisley and trained at the Glasgow School of Art. He worked as a painter and designer whose work included album covers for his friend, the singer Gerry Rafferty.\n\nHe began a parallel career as a playwright with his Slab Boys Trilogy.\n\nThe first play debuted in 1978 and was based on Byrne's own experiences as a young man working in the colour rooms of a carpet factory.\n\nKevin Bacon, Sean Penn and Val Kilmer were among the cast when the play was performed on Broadway in New York.\n\nOne of the main characters, Spanky, became a rock star across the course of the three plays.\n\nByrne was a friend of Gerry Rafferty, the Scottish singer-songwriter who came to fame in the 1970s and whose album covers he designed.\n\nJohn Byrne painting Billy Connolly for his mural in 2017.\n\nByrne reached a new audience with his BBC Scotland series Tutti Frutti, which was broadcast in 1987.\n\nStarring Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson, the six-part series won six Baftas.\n\nIt told the story of a legendary Scottish rock and roll band trying to make a comeback through a tour of the country.\n\nIt was a huge success and was followed up three years later by Your Cheatin' Heart, which featured country music and starred Tilda Swinton and John Gordon-Sinclair.\n\nByrne continued to write and paint. His work is held by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery.\n\nFirst Minister Humza Yousaf led the tributes to John Byrne.\n\n\"There are not the words to do justice to the talents of John Byrne. An extraordinary playwright, artist and designer. Scotland has lost a cultural icon, and the world is less brighter with his passing,\" he said.\n\nBBC Scotland director Steve Carson described Byrne as \"an incredibly gifted artist, across so many disciplines.\"\n\n\"He will be greatly missed across the cultural landscape in Scotland and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time,\" he said.\n\nPosting on X, formerly known as Twitter, the artist Alison Watt wrote: \"So very sad to hear of the death of the brilliant John Byrne. Supremely gifted as an artist and playwright, generous, funny and the most stylish man I've ever met.\"\n\nJohn Byrne always claimed he was made in Paisley but it was he who took the colours and music of the town he grew up in around the world.\n\nThe carpet factory where he mixed the colours as a \"slab boy\" and later as a designer, inspired his most famous play but it also fed characters and colours into his other writing, like the TV series Tutti Frutti and his vibrant artwork.\n\nHe rarely followed one linear path. Like the carpets he worked on, there were many threads to his work, all woven simultaneously.\n\nHe left Scotland in the 1960s, posing under his father's name as Patrick Byrne. His first exhibition was a huge hit and only then did John Byrne confess his deception.\n\nDespite being friends with Gerry Rafferty and Billy Connolly and designing album covers for many artists including The Beatles, he was never part of the rock and roll scene.\n\nHe returned to live in Scotland but his signature artwork was everywhere - on album covers, guitars, even the suit Billy Connolly wore for one his early Parkinson appearances.\n\nIn the 1970s, he stepped back from art to concentrate on writing but he continued to sketch, draw and paint his own sets as well as creating some of the biggest artwork of his career, including a number of dramatic murals.\n\nHis most recent work has been murals - one for the ceiling of the King's Theatre in Edinburgh and another in Glasgow to mark the 75th birthday of his friend Billy Connolly.\n\nIn the early 1980s, he was approached by the then head of drama at BBC Scotland, Bill Bryden, to create a new TV show. The only stipulation was it should be called Tutti Frutti.\n\nJohn Byrne agreed and drew on the music, the culture and the language of his youth. The show was a huge hit and gave Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson their first big TV breaks.\n\nA follow-up show, Your Cheatin' Heart in 1990, was less successful but introduced him to the actress Tilda Swinton, with whom he set up home in the Highlands and where they raised their twins.\n\nHe was prolific, whichever genre he was working in. When the National Theatre of Scotland produced a stage version of Tutti Frutti, he watched rehearsals from the stalls, swiftly sketching characters and costumes from the show.\n\nWhen the Citizens Theatre staged the Slab Boys Trilogy, he could be found on stage painting the scenery he had designed.\n\nDuring lockdown he worked with Pitlochry Festival Theatre to create a new play which was produced and performed remotely.\n\nHe and his wife Jeanine also collaborated on a children's book, Donald and Benoit.\n\nEverything he did was drenched in colour. Without him, the world feels a less colourful place.\n• None Billy Connolly mural in Glasgow to be covered by new flats - BBC News", "The game \"Whamageddon\" sees people try to avoid the Wham! hit Last Christmas\n\nA football stadium DJ has apologised for playing Last Christmas by Wham!, potentially knocking more than 7,000 people out of cult game Whamageddon.\n\nPlayers try to avoid George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley's 1984 hit for as long as possible before Christmas Eve and are eliminated once they hear it.\n\nMatt Facer, DJ at Northampton Town, was criticised for playing it at the home game against Portsmouth on 2 December.\n\n\"I never knew people took it so seriously,\" he said.\n\nWhamageddon started about 10 years ago, and has grown in a popularity through social media.\n\nIt now has set rules, a dedicated website and merchandise.\n\nThe game's rules state: \"While we can't stop you from deliberately sending your friends to Whamhalla, the intention is that this is a survival game. Not a Battle Royale.\"\n\nLast Christmas was played at half-time during Northampton Town's match against Portsmouth\n\nMr Facer, known as DJ Matty, played the song during half-time in the League One clash at Sixfields, attended by 7,215 people.\n\n\"I gave it a spin, thinking it would be quite funny to wipe out 7,000 people who couldn't avoid it, but clearly it isn't funny,\" he said.\n\n\"I had a bit of an insult on Twitter, light-hearted, [saying] it was not a nice thing to do, and apparently that was quite tame to what was being said in the stadium.\n\n\"So I officially apologise to everybody whose Christmas I've ruined.\"\n\nHe has promised not to play the song during the home game against Fleetwood Town, to avoid upsetting fans of the Lancashire side.\n\nHe told BBC Radio Northampton: \"I can take on the chin with my home fans and Portsmouth, but I don't think I'll be playing it again.\n\n\"I think it's a shame people in professions like mine can't play Wham! until [late] December, but it's a game and we all have to jump on board.\"\n\nLast Christmas reached number two on its release, finally reaching the top spot on 1 January 2021.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and X. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Protestors from both sides of the debate gathered outside the Scottish Parliament ahead of the reforms being passed by MSPs last year\n\nJudges have ruled that the UK government acted lawfully in blocking Scotland's gender self-ID reforms.\n\nLegislation making it easier for people to change their legally-recognised sex was passed by the Scottish Parliament last year.\n\nThe UK government blocked it from becoming law over fears it would impact on equality laws across Great Britain.\n\nThe Court of Session in Edinburgh has now rejected a Scottish government legal challenge to the veto.\n\nThe Scottish government has 21 days to decide whether it wants to appeal against the ruling, and the case could ultimately end up in the Supreme Court in London.\n\nThe legislation received cross-party support in Holyrood, passing by 86 votes to 39 after a highly-charged debate.\n\nCampaigners against the reforms warned the legislation could risk the safety of women and girls in same-sex spaces such as hospital wards and refuges.\n\nSupporters argued it would make the process of obtaining a gender recognition certificate (GRC) easier and less traumatic for trans people.\n\nThe legislation would remove the need for trans people to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria by a doctor before they are allowed to change their legally-recognised sex in Scotland, and would lower the age that someone can apply for a GRC from 18 to 16.\n\nThe period in which applicants would need to have lived in their acquired gender would be cut from two years to three months.\n\nThe UK government stepped in to block the bill from receiving royal assent after it was passed by MSPs, using powers contained in section 35 of the Scotland Act for the first time.\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack raised concerns that the reforms could adversely impact on the 2010 Equality Act, which applies in Scotland, England and Wales and sets out protections for groups including women and transgender people.\n\nHumza Yousaf decided to proceed with the legal challenge shortly after succeeding Nicola Sturgeon as first minister\n\nThe Scottish government challenged the move at the Court of Session - Scotland's highest civil court - with its top law officer, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, arguing that Mr Jack did not have \"reasonable grounds\" to block the bill.\n\nMs Bain also claimed that if the UK government was successful, Westminster \"could veto practically any act of the Scottish Parliament having an impact on reserved matters because he disagreed with it on policy grounds\".\n\nBut in her written ruling, judge Lady Haldane dismissed the Scottish government's appeal and said the block on the legislation was lawful.\n\nShe said Mr Jack followed correct legal procedures when he made his decision to invoke section 35 and that the Scottish government had failed to show that he had made legal errors.\n\nThe judge wrote: \"I cannot conclude that he (Mr Jack) failed in his duty to take such steps as were reasonable in all the circumstances to acquaint himself with material sufficient to permit him to reach the decision that he did.\"\n\nLady Haldane also said that \"Section 35 does not, in and of itself, impact on the separation of powers or other fundamental constitutional principle. Rather it is itself part of the constitutional framework.\"\n\nWelcoming the judgement, Mr Jack said it \"upholds my decision to prevent the Scottish government's gender recognition legislation from becoming law\".\n\nHe added: \"I was clear that this legislation would have had adverse effects on the operation of the law as it applies to reserved matters, including on important Great Britain-wide equality protections.\n\n\"Following this latest court defeat for the Scottish government, their ministers need to stop wasting taxpayers' money pursuing needless legal action and focus on the real issues which matter to people in Scotland - such as growing the economy and cutting waiting lists.\"\n\nAlister Jack blocked the legislation because of its potential impact on equalities law that applies across Scotland, England and Wales\n\nHumza Yousaf decided to proceed with the legal challenge shortly after succeeding Nicola Sturgeon - a passionate supporter of trans rights - as first minister earlier this year.\n\nWriting on X, formerly Twitter, he described the ruling as a \"dark day for devolution\".\n\nMr Yousaf said: \"Today's judgment confirms beyond doubt that devolution is fundamentally flawed. The court has confirmed that legislation passed by a majority in Holyrood can be struck down by Westminster.\n\n\"The only way to guarantee we get true self-government is through independence. Sovereignty should lie with the people of Scotland, not a Westminster government we didn't vote for with the ability to overrule our laws.\"\n\nHe was the only one of the three candidates in the SNP leadership contest who backed taking legal action and the issue has been deeply divisive within the party.\n\nColin Macfarlane, director of nations at LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, said the ruling would \"mean more uncertainty for trans people in Scotland who will be waiting once again to see whether they will be able to have their gender legally recognised through a process that is in line with leading nations like Ireland, Canada and New Zealand.\"\n\nLabour's shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray said it was \"disappointing this legalisation ended in the courts but this ruling should be respected\".\n\nShortly after the reforms were passed, double rapist Isla Bryson - who changed gender after being arrested for attacking two women - was remanded to a women's jail.\n\nBryson was subsequently moved to a male prison after the case sparked widespread anger. The Scottish government said the new legislation had no impact on the decision about where Bryson was held.\n\nAs befitting an unprecedented case, this is in Lady Haldane's words a \"novel and complex\" ruling.\n\nShe actually concluded in part that this is a situation where many decisions could have been taken, and that \"there is possibly no single right answer\" - but that the courts should only intervene in the case of a clear error in law.\n\nThe judge concluded that Alister Jack was entitled to make a decision on this, and that he had taken the proper steps to come to a view, without going into the even knottier territory of whether it was the right one.\n\nAll of that complexity means there could be room for appeal.\n\nThe Scottish government will be combing through the ruling to see if there are grounds to go back to court.\n\nMr Jack has urged them not to, telling them not to waste public funds on further legal action.\n\nBut ministers will perhaps put more weight on the position of the Scottish Greens, their partners in government, who are absolutely furious about the \"horrible, heartbreaking and unjust\" outcome.\n\nChallenging UK ministers on this has been a red line for the Greens in the past. It may be that Scottish ministers have little choice but to fight on if they are to keep their partnership government together.", "Victoria Atkins was appointed health secretary in last month's Cabinet reshuffle\n\nTwo weeks ago, the new Health Secretary, Victoria Atkins, spent the weekend signing off on a new pay offer for consultants, the most senior doctors in the NHS.\n\nShe hoped it would mark the beginning of the end of the strikes in England that have plagued the health service for the past year.\n\nAfter weeks of intense talks with the British Medical Association (BMA), a deal had been reached which the union's negotiators felt able to put forward to members. But could it now end up making things worse?\n\nThe deal was more generous than many expected. In fact, those close to the talks said Ms Atkins was only able to get it over the line because of her close relationship with the chancellor - before becoming health secretary in mid-November she was financial secretary at the Treasury.\n\nConsultants - the best-paid frontline staff in the health service - are being offered a second pay rise of the financial year in England. Under the proposal, basic pay will increase by nearly 5% on average in January after a 6% rise in April.\n\nThe amount on offer differs depending on what stage a consultant is at. For some it will mean their salary rising by nearly 20% over the course of 2023-24.\n\nBut already the shine has been taken off the breakthrough - even before voting papers have been sent out to consultants to see if they will accept the offer.\n\nSoon after the announcement, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said it was \"appalled\" by the fact so much money had been found for the \"highest earners\" and warned it increased the likelihood of strikes by nurses returning.\n\nNurses - along with other health staff who are not doctors - were given 5% plus a one-off lump sum of at least £1,655 this year.\n\nRCN leader Pat Cullen has since written to the health secretary asking for new pay talks, saying the consultants' pay offer will do nothing to \"quell unrest\" in the profession.\n\nHer members actually rejected the pay deal when it was put forward in the spring, but because other unions representing ambulance staff, physios and midwives voted in favour it was introduced.\n\nThen on Monday - exactly a week after the consultants' deal was announced - it got even worse for Ms Atkins as pay talks with junior doctor leaders at the BMA collapsed. These had been taking part simultaneously alongside the ones with consultants.\n\nThe following day, the co-chairs of the junior doctors committee, Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi, released a statement saying what was on offer from the government was simply not credible, adding it amounted to an average of 3% extra. They have been calling for 35% more to make up for what they say is below-inflation pay rises since 2008.\n\nThey called the longest strike in the history of the NHS - a six-day stoppage at the start of the new year on top of a three-day walkout in the lead-up to Christmas.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC afterwards, Dr Trivedi defended the decision by making the point the money on offer was \"less than what our consultant colleagues have been offered\".\n\nThose close to Ms Atkins said she was both disappointed and surprised by the actions of the junior doctor leaders - claiming the money on offer was not even a final position.\n\nThey also counter the argument that the government was willing to give consultants more, pointing out junior doctors had been given an average of nearly 9% in April compared to the across-the-board 6% consultants got.\n\nWhat is more, the pay offer has been coupled with reform of the wider consultant contract, which, if accepted, will mean there are fewer pay bands. And that results in markedly different outcomes for consultants depending on what stage they are at.\n\nThose at the bottom and top of the pay scales will see pay increase by a little over 10% this year (once the April pay rise is added to the proposed January one) while the ones in the middle, typically with eight years' experience, will see pay jump nearly 20% this financial year.\n\nBut those with around four years' experience will get nothing extra in January so are left with just the 6% rise they got from April.\n\nOverall an extra 4.95% is being put into basic pay for consultants from January onwards, but about 1.5% is being clawed back by phasing out local excellence awards, which tops up pay. This is more likely to affect those at an earlier stage of their career as consultants who already have an award will get to keep it for the rest of their career.\n\nThe deal is so complicated and benefits individual consultants so differently that the BMA, while putting it to a vote of members, has felt unable to recommend they vote yes.\n\nBMA sources meanwhile have defended the stance of junior doctors as well, saying the government had wasted weeks before starting talks with them - and the deadline for a deal by first week of December had been made clear a month before.\n\nHowever, as the war of words continues, it looks like it will be patients who lose out. More than one million appointments and treatments have been cancelled since industrial action began with ambulance workers and nurses last December.\n\nStrikes by doctors have been the most disruptive by far. And the next walkouts, particular the six-day walkout at the start of January, coincide with the most pressured points of the year.\n\n\"Our worst fear has come true,\" says Matthew Taylor, of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospital managers.", "O'Neal enjoyed a long career in Hollywood and maintained a friendship with Love Story co-star Ali MacGraw\n\nWith his rugged good looks, Ryan O'Neal was one of Hollywood's most recognisable stars.\n\nWhile his contemporary Warren Beatty seduced with dark intensity, O'Neal charmed with his boy-next-door appeal.\n\nHis career took him from television soap to starring roles in Love Story and What's Up, Doc?\n\nBut his star faded at the end of the 1970s and only his turbulent personal life kept him in the headlines.\n\nHis son Patrick O'Neal announced his death at the age of 82 on Friday, saying \"As a human being, my father was as generous as they come.\n\n\"And the funniest person in any room. And the most handsome clearly, but also the most charming. Lethal combo.\"\n\nCharles Patrick Ryan O'Neal was born on 20 April 1941 in Los Angeles.\n\nActing was in the blood. His mother Patricia was a stage actress while his father was a novelist and screenwriter.\n\nO'Neal took up boxing while at school and spent a period in Germany in the 1950s where his father had moved to work on a TV series.\n\nHe developed an impressive physique both from his boxing and while working as a lifeguard.\n\nThis led him to being offered a job as a stuntman on a low-budget TV series, Tales of the Vikings.\n\nHe had a number of small roles in TV westerns and crime dramas before securing the part of Rodney Harrington in the TV soap, Peyton Place.\n\nNotable for its opening titles with the intonation \"This is the continuing story of Peyton Place\", the series became America's first primetime soap.\n\n\"Some things in the script were so bad,\" he later recalled, \"we had to whisper them, hoping no-one would hear us.\"\n\nPeyton Place made O'Neal a household name and, like his co-star Mia Farrow, he was soon able to transfer his success to the big screen.\n\nLove Story brought him recognition beyond the United States.\n\nThe 1970 film, based on the novel by Eric Segal, brought hankies out in cinemas across the world, and made international stars of O'Neal and Ali MacGraw.\n\nThe film became the third most successful in history at the time, and its tag line, \"Love means never having to say you're sorry\", became the cliche of the era.\n\nDespite his heartthrob status, O'Neal never repeated this success. Always a fiery character - he had served 51 days in jail for assault in 1960 - he acquired a growing reputation for a drunken temper.\n\nBy way of contrast, he charmed his way on screen through such money-spinners as What's Up, Doc?, The Main Event, and Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, released in 1975.\n\nAffairs with a string of beautiful women including Joan Collins, Ursula Andress and his What's Up, Doc? co-star Barbra Streisand sealed his reputation as a Hollywood heartbreaker.\n\nHe starred with daughter Tatum in Paper Moon\n\nStreisand paid tribute after his death, tweeting that she was \"so sad\" to have learned of his passing.\n\n\"He was funny and charming, and he will be remembered,\" she added.\n\nBut his most memorable pairing was with his own nine-year-old daughter Tatum. In Paper Moon (1973), the father played a Bible-touting hustler, outfoxed by his feisty offspring.\n\nThe witty nostalgia piece was a hit, and Tatum became the youngest ever recipient of an Academy Award, for best supporting actress.\n\nAlthough father and daughter became intense rivals and stopped speaking for many years, Tatum later said of their fraught relationship: \"Our movie Paper Moon is always there to remind me of us.\"\n\nTheir reconciliation was captured in a tacky TV series, Ryan & Tatum: The O'Neals, which aired in 2011.\n\nWith four children from three relationships, O'Neal endured the media spotlight on his family.\n\nTatum's divorce from the tennis player John McEnroe, his son Griffin's jail sentence for firearms offences, and O'Neal's own turbulent relationship with Farrah Fawcett all guaranteed gallons of tabloid ink.\n\nHe had a turbulent relationship with Farrah Fawcett\n\nO'Neal and the former Charlie's Angel were together for 17 years, withstanding rumours of drug abuse, alcoholism and O'Neal's violent outbursts.\n\nEven their 13-year-old son Redmond spent six hours in jail for cannabis possession.\n\nHe binged on junk food and threw away the looks that had been his fortune, while harking back to his box-office triumphs from the 1970s.\n\nOne of his few recent film appearances was People I Know, with Al Pacino, in 2002.\n\nHe said of his role: \"He's a fading movie star who lives in Malibu - they didn't have to look far.\"", "A cordon remains in place at the property in Ipswich where the baby was found\n\nA murder investigation has been launched after the body of a baby was discovered.\n\nPolice were called at 12:35 GMT on Saturday after the newborn was found outside premises on Norwich Road in Ipswich.\n\nParamedics also attended the scene but the baby was declared dead.\n\nTwo men and a female have been arrested on suspicion of murder and remain in custody.\n\nA cordon has been put in place on Norwich Road while inquiries take place into the death.\n\nPolice said on Sunday the investigation was continuing\n\nPolice and forensic officers remain at the scene\n\nDet Ch Supt Jane Topping said: \"This is a very sad and distressing incident and, at this time, our investigation into the circumstances surrounding the baby's death is in its early stages.\n\n\"I would urge people not to speculate on social media as to the circumstances of this tragic event.\"\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830", "The vehicles crashed on the A458 in the Morville Heath area, police said (generic view of the road)\n\nTwo people have died after the car they were travelling in crashed with a police vehicle in Shropshire.\n\nA West Mercia Police crime scene investigation vehicle and a Skoda Octavia crashed on the A458 in the Morville Heath area at about 10:15 GMT.\n\nA man in his 60s, the driver of the car, and a passenger, a woman in her 50s, died at the scene.\n\nThe driver of the police vehicle, which was not responding to an emergency, sustained serious injuries.\n\nThe officer was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for treatment following the incident on the A458 between Much Wenlock and Bridgnorth.\n\nWest Mercia Police said paramedics attended the scene and attempted to revive the driver and passenger, before declaring them dead after 45 minutes.\n\nA third woman also travelling in the Skoda, aged in her 20s, suffered minor injuries.\n\nCh Supt Gareth Morris said: \"Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the man and woman following this awful incident, and our staff member who has been seriously hurt, at this difficult time.\"\n\nThe incident has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, and the force's Professional Standards Department has been alerted, as is normal practice.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "I know it's nearly Christmas, and maybe the last thing you want to think about is politics. But you might have to.\n\nThe governing party has to.\n\nBecause the Downing Street operation is in real trouble.\n\nAnd, while it seemed a bit wild when we talked about it last week, it is not crazy to think that the Conservatives really are in such a bad place that some of them are wondering if a change of leader might be needed.\n\nTake a breath - it is not the consensus that rolling a dice to produce a sixth prime minister since the EU referendum would be a good idea. But it is no longer a completely fringe view, for several really important reasons.\n\nRishi Sunak is under genuine pressure. He has to front up to the Covid inquiry on Monday, and on Tuesday there is the first vote on a plan he put his name to that has gone badly wrong.\n\nProblem one: the Tories just can't agree on how to keep one of the PM's big promises, to 'stop the boats'.\n\nThat phrase has become part of the political lexicon, but Rishi Sunak's slogan has become a millstone around his administration's neck.\n\nThe plan was based on an aspiration to put off migrants from around the world from coming to the UK by saying they would be sent to an African country instead if they made it here. The problem overcame early political controversies, and Parliament approved it some time ago.\n\nBut then it hit practical and legal challenges. In the last few days, Mr Sunak's new attempts to make his long-term wish come true have been battered by some of his own party.\n\nHe's stopped short of the more radical action some of his MPs believe is needed to get planes in the air without further time-consuming legal tangles, but his new laws have gone further than other colleagues are comfortable with.\n\nLike Theresa May's Brexit compromises, it doesn't quite satisfy everyone on the right of his party, and it makes people at the softer end of his tribe feel itchy.\n\nThe result? He's stuck in the uncomfortable middle on an issue that he chose to make his own.\n\nThis weekend MPs of all stripes in his party are mulling over whether to back the plan or not. (Although be cautious about the headlines predicting certain disaster, as many backbenchers are likely to let the proposals pass at its first stage debate, known as second reading, but then try to tweak them, pull them apart, or even kick them out after Christmas.)\n\nProblem two: it's not just the opponents you could predict who are in a stew. The prime minister's friend, and the minister who was in charge of dealing with the problem, has walked away. Robert Jenrick, who'll be with us in the studio on Sunday, says the plan simply won't work and he is raising big doubts about the government's whole approach to managing migration from abroad.\n\nProblem three: Number 10 is not just trying to tack between two sides, but a restive brew of different tribes who all follow different lines.\n\nIt is impossible to imagine pleasing them all, and hard to see a situation where they all are content to go along with Number 10. One MP poking fun at the different groups describes them as follows: \"The 'One Nation' would be the school swots. The goody two shoes. The European Research Group (ERG) are the Colonel Blimps or those old blokes who sit in the corner of the pub and the New Conservatives are those really annoying out of control kids in parks. The Truss lots are the Dementors!\"\n\nCatty jokes aside, how could one leader ever keep them all in check, even on issues that were not controversial? Of course, political parties are always coalitions. It's ridiculous to imagine they are all always in total harmony. But one former minister suggested in the Tory party in 2023: \"There is no cohesion as a parliamentary team on any level - they don't like one another, and they don't get on.\"\n\nProblem four: an unhappy, messy Conservative Party faces a different opposition.\n\nIt was one thing for the Tories to be permanently scrapping when Theresa May was in charge, or when Boris Johnson took over. The green benches opposite them then were full of unhappy factions under Jeremy Corbyn.\n\nLabour is different now, and the Tories know it.\n\nLeaked recordings reach my ears of the trade minister and former Conservative chair, Greg Hands, telling student activists in Oxford at the end of October as much.\n\nHe said that voters have been put off by the turmoil in Number 10. \"They have been turned off by us, particularly by the events of last year where we had three prime ministers.\"\n\nAnd he said that although Keir Starmer might not have created rapturous excitement among the voters, the idea that Labour is a threat for voters, has gone.\n\nIn the recordings he says: \"Corbyn was a great deterrent for a lot of more liberal-minded Conservatives from voting anything other than Conservative because they were afraid they would get Corbyn as their prime minister.\"\n\nWhen talking about trying to hold on to voters he's heard to say that Starmer \"isn't Corbyn, he doesn't alienate, frighten people like Corbyn does so that I think is a taller task for us at the moment is keeping those people on side\". Mr Hands did say there were Conservative voters who could yet return to the party.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: My patience with Rwanda plan has worn thin - Sunak\n\nIn response to that recording, he says: \"As I said in Oxford, Sir Keir Starmer hasn't convinced the British people - and the Conservative Party can still win the next general election.\n\n\"Like Neil Kinnock in the 1980s, Sir Keir Starmer is not as left wing as his predecessor, but he is still too left wing for the British people, and when the spotlight is on him, he will be found out. He changes his mind on every single major issue to please his audience, whether it be the monarchy, the EU, tuition fees or taxation.\"\n\nRishi Sunak's allies would say, with some justification, that the prime minister created calm after a spasm of chaos.\n\nBut looking at recent events, it's clear that wasn't powerful enough to prevail. And his many resets have perhaps gone into reverse. The splits now seem as sore as ever.\n\nMaybe that's because after so long being behind in the polls some Tory MPs would rather choose their own principles over the party's success.\n\nMaybe it's because Rishi Sunak hasn't been able to persuade them that unity is a prize worth fighting for.\n\nMaybe it's because after so long in power with endless reinventions the party isn't sure what it's really for.\n\nMaybe it's a mix of all of the above, and more.\n\nIn fact, Rishi Sunak still leads a party that enjoys a massive majority in the House of Commons. The next election does not have to happen for another 12 months. Voters are volatile creatures these days, the public mood can move very fast.\n\nBut the prime minister's USP - ending the chaos of the Truss and Johnson year - has taken a battering. Splits and scrapping are back. And the public does not like divided parties.\n\nRight now, that might be one of the few political truths that Conservative MPs can agree on.\n\nWhat questions would you like to ask Laura's guests on Sunday?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Student representatives from feminist society Stronger Together, Time to Act met the senior leadership team to discuss change at the university\n\nStudents campaigning to stop sexual violence say they will fight to ensure Cardiff University acts after a meeting with senior staff.\n\nBetween 2017-2021 the university had 691 sexual misconduct reports, Freedom of Information (FoI) responses show.\n\nOne student said they were laughed at by three male employees when speaking on sexual violence at a staff meeting.\n\nThe university said it took sexual assaults seriously and investigated them robustly.\n\nIt also said it was \"concerned to hear students' experiences of sexual violence were dismissed by staff\", and wanted to ensure \"students have the confidence to come forward, knowing they will be supported and that their report of sexual violence will be fully investigated\".\n\nBecca Rumsey, 20, co-founded campaign group Time to Act and was invited to speak at the meeting on 15 November.\n\n\"I raised the point about sexual misconduct, and how they need to do better to support their students. Unfortunately, three male academic staff were laughing - which highlights just how important what we are doing is,\" she said.\n\nShe called it \"really disappointing\" as academic staff were supposed to \"protect people\".\n\nThe campaign group attracted thousands of supporters on social media, including the Women's Equality Party, campaigner Patsy Stevenson and barrister Dr Charlotte Proudman, who shared its posts.\n\nTime to Act co-founder Bethia Tucker, 19, said sexual violence had become an accepted part of life.\n\nShe said students' union (SU) club nights were \"notorious for being filled with harassment and misogynistic behaviour - students would term it as feral\".\n\nOn 23 November, at the students' union general annual meeting, more than 500 students unanimously voted to tackle sexual misconduct at the university.\n\nEmily Carr says while she was women's officer at the students' union reports of sexual harassment were dismissed\n\nGraduate Emily Carr, 22, previously shared her experience of sexual violence and said she was \"failed\" by the university.\n\nShe told several staff members and asked for support, but was \"completely dismissed by a senior member of staff\".\n\nFOI responses revealed the university has no data on sexual violence before 2017 or after 2021, as the collection system changed.\n\nThe number of expulsions was less than five each year, and the university said it could not provide figures as it could identify the individuals.\n\nThe group also received messages from former Cardiff students who experienced sexual violence more than a decade ago.\n\nMs Carr said: \"It was heart-breaking to get messages from people who have put so much effort in and spoken out, and did everything that you're supposed to do - yet nothing has changed.\"\n\nMs Rumsey, who waived her right to anonymity, said: \"I came to university after being sexually assaulted, harassed and stalked online - and there was no support and I didn't know where to start.\n\n\"I know if this is not done by victims it's not going to land.\"\n\nBecca Rumsey said protesters at the Reclaim the Night march on 25 November were heckled by men\n\nTo discuss the university's approach to dealing with sexual violence, seven students met Wendy Larner, the vice-chancellor, Clare Morgan, pro vice-chancellor and Julie Walking, interim director of student life, on 29 November.\n\nThe students asked for the 28-day reporting window to be extended for sexual misconduct.\n\nMs Rumsey said: \"A lot of survivors and victims don't know it's happened to them in 28 days or don't feel comfortable reporting.\"\n\nMs Carr said it highlighted the inequality that \"members of the university body have 60 days to declare their petrol costs\".\n\nThey asked the university to provide key definitions of sexual harassment and misconduct, which it should \"yearly review\" and consult students as terms evolved, said Ms Rumsey.\n\nShe said there \"should be laid out in the first week of university, there should be posters everywhere\".\n\n\"Unfortunately, in the students' union there are more posters talking about four VKs for a tenner rather than basic consent,\" she said.\n\nThe group asked the university to provide consent and bystander training to all staff, as well as more transparency and a review of the investigation process.\n\n\"We've had cases where students have received an apology letter from their rapist,\" Ms Carr said. \"This is part of the proceedings sometimes, but because there's so many different avenues, we actually don't know what the proceeding is.\"\n\nShe added: \"We have been told in the past that this would be incredibly naive to want and campaign for - to that we ask why? We don't believe that sexual violence is part of the human condition.\"\n\nThe group wants an apology from the university, but said it had not yet received one.\n\n\"For people who went through these horrific events - who were either dismissed, ignored, swept under the rug, or had to drop out - [an apology] says 'we're sorry for failing you',\" Ms Carr said.\n\n\"Because that's what they did, they failed.\"\n\nA student previously said she was \"harassed\" by Cardiff University's finance team for fees already paid\n\nA Cardiff University spokesperson said: \"Encountering any form of sexual assault has a devastating effect on a student's life and their experience of higher education.\n\n\"These types of incidents are not confined to Cardiff - these are issues that impact all universities and society as a whole. Collectively, we must do more to prevent and then ensure appropriate support is available for victims.\"\n\nThe university said senior academics met the students \"in a spirit of openness and a determination to listen and act\" and another meeting would be held in March.\n\nIt said it was reviewing its support services, including data around sexual violence and the effectiveness of consent training for students.\n\n\"We're concerned to hear students' experiences of sexual violence were dismissed by staff,\" the university added.\n\nIt said its services had \"successfully supported students who are the victims of sexual violence\" and \"the effectiveness of that service is not measured in expulsions or sanctions and it would be wrong to conflate the two\".\n\nThe university said it took all sexual assault allegations seriously and investigated reports \"robustly\".\n\nIt also said it recognised it could do more \"to ensure transparency and reassure our student community of our zero-tolerance approach to violence against women\".\n\n\"We want to make sure our students have the confidence to come forward, knowing they will be supported and that their report of sexual violence will be fully investigated.\"\n\nA students' union spokesperson said that \"supporting students to have fun in a safe manner is of paramount importance\".\n\nThe union said complaints were \"minimal\" but they took them all \"incredibly seriously\" and encouraged any student to report incidents.\n\nIt agreed more needed to be done to \"educate and support students surrounding sexual violence\", and it was looking at how to support victims proactively.\n\nIf you're affected by the issues in this report, you can find support from BBC Action Line.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Taylor Swift's concert tour was clearly a sensation: It crashed ticketing sites, sold out hotels and generated earthquake-like seismic activity.\n\nIt also brought in about $1.04bn (£829m) in gross sales across its first 60 shows, trade publication Pollstar said.\n\nThat is a new record, according to Pollstar, which tracks music sales.\n\nThe pop star's success came during a bumper year for a concert business that has roared back from Covid lockdowns.\n\nOverall, the top 100 global tours brought in more than $9bn (£7.17bn) this year in gross sales, up 46% from 2022, which had itself seen record-setting spending, Pollstar said.\n\nSinger Beyoncé and rock musician Bruce Springsteen rounded out the top three concerts of the year.\n\nHowever, Swift, whose tour started in Arizona in March, did not just bring in more money than anyone else.\n\nShe also did it faster, Pollstar said, and her mass popularity meant she played exclusively to stadiums - which seat bigger crowds.\n\nBy contrast, it took previous record-setter Elton John 328 shows to bring in $939m (£749m) during his five-year farewell tour, which spanned the pandemic.\n\n\"While the data is staggering, Swift's massive success this year shouldn't come as a surprise to any sentient being,\" Pollstar said.\n\nIt is the latest record in a year filled with them for Swift, who earned the Person of the Year accolade from Time Magazine.\n\nThe re-recording of her decade-old record 1989 was also the best-selling album of the year, while the film of her concert has made some $250m (£199m).\n\nFor the Eras tour, Ms Swift sold more than 4.3 million tickets. That averages to roughly $239 (£190.4) per ticket - the fifth highest of the year's top tours, Pollstar said.\n\nThat compared to a roughly $130 (£103.60) average price for the top 100 tours overall.\n\nThe publication's tracking ended in November, but Ms Swift's concert tour continues across the globe.\n\nAssuming she plays all shows that have been scheduled, Pollstar said her tour could ultimately gross more than $2.16bn (£1.72bn).", "The growing gap between the UK's \"haves and have-nots\" is in danger of becoming a \"chasm\", a report has warned.\n\nResearch by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) think tank argues the most disadvantaged are no better off than they were 15 years ago.\n\nIt mentioned stagnant wages, family breakdown, poor housing, crime, mental health and other issues, saying the gap widened during the pandemic.\n\nMinisters highlighted the support to help with the rising cost of living.\n\nThe report by the CSJ's Social Justice Commission says the country is at risk of slipping back to a social divide not seen since the Victorian era.\n\nIn Two Nations: The State of Poverty in the UK, the CSJ says the country is \"deeply divided\", with the \"systemic problems facing those at the bottom of society in danger of becoming entrenched\".\n\n\"For too many Britain is broken and the gap between the haves and have-nots is in danger of becoming a chasm,\" the report adds.\n\nIt argues the situation worsened as a result of lockdowns during the Covid pandemic, pointing to increased mental health problems among young people, a jump in school absences and a rise in the number of people on working-age benefits.\n\nAndy Cook, chief executive of the CSJ, said: \"Lockdown policy poured petrol on the fire that had already been there in the most disadvantaged people's lives, and so far no one has offered a plan to match the scale of the issues.\n\n\"What this report shows is that we need far more than discussions on finance redistribution, but a strategy to go after the root causes of poverty - education, work, debt, addiction and family.\"\n\nThe commission behind the report is chaired by former Sunday Times editor Martin Ivens, and includes other figures such as former Bank of England governor Lord King, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and Conservative MP Miriam Cates.\n\nThe research included a poll of more than 6,000 people, half of whom were on the lowest incomes, conducted by J.L. Partners.\n\nThe commission, which will report its policy recommendations next spring, also travelled across the UK to more than 20 towns and cities and heard from some 350 charities, social enterprises and policy experts.\n\nThe poll found six-in-10 of the general public say that their area has a good quality of life, compared to less than two-in-five of the most deprived.\n\nThe report argues that for many of the poorest people, \"work is not worth it\" as the financial rewards can be marginal.\n\n\"In the most left behind communities, work is typically poor quality, insecure, and offers little progression,\" it says.\n\n\"Increasingly, people are turning to welfare, rather than wages, in order to unlock additional income.\"\n\nThe report says real average weekly pay growth in the UK has remained stagnant since the 2008 financial crisis, leaving people worse off.\n\nIt also highlights evidence of worse mental health in deprived groups.\n\nThe commission's analysis found 40% of the most deprived report having a mental health condition, compared to just 13% of the general population.\n\nThe report argues the poorest are hit harder by family breakdown, with a teenager growing up in the poorest 20% of households two-thirds more likely to experience family breakdown than a teenager in the top 20%.\n\nLord King said: \"Money is not the only solution to the problem of deprivation. One glimmer of light is the institution of the family - rather than government - as a place of nurture, support, and fulfilment.\n\n\"No family is perfect, and families come in all different shapes and sizes. But if we are able to do more to support the family, then we can prevent the creation of an 'unhappy generation'.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions said: \"There are 1.7 million fewer people, including 400,000 children, in absolute poverty when compared to 2010. But we understand some families are still struggling.\n\n\"This is why we have worked hard to halve inflation and are providing on average £3,700 per household to help with the cost of living, including increasing benefits by over 10% this year.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added: \"Our Back to Work Plan will help up to 1.1 million disabled people, people with long-term health conditions or the long-term unemployed to look for and stay in work.\"", "President Emmanuel Macron looked on as France's Chief Rabbi Haïm Korsia lit a candle for the first night of Hanukkah\n\nEmmanuel Macron has been accused of betraying the French Republic after he took part in a Jewish ceremony inside his official residence, the Elysée Palace.\n\nIn a country where the separation of religion is itself a religion, the lighting of a Hanukkah candle inside the historic Salle des Fêtes on Thursday was immediately denounced by politicians of both right and left.\n\nThe president had invited France's Chief Rabbi Haïm Korsia to light the first of eight candles on a Hanukkiah, or candelabra, marking the start of the Jewish festival of lights. The occasion was the award to President Macron of a prize for his efforts against antisemitism.\n\nBut when video of the ceremony appeared shortly afterwards on social media, there was furore.\n\nFor French opinion-formers of all stripes, the president had committed an enormous faux-pas by allowing religion into the secular hallows of the presidency.\n\n\"As far as I know this is the first time this has ever happened. It is a breach of secularism,\" said David Lisnard, a prominent right-wing opposition figure who is also mayor of Cannes.\n\n\"The Elysée is not a place of religion. You cannot compromise with secularism,\" said the Socialist president of the Occitania region, Carole Delga.\n\n\"Will Macron now do the same for other religions? Some yes, some no? It's a dangerous spiral,\" said Alexis Corbière of the far-left France Unbowed.\n\nEven some French Jews were perplexed. \"This is something that shouldn't be allowed to happen again,\" said Yonathan Arfi who heads the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (Crif).\n\n\"French Jews have always considered secularism as a law of protection and of freedom. Anything that weakens secularism weakens Jews,\" he said.\n\nThe idea of \"secularism\" was put into a French law of 1905, after years of struggle between the state and the Roman Catholic Church. It enshrined freedom of belief, but ended state involvement in the Church and removed all signs of religion from public buildings.\n\nThe law has since come to be regarded as a cornerstone of modern France, ensuring strict neutrality between Christianity, Islam and Judaism, and guaranteeing that citizens are seen as individuals-in-a-state and not as members-in-a-community.\n\nPresident Macron, on a visit to the construction site at Notre-Dame, later said he had no regrets about the candle-lighting\n\nFor Emmanuel Macron to have breached a century-old Republican doctrine will be seen by critics as confirmation of his overweening self-belief and \"Jupiterian\" entitlement.\n\nSpeaking on Friday as he viewed renovation work at Notre-Dame cathedral, the president said he had no regrets, and that his invitation to the chief rabbi had been made \"in the spirit of the Republic and of concord\".\n\n\"If the president had actually carried out a religious act, or taken part in a ceremony, that would indeed have been a breach of secularism. But that is not what happened,\" he said.\n\nThe gesture comes at the end of a long political sequence over Gaza in which President Macron has been under attack for improvising policy on the hoof.\n\nCritics say he has failed to present a consistent line on the war, instead zigzagging from overclose proximity to the Israeli side at one moment, to intense courting of Arab opinion at the next: always with the aim of appeasing the large Jewish and Muslim populations in France.\n\nShortly after 7 October, Mr Macron visited Israel and proposed an international coalition against Hamas, much like the one that defeated so-called Islamic State (IS).\n\nEarlier this month Mr Macron flew to Qatar when fighting resumed after a seven-day pause in Gaza\n\nAccused of abandoning France's traditional backing for Palestinians, he then organised an international aid conference on Gaza to which Israel was not invited.\n\nHe then further angered some Jews by refusing to attend a march against antisemitism, and in a BBC interview he spoke of \"babies\" being bombed by the Israeli air force.\n\nSome have detected in this latest gesture at the Elysée a new, single-handed touch to the tiller of state.\n\nIn France's foreign ministry, which has been largely sidelined by President Macron, off-the-record interviews make clear the frustration among professional diplomats.\n\n\"One day Macron is on the verge of announcing that he's going to help the Israeli army wipe out Gaza. Two weeks later he's on the BBC calling Israel a baby-killer,\" one former diplomat told Libération newspaper.\n\n\"OK, we know it is all about internal politics. But here, he's alienating first the Muslims, then the Jews.\"", "UN secretary general António Guterres has spoken about the \"serious risk to the maintenance of international peace and security\" in the Gaza conflict, citing the spillover of hostilities in \"the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen\".\n\nHe triggered Article 99, prompting a UN Security Council vote on Friday, because he believes this is a very urgent matter which must be brought to the attention of the council.\n\nThe Israeli government detests the UN and they detest the secretary general.\n\nThe Israelis rejected his description, claiming Mr Guterres is in fact the threat to world peace because he is pandering to Hamas by trying to end the fighting now, before their mission to destroy the group has been concluded.\n\nThat ill-feeling will not have improved after the secretary general also mentioned that one of the risks is that the situation in Gaza could get so bad that there would be a mass displacement of Palestinians over the border into Egypt - which is also of huge concern to the Egyptian government.\n\nThere was, Mr Guterres said, a high risk of the \"total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza\". And the Palestinians say that is exactly what Israel wants because it wants to get all Palestinians out of Gaza.\n\nJournalists are not permitted by Israel to enter Gaza so I can't report from there myself, but what the secretary general is saying sounds pretty accurate from the pictures and video we can see and the people we speak to.\n\nBy all the measures you can think of, the situation there for civilians is absolutely catastrophic, as they are subjected to a remorseless military campaign. Israel says they are doing what they can to save civilian lives but insists Hamas holds responsibility for using them as human shields.\n\nAt the UN, the Americans duly vetoed this resolution calling for a ceasefire. For those concerned about the significant loss of life, that does sound a bit hollow - the Americans claim the Israelis are saying they will stick to the rules of war and avoid unnecessary civilian deaths. But, they say, there is a gap between what Israel says and what it does.\n\nI think the strategy behind the secretary general's decision to bring a vote - which he knew would probably get vetoed - was to hurry up the inevitable moment when the Americans will say to Israel: \"Enough is enough, you've had enough time and killed enough people and it's time for a ceasefire.\"\n\nSome diplomats I have spoken to have said they might give the Israelis another month - I think Mr Guterres's strategy is to try and shorten that, partly by increasing international pressure and also partly by shaming the Americans into thinking that they cannot continue to hold this position as it becomes less and less tenable.\n\nThat pressure has also increased today with the publication of footage of prisoners in Gaza, held by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), stripped to their underwear and being driven away in trucks. It's a cruel image of war seeing these men, which local reports on social media suggest could be as many as 700.\n\nThose same sources, including family of some of the men, say that they were taken from a UN school where they were sheltering, and where others tried to get away and were killed.\n\nA horrendous video circulated yesterday of six people lying dead in the street - said to be from that same area and near that same school - and one of them was a bloody corpse lying on top of a white flag he had apparently been carrying.\n\nThe IDF say they are trying to work out who is a suspect and who is responsible for those terrible attacks on 7 October - and that they are all the while observing the international law on conflict.\n\nBut for those who have little sympathy for what Israel is doing, or have lost sympathy because of the level of killing that has been carried out in Gaza, those people are saying that this is another sign of Israeli indifference to the dignity and the health of Palestinians.\n\nThe weather is chilly here now, so being forced to walk around in underwear in streets, some blindfolded as we saw in the video, and some with their hands tied behind their back, is undoubtedly unpleasant.\n\nThe Israelis say they can't avoid it - others say it's pretty savage.", "MPs who lose their seat at the next general election are set to get taxpayer-funded help with finding a new job, the BBC can reveal.\n\nUnder a proposed \"career transition\" scheme, they could receive free advice with tasks such as writing a CV from a designated career coach.\n\nCommons officials are looking to hire a recruitment firm to deliver the programme from next year.\n\nThe move is part of a push to make being an MP a more attractive career.\n\nThe scheme has been drawn up in response to a report by a committee of MPs in February, which found some of those suddenly without a job had struggled to find employment.\n\nIt argued that without more support for people when they leave, Parliament could struggle to \"attract and retain talented people\" as MPs.\n\nUnder the plans, support would only be offered to MPs voted out of their job at an election, rather than those choosing to stand down.\n\nThe cross-party body of senior MPs and officials in charge of Commons administration has endorsed the plan, and a process is now under way to choose an external HR company to deliver the training.\n\nCommons authorities hope to put a programme in place ahead of the next general election, which is expected to take place next year.\n\nThe final scheme is yet to be announced, but a draft proposal has been obtained by the BBC following a request under Freedom of Information laws.\n\nAn internal document from September recommends departing MPs receive a \"budget\" to spend with the winning training provider.\n\nCommons authorities have blanked out the recommended spending level per MP, arguing it could jeopardise the procurement process.\n\nAccording to the document, a scheme could see defeated MPs offered \"on-demand\" career coaching and access to \"networking opportunities\".\n\nIt adds that they could also have access to a career coach to help them identify their transferable skills, and write a CV \"that stands out in the crowd\".\n\nIt was proposed that MPs should be advised of the help on offer during the winding-up period they are given to close down their offices after an election.\n\nThis period, for which MPs receive their net salary, is set to be extended from two to four months at the next election.\n\nMPs who lose their seat also get a separate payment linked to their time in Parliament, which averaged £5,250 after the last election in 2019.\n\nPublicly-funded career advice and training could run for up to a year, the proposal recommended. Authorities are planning for 150 MPs to lose their seats, and anticipate around 60% will make use of the advice.\n\nA Commons spokesperson said the scheme would seek to deliver \"value for money\" as well as \"the best possible service\" for departing MPs.\n\nThe scheme would emulate the sort of employer-sponsored advice sometimes offered by private firms and larger public sector organisations to employees who are made redundant.\n\nA number of local councils, as well as government departments including the Home Office and Ministry of Defence, have offered departing staff such \"outplacement\" advice in recent years.\n\nThe Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd both have schemes to deliver careers advice to former politicians. In Canada, MPs voted out of office or opting to leave get $15,000 (£8,763) for career advice and training.\n\nMPs are paid a basic salary of £86,584, and receive expenses to cover office costs, employing staff, and having to stay in London.\n\nIn recent years a number of high-profile former MPs have landed lucrative private-sector jobs after leaving Parliament - although there is relatively little recent research on the careers of lesser-known MPs.\n\nOne academic survey of those leaving Parliament after the 2010 election found almost half of those aged under 65, who responded, took at least three months to find a new job, with one in 10 taking a full year.\n\nAlthough half were earning more than they had done in Parliament, 40% earned less and 10% the same as their MPs' salary.\n\nThose landing well-paid directorships were a \"minority\", although the survey was carried out in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandal, which was acknowledged by the researchers.", "Nick Cave and Shane MacGowan on stage together in 1992 Image caption: Nick Cave and Shane MacGowan on stage together in 1992\n\nShane MacGowan’s music is the thread that binds this funeral service. Connecting the prayers and eulogies are some of his most beloved lyrics and melodies - many of which he’d previously requested at his 60th birthday party in Dublin five years ago.\n\nNick Cave played A Rainy Night In Soho, a beautiful ode to friends lost but not forgotten. Mundy and Camille O’Sullivan sang Haunted - a duet MacGowan originally recorded with Sinead O’Connor, another Irish musical rebel we sadly lost this year.\n\nMost poignantly of all, Pogues musician Cait O’Riordan and contemporary Irish folk musician John Francis Flynn, will dedicate I'm a Man You Don’t Meet Every Day to MacGowan.\n\nAlthough it wasn’t an autobiographical song, the lyrics about a “roving young fellow” who says “be easy and free when you’re drinking with me” couldn’t be more appropriate.\n\nBono, Bob Geldof Imelda May and Declan O’Rourke are also taking part in the service - an indication of how much Irish music owes to MacGowan, and what a vital life force we have lost.", "People in Gaza have been giving us their reactions to the US blocking a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.\n\nSome residents told us they were not surprised by the outcome of Friday night's vote, as they had expected the US to use its veto powers.\n\n“This war won’t stop until the US says so,” one woman said.\n\nAnother resident, Alaa al-Saqa, said he felt like people in Gaza were viewed only as “numbers and breaking news”. He described the US’s move to block the resolution as a “farce”.\n\n\"We have only Allah standing with us,\" says Rafat abu Danhe Image caption: \"We have only Allah standing with us,\" says Rafat abu Danhe\n\nRafat abu Danhe said he had “a lot of hope” that the resolution would go through and was “very upset” that it didn’t. “We have only Allah standing with us,” he said. “We are telling all nations - Western and Arab - that we need a ceasefire, because we are living in a tragedy right now.”\n\nAs we’ve been reporting, the UK abstained in the vote, while the 13 other countries in the 15-member Security Council voted in favour of the resolution.\n\nThe US has defended its position, calling the resolution \"imbalanced\" and \"divorced from reality\".\n\nMeanwhile, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, has thanked the US for blocking the resolution, which he said would “enable Hamas’ terrorists to stay in power in Gaza and does not condemn Hamas or call for the release of the hostages”.", "The Philippines accused China of causing \"severe damage\" to the engine of one boat after using water cannon\n\nA Philippine boat and Chinese ship have collided near a contested reef, in the latest territorial dispute between the two countries in the South China Sea.\n\nThe Philippines said China had \"harassed, blocked, and executed dangerous manoeuvres\".\n\nIt comes a day after the Philippines accused China of using water cannons to obstruct three of its vessels.\n\nThe South China Sea is at the centre of a territorial dispute between China, the Philippines and other countries.\n\nThe Philippines said on Sunday that China had targeted Philippine civilian supply vessels in the Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, a flashpoint between the two countries.\n\nOne of two boats carrying provisions was \"rammed\" by a Chinese coast guard ship, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea said in a statement.\n\nIt also accused China of causing \"severe damage\" to the engine of one boat after using water cannon.\n\nBut the China Coast Guard accused the Philippine boat of \"deliberately colliding\" with the Chinese vessel after \"disregarding our multiple stern warnings\".\n\nSeparately, a convoy of civilian boats planning to deliver Christmas presents and provisions to Filipino fishermen and troops in the South China Sea aborted the trip due to \"constant shadowing\" by Chinese vessels, the organiser said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIt comes after the Philippines accused China of using war cannons to obstruct three of its vessels on Saturday, in what it called \"illegal and aggressive\" actions. Beijing said it had used what it called \"control measures\" on ships that had intruded into its waters.\n\nEarlier this week, the Philippines accused China of \"swarming\" a reef off its coast after more than 135 military boats were spotted in the South China Sea.\n\nFriction between the two countries over competing sovereignty claims has increased since Ferdinand Marcos Jr became Philippine president last year.\n\nLast month, the Philippines carried out two separate joint air and sea patrols with the US, and with Australia a few days earlier.\n\nAn international tribunal invalidated China's claim to 90% of the South China Sea in 2016, but Beijing does not recognise the ruling and has been building islands in the disputed waters in recent years.\n\nThe contested waters have also become a naval flashpoint for China-US relations, and in October US President Joe Biden warned that the US will defend the Philippines in case of any attack.\n\nPresident Biden's comments were made days after two collisions between Filipino and Chinese vessels in the waters.\n\nTaiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Brunei also claim parts of the sea.", "The article marks Mr Jenrick's first public comment since his resignation\n\nFormer immigration minister Robert Jenrick has said the government's latest proposal to ensure it can send asylum seekers to Rwanda will fail to end the \"merry-go-round\" of the scheme getting caught up in legal issues.\n\nMr Jenrick aired his views in a Daily Telegraph editorial, his first public comment since resigning.\n\nHe resigned on Wednesday over his lack of faith in the legislation.\n\nThe government will hold a vote on the proposed legislation on Tuesday.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has called on MPs to support it, arguing that the new bill is the \"only approach\" that would successfully prevent further legal challenges stopping flights carrying asylum seekers taking off to Rwanda.\n\nBut while some MPs think the legislation is too tough, others share Mr Jenrick's view that it does not go far enough.\n\nIn his opinion piece, the former immigration minister said the test of the Rwanda legislation was whether it could \"end the merry-go-round of legal challenges\" that prevented the removal of asylum seekers who have entered the UK illegally after crossing the English Channel in small boats.\n\n\"Having done as much as I could to strengthen the legislation, I concluded, regrettably, the answer is no,\" he wrote, adding the issue forced his resignation.\n\nThe government has always seen the policy as a key tactic to provide a deterrent to the many thousands of people who attempt to make the perilous journey. In the first nine months of 2023, a total of 24,830 have arrived in this way, after 45,774 did so in the whole of 2022.\n\nMr Jenrick said it was his view that border control would be \"far more straightforward if we [the UK] extricated ourselves from the web of international frameworks that have taken on near mythical status within government\".\n\n\"One of the advantages of our uncodified constitution is the unfettered power of our sovereign parliament to create law,\" he added.\n\nHe claimed those who opposed the Rwanda plan, and a tough cut in net migration in general, held \"flawed assumptions about the cultural benefits of mass immigration\".\n\nPoliticians on the right have a choice looming, Mr Jenrick said:, adding \"Begin to deliver on the mainstream concerns of ordinary people when it comes to immigration, or face their red-hot fury at the ballot box\".\n\nRishi Sunak made stopping the arrival of small boats carrying asylum seekers one of his five key pledges to the public\n\nFollowing Mr Jenrick's resignation last week, Mr Sunak called a news conference to state his confidence in the bill.\n\nHe insisted the legislation was the \"toughest immigration law ever\", that only allowed for individual legal challenges if the small boat arrival can prove \"with credible and compelling evidence\" they have a \"real and imminent risk of serious and irreversible harm\".\n\n\"Going any further would mean that Rwanda would collapse the scheme and then we'll have nowhere to send anyone to - and that is not the way to get this going,\" Mr Sunak added.\n\nIn his editorial, Mr Jenrick said that allowing such challenges invites asylum seekers to \"concoct a reason to delay their removal\".\n\n\"The small-boat-chasing law firms will gladly assist them in this endeavour,\" he wrote.\n\nMr Jenrick, and those who share his views, want the bill to prevent the possibility of such legal challenges under domestic and international human rights laws.\n\nThe bill that will be put to parliament this week compels judges to treat Rwanda as a safe country and gives ministers the powers to disregard sections of the Human Rights Act.\n\nIt follows the signing of a treaty between the UK and Rwanda that the British government says ensures that people relocated to Rwanda are not at risk of being returned to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened.\n\nThe Liberal Democrats have called for Mr Sunak to be investigated over a £100m payment to Rwanda, which the party argues breaches the ministerial code. because it was not publicly declared for eight months.\n\n\"The public deserves transparency, not hushed-up backroom dealings. We need an urgent inquiry to get to the bottom of this,\" MP Christine Jardine said.\n\nThe Rwanda scheme - which was first announced by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April 2022 - has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges and was found to be illegal by the UK Supreme Court in November.\n\nLabour has also pledged to scrap the policy if it wins the next election and pursue a policy of greater border security.\n\nIn his editorial, Mr Jenrick described the Labour policy as a \"laughable\" way to address \"one of the great challenges of the 21st Century\".", "The actor's comments have attracted amusement on social media\n\nHollywood actor Timothée Chalamet has been jokingly warned his comments about Hull having a \"sexy\" accent will see him \"savaged by middle-aged women\".\n\nThe star of the new Willy Wonka film revealed his love for the northern twang in an interview with LadBible.\n\nThe actor admitted he also loved the Essex accent and a \"middle-aged northern accent\".\n\nTV star Lucy Beaumont, from Hull, said she was baffled as to why Chalamet would find it attractive.\n\nIn the clip, Chalamet said: \"I like the Hull accent... Hull is sexy.\"\n\nAfter people behind the camera starting laughing, the actor said: \"Why is everyone cracking up?\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by ladbible This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nResponding to his remarks on BBC Radio 5Live, Beaumont said: \"I think he's on drugs.\n\n\"I've had this accent for 40 years and no-one has ever told me it's sexy.\"\n\nThe actress, who wrote the sitcom Hullraisers, added: \"He looks like a very lovely young man and he should stay away from the region or he'll be savaged by middle-aged Hull women.\"\n\nLucy Beaumont also wrote BBC radio sitcom To Hull and Back\n\nChalamet's comments attracted surprise on social media, with one person writing: \"Timothée Chalamet saying Hull is sexy is the highlight of my year.\"\n\nAnother said: \"Can someone ask Timothée Chalamet how he knows that Hull exists?!\"\n\nChalamet plays the character previously depicted by Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp in earlier adaptations of the children's novel. The film was released on Friday.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "At the end of the war that started on 7 October lies a big, unknown place called the future. The old status quo was dangerous and painful, especially for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. But it was familiar. Then after 7 October it was smashed by the Hamas attacks, and Israel's response.\n\nThe shock of war can speed up change, when it sweeps away old thinking, forcing difficult choices for a better future. Or it drives leaders and their citizens deeper into their bunkers, as they prepare for the next round.\n\nFor more than a century, Jews and Arabs have been confronting each other, and sometimes going to war, over control of the small, highly coveted piece of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Perhaps the safest, saddest bet is to assume that the conflict, reshaped, will go on. After all, that is what has happened after every other Middle East war since 1948, when Israel won its independence.\n\nBut there are other options. Here are some of the arguments made by individuals at the centre of events.\n\nIsrael's prime minister has not spelt out his plan for the day after, if he has one. His opponents in Israel, who blame him for security and intelligence failures that made the Hamas attacks on 7 October possible, say Netanyahu's only real plan is to stay in power and avoid conviction on the serious corruption charges he faces.\n\nNetanyahu built his career on the message he was Mr Security, the only man who could keep Israel safe. Hamas shattered his brand, which was already badly damaged by political strife inside Israel.\n\nNetanyahu has not spelt out his plans for Gaza after the war ends\n\nThe prime minister's broad statements about what happens after the war, assuming Israel can declare victory, all point to continued occupation of Gaza. Israeli officials have reportedly talked about setting up buffer zones along the border, without offering any details.\n\nNetanyahu has rejected a role for foreign peacekeepers, assuming they can be found. Jordan's foreign minister Ayman Safadi has already said that Arab states would not \"clean the mess\" left by Israel.\n\n\"There will be no Arab troops going to Gaza. None. We are not going to be seen as the enemy.\"\n\nNetanyahu has also dismissed US President Joe Biden's plan to replace Hamas with the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas. Netanyahu claims the PA cannot be trusted and supports terrorism, even though it recognises Israel and cooperates with it on security.\n\nPresident Biden's vision of the future is very different to Benjamin Netanyahu's. Biden continues to give considerable military, diplomatic and emotional support to Israelis. He visited, embraced the families of hostages and has ordered his diplomats at the United Nations Security Council to use the US veto to block ceasefire resolutions. Biden ordered two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region and has sent Israel vast amounts of weaponry.\n\nIn return, the US president wants Israel to return to some kind of revitalised peace process. He wants the Palestinian Authority (PA) eventually to run Gaza while Israel agrees arrangements for an independent Palestine alongside Israel.\n\nThe Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas agrees. He has largely been a bystander since 7 October. In a rare interview this week, with Reuters, he said there should be a peace conference after the war to work out a political solution that would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.\n\nBiden wants a revitalised peace process in the region\n\nThe \"two state solution\" has been the official objective of America and its western allies since the early 1990s. Years of negotiations to make it happen failed. For almost a quarter of a century, since the peace process collapsed, the phrase has been an empty slogan. Biden wants to revive it, arguing correctly that only a political solution will end the conflict.\n\nBiden sent his vice president, Kamala Harris, to Dubai last week to make a speech laying out America's red lines for Gaza on the day after.\n\nShe laid out five principles.\n\n\"No forcible displacement, no re-occupation, no siege or blockade, no reduction in territory, and no use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism.\"\n\n\"We want to see a unified Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian voices and aspirations must be at the centre of this work.\"\n\nIn and out of office, Benjamin Netanyahu has worked consistently hard to thwart Palestinian independence. It is safe to say he is not about to change his mind. If the two-state solution can be revived, it won't happen while he is prime minister.\n\nI went to see Simcha Rotman at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, where he is a prominent MP for the far-right Religious Zionist Party. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu depends on the support of Rotman's party and other hard-line Jewish nationalists. Their power comes from the dynamism of the movement to settle Jews on the land captured in 1967. From that moment of victory, some Israelis were set on extending the Zionist enterprise into the newly occupied Palestinian territories: the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.\n\nSince 1967 they have been highly successful, despite being forced to leave Gaza when Israel pulled out in 2005. Around 700,000 Israeli Jews now live in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Settler leaders are in the cabinet, and their enterprise is at the centre of Israeli politics.\n\nSimcha Rotman is a prominent MP for the far-right Religious Zionist Party\n\nNow that Israel is fighting Hamas, vowing to smash the organisation once and for all, Jewish nationalists see the biggest opportunity they have had since 1967, when Israel beat all its Arab neighbours in a war that lasted for six days.\n\nSince 7 October, armed settlers in the West Bank, backed by soldiers and police, have prevented Palestinian farmers from harvesting their olives or tending their fields. Settlers have paved illegal roads and sought to entrench themselves even deeper by consolidating outposts that are illegal under Israeli as well as international law. Posters are everywhere demanding the return of Jewish settlers to Gaza.\n\nSettlers have also killed Palestinians and invaded their homes. Men with bulldozers came at night to destroy the tiny village of Khirbet Zanuta, near Hebron. Its population of 200 Palestinians had already left, forced out by armed and aggressive settlers.\n\nInternational law says an occupying power should not settle its citizens in land it has captured. Israel says the law does not apply.\n\n\"Occupation is not the word,\" Simcha Rotman told me at the Knesset.\n\n\"You cannot occupy your own land. Israel is not an occupier in Israel because that's the land of Israel.\"\n\nFor Simcha Rotman and other Jewish nationalists, Gaza is also part of the land of Israel.\n\n\"We need to make sure that the only people that are in charge of our security in the land of Israel are the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]. We cannot have any terrorist organisation, doesn't matter what its name. Would it be Hamas? Would it be Fatah? Doesn't matter. The terrorist organisation cannot have control of our lives.\"\n\nIf there are Palestinian elections after the 7 October war ends, Mustafa Barghouti is likely to run for president. He is the secretary general of the Palestine National Initiative. It wants to be the third force in Palestinian politics, an alternative to the Islamist extremists in Hamas and to Fatah, the faction led by President Mahmoud Abbas, which it regards as corrupt and incompetent. Barghouthi believes resistance to occupation is legitimate and legal, though he wants it to be non-violent.\n\nIn his office in Ramallah on the West Bank, Mustafa Barghouthi told me that Israel is using the war to deliver a crushing blow not just to Hamas but to the idea of Palestinian independence and freedom. Like many Palestinians, Barghouthi sees what's happening as a grim echo of the events of 1948 when Israel won its independence and more than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced at gunpoint to leave their homes in what became Israel. Palestinians call it al-Naqba, \"the catastrophe\" and believe Israel wants it to happen again.\n\nMustafa Barghouti is the secretary general of the Palestine National Initiative\n\n\"I am 100% sure that their main goal right from the beginning was the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza, trying to push people to Egypt, a terrible war crime. And if they managed to do so, I think their next goal will be to try to ethnically cleanse the West Bank and force people to join them.\"\n\n\"If they fail to ethnically cleanse all Gazans, I am sure that Netanyahu's plan B is to annexe Gaza City and the north of Gaza completely to Israel and claim it as a security area.\"\n\nBarghouthi warns that Israel faces dire prospects if its troops stay in Gaza long term.\n\n\"Israel did that before and it didn't work. And there will be resistance to their occupation, which they cannot tolerate. And that's why Netanyahu's goal really is to ethnically cleanse people. He wants to have military control of Gaza without people. He knows very well that Gaza with people is something that is unmanageable.\"\n\nBarghouthi believes Gaza should be part of a democratic Palestinian state.\n\n\"We Palestinians are grown up people. We don't need any patronage of anybody. And no, we don't need any other country to tell us how we should rule ourselves.\"\n\nThis crisis looks as if it will have more chapters. The US veto of the latest ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council gives Israel more time to wage war. But that extra time is not indefinite, and continued Biden support for Israel carries a political price in America's coming election year. Influential members of his own Democratic party oppose what he's doing, and so do younger voters whose support he needs. The Biden Administration is already deeply uncomfortable that Israel is ignoring its repeated requests to protect civilians and respect the laws of war.\n\nIsrael may struggle to achieve the crushing victory Benjamin Netanyahu has promised. He set a high bar for victory; not just annihilating Hamas as a military force, but also destroying its capacity to govern. Israel's vast military power, reinforced by American resupply, has not yet destroyed the capacity of Hamas to fight. The Hamas creed of Islamist nationalism is also embedded in the minds of many Palestinians. Guns often don't kill ideas but reinforce them.\n\nThe future is messy and dangerous. The war in Gaza will not end neatly.", "Omid Scobie says he had named the two royals in an earlier version of the text\n\nAn author whose book triggered a row over allegations of racism in the Royal Family has said an earlier version of the text was to blame for the naming of two royals in one edition.\n\nOmid Scobie said an \"early and uncleared\" version of Endgame was sent to the Dutch publisher so work could start on translating.\n\nThe Dutch edition was not the final version he had submitted, he added.\n\nThe translation included the names of King Charles and Catherine, Princess of Wales, who are reported to have allegedly discussed the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's unborn baby.\n\nThe passage in the book relates to allegations made by Prince Harry and Meghan during their tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.\n\nIn the interview, Meghan said there had been \"concerns and conversations about how dark [Archie's] skin might be when he was born\".\n\nIn the English version of the book, Scobie claimed there had been two people involved and that he knew their identities, but he said for legal reasons the names could not be disclosed.\n\nHowever, the Dutch language edition of his book, entitled Eindstrijd, appeared to identify the two royals alleged to have been involved in the conversation. The BBC has seen a copy of the Dutch translation, which names the King and Catherine as being the two royals that discussed the baby.\n\nScobie said \"my stomach flipped\" when he first realised the royals had been named.\n\nWriting in an opinion piece for the i, he said: \"Unbeknownst to me at the time, early and uncleared text was provided to the Dutch publisher in order for them to start work on the translation, with the understanding that their translation would be updated to reflect the final version of the book I officially submitted.\n\n\"Other foreign-language publishers, including in France and Italy, were also doing the same thing, though their versions perfectly replicated the completed work.\n\n\"What I can be sure of is that I edited carefully, took independent legal advice, and the finished book that I submitted was not the version published in the Netherlands.\"\n\nScobie said the only publisher he had worked with was the \"one covering the US and UK\".\n\nHe previously told the BBC he did not know how the Dutch translation came to name the two royals.\n\nHe told Dutch television last week: \"For me, I edited and wrote the English version; there has never been a version that I've produced that has names in it.\"\n\nThe Dutch edition was withdrawn from sale, with publisher Xander Uitgevers blaming a translation error.\n\nResponding to Scobie's article in the i, Xander Uitgevers said: \"Omid Scobie's explanation in his column in iNews about the Dutch editorial process of the Dutch edition of Endgame is factually incorrect and we do not recognize ourselves in his representation of the events.\"\n\nThe publisher added that it \"is not allowed to say anything about the content\".\n\nMeghan's claims in the Oprah Winfrey interview were explosive - Buckingham Palace called them \"concerning\" and said they were being \"taken very seriously\".\n\nHowever, in subsequent interviews, Prince Harry was asked whether he would describe the comment about his son's skin colour as racist, he told ITV's Tom Bradby in January: \"No, I wouldn't.\"", "Punk Rock Factory - (l-r) Ryan, Peej, Benj and Kob - also cover children's TV theme tunes, like the Power Rangers characters pictured on stage with them\n\n\"They were gonna love us or we were gonna be bottled.\"\n\n\"They\" are a festival crowd of heavy metal fans about to be presented with… a band playing a bunch of Disney covers.\n\nYou can understand why Peej, lead singer of Punk Rock Factory, was apprehensive. Fortunately, the crowd were soon screaming along to Let It Go, the Frozen anthem loved by children worldwide.\n\nSo how did a south Wales quartet end up playing Disney tunes and children's TV theme music in a rock festival?\n\nLike many of the weird events of recent years, you can thank (or blame, depending on musical taste) Covid. A TikTok video of the band playing a cover of the Lion King's Just Can't Wait To Be King went viral as everyone was cooped up inside in 2020, and it snowballed.\n\nReady to roar-k: The Lion King remake prompted Punk Rock Factory to cover Just Can't Wait To Be King\n\nBut why did the band from Cwmbran, Torfaen - singer and guitarist Peej, Ryan (guitar), Benj (bass and vocals) and Kob (drums and vocals) - start singing Disney in the first place?\n\nThe four, now mostly in their late 30s, grew up together in the local music scene, and all at various points played in bands, separately and together.\n\nA couple even worked in parts of the music business, but by 2014 none of them was in bands, and they decided to meet up and play for fun and \"release\".\n\n\"A friend of ours owned a recording studio so on a Monday evening we'd all meet up for a laugh and hang out,\" Peej said.\n\n\"We ended up chucking the odd punk cover together which we would chuck up on YouTube and nobody would really see it or care, to be honest.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Punk Rock Factory This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOnly ever meant to be an online project, after a few years they went their separate ways and worked with other bands, but picked it back up in 2018.\n\nIn 2019 they released their first album - \"guilty pleasures really\" - such as Meat Loaf and Hansen.\n\n\"Again it didn't really do a lot. But then Covid hit the beginning of 2020 and,\" he gives a sheepish laugh, \"it kind of worked really well for us\".\n\nOne of those guilty pleasures on the 2019 album was Just Can't Wait To Be King, recorded because Disney's Lion King remake was coming out\n\n\"Things like TikTok were huge during Covid - everyone was stuck at home, they had their kids there. The only thing that people could do was watch box sets, do pub quizzes over Zoom calls or flick through TikTok and Instagram.\n\n\"Our cover of Just Can't Wait To Be King was the first thing that really kicked off for us. That's where the Disney element came from because we thought, well, we need to do more of that.\"\n\nAfter the song took off during the first lockdown and people were \"throwing Disney songs at us to do\" they decided to record a full album of punk Disney covers.\n\nThe band have sold out venues in the UK and abroad\n\n\"From then it's just become this behemoth and we're touring and we're international now,\" he said.\n\nPeej had some road testers on hand in his son and daughter, 10 and eight at the time.\n\n\"My daughter grew up watching Frozen and stuff like that, so I had a good gauge with her.\"\n\nIn 2021, a music agent was looking to book them to tour, which they had never done as Punk Rock Factory.\n\nThey heard they might be playing a half-hour set at Bloodstock, which is primarily a heavy metal festival, but everything went quiet.\n\n\"Then I remember it was a Sunday and he contacted us and he said you're playing Bloodstock, on Thursday, but you need to play for an hour,\" Peej recalled.\n\nThe band members have been so successful they were able to quit day jobs to tour full-time\n\n\"Bearing in mind we hadn't rehearsed, we'd never played live together, so we had three days. We literally locked ourselves in the studio Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and just threw out a set and drilled the songs.\n\n\"So the first show we ever played was in front of about 8,000 people.\n\n\"We didn't know what to expect. Like I say, it's a heavy metal festival and we're there playing pop punk versions of Disney songs and [Teenage Mutant Ninja] Turtles and Power Rangers and stuff.\n\n\"They were gonna love it or we were gonna be bottled. That was the life-changing moment there I think.\n\n\"We went onto the stage, you've got 8,000 metalheads, you've got massive guys in denim jackets covered in patches and huge beards and screaming the words to Let It Go back to you.\"\n\nAt the end of 2021 they did their first UK tour, playing 300-400 capacity venues, and \"pretty much\" sold out.\n\nFestivals including Teddy Rocks (pictured), Download and Slam Dunk are part of the band's circuit now\n\nSince then, the four quit day jobs to gig full-time, and this year played Download a UK tour and Australia stint. Last year it was Slam Dunk, and there have been European festivals, with Japan and the US also on the cards and Welsh tour next spring.\n\nSome may dismiss covers as an easy option, but Peej said a lot of musicianship goes into making songs written for one genre work in another.\n\nThe band originally thought when they started getting successful they would produce an album of original tracks at some stage, but their view has changed.\n\n\"I think as time's gone on Punk Rock Factory is what it is, and I think if we start throwing in original stuff it would kind of muddy the waters a little bit for people,\" said Peej.\n\n\"I think if we did, we'd probably do it under a different name, or a different guise.\n\n\"You see a lot of bands out there now that have got the anonymous thing, so a lot of bands would wear masks [and] you don't really know who the band are.\n\n\"Maybe we'd go down that route if we did originals.\"\n\nAnd, with another laugh, \"Who's to say that we're not one of those masked bands anyway?\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "BBC Breakfast's Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty were joined on the sofa by Thunder, a therapy husky dog.\n\nThunder's owner Adrian told the duo that the NHS-approved husky also had his own special antibacterial \"cologne\" that made him smell nice and clean for his visits to hospitals.\n\nCharlie couldn't resist taking a sniff and confirmed that Thunder \"does smell good\".", "The card featuring the King and Queen shows them posing in their crowns at the Coronation earlier this year\n\nRoyal Family members have revealed their Christmas card images - with King Charles III choosing a picture from his Coronation earlier this year.\n\nThe King and Queen Camilla shared a photo of them wearing their robes and crowns in Buckingham Palace's throne room on 6 May.\n\nMeanwhile, the Prince and Princess of Wales have released a monochrome photograph of their family.\n\nThe family are seen arranged around Princess Charlotte sitting on a chair.\n\nThey are all wearing white shirts too, with Catherine, Princess of Wales, and daughter Charlotte, eight, wearing jeans, while the Prince of Wales, wears black trousers along with sons Prince George, 10, and Prince Louis, five.\n\nTheir photo was taken by Yorkshire-born photographer Josh Shinner, who has previously snapped stars including Florence Pugh, Jodie Comer and Sam Smith.\n\nThe King and Queen were captured by photographer Hugo Burnand for the second Christmas card featuring King Charles as monarch.\n\nThe couple are standing side-by-side, with King Charles pictured wearing the Imperial State Crown and Queen Camilla wearing Queen Mary's Crown.\n\nThe King is wearing a coronation tunic and the robe of estate, which was made of purple silk velvet that had been embroidered in gold and was also worn by King George VI in 1937.\n\nThe Queen's robe of estate was made by Ede and Ravenscroft and was designed and hand embroidered by the Royal School of Needlework.\n\nKing Charles and Queen Camilla were crowned at Westminster Abbey earlier this year in a ceremony that brought together 100 heads of state, kings and queens from across the world, celebrities, and family and friends of the couple.\n\nThousands of people also gathered to see the couple on the palace balcony after the coronation, where they were joined by the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children, as well as the coronation pages and Ladies in Attendance.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales pose for their annual Christmas card picture, alongside their three children, George (R), Charlotte and Louis (L)\n\nSenior royals regularly release official festive images for Christmas cards that are sent to friends, family and colleagues.\n\nLast year, Charles and Camilla chose a picture of them attending the Braemar Royal Highland Gathering last September - just days before his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales opted for a picture of them walking hand-in-hand with their children on a sunny day in Norfolk during the summer.\n\nCatherine also held her annual carol concert at Westminster Abbey on Friday, where midwives and nursery teachers, young carers, and those who may have had a challenging year, were among the 1,500 attendees.\n\nThe Westminster Abbey choir performed, along with Beverley Knight and Adam Lambert, while William, Micheal Ward, Emma Willis, Roman Kemp, and Jim Broadbent gave readings.\n\nRead the latest from our royal correspondent Sean Coughlan - sign up here.", "The Scottish government's failed legal challenge against the blocking of Holyrood's gender reform bill is the latest in a series of judicial defeats.\n\nOne of the country's most senior judges, Lady Dorrian, told MSPs last week that 4,946 civil cases involving the government have come to court between April 2016 and November 2023.\n\nSome of those have been high-level litigation, from challenges to domestic policy to constitutional clashes between governments. And in many, the government has come out on the wrong side.\n\nWhy has our politics ended up in the courts so frequently? And why does the Scottish government keep losing?\n\nDisagreements between the SNP-led administration in Edinburgh and the Conservative one in London are unsurprisingly frequent.\n\nThe schism between the governments has widened during the turbulent times of late, and tumbles into the courts on a regular basis.\n\nThe Supreme Court has been called in on multiple occasions to rule on the scope of Holyrood's powers.\n\nBrexit lit the blue touchpaper when the UK government decided to plough ahead with its flagship Withdrawal Bill against the express wishes of MSPs - prompting them to pass their own legislation.\n\nUK law officers then challenged the Holyrood \"continuity bill\" at the Supreme Court.\n\nThe bill fell down on one ground, but the judges said it could have stood up on most others - \"as a whole\" it was within devolved competence.\n\nHowever it transpired that after the bill passed, UK ministers had added their own Withdrawal Act to a special list of bills which cannot be modified by the devolved administrations.\n\nThat meant great swathes of the continuity bill were rendered unlawful - and Scottish ministers were furious, saying the goalposts had been moved mid-match.\n\nLegislative disputes between the Scottish and UK governments are heard in the Supreme Court in London\n\nSince then, the two governments have rarely hesitated to take each other to court.\n\nUK law officers have challenged several pieces of Holyrood legislation - one of which, on incorporating a UN charter on children's rights into Scottish law, has just undergone the parliament's first ever \"reconsideration stage\" to rectify issues flagged up by judges.\n\nThe Supreme Court actually said the bill had been \"drafted in terms which deliberately exceed the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament\", and it had to be stripped back.\n\nThe era of so-called \"muscular unionism\" continued with the UK government stepping in to block Holyrood's gender reform bill, with the first ever use of section 35 of the Scotland Act.\n\nScottish ministers then launched an equally unprecedented judicial review of that decision at the Court of Session, arguing that the Scottish Secretary Alister Jack had acted unlawfully.\n\nThat challenge was unsuccessful, with Lady Haldane ruling that Mr Jack had followed proper procedure - although the case may yet be subject to appeal.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Supreme Court rejected Holyrood's power to set up a referendum\n\nThe Scottish government has also resorted to the courts to pursue its own political goals.\n\nIn 2022, Nicola Sturgeon decided to ask the Supreme Court to rule on whether Holyrood had the power to legislate for an independence referendum.\n\nMinisters accepted that the fate of the union was reserved to Westminster, but thought there might be a technical path to victory by claiming that referendum would only be advisory and not trigger independence on its own.\n\nThey were wrong, and the court unanimously ruled that MSPs could not set up a vote without Whitehall's approval.\n\nThe ruling has caused much head-scratching in the independence movement about the best way to proceed, with talk of using elections as de-facto referendums, or wildcat votes.\n\nAlex Salmond first took the government he once led to court in 2018\n\nThere are more domestic cases too, like this week's spat with the Information Commissioner over whether details of the 2021 ministerial code investigation of Nicola Sturgeon should be subject to Freedom of Information (FoI) rules.\n\nSome legal commentators have noted how swiftly the judges arrived at their decision, batting away the appeal without even leaving the courtroom to confer.\n\nThat case stemmed from an earlier judicial review, when Alex Salmond successfully challenged how the government investigated internal harassment claims against him.\n\nLegal advice published during a Holyrood inquiry underlined the chaos in the government's efforts to defend against Mr Salmond's suit, with documents frequently unearthed late in the day and increasingly exasperated legal advisors threatening to quit.\n\nHe has now launched another court action, in a bid to win damages and force ministers to take accountability for the botched investigation.\n\nThere has also been a steady stream of legal disputes over legislation passed and policies proposed at Holyrood over the years.\n\nThe record here is more mixed; the government did win a landmark case about minimum pricing for alcohol, which allowed a flagship policy to become law.\n\nMinisters also successfully batted away a challenge to their policy of freezing rents and banning most evictions during the winter fuel crisis.\n\nThere was another victory in 2016 after Ineos sued over the government's \"ban\" on fracking - although ministers only won by arguing that they had not in fact banned fracking, and that SNP claims to that effect were a political \"gloss\".\n\nPolitics and the courts have collided more frequently in recent years\n\nBut there have been high-profile defeats too, which have derailed policies.\n\nThe Supreme Court shot downs plans for a \"named person\" scheme in 2016, and efforts to revive it fell apart at Holyrood over the following years until it was ultimately scrapped.\n\nThere was another defeat over the Deposit Return Scheme, although the policy had already been wrecked by a row with the UK government.\n\nFrequently these reversals have come at the hands of campaign groups fronted by members of the public or businesspeople. They range across portfolios; there was one in the summer over scallop dredging.\n\nAnother, by the campaign group For Women Scotland, rendered part of a bill about gender balance on public boards unlawful - necessitating another piece of legislation at Holyrood make amends.\n\nThe cases can echo out to the frontlines of where policies are enacted too. City of Edinburgh Council has now suffered two defeats in the court about its short-term lets licensing regime - with the drafting of the original legislation at Holyrood at the heart of the cases.\n\nLord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC is the Scottish government's chief law officer, and occasionally represents ministers in major court cases\n\nIn one sense it doesn't matter whether the government has ended up in court due to a policy row, a constitutional showdown, disputes over drafting or a citizen challenge to a controversial new law.\n\nThe lawyers get paid either way.\n\nIn the really big cases the government is represented by its own law officers - like the Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC - who are at least on the payroll.\n\nBut they are generally supported by independent advocates, and take legal advice from external firms. None of that comes cheap.\n\nThe series of cases about gender balance on public boards have cost more than £200,000 to defend. The challenges to the named person scheme incurred costs of almost £480,000.\n\nThere has been a growing trend of campaign groups crowd-funding cases against policies they don't like. Legal academic Andrew Tickell has been tracking the topic and found millions of pounds has been pledged to litigation over recent years.\n\nAlex Salmond solicited just over £100,000 of donations for his judicial review, and the government ultimately had to pay him £512,000 in costs when it admitted defeat.\n\nThe Information Commissioner has pointed to the fact that tens of thousands of pounds had been incurred in that case - and ultimately had been born by the public purse on both sides, during a much-publicised budget squeeze.\n\nNone of this is unique to Scotland - think of the big legal defeats the UK government has suffered over Brexit and its Rwanda policy.\n\nAnd for all that ministers are always clear that they respect the role of the judiciary in the law-making process, they would surely rather not spend quite so much time in front of the courts in future.", "American actor Ryan O'Neal, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in 1970 romance Love Story, has died at the age of 82, his son said.\n\nHis family did not share a cause of death, but O'Neal was diagnosed with chronic leukaemia in 2001 and prostate cancer in 2012.\n\nHe also starred in 1970s hits What's Up, Doc?, Paper Moon and A Bridge Too Far.\n\nHis son said his father was \"a Hollywood legend. Full stop.\"\n\n\"My dad passed away peacefully today, with his loving team by his side supporting him,\" Patrick O'Neal wrote on Instagram on Friday.\n\nHe added that his father had always been his hero.\n\nO'Neal's rugged good looks catapulted him from television soap to movie stardom in tearjerker Love Story. He starred as an upper-crust Harvard undergraduate who falls in love with a working class student, played by Ali MacGraw.\n\nThe movie is considered by the American Film Institute to be among the top 10 most romantic of all time.\n\nHe went on to star in 1972 screwball comedy What's Up, Doc?, alongside Barbra Streisand. He acted with her again in The Main Event in 1979.\n\n\"So sad to hear the news of Ryan O'Neal's passing,\" Streisand posted on X, formerly Twitter.\n\n\"He was funny and charming, and he will be remembered,\" she added.\n\nHe played a Depression-era conman in road comedy-drama Paper Moon (1973), alongside his nine-year-old daughter, Tatum O'Neal, who won an Oscar for her show-stealing supporting role.\n\nO'Neal also appeared with an all-star cast in 1977 war epic A Bridge Too Far and in Barry Lyndon (1975), Stanley Kubrick's highly anticipated follow-up to A Clockwork Orange.\n\nBut his star faded at the end of the 1970s and only his turbulent personal life kept him in the headlines.\n\nHe was born in Los Angeles in 1941 to a mother who was a stage actress and a father who was a novelist and screenwriter.\n\nO'Neal took up boxing in school and developed an impressive physique before landing small television roles.\n\nHe was cast in Peyton Place, known as America's first prime-time soap opera. That role made him a household name, and like his co-star Mia Farrow, he was able to make the leap to the big screen.\n\nHe was married twice: first to American actress Joanna Moore, with whom he had two children, including Tatum, and then to Emmy-winning actress Leigh Taylor-Young, with whom he had one son, Patrick.\n\nBut O'Neal was also known for his long-term, tumultuous romance with actress Farrah Fawcett. That relationship lasted from 1979 to 1997, and then from 2001 until Fawcett's death in 2009.\n\nIn an interview with Piers Morgan in 2011, O'Neal said that re-watching his film Love Story \"upsets me, actually\".\n\n\"I lost Farrah to cancer, and I just wonder [why] that played out that way for me,\" O'Neal said.\n\nIn the tribute to his father, Patrick O'Neal said that he was \"skilled at his craft, worked so hard, and just loved acting plain and simple\".\n\n\"As a human being, my father was as generous as they come,\" he added. \"And the funniest person in any room. And the most handsome clearly, but also the most charming. Lethal combo.\"\n\nPatrick also paid tribute to Fawcett, his father's long-time love.\n\n\"Now they meet again. Farrah and Ryan. He has missed her terribly. What an embrace that must be. Together again.\"\n• None O'Neal gets to keep Fawcett portrait", "Wham!'s Last Christmas has had four spells at number one, but never in Christmas week itself\n\nChristmas has come early in the UK charts as almost three quarters of songs in the top 40 are festive tunes.\n\nWham!'s Last Christmas has topped the singles chart for the fourth time, followed by Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You in second place.\n\nA week after the death of The Pogues singer Shane MacGowan, Fairytale of New York has risen to number four.\n\nIt still has time to reach the top spot for the first time, with two weeks until Christmas number one is revealed.\n\nReleased in 1987 and featuring Kirsty MacColl, the track originally peaked at number two, being narrowly beaten to festive first place by the Pet Shop Boys' Always On My Mind.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by ThePoguesOfficial This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nIn total, there are eight festive songs in this week's top 10, including Brenda Lee's Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree at number six, and Ed Sheeran and Elton John's hit Merry Christmas at number seven.\n\nSpeaking to the Official Charts Company, Andrew Ridgeley, one half of Wham!, said it felt like \"Christmas has indeed come early\" and he was \"delighted that Last Christmas has once again reached the zenith of the Official Singles Chart\".\n\nGeorge Michael and Ridgeley's 1984 festive song broke a record in 2021 for the longest time taken to reach number one.\n\nIt reached the top spot for a second time in 2022, and for a third at the very beginning of 2023.\n\nIt has never been number one in Christmas week itself, however. But that could change this year after YouTubers and charity fundraisers LadBaby - who have had the Christmas number one for five years in a row - decided not to enter the 2023 race.\n\nMariah Carey made it to number two this week\n\nThe 28 festive songs in the top 40 include Ariana Grande's Santa Tell Me at 11, Michael Bublé's Holly Jolly Christmas at 21 and Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody at number 39 on the 50th anniversary of its release.\n\nAmong the non-seasonal singles still left in the chart, Jack Harlow's Lovin On Me has dropped to third place after three weeks at number one.\n\nSouth Korean boy band Ateez were pipped to the number one album by Peter Gabriel\n\nMerriment is yet to hit the album charts in full force, as only one of the top five albums - Michael Buble's Christmas - is a festive one.\n\nFormer Genesis singer Peter Gabriel has claimed his third solo number one with his new album i/o, his first collection of new material in 21 years.\n\nAt number two, K-pop group Ateez have claimed a career best with The World EP - Fin, the final record of the band's The World trilogy.\n\nCher is bringing some seasonal cheer with her collection Christmas breaking into the top 10 at number eight.", "Yasmin is starring alongside David Tennant, who has reprised the role for the drama's 60th anniversary\n\n\"There's a lot of keyboard warriors that have such a strong opinion on the roles that I play.\"\n\nAfter her breakout role in Heartstopper, Yasmin Finney is back on our screens playing trans character Rose Noble in Doctor Who, as the show celebrates its 60th anniversary.\n\nThe 20-year-old trans actress tells BBC Newsbeat being part of the cast has given her \"a kooky, amazing family\", an experience she feels she missed out on.\n\nYasmin has spoken before about being close to her mother, but the beliefs of much of her extended family mean she has little contact with them.\n\n\"I don't really speak to them as much. I kind of cut them off due to my identity,\" she says.\n\nUsing TikTok, where she has almost two million followers, Yasmin has been open about her experience of being a transgender black woman as well as making it as an actress.\n\nGrowing up in the \"mud of Manchester\", she says school was tough but she was able to relive it in a different way while playing Elle in Heartstopper.\n\n\"I didn't go to drama school, I didn't have the privilege to see theatre shows every weekend,\" she says.\n\nYasmin says she's \"super grateful\" that her roles so far have let her experience \"a little bit of what I've missed as a person growing up\".\n\nYasmin says she's received online hate after being announced as Rose Noble in Doctor Who\n\nYasmin was born in 2003, two years before her now co-stars David Tennant and Catherine Tate were first cast in Doctor Who.\n\nIt was their performances as The Doctor and Donna Noble - Rose's mum - that first introduced Yasmin to the Whoniverse as a child.\n\n\"I used to be obsessed with David Tennant and Catherine Tate,\" she says.\n\nNow they've reprised their roles for the 60th anniversary specials alongside Yasmin, she says \"it's a bit weird\" to think about her fandom.\n\n\"But it's just an honour to be with the greats making something so magical.\"\n\nAlso making up an important part of the cast in those formative years was Billie Piper who played Rose Tyler and it didn't go unnoticed by fans that Yasmin's character is also called Rose.\n\n\"Everyone was like oh my God she's taken Billie Piper's role, what about Billie Piper? What's happened? What's happened?\n\n\"No, guys, I'm simply just named after Rose.\"\n\nYasmin says she's been able to relive her family experience with co-stars including Catherine Tate and Jaqueline King\n\nBut that added pressure of being aligned with such a beloved character, as well as her trans identity, meant that for Yasmin there has been a downside to being cast in a dream role: online trolls.\n\n\"Any sort of franchise that has been going years and you get a black trans woman playing the role, people are going to have their opinions,\" she says.\n\n\"It's so funny because when I get a hate comment, it'll be: 'Your acting was so bad and I hate trans people'.\n\n\"Fair enough you had one opinion, but then when you tie my identity into it, it's just kind of unfair.\"\n\nShe can't control the haters, but she can control her response and so Yasmin says she's just focused on protecting her mental health and acing the role.\n\n\"Ultimately, I just want to deliver a good performance,\" she says.\n\n\"I want people to laugh, I want people to smile, I want people to cry. And also I just want to be good representation for people that haven't had it.\"\n\nThe need for representation is an issue that doesn't seem to be going away soon for Yasmin.\n\nBoth as Elle and Rose, she is a trans actress playing a trans character.\n\nShe hopes to be a role model for people like her growing up trans but at the same time, she hopes she'll be able to play a variety of roles.\n\nDebates around which actors should play which roles should be a thing of the past, she thinks.\n\nActor Eddie Redmayne previously said playing a transgender character in 2015 film The Danish Girl was \"a mistake\", after some felt a trans actor should have been cast in the role.\n\n\"I think there needs to be such a more open space for any actor,\" Yasmin says.\n\n\"If you're a good actor, you're a good actor. It doesn't matter your identity, your sexuality, if you can sell a story, you can sell a story.\"\n\nThe third and final Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Special, The Giggle, will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 18:30 GMT on Saturday 9 December\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Mahsa Amini, from the north-western city of Saqez, died in hospital after spending three days in a coma\n\nThe family of Mahsa Amini have been banned from flying to France to collect a top human rights prize in her honour.\n\nMs Amini's parents and brother were stopped from boarding their flight and had their passports confiscated, their lawyer said.\n\nThey were travelling to Strasbourg to be presented with the EU's Sakharov Prize - which has been awarded posthumously to Ms Amini.\n\nTheir lawyer said they were banned from leaving despite having valid visas.\n\nMs Amini's death last year sparked protests unlike any the country had seen before.\n\nShe died in hospital in Tehran on 16 September 2022, three days after she was detained by morality police in the capital for allegedly violating Iran's strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf.\n\nWitnesses said the 22-year-old Kurd was beaten while in custody, but authorities denied she was mistreated and instead blamed \"sudden heart failure\" for her death.\n\nIn October, the European Union announced it was posthumously awarding its top rights prize to Ms Amini and the global \"Woman, Life, Freedom\" movement that her death triggered.\n\nSpeaking to the AFP news agency, the family's lawyer, Chirinne Ardakani, said Ms Amini's mother, father and brother had been \"prohibited from boarding the flight that was to take them to France for the presentation of the Sakharov Prize\".\n\nShe said the Iranian authorities \"have never been so mobilised to prevent the families of the victims from speaking to the international community\".\n\nThe president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, called on Iran to \"retract the decision\" to ban the family from travelling.\n\n\"Their place next Tuesday is at the European Parliament in Strasbourg to receive the Sakharov Prize, with the brave women of Iran,\" she said on social media. \"The truth cannot be silenced.\"\n\nIn September, on the anniversary of his daughter's death, Ms Amini's father Amjad was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and warned against marking the anniversary of his daughter's death, according to human rights groups.\n\nThousands of people around the world did mark the anniversary, taking to the streets in mass protests. Mr Amini was later released.", "Lianne Gordon has been described as loved by the community\n\nA 16-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of a woman who was shot in Hackney, east London.\n\nLianne Gordon, 42, died at the scene of the attack outside a home in Lower Clapton on Tuesday evening.\n\nThe 16-year-old was arrested in the early hours of Friday and charged on Saturday.\n\nHe was also charged with the attempted murder of a 20-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy.\n\nThe Met Police brought a further charge of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and with possession with intent to supply Class A drugs.\n\nHe is due to appear at Barkingside Magistrates' Court on 11 December.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Yael Noy (left) drives sick Palestinians, mostly children, across checkpoints to hospital appointments in Israel\n\nYael Noy doesn't wear military fatigues, but she describes herself as being in battle right now, after the Hamas assault on 7 October.\n\n\"I'm fighting to be good,\" she tells me. \"I'm fighting to stay moral when both sides are in such terrible pain. I'm fighting to be the same person I was before.\"\n\nYael heads a charity called Road to Recovery, a group of Israeli volunteers who drive sick Palestinians - mostly children - from checkpoints in the occupied West Bank and Gaza to hospital appointments in Israel.\n\nThe 1,000 or so volunteers can no longer take patients from Gaza, which is governed by Hamas. And four of them are dead - murdered as Palestinian gunmen stormed through their kibbutzim in southern Israel.\n\nThey include Vivian Silver, a renowned peace activist; Adi Dagan, who Yael describes as \"funny\" and always ready to step in and ferry patients at short notice in his big car; Tammy Suchman, a much-loved grandmother; and Eli Or-Gad, who loved talking about poetry.\n\nFour other volunteers lost close family members on 7 October.\n\nAbout 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel. Since then, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 17,177 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive which followed.\n\nYael lives in northern Israel, but her parents are from kibbutz Alumim, one of the southern communities which was attacked - and they cowered as the assault unfolded, hour after terrifying hour.\n\nTwo of her nephews have been fighting in Gaza, in Israel's military response.\n\nYael Noy's parents were in one of the kibbutzim attacked by Hamas on October 7 and are now displaced\n\nIn the immediate aftermath of 7 October, Yael says she was so shaken that she could barely breathe.\n\n\"Something was broken in my heart and I said that I would never talk to people in Gaza again,\" she tells me.\n\nBut after a few days, she decided that she couldn't allow the atrocities to change her.\n\nShe and most of the Road to Recovery volunteers have continued to drive Palestinians from the West Bank to hospitals in Israel for cancer treatment, organ transplants and kidney dialysis. As soon as she can, she says she'll go and collect patients from Gaza again.\n\nOur neighbours need help, so we need to help them.\n\nYael refuses to dehumanise them, or equate them with Hamas, which is classed as a terrorist organisation in the UK and other countries.\n\n\"Like us they are victims of Hamas, so I think we should keep on helping them, because it's not their fault,\" she tells me over the phone.\n\n\"We can't refuse to help a child with cancer. Our neighbours need help, so we need to help them.\"\n\nShe worries for the families she knows in Gaza, with winter approaching and so many bombed houses now uninhabitable.\n\nThe parent of a 6-year-old child, who'd had an organ transplant, texted one of the Road to Recovery volunteers saying simply: \"We are okay. We are going to die here.\"\n\nAfter one week of truce, bombing over Gaza resumed on Friday\n\nYael is also desperately concerned for two Road to Recovery volunteers, Oded Lifschitz and Chaim Peri, who are still being held hostage by Hamas.\n\nEmotionally, she feels like she's being torn apart. She has uncles and cousins who are adamantly opposed to what she's doing and accuse her of helping Hamas.\n\nAnd it's not just family members who disapprove.\n\n\"When I'm driving with Palestinians through checkpoints in the West Bank, soldiers have asked me how I can do what I'm doing,\" she tells me. \"Other people ask the same question.\"\n\n\"It's dangerous now to even talk about the suffering of the kids in Gaza - people look at me like I'm the enemy,\" she says, through sobs. \"But I'm not doing it for the Palestinians, I'm doing it because I want to be proud to be Israeli. I believe that whether you're an Israeli or a Palestinian, a Jew or an Arab, people are people.\"\n\nSome Palestinian families have reached out to find out how she is. But it's harder than ever now for those few people swimming against the tide by trying to bridge the divide between Israelis and Palestinians.\n\n\"Even people on the left say that we should flatten Gaza. Both sides have become more and more radicalised,\" Yael says.\n\n\"I really don't know what will happen in the future. But I know that both of us will still live here, so we must find a solution.\"\n\nSince 7 October, some Road to Recovery volunteers have dropped out of driving altogether or decided to focus on taking medicines to displaced Israelis instead, while the war lasts.\n\nBut other volunteers have stepped in, to make sure that sick Palestinians from the West Bank still get to appointments that are saving their lives.\n\nYael says the charity will need support from the outside world to keep going because donations from within Israel have virtually stopped.\n\nBut she is sure that, when it becomes possible, Road to Recovery will be collecting child patients from Gaza again - hoping that they will all have survived.\n\n\"It may be hard. But we can't stop,\" she says. \"It's my mission and I have to do it.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nStrong winds and heavy rain have caused disruption around the UK as two storms track across the country.\n\nMet Office yellow weather warnings are in place through much of the country, with one warning in north west England in place until 3:00 GMT on Sunday.\n\nThe conditions have already impacted some train lines, with warnings of further disruptions to be expected.\n\nFour League Two football matches were also postponed due to waterlogged pitches.\n\nThe wet and windy conditions are being caused by two storms tracking one after the other across the Atlantic Ocean and over the UK.\n\nStorm Elin had drenched and battered much of the country by Saturday afternoon, while Storm Fergus was expected to have a similar impact on Sunday.\n\nMet Office spokesman Stephen Dixon said the band of heavy wind and rain will move from the south-west of the UK towards the north-east on Saturday, \"bringing with it heavy rain for much of the country\".\n\n\"We will also be seeing some quite strong winds in Wales, the Midlands, northern England and Northern Ireland, particularly coastal communities around the Irish Sea,\" he said.\n\nOn what was causing the stormy weather, BBC weather's Tomasz Schafernaker said: \"The weather can become turbulent due to a strong jet stream spawning multiple areas of low pressure.\n\n\"It's not uncommon for these lows to intensify into storms, impacting Ireland and the UK in rapid succession.\n\n\"On this occasion, Ireland's Met Eireann named both storms Elin and Fergus, anticipating the most significant impact to be felt in Ireland from these two storms.\"\n\nSince 2015, the UK and Irish weather services have named storms - most years,drawing on a shortlist of submitted favourites- with the aim of making it easier for the public to engage with the more extreme weather. The Dutch service also became part of the naming group in 2019.\n\nThe Met Weather Office issued a yellow warning for rain for an area stretching from Carlisle to Sheffield until 3:00 GMT on Sunday.\n\nThe yellow warning indicates potential flooding, service disruptions and power failures.\n\nRail lines are blocked between Liskeard and Looe due to \"heavy flooding\"\n\nThis majestic picture of a rainbow was taken in the town of Nairn, in the Scottish Highlands\n\nThe wet and windy conditions swept on the Suffolk coastline\n\nThere are also flood alerts in place, which stretch as far north as Scotland and as south as Cornwall.\n\nIn Cornwall, rail lines are blocked between Liskeard and Looe due to \"heavy flooding\", Great Western Railway (GWR) said. The operator urged passengers to use Go Cornwall buses instead.\n\nThe Environment Agency has issued a reminder that people should not to enter flood waters as it can contain hidden dangers including sharp objects, sewage, uncovered manholes and chemicals.", "A 31-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the murder of Odhrán Kelly in County Armagh.\n\nGary Damien Scullion, from Edward Street in Lurgan, appeared at Craigavon Magistrates' Court on Friday.\n\nWhen asked if he understood the charge, he replied \"yeah\".\n\nThe body of the 23-year-old was found beside a burning car in Maple Court, close to Edward Street, in the early hours of Sunday.\n\nThere was no application for bail and the defendant was remanded in custody until January.\n\nRelatives of Odhrán Kelly wept in court as the case was being heard.\n\nOn Thursday, two women appeared in court charged with assisting an offender by helping with \"the disposal of the body of Odhrán Kelly\".\n\nAndrea Catherine Theresa Stevenson, 43, from Edward Street in Lurgan and 36-year-old Stephanie McClelland, from Shan Slieve in the town were remanded in custody and are due to appear in court again later this month.\n\nIn Lurgan, Odhrán Kelly is being remembered as a cherished member of his family and as a valued member of the community.\n\nHe worked at Craigavon Area Hospital where friends say he was a funny and caring colleague.", "Stephen Fry says he needed constant physiotherapy after breaking his leg, pelvis and a \"bunch of ribs\"\n\nStephen Fry has said he finally feels comfortable returning to work - three months after having a nasty 6ft (1.8m) fall from a stage at London's O2 Arena.\n\nThe actor and broadcaster spoke about his recovery for the first time during an interview with Claudia Winkleman on her BBC Radio 2 show on Saturday.\n\nHe was left needing constant physiotherapy after breaking his leg, pelvis and a \"bunch of ribs\".\n\nBut he will soon be back on screens, hosting a UK version of Jeopardy!\n\nFry said he \"praised my lucky stars\" he did not injure his spine or skull after falling 6ft onto concrete while trying to exit the stage following a lecture about AI at the O2 Arena, in Greenwich, south-east London, in September.\n\n\"I did my bow after delivering this lecture, turned to go off stage and didn't realise that I was walking off the part of the stage where there was nothing - just a six-foot drop on to concrete,\" he said.\n\n\"So I broke my right leg in a couple of places and my hip and pelvis in four places and a bunch of ribs.\"\n\nSpeaking to Winkleman about his new ITV television show Jeopardy! - which is already a popular quiz show in the US - he said it had been \"an exciting week\" as he flew to Zurich for an event and did not need to use his walking stick for the first time since his fall.\n\nThe 66-year-old added he was now fine, as \"like Lazarus I cast aside my crutches\" and will return to work.\n\nWinkleman said she had no idea his accident had happened, but Fry quickly responded that \"I didn't want to make a fuss about it\".\n\nWhen asked what the secret was behind his recovery, he said \"constant physiotherapy\", although he was reluctant to take Oxycontin on his first night at hospital, as it is known for being a highly addictive opioid drug.\n\nHe has spoken openly in the past about his previous battles with drug addiction and, in his memoir More Fool Me, admitted to taking cocaine in Buckingham Palace, both Houses of Parliament and BBC TV Centre.\n\nHowever, he changed his mind about taking the opioid when a surgeon told him the pills \"are not there for your comfort, they are there for your recovery and to save the NHS money\".\n\nFry, who shot to fame in the 1980s as one half of the Fry and Laurie double act, also said he felt \"self-conscious\" about walking without a cane for the first time near his home in central London.\n\n\"The pavements are absolutely packed and people will stop to take a picture of the Christmas lights and you get worried about bumping into people. but it has been fine so far, but I feel self-conscious without the stick,\" he said.\n\nFinally, he added that although it was a \"tired cliché\", he wanted to thank that staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich as \"it is not a famous hospital but they are doing extraordinary work and were very kind.\"\n\nRecalling how he got the job as host of ITV's new Jeopardy! series, which begins on New Year's Day, Fry said he just happened to bring up the show during a dinner with his American agent while he was in the US filming episodes of the Apple TV series The Morning Show.\n\n\"He asked me what I was getting up to every day and I said: 'Well, my husband and I are not very Hollywood party animals or anything like that. We usually stay at home, one of us will cook and we'll watch Jeopardy,'\" he told Winkleman.\n\nHe added they went on to talk more about the show, with Fry telling his agent he wondered why there wasn't a UK version, as it was \"the best format I've ever encountered\".\n\n\"A couple of weeks later, he calls up and says: 'They're very excited about you hosting Jeopardy' and I said: 'Excuse me?'\" He joked, before adding he was won over when he visited the set.\n\nJeopardy! was an \"absolute institution\", Fry said, as the rules are different to other quiz shows. The show has been on US screens since the mid-1960s.\n\nRather than a traditional question and answer format, contestants will instead receive facts about a subject in the form of answers and they have to identify what the question could be.\n\nYou can listen to the full interview as part of the Claudia Winkleman show on BBC Sounds.", "Satellite images commissioned by the BBC reveal the extent of destruction across Gaza, showing that nearly 98,000 buildings may have suffered damage.\n\nThe satellite images were taken last Thursday - before the start of a seven-day suspension of hostilities, which has now ended.\n\nDrone footage and verified video also show buildings and entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble after Israeli air strikes and on-the-ground fighting.\n\nWhile northern Gaza has been the focus of the Israeli offensive and has borne the brunt of the destruction, widespread damage extends across the entire strip.\n\nIsrael says northern Gaza, which includes the major urban centre of Gaza City, was a \"centre of gravity of Hamas\", the group behind the deadly 7 October attacks on Israel. The Israeli military says its bombing campaign has successfully targeted Hamas commanders and fighters and accuses the group of embedding itself in civilian areas.\n\nSatellite data analysis suggests that almost 98,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip may have suffered damage, mostly in the north - as shown in the above map.\n\nAnalysis of the data was carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University. It is based on comparisons of two separate images, revealing changes in the height or structure of buildings which suggests damage.\n\nWe have analysed satellite imagery from several areas with extensive damage.\n\nThe cities of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the north and north-east of the Gaza Strip were among the first to be targeted by air strikes after the 7 October attacks by Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the area was a hideout for Hamas.\n\nParts of Beit Lahia, which overlooked olive groves and sand dunes stretching towards the border with Israel, were flattened. The satellite image below shows an area in the north-east of Beit Lahia, where a significant block of buildings was destroyed.\n\nBulldozers appear to have cleared roads through the rubble and the Israeli military cleared land and set up defensive positions in surrounding fields.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe IDF also struck the small nearby city of Beit Hanoun, less than 1.6km (1 mile) from the border. It said 120 targets were hit in the area on the first day of air strikes.\n\nAs the images above show, a skyline of multi-storey buildings and a mosque was gradually reduced to rubble between 14 October and 22 November.\n\nAfter weeks of air strikes on Gaza, Israel moved in on the ground - tanks and bulldozers going through areas which had been heavily bombarded. The IDF worked its way southwards along the coast towards Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in the Gaza City area.\n\nAs the image below shows, a whole series of craters are visible in what was once a residential area. Some of the buildings on the beach front, which boasted Gaza's first five-star hotel, the Al-Mashtal, as well as huts and restaurants, appear to have been partially destroyed.\n\nAbout a week after the air strikes began, the IDF warned Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south of a river known as Wadi Gaza for their own safety.\n\nDespite the warning and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Gaza City, areas in the south continued to be targeted.\n\nNuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza was hit several times before the temporary pause in hostilities began. The camp was said to be home to about 85,000 people, according to the UN.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn this verified video, which emerged online, people are seen picking through the rubble of collapsed and damaged buildings.\n\nThe distinctive black chimney stacks of the Gaza Power Plant, situated just north of the camp, are visible in the background.\n\nThe BBC has approached the IDF for comment.\n\nIn Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, thousands of people are living in tents or the rubble of bombed-out buildings.\n\nAlthough the damage was not as widespread as in the north, up to 15% of buildings across the city may have been damaged, according to Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek's analysis.\n\nAs well as pushing down from the north, Israeli forces also cut across the Gaza Strip westwards, isolating Gaza City from the south.\n\nIn this image below, taken to the south of Gaza City, we can see that a previously populated residential area was cleared by the IDF with heavy machinery and a road bulldozed towards the western Mediterranean shoreline.\n\nYou can also see dozens of military vehicles, including tanks, grouped behind fortifications made from earth.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nSatellite images also show an open square of land with a Star of David carved into the earth by vehicle tracks in Gaza City, near al-Azhar University.\n\nImages online from before the war showed children playing there and suggested it was a park, but IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said the ground was used by Hamas as a parade square near a base. The area was taken over by the IDF's Golani Brigade.\n\nA Star of David - which is used as a Jewish and Israeli symbol - was made by armoured vehicles in a ceremony in memory of Israeli soldiers who had been killed since the war began, according to a post by Rear Adm Hagari on X.\n\nAdditional reporting by Thomas Spencer, Paul Brown, Jake Horton, Alex Murray and Shayan Sardarizadeh and Jemimah Herd", "The armed wing of Hamas has released a video which it says shows the bloody aftermath of a failed Israeli operation to free an Israeli hostage.\n\nIn the footage, a man says he has been held for 40 days, suggesting the video may have been recorded in mid-November.\n\nA lot of blood is seen on a tiled floor, as well as military equipment, which Hamas claims to have captured.\n\nThe video ends with gruesome images of a bloodied body that appears to be that of the same hostage seen earlier.\n\nWe are withholding the man's name - he says this and his age in the video.\n\nA script in Arabic says that Israeli soldiers \"failed to reach\" the hostage, leading to his death, and that the Israeli team \"quickly fled the place\".\n\nIt claims that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used an ambulance to reach the place where the hostage was being held.\n\nThe BBC has not verified the video and has no confirmation of the claims made by Hamas in it.\n\nAt a briefing on Friday evening, chief IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari confirmed that two Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded during operations in Gaza to free hostages.\n\nHe said \"terrorists who participated in the kidnapping and holding of hostages\" had been killed, but he said no hostages had been released.\n\nIt is not clear if he was talking about the same incident described in the Hamas video or something else.\n\nThe IDF launched its military operation in Gaza after a deadly Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.\n\nIsrael says 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage in the Hamas attack. A number of hostages were later released during a short-lived ceasefire - but not those who Hamas claims to be linked to the Israeli military.\n\nHamas says Israel has killed more than 17,177 people in its retaliatory campaign, including about 7,000 children.", "The University of Pennsylvania's president has resigned after her Congressional testimony triggered a backlash\n\nA US university president has quit after her comments about antisemitism on campus during a Congressional hearing triggered a major backlash.\n\nElizabeth Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, refused to say whether students who called for the genocide of Jews would be punished.\n\nThe university said she \"voluntarily tendered her resignation\" but will stay in post until a replacement is found.\n\nMs Magill has previously apologised for her testimony.\n\nShe made the controversial comments while appearing in front of a House of Representatives committee on 5 December alongside the presidents of Harvard and MIT, Claudine Gay and Sally Kornbluth.\n\nThey were asked by Republican New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik: \"Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university's] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment? Yes or no?\"\n\nMs Magill and her MIT and Harvard counterparts said repeatedly it would depend on the \"context\" and have been criticised for not flatly condemning any calls for the genocide of Jews.\n\nThe Congressional hearing was held amid widespread campus protests sparked by the Israel-Gaza conflict and a rising number of antisemitism incidents.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn a video statement released after the hearing, Ms Magill apologised for her testimony, but calls for her to step down have continued in recent days.\n\nShe was criticised by the White House, and a major donor who had planned to give the university $100m (£79.3m) pulled out, saying he was \"appalled\" at Ms Magill's comments.\n\nOn Thursday, two students at the university - both of whom are Jewish - filed a lawsuit, claiming the campus has become \"an incubation lab for virulent anti-Jewish hatred, harassment and discrimination.\"\n\nMs Magill's resignation was confirmed by Scott L. Bok, chair of the Penn board of trustees. He said Ms Magill would step down as president but \"will remain a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law\".\n\nTrustees had reportedly been due to meet on Sunday to discuss Ms Magill's position.\n\nIn a statement released via the university after her resignation was confirmed, Ms Magill said: \"It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution.\n\n\"It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn's vital missions.\"\n\nThe University of Pennsylvania - commonly known as UPenn - is among the oldest and most prestigious universities in the US, and is part of the elite Ivy League group alongside institutions such as Harvard and Yale.", "Ruth Perry was the head at Caversham Primary School in Reading\n\nIt's a moment dreaded by head teachers - when the phone rings to tell you government inspectors are on the way to assess your school. For Ruth Perry that call came in November 2022. While waiting for Ofsted to publish their report and fearing losing her job, Mrs Perry killed herself.\n\nHere other head teachers talk frankly about the mental health impact Ofsted inspections have had on them. Some of their accounts are upsetting.\n\nWhen the call came, head teacher Claire had just ten minutes to get ready. Ofsted inspectors - responding to a complaint - had arrived unannounced. They were already in the school car park.\n\n\"I knew this was going to be a hard experience,\" she says. \"What I didn't realise was just how brutal it would be.\"\n\nClaire's inner city school had many challenges, she says, and the needs of the students were more complex post-Covid.\n\n\"We knew things were tough,\" she says, \"but we also believed we had the right ingredients to keep things moving in the right direction.\"\n\nClaire had more than 20 years' experience as a teacher and head teacher and she was passionate about her work, but that two-day long Ofsted visit completely changed her life.\n\nWhen the \"inadequate\" judgement came, Claire says it felt like a public humiliation, despite having the support of her colleagues.\n\n\"I wanted to run away from my life, because I couldn't handle the shame of this report,\" she says. \"The shame of this was something I'd never experienced before.\"\n\nClaire began having frequent and debilitating panic attacks and developed chronic stress rashes. With both her career and health in tatters, she decided she would have to leave her job.\n\n\"As a family, we decided that I should get out as soon as I could,\" Claire says, \"so I could concentrate on getting better.\"\n\nThe government's own figures show how hard it is to retain head teachers.\n\nIf you look at people who became head teachers in 2015 and were aged under 50, a quarter of those in primary schools had left within five years, and more than a third of those in secondary schools.\n\nEven allowing for the fact some may have been promoted within academy trusts, this raises questions about why people might leave a job they have worked so hard towards.\n\nFor most head teachers, the Ofsted call comes the day before an inspection begins.\n\nTim had been a head for six years - something he had worked towards since first coming into teaching. He knew his school was overdue an inspection, but as he waited for the call he found himself consumed by dread.\n\n\"That year broke me because of the fear,\" says Tim, who was prescribed antidepressants.\n\nAfter the inspection, Tim's school was downgraded to \"requires improvement\" and the school's governors held a closed meeting to discuss his future.\n\nDriving somewhere, he pulled over and sat alone in his car feeling \"desperate\".\n\nHis thoughts turned to killing himself. He credits a phone call to a colleague - who stayed on the line while urging Tim to drive to his GP - as having saved his life.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ruth Perry's sister reacts after inquest returns conclusion into her death\n\nWithin an hour of a mental health team being called to Tim's house, he received news announcing his school would likely become an academy.\n\nFacing losing both his job and his livelihood, Tim says nobody asked how he was, or gave him any information about how to seek help.\n\nBoth Tim and Claire told the BBC they signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) as part of the financial deal with their redundancy packages. This was explained to Claire as being a common HR procedure, and at the time, she didn't question it. Like Tim she felt she had no choice - losing her job meant a loss of income, and she needed to support her family.\n\nThese confidentiality agreements make it hard to know how many head teachers have left like this, but Tim knows several other people who have - and believes there are many more.\n\n\"I think they are extremely common,\" Tim says. \"It's a dirty little secret, it's sordid.\"\n\nLike many head teachers, Rachel dreaded the call announcing that Ofsted would be coming to inspect her school.\n\n\"Your cortisol level is through the roof for most of the week,\" she says. \"When your office phone rings you get that sick, sinking feeling until you know who it is on the other end.\"\n\nWhen Ofsted did come she says inspectors were rude, and didn't take into account the challenges her school had faced since the pandemic - something Rachel says had contributed to an \"overwhelming\" feeling for her as head teacher.\n\n\"I am not making excuses or saying that we were better than we were,\" she says. \"But we had been ambitious and tirelessly working to make improvements.\n\n\"Many mornings I seriously thought about doing something to seriously harm myself - so I had an excuse not to be in work.\"\n\nIt was the afternoon of Wednesday 14 November when the call came for Ruth Perry - whose school had previously been judged \"outstanding\". Speaking on the phone to the Ofsted inspector she told him: \"We are ready, and keen to get started.\"\n\nRuth worked late with other members of staff getting prepared, and although she was apprehensive the following morning her husband Jon said she left the house \"happy as usual\".\n\nBut the visit didn't go well, and over the coming weeks, as she waited for Ofsted to publish its report, the thought of losing both her job and standing in the community contributed to her unravelling mental health.\n\nFifty-four days after the inspection at her school, Ruth Perry took her life, on 8 January 2023.\n\nOn Thursday an inquest ruled that the Ofsted inspection had \"contributed\" to Ruth Perry's death. The inspection \"lacked fairness, respect and sensitivity\" and was at times \"rude and intimidating\", senior coroner Heidi Connor said.\n\nEducation Secretary Gillian Keegan said in a statement: \"Ofsted is fundamental to making sure children are safe and receive the education they deserve.\n\n\"Together we will look closely at the coroner's recommendations to consider further changes to make sure we have an inspection system that supports schools and teachers, and ultimately secure Ruth's legacy.\"\n\nSome teachers and heads find themselves consumed by dread when the call from Ofsted comes\n\nMany thousands of Ofsted inspections are carried out every year without incident, there are 22,000 schools in England.\n\nThe system is there to make sure that children - who get just one chance at education - don't spend years in schools that are underperforming.\n\nWhen a school like Caversham Primary - where Ruth Perry was head - is judged to be ineffective on safeguarding grounds, of whatever kind, the leadership is automatically judged as \"inadequate\". Head teachers' names appear on Ofsted's published report, which, heads say, can feel personal, and some have told us of their feelings of shame and public humiliation.\n\nOfsted has admitted it could do more to minimise the stress on head teachers, and has now promised more training.\n\nAfter the inquest it also said it would provide a phone number for schools to call if they had concerns about an inspection, and would make it clearer when an inspection can be paused.\n\nTwo key sources of stress for Ruth Perry, according to the evidence, were the long wait for the report to be published, and the strict confidentiality warning that came with the draft report.\n\nMrs Perry didn't feel she could tell those closest to her, but Ofsted has now promised it will make it clear to head teachers, \"they can share inspection outcomes with colleagues, family, medical advisers and their wider support group, before they are shared with parents\".\n\nSchool inspections have been in place for a century in England's schools, and for the last 30 years Ofsted has been in charge of them.\n\nBut over the past decade, Ofsted's budget has fallen and inspections have become much shorter - for a primary school usually just two days.\n\nThe government has argued school inspections and one word judgements are important to give parents the information they need. Heidi Connor, the coroner, said: \"Transparency and ease of message to parents is not currently weighed against teacher welfare. The benefits are focused on without taking account of the risks.\"\n\nSuicide is very rare, but Ruth Perry's death has prompted many other head teachers to open up about the mental stresses of the job and the impact of school inspection.\n\n\"What Ofsted did to me was break me during a time I was already struggling,\" says former head teacher Rachel. \"I left work that day and never went back - I deserved better and my family deserved me.\"\n\nAll names have been changed.\n\nIf you're affected by the issues in this report, you can find support from BBC Action Line.\n\nHow Ruth Perry's death put Ofsted in the spotlight.\n\nAre you affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "EU Commissioner Thierry Breton said the agreement was \"historic\"\n\nEuropean Union officials have reached a provisional deal on the world's first comprehensive laws to regulate the use of artificial intelligence.\n\nAfter 36 hours of talks, negotiators agreed rules around AI in systems like ChatGPT and facial recognition.\n\nThe European Parliament will vote on the AI Act proposals early next year, but any legislation will not take effect until at least 2025.\n\nThe US, UK and China are all rushing to publish their own guidelines.\n\nThe proposals include safeguards on the use of AI within the EU as well as limitations on its adoption by law enforcement agencies.\n\nConsumers would have the right to launch complaints and fines could be imposed for violations.\n\nEU Commissioner Thierry Breton described the plans as \"historic\", saying it set \"clear rules for the use of AI\".\n\nHe added it was \"much more than a rulebook - it's a launch pad for EU start-ups and researchers to lead the global AI race\".\n\nEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the AI Act would help the development of technology that does not threaten people's safety and rights.\n\nIn a social media post, she said it was a \"unique legal framework for the development of AI you can trust\".\n\nThe European Parliament defines AI as software that can \"for a given set of human-defined objectives, generate outputs such as content, predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing the environments they interact with\".\n\nChatGPT and DALL-E are examples of what is called \"generative\" AI. These programs learn from vast quantities of data, such as online text and images, to generate new content which feels like it has been made by a human.\n\nSo-called \"chatbots\" - like ChatGPT - can have text conversations. Other AI programs like DALL-E can create images from simple text instructions.", "Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis have posted Christmas cards to children who may struggle this festive season, as they attended their mother's annual carol concert.\n\nIts theme this year was \"children and families\" - reflecting the Princess of Wales's early years campaign work.\n\nHer three children were photographed putting cards into a special post box outside Westminster Abbey.\n\nAll the cards will be distributed to children's charities after the service.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales and their children arrive with the Dean of Westminster Abbey\n\nIn January the Princess of Wales launched her Shaping Us campaign, which aims to highlight and promote the significance of the formative years of a child's life.\n\nThe carol concert, which took place on Friday, was an opportunity to \"say a heartfelt thank-you to all those supporting the very youngest members of our society during those crucial early years\", the princess said.\n\nAmong the 1,500 attendees were midwives and nursery teachers, young carers, and those who may have had a challenging year, including children and families, or those who might find the winter period difficult.\n\nThe Princess of Wales chats with a young guest inside Westminster Abbey\n\nMusical treats included carols from the Westminster Abbey choir, and a special duet by Beverley Knight and Adam Lambert.\n\nThe Prince of Wales, Micheal Ward, Emma Willis, Roman Kemp, and Jim Broadbent gave readings, and a specially commissioned poem by Joseph Coelho, the Children's Laureate, was read by Leonie Elliott.\n\nOther royals who attended included Peter Phillips, Savannah Phillips, Isla Phillips and Zara Tindall\n\nThe abbey was adorned with eco-friendly festive decorations for the occasion.\n\nThe service will be broadcast on ITV1 and ITVX on Christmas Eve at 7.45pm.", "Ukraine's first lady spoke to the BBC amid a political stand-off in the US which has seen support held up\n\nOlena Zelenska has warned that Ukrainians are in \"mortal danger\" of being left to die if Western countries don't continue their financial support.\n\nUkraine's first lady spoke to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg a day after Republican senators in the US blocked a key aid bill.\n\nIt would have provided more than $60bn (£47.8bn) worth of support to Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking hours after a Russian missile attack, she said: \"If the world gets tired, they will simply let us die.\"\n\nThe White House has warned that US funds for Ukraine could soon run out, but Republicans have held up a deal to authorise more assistance.\n\nThey are seeking to secure compromises from President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress on funding for US border measures, in exchange for their support.\n\nPresident Biden said the failure to agree Ukraine aid would be a \"gift\" for President Vladimir Putin, warning history would \"judge harshly those who turned their back on freedom's cause\".\n\nNearly two years since Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, the first lady expressed grave concern over delays in funding.\n\nIn an exclusive interview to be broadcast on Sunday, Olena Zelenska told the BBC the slowdown in aid represented a \"mortal danger\" for her country.\n\nShe said: \"We really need the help. In simple words, we cannot get tired of this situation, because if we do, we die.\n\n\"And if the world gets tired, they will simply let us die.\"\n\nThe first lady continued: \"It hurts us greatly to see the signs that the passionate willingness to help may fade.\n\n\"It is a matter of life for us. Therefore, it hurts to see that.\"\n\nThe UK has also been urging politicians in Washington DC to agree a deal for Ukraine.\n\nUK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said on a visit to Washington this week that the US was the \"lynchpin\" of the Western coalition backing Ukraine's fight against Russia.\n\nHe urged the US not to give Mr Putin a \"Christmas present\" by blocking the billions of dollars of financial support required to continue the war against Russian forces.\n\nThere is little doubt that the international community's attitude towards Ukraine has shifted.\n\nFull-throated support in Washington DC cannot be guaranteed - and yet the fundamentals of the conflict have not budged.\n\nA country on Europe's eastern flank is still fighting to repel Russian forces after the Kremlin launched an illegal invasion.\n\nUkraine surprised the world when its armed forces prevented the country being overrun in February 2022.\n\nMany Western countries surprised them in return with the enthusiasm of their support.\n\nHowever, Ukraine cannot keep going in the same vein without the wealth and backing of other countries.\n\nThe first lady's warnings seem designed to make that crystal clear.\n\nSee the full interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg at 9am on 10 December on BBC One.", "Tory MPs are coming under pressure from ministers to back the PM's Rwanda plan.\n\nRishi Sunak hopes sending migrants to the African nation for processing and potential resettlement will deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats.\n\nHe has introduced emergency legislation aimed at overcoming legal issues which have so far delayed the scheme.\n\nHowever, MPs from across his party have concerns about the approach and will be examining the bill over the weekend.\n\nLast month, Supreme Court judges blocked the government's original plan, declaring that Rwanda was not a safe country and that the asylum system was flawed.\n\nThe government has now introduced the Safety of Rwanda Bill which requires judges to treat Rwanda as safe. It also gives ministers powers to disregard parts of the Human Rights Act, and prevents judges from taking into account other international laws.\n\nGovernment ministers have been putting in calls to persuade MPs to vote for the bill on Tuesday, when it gets its second reading in the House of Commons.\n\nThis stage of the process is usually reserved for debating the general points of the proposed law.\n\nMPs with concerns are likely to wait until later stages before trying to make changes to the draft legislation.\n\nBut Mr Sunak is keen to avoid a defeat at the hands of Tory rebels and the Labour Party on a key part of his flagship \"stop the boats\" policy.\n\nConcerned Tory MPs are being offered meetings with government ministers.\n\nThose who have human rights concerns are being told not all of the Human Rights Act is being disapplied by the proposed law and that asylum seekers facing serious irreversible harm could still challenge a decision to be deported, based on their individual cases.\n\nHowever, MPs on the right of the party are being reassured that such legal challenges would be unlikely to succeed.\n\nBoth former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick have said Mr Sunak's plan will not work.\n\nMr Jenrick resigned his ministerial job shortly after the Safety of Rwanda Bill was published arguing that it did not go far enough.\n\nIn an article in Saturday's Daily Telegraph, Mr Jenrick says he does not believe the Rwanda law will work, and calls for the UK to \"extricate\" itself from \"complex international frameworks\" and \"outdated treaties\".\n\nThe bill in its current form would still allow migrants to challenge their removal to Rwanda, and would not exclude individual appeals from the European Court of Human Rights, he says.\n\n\"The idea, therefore, that this Bill will guarantee all those arriving are detained and swiftly removed is for the birds,\" he wrote.\n\nHe also suggested the Conservatives will face the \"red-hot fury of voters\" unless they do more to tackle the number of people moving to the UK.\n\nThe European Research Group, an influential body of pro-Brexit MPs, have said they are studying the bill \"forensically\" but some are concerned the bill still allows for individuals to appeal a decision to deport them to Rwanda.\n\nOn the other side of the party, the One Nation group of MPs are taking legal advice from former Solicitor General Lord Garnier.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's PM programme the legislation was \"political nonsense and legal nonsense\".\n\n\"It's trying to define things when there is no evidence for that being the case. It's rather like a bill that has decided that all dogs are cats.\"\n\nLord Garnier sits in the House of Lords, where the bill is also likely to run into difficulties.\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday, Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta said: \"It has always been important to both Rwanda and the UK that our rule of law partnership meets the highest standards of international law.\"\n\nHe added that \"without lawful behaviour by the UK\" Rwanda would not be able to continue with the agreement.\n\nFormer Brexit Secretary David Davis told BBC Radio 4's The Week in Westminster he supported the policy, saying: \"It's expensive, but the truth is it won't be expensive if it works.\n\n\"I don't know whether it'll work... but I think we have to try it.\"\n\nHe also suggested some of criticism of the policy \"comes out of leadership manoeuvrings\".\n\nHe warned his colleagues not to put their \"leadership ambitions\" ahead of the interests of the Conservative Party or the country.\n\nThe full interview will be available to listen to at 11am on Saturday 9 December on Radio 4 and afterwards on BBC Sounds.", "As Israel presses its military offensive across Gaza, the army has been repeatedly advising some two million civilians to move to a \"humanitarian zone\" smaller than London's Heathrow Airport.\n\nAl-Mawasi is a narrow strip of land by the Mediterranean Sea. It has few buildings and largely consists of sandy dunes and agricultural land.\n\nThe zone designated as safe by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is just 8.5 sq km (3.3 sq miles).\n\nReem Abd Rabu has spent the last few weeks sleeping on the ground and sharing a tent with four other families in the area.\n\nShe is one of the 1.8 million Palestinians who have been displaced since the war began on 7 October after Hamas's attack on Israel.\n\nShe first travelled to Khan Younis after fleeing northern Gaza, but after nearby houses were bombed, she said she felt she had to go to the place the Israeli army identified on the map as safe.\n\nReem told the BBC al-Mawasi was an abandoned place, \"not a place for human beings\".\n\nShe thought it would be safe from the intense bombardment and fighting, but when she arrived, she found little to no basic services.\n\n\"Water comes one day and not for the next 10 days, even in the bathrooms. And it's the same thing for electricity,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThe IDF has urged civilians to move to al-Mawasi on at least 15 occasions on social media, the last on 2 December.\n\nAlthough the UN is distributing some supplies, civilians say there is a lack of basic necessities in the area\n\nThe first mention of the humanitarian zone was on 18 October, when the IDF's Arabic spokesperson posted on X: \"The IDF orders Gaza residents to move to the humanitarian zone in the area of al-Mawasi, to which international humanitarian aid will be directed if necessary.\"\n\nAnother post, from 21 October, stated: \"If your life and the lives of those you love are important to you, head south of Wadi Gaza. We advise you to arrive at the humanitarian area in Mawasi according to our instructions.\"\n\nLittle to no internet connectivity has made it difficult for people to find safe areas in other parts of Gaza.\n\nHowever, even the IDF instructions on al-Mawasi have changed several times. Civilians say the changing messaging has made it difficult for them to know exactly where to find safety there too.\n\nEach IDF post has been accompanied by a map pinpointing a small area within al-Mawasi that Gazans should evacuate to.\n\nBut different areas in al-Mawasi have been designated as \"humanitarian zones\" by Israel on different dates.\n\nOn 18 October, the IDF designated the humanitarian zone marked in purple below. But three days later, the IDF declared a different area - shown in blue.\n\nThen, on 30 October, the area changed again - to the one marked in green.\n\nMona al-Astal, who has also fled to al-Mawasi, says she is kept awake all night by the sound of shelling.\n\nShe is a doctor who says she was forced to leave Khan Younis after her neighbour's home was bombed.\n\nMona also describes a lack of water, electricity and supplies in the humanitarian zone. She said she had been forced to buy a tent and other supplies for $300 (£238).\n\nMona said that she had seen people breaking into a UN agency storehouse because \"they were so hungry, they have nothing to eat\".\n\nTo make matters worse, diseases including lice, chicken pox and intestinal infections have become widespread among children, she says.\n\n\"With every day that passes, the danger for us here increases,\" Mona added.\n\nMohammed Ghanem fled from an area near al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza where he said more than 25 strikes occurred next to his house.\n\nHe said he came to al-Mawasi because \"the Israeli army has been directing people here\" but said the area was \"neither humane nor safe\".\n\nHe described seeing Israeli tanks less than a kilometre away and said there had been strikes on an area just 500 metres (1,640ft) from the humanitarian zone.\n\nThe BBC has identified at least one area of damage approximately 500m away from the designated area of al-Mawasi since the IDF began directing people there.\n\nThe BBC has contacted Israeli forces, but has not received a response.\n\nThe IDF does claim that on 6 December Hamas \"launched a rocket from a humanitarian zone toward Israel\", and released a map with al-Mawasi marked.\n\nThe BBC has not been able to independently verify this.\n\nInternational agencies have been voicing concerns about the viability of humanitarian zones in Gaza when fighting and air strikes extend across so much of the territory.\n\nIn mid-November the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the plan for al-Mawasi was \"a recipe for disaster\".\n\nWHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: \"Attempting to cram so many people into such a small area with such little infrastructure or services will significantly increase risks to health for people who are already on the brink.\"\n\nThe United Nations also has wider concerns about the plan.\n\n\"The situation in Gaza is catastrophic; no one and no place is safe,\" Andrea de Domenico, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) told the BBC.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA teenager in Michigan who killed four students with a semi-automatic handgun has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole.\n\nEthan Crumbley, 17, pleaded guilty to terrorism and murder charges last year.\n\nHe was 15 when he opened fire at Oxford High School, around 30 miles (48km) north of Detroit, in November 2021.\n\nHis parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are awaiting trial on four counts of involuntary manslaughter.\n\nProsecutors have argued Mr and Mrs Crumbley ignored their son's depression and fascination with guns.\n\nThe teenager killed four and injured seven in the worst school shooting in Michigan's history, which devastated Oxford - a small suburban town of 22,000 people.\n\nThough the defense asked for the option of parole, the judge said he was applying the maximum sentence, in part, as a deterrent to any other young person plotting a similar gun attack.\n\n\"He did this for notoriety,\" said Judge Kwamé Rowe, calling the attack \"a true act of terrorism\".\n\nFriday's sentencing followed nearly five hours of emotional testimony from survivors and the loved ones of the four young victims, Hana St Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; and Justin Shilling, 17.\n\nWhile the victims' friends and family sought the harshest sentence during the hearing, the defendant wore an orange prison jumpsuit and sat with his head bowed and eyes fixed on his hands.\n\n\"We are suffocating together in disbelief,\" said Madisyn's mother, Nicole Beausoleil. \"No-one will forgive you.\"\n\nReina St Juliana, the sister of Hana, spoke of losing the family's \"bright light\".\n\n\"Loving Hana shouldn't be this painful and life isn't supposed to be this paralysing,\" Reina said. \"I don't want to wake up in the morning because Hana is not here.\"\n\nOther students and educators at the school that day also took the stand on Friday to share gut-wrenching details from the shooting. Some at the sentencing hearing openly wept and buried their faces in their hands due to the nature of the testimony.\n\nHana St Juliana, Tate Myre, Madisyn Baldwin and Justin Shilling were all killed in the 2021 shooting\n\nMolly Darnell, a teacher at Oxford High School, described the enduring trauma she has faced after she was injured in the attack.\n\n\"You may not be glancing my way today, but I know you can hear me,\" she said, speaking to the young shooter. \"You intended to leave my husband a widower and my children motherless. There is no forgiveness for you.\"\n\nKylie Ossege, a student who was shot in the attack, remained in hospital for months after watching Hana St Juliana take her last breaths at the school. She said paramedics found her lying in a pool of blood.\n\n\"I am still disabled and in extreme pain every day,\" Ms Ossege said. \"It has been 738 days of reliving the tragedy in my head every single hour.\"\n\nThe shooter's parents face their own trials in 2024. It marks the first time parents in the US face involuntary manslaughter charges - punishable by up to 15 years in prison - over their child's role in a mass shooting, experts told the BBC.\n\nProsecutors argue the parents are criminally responsible because they bought their son the weapon he used in the attack and ignored his mounting mental health troubles. The defendant's lawyers have also argued he was neglected by his parents and suffered from mental illness.\n\nThe parents later attempted to flee after being charged with manslaughter.\n\nKaren McDonald, the Michigan prosecutor who filed charges against the parents, told the New York Times in 2021 the decision to prosecute represented \"a brand-new way of approaching school shootings\".\n\nMany have also laid blame on the Oxford Community Schools district. On the day of the shooting, school officials found the teenager with disturbing drawings. But they failed to check Crumbley's backpack, where he stored the gun, and sent him back to class.\n\nOxford Community Schools did not respond to a request for comment from the BBC.\n\nBefore being sentenced the attacker addressed the court to say that he was solely responsible for the killings.\n\nHis parents and school officials, he said, \"did not know and I did not tell them\" of the attack plan, \"so they are not at fault for what I've done\".", "A portrait of murdered teacher Samuel Paty at the school where he taught\n\nSix teenagers have been convicted in France for their roles in the 2020 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty.\n\nMr Paty was killed outside his school in Paris after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a class on freedom of expression.\n\nA teenage girl was found to have lied about what happened in class, while five others were guilty of identifying Mr Paty to his attacker.\n\nThe sentences from 14 months to two years are all suspended or commuted.\n\nMr Paty's name was disclosed on social media after caricatures published by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were shown during a class he taught.\n\nThe teenage girl told her parents that Mr Paty had asked Muslim pupils to leave the room before showing the caricatures.\n\nBut she had in fact been absent from the class in question. The court found her guilty of having made false accusation charges and slanderous comments.\n\nFive defendants, aged 14 and 15 at the time, were found guilty of staking out the teacher.\n\nThey were convicted of involvement in a group preparing aggravated violence.\n\nMr Paty's killer, Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Chechen refugee, was shot dead by police at the scene of the murder.\n\nA second trial will open next year for eight adults also accused of complicity in the murder. These include Brahim Chnina, the father of the 13-year-old girl on trial.\n\nDepictions of the Prophet Muhammad are widely regarded as taboo in Islam, and are considered highly offensive by Muslims.\n\nThe issue is particularly sensitive in France because of Charlie Hebdo's decision to publish cartoons of the Prophet.\n\nTwelve people were killed by Islamist extremists at the magazine's offices in 2015 after the images were published.\n• None Six French teenagers on trial over teacher's murder", "Caught in a culture war, South Africa's hottest music sensation Tyla is in the crossfire of an online debate over the word she uses to describe her racial identity - \"coloured\".\n\nBefore her rise to fame, the 21-year-old made a video proudly talking about her mixed-raced heritage on TikTok.\n\nIn it she slicks her coily hair into Bantu knots, while donning a traditional beaded necklace, with the words, \"I am a coloured South African\" splashed across the clip like a badge of honour.\n\nThe star says this means that she \"comes from a lot of different cultures\".\n\nIt is a simple video intended to share a part of herself with her audience. But instead, her racial identity has stoked flames across the internet, most notably, in the US.\n\nAmericans see the word as a slur, unlike Tyla's South African community, who see it as a part of their culture. In South Africa, it is a distinct identity that is officially recognised.\n\nOne US user on X, formerly known as Twitter, said: \"We are not gonna call her coloured here and if she personally demands it, her career will end before it begins.\n\n\"She's trying to cross over into an American market, she won't be able to use that word here, she can use it somewhere else though.\"\n\nIn the US, the word harks back to the Jim Crow era, when segregationist laws were instituted in the southern states to oppress black Americans after slavery was banned.\n\nWater fountains, toilets and bus seats were marked \"whites only\" or \"colored only\".\n\nThis painful history of racial segregation mirrors that in South Africa before white-minority rule ended in 1994.\n\nThe Population Registration Act of 1950 required people to be registered into one of four racial categories - white, black, Indian or coloured. Another law designated residential areas according to race.\n\nMichael Morris, head of media at the South African Institute of Race Relations, says the history of the coloured community is complex, but \"quintessentially South African\".\n\nThe community has disparate origins but was brought together under apartheid rules.\n\n\"Being a mixture of black, white, Asian, it was forged in the southern African geography in a way that no other can claim,\" Mr Morris told the BBC.\n\nBut because of this mixed heritage, the community was sometimes derided and dismissed in a system obsessed by categorisation.\n\nMarike de Klerk, the late wife of apartheid South Africa's last president, once said of the coloured community in relation to the regime's segregation laws: \"They are the people that were left after the nations were sorted out. They are the rest.\"\n\nOut of this complicated history people like Tyla who identify as coloured have woven a rich cultural tapestry.\n\nAccording to South Africa's latest census coloured people make up 8.2% of the population.\n\nTessa Dooms (L) and Lynsey Ebony Chutel (R) have written about the eclectic culture of South Africa's coloured community\n\nLynsey Ebony Chutel and Tessa Dooms, co-authors of Coloured: How Classification Became Culture, grew up in Eldorado Park in Johannesburg, a historically coloured township.\n\nThey describe the people there as an eclectic mix of appearance, language, accents and heritage.\n\n\"I never thought of myself as mixed black or white. I thought being mixed meant being from this diverse community,\" Ms Dooms told the BBC, adding that it was also shaped by religion, music and big group dances.\n\nWhen Ms Chutel went to Columbia University in New York she found her identity, like Tyla, was the topic of conversation after she introduced herself as a coloured woman from South Africa on her first day.\n\nIt did not go down well with her classmates; her roommate pulled her aside and said she had made the American students feel uncomfortable.\n\nShe was forced to defend her own identity, background and culture while trying to assuage the discomfort of others.\n\n\"I understand that it is a slur, but that's not the only story here,\" she says with a deep sigh.\n\nShe warns that it is dangerous for Americans to try to be the arbiter when it comes to blackness, because there is no single way of being black, nor is there a single way of being coloured.\n\nSouth Africa radio host Carissa Cupido, who grew up in the predominantly coloured area of Mitchell Plains in Cape Town, says that despite the fact that the classification was imposed on her, she has \"embraced, accepted and celebrated\" being coloured.\n\nMs Cupido interviewed Tyla two years ago, and says her accent, natural hair and energy are \"tangibly coloured\".\n\nSeeing Tyla's meteoric rise to fame has given her goose bumps, she adds.\n\nI am excited for the next generation of coloured girls to see Tyla and draw inspiration and hope from her representation\"\n\nThe star is further popularising the amapiano sound, itself a South African blend of styles: jazz, hip-hop, soul and slowed-down house music.\n\nTyla's hit Water became the first solo song by a South African musician to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 chart since Hugh Masekela's Grazing in the Grass in 1968.\n\n\"Often when I talk about her on-air... I have to hold back tears,\" Ms Cupido told the BBC.\n\nThe emotion stems from searching for, but never finding, coloured representation in magazines as she grew up.\n\nNow in her early 30s, it has come in the form of Tyla.\n\n\"I am excited for the next generation of coloured girls to see Tyla and draw inspiration and hope from her representation,\" she says.\n\nThere have been other coloured South African musicians who have found international fame, like rapper AKA, who was murdered earlier this year - but none have reached Tyla's heights.\n\nTyla is nominated for a Grammy at next years award show\n\nMs Cupido's voice booms with joy when discussing Tyla's success, but her tone shifts to annoyance at the scrutiny around the star's identity.\n\n\"I find it so disrespectful. Do not undermine someone's way of life, just because you do not understand it,\" she says.\n\nPeople who disregard Tyla's heritage, she says, are also \"erasing and dismissing my existence and my family's existence, and the way we understand, perceive and navigate the world\".\n\nMs Dooms agrees and says that even before the Tyla controversy, defending her community had been a constant: \"We are fighting for the legitimacy of what we have built. What we have created, the culture we have made.\"\n\nTo those in America targeting Tyla, she says: \"To have the audacity to question somebody's self-identification and replace it with your own - that's ridiculous. You are not progressive.\"\n\nWith a new album coming out early next year and a Grammy nomination, Tyla is likely to be dominating headlines and prompting further debate over her identity for some time yet.\n\nFor Mr Morris, there is no room for criticism: \"[It is] simply up to Tyla to say who she is, and what she wishes to be called.\n\n\"It is nobody else's business.\"", "Dr Darla Zelenitsky and Dr Francois Therrien with the full tyrannosaur fossil\n\nThe last meal of a 75-million-year-old tyrannosaur has been revealed by scientists - two baby dinosaurs.\n\nResearchers say the preservation of the animal - and of the small, unfortunate creatures it ate - shines new light on how these predators lived.\n\nIt is \"solid evidence that tyrannosaurs drastically changed their diet as they grew up,\" said Dr Darla Zelenitsky, from the University of Calgary.\n\nThe specimen is a juvenile gorgosaurus - a close cousin of the giant T. rex.\n\nThis particular gorgosaur was about seven years old - equivalent to a teenager in terms of its development. It weighed about 330kg when it died - about a tenth of the weight of a fully-grown adult.\n\nThe hind limbs of two, small bird-like dinosaurs called citipes are visible beneath its ribcage.\n\n\"We now know that these teenage [tyrannosaurs] hunted small, young dinosaurs,\" said Dr Zelenitsky, one of the lead scientists in this study, which is published in the journal Science Advances.\n\nThe juvenile gorgosaur would have chased small therapods and 'dissected' them with its blade-like teeth\n\nAn array of earlier fossil evidence, including evident bite marks on the bones of larger dinosaurs that match tyrannosaur teeth, have allowed scientists to build a picture of how the three-tonne adult gorgosaurs attacked and ate very large plant-eating dinosaurs which lived in herds.\n\nDr Francois Therrien, from the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology, described these adult tyrannosaurs as \"quite indiscriminate eaters\". They probably pounced on large prey, \"biting through bone and scraping off flesh,\" he told BBC News.\n\nBut, Dr Zelenitsky, added, \"these smaller, immature tyrannosaurs were probably not ready to jump into a group of horned dinosaurs, where the adults weighed thousands of kilograms\".\n\nThe fossil was originally discovered in the Alberta Badlands in 2009 - a hotspot for dinosaur hunters.\n\nEntombed in rock, it took years to prepare and it wasn't immediately obvious that there was prey inside. Staff at Alberta's Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology eventually noticed small toe-bones sticking out from the ribcage.\n\n\"The rock within the ribcage was removed to expose what was hidden inside,\" explained Dr Therrien, who is the other lead scientist in this study. \"And lo and behold - the complete hind legs of two baby dinosaurs, both under a year old.\"\n\nDr Zelenitsky said that finding only the legs suggested that this teenage gorgosaurus \"seems to have wanted the drumsticks - probably because that's the meatiest part\".\n\nAdult gorgosaurs grew to ten times the size of this 300kg juvenile\n\nThe gorgosaurus is a slightly smaller, more ancient species than T. rex. Fully grown, these were - as Dr Therrien put it - \"big, burly tyrannosaurs\".\n\nThey transformed as they matured. \"Juveniles were much more lightly built - with longer legs and very blade-like teeth,\" he explained. \"Adults' teeth are all much rounder - we call them 'killer bananas'.\n\n\"This specimen is unique - it's physical proof of the juveniles' very different feeding strategy.\n\nWhile the adults bit and scraped with their powerful \"killer banana\" teeth, \"this animal was selecting and even dissecting its prey - biting off the legs and swallowing them whole\".\n\nProf Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist from the University of Edinburgh and the National Museum of Scotland, said that seeing prey in the dinosaur's guts gave a real insight into the animals: \"They weren't just monsters, they were real, living things and pretty sophisticated feeders.\"\n\nRecalling a depiction of T. rex in the 1993 film Jurassic Park - where the giant dinosaur chased a car through the fictional theme park - Prof Brusatte added: \"A big, adult T. rex wouldn't have chased after a car - if cars or jeeps were around back then - its body was too big, and it couldn't move that fast.\n\n\"It would be the youngsters - [like this gorgosaur] - the children of T. rex that you'd have to keep an eye on.\"", "A senior UN aid official has warned that half of Gaza's population is starving, as fighting there continues.\n\nCarl Skau, deputy director of the UN World Food Programme, said only a fraction of supplies needed have been able to enter the Strip - and nine out of 10 people cannot eat every day.\n\nConditions in Gaza have made deliveries \"almost impossible\", Mr Skau said.\n\nIsrael says it must continue air strikes on Gaza to eliminate Hamas and bring Israeli hostages home.\n\nIsrael Defence Forces spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht told the BBC on Saturday that \"any death and pain to a civilian is painful, but we don't have an alternative\".\n\n\"We are doing everything we can to get as much as possible inside the Gaza Strip,\" he said.\n\nHerzi Halevi, chief of staff of the IDF, was filmed telling soldiers the army has to \"press harder\" because \"we're seeing terrorists surrendering... a sign their network is collapsing\".\n\nMeanwhile, the Biden administration has used an emergency law to bypass Congress and authorise the sale of some 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106m (£85m) to Israel.\n\nMovement in and out of Gaza has been heavily restricted since 7 October, when Hamas fighters broke through Israel's heavily-guarded perimeter fence - killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages.\n\nIn response, Israel closed its borders with Gaza and began launching air strikes on the territory, restricting aid deliveries which Gazans heavily relied on.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry says Israel has killed more than 17,700 Gazans in its retaliatory campaign, including more than 7,000 children.\n\nOnly the Rafah crossing bordering Egypt has been open, allowing limited quantities of aid to reach Gaza. This week Israel agreed to open the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza in the next few days - but only for the inspection of aid lorries. The trucks would then go to Rafah to cross into Gaza.\n\nMr Skau said nothing had prepared him for the \"fear, the chaos, and the despair\" he and his WFP team encountered during their trip to Gaza this week.\n\nThey witnessed \"confusion at warehouses, distribution points with thousands of desperate hungry people, supermarkets with bare shelves, and overcrowded shelters with bursting bathrooms,\" he said.\n\nInternational pressure and a temporary seven-day ceasefire last month had allowed some badly-needed aid to enter the Gaza Strip, but the WFP insists a second border crossing is now needed to meet demand.\n\nNine out of 10 families in some areas are spending \"a full day and night without any food at all\", according to Mr Skau.\n\nPeople in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, a city now surrounded on two fronts by Israeli tanks, say the situation there is dire.\n\nDr Ahmed Moghrabi, head of the plastic surgery and burns unit in the city's only remaining health facility, Nasser hospital, fought back tears as he spoke to the BBC about the lack of food.\n\n\"I have a daughter, three years old, always she ask me (for) some sweets, some apple, some fruits. I can't provide. I feel helpless,\" he said.\n\n\"There is not enough food, there is not enough food, only rice, only rice can you believe? We eat once, once a day, only.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dr Ahmed Moghrabi told the BBC there's a scarcity of food, water, medicine and he cannot operate on patients\n\nKhan Younis has been the focus of heavy air strikes in recent days and the boss of Nasser hospital there said his team had \"lost control\" over the numbers of dead and wounded arriving at the facility.\n\nIsrael says Hamas leaders are hiding in Khan Younis, possibly in an underground network of tunnels, and that it is fighting house to house and \"shaft to shaft\" to destroy the group's military capabilities.\n\nSpeaking on Saturday, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, accused the United States of being complicit in war crimes, after it vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.\n\nOut of 15 of the Security Council members, 13 countries voted in favour of the resolution calling for a ceasefire. The UK abstained from the vote and the US was the only country to vote against the resolution.\n\nMr Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, said he held Washington responsible for \"the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women, and elderly in Gaza at the hands of [Israeli] occupation forces\".\n\nThe US ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, defended the veto, and said the resolution was calling for an \"unsustainable ceasefire\" which \"would leave Hamas in place able to repeat what it did on October 7\".\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Saturday he appreciated the \"correct stance\" the US had taken at the security council.\n\nA seven-day temporary ceasefire ended just over a week ago. Under the truce, 78 hostages were released by Hamas in exchange for 180 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.\n\nThere are still more than 100 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nOn Saturday, it was confirmed that Israeli hostage Sahar Baruch, 25, had been killed, his kibbutz and a hostages' group said in a statement.\n\nIt comes after the armed wing of Hamas released a video on Friday which it said showed the bloody aftermath of a failed IDF operation to free an Israeli hostage.", "The Philippines has accused China of obstructing government vessels that were trying to deliver supplies to its fisherman.\n\nFootage supplied by the Philippine coast guard shows two large ships spraying water on a number of smaller vessels.\n\nThe incident took place near Scarborough Shoal, a Chinese-controlled reef in the South China Sea.\n\nChinese state TV said its coast guard had used \"control measures in accordance with the law\", but Manila described the actions as \"illegal and aggressive\".\n\nRead more: Philippines says China shot water cannon at its boats", "Peter Bone was suspended from the Commons for six weeks for breaching the code of conduct for MPs\n\nMP Peter Bone has lost his seat after being removed by constituents in a recall petition, meaning a by-election will be held next year.\n\nThe move came after he was suspended as an MP over bullying and sexual misconduct claims, which he denies.\n\nMr Bone turned Wellingborough in Northamptonshire into a safe Tory seat after becoming its MP in 2005.\n\nBut the by-election will be seen as a tough test for Rishi Sunak, with the Tories trailing Labour in the polls.\n\nThe recall petition was prompted by Mr Bone's suspension from the House of Commons for six weeks for breaching the code of conduct for MPs.\n\nThe Conservative Party had withdrawn the whip from Mr Bone, meaning he had been sitting as an independent MP in Parliament.\n\nThe petition was signed by 13.2% of eligible voters in the constituency, above the 10% threshold required for Mr Bone to lose his seat.\n\nIn a statement on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Bone said the majority of the electorate in the constituency had chosen not to sign the recall petition, describing the process as \"bizarre\".\n\nHe said the allegations that led to the recall petition were \"totally untrue and without foundation\".\n\n\"I will have more to say on these matters in the new year,\" Mr Bone wrote.\n\nA petition is triggered if an MP is convicted of a crime or suspended from the Commons for more than 10 days. If 10% of eligible voters in the constituency sign the petition, it triggers a by-election - where people can vote for a new MP.\n\nMr Bone could choose to contest the seat and did not confirm in his statement whether he would do so or not.\n\nHe retained the seat at the last general election in 2019 with a majority of 18,540.\n\nLabour's chair, Anneliese Dodds, said the result of the recall petition showed \"Wellingborough is ready for change\".\n\nShe said Mr Bone \"has dragged his constituents through a lengthy recall petition rather than doing the right thing and offering his resignation\".\n\nLabour has picked councillor Gen Kitchen as its candidate for the seat, while the Lib Dems have selected former Northamptonshire Police officer Ana Savage Gunn.\n\nThe coming by-election in Wellingborough - not expected to be held before February - will be the 20th such vote since the last general election in 2019.\n\nThere have been six by-elections so far this year, with Labour winning four, and the Lib Dems and Conservatives each taking one.\n\nThe prime minister suffered major blows in the Tamworth and Selby and Ainsty by-elections, when Labour overturned majorities of more than 20,000 to take the seats.\n\nLast month, an investigation by Parliament's behavioural watchdog, the Independent Expert Panel, found Mr Bone had broken sexual misconduct rules by indecently exposing himself to a staff member during an overseas trip.\n\nIt also upheld five allegations of bullying, including verbally belittling the member of staff, physically striking him and throwing things at him.\n\nMr Bone appealed against the investigation's findings, arguing it had been flawed. However, his appeal was dismissed.\n\nThe staff member told the BBC \"physical, emotional and psychological abuse\" by the MP left him a \"broken shell of the young man I once was\".\n\nAre you affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Trump says indictments are \"badge of honour\"\n\nColorado's Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump cannot run for president next year in the state, citing a constitutional insurrection clause.\n\nThe court ruled 4-3 that Mr Trump was not an eligible candidate because he had engaged in an insurrection over the US Capitol riot nearly three years ago.\n\nIt does not stop Mr Trump running in the other states and his campaign says it will appeal to the US Supreme Court.\n\nThe decision, they said, was \"completely flawed\".\n\nThe ruling only mentions the state's primary election on 5 March, when Republican voters will choose their preferred candidate for president. But it could affect the general election in Colorado next November.\n\nIt is the first-ever use of Section 3 of the US Constitution's 14th Amendment to disqualify a presidential candidate. The measure was ratified after the American Civil War to block secessionists from returning to previous government roles once southern states re-joined the Union.\n\nTuesday's decision - which has been placed on hold pending appeal until next month - only applies in Colorado. Similar attempts to kick Mr Trump off the ballot in New Hampshire, Minnesota and Michigan have failed.\n\nThe justices wrote in their ruling: \"We do not reach these conclusions lightly. We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us.\n\n\"We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.\"\n\nOne of the three justices who dissented, Carlos Samour, though, said the government could not \"deprive someone of the right to hold public office without due process of law\".\n\nThe decision reverses an earlier one from a Colorado judge, who ruled the ban did not apply to presidents but found Mr Trump had participated in an insurrection. The former president's supporters stormed Congress on 6 January 2021 while lawmakers were certifying President Joe Biden's election victory.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe decision does not go into effect until 4 January 2024, coming right up to the deadline for printing the state's presidential primary ballots.\n\nThat delay could be extended if the Supreme Court takes up the case, which legal experts speaking to the BBC expect it to do.\n\nThey also expect the Colorado ruling to have a tough time in the highest court in the land, where conservatives hold a 6 to 3 majority.\n\nThe Supreme Court will likely not uphold the disqualification of Mr Trump out of \"institutional caution\", said Professor Samuel Issacharoff, a constitutional law professor at New York University.\n\n\"It cannot be that the national candidacy for presidency is determined on a state by state basis,\" he said. \"That would be a breakdown of democratic order.\"\n\nThe Supreme Court is also wary of state courts when it comes to the election, said Robert Tsai, a constitutional law professor from Boston University.\n\nThe last time it heard a case involving a presidential election was Bush v Gore in 2000, when it stopped the state of Florida from carrying out a vote recount.\n\n\"Since then, the court has become even more hostile or sceptical of state court judges doing things to interfere with the election of a president,\" he said.\n\nThe Trump campaign and fellow Republicans, including other candidates in the primary, accused the Colorado court of playing politics.\n\nCalling the ruling \"completely flawed\", campaign spokesman Steven Cheung lambasted the justices, who were all appointed by Democratic governors.\n\n\"Democrat Party leaders are in a state of paranoia over the growing, dominant lead President Trump has amassed in the polls,\" Mr Cheung said in a statement.\n\nThe Colorado Republican party said it would withdraw from the state's primary process if the ruling was allowed to stand and one of Mr Trump's rivals, Vivek Ramaswamy, pledged to withdraw his name from the ballot it Mr Trump was blocked.\n\nSpeaking to reporters on Wednesday, President Biden said it is up to the courts to decide if Mr Trump qualifies, but added there's \"no question\" his predecessor supported an insurrection.\n\nVivek Ramaswamy called on all candidates to withdraw from Colorado's ballot\n\nMr Trump, the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination, lost Colorado by a wide margin in the last presidential election. But if courts in more competitive states followed suit on Tuesday's ruling, his White House bid could face serious problems.\n\nDuring a one-week trial in the state last month, his lawyers argued he should not be disqualified because he did not bear responsibility for the US Capitol riot.\n\nBut in its ruling, the court majority said Mr Trump's messages before the riot were a \"call to his supporters to fight and… his supporters responded to that call\".\n\nMr Trump is facing four criminal cases, including one federal and one state case in Georgia related to the his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.", "Last updated on .From the section Sports Personality", "British actor Henry Cavill will be an executive producer and has signed up to appear in the project\n\nThe maker of Warhammer 40,000, Games Workshop, has finalised a deal with Amazon to bring the characters and stories to the big screen.\n\nThe British actor Henry Cavill - best known for playing Superman - will be an executive producer and has signed up to appear in the project.\n\nThe deal gives Amazon the rights to hire talent, and to make film and TV projects.\n\n\"Now comes the fun part: working out all the creative details with our partners and getting the first script written and into production. What Warhammer 40,000 stories should we tell first? Should we kick off with a movie or a TV show? Both?!\" Games Workshop said in statement.\n\nGames Workshop has enjoyed continued success after the pandemic, which saw sales of its toy figurines surge. Shares in the company rose after the deal was confirmed.\n\nThe announcement comes a year after the Nottingham-based company first said it was in talks to team up with Amazon's Prime Video service, also known for the series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, based on the fantasy novels of JRR Tolkien.\n\nA team of screenwriters is currently being put together to bring the Warhammer universe to the screen, the company said on its community website.\n\nThe first Games Workshop store opened in Hammersmith in 1978 and began producing miniature wargaming models.\n\nOver the decades Games Workshop has cultivated a fanbase of millions.\n\nCollectors build large forces of miniature plastic gaming models, which can cost more than £100 each.\n\nA miniature can be made up of hundreds of pieces which must be fitted together and then painted with colours such as \"flesh\" and \"bone\".\n\nThis can be used to play out clashes on a \"tabletop\" battlefield at home or at events, although some fans never play and instead compete to show off their creative versions of the models.\n\nMillions of people around the world play Warhammer, and the worldwide \"tabletop\" games sector that the fantasy game is part of is worth around £8.6bn, according to the consumer data firm Statista, with new entrants able to raise funds from enthusiasts through platforms such as Kickstarter.\n\nAs well as greenlighting the production of Warhammer 40,000 films and TV series, the deal gives Amazon the option to license the rights to other Warhammer franchises further down the line.\n\nGames Workshop will spend 12 months working with Amazon to agree \"creative guidelines\" for the films and series.\n\nProduction will only proceed once those guidelines are agreed.", "Eve was sleeping rough near Blackpool pier when a man assaulted her at night\n\nCharities have warned the number of people sleeping rough in the UK is rising. Those sleeping on the streets already face freezing conditions, but in recent weeks there have also been several high-profile attacks on homeless people. BBC News has spoken to two people who were both violently attacked as they slept.\n\nThe stony ledge under Blackpool's north pier is no place to find rest. The Irish Sea, whipped by a bitter wind, crashes onto the shore, hurling spray landwards and soaking the ledge. For several months last year, this is where Eve Monks slept. \"I just sat there and cried all night, that my life had come to this,\" says the 38-year-old, recalling her first night under the pier. \"I kept asking God to take me as I didn't want to be here at all.\"\n\nEve, originally from Dublin, had been working as a carer in Blackpool when she suffered a heart attack and a stroke. Unable to earn, she couldn't pay her rent and returned to her flat one day to find her landlady had thrown all her belongings onto the street.\n\nShe spent the little savings she had staying in a hotel for a few nights, but by July 2022, her money had run out and she had nowhere or no-one to turn to. Having scoped out various options, Eve chose Blackpool's north pier as she thought she'd be hidden from public view.\n\nGetting to sleep was difficult, she says. It was the height of summer and above her, the pier was open until late, with bars full of party-goers. On the evening of 22 August, a stranger spotted Eve. \"I remember I hadn't been to sleep for so long,\" she says, remembering how she fell into a deep sleep that night. \"And a guy came up and - he just raped me. I was kicking and shouting and telling him to go away from me. And he just put his hand over my mouth - I couldn't scream or anything.\"\n\nEve thought it would be a waste of police time to report the rape, saying: \"I didn't know what he looked like. I just closed my eyes so hard - I was wishing him to go.\"\n\nAfter some time, she went to the hospital to get examined. Someone there put her in touch with the local housing department, which eventually led to her being offered a small flat in Blackpool.\n\nEarlier this month, a video of a McDonald's security guard throwing water on the pavement where a rough sleeper was sitting with his sleeping bag went viral. West Midlands police are also investigating an incident in which a homeless man was set on fire in a Birmingham underpass, last month.\n\nThe charity Crisis says \"violence, dehumanising verbal abuse, robbery and harassment are unacceptably common experiences\" for many homeless people. A small survey it conducted, of 156 people with experience of rough sleeping in England, found 90% of them had suffered some form of attack. A very small number said they had been sexually assaulted. However, there are no official figures for any attacks on homeless people.\n\n\"There is seriously a problem with a small section of society who think that people sleeping rough are an easy prey for some horrific crimes,\" says Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis.\n\n\"To some people, it's clear that rough sleepers are less than human, which is completely unacceptable.\"\n\nJohn says he woke to find flames at his feet\n\nThat's certainly been the experience of John Campbell, who spent about a decade sleeping on the streets of Newcastle.\n\n\"I got my jaw broken, got booted in the face,\" he says. \"Woke up in hospital. I've been urinated on, while sleeping in a doorway.\"\n\nHaving become homeless in his mid-teens, after falling out with his mother, John, 30, says his life spiralled downwards while rough sleeping. He became addicted to various drugs. \"Anything I could get my hands on,\" he says. If his daily begging routine didn't go well, he would feed his habit by stealing and says he self-harmed on numerous occasions in an effort to end his life.\n\nAll the while, he says he was being repeatedly attacked. \"My tent's been set on fire twice. The first time, I came back and all my stuff was burnt out, there was nothing left. The second time, I was actually in the tent, fast asleep. I felt something hot at the bottom of my foot, I woke up and the flames were just there, smoke everywhere. I nearly lost my life.\"\n\nJohn says the police had no interest in finding out who had attacked him, a sentiment supported by Crisis, which says most rough sleepers \"don't feel there is any point in speaking to the police\". The charity says most fear \"they won't take them seriously\".\n\nJohn says he's clean of drugs now and has been staying in a flat for nearly two years. He gets intermittent contact with his daughter, who has given him a renewed purpose. But he still gets visibly angry at people who attack rough sleepers, some of whom are his friends, still on the streets of Newcastle. \"They think they're just having a bit of fun when they're doing it. But it's not a laugh. It could cost someone their life.\"\n\nEve says she is also slowly rebuilding her life, having received extensive support from the Salvation Army's Bridge Project, in Blackpool. \"Being on the streets is not a good place to be, for your health or anything else. I've had really low days. It was a really horrible time. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.\"\n\nIf you have been affected by any issues raised in this story, you can find help and support via BBC Action Line.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Woman convicted for role in Forest of Dean student's murder\n\nA serial killer's ex wife has been sentenced to life in prison for her complicity in two murders and a kidnap.\n\nMonique Olivier, 75, was on trial in France for her part in the rape and murder of 20-year-old Joanna Parrish, from Gloucestershire, in 1990 and 18-year-old Marie-Angèle Domèce in 1988.\n\nShe was also accused of helping kidnap nine-year-old Estelle Mouzin, whose body has never been found, in 2003.\n\nMichel Fourniret died before he could be brought to trial for the killings.\n\nOlivier is already serving life in prison for her part in the past crimes of her former husband, who died in 2021.\n\nShe has now been handed a second life sentence, with a minimum of 20 years.\n\nMs Parrish's father Roger Parrish held a moment of silence for all of Fourniret's victims.\n\nOn Olivier's role in the crimes, he added: \"Her presence alone would've gained the confidence of all the victims, who would never have believed a woman could've been such a part of such an appalling and depraved act.\"\n\nThe Parrish family lawyer, Didier Seban, said: \"This is first of all a victory, a victory for the families.\"\n\nMonique Olivier was sentenced after a three-week trial in Paris\n\nThe three-week trial concerned Olivier's part in the abduction, rape and murders of Miss Parrish and Miss Domèce, and the kidnap of Miss Mouzin.\n\nThe court was told how Olivier's role in the murders was to reassure the victims so they would enter Fourniret's van.\n\nOlivier admitted her presence in Auxerre when Miss Parrish was kidnapped, imprisoned, raped and murdered.\n\nShe said the rape and murder could have been at the house in St Cyr les Colons, and not in the van.\n\nDubbed the \"Ogre of the Ardennes\", Fourniret was jailed for life in 2008 after being convicted of the murders of seven girls and young women.\n\nFourniret, pictured here in 2004, died in jail two years ago\n\nIn 2018 he was given a second life sentence for an eighth murder.\n\nIn total, he confessed to 11 murders before he died - including that of Miss Parrish.\n\nFourniret's victims - most of whom were raped - were aged between nine and 30. They were shot, strangled or stabbed to death.\n\nShortly before the jury in Paris retired to consider her role in the crimes, Olivier expressed regret and asked for forgiveness from her victims' families.\n\nShe told the court: \"I regret everything I did and I ask for forgiveness from the families of the victims, while knowing that it is unforgivable.\"\n\nJoanna's body was found in a river on 17 May 1990\n\nDuring sentencing on Tuesday, the court was told Estelle Mouzin was coming home from school at 6pm, but that she never made it.\n\nHer body has never been found.\n\nOlivier was questioned for hundreds of hours in 2019, and accepted Fourniret had left for France, looking for a young girl to rape.\n\nThe court heard she knew he had \"gone hunting\".\n\nDuring sentencing, President of the court Didier Safar said: \"This is about the extreme gravity of the facts that contributed to the death of two young women, and a nine-year-old girl, in inhumane circumstances.\n\n\"Monique Olivier had no empathy for her victims, who she dehumanised.\"\n\nMost of Fourniret's victims were killed in the Ardennes region of northern France and in Belgium.\n\nLanguages student Miss Parrish had moved from Newnham-on-Severn in Gloucestershire, to Auxerre in France in 1990 for part of her university course.\n\nBut after posting an advert offering English lessons, she was murdered by Fourniret.\n\nHer body was found in the Yonne River on 17 May. She had been raped, beaten and strangled.\n\nMr Seban said he hoped this trial would start a new chapter in French justice, adding: \"For the Parrish family, it has been hard.\n\n\"They've waited more than 30 years for this trial. They led the charge, coming every year to Auxerre to show their drive to get this done.\n\n\"Their dignity throughout… there hasn't been an angry word, a cry or a desire of vengeance. It's been a desire for justice.\"\n\nMr Parrish said: \"After this last obstacle in our struggle to gain an element of justice for Joanna, we can remember our daughter and sister with a smile on our faces.\"\n\nEstelle's father Eric Mouzin said: \"The suffering of all the victims must have a purpose against the evil we've seen.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "The 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010 caused widespread disruption to air travel\n\nThe Reykjanes eruption is unlikely to lead to the same disruption caused by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2010.\n\nThe earlier explosion led to ash particles being pushed up into the atmosphere and spread across Western Europe.\n\nThe incident grounded planes for several weeks because of concerns that the particles would damage jet engines, making air travel unsafe.\n\nThis won't happen now. The 2010 eruption occurred under a glacier, which is not the case this time.\n\nProf Matthew Watson, Professor of Volcanoes and Climate at the University of Bristol, said \"it is unlikely, but not impossible'' that there may be some impact on air travel.\n\n''This type of eruption doesn't generally produce much ash, which is what tends to ground planes,'' he said.\n\nThe Eyjafjallajökull eruption led to large amounts of water interacting with molten rock causing an explosive reaction - like water being put into a chip pan, but immensely more powerful.\n\nThe explosions of 2010 led to the molten rock being turned into ash and glassy particles, which scientists feared would damage jet engines. The issue was compounded by the fact that the ash cloud flew straight into the part of an air current known as the jet stream that spread it across western Europe.\n\nThe dangers posed by the eruption on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula are local, according to volcanologist Dr Sam Mitchell of Bristol University.\n\n\"It is completely valid for people to think back to 2010 and the impact caused across Europe, especially to air travel,\" he said.\n\n\"The difference this time is that the volcano is not erupting explosively with water. So people should not worry about the airspace over Europe because the current eruption is nothing like what happened with Eyjafjallajökull.\"\n\nDr Mitchell said that the greatest risk to people living locally was from volcanic fumes which, although not dangerous, would be uncomfortable, especially to those with respiratory problems.\n\nDr Matt Genge, Senior Lecturer in Earth and Planetary Science at Imperial College London, said that it was unclear how the Reykjanes eruption would progress.\n\n''The eruption rate at these fractures is large, at a hundred cubic metres of lava per second,\" he said. \"The lava appears to be hot and fluid making the lava flows very mobile and dangerous to approach.\"\n\nHe said that whether the eruption posed a threat to the Blue Lagoon thermal tourist attraction and to the town of Grindavik depended very much on topography.\n\n\"Lava flows downhill until it cools sufficiently to stop, there is little that can be done to divert it,\" he said.\n\nHe said the eruption may continue to expand along the fissure, extending the area that the lava can envelope.\n\nFollow Pallab on X, formally known as Twitter.", "Scotland's climate is changing faster than expected, scientists have warned.\n\nA study by the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen says February in some areas is already 2.5C warmer while rainfall is at levels forecast for 2050.\n\nThey are concerned that the changes could affect food production and efforts to protect peatlands which store carbon.\n\nIt comes as the world broke a series of weather records including the hottest year and the hottest month in July.\n\nThis dramatic aerial image in Aberdeenshire showed the extent of some of the damage\n\nResearchers have been comparing temperature and rainfall records from the period between 1960-1989 to the three decades from 1990 to 2019.\n\nIn some parts of Scotland, the average monthly maximum temperatures in February rose 2.5 degrees, while the highest maximum temperatures have risen from 12.6C to 13.4C.\n\nThey say the February average monthly maximum temperature change is comparable with the lower range of what climate modelling had been predicting for 2020-2050.\n\nA series of storms have delivered unprecedented weather to Scotland in recent years.\n\nStorm Arwen in 2021 brought 100 mph north-easterly winds which flattened entire forests and left many without electricity for days.\n\nReport author Mike Rivington says we are in a climate breakdown\n\nThen this year Storm Babet burst river defences in Brechin, Angus, causing flooding in more than 400 properties.\n\nThe study found that Scotland has already experienced more winter rainfall than predicted for mid-century.\n\nIt said February and April have become up to 60 percent wetter in the last 30 years, particularly in the west, compared with the previous three decades.\n\nThat exceeds the projected change for 2050 which was expected to see around 45-55 percent more rain.\n\nLead researcher, Dr Mike Rivington, said is indicates that we are already in the midst of climate breakdown.\n\nHe added: \"This will have global impacts, affecting trade and undermining the stability of economies while at the same time reducing our own capacity to adapt.\n\n\"There has never been a more important time to understand the scale of the threat and how fast we need to act.\"\n\nThe research was carried out by the James Hutton Institute on behalf of the Scottish government.\n\nResearchers say efforts to preserve carbon rich peatlands could be affected\n\nThe Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan said it underlined that climate change was not a distant threat but one which was happening today.\n\nThe study suggests that over the next 60 years Scotland can expect to experience longer periods of dry weather, particularly around September.\n\nIt predicts that will lead to more water shortages and pressures on the productivity of agricultural land.\n\nRuth Taylor, agriculture and land use manager at WWF Scotland, said the study's findings will be of no surprise to farmers.\n\nShe added: \"Over recent years they have battled periods of extreme heat, drought, and flooding to grow the food we all rely on.\n\n\"This analysis is valuable to inform the agriculture bill currently under scrutiny in the Scottish Parliament.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Storm Babet: 'We spent years making our home - in 24 hours, it was gone'", "That wasn't exactly an end-of-term wind down for the prime minister. Sunak faced 90 minutes of detailed questioning from a committee of big-hitters who didn't seem minded to rush through it and shoot off for Christmas.\n\nPerhaps the most heated exchange was with Alicia Kearns, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.\n\nShe repeatedly asked Sunak to go further and condemn Israel's conduct in Gaza but he stuck to the government's position, and accused her of \"genuinely extraordinary\" questioning for not apportioning more blame to Hamas.\n\nHe also received something of a telling off from Dame Meg Hillier - who is tasked with keeping an eye on the government's finances - for not disclosing the total cost of the Rwanda policy in the coming years. The PM said the government is following the rules, and releasing details on an annual basis.\n\nSunak's stint as Chancellor also came under the microscope - with decisions he made in the Treasury on things like tax and foreign aid budgets coming under renewed scrutiny in the context of the cost-of-living crisis and renewed instability overseas.\n\nBut the PM got plenty of chances to put forward his case on how the government is trying to cut carbon emissions, NHS waiting lists and illegal migration.\n\nBy the time Sunak faces questions again in the Commons, Christmas will feel like a distant memory - but don't expect any of the issues discussed today to have gone away.", "Russell Brand has been questioned by Metropolitan Police for the second time in relation to a further six allegations of historical sex offences, the BBC understands.\n\nIt is understood he was interviewed under caution on 14 December.\n\nAn investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4's Dispatches revealed allegations of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse against the British comedian and actor.\n\nThe Met said a man in his 40s attended a police station in south London on 14 December. He was first questioned by police on 16 November over three other claims.\n\nThe force said the man has now \"been questioned in relation to nine alleged offences\".\n\nIt said inquiries were continuing.\n\nThe story was first reported in The Times.\n\nIn September the Met said it would investigate allegations of \"non-recent\" sexual offences, after receiving a number of allegations.\n\nAt the time, it was encouraging anyone who believed they may have been a victim of a sexual offence to contact them, \"no matter how long ago it was\".\n\nEarlier that month, the Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches programme said four women had accused comedian and actor Brand, 48, of sexual offences, including a rape, alleged to have taken place between 2006 and 2013.\n\nThe investigation claimed he had also behaved inappropriately at work, and displayed predatory and controlling behaviour.\n\nDuring that time, Brand held several jobs, including at Channel 4 and BBC Radio 2.\n\nThe BBC has approached Brand for comment but has not yet heard back.\n\nHe has previously said his relationships have \"always\" been consensual.\n\nThe day before the investigation was published online in September, Brand, 48, shared a video on social media.\n\nIn it, he denied \"serious criminal allegations\" he said were to be made against him, and said his relationships \"were absolutely, always consensual\".\n\nFollowing the allegations of \"non-recent\" sexual offences reported to the Met later that month, Brand put out another video in which he was critical of the mainstream media but did not directly address the claims against him.", "A mountain rescue team has said it is facing \"huge pressure\" and risking \"burnout\" after exceeding 300 responses this year.\n\nLlanberis Mountain Rescue assists those in need on Yr Wyddfa, also known as Snowdon, and surrounding mountains in Eryri, or Snowdonia, in Gwynedd.\n\nCall-outs have soared, with each volunteer responding to several incidents a day, it added.\n\nThe team responded to about 100 callouts in 2008.\n\nThe team attended its 300th call on 2 December when it rescued a hill walker injured in a fall on Yr Wyddfa.\n\n\"The team were scrambled to Snowdon's Pyg track in wintry conditions to assist with a walker with a head injury before they safely evacuated to hospital (Ysbyty Gwynedd),\" it said in a Facebook post.\n\nThe team said it was risking volunteer burnout as it faces huge pressure\n\n\"This was shortly followed by their 301st call-out two days later to assist a pair of walkers who had become stuck in full winter conditions near the top of Snowdon.\"\n\nBut the milestone is not something the team is celebrating, as it is concerned about public safety and the impact of so many incidents on volunteers, especially during busy holiday periods.\n\nVisits to Wales' mountains increased significantly during the pandemic, and Yr Wyddfa now gets more than 500,000 visitors a year.\n\nDr Richard Griffiths, said the team is reaching its limit\n\nLlanberis Mountain Rescue Team Chairman Dr Richard Griffiths said: \"We are hugely lucky that our volunteers are willing to go out at any time of day to rescue fellow walkers, climbers, runners and mountain bikers whose day has gone wrong.\n\n\"Our average member attends around 40 callouts per year. The time impact on them and their families' lives cannot be understated.\n\n\"This has been our busiest year yet, and as we get busier and busier there is a very real risk that the service becomes overloaded and we are not able to respond to those in need quickly.\"\n\nHe added 56 operational team members had done more than 8,000 hours of rescue work so far in 2023.\n\n\"As a group of volunteers we are nearing the limit of what we can do to support those in need in the mountains,\" said Dr Griffiths.", "The 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck north-west China’s Gansu Province, killing more than 100 people.\n\nFootage shared by state media broadcaster CCTV showed buildings cracked and debris strewn through the streets in Jishishan County.", "Rory died in Salt Lake City, Utah, a week after his 23rd birthday\n\nA Scottish mother whose son was shot dead in the US has called for an end to the country's \"culture of hatred\".\n\nDetectives in Utah believe Rory Swimm was killed by a 15-year-old schoolboy who had been given a handgun by his grandfather as a gift.\n\nHis Glasgow-born mother Susan and his American father Robb want his death to lead to change.\n\nSusan said there was a culture of hatred among teenagers in the US, and that they needed to be educated to be kind.\n\nSpeaking from the family home in Colorado, she said the loss of 23-year-old Rory had devastated friends around the world.\n\n\"It's a tsunami of destruction that has spread to Scotland, to Switzerland, to Utah, to Seattle, to Washington, to Montana,\" she said.\n\n\"There's a lack of culpability in America. It's totally fine that you can go out and shoot somebody because it happens all the time here.\"\n\nShe says education needs to begin with young teenagers \"to be kind, to have empathy for other people\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Susan and Robb Swimm want something positive to come out of Rory's death\n\nSusan added: \"I've had to tell myself hundreds of times a day that Rory's been murdered, that Rory's not going to come home, that my wee boy is dead because somebody shot him.\n\n\"I don't believe for a single minute that we can change any of the gun laws in America, but I feel that today within the teenage youth there's a terrible culture of hatred.\n\n\"Instead of raising kids to be positive in society, they're being struck down by all the negativity that's out there.\"\n\nShe said parents should be teaching their children empathy and love.\n\n\"I feel that it's become acceptable to be full of hate towards your peers in this country,\" she added.\n\nRory, a dual UK/US citizen born in Dundee, died in Salt Lake City in Utah in October - a week after his 23rd birthday.\n\nHis parents' grief has been compounded by anger after they discovered more about the 15-year-old accused of his murder.\n\nAt a memorial service attended by hundreds of people on 21 October, Susan Swimm's American husband Robb asked mourners to cry out a single word: \"Why?\"\n\nThey want something positive to come out of his death, no matter how impossible that might seem in a country so divided over gun control and gun rights.\n\nRobb told BBC Scotland News: \"It may not be the biggest story or the worst or the most tragic, but it's only because a gun was involved that there was a murder.\"\n\nRory, seen here with his sister Maggie, was a passionate skier and snowboarder\n\nThe incident began with an early morning argument between Rory and his friends and three teenagers outside a 7-Eleven convenience store.\n\nAccording to court papers detailing the investigation by the Salt Lake City Police Department, the two groups hadn't even reached the stage of exchanging blows when a single shot was fired, hitting Rory in the chest.\n\nHis friends Jimmy Ledford and Will Griffith later showed Rory's parents where he died.\n\nJimmy told them: \"When the paramedics were trying to figure out what was wrong with him, they lifted up his shirt and that's when we saw the bullet hole in his chest.\"\n\nDetectives say they found a spent 9mm shell casing 100ft (30m) away.\n\nThey used video footage to trace the 15-year-old at his home and discovered a 9mm handgun in a safe in his bedroom.\n\nJimmy Ledford and Will Griffith were with Rory when he was shot\n\nThe police report said the 15-year-old's grandfather told them he had given the teenager the weapon as a present and took him shooting almost weekly.\n\nThe suspect is said to have told his friends that he had \"shot into the air\" instead of aiming.\n\nUnder Utah law, he can't be named because of his age.\n\nRory's parents moved from Scotland to the States when he was six weeks old.\n\nHe grew up to be a passionate skier and skateboarder. His family said they would always remember his wild stunts and acrobatics, and ear-to-ear grin.\n\nEvery year Rory returned to visit relatives in Scotland. His older brother lives in Glasgow.\n\nRory Swimm (front centre) with family and friends on their annual Scottish trip to the village of Elie in Fife\n\nAt the time of his death, Rory was the 14th killing in Salt Lake City in 2023.\n\nUtah has one of the lowest homicide rates in the United States but it's still twice that of the UK's.\n\n\"There's a gun culture in Utah specifically that we're looking to expose,\" said Robb.\n\n\"The biggest tragedy is this was so preventable in so many ways.\"\n\nHe talks of a boycott of America over its gun laws, like the boycott of South Africa over apartheid.\n\n\"I don't want my son to just be a statistic, I want him to be remembered in a way that's positive,\" he said.\n\n\"The repercussions of this little act of a finger pulling a trigger ripples in so many directions.\"\n\nRory's family placed a memorial wreath at the scene where he was shot\n\nThe Swimms said a court hearing in January may determine whether the teenager is tried as a juvenile or an adult, a decision which will have a major impact on potential sentences if he's convicted. Either way, the death penalty would not apply.\n\nThe teenager has also been charged with illegal possession of the handgun. He has not yet entered a plea or made public his defence.\n\nAllison Anderman from the Gifford Law Centre, a US gun control campaign group, said: \"It is not illegal for someone to buy a gun as a bona fide gift for someone else.\n\n\"It seems as though, in Utah, the grandfather could have legally purchased the firearm for his grandson, provided the gun was used only as allowed under state law.\"\n\nRobb Swimm wants it made illegal to buy a firearm for someone aged under 18 or, failing that, for new restrictions on where weapons given to teenagers can be stored.\n\n\"I want to see if we can shake the tree a little bit with this,\" said Robb.\n\n\"I want this whole city of Salt Lake to know who Rory Swimm was. I want everybody in this country to know who Rory Swimm was. And that he got stolen from us, by one bullet.\"", "The activity is concentrated around the Fagradalsfjall volcanic area in the southwest of the country\n\nIceland is bracing itself for a volcanic eruption in the coming days. Why is this happening, and what might be the impact?\n\nIf there is an eruption, there could be significant damage to local infrastructure and a release of toxic fumes, but initial concerns about much wider disruption are now receding.\n\nSince late October the region surrounding the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik, in the south-west has been experiencing an increase in earthquake activity.\n\nThis is due to a underground river of magma - hot liquid or semi-liquid rock - about 15km (10 miles) in length moving upwards below the earth's surface.\n\nThis runs under Iceland and part of the Atlantic Ocean, and the impact of an eruption on the country - and further afield with regard to aviation - will depend on where exactly the magma breaches the surface.\n\nOne town, Grindavik, which lies directly above the magma, has already been evacuated, due to the risk of 'fire fountains' and noxious gasses.\n\nDr Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards, UCL, said: \"Grindavik is very close to the position of the new fracture, and its survival is far from assured. Everything depends upon where magma eventually reaches the surface, but the situation doesn't look good for the residents of the town.\"\n\nIf a volcano erupts offshore, or erupts on land and then flows into the sea, then there is the risk of an explosive ash cloud as the super hot rock comes into contact with the water.\n\nIn April 2010, the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruption, caused the largest closure of European airspace since World War II, as a result of an extensive ash cloud, with losses estimated at between 1.5bn and 2.5bn euros (£1.3-2.2bn).\n\nThe circumstances of this volcanic activity are very different and therefore such an extensive impact is not expected.\n\n\"The Eyjafjallajokull eruption of 2010 was quite different as it was associated with a shield volcano topped by a glacier. It was the interaction of the magma with ice and melt water that made that eruption so explosive and dangerous for aviation. This is not the case here,\" said Dr Michele Paulatto, volcanologist at Imperial College London.\n\nThe Icelandic meteorological office estimates that currently the magma is less than 1000m from breaking ground, and as a result the likelihood of an eruption is \"high\" and could happen in the coming days.\n\nThe earthquakes continue to weaken but ground deformation remains, with rifts and cracks of a metre in depth reported in roads suggesting that the magma could be even closer to the surface - a sign that things may be coming to a head.\n\n\"In the last few years we have had a diminishing and pause in earthquakes before volcanic eruptions happen,\" Dr Evgenia Ilyinskaya, Icelandic geophysicist and co-director of the International Volcanic Health Hazard Network, told the BBC.\n\nDr Tom Winder installs a seismograph near the Grindavik area to monitor activity\n\nIceland is very used to volcanic activity - successfully building a tourist industry on it - because it sits over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The Earth's crust is fractured into different plates, and at the ridge the Eurasian and North American plates are moving apart at a few centimetres a year. This allows magma to rise up to the surface, which erupts as lava and/or ash.\n\nThe nature of volcanic eruptions varies depending upon the rock type and how the plates are moving. This magma is believed to have originated within the Reykjanes-Svartsengi volcanic system.\n\nOne of the most extensive eruptions in Iceland was back in 1783 when there was a flood of lava which lasted for eight months, and produced extensive sulphur clouds which hung over Northern Europe for more than five months and is estimated to have caused cooling of about 1.3C for the following two years.\n\nDr Ilyinskaya, who is in regular contact with geologists on the ground, told the BBC that: \"It looked concerning back on Friday and Saturday that we could have something of that scale, in those rare but large events of course that would have huge implications for air quality in the Northern hemisphere.\n\n\"That is not the situation that is likely at the moment.\"\n\nThe latest evidence that emerged on Sunday and Monday she said suggests the eruption will be much smaller than previously thought.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Emmy-nominated actor Jonathan Majors has been dropped by Marvel Studios after he was convicted of assaulting his then-girlfriend.\n\nOn Monday, a jury in New York found that Majors, 34, attacked and harassed British choreographer Grace Jabbari during an argument in March.\n\nFollowing the verdict, a Marvel spokesperson said the studio would no longer work with the actor.\n\nMajors could face up to a year in prison when sentenced in February.\n\nIt marks a stunning downfall for a leading Hollywood actor who had been expected to feature in multiple Marvel films.\n\nMajors played villain Kang the Conqueror in the Marvel films. He starred in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania last February and on Disney+ series Loki, now in its second season.\n\nMarvel had already pushed back release dates for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, in which he was due to play the starring role. He was set to perform again as the character in the follow-up film, Avengers: Secret Wars.\n\nIt is unclear whether Marvel Studios plans to replace him with another actor or write his character out of the films.\n\nAccording to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel has already hired the creator of Loki to re-work a draft of the film that had been expected to be called The Kang Dynasty. The new working title for the movie is Avengers 5, sources told the outlet.\n\nMagazine Dreams, an upcoming film starring Majors that was being touted as a possible Oscar contender, had its release postponed as well following his arrest.\n\nThe US Army also dropped the Creed III star from a major advertising campaign once the news broke.\n\nHis former girlfriend, Ms Jabbari, was left with a fractured finger, bruising and a cut behind her ear after the couple fought over a phone in a hire car in New York City.\n\nJurors were shown CCTV footage of the assault\n\nThe incident took place when Ms Jabbari saw a text message from another woman on Majors' phone, which said: \"Wish I was kissing you right now.\"\n\nIn an effort to get his phone back, the film star grabbed his then-girlfriend, twisted her arm behind her back and hit her in the head, Ms Jabbari testified.\n\nHe was found guilty of assault by recklessly causing physical injury, as well as harassment.\n\nThe jury acquitted him on charges of aggravated harassment and assault with intent to cause physical harm, however.\n\nThe prosecution painted the assault as the latest escalation in Majors' attempts to \"exert control\" over his girlfriend through physical and emotional violence. The jury was shown voice recordings and text messages between the former couple.\n\n\"I'm a monster. A horrible man. Not capable of love,\" the actor sent in a text in September 2022 while threatening to kill himself.\n\nMore text messages also discussed a prior incident between Majors and Jabbari.The actor appears to dissuade Jabbari from going to the hospital after she suffered an injury to her head.\n\nIn audio from an argument that same month, Majors told Ms Jabbari she needed to act more like Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama, the wives of Martin Luther King and former President Barack Obama.\n\n\"I am doing great things, not just for me but for my culture and the world,\" he said, adding that she would need to \"make sacrifices\" for him.\n\nMs Jabbari's lawyer Brittany Henderson said her client had shown \"irrefutable strength and poise while being forced to relive, both in court and very publicly, the abuse she was subjected to\".\n\n\"Her unwavering resolve to see this case through to the end is borne out of a desire to show other survivors and victims of domestic violence, that they too, can hold their abuser accountable,\" she said in a statement given to the PA news agency.\n\nA statement shared by Majors' lawyer after the actor's conviction said that he continues to believe in his innocence, \"still has faith in the process and looks forward to fully clearing his name\".\n\nSentencing will be on 6 February. The judge also issued a new protection order, requiring him to have no contact with Ms Jabbari.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Crocodile and wallaby captured as planes submerged in Australia floods\n\nMajor flooding in northern Australia has begun to ease but many towns remain isolated in crocodile-infested waters as supplies dwindle.\n\nExtreme weather driven by ex-tropical cyclone Jasper has dumped a year's worth of rain on parts of Queensland.\n\nSome rivers have swollen to record levels, flooding homes, severing roads and power, and forcing people to flee houses in boats. One man is missing.\n\nOne badly-hit town is now being evacuated after a failed first effort.\n\nABC reported that about 20 people had been airlifted from Wujal Wujal by military helicopter. Cook Shire Mayor Peter Scott told the broadcaster they looked \"pretty happy\" after landing in nearby Cooktown.\n\nWujal Wujal has a population of around 300, and is just one of a number of cut-off settlements suffering a shortage of food and water stocks.\n\nIts former mayor Desmond Tayley earlier told ABC he had \"grave concerns\" for the community's elderly and vulnerable people, after Monday's evacuation attempt was thwarted by bad weather.\n\n\"Desperate\" locals had started to \"risk their lives\" by traversing dangerous floodwaters in which six-metre crocodiles had been spotted, he said. \"Being attacked by one of those, you never see someone again.\"\n\nA search continues for a missing man, 85, who was last seen in nearby Degarra late on Sunday.\n\nRescue and relief efforts in the region have also been hampered by the closure of Cairns Airport - where planes were pictured submerged on Sunday - though the facility is now expected to reopen.\n\nQueensland authorities say the rain is now less intense, and river levels have begun to fall.\n\nAreas around Cairns have received more than 2m (7ft) of rainfall since Thursday\n\nState officials have promised essential supplies including medicine are being urgently flown to towns across the region.\n\nAs some areas begin cleaning up, locals have been warned of risks including disease from contaminated water and displaced wild animals.\n\nPrime Minister Anthony Albanese, who will visit the flood zones later this week, also announced emergency payments for those affected, and ongoing allowances for eligible people who have lost work as a result of the disaster.\n\n\"[There] will be some difficult days and weeks ahead. One of the things that I find though is that the worst of times brings out the best of the Australian character,\" he said.\n\nMany locals were taken by surprise at the extent of the downpour, with some saying they were not properly warned.\n\nBut Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt said the Bureau of Meteorology's weather tracking systems could not have predicted the scale of the disaster, saying it was a \"highly unpredictable weather system\".\n\nThe weather bureau had done its \"absolute best\" and given important advice to emergency crews, he added. \"It is pretty remarkable that, in an event of this scale, that we have not yet lost a life or a serious injury.\"\n\nIn recent years, Australia has been plagued by disasters including severe droughts and bushfires, successive years of record floods, and six mass bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef - increasing concerns about the impacts of climate change.\n\nState authorities estimate the cost of this latest disaster will top A$1bn (£529m; $670m).", "Garry Tetley, tax partner at Deloitte, says the costs of running the country \"continue to rise\".\n\nAnd he adds the lack of economic growth means that tax revenues will not keep pace with planned expenditure so options for the Scottish government are limited.\n\nHe says: \"The Scottish Fiscal Commission estimate that today's announcements to introduce a new 45% rate, together with an increase in the top rate to 48%, will raise an additional £82m in 2024-25.\n\n\"This is in addition to an extra £307m through the freezing of the higher rate threshold. The additional tax for higher earners living in Scotland is growing in significance.\n\n\"The balance between efficient tax collection and attracting talent becomes ever more challenging.\"\n\nMr Tetley says the Scottish higher rate threshold remains at £43,662 for a fourth year running, which is still significantly lower than the UK higher rate threshold of £50,270. It has been frozen until 2027/28.\n\nHe adds: \"Employees earning between these thresholds also pay 10% national insurance, which results in a combined marginal tax rate of 52% in this income bracket for those living in Scotland.\n\n\"Lower earners in Scotland continue to pay less tax than those in the rest of the UK; the break-even point for 2024-25 is £28,867.\"", "The broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen says she has joined the Dignitas assisted dying clinic in Switzerland.\n\nThe 83-year-old told the BBC she is currently undergoing a \"miracle\" treatment for stage four lung cancer.\n\nIf it does not work, \"I might buzz off to Zurich\", where assisted dying is legal, she told Radio 4's The Today Podcast.\n\nBut she said she was looking forward to this \"precious\" Christmas, which she hadn't thought she would live to see.\n\nAssisted suicide is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. While there is no specific offence of assisted suicide in Scotland, euthanasia is illegal and can be prosecuted as murder or manslaughter.\n\nDignitas is a not-for-profit organisation that provides physician-assisted dying to members who, in its words, have illnesses \"that will lead inevitably to death, unendurable pain or an unendurable disability\" and who have made a \"reasoned request\" with medical proof.\n\nSpeaking about her decision to join Dignitas, Dame Esther said it was driven in part by her wish that her family's \"last memories of me\" are not \"painful because if you watch someone you love having a bad death, that memory obliterates all the happy times\".\n\nThe broadcaster said if she did decide to have an assisted death at Dignitas that would put \"my family and friends in a difficult position because they would want to go with me, and that means that the police might prosecute them\".\n\nDame Esther, who is best known for presenting the BBC Show That's Life! for 21 years and launching the charity ChildLine, said she believed people should be given the choice about \"how you want to go and when you want to go\".\n\n\"I get all the arguments about... not wanting to be a burden and pressure being applied and all that. But... you can come to the wrong conclusion.\n\n\"If you just base everything on the worst case scenario, you've got to have a look at the advantages as well.\"\n\nCampaigners for assisted dying say a change in the law would give people with terminal illnesses or who are suffering greater control over how and when they die.\n\nBut opponents argue a change in the law would threaten vulnerable people.\n\nDame Esther's daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, told the BBC that there was a \"legal murkiness surrounding assisting dying\".\n\n\"I support mum's decision,\" she said, but added: \"I'm not legally allowed to say I'd go with her, that I would hold her hand - and that is absolutely ridiculous.\n\n\"I should be able to sit with my mother in her last moments.\n\n\"I can't go to prison, I can't go through a court case at the worst point of my life, when I've lost my person and I'm suddenly being prosecuted with her death.\n\n\"It's unfathomable. I can't believe this is the situation we're in.\"\n\nIn response to Dame Esther's interview, Levelling-up Secretary Michael Gove said he thought it would be \"appropriate\" for the Commons to \"revisit\" the issue of assisted dying.\n\n\"I have great respect and affection for Dame Esther,\" he said.\n\n\"I take a slightly different view - I am not yet persuaded of the case for assisted dying but I do think it's appropriate for the Commons to revisit this.\"\n\nBaroness Ilora Findlay, a crossbench member of the Lords and former president of the Royal Society of Medicine, told the Today programme the evidence from countries where the law had changed on assisted dying showed \"that you just cannot regulate this really properly\".\n\nBaroness Findlay said in Canada, where assisted dying became legal for those with terminal illnesses in 2016 and was expanded to those with serious and chronic physical conditions in 2021, the situation was \"out of control\".\n\nInstead, she said better access to end-of-life care was needed.\n\n\"We're still relying on voluntary donations to make sure that people can live well for as long as they have,\" Baroness Findlay added.\n\nEuthanasia - the act of intentionally ending a life to relieve suffering - is legal in Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.\n\nHelping another person to kill themselves - assisted suicide - is permitted in Switzerland, while some form of assisted dying for terminally ill adults is legal in a number of US states, including Washington, California and Oregon.\n\nDame Esther with fellow That's Life! presenters Howard Leader, Kevin Devine, and Gavin Campbell in 1993\n\nAlmost a year on from her diagnosis, Dame Esther told Today she had not expected to live with cancer for so long.\n\n\"I thought I'd fall off my perch within a couple of months, if not weeks. I certainly didn't think I'd make my birthday in June, which I did, and I definitely didn't think I'd make this Christmas, which I am. It appears, although anything can happen,\" she said.\n\nAsked which moment in her life she would want to relive, Dame Esther said it was one that had not happened yet: \"I think I would like to relive this Christmas - the Christmas that I didn't expect to have with my family is going to be so precious.\"\n\n\"And I think that once it's over, I would like to be able to relive it,\" she said.\n\nIn May, Dame Esther announced her lung cancer was in stage four, the most advanced stage, which means the cancer has spread beyond the lungs or from one lung to the other.\n\nShe enjoyed a successful TV presenting career which included hosting BBC consumer show That's Life! for 21 years.\n\nShe is also known for launching ChildLine in 1986, the first national helpline for children in danger or distress.\n\nIn 2013, she launched the Silver Line, a charity to help elderly people suffering from isolation and loneliness.\n\nThe Health and Social Care Committee is due to publish its report into assisted dying and assisted suicide in England and Wales, having launched an inquiry in December 2022 to examine different perspectives in the debate. In Scotland, a private member's bill on assisted dying is expected to be debated in the Scottish Parliament next year.\n\nIf you are affected by the issues raised in this story and would like to share your experiences, you can email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A woman and her child were left shaken but unhurt when a car veered off a road and flipped on its side right in front of them.\n\nThe crash happened on Warwick Road in Olton, Solihull, at about 16:00 GMT on Saturday, West Midlands Police said.\n\nCCTV footage showed the woman pushing her child in a buggy before the Peugeot mounted pavement, hit a post and turned over.\n\nThe woman driving the car suffered cuts, said the force, adding an investigation was under way and it was reviewing footage.", "Attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea risk pushing up the price of oil and other goods, analysts have warned.\n\nSeveral firms have paused shipments through the route after vessels were attacked by Houthi rebels in Yemen.\n\nThe world's second largest shipping line, Maersk, said on Tuesday that it would reroute some of its vessels around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.\n\nThe disruption has led the US to launch an international naval operation to protect ships on the Red Sea route.\n\nCountries joining the security action - named Operation Prosperity Guardian - include the UK, Canada, France, Bahrain, Norway and Spain.\n\nThe US has also said it would welcome China playing a constructive role in trying to prevent further attacks.\n\nThe analysts' warnings came as the rebels vowed to continue their attacks in the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a vital shipping lane between Asia and Europe.\n\n\"Even if America succeeds in mobilising the entire world, our military operations will not stop... no matter the sacrifices it costs us,\" said senior Houthi official Mohammed al-Bukhaiti on X, formerly Twitter.\n\nUS defence secretary Lloyd Austin held a virtual meeting with ministers from more than 40 countries on Tuesday, and called on more nations to contribute to the security efforts.\n\n\"These reckless Houthi attacks are a serious international problem and they demand a firm international response,\" he said.\n\nThe UK's Ministry of Defence said the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Diamond would join the new task force, with the security situation \"deteriorating\".\n\nThe Red Sea is one of the world's most important routes for oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, as well as for consumer goods. It is bookended by the Bab al-Mandab Strait - also known as the Gate of Tears - in the south near the coast of Yemen and the Suez Canal in the north.\n\nHouthis have declared their backing for Hamas in its war with the Israelis and the rebels based in Yemen said they were targeting vessels which they believe are heading for Israel.\n\nHowever, some firms, such as Investor Chemical Tankers, whose Swan Atlantic vessel was attacked on Monday, said that its ship had no links to Israel.\n\nShipping firms have reported vessels coming under attack from drones and missiles.\n\n\"The ballistic missiles are really the tough one. This is the first time we've ever seen ships hit by this type of weapon,\" Sal Mercogliano, a naval historian at Campbell University, told the BBC.\n\n\"It's a very difficult type of missile to shoot down.\"\n\nDespite the launch of the international operation to ensure safe passage through the Red Sea, Maersk said it was not clear when it would resume journeys along the route, and would assess things on a case-by-case basis.\n\nIt said while it was pleased to hear of efforts to improve security in the area, \"at this time it remains difficult to determine\" when it would return to the Red Sea route.\n\nMeanwhile, Hapag-Lloyd, a German firm whose Al Jasrah vessel was attacked last Friday, said that while it welcomed the new task force, the company needed 100% assurance the Red Sea was safe for ships to return.\n\nThe alternative route, around the Cape of Good Hope, adds about 3,500 nautical miles to the journey.\n\nHapag-Lloyd's head of corporate communications Nils Haupt told the BBC: \"We go from the eastern Med to Singapore. Normally it takes 13 days through the [Suez] Canal - without using the canal that will be 31 days.\"\n\nAttacks on ships have intensified in recent days. Investor Chemical Tankers said its Swan Atlantic tanker was hit by an \"unidentified object\" on Monday, while Maersk described the situation as \"alarming\" on Friday after a \"near-miss\" incident involving Maersk Gibraltar and another attack on a container ship.\n\nOil giant BP said on Monday that it would temporarily pause all shipments of crude through the route. Rival energy giant Shell has yet to comment.\n\nAt the moment, changes to the oil price have been minimal. Prices rose 1% on Monday, but on Tuesday they were little changed with benchmark Brent crude trading at around $78 a barrel.\n\nAs petrol is derived from oil, increases in the price of crude usually feed through to higher costs at the pump.\n\nBut Simon Williams, the RAC motoring group's fuel spokesman, said while tankers avoiding the Red Sea had the \"potential to push up the oil price, the barrel is still below $80, $15 lower than it was at the end of September\". \"Talk of this immediately affecting fuel prices is unhelpful as we are still waiting for retailers to fully pass on the savings from much lower wholesale costs. We don't want to give them a reason not to continuing cutting their prices, especially at the most expensive time of the year,\" he added.\n\nMr Williams argued current petrol prices at £1.42 should be around 10p cheaper on average. \"This means even if the Red Sea situation worsens, there is no reason for the biggest retailers to push up prices as fuel is still overpriced,\" he added.\n\nRichard Meade, editor-in-chief of shipping newspaper Lloyd's List, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"What is going to be very interesting is if the tankers continue to reroute.\n\n\"That's a much more finely balanced market that could have serious implications for the global supply chain.\"\n\nBut rerouting will affect more than just oil. Mr Meade said 12% of global trade was taken through the Red Sea, which is about $1 trillion worth of goods a year.\n\n\"We've seen most of the main container carriers - these are the ones that carry finished goods, TVs, electronics, trainers - they have almost exclusively started rerouting,\" he said.\n\nHapag-Lloyd told the BBC that it will have rerouted 25 ships by the end of the year, costing it tens of millions of dollars as the ships were booked before the attacks. However, it said new orders would \"probably\" see a rise in costs.\n\n\"This industry is keeping world trade alive and attacks on merchant shipping are unacceptable,\" said Mr Haupt.\n\nBP has paused all oil shipments through the Red Sea\n\nMarco Forgiona, from the Institute of Export and International Trade, told the BBC that rerouting would increase fuel and insurance costs for shipping, \"and then you've got the issue that the ships are in the wrong place, the containers are in the wrong place and you get the potential for congestion at the ports and further delays\".\n\nHowever, Mr Haupt said that while he expected to see congestion at some ports in a few weeks, \"I don't think it will be as tough as we have seen it during Covid.\n\n\"Yes we will see some disruption and we might see delays, but I would not expect this to be a total disruption of the supply chain.\"\n\nS&P Global Market Intelligence said that nearly 15% of goods imported into Europe, the Middle East and North Africa were shipped from Asia and the Gulf by sea. That includes 21.5% of refined oil and more than 13% of crude oil.\n\nA rise in oil prices can lead to higher inflation, which measures the pace of price rises. Inflation has been falling in the UK and is currently 4.6%.\n\nNew figures out on Wednesday will show whether it has continued to drop but, at the current level, it is still more than twice the Bank of England's 2% target. The Bank has, until recent months, been raising interest rates to cool inflation.", "TV presenter Phil Spencer's parents died as a result of an accident after their car overturned in a river, a coroner has concluded.\n\nAnne Spencer died after the car she was driving tipped over the edge of a bridge and plunged into the Nailbourne River in Littlebourne, Kent.\n\nShe was travelling with her husband Richard, who also died.\n\nIn Maidstone, coroner Sarah Clarke said: \"These circumstances are some of the most tragic I have heard.\"\n\nMr Spencer, 89, known as David, and Ms Spencer, 82, were chatting as they drove to a family lunch when the car \"veered very slightly\" on 18 August, the coroner said.\n\nThe couple, who were farmers, were submerged in about three feet of water and were pronounced dead at Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate.\n\nTheir carer, who was in the back of the car, escaped through a window.\n\nMrs Spencer was taken to the QEQM hospital, where she was later pronounced dead\n\nA police report read at the inquest said it was a \"most tragic incident\" and that a momentary lapse in concentration had caused the car to slip, despite Ms Spencer being familiar with the road.\n\nThe report said the bridge was primarily used as access for those residing and working on the farm, where Mr and Ms Spencer had lived and worked their whole adult lives.\n\nThe bridge was described as needing a \"great deal of care as it's extremely narrow\" and had \"limited visibility\" for the driver.\n\nThe coroner also said Ms Spencer had passed a driving check five months earlier, in March.\n\nMs Spencer's medical cause of death was previously confirmed as aspiration pneumonia, hypoxic-ischaemic brain injury and near drowning.\n\nHypoxic-ischemic brain injury is caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain, while aspiration pneumonia is an infection of the lungs caused by inhaling food or liquid.\n\nMr Spencer died from a lung injury called aspiration pneumonitis due to near drowning.\n\nAt the time, Phil Spencer said: \"As a family, we are all trying to hold on to the fact mum and dad went together and that neither will ever have to mourn the loss of the other one. Which is a blessing in itself.\"\n\nHe added that with his mother having Parkinson's and his dad having dementia, the \"long-term future was set to be a challenge\" but described his parents as being \"amazing\".\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "Last updated on .From the section Nottm Forest\n\nNottingham Forest have sacked manager Steve Cooper and are holding talks with former Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo to replace him.\n\nAfter losing five of their past six games, Forest have decided to act and told Cooper of the decision on Tuesday.\n\nNuno, 49, was sacked by Saudi Pro-League club Al-Ittihad in November.\n\nFormer Eintracht Frankfurt boss Oliver Glasner has also been mentioned as a potential replacement, but it seems Nuno is now in pole position.\n\nForest, 17th in the top flight, have won once in 13 Premier League games and taken eight points in that time.\n\nThey have also picked up just one point from their past six matches and are five points ahead of third-bottom Luton, who have a match in hand.\n• None Would bringing in Nuno be the right move? Did Cooper deserve more time? Have your say here\n• None Get Forest news and analysis sent direct to you\n\nCooper was backed consistently by the Forest support, but owner Evangelos Marinakis had become increasingly concerned at his club's plight.\n\nForest play Bournemouth at the City Ground on Saturday before tough-looking fixtures at Newcastle United on 26 December and at home to Manchester United on 30 December.\n\nNuno spent four years in charge of Wolves, guiding the club to promotion from the Championship in his first season in charge before consecutive seventh-place finishes in the Premier League and a run to the Europa League quarter-finals.\n\nThe Portuguese former goalkeeper left Molineux in the summer of 2021 to join Spurs, but was sacked after less than four months in charge after a run of five defeats in seven games.\n\nHe joined Al-Ittihad in July 2022 and guided the Jeddah-based side to the Saudi title last season, but was dismissed 12 games into the new campaign after a run of poor results.\n\nWe asked users of our dedicated Nottingham Forest page for their opinions on the news. Here is a selection of their thoughts:\n\nJohnathan: That's the stupidest decision of the season! Top manager, loved by fans, gets the club, had to totally rebuild after losing all the loan players and been in the game in nearly every game. Lose your top scorer. What's he supposed to do? And appoint a guy in Nuno Espirito Santo who's totally failed in his past two jobs and managed your rivals? Madness.\n\nRob: I love Cooper but he has done as much as he can. If his constant defensive tactics had produced a few more draws, or an additional win or two, things would be different. But this run of consecutive losses with no real signs of improved results in time to avoid another relegation fight has cooked his goose. But Nuno is not the answer.\n\nMark: Terrible decision. Steve Cooper has brought success and hope not seen at the City Ground since Brian Clough and Frank Clark. He deserved better.\n\nTim: It's a shame, a real shame - but inevitable. Cooper will always be loved at Forest but one win in 13, two wins in 30 away games, so many points from winning positions conceded. It seemed to really go wrong after the Luton Town game. Cooper seemed almost burned out this season and its hardly surprising after the past two years.\n\nJohn: Harsh on Cooper - he's done the best he can with a mismatch of signings, most of whom were not directly his. Can't see Nuno doing any better but can see Championship football next season and then the merry go round starts again.\n• None Our coverage of Nottingham Forest is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Forest - go straight to all the best content", "Dr Emma Walker is a lecturer but is left with less than £100 per month after bills are paid\n\nWith the prospect of a deal to restore devolution in Northern Ireland ruled out before Christmas, people have now been living without a functioning executive for nearly two years.\n\nThe Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) collapsed the power-sharing institutions in early 2022 in protest over post-Brexit trade rules.\n\nIt was hoped an agreement to restore Stormont could have been reached before parliamentary recess on Tuesday.\n\nBut a DUP spokesperson said on Monday that the party would not be \"calendar-led\".\n\nSo what are some of the big issues affecting lives in Northern Ireland as it remains in political limbo?\n\nShe and partner Alison pay nearly £2,000 a month in childcare for three-year-old twins Ivy and Jonah.\n\n\"Last month I ran out of money,\" she said.\n\n\"My father had to help pay for me to get the train to work. I don't think people quite realise, it's embarrassing to have to do that.\n\n\"That is literally where I'm at. I have no money.\n\n\"Once I give all my childcare and pay my bills and my transport to and from work, I'm left with about £80 a month.\n\n\"If I struggle in my profession, in my line of work, I can't bear to think about how other people cope.\"\n\nEarlier this year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced an expansion of free childcare support, but that wasn't implemented in Northern Ireland.\n\nDr Walker hopes a new Executive will change that.\n\n\"The chokehold that's over this country - there's no prosperity, public services, everything has ground to a halt.\n\n\"You're voted in by people and you're letting us down,\" she said.\n\n\"It is so frustrating and I just wish, and I hope, that when they do get back up and running that they can see from stories like us what it's really like to be a citizen here and that they try to improve our lives. That's what they're paid to do.\"\n\nNorthern Ireland's hospital waiting lists are the worst in the United Kingdom.\n\nShe's been told she will have to wait up to three years to be seen at a pain clinic.\n\nNorthern Ireland's waiting lists mean patients like Hazel are waiting years for treatment\n\n\"On a good day my levels are an eight out of ten,\" she said.\n\n\"On a bad day, they're an eleven out of ten. It's as if someone is injecting acid into you.\"\n\nHazel said she was \"saddened and angered\" to be told how long she would have to wait for hospital treatment.\n\n\"I feel like I've been left on a shelf, like many other disabled people,\" she said. \"It's like you have to wait and they'll deal with you when they get around to it.\"\n\nLiam McGuckin, principal of Greenisland Primary School in Carrickfergus, is due to retire at the end of the year.\n\n\"I've been teaching just over 35 years and I have to say that, unfortunately, the system is crumbling,\" he said.\n\n\"Teachers, classroom assistants, school leaders are demoralised in Northern Ireland. We don't have the support we need, our children are not getting the education they deserve.\"\n\nHeadteacher Liam McGuckin is set to retire before Stormont is restored\n\nMr McGuckin said it's time for the institutions to be restored for the future of education.\n\n\"Our politicians have been at fault for this so they need to take action now and get back to work, and they need to get our schools back on a firm footing for the next decade.\n\n\"Our teachers and school leaders do a brilliant job but schools in other places get more funding and they do better. We can do better.\"\n\nSharon Caldwell runs Antrim's baby bank which supplies basic items to new parents like nappies, clothes and buggies.\n\nShe said demand has doubled over the past few months alone as people continue to struggle with the cost-of-living crisis.\n\n\"One of the things I've seen is more people come who normally wouldn't have found themselves in this place,\" she told BBC News.\n\n\"More people who are working, more people who would normally think that they could make it themselves.\n\n\"So many people are struggling to make ends meet,\" she said.\n\nMore people are turning to schemes like Antrim's baby bank due to rising costs, Sharon says\n\nSharon had a message for politicians in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"Parents should always be at the forefront of government's thinking because I think it's very important that not a single child goes without their basic essentials.\n\n\"I wish the need wasn't there but it most definitely is. I know there are other baby banks popping up across the country because people need them.\n\n\"I would just love us to be in a place where there is no child that goes without,\" she said.", "Joe Biden is caught in a dilemma with no good options - to get what he wants, the US president may have to reward his political enemies while angering his allies. That's an uncomfortable position ahead of an election year.\n\nThis week began with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visiting Washington to plead for more US military aid from Congress.\n\nIt ended with Mr Biden and Senate Democrats considering just how far they would be willing to bend in order to fulfil his wish - and just how angry they would be willing to make members of their own party in the process.\n\nRepublicans are setting conditions for more Ukraine aid - included in a $100bn (£82bn) package that also contains support for Israel and Taiwan - that begin and end with immigration.\n\nThat includes not just more money for border security, but also significant changes to the way in which undocumented migrants at the US-Mexico border seeking asylum protections are processed.\n\nAmong the measures under consideration are raising the bar for migrants to qualify for asylum consideration in the US and making it easier to deport undocumented entrants without a hearing when border-crossings surge.\n\nThe Biden administration reportedly wants to preserve the president's flexibility to provide exceptions to these rules.\n\nThe White House would not comment on what hard-line Republican options might be on the table. It is clear, however, exactly how angry some Democrats on the left would be if Mr Biden agreed to such changes.\n\n\"I thought I entered a time machine back to the Trump era,\" Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey said at a Congressional Hispanic Caucus rally on the steps of the US Capitol.\n\n\"I could not comprehend how a Democratic president who vehemently countered Trump's policies as a candidate is seriously putting forward the most Trumpian anti-immigrant proposal.\"\n\nActivists urge the White House to reject Republican proposals for the border\n\nOther legislators condemned the negotiations as a Republican trap and expressed outrage that liberal legislators and Hispanic politicians were left out of the closed-door meetings.\n\nThey said the Biden administration would never consider bargaining away other liberal priorities like abortion freedoms, education or civil rights in exchange for a one-time foreign aid bill.\n\nWhy, they asked, was immigration different?\n\nPublic opinion polling provides a clue. While Democrats have majorities on their side for many of their political priorities, a recent Wall Street Journal poll indicated that 64% of Americans disapproved of Mr Biden's handling of border security.\n\nAnd by a 54% to 24% margin, respondents said Donald Trump, not Mr Biden, was \"best able\" to secure the border.\n\nBeto O'Rourke, who once represented the Texas border town of El Paso in Congress and ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, tells BBC's Americast that Mr Biden needs to reclaim the moral high ground in the immigration debate.\n\nHe wants the president to point out what he says was the cruelty of the Trump-era policies Republicans want to enshrine into law.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"We have not heard that recently from Joe Biden,\" he said. \"And we're not seeing that right now in his policies. But I believe he'll do the right thing.\"\n\nMr O'Rourke knows first-hand how hard an issue immigration can be for Democrats.\n\nLast year, he tried to defeat Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott by running a campaign that emphasised abortion rights and gun control, among other issues. The governor focused like a laser on immigration - and ended up winning by almost 11%.\n\n\"If the president and his administration are not able to offer a comprehensive vision and strategy and demonstrate that they have control over the challenges on the border, it opens the field to Donald Trump on a national level,\" Mr O'Rourke said.\n\nMembers of the House of Representatives have already left Washington for the winter holidays, but senators will be back next week to try to hammer out a deal that includes Ukraine aid and immigration reform.\n\nIt's a hint of progress for the administration - and the opportunity to achieve a foreign policy goal while, perhaps, addressing a political weakness that has bedevilled Mr Biden.\n\nThe potential risk of alienating liberal allies whose faith in the president has been strained by the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza as well as concessions during budget negotiations earlier this year is high, however.\n\n\"For Biden, we're invisible,\" Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois said at the Capitol on Wednesday.\n\n\"They don't do any outreach. They don't do any consultation.\" And that, he continued, would have electoral consequences.\n\n\"Latinos won't come out to vote,\" he said. \"And our efforts to knock on their doors to canvass and to get them out to vote will only become increasingly more difficult.\"\n\nThe president is caught in a bind. What happens next week will help determine how - or if - he can find a way out.", "Rudy Giuliani speaks to reporters outside a DC courthouse during his defamation trial.\n\nTwo Georgia poll workers have filed a new lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani, days after winning a $148m (£116m) defamation case against him.\n\nRuby Freeman and Shaye Moss allege that Mr Giuliani continued to lie when he repeated false claims mid-trial that \"they were engaged in changing votes\".\n\nThe mother-daughter pair are seeking an injunction to bar Mr Giuliani from making further false statements about them.\n\n\"It must stop,\" the lawsuit demands.\n\nAn attorney for Mr Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\n\nThe new legal action says that Mr Giuliani \"has engaged in, and is engaging in, a continuing course of repetitive false speech and harassment\".\n\nThey added in their filing that his \"wrongful conduct was extreme and outrageous, and it was calculated to cause harm to Ms Freeman and Ms Moss\".\n\nThe two women previously filed a defamation case against Mr Giuliani, who was found liable for spreading lies that the poll workers had tampered with votes during the 2020 election.\n\nA jury ultimately ordered Mr Giuliani to pay the women $148m (£116m) in damages..\n\nDuring the trial, Mr Giuliani insisted numerous times that he told the truth about the women and reiterated falsehoods about them. These statements are the source of the new lawsuit.\n\n\"Of course I don't regret it,\" Mr Giuliani told reporters on 11 December. \"I told the truth. They were engaged in changing votes.\"\n\nIn another instance on 15 December, he said his statements \"were supportable and are supportable today\".\n\nThe women's new lawsuit notes several other instances where Mr Giuliani made allegedly defamatory statements during and after the trial, including in right-wing media appearances.\n\nLast week, a Washington DC jury heard hours of painful testimony from Ms Moss about the fallout of those claims. She testified that she and her mother were subjected to violent and racist threats that made them fear for their lives.\n\nMr Giuliani did not testify during the trial, but Judge Beryl Howell, who presided over the case, warned his attorneys that his remarks could be defamatory.", "China's deadliest earthquake in almost a decade struck Jishishan county at 23:59 local time (1559 GMT) on Monday.\n\nSurveillance footage from a restaurant in Linxia City - around 50km (30 miles) from the epicentre of the Gansu earthquake - shows the moment of impact.\n\nCustomers and staff appear to notice the initial tremor, pausing for a moment before scrambling for the exit all at once.\n\nAt least 127 people have been killed and more than 700 reported injured.\n\nMore on this story here.", "Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said the reform represented an \"ideological victory\" for her party\n\nThe amended bill was backed by both President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Renaissance party and Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN).\n\nThe vote divided Mr Macron's party, and Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau resigned in protest.\n\nLeaders of a third of French regions said they would not comply with certain measures in the law.\n\nA previous draft was rejected by parliament last week when the National Rally as well as the left voted against. In response, the government redrafted the bill, making some of its provisions tougher.\n\nThe new legislation makes it more difficult for migrants to bring family members to France and delays their access to welfare benefits.\n\nIt also bans detaining minors in detention centres.\n\nA controversial provision discriminates between citizens and migrants, even those living in the country legally, in determining eligibility for benefits.\n\nThe tougher version appealed to right-wing parties, who backed it on Monday.\n\nMs Le Pen welcomed the amended bill, calling it an \"ideological victory\" for the far-right.\n\n\"This is our bill,\" said Eric Ciotti, the leader of the right-wing Republican party. He called it \"firm and courageous\".\n\nBut left-wingers said Mr Macron was enabling the far-right. \"History will remember those who betrayed their convictions,\" Socialist party leader Olivier Faure said.\n\n32 of France's 101 departments, including Paris, said they would refuse to implement the provisions of the law on benefits for non-citizens.\n\nThe French vote came hours before an EU agreement to reform the asylum system across the bloc's 27 member states.\n\nThe new pact, agreed by EU governments and European Parliament members, includes creating border detention centres and enabling the quicker deportation of rejected asylum seekers.\n\nHailed as a landmark agreement by Parliament President Roberta Metsola, the new system allows asylum seekers to be relocated from southern member states, which have the highest numbers of arrivals, to other countries.\n\nIt still has to be formally approved by the Parliament and member states.\n\nThe new French legislation exposed divisions within the governing alliance. 27 MPs voted against while 32 abstained - almost a quarter of pro-Macron MPs.\n\nHealth Minister Aurélien Rousseau, who was a member of the Communist party in his youth, stepped down in protest at the immigration law.\n\n\"Some measures in the bill make me very uncomfortable,\" said Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the lower house of parliament and a member of Mr Macron's party.\n\nThe bill would have passed if Ms Le Pen's party had abstained, though not if it had voted against. The government pointed to the size of its majority to argue that it did not depend on National Rally votes.\n\nSpeaking after the vote, the prime minister accepted some measures in the law might not be constitutional.\n\n\"We will ask the Constitutional Council,\" she told French radio, referring to a top court which upholds the constitution's principles.\n\nHuman rights groups denounced the new reform as the most regressive immigration law for decades.\n\nMr Macron's party lost its majority in parliament in elections in June 2022. Since then, the government has frequently found itself unable to win votes in parliament.++", "The only official glimpses of the Wolverine game came in this 2021 teaser trailer\n\nThe videogame studio behind Spider-Man 2 has been the victim of a huge hack in a ransomware attack.\n\nLast week, hackers demanded $2m from Sony-owned Insomniac, which developed the PlayStation 5 superhero hit, to keep stolen information private.\n\nSince then, details of future releases and work-in-progress footage showing the company's upcoming Wolverine game have appeared online.\n\nA listing for the leak, seen by the BBC, suggests it includes private employee data and internal company emails.\n\nFellow games developers, journalists and fans were quick to condemn the attack, urging others not to share or republish any of the content.\n\nAlan Wake 2 developer Remedy Games wrote on X to offer its sympathies to \"all the affected team members\".\n\nThey wrote: \"After all the effort and dedication they have poured into their games, they didn't deserve this.\n\n\"No-one does. The hackers also leaked employee's personal information, which is truly disgraceful and shameful.\"\n\nInsomniac has released few official details of the Wolverine game beyond a teaser trailer in 2021 and confirmation it would have a \"mature\" tone compared with the Spider-Man games.\n\nRansomware group Rhysida has claimed responsibility, and it also said it was behind a similar attack on the British Library last month.\n\nThe method uses malicious software to infect a company's computer network and lock its files, demanding payment for them to be restored.\n\nIt's the latest leak from a high-profile games studio, after details of Rockstar Games' upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 appeared online last year.\n\nThat attack was committed by a different group, which also hacked Uber and graphics card maker Nvidia.\n\nWhen the case appeared in a UK court, it emerged that an 18-year-old member had released the clips while he was on bail in a Travelodge hotel.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's claim that the government has reduced debt has been challenged by the UK's statistics watchdog.\n\nThe watchdog's chairman said the assertion \"may have undermined trust in the government's use of statistics\".\n\nDebt has been going up since the start of the year as a proportion of the economy.\n\nThe prime minister has made reducing national debt one of his five key priorities.\n\nIn a social media post on 7 November, Mr Sunak said \"debt is falling\".\n\nDuring Prime Minister's Questions on 22 November, the prime minister also told MPs \"we have indeed reduced debt\".\n\nThis was the same day as the Autumn Statement - when the government sets out its tax and spending plans for the year ahead.\n\nLiberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Sarah Olney wrote to Sir Robert Chote, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, to raise concerns the comments misrepresented official public finance statistics.\n\nIn a letter in response, Sir Robert said the PM's office had told the watchdog the claims referred to the fact that the Office for Budget Responsibility was forecasting debt would be falling as a proportion of GDP in the final year of its five-year forecast.\n\nGDP - or gross domestic product - is a measure of all the economic activity of companies, governments and individuals in a country.\n\nHowever, the latest figures for October showed that government debt stood at 97.8% of GDP, slightly higher than the figure for January.\n\nSir Robert wrote: \"The average person in the street would probably not have interpreted the prime minister's claims in the way that his office explained them to us and would likely have assumed that he was claiming that debt was already falling or that the government's policy decisions had lowered it at the fiscal events - neither of which is the case.\n\n\"This has clearly been a source of confusion and may have undermined trust in the government's use of statistics and quantitative analysis in this area.\"\n\nMs Olney said: \"Rishi Sunak knows he has no good story to tell on the UK economy so he has resorted to making one up. The least this no-growth prime minister could do is be honest about it with the British public.\n\n\"Instead, he has reached for the Boris Johnson playbook and is undermining trust in politics.\"\n\nDowning Street has been contacted for comment.", "Cheltenham's A&E unit will not fully reopen until 9 January\n\nThe emergency department in Cheltenham will be closed until 9 January due to two planned strikes by junior doctors.\n\nCheltenham General Hospital's A&E shut at 08:00 GMT on Tuesday and will be closed until 08:00 on Saturday 23 December.\n\nSome services will be restored on Saturday as the A&E becomes a minor injury and illness unit.\n\nThen from 20:00 on 1 January, the entire department will shut once more until 08:00 on 9 January.\n\nJunior doctors in England will be on strike for three days from 07:00 on 20 December and six days from 07:00 on 3 January.\n\nProfessor Mark Pietroni, medical director at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said it is the toughest period the trust has had to plan for.\n\n\"It's going to be very difficult. Two strikes so close together and the second strike - which is six days long and the longest ever strike in NHS history either side of the Christmas period - it's very difficult to plan for this.\"\n\nMr Pietroni said the trust is focusing on providing safe emergency care and looking after patients on wards.\n\nThe Trust will also work with primary care staff, the ambulance service and rapid response teams to try and keep as many people at home.\n\nIn regards to winter pressures, Mr Pietroni said the last two weeks have been tough as the trust has had higher-than-expected number of admissions at both its hospitals which has resulted in delays getting through.\n\n\"Waits are long, which is really why we'd encourage people not to come at all if they don't need to,\" he said.\n\nMr Pietroni urged people who do not have life-threatening illness or injury not to go out to A&E in Cheltenham and to seek help elsewhere, such as through 111, a GP or a pharmacist.\n\nPatients who have a planned hospital operation, outpatient clinic or procedure between during the planned strike should attend as usual unless they hear from their NHS Trust to advise otherwise.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Campaigners for a compensation scheme gathered in London earlier this year\n\nThe government has said it is still not in a position to make a final decision on compensation for the victims of the infected blood scandal.\n\nEarlier this month, the government lost a key vote designed to speed up the creation of a new body to administer and make payments.\n\nCabinet office minister John Glen said he recognised the anger of victims.\n\nBut he told the Commons it would be wrong to pre-judge the final report of a public inquiry due next year.\n\n\"For these reasons, the government is not yet in a position to share any final decisions on compensation,\" he said.\n\n\"However, members across this house have made clear that we must do right by the victims and the government recognises this, and I am personally committed to make sure that we do that.\"\n\nUp to 30,000 patients were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.\n\nIt is thought more than 3,000 people died in what has been described by MPs as the worst treatment disaster in NHS history.\n\nThe government has said there is a moral case for compensating victims of the scandal, and has made the first interim payments of £100,000 each to 4,000 surviving victims and bereaved partners.\n\nOn 4 December, MPs narrowly defeated the government in a vote to amend the Victims and Prisoners Bill.\n\nThat legislation, which still needs to be approved by the House of Lords before becoming law, would mean a new independent body would have to be set up within three months to administer full compensation payments to a wider group of victims and their relatives.\n\nCampaigners say that one person affected by the scandal dies every four days, making the speed of compensation key.\n\nSpeaking in the Commons, Mr Glen said the government was still \"working through the implications\" of the amendment, adding that a final decision on compensation must consider both the victims of the scandal and the costs to the public sector.\n\n\"There are a number of technical issues that must be considered that would have a significant impact on public finances,\" he said.\n\n\"This is my highest priority and I will continue to progress this work with all the urgency it deserves.\"\n\nA new psychological support service would be set up for victims and their families in England, to go live from early summer 2024, he added.\n\nEarlier this year, Sir Brian Langstaff, who is chairing the long-running public inquiry into the scandal, called for a full compensation scheme to be set up immediately.\n\nMr Glen repeated that it would be inappropriate for the government to respond until its full findings have been published, a process currently expected to be completed in March 2024.\n\nResponding, Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson, who put forward the amendment, said the government's statement would cause \"huge anguish\" to victims, and \"fuel suspicion\" ministers were trying to delay the payments.\n\n\"Justice delayed again will be justice denied for even more of those infected and affected in this scandal,\" she added.\n\nThe father of the house, Sir Peter Bottomley, one of 22 Conservative MPs who also voted for the amendment, said the government was still not doing enough for victims.\n\n\"If it's a question of money... and the cash flow of the government, say so now,\" he added.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The PM says \"we have made progress\" on cutting boat crossings but there is no \"firm date\" to end them\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has admitted he does not have a \"precise\" target date for stopping migrant crossings, in a grilling by senior MPs.\n\nThe promise to \"stop the boats\" was one of the five priorities for 2023 that Mr Sunak set out at the start of the year.\n\nWhile Channel crossings have fallen by a third since 2022, more than 29,437 people have made the journey this year.\n\nThe PM insisted \"progress\" had been made, and he was sure his Rwanda asylum plan would curb illegal migration.\n\nMr Sunak faced multiple questions on migration and the government's scheme to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda during his routine questioning by MPs at the Liaison Committee in Parliament.\n\nIn a major speech in January, Mr Sunak said stopping the boats was one of his five \"immediate priorities\" in 2023, telling the public \"we will either have achieved them or not\".\n\nBut Mr Sunak has never qualified exactly when he would stop small boat crossings entirely.\n\nInstead, he said he would pass new laws to ensure people who arrive in the UK illegally were \"detained and swiftly removed\".\n\nIn one testy exchange with Dame Diana Johnson, who chairs the Home Affairs Select Committee, Mr Sunak was asked directly when he thought he would meet this target.\n\n\"There isn't a firm date on this because I've always been clear from the beginning,\" Mr Sunak said.\n\nHe added: \"We will keep going until we do [stop the boats]. This isn't one of these things when there's a precise date estimate on it, this is something where before I took this job they had only ever gone up, now they're down by a third.\"\n\nDame Diana also asked Mr Sunak about the Rwanda policy, which is part of the government's plan to deter migrants from crossing the Channel in small boats.\n\nWhen the Labour MP suggested no airline was \"willing to contract with government to remove people to Rwanda because of reputational damage\", Mr Sunak refused to comment on what he called \"commercial conversations that are necessarily private\".\n\nBut Mr Sunak said he was \"highly confident\" the government would be able to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nTo that end, the government is attempting to pass legislation to declare in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country, with a view to stopping flights being grounded by legal challenges.\n\nThe government's Safety of Rwanda Bill passed its first stage in the House of Commons last week, and will be examined further by MPs in the new year.\n\nMr Sunak told the Liaison Committee he was \"always happy to engage with colleagues\" on the contents of the bill, but would not commit to a specific timetable.\n\nHe also declined to discuss the cost of the scheme, now expected to exceed £290m, saying secrecy was necessary as the government might \"want to have other conversations with other countries\" about similar schemes.\n\nMr Sunak has pledged to clear the backlog of \"legacy\" asylum cases - claims made before 28 June 2022 - by the end of 2023.\n\nThe \"legacy\" backlog had fallen to 18,366 at the end of November, a dip of three-quarters since June 2023.\n\nBut when asked whether he would meet his pledge, Mr Sunak said: \"We're not at the end of the year yet, so the final statistics haven't been published, but we are making very good progress.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the rest of the backlog - those applications made on or after 28 June 2022 - continues to rise, reaching 91,076 at the end of November.\n\nThe government's record on asylum and migration is likely to be a key political battleground ahead of the next general election, expected in 2024.\n\nThe problems are complex and with Conservative MPs from different wings of the party sceptical of his Rwanda plan, the prime minister's flagship asylum scheme still hangs on the balance.", "Oil giant BP will pause all shipments of oil through the Red Sea after recent attacks on vessels by Houthi rebels.\n\nThe firm blamed the \"deteriorating security situation\" in the region as Iran-backed Houthis target ships they believe are bound for Israel.\n\nMany freight firms have suspended journeys as the attacks continue.\n\nFollowing BP's announcement the US said it would lead an international naval operation to protect ships along the route.\n\nCountries joining the security group include the UK, Canada, France, Bahrain, Norway and Spain.\n\nIn a statement, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said: \"The recent escalation in reckless Houthi attacks originating from Yemen threatens the free flow of commerce, endangers innocent mariners, and violates international law.\"\n\nBP said it would keep its \"precautionary pause under ongoing review\" and monitor the region.\n\nAnalysts suggested that if other large oil firms follow suit, oil prices could rise. Oil prices were higher on Monday, with international benchmark Brent trading up 2.6% to almost $79 a barrel.\n\n\"Right now it's unclear how significant the impact will be,\" said Gregory Brew, an oil historian and analyst at Eurasia Group.\n\n\"Though if more shipping companies divert their traffic, and if the disruption lasts more than a week or two, prices are likely to climb further.\"\n\nThe Red Sea is one of the world's most important routes for oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, as well as for consumer goods.\n\nAnalysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence found that nearly 15% of goods imported into Europe, the Middle East and North Africa were shipped from Asia and the Gulf by sea. That includes 21.5% of refined oil and more than 13% of crude oil.\n\n\"Consumer goods will face the largest impact, though current disruptions are occurring during the off-peak shipping season,\" said Chris Rogers from S&P Global Market Intelligence.\n\nOn Monday, one of the world's largest shipping firms said it would no longer carry Israeli cargo via the Red Sea.\n\nIn an update seen by the BBC, Evergreen Line, said: \"For the safety of ships and crew, Evergreen Line has decided to temporarily stop accepting Israeli cargo with immediate effect, and has instructed its container ships to suspend navigation through the Red Sea until further notice.\"\n\nThe Houthi rebels are targeting ships travelling through the Bab al-Mandab Strait - also known as the Gate of Tears - which is a channel 20 miles (32km) wide, and known for being perilous to navigate.\n\nThe rebels have declared their support for Hamas and have said they are targeting ships travelling to Israel, using drones and rockets against foreign-owned vessels.\n\nInstead of using the Bab al-Mandab Strait, ships will now have to take a longer route navigating around southern Africa, potentially adding about 10 days to the journey and costing millions of dollars.\n\nIsrael launched a military campaign in Gaza following the 7 October attacks by Hamas that killed 1,200 people. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said more than 18,700 have been killed since the start of the war.\n\nIt is not clear if all the ships Houthi rebels have attacked were actually heading to Israel.\n\nIn the most recent reported assault, the owner of the MT Swan Atlantic said the ship was hit by an \"unidentified object\" on Monday while in the Red Sea off Yemen despite there being no links to Israel.\n\nInventor Chemical Tankers said: \"For the record, there is no Israeli link in the ownership (Norwegian), technical management (Singapore) of the vessel nor in any parts of the logistical chain for the cargo transported.\"\n\nAttacks on ships have intensified in recent days, leading to shipping firms suspending travel through the strait which sits between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea on the African coast.\n\nIt is the route by which ships can reach the Suez Canal from the south - itself a major shipping lane.\n\nMaersk, the world's second-biggest shipping firm, described the situation as \"alarming\" on Friday after a \"near-miss\" incident involving Maersk Gibraltar and another attack on a container ship.\n\nIt was followed by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world's largest shipping group, which said it would also divert its ships from the area.\n\nIts container ship, MSC PALATIUM III, was attacked on Friday as it was transiting the Red Sea. There were no injuries to the crew, but the ship has been taken out of service.\n\nCMA-CGM has also stopped shipments through the region, and Reuters has reported that Belgian oil tanker firm Euronav and Norway-based tanker group Frontline would both avoid Red Sea routes.\n\nOn Monday, Inventor Chemical Tankers confirmed that the MT Swan Atlantic was targeted while travelling from France to Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean.\n\nThe company said there were no injuries to its Indian crew, adding that the \"crew and the ship are now assisted by the US navy and will be brought to safety under protection by naval forces\".\n\nGermany's Hapag-Lloyd said it was re-routing several ships via the Cape of Good Hope, until passage through the Red Sea \"will be safe again for vessels and their crews\".\n\nEvergreen Line said that any container ships on longer journeys between Asia and the Mediterranean, Europe or the east coast of the US would also be diverted around the Cape of Good Hope.\n\nPeter Sand, chief analyst at freight rate data company Xeneta, said shipping firms would now be contacting customers to let them know that cargo was being delayed, adding that there was \"definitely a price to pay for a situation like this\".\n\nHe said the industry would also face knock-on effects such as higher insurance premiums, but he said that it was in a much better position to deal with an unfolding crisis than it was when the huge Ever Given ship blocked the Suez Canal in 2021, with Covid-related supply chain issues having eased up.\n\nSue Terpilowski of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport also pointed out that in addition to extra fuel costs and time, the war-risk insurance costs are going up \"exponentially\", with customers facing higher prices being passed on to them too.", "Majors seen arriving at court on Monday\n\nUS actor Jonathan Majors has been found guilty of assaulting his then-girlfriend after a trial in New York.\n\nThe jury found Majors, known for playing Kang in the Marvel films, attacked British choreographer Grace Jabbari during an altercation in March.\n\nShe told the court she was left with a fractured finger, bruising, a cut behind her ear and \"excruciating\" pain.\n\nMajors, 34, faces up to a year in jail, and has been dropped from starring roles in forthcoming Marvel movies.\n\nThe six-person jury's verdict was announced on Monday following three days of deliberations.\n\nAs their decision was read in court, Majors pursed his lips and looked downwards but gave no other reaction, according to reporters in court.\n\nFollowing the verdict, a spokesperson for Marvel said the studio will not be moving forward with Majors on future projects.\n\nThe crime took place when the couple were in a car in New York and Ms Jabbari saw a text message from another woman on Majors' phone, which said: \"Wish I was kissing you right now.\"\n\nAccording to prosecutors, when she took the phone, he then grabbed her, twisted her arm behind her back and hit her in the head to get it back.\n\n\"I felt like a hard blow across my head,\" Ms Jabbari testified.\n\nThe jury found him guilty of two of the four domestic violence charges that he was facing.\n\nHe was found guilty of assault by recklessly causing physical injury, as well as harassment.\n\nBut the jury declined to convict him on charges of aggravated harassment and assault with intent to cause physical harm.\n\nThe prosecution painted the assault as the latest escalation in Majors' attempts to \"exert control\" over his girlfriend through physical and emotional violence. They shared voice recordings and text messages between the former couple with the jury.\n\n\"I'm a monster. A horrible man. Not capable of love,\" the actor sent in a text in September 2022 while threatening to kill himself.\n\nGrace Jabbari, seen during 2021's London Fashion Week, was a movement coach on Ant-Man and the Wasp\n\nIn audio from an argument that same month, Majors told her she needed to act more like Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama, the wives of Martin Luther King and former President Barack Obama.\n\n\"I am doing great things, not just for me but for my culture and the world,\" he said, adding that she would need to \"make sacrifices\" for him.\n\nMajors did not testify. His lawyer had argued the actor was the victim, and that Ms Jabbari assaulted him in a jealous rage after seeing the text message in the car.\n\nMajors, who also starred in Creed III, countersued her in June, alleging that she was the aggressor, but prosecutors declined to charge her due to a lack of evidence.\n\nSentencing will be in February. The judge also issued a new protection order, requiring him to have no contact with Ms Jabbari.\n\nShe was \"gratified to see justice served\" by the verdict, her lawyer said, adding that it should serve as an inspiration for other abused women to come forward.\n\n\"Ms Jabbari testified publicly and truthfully, even though reliving these traumatic events on the witness stand was obviously painful,\" lawyer Ross Kramer said in a statement to BBC News.\n\nMajors shown in a court sketch lowering his eyes as the verdict is read\n\nJurors were shown CCTV footage of the assault\n\nA lawyer for Majors said in a statement that his legal team is \"grateful\" that the jury notably did not find that he had intended to cause physical injuries to Ms Jabbari.\n\n\"Mr Majors is grateful to God, his family, his friends, and his fans for their love and support during these harrowing eight months,\" said lawyer Priya Chaudhry.\n\n\"Mr Majors still has faith in the process and looks forward to fully clearing his name.\"\n\nManhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office brought the criminal charges, said after the verdict that the psychological and emotional abuses carried out by the movie star were \"far too common across the many intimate partner violence cases we see each and every day\".\n\nMs Jabbari had met Majors two years earlier on the set of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where she was a movement coach.\n\nAfter his arrest, Marvel pushed back until 2026 the release of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, in which Majors had been due to play the lead villain.\n\nAnother film, Magazine Dreams, which had been touted as a possible Oscar contender, also had its release postponed following the allegations.", "DNA analysis showed that this young man travelled to Cambridgeshire from the furthest reaches of the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago\n\nHow did a young man born 2,000 years ago near what is now southern Russia, end up in the English countryside?\n\nDNA sleuths have retraced his steps while shedding light on a key episode in the history of Roman Britain.\n\nResearch shows that the skeleton found in Cambridgeshire is of a man from a nomadic group known as Sarmatians.\n\nIt is the first biological proof that these people came to Britain from the furthest reaches of the Roman empire and that some lived in the countryside.\n\nThe remains were discovered during excavations to improve the A14 road between Cambridge and Huntingdon.\n\nThe scientific techniques used will help reveal the usually untold stories of ordinary people behind great historical events.\n\nThey include reading the genetic code in fossilised bone fragments that are hundreds of thousands of years old, which shows an individual's ethnic origin.\n\nDr Marina Silva extracted the ancient DNA and then made sense of its genetic code\n\nArchaeologists discovered a complete, well-preserved skeleton of a man, they named Offord Cluny 203645 - a combination of the Cambridgeshire village he was found in and his specimen number. He was buried by himself without any personal possessions in a ditch, so there was little to go on to establish his identity.\n\nDr Marina Silva of the Ancient Genomics Laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute, in London, extracted and decoded Offord's ancient DNA from a tiny bone taken from his inner ear, which was the best preserved part of the entire skeleton.\n\n\"This is not like testing the DNA of someone who is alive,\" she explained.\n\n\"The DNA is very fragmented and damaged. However, we were able to (decode) enough of it.\n\n\"The first thing we saw was that genetically he was very different to the other Romano-British individuals studied so far.\"\n\nThe latest ancient DNA analysis methods are now able to flesh out the human stories behind events that, until recently, have been reconstructed only by documents and archaeological evidence.\n\nThese largely tell the tales of the wealthy and powerful.\n\nThe latest research is a detective story which uses cutting edge forensic science to unravel the mystery of an ordinary person - a young man buried in a ditch in Cambridgeshire between 126 and 228 AD, during the Roman occupation of Britain.\n\nAt first, archaeologists thought Offord to be an unremarkable discovery of a local man. But DNA analysis at Dr Silva's lab showed that he was from the furthest reaches of the Roman Empire, an area that is currently southern Russia, Armenia, and Ukraine.\n\nThe analysis showed him to be a Sarmatian, who are Iranian-speaking people, renowned for their horse-riding skills.\n\nSo how did he end up in a sleepy backwater of the empire so far from home?\n\nTo find the answers, a team from the archaeology department of Durham University used another exciting analysis technique to examine his fossilised teeth, which have chemical traces of what he ate.\n\nAnalysis of his teeth showed that his diet had gradually changed since the age of five\n\nTeeth develop over time, so just like tree rings, each layer records a snapshot of the chemicals that surrounded them at that moment in time.\n\nThe analysis showed that until the age of six he ate millets and sorghum grains, known scientifically as C4 crops, which are plentiful in the region where Sarmatians were known to have lived.\n\nBut over time, analysis showed a gradual decrease in his consumption of these grains and more wheat, found in western Europe, according to Prof Janet Montgomery.\n\n\"The (analysis) tells us that he, and not his ancestors, made the journey to Britain. As he grew up, he migrated west, and these plants disappeared from his diet.\"\n\nA scene depicting the defeat of the Sarmatian army by Roman forces in 175 AD\n\nHistorical records indicate that Offord could have been a cavalry man's son, or possibly his slave. They show that around the time he lived, a unit of the Sarmatian cavalry incorporated into the Roman army was posted to Britain.\n\nThe DNA evidence confirms this picture, according to Dr Alex Smith of MOLA Headland Infrastructure, the company that led the excavation.\n\n\"This is the first biological evidence,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"The availability of these DNA and chemical analysis techniques means that we can now ask different questions and look at how societies formed, their make-up and how they evolved in the Roman period.\n\n\"It suggests that there was much greater movement, not just in the cities but also the countryside.\"\n\nThe remains were discovered as part of excavations undertaken as part of the A14 road improvement scheme between Cambridge and Huntingdon\n\nDr Pontus Skoglund, who heads the ancient genomics laboratory at the Crick, told BBC News that the new technology is transforming our understanding of the past.\n\n\"The main impact of ancient DNA to date has been improving our understanding of the Stone and Bronze Ages, but with better techniques, we are also starting to transform our understanding of the Roman and later periods.\"\n\nThe details have been published in the journal, Current Biology.\n\nFollow Pallab on X, formerly known as Twitter.", "The eight safe access zones (SAZ) in Northern Ireland can cover between 100m (328ft) and 250m (820ft) from entrances or exits of designated premises.\n\nThe police are investigating up to 50 potential breaches of laws providing safe access zones (SAZs) outside abortion clinics in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe zones came into effect in September at eight clinics in Northern Ireland.\n\nMore incidents were reported at Causeway Hospital in Coleraine than any other site, police figures show.\n\nThat has prompted pro-choice campaigners and some local politicians to call for the zones to be extended by up to 250m (820ft).\n\nIn a statement, the Northern Trust said it would keep the width of the zone under review.\n\nWarning: This article contains images which some readers may find distressing.\n\nThe legislation, which was passed at Stormont in 2022, makes it illegal for people to be \"impeded, recorded, influenced or to be caused harassment, alarm or distress\" within the eight areas.\n\nIt is a criminal offence, punishable by a fine of up to £500.\n\nThe eight zones can cover between 100m (328ft) and 250m (820ft) from entrances or exits of designated premises.\n\nThe police have said preliminary figures show that since the zones came into effect on 29 September, there have been 20 incidents at the Northern Trust, resulting in 35 reports to police.\n\nThe Southern Trust had 11 incidents, while the Western Trust recorded two and the Belfast Trust recorded one.\n\nNo incidents have been recorded at the South Eastern Trust.\n\nThe Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) said their \"engage, explain and encourage\" approach to policing the new laws had been successful.\n\nOnly two arrests have been made across Northern Ireland, both at Causeway Hospital, the police have said.\n\nIn November, a sign comparing Causeway Hospital to a Nazi concentration camp was seized near the Lodge Road Roundabout and three people were cautioned for public order offences by police.\n\nOfficers were alerted to the sign while attending a report of an alleged assault at a protest at the same time.\n\nIn November, a sign comparing Causeway Hospital to a Nazi concentration camp was seized and three people were cautioned for public order offences by police.\n\nLauren McAuley, a member of the pro-choice group, North Coast for Choice, described the posters, placards and imagery such as white crosses, as very distressing.\n\n\"I believe that the protesters who come here are not showing any remorse or sympathy for those who may need abortion services,\" Ms McAuley said.\n\n\"I would defend anyone's right to protest but nobody needs to protest outside a hospital.\n\n\"Where the protesters stand is on a very busy roundabout and there are schools nearby.\"\n\nNorth Coast for Choice campaigner Lauren McAuley says no one needs to protest outside a hospital\n\n\"People feel harassed - you must have some understanding for what people are going through,\" Ms McAuley said.\n\n\"The 100-metre safe access zone in place is not enough. It can be extended and should be extended\".\n\nMore incidents were reported near the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine than at any other site, according to police figures.\n\nGemma Brolly is the deputy leader of the anti-abortion party Aontú.\n\nMs Brolly said that her party did not participate in the protests, but that she did not support the widening of the zones.\n\n\"I can't see what difference 250 metres is going to make\" she told BBC News NI.\n\n\"I believe it can only escalate the situation further and I find it worrying and disappointing.\n\n\"We are watching the deletion of human rights where you can protest with one frame of mind but you cannot with another.\n\n\"Aontú as a party believe in respectful discourse and compassion and without that, nothing will change.\"\n\nTwo East Londonderry assembly members, the SDLP's Cara Hunter and Independent Claire Sugden, are supporting the extension of the zone.\n\nCara Hunter described the imagery being used at the protests as \"shocking\".\n\nSome protestors have planted signs and mock graves near Causeway Hospital\n\n\"I have spoken to a large number of constituents, both patients and hospital staff who have told about the level of distress they have experienced as a direct result of these protests.\n\n\"There is a right to protest but for many it's traumatising seeing some of the imagery here.\n\n\"I have asked the Northern Trust for an interim report to identify concerns from constituents.\"\n\nCara Hunter described the imagery being used at the protests as \"shocking\"\n\nA former justice minister and Independent MLA Claire Sugden said she also supported extending the zone.\n\n\"I appreciate people have a right to an opinion and a right to protest but it is how they are expressing themselves that is causing the issue,\" Ms Sugden said.\n\n\"The imagery is causing distress, not just to new mothers, but to people coming in and out of the hospital.\n\n\"People have a right to protest but not when others are being harmed by it.\"\n\nIn a statement to BBC News NI, the Northern Trust said at Causeway Hospital, the safe access zones were set at 100m following detailed preparation work.\n\n\"We will continue to keep this under review. While we recognise and acknowledge the legitimate right to peaceful protest, we also have a duty of care to both patients and staff,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nThe Department for Health (DoH) said the safe access zones were monitored by staff and the PSNI.\n\nThe department said it would produce an annual report on all eight zones' effectiveness.\n\nThe anti-abortion groups, Precious Life and Abolish Abortion NI declined to comment, on any extension of the zone at Causeway Hospital.\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.", "A volcano has erupted on the Reykjanes peninsula of south-west Iceland after weeks of intense earthquake activity.\n\nFootage from above showed lava bursting from the volcano just an hour after an earthquake swarm, or seismic events, were detected.\n\nThe eruption started north of the fishing town of Grindavik - south-west of the capital Reykjavik - at 22:17 GMT on Monday, the Icelandic Met Office said.\n\nRead more on this story here.", "Like many from Thailand's poor north-east, Wichian Temthong left for Israel to find better-paid work\n\n\"Am I lucky or unlucky?\" Wichian Temthong pondered the question. \"I guess I'm lucky, because I'm still here, still alive.\"\n\nThe 37-year-old farm worker is one of 23 Thai hostages who were released by Hamas last month. Now Wichian is back in Thailand, living in a small room in an industrial suburb south of Bangkok with his wife Malai.\n\nWhile he survived, three young Israeli men he met in captivity did not. They were mistakenly shot dead by Israeli soldiers.\n\nWichian had gone to Israel only in late September, driven like so many Thais from the poor north-east of the country to find better-paid work on Israeli farms. After nine days he was moved to an avocado orchard on the Kfar Aza kibbutz. He woke up on 7 October, his first morning there, to the sound of gunfire.\n\nHis fellow Thai workers assured him it was normal. But as the shooting got louder towards midday, they decided to lock themselves in one of the buildings. Before they could do that gunmen burst in, one holding a hand grenade. They started beating the Thais with their rifle butts.\n\n\"I crouched down like this and shouted 'Thailand, Thailand, Thailand', he said, showing how he pulled his arms over his head. \"But they kept beating me. All I could do was keep my face down. One guy stamped on me with his feet. I crawled under the bed to hide. I tried to text my wife to say I was being taken, but they dragged me out by my leg.\"\n\nWichian was eventually taken down into tunnels deep under Gaza, and would be kept there for 51 days. His was a lonely ordeal, because he was the only Thai, and he speaks no English, so could only communicate through drawings and hand gestures.\n\nConditions were grim. The hostages were fed just once a day; sometimes this was no more than a piece of bread and a dried date.\n\n\"When I was distressed they would come and talk to me, to calm me down, but I could not understand them. The only way I got by was by thinking of the faces of my children, my wife and my mother.\n\n\"When there was nothing else to do, I'd just sit against the wall and meditate. I kept thinking about the same thing over and over, which was that I had to survive.\"\n\nHe remembers the other hostages who were with him in the tunnels; three young Israeli men - Yotam, Sammy and Alon - who remained in captivity after his release, only to be shot dead by nervous Israeli soldiers as they came out, waving a white cloth, last Friday.\n\nLeft to right: Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka\n\nHe had just seen the news, with their photographs, when we arrived to interview him.\n\n\"Every day my foreign friends and I tried to support each other. We would shake hands and do fist bumps. They would cheer me up by hugging me and clapping my shoulder. But we could only communicate by using our hands.\"\n\nHe found out that Yotam was a drummer, and Sammy loved riding his motorbike, and worked in a chicken farm. Wichian tried to teach them some Thai words. Wichian said two of the Israelis were in the tunnel with him from day one. The third joined them on 9 October.\n\nHe says he was treated leniently by his captors, but that in their first weeks underground two of the Israelis were sometimes beaten with electric cables.\n\n\"We were always hungry. We could only sip our water. A large bottle had to last four to five days, a smaller bottler for two days.\"\n\nHe really suffered from not being able to wash. They were allowed to sleep in the day, not at night. They were always damp - nothing dried in the tunnels.\n\nHe kept himself busy by trying to clean their living area. He even helped the Hamas guards move rubble that came into the tunnel after it was struck by a bomb.\n\nWichian, seen in these pictures with his wife and two children, says he would go back to Israel just for the chance to earn, and save, a little more\n\nAfter a month the four hostages were moved to a new tunnel. \"At around 7pm they brought us up. But as soon as I saw it, my heart wanted to run back down to the tunnel.\n\n\"You could see bright lights everywhere from the aerial fighting. I heard drones flying all over the place, and the sound of gunfire. We had to run for 20 minutes, trying to avoid the drones.\"\n\nWichian says his captors encouraged him to count the days on a calendar, and even brought him a clock, because he kept asking them the time.\n\nThe end of his ordeal came suddenly. \"They came pointing to me and saying 'you, you go home, Thailand'.\" He saw daylight for the first time in 51 days, and was handed over to the Red Cross and driven over the border to Egypt.\n\n\"All the time I was down there I never shed a tear. But once I came up, and saw the two other released Thais, I hugged them and cried. We had a group hug and sat down with tears filling our eyes, asking ourselves how we could have survived.\n\n\"When I got back to Thailand they gave me a new name. They called me 'the survivor' and 'Mr Plenty of Fortune'.\"\n\nHowever, he still needs to pay back the substantial debt he incurred - around 230,000 Thai baht ($6,570; £5,180) - to cover the cost of his trip to Israel. He never had the chance to earn any money there.\n\nSo, like his wife, Wichian is taking a job in a factory. The salary is low - just 800 baht a day. They cannot save much. Their two children are living with their grandparents in their home province of Buri Ram.\n\nWichian sometimes has trouble sleeping, and wakes up calling for his mother. But, he says, he would go back to Israel, just for the chance to earn, and save, a little more.", "Hungary has blocked €50bn ($55bn; £43bn) in EU aid for Ukraine - just hours after an agreement was reached on starting membership talks.\n\n\"Summary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine,\" Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said after Thursday's talks in Brussels.\n\nEU leaders said Ukraine would not be left without support.\n\nUkraine is critically dependent on EU and US funding as it continues to fight occupying Russian forces.\n\nMr Orban announced his block shortly after the EU leaders decided to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant candidate status to Georgia.\n\nHungary - which maintains close ties with Russia - has long opposed membership for Ukraine but did not veto that move.\n\nMr Orban left the negotiating room momentarily in what officials described as a pre-agreed and constructive manner, while the other 26 leaders went ahead with the vote.\n\nHe told Hungarian state radio on Friday that he had fought for eight hours to stop his EU partners but could not convince them. Ukraine's path to EU membership would be a long process anyway, he said, and parliament in Budapest could still stop it happening if it wanted to.\n\nTalks on the financial package ended in the early hours of Friday. EU leaders said negotiations would resume early next year, reassuring Kyiv that support would continue.\n\nSpeaking later that day, European Council President Charles Michel said he was \"confident and optimistic\" the EU would fulfil its promise to support Ukraine.\n\nBelgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo echoed him: \"The message to Ukraine is: we will be there to support you, we just need to figure out a few of the details together.\"\n\nMr Michel had earlier confirmed that all but one EU leader had agreed on the aid package and wider budget proposals for the bloc - although Sweden still needed to consult its parliament. He vowed to achieve the necessary unanimity for the deal.\n\nA long delay in financial aid for the country would cause big problems for Ukraine's budget, Kyiv-based economist Sergiy Fursa told the BBC.\n\n\"It pays for all social responsibilities of the government - wages for teachers, doctors, for pensions,\" he said.\n\nUkraine is also desperately seeking the approval of a $61bn US defence aid package - but that decision is also being delayed because of major disagreements between Democrat and Republican lawmakers.\n\nUkraine's counter-offensive against Russia's occupying forces ground to a halt at the start of winter, and there are fears that the Russians could simply outgun Ukraine.\n\nOlena Zelenska, Ukraine's first lady, warned in a BBC interview last week that Ukrainians were in \"mortal danger\" of being left to die without further Western support.\n\nOn Thursday, President Putin mocked Ukraine and claimed Western \"freebies\" were running out.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Zelensky had an animated chat with Orban this week in Argentina\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was delighted by the EU's announcement on the membership. \"This is a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe. A victory that motivates, inspires and strengthens,\" he said.\n\nUkrainian politician Kira Rudik added that \"we were really elated\" following the news about EU membership talks, but she said the feeling was now \"bittersweet\" because of the funding being blocked. \"It is impossible to have a European future without winning the war,\" she told the BBC.\n\nEarlier this week, a senior Ukrainian official told the BBC that EU membership talks were more important that the €50bn because of the message it sends to both the Ukrainian people and Vladimir Putin.\n\nUkraine and neighbouring Moldova applied to join the EU after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They were both given candidate status last June, while Georgia was passed over at the time.\n\nMoldovan President Maia Sandu said it was an honour to share the path to EU accession with Ukraine. \"We wouldn't be here today without Ukraine's brave resistance against Russia's brutal invasion,\" she wrote.\n\nShe also told the BBC that Moldova's ability to \"stay part of the free world\" depended on it being part of the EU.\n\nGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz praised his fellow leaders for showing a \"strong sign of support\", adding that it was clear that both Ukraine and Moldova belonged to \"the European family\".\n\nA diplomat at the summit said it was Mr Scholz's idea for Mr Orban to leave the room to enable the vote to go through.\n\nThe Hungarian leader later distanced himself from his colleagues with a video message on Facebook: \"EU membership of Ukraine is a bad decision. Hungary does not want to participate in this bad decision.\"\n\nMr Orban has also argued that Ukraine should not get large funds from the EU as it is not part of the bloc.\n\nTalks on joining the EU can take years, so Thursday's decision will not guarantee Ukraine membership.\n\nEU candidate countries have to pass a series of reforms to adhere to standards ranging from the rule of law to the economy, although the EU's executive has already praised Ukraine for completing more than 90% of the steps taken so far on justice and tackling corruption.\n\nThere are also other countries, aside from Hungary, who are sceptical about expanding the EU beyond the current 27.\n\nAnd talk of expansion often comes alongside airy proposals for root-and-branch reform of a bloc that's often unwieldy on far less fundamental issues.\n\nBut it's still a boost for morale and comes just in time as Ukraine heads into a second winter following Russia's full-scale invasion, and as the world's attention is drawn elsewhere by war in the Middle East.", "The BBC has been speaking to Wang Yi, the Chief commander of the BlueSky Search & Rescue Team, Gansu about the status of rescue operations.\n\nMr Wang said that number of casualties of the quake would \"definitely rise though not by much\". He also said that the sub zero temperatures in Gansu were \"too cold to bear\" which would have an impact on how many survivors could be rescued.\n\n\"Mainly it’s the temperature, the weather. Secondly it’s the altitude. The place is colder than Turkey (which also recently experienced a devastating earthquake). It’s-15C. For teams from the south (which is warmer) this is hard to endure.\"\n\nHe added that \"not too many\" survivors had been found since his team had arrived there on Tuesday morning.\n\n\"The team on the ground is checking (house to house for survivors). I think around the town there shouldn’t be much problem, because we have a lot of search and rescue resources there,\" he said.\n\n\"The first batch of minor injuries have all come out. Now we need to dig deeper. But there are no big buildings in the area. So it will rise, but it won’t be much. Because if it’s a whole collapsed building, then this will lead to high casualties. But these are flat civilian’s houses. They are old houses, some made of clay and mud. There are no high buildings.", "Prince Harry won in relation to 15 articles published by MGN on Friday\n\nPhone hacking victims, including Prince Harry, could launch a legal challenge if police do not reopen a criminal investigation into Mirror newspapers.\n\nTheir legal team have told the BBC they could attempt a private prosecution themselves, if necessary.\n\nThe High Court last week found evidence of \"widespread and habitual\" use of phone hacking at the Mirror newspapers.\n\nThe Met Police said it would consider the judgement but there was no current investigation.\n\nDr Evan Harris, an adviser to the group of lawyers representing Prince Harry and more than 80 other claimants, said they had faith that the Met Police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) would \"finally carry out their duties properly, thoroughly, and transparently\".\n\nClaimants include Prince Harry's ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, actors Kate Winslet and Ricky Tomlinson, footballer Ian Wright and singers Cheryl Tweedy and Sarah Harding, who died while making her claim.\n\nProsecutors closed down a previous inquiry in 2015 but lawyers plan to help the police identify potential new evidence and witnesses from the Mirror phone hacking trial.\n\nHowever, if police and prosecutors decided not to act, Dr Harris said, the claimants would challenge those decisions.\n\nThe Victim's Right to Review scheme allows victims of crime to request that the CPS reconsider a decision not to prosecute.\n\n\"In fact a judicial review and/or a private prosecution would also be real possibilities,\" Dr Harris said.\n\nThese are serious offences compounded by even more serious offences,\" he claimed, adding that these included perjury and \"other criminal forms of coverup\".\n\nA judicial review would involve the High Court deciding if a police decision not to prosecute was unlawful.\n\nIn a private prosecution, hacking victims would ask a magistrate to begin a case against MGN, bypassing the CPS.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police began investigating phone hacking at Mirror titles, primarily the Sunday Mirror, in 2013.\n\nA series of journalists were arrested and the former Daily Mirror Editor Piers Morgan was questioned under caution.\n\nBut in December 2015, the CPS decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute 10 journalists connected to the Mirror titles.\n\nFor the Metropolitan Police this closed the book on a difficult and politically sensitive series of inquiries, and Scotland Yard may need persuading to reopen it.\n\nThe lawyers involved in this summer's unprecedented court hearings - during which Prince Harry became the first royal in modern times to give evidence in the witness box - say the police now have access to significant new evidence against MGN.\n\nAny criminal investigation would consider whether Mirror Group journalists or private investigators working for them had unlawfully accessed telephone voicemail messages.\n\nThis would be a breach of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.\n\nThe former editor of the News of the World, Andy Coulson, was convicted of this offence, along with other journalists, in 2014 and sentenced to 18 months in prison.\n\nThe News of the World was owned by a different company, now called News UK. It was shut down in 2011.\n\nA police investigation could also look at the use of private investigators to obtain information about prominent people for use in newspaper stories.\n\nThey could face charges under data protection laws, or legislation restricting the use of the electoral roll.\n\nThe judge in the Mirror hacking case, Mr Justice Fancourt, named 11 private investigator firms involved in \"extensive\" or \"habitual\" unlawful information gathering or phone hacking on behalf of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People newspapers.\n\n\"They were an integral part of the system that existed at all three newspapers to collect private information unlawfully and then publish it,\" he ruled.\n\nPiers Morgan was editor of the Daily Mirror between 1995 and 2004\n\nAny journalists or executives shown to have lied to the Leveson Inquiry into press standards in 2011 and 2012 could face charges of perjury.\n\nA key question for the police and prosecutors would be whether the activities of journalists and investigators were \"unlawful\" - likely to result in a civil court finding against them - or \"illegal\" - a breach of the criminal law.\n\nJudge Fancourt decided \"on the balance of probabilities\" that unlawful information gathering had taken place. In other words, that it was more likely than not.\n\nHis judgement went further in places, concluding that there was \"no doubt\" that the editors of the newspapers knew about phone hacking and unlawful information gathering and \"were in a position\" to tell senior executives about it, but didn't.\n\nFor a jury to find someone guilty in a criminal trial they would have to be \"sure, beyond all reasonable doubt\".\n\nSome of those accused in this case, including Piers Morgan, gave no evidence at all in their defence and didn't appear in court.\n\nA criminal trial would require all of the accused to be in the dock, defended by senior barristers. They would be able to decide whether to give evidence personally in front of a jury.\n\nFollowing Friday's judgement, Mr Morgan again denied personally hacking a phone or ordering someone to and said \"nobody has produced any actual evidence to prove that I did\".\n\nMGN said it welcomed the judgement which gave the business \"clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago\".\n\n\"Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid appropriate compensation,\" the company which now owns MGN, Reach PLC, said in a statement.", "President Zelensky revealed today that he’s considering costly proposals to mobilise a further half a million people.\n\nIt comes as commanders report ammunition shortages across the long front line.\n\nPackages of US and EU support to Ukraine - both military and economic - are stuck, probably until at least the New Year.\n\nZelensky was asked by the BBC if he thought there was a danger Ukraine was losing the war, which he flatly denied.\n\nIt’s his job to strike a defiant and positive tone - to try to rally his country.\n\nBut earlier this year there were big hopes of a breakthrough with an eagerly-anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive that, in the end, hasn’t done much to change the front lines.\n\nAsked about a reported rift between the president and his top general, Valery Zaluzhny, Zelensky insisted the two still had a good working relationship.\n\nOn the question of how long the war might take, the president said no-one could answer that.\n\nBut Ukraine, he said, would not be let down by its partners.\n\nAnd what if Donald Trump returned to the White House after next year’s US presidential election?\n\nZelensky said he didn’t think US policy would change. But if it did, he acknowledged, this could have a significant impact on the war.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Will it be a white Christmas in Scotland? BBC Scotland Weather's Christopher Blanchett gives the latest forecast.\n\nIt's the question we get asked without fail every year. Will it be a white Christmas?\n\nSpoiler alert: we don't know yet. At least not with any certainty.\n\nFor the big day to be classed as an \"official\" white Christmas, just one snowflake has to be observed within the 24 hour period - and it happens quite a lot.\n\nIt used to be the case that a single location was used for keeping watch and recording any solitary flakes.\n\nBut nowadays there are all sorts of locations included in the count, from Edinburgh Castle to Pittodrie Stadium, home of Aberdeen FC.\n\nAberdeen FC's Pittodrie Stadium is just one of the locations used to measure a white Christmas\n\nSince 1960, more than 50% of Christmases have been classified as white.\n\n2022 was one of them, though no stations recorded any lying snow, 9% recorded falling snow.\n\nBut let's face it, a single snowflake is a rather unconvincing reality.\n\nIt certainly doesn't match those the snowy Dickensian scenes plastered on greetings cards, fake snow sprayed onto shop windows or streaming service Christmas movies.\n\nIf you want the sort of snow dumps Bing Crosby dreamed of, carpeting the streets and crunching underfoot, well that's much more of a rarity.\n\nWidespread lying snow is the classification where more than 40% of recording stations in the UK see it on the ground.\n\nThe last time that happened was 2010. We are more likely to see significant snow later in winter, through late January and into February or even early March - Christmas is right at the start of winter, which doesn't help.\n\nHowever, here in Scotland we are best-placed to see any potential snow on offer, more so than elsewhere in the UK.\n\nMany publications, newspapers, blogs and enthusiasts can get very excited about the prospect of snow.\n\nAnyone proclaiming to tell you the \"exact time snow will fall\" in the weeks leading up to Christmas has been on Santa's sherry a little early.\n\nBraemar woke up to a good covering of Christmas snow in 2021\n\nWeather forecasting is a complex, changing and often times frustrating business. The big numerical weather prediction models that are used to gain an idea of forthcoming weather patterns are run multiple times a day, every day. Sometimes they give a clear indication of a general trend, other times they're more divergent.\n\nOne model run may suggest copious snowfall, then 12 hours later it's the complete opposite. We are forecasting the future after all.\n\nThe closer you get to the day in question, the greater the chance of being correct, which is backed up by all the different models hopefully in agreement and saying the same sort of thing. Patience really is a virtue.\n\nThe week ahead will see a colder spell set in around Thursday to Saturday, with the chance of some wintry showers and snow to low levels on occasion - and that may prove tricky for anyone travelling cross-country before the weekend.\n\nBeyond that, there is still disagreement between the various weather models we use regarding exactly what will happen.\n\nIt is likely Christmas will be white, at least technically, but as we've covered, that's not a green light to dust off the sledge. Showers in December across northern Scotland can often be wintry. Remember it's just a single flake needed, perhaps mixed in with some rain and sleet.\n\nThe general picture at this stage, just under a week out, is that we're expecting the UK to be wedged along a boundary of high pressure and milder air to the south west, with low pressure and colder air to the north or north east.\n\nOver the festive period, it looks as though there will be more of an Atlantic influence - so rain and average or above average temperatures. Though cold incursions from the north mean we could still see some wintry weather at times.\n\nThe air mass chart in the run up to Christmas shows cold air tantalisingly close to the north\n\nWe're keeping a close eye on the detail, as the weather models run time and time again. BBC Scotland weather will keep you updated in the coming days.\n\nSnow-mantic visions aside, Christmas is often a time when people are frantically trying to get somewhere else and many have to travel.\n\nThe general outlook beyond Christmas and towards Hogmanay, is for a rather unsettled picture with spells of wind and rain likely.\n\nDon't write off that street party just yet though. We just need to be patient.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Spectacular helicopter shots show the eruption on the island's coast\n\nPollution from a volcano that erupted on Monday could hit Iceland's capital, the country's meteorological office has said.\n\nThe eruption, which broke out on the Reykjanes peninsula of south-west Iceland, comes after weeks of intense earthquakes and tremors.\n\nFumes could reach Reykjavik by Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning.\n\nAbout 4,000 people were evacuated last month from Grindavik, a fishing town threatened by the lava flow.\n\nA resident living near Grindavik described \"crazy\" and \"scary\" scenes on Monday night and said she could still see the volcano exploding on Tuesday.\n\nIceland has been braced for volcanic activity for weeks. Since late October, the region around Reykjavik has been experiencing an increase in earthquake activity.\n\nThe eruption can be seen from Reykjavik, which is about 42km north-east of Grindavik.\n\nAn eyewitness in the capital told the BBC that half of the sky in the direction of the town was \"lit up in red\" from the eruption, and smoke could be seen billowing into the air.\n\nOn Tuesday, British tourists Amrit and Peter, a married couple in their 20s, took selfies with the bright orange lava in the background.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Peter said: \"We are not scared at all, the Icelandic authorities are handling this well and keep giving us information. We feel totally safe.\"\n\nIn 2010, a volcanic eruption caused an ash plume to rise several kilometres into the atmosphere, leading to several days of air travel disruption in Europe.\n\nVolcanologist Dr Evgenia Ilyinskaya told the BBC that there would not be the same level of disruption as 2010, as these volcanoes in south-west Iceland were \"physically not able to generate the same ash clouds\".\n\nSpeaking from Iceland, Dr Ilyinskaya, associate professor of volcanology at Leeds University, said local people had been both \"fearing and waiting for\" the volcano to erupt.\n\nShe added that authorities were preparing for potential lava flows that could destroy homes and infrastructure, including the Blue Lagoon, a popular tourist destination.\n\n\"At the moment it seems not to be threatening, although it remains to be seen,\" she said.\n\nThe Icelandic Met Office said at 12:30 GMT on Tuesday that the power of the eruption was decreasing, but that gases from the volcano could still reach Reykjavik.\n\nAoalheiour Halldorsdottir, who lives in Sandgeroi - about 20km from Grindavik - said she had seen the eruption from her home.\n\n\"It was crazy to see it with my own eyes. We have had volcano explosions before, but this was the first time I got really scared,\" she told BBC News.\n\n\"We're used to volcanoes [erupting], but this was crazy.\"\n\nShe said there was some \"panic\" on Monday night, and that she had bought extra supplies of water, but that things had largely returned to normal on Tuesday.\n\n\"I'm at work now and I can still see it. I can see the lights in the sky,\" she said.\n\nHans Vera was evacuated from Grindavik last month, but hoped before Monday's eruption to return home for Christmas.\n\nBut he said: \"I don't see that in the future they will let people get close to Grindavik - so we are back in the waiting game.\"\n\nIceland's foreign minister, Bjarni Benediktsson said on X, formerly Twitter, that \"there are no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland, and international flight corridors remain open\".\n\n\"The jets [of lava] are quite high, so it appears to be a powerful eruption at the beginning,\" he said.\n\nImages and videos posted on social media showed lava bursting from the volcano just an hour after an earthquake swarm - a series of seismic events - was detected.\n\nPolice have warned people to stay away from the area.\n\nThe length of the crack in the volcano is about 3.5km, with the lava flowing at a rate of around 100 to 200 cubic metres per second, the Met Office said, adding that this was many times more than recent eruptions on the Reykjanes peninsula.\n\nIceland's Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir said defences recently constructed would have a positive effect.\n\nShe said her thoughts were with the local community and she was hoping for the best despite the \"significant event\".\n\nPresident Gudni Johannesson said safeguarding lives was the main priority but that every effort would be made to protect structures too.\n\nAbout 4,000 people were evacuated from the fishing town of Grindavik last month\n\nAre you in Iceland? What can you see? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "President Zelensky sought to strike a confident note during his two-hour long press-conference\n\nUkraine's military wants to mobilise up to 500,000 extra people, President Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed, as the war with Russia nears a two-year mark.\n\nAt a news conference in Kyiv, he said his commanders were seeking \"450,000-500,000 individuals\", admitting this was a \"sensitive\" and costly issue.\n\nHe said he needed more details before backing the move, hinting that 500,000 soldiers were already on the front.\n\nHis comments come in the wake of aid setbacks from the US and the EU.\n\nRepublicans in the US Congress first blocked a $60bn (£47bn) military package for Ukraine earlier this month. This week, representatives of both the White House and the State Department said the US was planning one more military aid package to Ukraine - but that it had limited ability to send more help after that unless Congress acted.\n\nThe US setback was followed by Hungary's blocking of the EU's €50bn ($55bn; £43bn) financial aid deal last week. EU leaders, however, said Ukraine would not be left without support.\n\nUkraine is facing an ammunition shortage as it continues to fight occupying Russian forces, following Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022.\n\nKyiv's counter-offensive ground to a halt at the start of winter and there are fears that the Russians could simply outgun Ukraine.\n\nOlena Zelenska, Ukraine's first lady, warned in a BBC interview earlier this month that Ukrainians were in \"mortal danger\" of being left to die without further Western support.\n\nRussia President Vladimir Putin said this week that Moscow would continue its invasion, vowing that all his goals would be achieved.\n\nThe Kremlin leader also said that 617,000 Russian soldiers were currently taking part in what Moscow describes as its \"special military operation\". But he admitted that the armed forces had problems with air defence systems and communication, and needed to increase the production of drones.\n\nPresident Zelensky's end-of-year news conference was held in the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday, with the time and venue being kept secret from the general public. Invited Ukrainian and foreign media had been given the details in their confirmation letters.\n\nAppearing in his trademark military-style clothes, the Ukrainian leader was asked a wide range of questions during the two-hour event.\n\nHe revealed that Ukraine's top military commanders had \"proposed to mobilise an additional 450,000-500,000 individuals\" for the country's war effort.\n\nHe said this was a \"very serious number\" and he needed more in-depth discussion before committing to the plan.\n\n\"I need specifics: what will happen to the million-strong army of Ukraine, what will happen to those guys who have been defending our state for two years? We have issues of rotation and holidays. It should be a comprehensive plan.\"\n\nBut he ruled out any proposals to mobilise women.\n\nUkraine's military has admitted it is facing an ammunition shortage\n\nWhen asked by the BBC's Jessica Parker about whether Ukraine could be on the cusp of starting to lose the war, Mr Zelensky was firm. \"No,\" was the answer.\n\nIt's the answer you would expect, but he's not alone in expressing this kind of determination, our correspondent in Kyiv says. Many people she has met will not countenance anything other than beating back their Russian invaders, she adds.\n\nDuring the briefing, Mr Zelensky also said that:\n\nDuring the whole event, the Ukrainian president sought to strike a confident note - but sometimes he appeared to be tense and tetchy when pressed over reports of corruption among Ukrainian government officials and lawmakers.", "Police say they have received no formal complaint after Norwich City co-owner Delia Smith's car was hit by objects as she arrived at Ipswich Town's stadium for Saturday's derby match.\n\nVideo captured the moment items bounced off the Norwich owner's car, with one can landing on the BMW's bonnet.\n\nPeople could also be heard chanting \"scum\" in the direction of the vehicle.\n\nAn Ipswich Town spokesman said: \"We are aware of a reported incident on Saturday that took place outside of the stadium on Constantine Road.\n\n\"The local authorities are aware and we will assist them in any way possible.\"\n\nSuffolk Police said the force was \"aware of an incident whereby a beer can was thrown on to the bonnet of a car in Constantine Road\".\n\n\"There was no injury or damage caused and no formal complaint has been received,\" a spokesperson said.", "A US senator has said he is angry after an aide reportedly appeared in a sex tape recorded in a Senate hearing room.\n\nBen Cardin said the staff member who has been linked to the clip was \"no longer a Senate employee\".\n\nThe Maryland Democrat told reporters: \"I was angry, disappointed. It's a breach of trust. All of the above.\"\n\nNo charges have been filed, according to US media. The BBC has contacted US Capitol Police for comment.\n\nThe police department tasked with protecting Congress has told US media it was looking into the matter.\n\nThe Daily Caller reported on Friday that the video showed a congressional aide having \"sex with an unknown man in the Senate hearing room\" and that it was posted in a private group for gay men in politics. It is unclear when it took place.\n\nThe tape appeared to have been filmed in a deserted Hart Senate Office Building room 216, according to Politico. The room has hosted blockbuster hearings, including the 9/11 Commission and Supreme Court nominations.\n\nSenator Ben Cardin said he was \"disappointed\"\n\nThe BBC has not independently verified the video or confirmed the identity of anyone involved.\n\nOn Monday, Mr Cardin was asked by reporters how an aide would have been able to access the Senate hearing room.\n\n\"These are personnel issues,\" said the senator, who is set to retire at the end of his term.\n\n\"Over the weekend when I learned about it, I made sure that... the appropriate steps were taken,\" he added.\n\nSenator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, told reporters that the aide in question had been fired.", "More than 2.4m migrants were detained at the US-Mexico border in the 2022 fiscal year\n\nTexas has enacted a law that will make border crossings illegal and punishable with jail time, one of the toughest immigration laws passed by any US state in modern times.\n\nGovernor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said it would \"stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas\".\n\nImmigrants rights groups have sued Texas to stop the law's enforcement.\n\nIt comes amid rising illegal migration and public concern over US President Joe Biden's handling of the border.\n\nIn practice, the law allows local and state police officers to stop and arrest anyone suspected of having crossed the border illegally, except in schools and hospitals.\n\nPunishments range from misdemeanours to felonies that can lead to jail time or fines of up to $2,000 (£1,580).\n\nA judge can also order that those arrested be sent back across the border into Mexico, although it is unclear how Texas authorities plan to enforce that provision.\n\nPenalties for illegal re-entry could go up to 20 years in jail, depending on a migrant's immigration and criminal history.\n\nCrossing the border illegally is already a federal crime, but violations are currently handled as civil cases by the immigration court system.\n\nOne of the key debates over the law is whether state governments can create such measures. US courts have previously ruled that only the federal government can enforce immigration laws.\n\nThis measure has received heavy criticism from Democratic lawmakers and Mexico's government, and it was a near certainty that it would face legal challenges from immigration advocates.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: A look at the US border as immigration debate heats up\n\nThe American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas and Texas Civil Rights Project filed a lawsuit against the state on behalf of El Paso County and two immigrants rights organisations that operate in Texas the day after the law was signed by Governor Abbott.\n\nThe ACLU argues in its lawsuit that the legislation is unconstitutional and burdensome to local governments.\n\nThe lawsuit estimates that SB4 could result in 8,000 arrests each year in El Paso county alone - a potentially costly strain on the local court and jail system.\n\nThe groups involved are asking for a federal judge to intervene, declare it unlawful and stop it from being enforced.\n\n\"SB4 lets police arrest people over 'suspicions' about immigration status and judges deport people without due process,\" the ACLU of Texas wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. \"This is unconstitutional and will harm black and brown Texans the most.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed his government would also challenge the law, characterising it as a misguided ploy for Governor Abbott to \"win popularity\".\n\nWhite House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said that \"generally speaking, the federal government - not individual states - is charged with determining how and when to remove noncitizens for violating immigration laws\".\n\nThe BBC has contacted the justice department - which would be responsible for filing any federal legal action against Texas - for comment.\n\nBorder and immigration issues have become a political headache for President Biden.\n\nDuring the 2022 fiscal year that ended in September, a total of 2.4 million migrant \"encounters\" were registered at the border, a record high.\n\nRepublicans lawmakers have sought to use US military aid to Ukraine as leverage to secure policies to crack down on illegal immigration.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Michelle Mone: \"I'm sorry for not saying straight out: Yes, I am involved\"\n\nBaroness Michelle Mone has hit back at Rishi Sunak, saying she was \"honest\" with the government over contracts for personal protective equipment (PPE).\n\nThe peer has admitted lying to the media about her links to a company that supplied millions of pounds worth of personal protective equipment to the government during the Covid pandemic.\n\nBut she insisted the government knew about her involvement.\n\nThe prime minister said he was taking the issue \"incredibly seriously\".\n\nIn an interview with the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Baroness Mone conceded she stands to benefit from the profits made by PPE Medpro, which is led by her husband.\n\nAsked about her admission she did not tell the truth about her links to the company, Mr Sunak said: \"The government takes these things incredibly seriously, which is why we're pursuing legal action against the company concerned in these matters.\"\n\n\"But it is also subject to an ongoing criminal investigation. And because of that, there's not much further that I can add,\" he told reporters on a visit to Scotland.\n\nResponding to Mr Sunak's comments on X, Baroness Mone said: \"What is @RishiSunak talking about?\n\n\"I was honest with the Cabinet Office, the government and the NHS in my dealings with them.\n\n\"They all knew about my involvement from the very beginning.\"\n\nHowever, Lord Bethell - who was a minister in the Department of Health during the pandemic - disputed her account, saying she \"wasn't 'honest' about her financial interest to me\".\n\n\"She didn't explain 'from the very beginning' about her financial 'involvement',\" he wrote on X, adding that Mr Sunak was right to take the matter seriously.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Baroness Mone should not be a member of the House of Lords, describing the scandal as a \"shocking disgrace from top to bottom\".\n\nHe said the government had \"serious questions\" to answer, including who started the conversations with Baroness Mone in the first place.\n\nThe Liberal Democrats called for \"an urgent independent inquiry into what happened at the Cabinet Office over these contracts\".\n\n\"The more this scandal unfolds the more serious the questions for Michael Gove and other ministers to answer,\" the party's Cabinet Office spokeswoman Christine Jardine said.\n\n\"What did ministers know when, and what exactly did they say to Michelle Mone or anyone else involved?\"\n\nIn her interview on Sunday, Baroness Mone said she contacted Michael Gove - then Cabinet Office minister - at the start of the pandemic to offer help.\n\nThe Scottish lingerie tycoon was made a Conservative peer by David Cameron but is no longer in the parliamentary party.\n\nShe is currently on a leave of absence from Parliament, which she previously said was to \"clear her name\", and is being investigated by the House of Lords for not declaring her interest in PPE Medpro.\n\nThe company is also being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).\n\nEarlier, Energy Efficiency Minister Lord Callanan said he hoped Baroness Mone would \"see sense\" and \"would not be coming back to the House of Lords\".\n\n\"I think she should have declared her involvement in that in the House of Lords register, and there is guidance available for that,\" he told Sky News.\n\nThe peer, in an exclusive interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, says she stands to benefit from £60m PPE profit.\n\nPPE Medpro was awarded government contracts worth more than £200m to supply PPE to the NHS during the pandemic through a so-called \"VIP lane\", introduced to help the government choose between huge numbers of supplier offers.\n\nIn November 2021, the government revealed that Baroness Mone was the \"source of referral\" for PPE Medpro getting a place in the VIP lane.\n\nMillions of gowns the company supplied were never used but the couple say these were supplied in accordance with the contract.\n\nPPE Medpro is being sued by the UK government for £122m plus costs for \"breach of contract and unjust enrichment\". The company is defending the legal action.\n\nIn their interview with the BBC, Baroness Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman apologised for denying their role in the deal for more than three years.\n\nHaving previously denied gaining directly from the contracts, which yielded profits of around £60m, Baroness Mone admitted she and her children stand to become beneficiaries of financial trusts where the money is held.\n\n\"If my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children,\" she said.\n\nShe accepted they had lied to the media about their involvement, saying this was to protect her family from press intrusion. But she said this was \"not a crime\".\n\nBaroness Mone said she had been told by Cabinet Office officials she only had to declare her interest to them, not the House of Lords.\n\nThe couple said the government's handling of PPE contracts was \"shambolic\" and claimed they had been made scapegoats because they were \"high profile and successful\".", "Ukraine has warned it is already being forced to downsize some military operations because of a drop-off in foreign aid.\n\nTop general Oleksandr Tarnavskyi said troops faced ammunition shortages along the \"entire front line\", creating a \"big problem\" for Kyiv.\n\nIt comes as billions of dollars of US and EU aid have been held up amid political wrangles.\n\nUkraine said it hoped to boost its own ammunition industry with western help.\n\nBut it relies heavily on western supplies, particularly on deliveries of long-range missiles and air defence systems, to fight occupying Russian forces.\n\nGen Tarnavskyi told the Reuters news agency that the country lacked artillery shells, particularly for its Soviet-era weapons.\n\n\"The volumes we have are not sufficient, given our needs,\" he said. \"So, we're redistributing it. We're re-planning tasks that we had set for ourselves and making them smaller because we need to provide for them.\"\n\nHe said that diminishing foreign military aid was already having an impact on the battlefield, and forcing a change in tactics.\n\n\"In some areas, we moved to defence, and in some we continue our offensive actions.\n\n\"And we are preparing our reserves for our further large-scale actions. Their intention remains. The only thing is that their actions change, tactics change.\"\n\nHis comments come in the wake of setbacks in both the EU and US. Republicans in the US Congress first blocked a $60bn (£47bn) military package for Ukraine earlier this month.\n\nThat was followed by Hungary's blocking of the EU's €50bn ($55bn; £43bn) financial aid deal last week. EU leaders however said Ukraine would not be left without support.\n\nUkraine was already facing an ammunition shortage as Western powers struggled to maintain supplies. The EU pledged to send one million artillery shells by March 2024, but so far only 480,000 have been either delivered or are in the pipeline.\n\nMeanwhile, the US has provided Ukraine with more than two million 155mm shells for use in Western-made artillery systems. But its own stocks have been depleted, prompting the decision last summer to send cluster munitions.\n\nUkraine is already using ammunition faster than partners can produce it. A report by the Estonian defence ministry said Kyiv needed a minimum of 200,000 artillery shells a month to retain an edge against Russia.\n\n\"Sustaining this rate will empty European and US stockpiles over 2024 and will require significant foreign purchases of ammunition,\" it said.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Ivan Havryliuk said the country was ramping up production of kamikaze drones \"to compensate [for] the lack of artillery shells\".\n\nAdditionally, it was increasing its own production of artillery rounds \"for almost the entire range\" of its Soviet-era weapons.\n\nA Ukrainian gunner on the front line in Donbas\n\nHe also said the country hoped to boost its defence industry by jointly producing ammunition with Western companies on Ukrainian soil.\n\nGen Havryliuk said this was the focus of negotiations with US companies when he accompanied President Volodymyr Zelensky during his December visit to the US.\n\nUkraine signed a number of agreements with US firms to start joint production.\n\nHe said that Ukraine could not match the resources of or manpower of Russia and the goal was to achieve technological superiority.\n\nGen Havryliuk said Kyiv was confident its international partners would overcome political differences to provide Ukraine with aid as before.\n\nEU countries, he added, sent their assistance not only as a bloc but also on a bilateral level.\n\nHowever, the situation has signalled to Russia that international support for Ukraine is weakening - and there are concerns that by switching its economy onto a war footing, Moscow can outlast the West in this battle of attrition.\n\nLast week, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his belief that the war would end only when Russia achieves its goals.\n\nKalle Kirss, the head of the Nato and EU department at Estonia's defence ministry, told the BBC that Europe needed to commit funding to support Ukraine.\n\n\"We need to signal very clearly to Russia that we're ready for a long war and that we will boost our industry and we [will] commit our resources.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Michelle Mone: \"I'm sorry for not saying straight out: Yes, I am involved\"\n\nMichelle Mone has admitted that she stands to benefit from tens of millions of pounds of profit from personal protective equipment (PPE) sold to the UK government during the pandemic by a company led by her husband, Doug Barrowman.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC, the couple apologised for denying their role in the deal for more than three years.\n\nBut a defiant Baroness Mone said: \"I don't honestly see there is a case to answer. I can't see what we have done wrong.\"\n\nPPE Medpro was awarded government contracts worth more than £200 million to supply PPE to the NHS during the pandemic through a so-called \"VIP lane\", introduced to help the government choose between huge numbers of supplier offers.\n\nIn November 2021, the government revealed that Baroness Mone was the \"source of referral\" for PPE Medpro getting a place in the VIP lane.\n\nMillions of gowns the company supplied were never used but the couple say these were supplied in accordance with the contract.\n\nPPE Medpro is being sued by the UK government for £122m plus costs for \"breach of contract and unjust enrichment\".\n\nHaving previously denied gaining directly from the contracts, which yielded profits of around £60m, the former Conservative peer and lingerie tycoon admitted she and her children were beneficiaries of financial trusts where the money is held.\n\nBaroness Mone said \"of course\" she stands to gain, adding: \"If my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children.\"\n\nShe told the BBC her life had been \"destroyed\" by allegations about their PPE profits, even though \"we've only done one thing, which was lie to the press to say we weren't involved\".\n\nShe said that was \"not a crime\" and added: \"No-one deserves this.\"\n\nMr Barrowman said that Baroness Mone \"was always going to benefit, and my family will benefit in due course… her family benefit, my family benefit\".\n\n\"That's what you do when you are in a privileged position of making money,\" he said.\n\nBut Baroness Mone insisted that neither she nor her children had yet seen a penny of the money that is being held in the trust. Nor had the couple used the proceeds of the deal to buy a yacht, she said.\n\nShe also suggested she would not benefit if \"God forbid, we get divorced after this show\".\n\nThe Scottish businesswoman was made a Conservative peer by David Cameron but is no longer in the party.\n\nThe peer, in an exclusive interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, says she stands to benefit from £60m PPE profit.\n\nThe couple confirmed to the BBC that they had been under investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) \"ongoing for two-and-a-half years\", and said that they had both only been interviewed once.\n\nThey also confirmed the investigation was into conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation, and bribery.\n\nThe couple admitted to the BBC that they had lied about their involvement with PPE Medpro.\n\nBaroness Mone said: \"I should have said I am involved, straight away, but I didn't want the press intrusion for my family. My family have gone through hell with the media over my career, and I didn't want another big hoo-ha.\"\n\nThey first made the admission they were linked to the deal during a documentary funded by the company and posted online.\n\nBaroness Mone and Mr Barrowman told the BBC they were \"upfront, straight up people\", and apologised for not telling the truth at the start, saying: \"We both regret that we didn't.\"\n\nMr Barrowman said that he had led the PPE Medpro consortium, even though he is not listed at Companies House as having any connection to the company. He told the BBC that he was, in effect, the ultimate beneficial owner of the firm - the person who ultimately owns or controls a company.\n\nBaroness Mone is also under investigation by the House of Lords for not declaring her interest in PPE Medpro.\n\nShe told the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show that Cabinet Office officials had told her that she only had to declare her interest to them, not the House of Lords.\n\nShe said: \"I discussed it with the Cabinet Office, and you do not declare your interests in the House of Lords if you are not a director, you're not a shareholder, you're not financially benefitting.\"\n\nBaroness Mone claimed an official suggested, she just \"declare your interest to us\".\n\n\"That's exactly what I did,\" she said, \"I did everything they asked me to do.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"If, God forbid, my husband passes away before me, then I am a beneficiary, as well as his children and my children\"\n\nMr Barrowman said \"the Cabinet Office clearly felt there was a perceived conflict, because you have an unusual situation of husband and wife team being together\".\n\nHe told the BBC that PPE Medpro had agreed two contracts, to a value of £202m, making a profit of around £60m, which he described as a \"good return\".\n\nMr Barrowman said there had been \"no guarantee\" that PPE Medpro would be paid until the masks and gowns had been supplied. He added that the \"risks were absolutely extraordinary\".\n\nHe denied that the deal was profiteering, saying that it had presented very competitive prices for the taxpayer.\n\nThe Department of Health launched its claim against PPE Medpro, which is separate to the criminal investigation being carried out by the NCA, a year ago.\n\nMr Barrowman alleged that a government official had suggested he hand over a significant amount of money to \"call off the dogs\", which he took to mean to end the criminal investigation.\n\nHe said: \"They asked me would I pay more for the other matter to go away. I was speechless… I was absolutely gobsmacked.\"\n\nAn NCA spokesperson said: \"The NCA opened an investigation in May 2021 into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro. The NCA is operationally independent and our investigations are intelligence-led.\"\n\nThe Department of Health would not comment.\n\nThe couple said that the government's handling of PPE had been \"shambolic\".\n\nBaroness Mone said: \"It's appalling that over £9.1 billion was overordered, five years of stock, of PPE, when it only has a shelf life of two years. And all I will say, right now, is why are we not holding them to account, the [Department of Health]?\"\n\nShe said that their lives had been \"destroyed\" by the media attention, and that the couple had been scapegoated by the government because they were \"high profile and successful\".\n\nThe baroness, who is currently on a leave of absence from Parliament, said she hadn't yet thought about whether she would hand her title back, but said it was \"appalling\" that Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak had jousted over her situation at Prime Minister's Questions, \"when they don't know the facts\".\n\nDeputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, also speaking on the programme, defended the VIP lane process and refuted claims of cronyism.\n\n\"The government's intention in respect of that was to make sure that if legitimate claims came forward, we'd process them quickly,\" he said.\n\n\"There were no favours or special treatment.\"\n\nHe added that if there was fraud in the couple's case, \"the government will crack down on it\".\n\nWatch the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show on iPlayer.\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "The village's Christmas tree has been left looking barren without its lights\n\nThieves have stolen the lights from a Christmas tree, leaving a village heartbroken.\n\nIt was the first year a Christmas tree had been put up in Trefechan, Merthyr Tydfil, after it was donated by a construction company.\n\nThe lights for the tree had been paid for through community fundraising.\n\n\"It is one of the saddest things at this time of year. It is devastating just before Christmas,\" said councillor Lisa Mytton, who organised the tree.\n\n\"It's the first year we've done it at Trefechan,\" she added.\n\n\"The tree was absolutely beautiful. We had an event with Santa and had such good feedback.\n\n\"I had a call to say there was something wrong with the lights. Then we discovered someone has been up there and stolen the lights.\n\n\"Whoever has done it was determined. It was done in the middle of the night with a ladder. These were tied on with cable ties to make sure they were safe.\n\n\"I just don't understand why, I don't even know if they can be reused.\"\n\nVillagers are now trying to get the lights replaced before Christmas Day.\n\n\"It is really late in the day and we've not got many funds left,\" said Ms Mytton.\n\n\"I've had offers, people even offering battery operated ones, but I'm waiting on a call from street lighting to see if they can help.\"\n\nThe tree had given the villagers some Christmas joy after a \"difficult year\"\n\nShe said people in Trefechan had been through a difficult year, after access to the village was restricted because of a combination of roadworks and damage from Storm Dennis.\n\n\"Trefechan has been really isolated,\" she said.\n\nResident Julie Ridley said the theft of the Christmas lights had \"taken the cheer from the village\".\n\n\"People appreciated it, they felt special,\" she said.\n\n\"It was a big change for the community. The general consensus was that the tree brought the community together. People were happy it was there.\n\n\"I took the dog for a walk and thought just how pretty the tree looked,\" she added.\n\nResident Mark Evans said everyone was \"shocked\" when they saw what had happened.\n\n\"Like all valleys communities we'll rally around and replace it,\" he said.\n\n\"I think [the vandals] need to understand what Christmas is all about.\n\n\"We can do that with any more grinches at Christmas, especially around here.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA Utah woman who ran a popular parenting advice YouTube channel has pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse.\n\nRuby Franke, 41, who came to a plea deal with prosecutors faced accusations of starving and abusing her children after her son escaped a Utah home.\n\nFranke said she pleaded guilty \"with my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children\".\n\nShe will testify against a former business partner and collaborator.\n\nThe former YouTube star - who once boasted more than two million subscribers for her parenting blog - wore a white and grey-striped jail jumpsuit as she entered her guilty plea on Monday.\n\nFranke is scheduled to be sentenced on 20 February 2024.\n\nShe was arrested in August at the home of her former business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, after her malnourished son's escape from the house in Ivins, Utah and asked a neighbour for food and water.\n\nMs Hildebrandt, 54 was also arrested and charged with child abuse. Franke appeared in YouTube videos posted by Ms Hildebrandt - a counsellor and life coach - on her site, ConneXions Classroom.\n\nIn a statement shared with US media, a lawyer for Franke cast blame on Ms Hildebrandt, alleging she had led Franke \"astray\".\n\n\"Over an extended period, Ms Hildebrandt systematically isolated Ruby Franke from her extended family, older children, and her husband, Kevin Franke,\" Winward Law said in the statement. \"This prolonged isolation resulted in Ms Franke being subjected to a distorted sense of morality.\"\n\nWinward Law, Ms Hildebrandt's attorney and prosecutors did not immediately respond to requests for comment.\n\nFranke's 12 year-old-son told officers that Ms Hildebrandt put ropes on his ankles and wrists before he escaped her home in August, according to court records.\n\nThe boy had to be taken to the hospital \"due to his deep lacerations from being tied up with rope and from his malnourishment\", officials said at the time.\n\nA second child, Franke's daughter, was also found malnourished and taken to a hospital once authorities were involved. Ultimately, four of her children were placed in state custody.\n\nFranke became YouTube famous in 2015 for her channel called 8 Passengers that discussed the parenting of her six children. The channel was deactivated earlier this year.\n\nAs her fame grew, Franke faced a backlash over her strict parenting measures. She described withholding meals as a disciplinary measure, and her son claimed to have slept on a bean bag for months as a form of punishment.", "Chiara Ferragni said that she would challenge the fine\n\nItaly's top influencer Chiara Ferragni has apologised for misleading consumers over purchases of a Christmas cake.\n\nMs Ferragni, who has almost 30 million followers on Instagram, was fined €1.075m (£927,000) for claiming sales of a \"designer\" pink pandoro would help fund a children's hospital in Turin.\n\nThe cake's producer had given money to the hospital months before launching it, the competition watchdog found.\n\nMs Ferragni, 36, has promised to donate €1m to the Regina Margherita hospital.\n\nIn a statement posted to her followers, she said she had made a \"mistake in good faith... to link a commercial activity with a charitable one\".\n\nAppearing on the verge of tears, she said she would appeal against the AGCM antitrust authority's ruling and \"disproportionate and unjust\" fine.\n\nThe \"Pandoro Pink Christmas\", which was labelled as being designed by Ms Ferragni, was sold last year for more than €9, well over twice the price of the classic unbranded pandoro produced by the Balocco company.\n\nThe watchdog found last Friday that buyers of the Ferragni-branded pandoro cake had been fooled into thinking that their purchases would contribute to the purchase of medical equipment for the hospital for the treatment of children with Osteosarcoma and Ewing's Sarcoma.\n\nAnger surrounding the case prompted Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to speak out at the weekend against influencers who promoted \"expensive cakes that make people believe they are charitable,\" although she did not mention Ms Ferragni by name.\n\nOne commentator said now that the \"do-gooder\" pandoro with pink icing sugar had been exposed as junk, Italians were wondering where that left \"the princess of influencers as well as queen of social media\".\n\nConsumer group Codacons said it would launch legal action seeking compensation for anyone who had bought the cake thinking they were giving money to the Turin children's hospital. It said it was filing complaints with 104 Italian prosecutors alleging aggravated fraud.\n\nThe AGCM watchdog said false advertising had exploited consumers' \"sensitivity to charitable initiatives, especially those aiding children with serious illnesses\". This violated Italy's consumer code and constituted unfair commercial practice, it added.\n\nIt fined the manufacturer of the cake, Balocco, €420,000, and slapped a fine of more than €1m on two companies that manage Chiara Ferragni's trademarks and rights.\n\nIt said Balocco had already made a donation of €50,000 to the hospital months before the cake was put on sale, while the company had paid Ms Ferragni's two companies around €1m for the promotion.", "A protest outside Downing Street in January against the UK government's decision to block gender reform in Scotland\n\nThe Scottish government is looking at new ways to help transgender people after confirming it will scrap an appeal of the UK government's veto of gender reform.\n\nThe Court of Session ruled that the UK government's use of Section 35 of the Scotland Act had been lawful.\n\nDeputy First Minister Shona Robison has told the BBC they will now look at reforming transgender healthcare.\n\nA statement setting out next steps will be made at Holyrood on Wednesday.\n\nSpeaking on the Good Morning Scotland programme, Ms Robison defended the Scottish government's handling of the Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill, saying they had listened to all of the arguments on the issue.\n\n\"It was clearly a polarising debate. Fundamentally at the heart of it was trying to make the lives of trans people just that bit better,\" she said.\n\n\"But we are where we are and what we are determined to do is to look at the other areas of life, the health care system for example. That's the number one ask from the trans community, to make that better for them and those are the areas that we will focus on.\"\n\nThe Scottish Parliament passed legislation making it easier for people to change their legally-recognised sex last year.\n\nIt was then blocked by the UK government from becoming law, as they argued that it would have an impact on equality laws across Great Britain.\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack previously urged the Scottish government to avoid any further action.\n\nThe Court of Session in Edinburgh rejected a Scottish government legal challenge to the veto earlier this month, leading ministers to consider a further appeal to the Supreme Court in London.\n\nMr Jack claimed such a move would be a waste of taxpayers' money and cost \"the thick end of £2m\".\n\nThe legislation received cross-party support in Holyrood, passing by 86 votes to 39 after a highly-charged debate.\n\nSupporters for the reforms have argued it would make the process of obtaining a gender recognition certificate (GRC) easier and less traumatic for trans people.\n\nCampaigners against the legislation claim the legislation could risk the safety of women and girls in same-sex spaces such as hospital wards and refuges.\n\nCampaigners have held rallies outside the Scottish Parliament about the reforms\n\nMs Robison, who as social justice secretary led the GRR bill through the Scottish parliament, defended the Scottish government against claims it had not listened to women's concerns.\n\n\"I have never said that any of the concerns raised are not truly held and I met with a number of women's organisations and heard their concerns,\" she said.\n\n\"What I set out though is that during the course of the bill I don't think there was any evidence to show that trying to make the lives of trans people that bit better in a way that many other countries across the world have done was going to impact on women and girls.\n\n\"I want to try and support the trans community to try to reduce some of the toxicity that we have seen that has made their lives even more difficult and I think by looking and focusing on things like transgender health care and other areas that we can do that,\" she added.\n\nFirst Minister Humza Yousaf called the Court of Session ruling a \"dark day for devolution\" and added the ruling showed that devolution was \"fundamentally flawed.\"\n\nMr Yousaf decided to proceed with the legal challenge shortly after succeeding Nicola Sturgeon - a passionate supporter of trans rights - as first minister in March.\n\nThe issue has proved divisive for the Scottish government, and the other candidates for the party leadership earlier this year - Kate Forbes and Ash Regan - were both opposed to the legislation.\n\nMs Forbes stated after the Court of Session ruling that the government should not appeal the case any further.\n\nRoss Greer, of the Scottish Greens, said the ruling was \"a bitter, bitter disappointment\".\n\nHe also told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme that it showed devolution \"can be overruled and vetoed by a UK secretary of state from a party that Scotland didn't actually want.\"\n\nMr Greer added that he would expect the Scottish government to always act in the best interests of the trans community, a community he said had been \"horribly vilified\" recently.\n\nIt is understood the Scottish government will continue to consider alternative ways forward despite the decision not to appeal.\n\nThe Scottish government has been approached for comment.", "The British Museum has struck a £50m deal with energy giant BP to help fund a major renovation programme.\n\nThe 10-year agreement was announced alongside plans to upgrade a third of the museum's galleries and \"phase out\" its reliance on fossil fuels.\n\nThe relationship with BP dates back to 1996 and climate campaigners have long criticised the decision to to take money from an oil and gas firm.\n\nOne group branded the new deal \"out of touch\" and \"completely indefensible\".\n\nIt is not the first time the British Museum has come under scrutiny over its ties with BP.\n\nEgyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif quit her role on the board of trustees in 2019, citing the museum's willingness to take oil and gas money in her resignation statement.\n\nMore than 300 professionals working in the museum sector signed a February 2022 letter urging it to cut ties with BP, and protests have been staged inside the museum itself.\n\nMinutes from a 27 November meeting of the British Museum's board of trustees reveal one member, Muriel Gray, quit ahead of a discussion about the upcoming BP announcement.\n\nHer resignation was described as a \"personal decision\". BBC News has attempted to reach Ms Gray for comment.\n\nThe same minutes show trustees discussed the security implications of their upcoming announcement and are mindful of \"increased risks to museums as a result of protest activity\".\n\nThe minutes said independent advice would be sought about enhancing security of objects in the museum to coincide with the BP announcement. They showed there was also a discussion about \"the potential impact of a high-profile announcement on the personal safety of staff and Trustees\".\n\nSeveral major cultural sites in the UK, including the National Gallery and National Theatre, have ended lucrative sponsorship deals with energy firms amid protests.\n\nLord Ed Vaizey, a former Conservative culture minister, welcomed the \"bold\" announcement, and said the agreement was the \"right decision\" for the museum.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: \"We tend to treat BP as a pariah - BP has put a huge amount into the arts and has been treated very badly by some of the beneficiaries of that funding.\"\n\nClimate protesters have demonstrated against the museum's ties with BP\n\nChris Garrard, of pressure group Culture Unstained, said: \"The only way you can sign up to a new sponsorship deal with a planet-wrecking fossil fuel company in 2023 is by burying your head in the sand, pretending the climate crisis isn't happening and ignoring the almost complete rejection of fossil fuel funding by the cultural sector in recent years.\"\n\nThe museum's deal with BP comes with some of the Bloomsbury site's 200-year-old buildings in \"urgent need of refurbishment\", according to Charlie Mayfield, chair of the British Museum's masterplan committee.\n\nHe said \"the process of completely overhauling our outdated energy infrastructure\" to cut the museum's emissions would begin next year, alongside a competition to find an architect to redesign settings for some of the world's most famous artefacts.\n\nLouise Kingham, senior vice president for BP in Europe and the UK, said the company is \"proud to be a long-term partner to this important British institution and play our part in its future transformation\".\n\nThe announcement of new funding and renovation comes after a difficult period for one of the UK's most internationally renowned cultural institutions.\n\nIn August, the museum announced a number of items from its collection had gone missing. It later emerged that as many as 2,000 objects were unaccounted for.\n\nBritish Museum bosses believe Peter Higgs, who was a senior curator at the museum, stole the artefacts. He has previously denied any wrongdoing and his family told reporters in August that he was innocent and \"devastated\" to have lost his job.\n\nThe incident was highly embarrassing for the museum and some in the antiquities world criticised museum bosses for failures in its system to record the items in its care.\n\nAn independent review recently instructed the museum to improve its recording methods.\n\nLast week, the BBC revealed deputy director Dr Jonathan Williams had agreed to step back from his duties after overseeing a botched investigation into the thefts.\n\nGeorge Osborne, the former chancellor who now serves as chair of the British Museum's board of trustees, said the museum is \"putting our own house in order\" after committing to implementing the findings of the review.", "Like many from Thailand's poor north-east, Wichian Temthong left for Israel to find better-paid work\n\n\"Am I lucky or unlucky?\" Wichian Temthong pondered the question. \"I guess I'm lucky, because I'm still here, still alive.\"\n\nThe 37-year-old farm worker is one of 23 Thai hostages who were released by Hamas last month. Now Wichian is back in Thailand, living in a small room in an industrial suburb south of Bangkok with his wife Malai.\n\nWhile he survived, three young Israeli men he met in captivity did not. They were mistakenly shot dead by Israeli soldiers.\n\nWichian had gone to Israel only in late September, driven like so many Thais from the poor north-east of the country to find better-paid work on Israeli farms. After nine days he was moved to an avocado orchard on the Kfar Aza kibbutz. He woke up on 7 October, his first morning there, to the sound of gunfire.\n\nHis fellow Thai workers assured him it was normal. But as the shooting got louder towards midday, they decided to lock themselves in one of the buildings. Before they could do that gunmen burst in, one holding a hand grenade. They started beating the Thais with their rifle butts.\n\n\"I crouched down like this and shouted 'Thailand, Thailand, Thailand', he said, showing how he pulled his arms over his head. \"But they kept beating me. All I could do was keep my face down. One guy stamped on me with his feet. I crawled under the bed to hide. I tried to text my wife to say I was being taken, but they dragged me out by my leg.\"\n\nWichian was eventually taken down into tunnels deep under Gaza, and would be kept there for 51 days. His was a lonely ordeal, because he was the only Thai, and he speaks no English, so could only communicate through drawings and hand gestures.\n\nConditions were grim. The hostages were fed just once a day; sometimes this was no more than a piece of bread and a dried date.\n\n\"When I was distressed they would come and talk to me, to calm me down, but I could not understand them. The only way I got by was by thinking of the faces of my children, my wife and my mother.\n\n\"When there was nothing else to do, I'd just sit against the wall and meditate. I kept thinking about the same thing over and over, which was that I had to survive.\"\n\nHe remembers the other hostages who were with him in the tunnels; three young Israeli men - Yotam, Sammy and Alon - who remained in captivity after his release, only to be shot dead by nervous Israeli soldiers as they came out, waving a white cloth, last Friday.\n\nLeft to right: Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka\n\nHe had just seen the news, with their photographs, when we arrived to interview him.\n\n\"Every day my foreign friends and I tried to support each other. We would shake hands and do fist bumps. They would cheer me up by hugging me and clapping my shoulder. But we could only communicate by using our hands.\"\n\nHe found out that Yotam was a drummer, and Sammy loved riding his motorbike, and worked in a chicken farm. Wichian tried to teach them some Thai words. Wichian said two of the Israelis were in the tunnel with him from day one. The third joined them on 9 October.\n\nHe says he was treated leniently by his captors, but that in their first weeks underground two of the Israelis were sometimes beaten with electric cables.\n\n\"We were always hungry. We could only sip our water. A large bottle had to last four to five days, a smaller bottler for two days.\"\n\nHe really suffered from not being able to wash. They were allowed to sleep in the day, not at night. They were always damp - nothing dried in the tunnels.\n\nHe kept himself busy by trying to clean their living area. He even helped the Hamas guards move rubble that came into the tunnel after it was struck by a bomb.\n\nWichian, seen in these pictures with his wife and two children, says he would go back to Israel just for the chance to earn, and save, a little more\n\nAfter a month the four hostages were moved to a new tunnel. \"At around 7pm they brought us up. But as soon as I saw it, my heart wanted to run back down to the tunnel.\n\n\"You could see bright lights everywhere from the aerial fighting. I heard drones flying all over the place, and the sound of gunfire. We had to run for 20 minutes, trying to avoid the drones.\"\n\nWichian says his captors encouraged him to count the days on a calendar, and even brought him a clock, because he kept asking them the time.\n\nThe end of his ordeal came suddenly. \"They came pointing to me and saying 'you, you go home, Thailand'.\" He saw daylight for the first time in 51 days, and was handed over to the Red Cross and driven over the border to Egypt.\n\n\"All the time I was down there I never shed a tear. But once I came up, and saw the two other released Thais, I hugged them and cried. We had a group hug and sat down with tears filling our eyes, asking ourselves how we could have survived.\n\n\"When I got back to Thailand they gave me a new name. They called me 'the survivor' and 'Mr Plenty of Fortune'.\"\n\nHowever, he still needs to pay back the substantial debt he incurred - around 230,000 Thai baht ($6,570; £5,180) - to cover the cost of his trip to Israel. He never had the chance to earn any money there.\n\nSo, like his wife, Wichian is taking a job in a factory. The salary is low - just 800 baht a day. They cannot save much. Their two children are living with their grandparents in their home province of Buri Ram.\n\nWichian sometimes has trouble sleeping, and wakes up calling for his mother. But, he says, he would go back to Israel, just for the chance to earn, and save, a little more.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch moment diners sprint out of restaurant as earthquake hits\n\nAt least 127 people have been killed in north-west China in the country's deadliest earthquake for years.\n\nThe 6.2 magnitude quake hit mountainous Gansu province around midnight on Monday (16:00 GMT), also shaking neighbouring Qinghai.\n\nFatalities may rise, with more than 700 reported injured in icy conditions.\n\nChinese President Xi Jinping has ordered thousands of rescue crew to the region, among the poorest and most diverse in China.\n\nThe earthquake is the country's deadliest since 2014, when more than 600 people were killed by a quake in south-western Yunnan province.\n\nOn Tuesday, footage shown on state TV and social media networks showed entire villages split by the quake, as well as collapsed buildings and houses.\n\nResidents who fled their homes were also shown huddling over makeshift fires at hastily erected evacuation camps. Temperatures hit -13C (8.7F) on Tuesday, Chinese media reported.\n\nSurvivors said the tremors had felt like \"being tossed by surging waves\" and recalled rushing out of their apartments.\n\n\"I woke my family up and we rushed down all 16 floors in one breath,\" said one man named Mr Qin by Chinese outlets.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nLocal officials in Jishishan county, the worst-hit in Gansu province, said more than 5,000 buildings in the area had been damaged. Many other buildings in the province have been hit by mudslides triggered by the quake, while dozens of roads have been damaged by landslides.\n\nChinese media quoted a director of the Gansu rescue team, who attributed the widescale damage to poor building quality in the villages - many homes being old and made of clay.\n\nGansu lies between the Tibetan and Loess plateaus and borders Mongolia. The remote region is one of China's poorest and most ethnically diverse.\n\nThe epicentre of the quake was in Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, home to many Chinese Muslim groups, including the Hui, Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar people.\n\nA collapsed building and other damaged houses in Dahejia in Jishishan county\n\nChinese authorities said the quake measured 6.2 on the Richter scale, while the US Geological Survey (USGS) recorded a magnitude of 5.9 and depth of 10km (6 miles). About 10 aftershocks have taken place, local authorities reported.\n\nOn Tuesday, Xinjiang, the province west of Gansu, also recorded a 5.5 magnitude quake - but there were no immediate reports of casualties.\n\nAcross the region, power and water supplies have been disrupted, hindering rescue efforts.\n\nOfficials say they have limited time left to rescue people in the sub-zero conditions.\n\n\"It is too cold to bear... it's -15C [here],\" Wang Yi, chief commander of the Blue Sky Rescue Team, told the BBC. Blue Sky is China's largest non-governmental humanitarian organisation, with more than 30,000 volunteers across the country.\n\nMr Wang said he expected the number of casualties to climb. \"We now need to dig deeper [into the rubble]. But there are no big buildings in the area. So it will rise, but it won't be much,\" he said.\n\nRescuers climb through damaged buildings in Kangdiao village in Jishishan county\n\nPresident Xi has said \"all efforts should be made to carry out search and rescue, treat the injured in a timely manner, and minimise casualties\".\n\nChina sits in a region where a number of tectonic plates - notably the Eurasian, Indian and Pacific plates - meet. It is particularly prone to earthquakes.\n\nAn earthquake in Yushu in Qinghai province, which is next to Gansu, claimed almost 2,700 lives in 2010.\n\nChina's most devastating earthquake in recent decades was in the south-western province of Sichuan in 2008 when 87,000 people were killed.\n\nIf you are in north west China how have you been affected by the earthquake? Tell us your story by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nYou can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n• None Watch: Streets littered with debris after China quake. Video, 00:00:40Watch: Streets littered with debris after China quake", "Several senior Conservatives have urged Israel to show restraint in recent days\n\nIsrael has \"gone beyond self-defence\" and lost the moral authority in its war with Hamas, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee has said.\n\nTory MP Alicia Kearns told the BBC she thinks Israel has broken international law and risks increasing support for Hamas among Palestinians.\n\nShe said: \"Bombs don't obliterate an ideology and neither can a stable state be constructed from oblivion.\"\n\nFormer Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has also criticised Israel's tactics.\n\nWriting in the Daily Telegraph, he said Israel's legal basis for military action in Gaza was \"being undermined\" and warned its government was \"making the mistake of losing its moral authority alongside its legal one\".\n\nAsked if she agreed with Mr Wallace that Israel has damaged its standing with its conduct in Gaza, Ms Kearns told BBC Radio 4's World At One: \"I think unfortunately it has.\n\n\"International humanitarian law in my view has been broken.\"\n\nShe said a truce that could be turned into a lasting ceasefire should be pursued, rather than a focus on the eradication of Hamas - which Israel, the UK, US and some other Western powers class as a terrorist organisation.\n\nTen Tory MPs - including former Cabinet ministers Kit Malthouse and George Eustice - have written to the Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron urging him to push for an \"immediate ceasefire\", describing Israel's strategy as \"neither proportionate nor targeted\".\n\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted operations, which were launched when Hamas carried out an unprecedented assault on Israel on 7 October, will continue until the group is dismantled.\n\nAround 1,200 people were killed and an estimated 240 people were taken hostage by Hamas - and despite some being returned during a temporary truce, about 120 are still thought to be inside Gaza.\n\nMs Kearns - who chairs the committee of MPs tasked with holding the Foreign Office to account - warned Israel could inadvertently increase support for Hamas among Palestinians.\n\nShe said: \"Hamas is an ideology which recruits into its membership.\"\n\nAn opinion poll carried out between 22 November and 2 December by a respected Palestinian think tank, the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, found that support for Hamas had more than tripled in the occupied West Bank compared to three months ago.\n\nSupporters of Hamas were still in a minority, but 70% of the respondents said armed struggle was the best means of ending the Israeli occupation.\n\nIsrael has carried out air strikes and land operations against targets in Gaza\n\nIsrael has come under growing international pressure over the scale of civilian casualties in Gaza, which Hamas-controlled authorities put at more than 19,400.\n\nThe same authorities claimed 110 people were killed on Sunday in Israeli air strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, which had been the largest settlement for displaced people prior to the current fighting.\n\nThe retaliatory Israeli offensive has seen much of northern Gaza damaged and 85% of the territory's 2.3 million population driven from their homes.\n\nOn Sunday, Lord Cameron signalled a shift in tone from the government by calling for a \"sustainable ceasefire\" - echoing a form of words Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used in the Commons last week.\n\nWriting in the Sunday Times, the foreign secretary said: \"Our goal cannot simply be an end to fighting today. It must be peace lasting for days, years, generations.\"\n\nSpeaking to reporters during a visit to Scotland on Monday, Mr Sunak called for Israel to respect humanitarian law, adding: \"It's clear that too many civilian lives have been lost and nobody wants to see this conflict go on a day longer than it has to.\"\n\nThe government has consistently stopped short of calling for a full ceasefire, saying it respects Israel's right to self-defence.\n\nThe Israeli military said it located a large underground tunnel constructed by Hamas on Sunday\n\nIsraeli government spokesman Eylon Levy pushed back against Mr Wallace's criticism, describing his choice of words as \"unfortunate language\".\n\nHe told the BBC said allowing Hamas to \"literally get away with murder\" would be more likely to radicalise people than Israel's military tactics.\n\nHowever, Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, accused the Israeli army of normalising \"the mass murder of children, [and] women\" and \"the mass destruction of hospitals, schools, churches, mosques\".", "Nasa has streamed an ultra high-definition video of a cat back to Earth from the depths of space.\n\nThe 15-second clip of Taters the cat was sent via laser - and fittingly shows it chasing a laser beam.\n\nFootage of the orange tabby travelled 19 million miles - some 80 times the distance from Earth to the Moon.\n\nNasa hopes the laser tech it was testing will eventually improve communications with more remote parts of the solar system.\n\nTaters, whose paws remained firmly on Earth, is owned by an employee of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.\n\nThe video was uploaded to a spacecraft launched with SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on 13 October, and was streamed on 11 December.\n\n\"Despite transmitting from millions of miles away, it was able to send the video faster than most broadband internet connections,\" said JPL electronics lead Ryan Rogalin.\n\nThe video was received by the Hale telescope at the Palomar observatory, where it was downloaded.\n\nFrom there it was streamed to the JPL and played there in real-time.\n\nMr Rogalin said the connection over which the video was sent from the Palomar observatory to the JPL base was actually slower than the signal transmitting the clip from space.\n\n\"JPL's DesignLab did an amazing job helping us showcase this technology. Everyone loves Taters,\" he added.\n\nBill Klipstein, the demonstration project manager at JPL, said the video - overlaid with graphics showing technical mission information as well as Taters' breed, heart rate and age - was designed to \"make this significant event more memorable\".\n\nThe video is available to watch on YouTube.\n\nNasa's test formed part of the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) mission - the space agency's first to look at communications reaching further than between the Earth and the Moon.\n\nThe DSOC mission is exploring what kind of technologies can deliver higher bandwidth content from the very depths of space to Earth as radio frequencies struggle to handle the amount of data needed to transmit higher volumes of high-quality images and video over great distances.\n\n\"This accomplishment underscores our commitment to advancing optical communications as a key element to meeting our future data transmission needs,\" said Nasa deputy administrator Pam Melroy.\n\n\"Increasing our bandwidth is essential to achieving our future exploration and science goals, and we look forward to the continued advancement of this technology and the transformation of how we communicate during future interplanetary missions.\"\n• None US issues first ever fine for space junk", "The family decided to stop flying for holidays in 2002\n\nA family travelling to Australia without flying have reached Indonesia after a journey of three and a half months.\n\nShannon Coggins, Theo Simon and their daughter Rosa, 19, left East Pennard on 16 August to begin the 10,000-mile (16,000km) journey to Sydney.\n\nThey decided to stop flying in 2002 \"because of its effect on the climate\".\n\nThe family is hoping to make it in time for Ms Coggins' sister's wedding on 28 December.\n\nThey have travelled through Kazakhstan, China, Laos, Thailand and Indonesia, and are now in Dili, East Timor's capital, hoping to find a boat to cross the Timor Sea to Darwin, Australia.\n\nFrom there they plan to take a bus to Sydney.\n\nMs Coggins said unfortunately the world \"isn't currently set up to make low-carbon travel easier than flying\"\n\n\"My sister moved to Australia in 2007 and she's getting married in New South Wales on 28 December,\" Ms Coggins said.\n\n\"Although we live far apart, we're very close because our mum died when we were young but I've never been to her home, or taken her son to school, or even met the man she's marrying.\n\n\"I want us all to be there on her wedding day but I am also trying to do my bit to reduce my carbon footprint by trying not to fly.\"\n\nThe family saved up for several years to pay for the trip, which has cost them much more than air tickets would have done.\n\nIn August, Ms Coggins left her job as administrator at the Avanti Park School in Frome and Mr Simon finished working at Songbird Naturals in Ditcheat.\n\nThey also had to turn down bookings for their band Seize The Day during their journey.\n\n\"Our band can't play any gigs without us, but we hope to be back in June 2024 for the summer season,\" Mr Simon said.\n\n\"All three of us have campaigned in different ways for action on climate change, so we decided our journey to Australia would have to be as low-carbon as practical.\"\n\nHe added: \"But we're realistic. We know that people can't necessarily find the time to do this, and unfortunately the world isn't currently set up to make low-carbon travel easier than flying.\n\n\"But it has been a fabulous adventure so far, and we've still got our fingers crossed that the harbour master in Dili can help us find a boat.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood in a scene from the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring\n\nA fan fiction writer has been sued by the estate of JRR Tolkien for copyright after publishing his own sequel to The Lord of the Rings.\n\nUS-based author Demetrious Polychron published a book called The Fellowship of the King in 2022.\n\nHe dubbed it \"the pitch-perfect sequel to The Lord of the Rings.\"\n\nThe court ruled that Polychron must stop distributing copies of the book and destroy all physical and electronic copies.\n\nIn April 2023 Polychron attempted to sue the Tolkein estate and Amazon, claiming the TV series, Rings of Power, infringed the copyright in his book.\n\nThe case was dismissed after the judge ruled that Polychron's own book was infringing on Amazon's prequel that was released in September 2022.\n\nThe Tolkien Estate then filed a separate lawsuit against Polychron for an injunction to stop The Fellowship of the King from being further distributed.\n\nOn Thursday Judge Steven V Wilson called the lawsuit \"frivolous and unreasonably filed\" and granted the permanent injunction, preventing him from selling his book and any other planned sequels, of which there were six.\n\nThe court also awarded lawyer's fees totalling $134,000 (£106,000) to the Tolkien Estate and Amazon in connection with Polychron's lawsuit.\n\nThe estate's UK solicitor, Steven Maier of Maier Blackburn, said: \"This is an important success for the Tolkien Estate, which will not permit unauthorised authors and publishers to monetise JRR Tolkien's much-loved works in this way.\n\n\"This case involved a serious infringement of The Lord of the Rings copyright, undertaken on a commercial basis, and the estate hopes that the award of a permanent injunction and attorneys' fees will be sufficient to dissuade others who may have similar intentions.\"\n\nEarlier this year it was confirmed by Warner Bros that more Lord of the Rings films are on the way over the next few years.\n\nWork on the second series of Amazon's TV show began in October.\n\nThe BBC has tried to contact Demetrious Polychron for comment.", "In December 2021, four women were left in hospital with burns in their mouth after being served shots containing caustic soda instead of salt\n\nA West End nightclub has been fined for accidentally serving caustic soda with tequila shots rather than salt, Westminster City Council has said.\n\nFour women suffered burning in their mouths and had to go to hospital after taking the cleaning substance at Tiger Tiger in December 2021.\n\nThe council said owner A3D2 admitted to four health and safety breaches.\n\nIt was fined £120,000 for \"failing to ensure (customers) were not exposed to the risk of chemical substances\".\n\nAccording to the council a court heard the four women went to the Tiger Tiger bar on Haymarket for shots during a night out.\n\nThe barman realised he had run out of salt - a key part of having tequila shots, along with a lime slice - so made a concoction in an unlit storage area behind the bar, the council said.\n\nIt added the barman scooped what he thought was salt from a container into a plastic cup.\n\nThe barman went to an unlit storage area, where he mistook caustic soda for salt to make the shots\n\nIn a statement Westminster council added: \"The court was told the women then licked the substance from the back of their hands and drank the shot.\n\n\"It was at that point the barman knew something was wrong, with the court hearing the women became ill in front of him, leading him to tasting the white powder.\"\n\nThe council said after testing the white substance in the container, it was found to have a pH level of 13 - a strong alkaline.\n\nCouncillor Aicha Less hopes the conviction and \"significant fine\" is a warning to all businesses to prevent the case from happening again.\n\n\"The shocking details of this case show a lack of attention and proper process for handling toxic cleaning chemicals,\" she said.\n\n\"This incident shows that overlooking basic safety measures can have the most serious consequences.\"\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "No text updates - but you can keep an eye on the eruption\n\nHello, we're bringing you a new live stream of the volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula of south-west Iceland, about 4km (2.5 miles) from the fishing town of Grindavik. Officials say the eruption is weaker today than on previous days, with magma coming out from fewer vents than before. However, they say that new vents could open at short notice and have warned people to stay away from the area. We won't be providing live text updates, but you can watch the latest scenes from Iceland by clicking the Play button at the top of this page.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shona Robison announced the income tax changes as she unveiled the Scottish budget.\n\nHigher earners in Scotland are to pay more income tax, the Scottish government has announced.\n\nA new 45% band will be introduced for people earning between £75,000 and £125,140 - meaning they will pay more tax than they currently do.\n\nThe top rate of tax, paid by those earning more than £125,000, will also rise from 47% to 48%.\n\nAnd the current threshold for paying the higher band - £43,663 - will be frozen instead of rising by inflation.\n\nFinance Secretary Shona Robison confirmed the move as she unveiled the government's budget for next year, which included funding increases for the health service and councils - the latter to help offset a freeze in council tax - but cuts to enterprise funding, housing, higher education and rural affairs.\n\nThe tax changes mean Scotland will have six income tax bands while the rest of the UK has three, with middle and higher earners in Scotland paying more than other parts of the country.\n\nThe Scottish government estimates that 114,000 people will pay the new advanced tax rate for those earning between £75,000 and £125,000, with a further 40,000 people paying the top rate for those earning more than £125,000.\n\nThe announcement is designed to help plug a £1.5bn funding shortfall in the Scottish budget, with Ms Robison saying the tax rises for higher earners would raise an additional £80m.\n\nThe finance secretary also confirmed the current thresholds for the higher and top bands - £43,663 and £125,140 respectively - would be frozen, while the basic and intermediate bands will see the rates at which they kick in rise by the rate of inflation.\n\nThe freezing of the higher band threshold means a further 62,000 people will be pulled into paying the higher tax rate of 42% or more.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A quick guide to the Scottish budget in 90 seconds. Video by Doug Kennedy\n\nThe Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) forecasts that the tax changes will help bring in a total of £1.5bn in revenue funding next year alone, although its chairperson said \"tough decisions\" were still likely to be necessary in individual government departments.\n\nPeople who earn more than £28,850 in Scotland - slightly above median earnings - already pay more income tax than they would elsewhere in the UK, with those earning less than that amount paying slightly less.\n\nThe changes mean that anyone earning £50,000 in Scotland will pay £1,542 a year more than they would if they lived in another part of the UK, while people earning £150,000 will pay £6,000 more, according to the Scottish Fiscal Commission.\n\nMs Robison told MSPs the Scottish government would provide local authorities with £140m in additional funding to help finance a council tax freeze.\n\nCouncil umbrella body Cosla had called for £300m to cover the freeze, which was announced by First Minister Humza Yousaf in October, with a report published last week warning that it was \"only a matter of time\" before a council effectively went bankrupt.\n\nA Cosla spokesperson said a special meeting would be held on Thursday to discuss the budget.\n\nOther major announcements included the government's intention to increase the Scottish Child Payment from £25 to £26.70 from April of next year.\n\nCampaigners had called for an increase to £30 a week and Child Poverty Action Group director John Dickie called the budget announcement \"bitterly disappointing\".\n\nMs Robison also said the government would provide £1.5m to local authorities to cancel school meal debt.\n\nAccording to research by the Aberlour children's charity published in October, more than 30,000 children had debts worth a total of £1.8m - up by 60% on the previous year.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak warned the Scottish government against raising taxes ahead of the budget\n\nThe higher education sector faces cuts as the budget papers show a £107.4m reduction for the Scottish Funding Council, with funding for colleges down by £58.7m and universities by £48.5m.\n\nFunding for NHS boards will rise \"above real terms\" by £550m (4.3%) MSPs were told.\n\nThe deputy first minister also announced business rates for premises valued at less than £51,000 will be frozen, while hospitality businesses in Scotland's islands will be given 100% relief, capped at £110,000 per firm.\n\nThe small business bonus scheme will also continue while the government will assess how valuations for business rates are carried out, Ms Robison said.\n\nThe finance secretary said Holyrood's block grant funding, derived from UK government spending decisions, had fallen by 1.2% in real terms since 2022-23.\n\n\"Devolution has brought many benefits, but it has also exposed quite how beholden we are to the decisions of Westminster,\" she told MSPs.\n\n\"We are fighting Westminster austerity with one hand tied behind our back.\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak said ahead of the budget announcement that the UK government was providing a record amount of funding via the Barnett formula to Scotland.\n\nSpeaking during a visit north of the border on Tuesday, he said Scotland was the highest taxed part of the UK and that it would be \"very disappointing\" to see tax rates rise further.\n\nThe Finance secretary says she's making very different choices to the UK government.\n\nIn broad terms by increasing the tax take and not replicating the business tax cuts introduced by the UK government, the Scottish government has created a pot of money to spend on public services.\n\nThere's extra cash for the health service and for social security benefits, and real terms increases in the education and justice budgets.\n\nBut the wellbeing economy, rural affairs and housing budgets have been cut.\n\nOpposition politicians argue that had the SNP not wasted millions on failed projects it would have even more money to spend\n\nScottish Tory finance spokeswoman Liz Smith criticised the \"extraordinary late delivery\" of the budget to oppositions MSPs, who were given only a few minutes to examine the document before the announcement. She called it \"discourtesy to parliament\".\n\nShe accused the government of a \"complete abrogation of responsibility for the running of the Scottish economy\" since the SNP came to power in 2007.\n\nMs Smith questioned whether the government was sending out \"the right message that Scotland is open for business\".\n\nShe said: \"For economic growth, for investment, innovation and job creation?\" She asked. \"Because it's abundantly clear that business and industry doesn't think so.\"\n\nMs Robison apologised to MSPs for the late deliver of the budget.\n\nScottish Labour finance spokesman Michael Marra claimed it was a \"chaotic\" budget from an \"incompetent government that will leave ordinary Scots paying much more and getting much less in return\".\n\nHave you been affected by issues covered in this story? You can share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "President Putin did not take any of BBC Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg's questions\n\nFor the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I'm invited to a Kremlin event. I'm in a room with Vladimir Putin.\n\nAt an exhibition hall opposite the Kremlin, in a specially built TV studio packed with video screens and electronic tickers, Russian journalists - and some foreign correspondents - are watching the Kremlin leader host an end-of-year news conference combined with a TV phone-in. He's taking questions from members of the public and selected media.\n\nYou can't miss the spectacular - that is, if you're in Russia and have your TV set on. The programme is being carried live by all main Russian TV channels.\n\nIt's called \"Results of the Year with Vladimir Putin.\" In effect, it is the world according to Vladimir Putin.\n\nA world in which the Kremlin leader is right about absolutely everything.\n\n\"I've learnt to identify what's most important,\" President Putin announces, \"and then do everything to achieve those aims, without paying attention to the unimportant.\"\n\nHis war aims haven't changed. The anchor puts a question to Putin which has been sent in by a viewer. It's about Russia's \"special military operation\" in Ukraine: \"When will there be peace?\"\n\n\"When we achieve our goals,\" replies the president.\n\nThis time last year, Vladimir Putin was under intense pressure. His \"special operation\" had gone badly wrong.\n\nBy the Kremlin's own admission, the Russian army had suffered \"significant\" losses. Ukraine was clawing back Russian-occupied territory: the situation had forced the Russian president into a \"partial mobilisation\", drafting hundreds of thousands of Russian men to fight in Ukraine.\n\nNo surprise, then, that the Kremlin cancelled last year's Putin phone-in and end of year news conference, which are normally two separate events.\n\nFast forward a year. The Russian authorities sense growing war fatigue across Europe and in the United States. And Ukraine's counter-offensive has failed to make the impact Kyiv had been hoping for.\n\nVladimir Putin is sounding increasingly confident about the situation on the battlefield.\n\n\"Practically along the whole line of contact our armed force are, to put it mildly, improving their situation,\" the president says.\n\nThe phone-in part of the show is designed to portray President Putin as Russia's Mr Fix-it and to boost his popularity ahead of next March's presidential election.\n\nIn a video message, one Russian pensioner complains about the rising price of eggs.\n\n\"My favourite president,\" she declares, \"please influence the situation.\"\n\nI look away from the president and up at a giant screen that's showing text messages sent in by viewers. They make fascinating reading.\n\nThere's plenty of praise for Putin.\n\n\"How do we make sure Putin lives forever?\" one message reads. \"A strong Putin is a strong Russia.\"\n\nBut there are critical texts, too: \"Does Putin want to end the war?\"\n\n\"Vladimir Vladimirovich, you've been in the job too long.\"\n\n\"When will power change in Russia?\"\n\n\"Could you tell me how to move to the Russia that we see on TV here?\"\n\nNone of these criticisms is put to the president during the broadcast or read out on air. Hardly surprising. This TV extravaganza is designed to promote Putin, not cast doubt on his work.\n\nBut the fact they've made it to the video screen suggests the Kremlin, at least, feels the need to hint at the existence of different views - without giving them too much prominence.\n\nThe four-hour marathon is carefully choreographed. I may have been invited, but the president won't take any of my questions.\n\nPity. Nearly two years on from the invasion he ordered, there was so much to ask.", "Rishi Sunak is meeting just one of the five priorities he set out at the start of the year, according to BBC analysis.\n\nIn January, the prime minister pledged to halve inflation, grow the economy, cut UK debt, reduce NHS waiting lists and \"stop the boats\".\n\nBut BBC analysis of the government's progress so far suggests two of the priorities are not being met, while two others remain in the balance.\n\nMr Sunak has said people should judge him on the government's results.\n\n\"I will only promise what I can deliver. And I will deliver what I promise\", he told voters in January, while announcing the five government priorities.\n\nAs parliament breaks for Christmas, BBC Verify has been looking at the data to find out how he's getting on.\n\nMr Sunak pledged to reduce NHS waiting lists - but overall waiting lists have gone up.\n\nThe overall number of waits for non-emergency treatment in England was 7.71 million in October, almost half a million higher than it was at the start of the year.\n\nThat is despite Mr Sunak's pledge that \"NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly.\"\n\nThe government has made advances on the very longest waits.\n\nThe number of people waiting two years or more for treatment is now counted in hundreds rather than thousands.\n\nAnd the number of people waiting between one and two years has fallen since the start of the year, although progress on that measure has been stalling since the summer.\n\nMr Sunak also pledged to \"stop the boats\".\n\nWhile the government has reduced numbers by more than a third, 29,400 people have crossed the Channel on small boats this year.\n\nMinisters passed legislation earlier this year allowing them to detain and remove people who arrive illegally, but so far this has not happened en masse.\n\nThe plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda has been blocked by the Supreme Court. Parliament is currently debating legislation to try and get the scheme off the ground. At the same time, it was revealed last week just 408 non-Albanian small boat migrants had been returned since 2020.\n\nOur analysis also suggests two of the prime minister's priorities are in the balance.\n\nHe promised to \"grow the economy\", but as things stand growth since January 2023 is flat.\n\nEconomic growth is officially measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP is a measure of all the economic activity of companies, governments and individuals in a country.\n\nMr Sunak also pledged to reduce debt - but debt as a proportion of the economy has been going up since the start of the year. It stands at 98% of GDP, slightly higher than where it stood in January.\n\nThe government has said it wants debt to be falling by 2028-29. Independent forecasters at the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) have forecast this is on track, but it could require cuts to some public services.\n\nThe OBR - which is independent of government - assesses the health of the UK's economy and usually publishes its forecasts alongside big government events, such as the Budget and Autumn Statement.\n\nMr Sunak has gone as far as stating that \"debt is falling\", a claim that was challenged by the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) on Tuesday, since it refers to a forecast of debt in five years' time.\n\n\"This has clearly been a source of confusion and may have undermined trust in the government's use of statistics,\" said Sir Robert Chote, the chairman of the UKSA.\n\nThe prime minister is, however, on track to meet his target of halving inflation by the end of the year.\n\nFigures for October showed inflation at 4.7% - well down from the 10.7% at the start of the year. The final figures for quarter four (October-December) will be published in February, when we will know for sure.\n\nPat McFadden MP, Labour's National Campaign Coordinator, said Mr Sunak has failed to achieve his objectives.\n\n\"He sought to get economic growth going and the latest figures show it is falling. His flagship policy to stop the boats hasn't got off the ground. And NHS waiting lists still stand at over seven million. \"\n\nA Number 10 source, however, insisted that progress was being made: \"The longest NHS waits have been cut, small boat arrivals are down by a third, and inflation has been halved.\"\n• None Is Sunak keeping his five key promises?", "The Ngil mask, made by the Fang people of Gabon, is believed to be one of only about 10 in the world\n\nA second-hand dealer has won a case to keep the €4.2m (£3.6m; $4.6m) proceeds from the sale of a rare African mask he found in an elderly French couple's attic.\n\nHe had been brought in to help clear the attic of the couple, who sold him the mask for €150 (£129; $165).\n\nThe couple sued, arguing that they had been misled about the item's value.\n\nBut the judge disagreed, saying they had failed to appreciate the artwork's true worth.\n\nThe rare Ngil mask, made by the Fang people of Gabon, is believed to be one of only about 10 in the world.\n\nIt would have been worn by members of the Ngil secret society. Historians believe members travelled through villages searching for troublemakers, including suspected sorcerers.\n\nThe 19th-Century wooden mask was probably acquired \"in unknown circumstances\" around 1917 by René-Victor Edward Maurice Fournier, a French colonial governor and the plaintiff's grandfather.\n\nIt was held in the family's possession until it was sold to the dealer. It was later resold at auction to an unknown buyer.\n\nThe couple had gone to court to claim a share of the proceeds of the sale, alleging the dealer had misled them about the true value of the mask.\n\nThe dealer denied knowing that it was so valuable and said he had demonstrated goodwill by offering the couple €300,000, the mask's initial valuation.\n\nHis lawyer argued that the couple had failed to research the item's true worth before selling it. \"When you've got such an item at home, you should be a bit more curious before giving it up,\" Patricia Pijot told French media.\n\nThe judge ruled in favour of the dealer and said the couple had failed to exercise due diligence in evaluating the \"historical and artistic\" value of the mask.\n\nThe offer was retracted after the couple sued.\n\nFrédéric Mansat Jaffré, lawyer for the couple, said: \"The judge has created a precedent... You or I will now need to ask a professional before then going to see another professional.\"\n\nGabon had separately requested that the sale of the mask be halted on the grounds that it rightfully belonged to the country. But the court also rejected that argument.\n\nThe West African country was a French colony at the time Fournier acquired the mask.\n\nTens of thousands of works of African art are held outside the continent. Most were removed during the colonial era, sometimes under disputed circumstances.\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron has previously called for the restitution of African art.\n\n\"I cannot accept that a large part of the cultural heritage of several African countries is in France,\" he said in 2017.", "A fuel depot in the West African country of Guinea has exploded, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 80.\n\nEyewitnesses said the blast at the Guinea's only oil refinery blew out the windows of local houses.\n\nFirefighters in the capital, Conakry, rushed to the oil terminal after it caught fire early on Monday.\n\nThe explosion was caused by a fire. It is unclear what started the blaze but an investigation has been launched, the government said.", "Palestinian children by the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli air strike in the east of Deir al Balah, central Gaza Image caption: Palestinian children by the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli air strike in the east of Deir al Balah, central Gaza\n\nIt's coming up to 03:00 in Israel and Gaza and 01:00 in London, and here's a recap of the past 24 hours:\n\nA vote on a new UN Security Council resolution calling for an \"suspension\" of hostilities has been postponed for the second day in a row after intense negotiations on the language of the proposal.\n\nThe language of the resolution proposed by the United Arab Emirates has already been watered down from calling for a ceasefire to get US backing, reports say, as it has consistently vetoed previous resolutions.\n\nReports also indicate negotiations over a new hostage exchange deal are in their early stages - with talks held in Poland between the US, Qatar and Israel earlier, while the head of Hamas's political wing will travel to Egypt shortly.\n\nOn the ground in Gaza, humanitarian agencies have expressed their anger and frustration at the lack of aid allowed to enter the strip.\n\nMore than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the north and south in the latest Israeli air strikes, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Around 19,600 people have been killed so far, the ministry also said.\n\nBBC Arabic has spoken to men from Gaza who say they were detained by the Israeli army for nearly a month, alleging abuse and mistreatment before their release a few days ago.\n\nUK MP Layla Moran, whose relatives are trapped in Gaza, says her family are \"down to their last can of corn\", and urged the UK government to support an immediate ceasefire\n\nThe head of the UN's maritime agency has condemned Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, warning they could threaten world trade\n\nOne of the world's biggest shipping firms, Hapag-Lloyd, has said it will not resume sailing on the vital trade route linking the Indian Ocean with the Mediterranean sea without safety guarantees.", "Five grey wolves have been released into Colorado's Rocky Mountains after a 2020 vote on reintroducing them into the wild.\n\nColorado Parks and Wildlife plan to release between 10 and 15 wolves into the area by mid-march 2024.\n\nThe wolves were originally captured in the US state of Oregon, before veterinarians and biologists evaluated them to see if they were fit enough to be relocated.\n\nWhile conservationists have hailed the move, ranchers and some in rural communities have been sceptical - saying the wolves could put livestock, wildlife and pets at risk.", "Earlier this year, Mr Kim pulled off a seemingly impossible escape from North Korea. He fled by sea with his entire family - his pregnant wife, his mother, his brother's family, and an urn containing his father's ashes.\n\nThey are the first people to have fled the country this year and make it to the South. When Covid struck, North Korea's government panicked and sealed the country off from the rest of the world, closing its borders and cutting off trade. Defections, once fairly common, virtually ceased.\n\nMr Kim told the BBC how he masterminded such a remarkable escape, in the first interview with a defector to have got out since the pandemic. He revealed new details about life in the country, including cases of people starving to death and increasing repression. He asked us not to use his full name, to help protect his family in Seoul and back in the North.\n\nThe BBC cannot independently verify all of Mr Kim's account, but much of the detail tallies with what we have been told by other sources.\n\nThe night of the escape was a turbulent one. Fierce winds swept up from the south, bringing a storm in their wake. This was all part of Mr Kim's plan. The rough seas would force any surveillance ships to retreat, he hoped.\n\nHe had been dreaming of this night for years, planning it meticulously for months, but this did little to temper his fear.\n\nHis brother's children were asleep, knocked out by sleeping pills he had fed them. He and his brother now had to carry them through a minefield in the dark, to where their getaway boat was secretly moored. They inched along, careful to avoid the beams from the guards' searchlights.\n\nThe boat used by Mr Kim and his family to escape\n\nOnce they reached the boat, they hid the children in old grain sacks, disguising them to look like bags of tools. With that, the family set sail for South Korea: the men armed with swords, the women with poison. Each clutched a single eggshell, hollowed out and filled with chilli powder and black sand, to crack into the faces of the coastguards if a confrontation ensued.\n\nTheir engine roared, but all Mr Kim could hear was his thumping heart. One mistake now, and they could all be executed.\n\nWhen I met Mr Kim in the outskirts of Seoul last month, he was accompanied by a plain clothes police officer - a typical safety measure for recent defectors. It had only been a few weeks since he and his family were released from the resettlement centre that North Koreans are sent to after arriving in South Korea.\n\n\"There has been a lot of suffering,\" he said, as he began to recount the past four years.\n\nIn the early days of Covid-19, people were \"extremely scared\", he said. The state broadcast images of people dying around the world, and warned that if the rules were not followed, the entire country could be wiped out. Some people were even sent to labour camps for breaking Covid rules, he said.\n\nWhen a suspected case was reported, guards would quarantine the entire village, he said. Everyone would be locked up and the area sealed off, leaving those inside with little or nothing to eat.\n\n\"After they'd starved people for a while, the government would bring in truckloads of food supplies. They claimed to be selling the food cheaply, so people would praise them - like starving your baby, then giving them a small amount, so it would thank you.\"\n\nMr Kim said people began to question whether this was part of the state's strategy to profit from the pandemic.\n\nAs more people survived Covid, they began to think the state had exaggerated the dangers, he said. \"Now many believe it was just an excuse to oppress us.\"\n\nIt was the border closures that caused the most severe damage, he said.\n\nFood supplies in North Korea have long been precarious, but with less coming into the country, prices skyrocketed, he said, making everyone's lives \"so much harder\". In the spring of 2022, he noticed the situation deteriorate further.\n\n\"For seven or eight years there wasn't much talk of starvation, but then we frequently started hearing about cases,\" he said. \"You'd wake up one morning and hear: 'oh, someone in this district starved to death'. The next morning, we'd get another report.\"\n\nThis poster from the state broadcaster KCNA tells people to stringently follow Covid rules\n\nOne day this February, Mr Kim said a customer from a neighbouring county turned up late to a meeting. He told him the police had rounded up everyone in his village over the suspected murder of an elderly couple. But after the autopsy, they announced the couple had starved, and rats must have eaten their fingers and toes while they were dying. The gruesome scene had made the investigators suspect foul play.\n\nThen in April, he says two farmers he personally knew starved to death. The farmers had the hardest time, he said, because if the harvest was bad, the state would force them to make up for it by handing over more of their personal food supply.\n\nWe cannot independently confirm these deaths. The 2023 Global Report on Food Crises stated that since North Korea's borders closed, it has been \"challenging to obtain accurate information on food insecurity\" but there were \"indications the situation is worsening\". In March 2023 North Korea asked the World Food Programme for help.\n\nAmnesty International's North Korea specialist, Choi Jae-hoon, said he had heard of cases of starvation, from escapees in Seoul who had managed to speak to family back home. \"We are hearing that the food situation worsened during the Covid period, and that in some areas farmers tended to suffer the most,\" he said. But Mr Choi noted that the situation was not nearly as catastrophic as during the famine in the 1990s: \"We're hearing that people have found ways to survive within their means.\"\n\nMr Kim himself found ways not only to survive, but to thrive. Like most people in North Korea before Covid, he made his money selling items on the black market - in his case motorbikes and televisions smuggled from China. But when the borders closed, stifling virtually all trade, he switched to buying and selling vegetables. He figured everyone needed to eat.\n\nHe set himself up as a \"grasshopper seller\", hawking his items covertly at home or in alleyways. \"If someone reported us, we'd pick up the food and run, like a grasshopper,\" he said.\n\n\"People would come to me, begging me to sell to them. I could ask for whatever price I wanted,\" he said. Mr Kim found himself richer than ever before. He and his wife could afford to eat stew for dinner, with any meat of their choosing.\n\n\"That counts as eating very well in North Korea.\"\n\nThe life Mr Kim describes paints a picture of an exceptionally savvy and, at times, unscrupulous businessman. Now in his 30s, he hustled and saved for more than a decade, finding ways to outsmart the North Korean system.\n\nThis was partly because he became disillusioned with the system at a young age. From as early as he can remember, he and his father would sit watching South Korean TV in secret. They lived so close to the border they could tune into the channels on their set. Mr Kim became captivated by a country where people were free.\n\nAs he got older, the corruption and injustice he witnessed in the North began to chip away at him. He recalled one incident where security officials raided his home. \"Everything you have belongs to the state,\" they said. \"You think this oxygen is yours?\" one officer jeered. \"Well, it's not, you bastard.\"\n\nThen, in 2021, Mr Kim said powerful crackdown squads were formed to try to supress what the state deemed \"anti-social behaviour\". They would arbitrarily stop people on the street and intimidate them. \"People started calling these crackdown officials mosquitoes, like vampires sucking out our blood.\"\n\nThe most serious offence was consuming and sharing outside information, particularly South Korean culture. The crackdown on this, Mr Kim said, had become \"much more intense. Once you get caught, they'll shoot you, kill you, or send you to a labour camp.\"\n\nIn April last year, Mr Kim said he was forced to watch a 22-year-old man he knew be shot to death in a public execution. \"He was killed for listening to 70 South Korean songs and watching about three films and sharing them with his friends.\"\n\nThe authorities told the onlookers they wanted to punish the man harshly, to set the right precedent. \"They're ruthless\", Mr Kim said, \"everyone is scared.\"\n\nWe cannot independently verify this execution, but in December 2020 North Korea passed a new law, stating that those who shared South Korean content could be executed.\n\nJoanna Hosaniak from the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights said Mr Kim's account of the execution was \"completely unsurprising\". Ms Hosaniak has interviewed hundreds of defectors over two decades. \"North Korea has always used public executions as a means to control the population,\" she said. \"Whenever it implements new laws, it introduces a wave of executions.\"\n\nAs Mr Kim recounted these memories, he became distressed. He said it was a friend's suicide last year that had finally broken him.\n\nDesperate to divorce a woman he no longer loved and marry another - the friend was told by officials that the only way he could get a divorce was to spend time in a labour camp. He sunk into debt trying to find another way out, before ending his life. Mr Kim visited his bedroom after his death. The carnage on display spelt out what a slow and agonising end he must have suffered. He had clawed the walls until his nails came out.\n\nAlthough Mr Kim had fantasised about escaping hundreds of times, he could never bear to leave his family behind. By 2022, life had become so desperate, he felt he could finally convince them to join him.\n\nHe targeted his brother first. He and his wife ran an illicit seafood business, but the government had recently cracked down on unofficial sellers. Despite owning a boat, they could no longer fish. With money tight, he was easily persuaded.\n\nFor the next seven months, the pair meticulously plotted their escape.\n\nOver the course of the pandemic, many of the well-established escape routes across the country's northern border with China had been blocked off. But the brothers lived in a small fishing town in the far south-west of the country, close to the South Korean border. This gave them an alternative, yet risky, way out - by sea.\n\nFirst, they needed permission to access the water. They had heard about a nearby military base, where civilians were sent out to catch fish that was then sold to pay for military equipment. Mr Kim's brother enrolled in the scheme.\n\nMeanwhile Mr Kim started befriending the coastguards and security guards who patrolled the area, surreptitiously mining them for information about their movements, protocols and shift patterns, until he was confident he and his brother could take the boat out at night, without getting caught.\n\nThen came the hardest of his tasks: convincing his elderly mother and wife to join him. Both were opposed to leaving. Eventually the brothers shouted their mother into submission, threatening to cancel the trip if she did not join them, and hold her responsible for their misery to the end of their days.\n\n\"She was distraught and cried a lot but finally agreed,\" Mr Kim said.\n\nHis wife, however, was immovable, until one day the couple learnt they were expecting a baby. \"You're not just your own body any more,\" he argued with her. \"You're a parent, do you want our child to live in this hellhole?\" It worked.\n\nAfter talking for several hours, Mr Kim and I headed for dinner, where he ran through the final preparations for his escape. Fearful the authorities would desecrate their father's grave after they left, the brothers went to dig up his body. After repacking the ground to appear untampered, they took it into the surrounding wilderness and burnt it.\n\nThey went on to survey the remote minefield they would later need to cross in the dark. They pretended to pick medicinal herbs, while mapping a clear route through it. The coastline had been recently planted with landmines to prevent people leaving, Mr Kim said, but with fewer guards on duty there, it offered the safest way out.\n\nThen it was a matter of waiting for the weather and the tide to turn.\n\nAt 10pm on 6 May they set sail, travelling as far as they were allowed, then continuing on. Low tide had exposed reefs and boulders, which they navigated ever so slowly, hoping to disguise themselves as floating rubbish on the radars. All the while, Mr Kim's heart was pounding, his clothes soaked with sweat.\n\nAs soon as it felt safe, they went full-speed with the currents. Mr Kim looked back to see a ship following, but it could not catch them. Within minutes they had crossed the maritime border.\n\nThe stretch of sea Mr Kim had to cross to make it to Yeonpyong island\n\n\"In that moment, all my tension released. I felt like I was collapsing,\" he said. They flashed their light as they approached the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong and were rescued by the navy, after nearly two hours at sea.\n\nEverything had gone exactly as planned. \"It was like the heavens helped us,\" he said.\n\nMr Kim's escape is exceptional for several reasons, said Sokeel Park from Liberty in North Korea, an organisation which helps refugees from the North resettle in the South. Not only have sea defections always been extremely rare, he explained, but since the pandemic it has become almost impossible for people to defect.\n\n\"These sea escapes take meticulous planning, incredible bravery and for everything to go miraculously well,\" he said. \"There must be many more North Koreans who have tried but not made it.\"\n\n\"The only people who can defect now are the rich and well-connected,\" added Pastor Stephen Kim from JM Missionary, who helps North Koreans defect through China. Around 1,000 used to make it across the Chinese border each year, but to his knowledge only 20 have crossed during the past four years, and just four of them have arrived in South Korea. In October, he and Human Rights Watch accused China of sending some defectors back to the North.\n\nPyongyang is currently deepening its ties with China and Russia, while turning its back on diplomacy with the West. This has made it increasingly difficult for the international community to address these reported human rights violations.\n\nSouth Korea's government has made North Korean human rights one of its top priorities, but its vice-unification minister Moon Seong-hyun said it had \"limited tools to use\".\n\n\"What we have been trying to do is to increase people's awareness, by continuously raising these issues through the UN and elsewhere,\" he said. \"There is a tendency for North Korea to listen to countries in Europe,\" he added, citing the UK and Germany as examples. But Seoul's role has largely been reduced to helping the dwindling number of refugees who make it to the South, supporting them with counselling, housing and education.\n\nAfter their rescue Mr Kim and his family first had to be debriefed by South Korea's intelligence service, to check they were not North Korean spies. They were then educated about life in the South at a resettlement centre. Despite being so physically close, their old and new homes are worlds apart, and defectors often struggle with the transition.\n\nMr Kim says he has found adjusting to life in Seoul easier than the rest of his family\n\nThe family moved from the resettlement facility into an apartment in October, just as Mr Kim's wife gave birth. She is healthy, but finding it difficult to adjust, he said, though his mother is having the toughest time. None of them had ever ridden a subway before, and she keeps getting lost. Each mistake further knocks her confidence. \"She is kind of regretting coming here now,\" he admitted.\n\nBut Mr Kim, who was already so familiar with South Korean culture, said he was adapting easily. \"The world I imagined and the world I am now physically navigating feel very similar.\"\n\nAs we were speaking, he curiously picked up my AirPods case from the table beside us, turning it over in his hand. I opened it to reveal the wireless headphones, but still he looked confused. It wasn't until I placed the buds in my ears that a wave of understanding flashed across his face, and he laughed.\n\nThere will be many more of these surprises and challenges ahead. This is only the beginning of his journey.\n\nAdditional reporting by Hosu Lee and Leehyun Choi, Illustrations by Lilly Huynh", "The time it’s taken for the government to respond to the bishop’s report has become as much a feature of the exercise as the content of the response.\n\nTheresa May was still Home Secretary when she commissioned it back in 2016, and six years - and seven home secretaries - have gone by since it was published.\n\nThe government knew it couldn’t avoid confronting this, and it’s striking that it’s accepted that the delay has compounded the Hillsborough families’ agony.\n\nGiven that the very purpose of the bishop’s report was to prevent further suffering, it might be seen as something of an own goal.\n\nCampaigners for a formal Hillsborough Law will doubtless say that the government response falls short of the legislation they’ve envisaged.\n\nThey’ve pushed for a full \"duty of candour\" on all public servants - meaning that they’d be forced to be frank about their failings, when appearing at inquests and inquiries.\n\nThe government says that the police will be held to account on this front, via different legislation. But some Hillsborough families have told me they want to see that duty extended to everyone who works in the public sector.", "The government said no family should suffer the same injustices as those who lost loved ones at Hillsborough\n\nThe government's decision not to introduce a Hillsborough Law is an \"absolute insult\", the sister of one of the disaster victims has said.\n\nCampaigners had called for legislation to introduce a legal \"duty of candour\" on public authorities and officials to tell the truth.\n\nHowever, the government stopped short of introducing the law, signing a Hillsborough Charter instead.\n\nLouise Brookes said the new charter was \"not worth the paper it's written on\".\n\nNinety-seven Liverpool fans died as a result of a crush at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield during the club's FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989.\n\nIn the days that followed the disaster, police officers were told to put the blame on \"drunken, ticketless Liverpool supporters\" - when in fact their deaths were caused by a series of failures by police, the ambulance service, and defects in the stadium.\n\n\"It's not only a joke, it's just an absolute insult,\" said Ms Brookes, from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, whose brother Andrew died in the disaster.\n\n\"It's taken nearly seven years to respond back.\n\n\"But also this charter, it's not worth the paper it's written on. People sign up to join the police, they swear an oath.\"\n\nThe government said the charter would introduce a duty of candour for police officers, but not for public servants.\n\nLouise Brookes' brother Andrew died in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989\n\nJustice Secretary Alex Chalk said an \"organisational duty of candour\" would be required for all police in England and Wales, and that the government was reviewing whether a similar duty for health workers needed to be strengthened in light of recent scandals.\n\nBut the justice secretary said a wider duty of candour for all public authorities was not needed, as a \"comprehensive framework of duties and obligations\" had developed since the disaster.\n\nIt comes more than six years after such a charter was recommended in a report by The Right Reverend James Jones, who chaired the Hillsborough independent panel, into the experiences of the bereaved families.\n\nThe government apologised for the delay in signing, saying it had \"taken too long, compounding the agony of the Hillsborough families and survivors\".\n\nMargaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James died at Hillsborough, said the government's delayed response to the bishop's 2017 report was \"like giving a child a packet of crisps but when you open it, there's nothing in it\".\n\n\"It's as simple as that. To me that definitely does not go far enough,\" she said.\n\nVowing to continue with the campaign, she said: \"We will be arguing for a Hillsborough Law, that's the most important thing to me.\"\n\nNinety-seven Liverpool fans died as a result of the disaster on 15 April 1989\n\nCharlotte Hennessy, whose father James died in the disaster, said: \"Six years down the line, for them to now come out and not adhere to that and not say that's what they're going to be putting forward, of course it's disappointing.\n\n\"It's supposed to be about lessons being learned from what we've been through.\"\n\nThe government added the new duty of candour on police officers would be required by law in England and Wales, and aimed to promote a culture of openness, honesty and transparency.\n\nSpeaking after the government's response was published, Bishop Jones, who had made the recommendation, said: \"Although the government's statement falls short of the hopes of the Hillsborough families it is a serious and substantial response and rises above that given to other panels and inquiries.\n\n\"It has responded to all 25 recommendations of the report and has today introduced significant changes.\"\n\nThe former Bishop of Liverpool welcomed the government's decision to sign the Hillsborough Charter but added he would continue to \"press for further action\".\n\nThe Right Reverend James Jones was with some families as they read the government's latest pledge earlier\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak told the Commons he was \"profoundly sorry\" for what the Hillsborough families had been through.\n\n\"The Hillsborough families have suffered multiple injustices: The loss of 97 lives, the blaming of the fans and the unforgiveable institutional defensiveness by public bodies,\" he said.\n\nMr Sunak said he hoped to meet the families in the new year.\n\nThe justice secretary said the families of the 97 \"deserved the thanks of our nation\".\n\nAlso speaking in the Commons, Mr Chalk said: \"I was deeply moved to hear of their experiences and by the dignity with which they shared them.\n\n\"Perhaps even more affecting was their unflinching determination to make sense of the senseless, and bring about change for others. That is the true mark of compassion.\"\n\nBut Elkan Abrahamson, director of Hillsborough Law Now, said: \"To wait six years for a government to respond to a report about a disaster that took place 34 years ago speaks volumes.\n\n\"To deliver that response on a day when all eyes are on a former prime minister giving evidence to the Covid Inquiry only seeks to increase the cynicism felt amongst Hillsborough families and the thousands of others who would benefit from a change in the law.\"\n\nHe called for the full reintroduction of the Public Authority (Accountability) Bill, which was introduced by the then Labour MP for Leigh Andy Burnham, who is now the Mayor of Greater Manchester, but fell when the 2017 general election was called.\n\nMr Abrahamson said the government must make a duty of candour enforceable and ensure \"a level playing field between public authorities and those affected by disasters and wrongdoing at inquests and inquiries\".\n\nThe time it has taken for the government to respond to the bishop's report has become as much a focal point for campaigners as the content of the response itself.\n\nTheresa May was still home secretary when she commissioned the report back in 2016, and six years - and seven home secretaries - have gone by since it was published.\n\nThe government knew it could not avoid confronting this, and it is striking that it is accepted that the delay has compounded the Hillsborough families' agony.\n\nGiven that the very purpose of the bishop's report was to prevent further suffering, it might be seen as something of an own goal.\n\nCampaigners for a Hillsborough Law will doubtless say that the government response falls short of the legislation they've envisaged.\n\nThey have pushed for a full \"duty of candour\" on all public servants - meaning that they would be forced to be frank about their failings, when appearing at inquests and inquiries.\n\nThe government says that the police will be held to account on this front, via different legislation.\n\nBut some Hillsborough families have told me they want to see that duty extended to everyone who works in the public sector.\n\nInquests into the deaths of the victims in 1991 found they were accidental, but families and survivors fought a 27-year campaign to prove their relatives and the supporters around them were not to blame.\n\nThe Hillsborough Independent Panel report was published in 2012, and the original verdicts were quashed, with new hearings ordered.\n\nFresh inquests followed and, in 2016, a jury concluded the victims were unlawfully killed and found the supporters did not contribute to their deaths.\n\nThe match commander on the day, David Duckenfield, was charged with gross negligence manslaughter in 2017 but was cleared in 2019 at a retrial, after the jury in his first trial was unable to reach a verdict.\n\nIn 2021, retired officers Donald Denton and Alan Foster and former force solicitor Peter Metcalf, who were accused of amending statements to minimise the blame on South Yorkshire Police, were acquitted of perverting the course of justice after a judge ruled there was no case to answer.\n\nFamilies who lost loved ones as a result of the Hillsborough disaster were the first to read the government's latest response, which was released earlier.\n\nIt was not made available to the wider public until 12:00 GMT.\n\nFamilies affected by the disaster campaigned for justice for 27 years\n\nSteve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: \"The law has failed the Hillsborough families and countless other groups affected by tragedy.\n\n\"Ensuring that no grieving family is forced to suffer the same indignity would be a fitting legacy for their decades of tireless effort.\"\n\nHe said the \"belated response\" was \"a move in the right direction\", but was not the Hillsborough Law campaigners had been asking for.\n\n\"A Hillsborough Law in full would ensure that ordinary people have a fair chance at getting the justice they deserve,\" he said.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Nearly it from us - will Sunak get the backing he hopes for?\n\nWe are shortly going to be bringing to a close our coverage of what's been an eventful few hours in Westminster and Whitehall. It actually all started last night when Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick quit the government over new Rwanda asylum legislation which he said wouldn't go far enough. Then came along the former home secretary who turned up the pressure on Rishi Sunak's plans. Suella Braverman - who was only sacked by Sunak three weeks ago - didn't mince her words when she appeared on Radio 4's Today programme, saying his policy \"won't work\" and \"won't stop the boats\". She urged the PM to change course, but it appears Sunak is sticking to his present heading. At 11:00 on the dot Sunak was in the Downing Street news conference suite to deliver a defiant and strong defence of his government's new legislation. He urged everyone to get onboard and back his plan. With the Commons due to vote on the next Parliamentary stage of the Rwanda Bill's progress this coming Tuesday, there's plenty more to come with this particular political story. Until then, here is some further reading from my colleagues for you to enjoy:\n• Dominic Casciani: Can the new Rwanda bill work and what could stop it?", "Before fleeing to Russia, Illya Kyva had unsuccessfully run for Ukraine's presidency\n\nFormer Ukrainian MP Illya Kyva has been assassinated in Russia by Ukraine's SBU security service, law enforcement sources have told BBC Ukraine.\n\n\"The criminal was liquidated by using small arms,\" the sources said.\n\nHis body was found outside the capital Moscow, Russian investigators said.\n\nEarlier this year, Kyva was given a 14-year jail sentence for high treason and calling publicly for the occupation of Ukraine. He had already fled Ukraine and was convicted in absentia.\n\nSeveral Ukrainian media outlets also quoted their sources as saying the SBU was behind the assassination of the former lawmaker, who was 46.\n\n\"Yes, we can confirm Kyva is no more. This fate will befall other traitors of Ukraine and puppets of Putin's regime,\" Andriy Yusov, spokesman for Ukraine's military intelligence, told Ukrainian TV.\n\nRussia's SK state investigative committee said preliminary information indicated Kyva was shot dead in the village of Suponevo, to the west of Moscow. A criminal investigation is now under way.\n\nKyva had campaigned unsuccessfully for Ukraine's presidency in 2019 and left the country only a month before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.\n\nHe had been a regular participant in propaganda TV shows on Russia's state-run media.\n\nHe had also reportedly been planning to seek political asylum in Russia.\n\nIn a separate development, Russian-backed politician Oleg Popov was killed in a car bombing in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk city on Wednesday, local officials said.\n\nMost of the Luhansk region has been seized by Russia. Ukraine has not commented on that attack.\n\nHis death came a few weeks after fellow Luhansk region lawmaker Mikhail Filiponenko was killed in a similar attack that was claimed by Kyiv.\n\nSince the Russian invasion, the SBU and military intelligence have claimed a number of successful operations against high-value targets in the country's occupied regions as well as in Russia itself.\n\nRussia's bridge linking occupied Crimea to Russia has been targeted several times, causing substantial damage.\n\nLast week, the SBU said it had blown up a rail connection in Russia's Far East near the border with China that served as a major transportation hub.", "Police were called just before 09:10 GMT after the 29-year-old woman was attacked\n\nA 28-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder after a pregnant woman was stabbed.\n\nDaniel Mihai Popescu, from Merthyr Tydfil, was arrested after police were called to Moy Road in Aberfan just before 09:10 GMT on Tuesday, where the 29-year-old woman was attacked.\n\nEyewitnesses said the victim was pregnant.\n\nMr Popescu is due to appear at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates' Court on Thursday morning.\n\nHe is also charged with stalking and witness intimidation.\n\nThe injured woman has been discharged from hospital.\n\nOn Tuesday, a police cordon was erected on Moy Road and some schools and community facilities were locked down as a \"precautionary measure\".\n\nAbout 10 armed officers were seen on Wyndham Street in Troedyrhiw - about 1.6 miles (2.4km) from Moy Road - before the arrest.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: What have we learnt from the GTA VI trailer?\n\nIf you're a gaming fan, you definitely won't have missed the long-awaited trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6.\n\nBut you might not have recognised the teaser's soundtrack - a 1980s Tom Petty tune Love Is A Long Road.\n\nWhile the trailer has racked up more than 100 million views, the song has also seen a huge leap in streams.\n\nSince the trailer's Tuesday release, Spotify tells BBC Newsbeat streams for the track have increased 36,979% compared to this time last week.\n\nThe teaser confirmed the game - which will be released in 2025 - will be set in Miami-inspired Vice City and star a female protagonist, Lucia, for the first time since the 1990s.\n\nIt has been 10 years since Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto 5, the second best-selling video game of all time behind Minecraft.\n\nTom Petty died in 2017 after an accidental drug overdose\n\nThe US singer, who died aged 66 in 2017, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and is probably best known for songs like American Girl and Don't Do Me Like That which he released with his band the Heartbreakers.\n\nHe's also featured on a GTA soundtrack before. Runnin' Down A Dream was part of the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas playlist when the game was released in 2004.\n\nLove Is A Long Road, first released in 1989, was Petty's B-side track for his debut solo album, Free Fallin'.\n\nIt peaked at number seven in the US charts that year and only ranked at 38 in a Rolling Stone's list of his 50 greatest hits.\n\nAnd while it's now been streamed more than 11 million times on Spotify, it's barely a stitch on his most popular track, Free Fallin', which has been played more than 600 million times.\n\nIn a post on X, Petty's estate said featuring on the new game was \"an honour\".\n\n\"Tom loved contributing Runnin' Down A Dream to GTA: San Andreas, so it is an honour to have Love Is A Long Road featured in trailer one for GTA VI,\" they said.\n\nSpotify says it's seen soundtracks skyrocket before, but never like this.\n\nFor comparison, when Linda Rondstadt's Long Long Time was featured in the TV adaptation of The Last of Us, streams increased by 4,900%.\n\nAnd spokesperson for the streaming service says GTA's influence on the platform isn't limited to Petty's track.\n\nA playlist curated with game creators Rockstar has been liked almost half a million times since it was created a couple of weeks ago.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Denny Laine, lead singer of the Moody Blues and a guitarist with Sir Paul McCartney's band Wings, has died at the age of 79.\n\nHis wife Elizabeth Hines said he died after a long battle with lung disease.\n\nAmong other achievements, Laine sang on the Moody Blues' multi-million selling Go Now and co-wrote the Wings hit Mull of Kintyre.\n\nSir Paul paid tribute on Instagram, calling the musician \"an outstanding vocalist and guitar player\".\n\n\"Denny was a great talent with a fine sense of humour and was always ready to help other people,\" he said.\n\n\"We had drifted apart but in recent years managed to re-establish our friendship and share memories of our times together.\"\n\nUS musician Christopher Cross also posted a message remembering Laine as a \"dear friend... an icon and a sweet man.\"\n\n\"He will be missed. Prayers for his wife Liz and their family,\" he added.\n\nBorn Brian Hines in the Channel Islands, Laine grew up in Birmingham and was inspired to play guitar by jazz legend Django Reinhardt.\n\nHis stage name derived from a childhood nickname, Denny, and his sister's favourite singer, Frankie Laine. (The similarity to Penny Lane, written by his future Wings' bandmate, was coincidental.)\n\nHis professional career began as the frontman of a local band called Denny Laine and the Diplomats, which featured future ELO musician Bev Bevan on drums.\n\nBut when the band failed a record label audition, Laine left to join The Moody Blues.\n\nThere, he scored a number one hit with Go Now and followed it up with a number of R&B-influenced singles like From The Bottom of My Heart (I Love You) and Bye Bye Bird.\n\nLaine (right) performing with Paul and Linda McCartney in 1977\n\nBut their commercial success was on the slide, and Laine left before the band reinvented itself as a progressive rock outfit with songs like Nights In White Satin.\n\nHis next project, the Denny Laine String Band, also struggled to achieve chart success and the guitarist took a sabbatical in Spain to study flamenco guitar, before joining Cream drummer Ginger Baker in his hard rock outfit Air Force.\n\nThen, in 1971, McCartney announced the arrival of Wings - his first band since the Beatles, centred around songs written with his wife Linda.\n\nLaine provided guitar, bass and vocals, giving essential support to McCartney on hits like Jet, Band on the Run and Live and Let Die.\n\nHe had known McCartney since the Diplomats and The Moody Blues supported The Beatles on tour in the 60s; and although he had previously been known as a frontman, he enjoyed the freedom Wings afforded him.\n\n\"I was in the shadows more, but I wasn't bothered by that,\" he told Billboard earlier this year.\n\n\"I was traveling the world and learning a lot and having a good time in many ways. So from that point of view, it was easy for me.\"\n\nBut he was gifted solo sections during concerts on the Wings Over America tour, where he sang Go Now, amongst other songs.\n\nIn the studio with Wings in 1973\n\nWings split in 1981 after Paul McCartney was arrested in Japan for marijuana possession while on tour.\n\nLaine continued working with McCartney on his early 1980s solo albums Tug of War and Pipes of Peace, and pursued a solo career, having already released a handful of albums in the 1970s.\n\n1980's Japanese Tear included the Paul McCartney co-write Send Me The Heart, along with several songs Wings had recorded but never released.\n\nFuture albums included Hometown Girls, Wings On My Feet and Lonely Road - and the musician re-imagined some of Wing's biggest hits on 1996's Wings At The Sound of Denny Laine.\n\nHis final solo album, The Blue Musician, was released in 2008 and he continued to tour, playing a selection of the songs he was associated with, until very recently.\n\nIn 2018, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues - after initially being left off the list of inductees.\n\nHe was charitable about the snub, saying the rest of the band deserved a place \"because of the amount of work and the popularity\" they had achieved after he left.\n\nBut he was honoured to be added to the roster. \"I think I'm at least a little part of their story, so I feel very content, really,\" he told Billboard.\"\n\nLaine's death comes shortly after Wings announced a 50th anniversary reissue of Band On The Run.\n\nAlthough the musician maintained that he \"didn't do favourites\", he held a special affection for that record.\n\n\"The most important album to me is Band on the Run because it was just me and Paul and Linda doing a few harmonies,\" he said.\n\n\"As musicians, it was just Paul and me and the input I had on that album that made it special to me. He was on drums and I was on guitar and the album had a special feel to it.\"\n\nIn her statement, Laine's wife said he had expected to recover from lung disease, but the condition got progressively worse over the last few weeks.\n\n\"He fought everyday. He was so strong and brave, never complained,\" she wrote.\n\n\"All he wanted was to be home with me and his pet kitty, Charley, playing his gypsy guitar.\"\n\nAfter thanking fans for their support, she asked for \"the time and privacy\" the family would need \"as we grieve for our loss\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: BTS urge fans to avoid showing up at army camps during their military service\n\nFour BTS band members have urged their fans not to turn up at army camps when they begin mandatory military duty.\n\nThe K-pop stars' label announced that RM, Jimin, V and Jung Kook would enlist soon - some reports say next week.\n\nThe four then posted a video, with RM saying they could become a \"nuisance\" for other soldiers enlisting and their families.\n\nThree older band members are already in the army, with Jin, the oldest, being the first to join last December.\n\nTheir send-offs had attracted crowds of fans, endearingly known as the ARMY, who gathered outside the military bases to say goodbye.\n\nAs South Korea is still technically at war with North Korea, nearly all able-bodied men are obliged to enlist for 18 months by the time they turn 28.\n\nSitting on sofas with his bandmates, RM said in Tuesday's video: \"I would appreciate if you avoid coming to see us on the day.\"\n\nEarlier, the group's label Big Hit Music said that the enlistments were \"upcoming\" for the four, but didn't disclose the exact dates. Local media reports suggest that all will start next week.\n\nIt also asked fans to avoid visiting military bases on the day the band members turn up as there would be no \"separate official events\".\n\n\"We ask that you only give a warm send-off and encouragement to RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook with your heart,\" it added.\n\nBTS's sudden and unexpected announcement to take a break, just days after releasing a new album last year, had shocked millions of fans. The band, however, has promised to reform in 2025.\n\nIn their live stream, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook talked about the band's decision to hit pause so that they could all focus on personal projects and prepare for service.\n\n\"It's going to take some time but it's no big deal. We've been active for 10 years. One-and-half years will go quick,\" RM says.\n\nAll four were sitting around tables full of food - pizzas, breads and soda - laughing and joking until the 24th minute when Jung Kook, who has already shaved his hair for military service, sombrely says: \"There is something we want to ask… Other people will be entering service too. So if possible, I wish you would avoid coming.\"\n\nRM continues: \"Other soldiers and their parents will be there. We could become a nuisance.\"\n\nHe and V then jokingly bow to the camera before RM adds: \"It can be dangerous.\"\n\nFor a long time, it was rumoured that the government might allow the members of BTS to skip military service, given that the band - whose enormous popularity has earned them comparisons to the Beatles - is easily one of the country's biggest cultural exports, bringing in billions of dollars.\n\nBut although South Korea offers exemptions from military service to some people, including Olympic medal-winning athletes and some classical musicians, this does not apply to K-pop stars.\n• None Pop stars BTS to take time out for military duty", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA man was captured on video dragging a swan through a park by the neck until bystanders called on him to release the bird.\n\nBrandon Ryzy, 21, filmed what he called a \"sickening\" attack near Caerphilly Castle and posted the video on social media.\n\n\"I'm just glad I was there to stop him,\" he said of the incident reported at 16:20 GMT on Sunday\n\nGwent Police said officers searched the area and were trying to trace the man.\n\nWarning: This story contains images of animal cruelty\n\n\"I was just walking home from doing some shopping,\" said student Brandon, \"when I spotted him in the corner of my eye.\n\n\"I'm guessing he was under the influence.\"\n\nWhen confronted, he said the man claimed the swan had attacked his children.\n\n\"But there were no children around.\"\n\n\"I did chase after him and made sure he put the swan down,\" he said. \"I had to be very aggressive to get him to stop.\n\nThe bird was flapping and was then \"dropped down on the floor\" he said .\n\n\"I watched the man walk off and stayed with the bird to see if it could get itself back to the moat.\"\n\nHe said the feathers on the bird's neck were ruffled where it has been gripped and it \"seemed to be in shock\".\n\n\"It seemed quite fragile and was moving slowly.\"\n\nHe said other bystanders in a nearby pub also saw the incident and one reported it to the police.\n\nCaerphilly Bird Rescue posted a comment about the video, saying it \"sickens me to the stomach\".\n\nPolice said the caller who reported the incident told officers the swan ran \"back into the water\".\n\nDetectives are asking for help in tracing the man.", "Puerto Rican superstar Daddy Yankee has announced he's giving up music to devote his life to religion.\n\nThe star, known for UK chart hits like Despacito and Gasolina, revealed the news to fans at the final show of his La Última Vuelta (Last Lap) world tour.\n\n\"Living a successful life is not the same as living a life with purpose,\" the 46-year-old rapper told the crowd.\n\n\"For a long time, I tried to fill an emptiness... that nobody could fill,\" he added, saying faith had saved him.\n\n\"That's why tonight I recognised and am unashamed to tell the world that Jesus lives in me and that I will live for him.\"\n\nIt's an abrupt change for one of the leading voices in reggaeton, the sexually-charged, street-smart style that emerged in Panama and Puerto Rico in the 1990s, blending reggae music with Latin American dance hall music and hip-hop.\n\nYankee, born Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez, has been one of the genres' biggest ambassadors, scoring international hits with sensual, propulsive hits like Barrio Fino, Con Calma and Rompe.\n\nAfter releasing his first solo record in 1995, he became the best-selling Latin artist of the 2000s, and collaborated with everyone from Justin Bieber to Snoop Dogg, Janet Jackson and the Jonas Brothers.\n\nHe announced the decision to bow out in March, with the release of his first studio album in a decade - humbly titled Legendaddy - and the promise of his biggest-ever tour.\n\nThe star played his final show in Puerto Rico on Sunday\n\nAs he finished his last-ever show at the packed Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan, the star thanked his fans for their support and urged them \"follow Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life\", as a group of drones flew over the stadium, forming the shape of a cross.\n\nHe is not the first reggaeton star to eschew music for a life of faith - following in the footsteps of artists like El General, Héctor El Father, Julio Voltio and Jomar El Caballo Negro.\n\nLast year, the Purto Rican rapper Farruko used a concert in Miami to apologise for the vulgar lyrics in his tracks and spoke at length about his religious beliefs.\n\nBut it's not just reggaeton. Here are five other stars who left behind a successful career to devote their life to God.\n\nKnown for soulful love songs like Let's Stay Together and Tired Of Being Alone, Al Green had a religious epiphany in Disneyland, of all places.\n\nOne night, after playing a concert in the theme park, he woke up in his hotel room feeling strangely serene and shouting \"Hallelujah!\"\n\nOver the next few years, he wavered between his million-dollar career and a desire to sing gospel music - but finally decided he needed to turn his life around when a spurned girlfriend poured boiling food over him and shot herself.\n\nIn 1976, Green established the Full Gospel Tabernacle church in Memphis, where he still preaches to this day.\n\nIt was a near-death experience while swimming in Malibu that convinced Cat Stevens to devote his life to Islam.\n\n\"I was an Englishman. I didn't know it wasn't wise to go out at that time of day and take a swim, so I did,\" he told Desert Island Discs in 2020.\n\n\"I decided to turn back and head for shore and, of course, at that point I realised, 'I'm fighting the Pacific.'\n\n\"There was no way I was going to win. There was only one thing to do and that was to pray to the almighty to save me. And I did.\"\n\nAfter converting, he changed his name to Yusuf Islam and released a series of religious-themed albums, including recordings intended to teach children the basic tenets of his faith.\n\nHe returned to pop in 2006, and recently played a triumphant set in Glastonbury's Legends Slot.\n\nHarlem rapper Ma$e was known as Puff Daddy's favourite sidekick, lending his sleepy, easy-going flow to tracks like Can't Nobody Hold Me Down, Mo' Money, Mo' Problems and Mariah Carey's Honey.\n\nHis debut album, Harlem World, topped the US charts in 1997, at the peak of the short-lived \"jiggy rap\" era. It contained the hit singles What You Want and Feel So Good which focused on Ma$e's lavish lifestyle, luxury cars and lyrical prowess.\n\n\"Girl, I wanna give you carats 'til you feel you a rabbit,\" he observed on What You Want.\n\nBut after his second album failed to catch fire, the rapper told New York DJ Funkmaster Flex he'd found the Lord and was giving up the rap game instead of \"leading people, friends, kids and others down a path to hell\".\n\n\"A lot of people said, 'You should wait to talk about this.' But God wouldn't have given it to you on Sunday if He didn't need you to do it on Monday,\" he said.\n\nReverting to his birth name, Mason Durell Betha, he became a pastor and now leads a church in Atlanta.\n\nNot everyone sticks it out. Little Richard went from taking part in orgies and snorting $1,000 of cocaine a night to a quiet period of religious devotion, before heading back to a life of excess.\n\nBorn in 1932, he was one of the first true rock stars, breaking out with his 1955 song Tutti Frutti, followed by hits like Slippin' and Slidin' and Good Golly Miss Molly.\n\nHis songs were energetic, riotous and laced with innuendo - but the singer struggled to reconcile his lifestyle, and his homosexuality, with his religious beliefs.\n\nAt the height of his career in 1957, during a show in Australia, Little Richard announced he was quitting rock and roll. He cut his hair, got married and became a traveling evangelist - then enrolled in a theological school in Alabama to study gospel music.\n\nHe released the King Of The Gospel Singers album in 1961, but was tempted back to rock and roll a year later. For the rest of his life, he was torn between the pulpit and the pull of the stage.\n\n\"Although I sing rock and roll, God still loves me,\" he said in 2009. \"I'm a rock 'n' roll singer, but I'm still a Christian.\"\n\nWith songs like Freak On A Leash and Rotting In Vain, American nu metal band Korn didn't seem to have much of a grip on a life of piety.\n\nBut in 2005, guitarist Brian \"Head\" Welch realised his life had reached a crossroads. After years of addiction to prescription drugs, alcohol, meth-amphetamines and sleeping pills, he turned to a higher power for help.\n\n\"I really wanted God to take away my addiction to drugs,\" he said. \"I was like 'Jesus, if you're real, take away my addiction.' I felt Him come into my life, and that's when everything changed.\"\n\nHe quit the band and was baptised in the River Jordan, then travelled to poverty-stricken areas of India to build orphanages.\n\nWelch later admitted he had been \"over-zealous\" after his initial conversion, saying he got \"obsessed\" with religion \"just like I was obsessed with drugs\".\n\nThe comments received negative feedback from Christian websites, who felt he had renounced his faith - but the musician later reaffirmed his beliefs, saying: \"I have an amazing relationship with God and I know where that stands. So I'm very confident in that, so I don't gotta really worry about it for temporary controversy.\"", "Most of the houses and the school in Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian village, were destroyed by a bulldozer\n\nA few nights ago, the school in Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian village in the hills south of Hebron, was destroyed along with most of the houses, by a bulldozer.\n\nIts tracks lay fresh and undisturbed in the sand when we arrived. The village was empty as its population of about 200 Palestinians left around a month ago, after sustained pressure and threats from armed and aggressive Jewish settlers who live in nearby outposts that are illegal under both Israeli and international law.\n\nA twisted metal sign lies in the rubble of the school in Khirbet Zanuta. In bold black letters it reads \"Humanitarian Support to Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer in the West Bank\". The sign records the donors who gave money to the project. The European Union was the lead donor and, among a panel of European development agencies, is also the coat of arms of the British royal family over the words British Consulate-General Jerusalem.\n\nNadav Weiman came with the BBC to the village. He is a former Israeli special forces soldier who is now an activist with Breaking the Silence, a group of former combatants who campaign against Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. Nadav believes that Jewish settlers, the most militant of whom are known by name to local Palestinians, were once again flouting the law with the police and army.\n\n\"They're demolishing Palestinian villages, beating up Palestinian farmers, stealing their olives, trying to open a third front, an eastern front against the Palestinians in the West Bank. Why? Because they want the land without Palestinians.\"\n\nTwo Israeli soldiers came to investigate what we were doing. One of them told an Israeli member of the BBC team that he was a traitor for visiting Palestinians. They filmed us but took much less interest in what had happened in Khirbet Zanuta, a few miles down the road.\n\nWhen I asked the police if they were investigating the flattening of the school and the village, they emailed back that they were waiting for a complaint. In fact, lawyers for Zanuta's Palestinians had petitioned Israel's Supreme Court.\n\nThe school in Khirbet Zanuta had been funded by international donors\n\nIn three days of travelling through the occupied West Bank, Palestinians have said consistently that since the war in Gaza started on 7 October, Jewish settlers are better armed and much more aggressive.\n\nViolent attacks, including fatal shootings of Palestinians by armed Jewish settlers in the West Bank have risen sharply. So many attacks are happening that Israel's closest allies, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have condemned violence by extremist settlers and demanded that those guilty of crimes should be prosecuted.\n\nIn practice, settlers rarely end up in court and if they do, they can usually expect light sentences.\n\nThe settlers are armed and supported by powerful allies in the Israeli government, led by Itamar Ben Gvir, the minister for national security and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister who also has security responsibilities in the West Bank.\n\nControversially, Mr Smotrich just found more than $100 million for the settlers. Apparently referring to opinion polls saying Palestinians were supporting Hamas, he told The Times of Israel newspaper that \"there are two million Nazis in Judea and Samaria, who hate us exactly as do the Nazis of Hamas-ISIS in Gaza\". Judea and Samaria is a biblical term for the West Bank.\n\nMembers of the Mhilat family say settlers attacked them and accused them of stealing goats\n\nThe reality of settler attacks was captured in a video taken by Muntassar Mhilat, a young Palestinian man from a family of Bedouins who live in the Judean desert not far from Jericho.\n\nTheir family home was invaded by about 20 violent, armed Jewish men. Muntassar filmed them yelling and pointing weapons.\n\n\"He was shooting at my uncle, so I ran down there and confronted him. We were pushing each other and screaming, head-to-head. And I was filming him. Then, around 20 settlers came.\"\n\nThe video shows a settler loading his M-16 assault rifle and pointing it at the family. One of the women there, Umm Omar, carrying a month old baby, thought they were about to die.\n\n\"They attacked our house, stole our sheep, threatened my kids with guns and threatened me. Then they hit me and my husband's sister. I thought they were going to slaughter us.\"\n\nNo-one was killed. The settlers accused them, falsely the family said, of stealing their goats. The man who pointed a loaded weapon was wearing a police jacket.\n\nA common complaint is that settlers have been drafted into the security forces as reservists since 7 October and are abusing the power and position that come with the uniform and automatic weapons issued by the state.\n\nThe family recognised some of the attackers, as they came from an illegal outpost about a mile away. They know there will be a next time and feel sick with worry.\n\nThe harassment of Palestinians is also economic and psychological.\n\nSouth of Hebron Palestinian farmers are ploughing with the donkey because local Jewish settlers have threatened to steal or break their tractor if they use it.\n\nAhmed Tirawi, a farmer, says he's unable to access his olives because he fears being attacked by settlers\n\nAlmost at the other end of the West Bank, in a village outside Nablus called Burin, Ahmed Tirawi, a farmer looked across the valley at his olive trees, starting to rot because he has been forbidden by the local settlers to pick them.\n\n\"If I go up there on the hillside to harvest my olives, it's taking my life in my hands. The settlers make attacks on the farmers here - one bullet and they will kill me.\"\n\nThe olive season is always a time of tension, but this time he said it has been \"horrible\".\n\n\"My feelings are more than anger. I feel humiliated by all of this. I am powerless to protect myself from just one settler. It's such a humiliation to be so alone and unable to protect yourself. The only solution is international law, two states and to protect people from the Israeli occupation.\"\n\nSettler leader Yehuda Simon says Palestinians are being stopped from harvesting their olives for security reasons\n\nI went to talk to Yehuda Simon, a prominent settler leader at his own outpost, Havat Gilad, near Nablus. He is a lawyer who has represented settlers accused of attacking Palestinians, and he nodded approvingly when I said Palestinian farmers in the area near where he lived were being stopped from harvesting their olives.\n\n\"The army came to the conclusion that the Palestinians coming to harvest olives are gathering information in order to carry out an attack like on 7 October.\"\n\nHe dismissed the repeated, documented reports of settlers attacking Palestinians.\n\n\"I don't hear about people who kill Palestinians. Okay. If the Palestinian just sits on his balcony and the settlers come and kill him, it's never happened. Okay. And I don't believe that the British and United States and all countries in the world, they are a friend of Israel… even Joe Biden is against Jewish people. He doesn't like Jewish people.\"\n\nAs for the Arabs: \"They could stay here with us, but not try to kill us in the beginning.\"\n\nFor more than a century, Arabs and Jews have been fighting over this small piece of land. The war in Gaza hasn't just increased violence in the West Bank. The way it ends, when it ends, will affect whether the next generation can escape this endless conflict.\n\nThe sight of families forced out of their homes raises memories of 1948 for Palestinians. By the time Israel won the battle for its independence, more than 700,000 Palestinians had either fled or been expelled from their homes at gunpoint. The new state took their property and never allowed them to go home. Palestinians call the events of 1948 the \"Nakba\" or catastrophe.\n\nSettler violence and the loss of homes confirm, for Palestinians, their worst fears, that powerful forces in Israel's government and the settler movement want them out and are using the huge crisis surrounding the war in Gaza to make it happen.", "Boris Johnson has faced weeks of heavy criticism at the inquiry by some of those he worked with most closely\n\nBoris Johnson is expected to apologise to the Covid Inquiry next week and acknowledge the government did not get everything right during the pandemic.\n\nBut the former PM will argue robustly that his government got many of the big calls right, people close to him say.\n\nMr Johnson will talk with pride about the vaccines programme and argue the UK emerged the final lockdown earlier than other comparable economies.\n\nHis evidence will follow weeks of heavy criticism of him at the inquiry.\n\nThose around Mr Johnson are letting it be known the broad tenor and scope of the arguments he is expected to make, before what could be up to ten hours of questioning from lawyers.\n\nMr Johnson's capabilities as a prime minister in a pandemic have been criticised by some of those who worked most closely with him when Covid struck.\n\nMore on Covid and the Covid inquiry\n\nHis former director of communications, Lee Cain, said the pandemic was the \"wrong crisis\" for Mr Johnson's \"skill set\", describing dither and delay.\n\nThe former chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said Mr Johnson was \"bamboozled\" by scientific data.\n\nAnd his former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, has long described the former prime minister as \"the trolley\" due to his tendency to veer around and constantly change his mind.\n\nSo Mr Johnson has some reputation management to do.\n\nThose who have helped prepare him for his appearance before the inquiry - which will happen next Wednesday and Thursday - say he will take on those who have accused him of constantly changing his mind by emphasising the volume of briefings he was receiving, how quickly advice would change and the magnitude of the decisions he had to make.\n\nHe will also defend his use of colourful language and phrases, and the adoption of provocative positions in private - saying it helped him get the best out of his advisers and it is not wise for a prime minister to sit in silence when being briefed by experts.\n\nOne source said: \"Ministers can argue for their briefs, as they should. So a health secretary will argue for public health. A chancellor will argue for the economy.\n\n\"But there is only one person in the British system of government that has to arbitrate between the competing arguments and ultimately come to a decision, having made a call on the trade-offs.\"\n\nThe source added: \"There is only one guy in this country who can tell you what it is like to be prime minister in a pandemic. And one day there will be another one.\"\n\nMr Johnson's written statement, around 200 pages long, has already been submitted to the inquiry.\n\nIt is thought the statement barely mentions Mr Cummings.\n\nThe former health secretary, Matt Hancock, has revealed in his written statement to the inquiry that \"the then prime minister has apologised to me for appointing his chief adviser and for the damage he did to the response to Covid-19\".\n\nMr Hancock regarded Mr Cummings as a \"malign actor\" who created a toxic culture in Downing Street.\n\nMr Johnson is expected to say he does not agree with that and that there were always likely to be elements of tension within government, particularly at a time of heightened stress.\n\nHe is, though, expected to say that he doesn't condone unreasonable behaviour or language.\n\nBoris Johnson has been advised in his preparations by Brian Altman KC.\n\nAt 10:00 GMT on Wednesday, his interrogation by Hugo Keith KC will begin. A country will be watching and waiting: for scrutiny, accountability, and answers.", "The Israelis have said that today was the fiercest fighting they've had since the start of the ground invasion and that they are now in centre of second biggest town in Gaza, Khan Younis.\n\nThere are people trying to move out of the path of the fighting and the UN is coming out with some of the most solemn and terrifying warnings we've heard from them so far about the massive humanitarian crisis that is undeniably taking place there. They're very concerned that they can't get to help the people who need it.\n\nIsrael's armed forces are now pushing further down the Gaza strip – the whole surface area of the strip is roughly the same as Isle of Wight – and more and more people are being pushed to the southern tip near Egypt.\n\nPalestinians pictured making their way through the rubble following strikes on Deir al-Balah Image caption: Palestinians pictured making their way through the rubble following strikes on Deir al-Balah\n\nNow the Egyptians are very, very concerned about the pressure of almost two million people in a very small area with not enough food or water, right on their border.\n\nOne of my colleagues has been in touch with a friend in Gaza today, who was saying: \"I cannot go on. I cannot hear my children saying, 'dad I need food please' – and I have nothing to give them.\"\n\nThis is someone who has a job, with money, and if there was food available to buy he could afford it. But there is nothing to buy.\n\nOne thing the UN says is that Israel should allow commercial suppliers in to revive the market, so that at least those people with money can buy food and the relief supplies can go to someone who doesn’t have money.", "Lianne Gordon has been described as loved by the community\n\nA woman who was shot dead in east London on Tuesday evening has been named as Lianne Gordon.\n\nShe was killed in Lower Clapton, Hackney, where a man, 20, and a 16-year-old boy also sustained gunshot wounds.\n\nThe 42-year-old's neighbours have described her as \"very community-spirited\" and \"loved by the community\".\n\nThe police believe the victims of the shooting were known to each other but were not related.\n\nHer family have paid tribute, saying: \"Lianne had a heart of gold, we her family are going to miss her immensely.\"\n\nDet Ch Supt James Conway told a press conference that the man and teenager were not in a life-threatening condition following the attack, which happened on Vine Close at about 18:30 GMT.\n\nHe said detectives were keeping an open mind but they were \"considering the possibility that this is gang linked\".\n\nDet Ch Insp James Conway said additional officers will be deployed in Hackney over the coming days\n\n\"We are also aware of a recent incident in which police were again called to shots being fired in Vine Close on the evening of Saturday 2 December,\" he added.\n\nNo victim or suspect was traced, Det Ch Supt Conway said, but officers did find shell casings.\n\nHe said detectives were investigating any possible links between the two incidents.\n\nA murder inquiry has been launched but no arrests have been made\n\nIt's very quiet here on Rendlesham Road, which joins on to Vine Close. The only sound in this densely populated residential area is the distant laughter of children playing in a nearby school.\n\nA large section of the road has been cordoned off with police tape. Each person who leaves the cordoned-off area has to check in with police, giving their name and phone number. Very few people want to talk to the media, with some clearly still in shock.\n\nA white forensics tent stands outside the property where it's understood the shooting took place.\n\nA woman came to leave flowers and a card that read: \"Such a beautiful soul, gone too soon.\"\n\nToo upset to take part in an interview, she told me she knew the woman who had been killed - \"everyone knew her\", she said, adding: \"She was loved by the community.\"\n\nA resident of Vine Close, who did not want to be named, said she heard Ms Gordon's daughter screaming after the shooting.\n\nAnother neighbour, Shohid Uddin, described Ms Gordon as \"very nice and chatty\" and said she would \"talk to everybody\".\n\nFlowers have been placed close to the police cordon\n\nIf you passed by her house, \"through the window she would wave and smile\", he said.\n\n\"I never saw her upset, she's always smiling - even from far away she's always smiling and waves her hand. I am feeling very sorry for the children and the family.\"\n\nCaroline Woodley, the recently elected mayor of Hackney, described the shooting as an \"absolutely heart-breaking incident\".\n\nShe said Hackney Council was working with police to support the family and outreach workers would be made available in the area.\n\nA large section of road near Vine Close has been cordoned off by police\n\nThe MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Diane Abbott said: \"This is clearly a terrible incident. My heart goes out to the victim and relatives.\n\n\"As the full detail cannot be known just yet, it is important that any witnesses come forward and help the police in their inquiries.\"\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n• None Woman killed and two wounded in London shooting\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A draft law, which aims to enable the government's flagship Rwanda policy to go ahead, gives ministers the power to disregard some human rights law.\n\nThe government said the bill, which will be introduced in Parliament on Thursday, made clear in UK law Rwanda was a safe country for asylum seekers.\n\nBut it does not go as far as some Conservative MPs on the right of the party had called for.\n\nThe legislation aims to address the concerns of the Supreme Court.\n\nLast month, the UK's highest court ruled that the plans to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda were unlawful.\n\nThe policy, which was first announced by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April 2022, aims to deter people from crossing the English Channel in small boats.\n\nBut it has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges and no asylum seekers have been sent to Rwanda from the UK so far.\n\nThe bill, which must be voted on by Parliament, orders the courts to ignore key sections of the Human Rights Act in an attempt to sidestep the Supreme Court's existing judgment.\n\nIt also orders the courts to ignore other British laws or international rules - such as the international Refugee Convention - that stand in the way of deportations to Rwanda.\n\nHowever, it does not go as far as some Tory MPs wanted.\n\nFormer Home Secretary Suella Braverman and her supporters had called for it to override the entire Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Refugee Convention, and all other international law.\n\nThe bill allows ministers to ignore any emergency order from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to temporarily halt a flight to Rwanda while an individual case is still being considered.\n\nBut it stops short of disapplying the whole of the ECHR.\n\nIt also allows migrants to legally challenge their removal to Rwanda on specific individual grounds, if they can prove that being put on a plane would leave them at real risk of serious harm.\n\nA source close to Mrs Braverman said the bill was \"fatally flawed\" and would be \"bogged down in the courts for months and months\".\n\n\"The prime minister has kept the ability for every single illegal migrant to make individual human rights claims against their removal and to then appeal those claims if they don't succeed at first,\" the source said.\n\n\"It is a further betrayal of Tory voters and the decent patriotic majority who want to see this insanity brought to an end.\"\n\nThe government said the bill would \"end the merry-go-round of legal challenges\" preventing asylum seekers being removed to Rwanda.\n\nHowever, the draft legislation concedes that it may not be compatible with minimum human rights safeguards.\n\nLegislation rarely goes before MPs with such a legal warning.\n\nIt means lawyers have told ministers the measures could still be legally challenged - and the Supreme Court could find them incompatible with human rights obligations and therefore unworkable.\n\nRwanda's foreign affairs minister Vincent Biruta said the country would not be able to continue with the scheme \"without lawful behaviour by the UK\".\n\nHe said: \"It has always been important to both Rwanda and the UK that our rule of law partnership meets the highest standards of international law, and it places obligations on both the UK and Rwanda to act lawfully.\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak said: \"Through this new landmark emergency legislation, we will control our borders, deter people taking perilous journeys across the Channel and end the continuous legal challenges filling our courts.\"\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly signed a new treaty with Rwanda on Tuesday.\n\nThe government hopes the treaty, combined with the new bill, will be enough to allow the Rwanda scheme to go ahead.\n\nLabour has pledged to scrap the policy if it wins the next election.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the government and the Conservative Party were in \"total chaos\".\n\n\"They've got open warfare among their backbenches, the starting gun fired on the next leadership election and once again the whole country paying the price for this chaos,\" she told the Commons.", "Damion Johnson admitted charges of fraud and preventing a lawful and decent burial\n\nA man who kept his friend's body in a freezer for two years has been jailed.\n\nDamion Johnson, 53, had known John Wainwright for 27 years and lived with him at a flat in Birmingham.\n\nThe pair had a \"strong friendship\" and when Mr Wainwright, 71, died, Derby Crown Court was told Johnson had been \"overcome by grief\".\n\nThe defendant was jailed for two years after previously admitting preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body and three counts of fraud.\n\nProsecutor Darron Whitehead said he \"was not ready to let go\".\n\nThe pair lived together at a flat in Birmingham city centre\n\nThe pair moved into their shared flat in 2015 and Johnson was Mr Wainwright's registered carer.\n\nThe older man died in September 2018, but his body was not found until August 2020 when it was discovered in the freezer on the premises of a skip company.\n\nMr Whitehead said the pair had lived at Cleveland Tower, Holloway Head, in Birmingham city centre, and Johnson had described Mr Wainwright as a father figure to him\n\nThe prosecutor said Johnson had not been \"thinking rationally\" after his friend's death and added: \"As time passed, he had been unable to inform the authorities.\"\n\nJohnson ordered a chest freezer, the court was told, measuring approximately two feet by three feet, costing £462, but told relatives and friends Mr Wainwright had died and the funeral had already taken place.\n\nHe did not inform the emergency services nor obtain a death certificate.\n\nThe body was discovered after Johnson was arrested for other matters in December 2019 and the flat was boarded up. The freezer containing the body was left inside but unplugged.\n\nSeveral people later went to the flat to conduct safety checks and noted a strong smell, but the freezer was taken away by removal workers in August 2020, who assumed the smell was rotting food.\n\nThe body was eventually found by staff at Budget Skips Services Ltd in Exhall, Warwickshire.\n\nA post-mortem examination noted signs of blunt force trauma, but could not conclude how Mr Wainwright died.\n\nThe court was told Johnson, recently of Sun Street, Derby, had used his former flat-mate's bank account after his death.\n\nRaglan Ashton, mitigating, said the pair had had an \"informal agreement\" that they would still be able to access funds in a joint account, even after either of their deaths.\n\nJudge Shaun Smith KC said preventing a burial was an \"unusual offence\" but he was \"not suggesting at all\" the defendant had any involvement in Mr Wainwright's death.\n\n\"Had you accepted his death and gone about it in a normal way, he would have received a good and decent burial,\" the judge said.\n\n\"That was not what you did. You bought a chest freezer, a deliberate act on your part. You knew what you were going to do.\n\n\"Everything you did facilitated the hiding of that body. Nothing you did contributed to it being found.\"\n\nThe judge added preventing the burial of Mr Wainwright was \"an offence which is so serious that the only appropriate punishment can be achieved by immediate custody.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Google says Gemini will power text and image services\n\nGoogle has released an artificial intelligence (AI) model which it claims has advanced \"reasoning capabilities\" to \"think more carefully\" when answering hard questions.\n\nAI content generators are known to sometimes invent things, which developers call hallucinations.\n\nGemini was tested on its problem-solving and knowledge in 57 subject areas including maths and humanities.\n\nBoss Sundar Pichai said it represented a \"new era\" for AI.\n\nGoogle adopted a cautious approach to the launch of its AI chatbot, Bard, earlier this year, describing it as \"an experiment\".\n\nBard made a mistake in its own publicity demo, providing the wrong answer to a question about space.\n\nBut Google is making some big claims for its new model, describing it as its \"most capable\" yet and has suggested it can outperform human experts in a range of intelligence tests.\n\nGemini can both recognise and generate text, images and audio - but is not a product in its own right.\n\nInstead it is what it known as a foundational model, meaning it will be integrated into Google's existing tools, including search and Bard.\n\nGemini appeared to have set a \"new standard\", highlighting its ability to learn from sources other than text, such as pictures, according to Chirag Dekate, from analysts Gartner.\n\nHe said that might \"enable innovations that are likely to transform generative AI.\"\n\nGoogle has so far struggled to attract as much attention and as many users users as OpenAI's viral chatbot ChatGPT.\n\nBut it claims the most powerful version of Gemini outperforms OpenAI's platform GPT-4 - which drives ChatGPT - on 30 of the 32 widely-used academic benchmarks.\n\nHowever, a new, more powerful version of the OpenAI software is due to be released next year, with chief executive Sam Altman saying the firm's new products would make its current ones look like \"a quaint relative\".\n\nIt remains to be seen whether the recent turmoil at OpenAI - which saw Mr Altman fired and rehired in the space of a few days - will have any impact on that launch.\n\nThe firm also faces fresh competition from Elon Musk's xAI, which is seeking to raise up to $1bn to invest in research and development. Chinese firm Baidu is also racing ahead with its own AI products.\n\nBut as the technology rapidly evolves, so do fears about its potential to cause harm.\n\nGovernments around the world are trying to develop rules or even legislation to contain the possible future risks of AI.\n\nIn November, the subject was discussed at a summit in the UK, where signatories agreed a declaration calling for its safe development. The King also said possible dangers needed to be addressed with a sense of \"urgency, unity and collective strength\".", "In the end it was a diplomatic achievement that the ceasefire lasted as long as it did. Now, after a seven-day pause, Israel and Hamas are facing their greatest military and political challenges.\n\nFor Hamas, it is the fight to survive. As long as a Hamas gunman can pull a trigger or launch a rocket into Israel it will claim to be undefeated.\n\nFor all its overwhelming military power, Israel's task is more complicated.\n\nIts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swore \"mighty vengeance\" after Hamas breached the border and killed around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, on 7 October.\n\nIn the first hours after the Israeli military went back on the offensive, the government recommitted itself to its war aims in a WhatsApp post: \"Releasing the hostages, eliminating Hamas and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to the residents of Israel.\"\n\nIsraeli soldiers gather near tanks as smoke rises from Gaza in the background, after the ceasefire ended on Friday\n\nHow it does that and what happens next are now the number one preoccupations of Mr Netanyahu, his political allies and enemies in Israel and Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state who has made four trips to Israel and the region since the war started.\n\nPerhaps Mr Blinken knew that his attempt to prolong what he called the \"humanitarian pause\" would fail.\n\nOn the evening before the fighting resumed, he repeated America's support for Israel's right to defend itself, and once again condemned Hamas.\n\nMr Blinken repeated his insistence \"that Israel act in accordance with international humanitarian law and the laws of war, even when confronting a terrorist group that respects neither\".\n\nThen Mr Blinken made his starkest public statement yet about how Israel should fight the war.\n\nIt is worth quoting at length, because it is a checklist of what the US expects from its closest ally.\n\nMr Blinken said that it meant \"taking more effective steps to protect the lives of civilians, including by clearly and precisely designating areas and places in southern and central Gaza where they can be safe and out of the line of fire\".\n\nDisplaced Palestinians take refuge in a school in Khan Younis\n\n\"It means avoiding further significant displacement of civilians inside of Gaza. It means avoiding damage to life-critical infrastructure, like hospitals, like power stations, like water facilities.\"\n\n\"And it means giving civilians who've been displaced to southern Gaza the choice to return to the north as soon as conditions permit. There must be no enduring internal displacement.\"\n\nAt the beginning of the war Joe Biden, the US president, came here. While trying to wrap Israel in a warm and powerful embrace he also warned his allies not to be blinded by rage as they sought justice, as America had been after the al-Qaeda attacks of 11 September, 2001.\n\nMr Blinken's remarks suggest Joe Biden believes that Mr Netanyahu, with whom he has had a difficult relationship, did not listen.\n\nIsrael's war aims require that the next phase of its offensive is aimed at Hamas in southern Gaza. When it invaded northern Gaza, it ordered Palestinian civilians to head to the south for their own safety.\n\nWhile not as lethal as the north, much of which Israel has turned into a wasteland, nowhere in Gaza is safe.\n\nA few hours after hostilities resumed, Palestinians in Rafah, in the far south of Gaza on the border with Egypt, were being killed in Israeli air strikes.\n\nIsrael cannot claim to have eliminated Hamas without destroying its infrastructure in the south, where it believes Yahya Sinwar and the other leaders are lying low in tunnels under the civilian population, along with an unspecified number of fighting men.\n\nResidents conduct search and rescue works in Rafah, as Israeli air strikes resumed hours after the end of the truce\n\nIf Israel is going to use the same tactics as it did in northern Gaza, thousands more civilians will be killed. Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, already calls the plight of the people of Gaza \"an epic humanitarian catastrophe\".\n\nEgypt, and others, fear that extreme military pressure on approaching two million civilians in the south could mean thousands of desperate people forcing their way over the border into the Sinai Desert. A new Palestinian refugee crisis would be another dangerous and desperate moment for the Middle East.\n\nLet us assume that Israel has promised the US that Palestinian civilians will be told to move to specific areas where they will be safe. In a high-intensity war of the kind that Israel has been waging, with tanks, air strikes and heavy artillery, it is far easier to see how that plan might go wrong, rather than how it might succeed.\n\nPalestinians travel toward safer areas to avoid air strikes in Rafah\n\nIf Israel shifts to lighter counter-insurgency tactics, with troops moving without a blanket of heavy protection, it will most likely suffer many more battle casualties than it has so far.\n\nIsrael's next moves are also a significant moment for Joe Biden, who is facing strident criticism of his support for Israel from the progressive wing of his own Democratic party.\n\nBiden's chief diplomat, Antony Blinken, has spoken clearly, in public, about the way the US wants Israel to fight Hamas. If Israel kills anything like as many Palestinian civilians as it did in the north, in defiance of the stated will of Joe Biden, the US president will have to decide whether he can continue to give Israel so much support, not just on the battlefield but also in the United Nations Security Council, where the US has used its veto many times to protect Israel.\n\nHamas is not beaten. Its remaining hostages give it a powerful lever that it can use to disrupt Israel's military campaign, and to inflict more psychological pressure on the home front. The Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his men will also try to exploit opportunities that open up if and when Israel's generals follow American instructions to use less firepower.\n\nThis war is in a new phase. So is the whole region. Many Palestinians and Israelis, including those far from the battles in Gaza, seem beaten down by the weight of a dangerous and uncertain future.", "Home Secretary James Cleverly signed the new treaty with Rwanda's foreign affairs minister Vincent Biruta in Kigali\n\nThe home secretary says a new treaty with Rwanda addresses the concerns of the UK's Supreme Court, which ruled the government's plan unlawful last month.\n\nThe court said the policy, which would see migrants sent to Rwanda, was open to human rights breaches.\n\nJames Cleverly insisted Rwanda had made \"a clear and unambiguous commitment to the safety of people who come here\".\n\nThe policy is part of the government's plan to deter migrants from crossing the Channel in small boats.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has said \"stopping the boats\" is one of five main priorities for his government ahead of the next general election.\n\nBut the Rwanda scheme - which was first announced by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April 2022 - has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges and no asylum seekers have been sent to the country yet.\n\nLabour has also pledged to scrap the policy if it wins the next election, casting doubt over its long-term future.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the policy was \"failing\" - and funding for it would be better spent on \"going after\" the gangs that organise small boat crossings.\n\nThe Supreme Court, the UK's highest court, rejected the policy on the grounds that it could not be guaranteed the Rwandan government would honour a principle of international law known as non-refoulement.\n\nThe principle forbids a country that receives asylum seekers from returning them to any country if doing so would put them at risk of harm.\n\nFollowing the ruling, Mr Sunak said his government would work on a new treaty with Rwanda and said he would introduce emergency legislation to assert the country was safe.\n\nThe legislation is expected to be introduced in Parliament this week.\n\nMr Cleverly travelled to Kigali and signed the new legally binding treaty alongside Rwanda's foreign affairs minister Vincent Biruta on Tuesday.\n\nHe is the third home secretary to make his way to Rwanda - following in the steps of his predecessors Priti Patel and Suella Braverman.\n\nThe British government says the new treaty ensures that people relocated to Rwanda are not at risk of being returned to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened.\n\nThe treaty establishes a new appeal body, which will be made up of judges with asylum expertise from a range of countries, to hear individual cases.\n\nThe government says Rwanda's asylum system would be monitored by an independent committee, whose powers to enforce the treaty would be beefed up.\n\nThe Monitoring Committee will develop a system which will enable relocated people and their lawyers to lodge complaints, the government says.\n\nAt a press conference, Mr Cleverly insisted Rwanda was a safe country and said \"we feel very strongly this treaty addresses all of the issues of their lordships in the Supreme Court\".\n\nHe said this would be \"reflected in domestic legislation soon\".\n\nA spokesperson for the Rwanda's government said it had a \"proven record\" of offering a home to refugees, and the new treaty would \"re-emphasise, in a binding manner, already existing commitments\" on asylum seeker protection.\n\nThe asylum policy has already cost the UK government at least £140m, but Mr Cleverly said the UK has not paid Rwanda any additional money for the new treaty.\n\nThe home secretary said he could not see \"any credible reason\" to question Rwanda's \"track record\" of handling asylum cases and he hoped to see the scheme running \"as quickly as possible\".\n\nHe said Rwanda had a \"strong reputation\" of being humane and was \"uncomfortable\" at the \"tone\" of the criticism levelled at Rwanda.\n\nRwanda's foreign affairs minister suggested \"internal UK politics\" may have played a role in the asylum policy being blocked.\n\nBut Mr Biruta said: \"I would say there's always room for improvement to any system designed by human beings, Rwandan or British.\n\n\"This is the reason why we have worked on this treaty... to make sure we can improve our asylum system and that we have a fair and transparent asylum system in place.\"\n\nConservative MPs on the right of their party are putting pressure on Mr Sunak to stop migrant boat crossings.\n\nMore than 45,700 people crossed the Channel to come to the UK in 2022, the highest figure since records began.\n\nIn the coming days, the government will bring forward new legislation to try to avoid more legal challenges to its Rwanda plan.\n\nThe One Nation Caucus of Conservative MPs have expressed concerns about the legislation and fear it may seek to ignore UK and international human rights laws.\n\nSome Tory MPs argue that withdrawing the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), an international treaty, would stop the Rwanda scheme from being blocked by legal challenges.\n\nBut senior Tory MP Damian Green said Conservatives like him \"hold these treaties dear and they should be seen as fundamental to part of protecting the UK's democratic legacy\".\n\nThe UK government is also facing calls to slash net migration, which has soared to a record 745,000 in 2022.\n\nThe Conservatives have repeatedly promised to cut net migration since winning power in 2010, and \"take back control\" of the UK's borders following the Brexit vote.\n\nOn Monday, the home secretary announced a package of measures including raising the minimum salary needed for skilled overseas workers from £26,200 to £38,700.\n\nMr Cleverly claimed 300,000 people who were eligible to come to the UK last year would not be able to in future.", "A trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI has finally been released by game developer Rockstar, after a low-quality copy leaked online.\n\nBBC Technology reporter Tom Gerken has broken down the trailer to see what the game could have to offer, including the first female protagonist in the franchise since the 1990s.", "A glass canopy has been put up along the street to protect models and guests from the Manchester weather\n\nA road in Manchester is being transformed into a catwalk for one of the fashion world's most prestigious events, with a host of A-list stars expected to attend.\n\nThomas Street is the type of place that could be described as fashionable in a hip, historic, down-to-earth, Mancunian kind of way.\n\nThere are bars and boutiques alongside an old-fashioned jeweller's, a Thai massage salon and a tattoo parlour. There are some half-demolished workshops, and the whole Northern Quarter has a layer of grit and graffiti.\n\nThe Chanel canopy seen from behind a demolished building on Thomas St\n\nIt may not exactly be chic, but for Paris luxury fashion house Chanel, this road has a certain je ne sais quoi.\n\nThe company has chosen it as the setting for several hundred celebrities and fashionistas to watch its Metiers d'Art show on Thursday.\n\nOne of the highlights of the fashion calendar, the starry event has previously been held in Paris, New York and Rome. Last year, it took place in Dakar in Senegal.\n\nNow, Manchester is being added to that list.\n\nLast year's Metiers d'Art show was held in Dakar, Senegal\n\nManchester has been chosen because it is \"one of the most effervescent cities of pop culture and an avant-garde one, whose bands, spanning all genres, have changed the history of music\", Chanel has said.\n\nAccording to a video posted by Manchester's Finest, the invitation comes with a 12in vinyl record, a Manchester-themed Chanel scarf, and a magazine in which the iconic road sign from TV soap opera Coronation Street sign has been redesigned to say Chanel St.\n\nThe invitation also uses imagery from the legendary Hacienda nightclub and Factory Records, and a photo of Manchester-born suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.\n\nThe city's also famous for its rain. A long, high glass canopy has been erected over a 115m stretch of the street to protect the models and guests, and the forecast suggests they will avoid the recent sub-zero temperatures.\n\n\"December in Manchester! Good idea!\" one onlooker says sarcastically while inspecting the preparations.\n\nThomas St has been closed for more than two weeks while Chanel gets it ready\n\nBesides the weather, all the talk is about which celebrities will turn up.\n\nThe likes of Pharrell Williams, Lily-Rose Depp and Kristen Stewart have been regulars at the Metiers d'Art in recent years, while Timothee Chalamet and Riley Keough are new Chanel brand ambassadors.\n\nFormer Manchester residents David and Victoria Beckham are popular tips, while other speculative suggestions range from Beyonce and Kim Kardashian to local heroes Liam Gallagher and Gail from Corrie.\n\n\"The most fun part of it is hearing rumours of who's going to be there - which Hollywood bigwigs are coming down,\" says Alistair Shipman between mixing cocktails at Luck Lust Liquor & Burn, on the corner of Thomas St.\n\nPharrell Williams and Cara Delevingne with late Chanel supremo Karl Lagerfeld at the Metiers d'Art show in Paris in 2016\n\nHalf of the bar has been covered by barriers and Shipman isn't especially impressed by the activity outside.\n\n\"It's been a bit of a hassle trying to get in and out of work and moving bins and things like that,\" he says. \"Personally, I'm a little bit indifferent to it.\"\n\nOutside, people stop to take photos as workmen paint the Chanel logo on the side of a convenience store that offers \"discount beer, wine & hard liquor\".\n\n\"I think it's brilliant,\" says one passer-by. \"I've seen it through social media on a lot of the Manchester sites and Instagram pages.\n\n\"You read that all the hotels are going to be full. All the nice hotels, anyway. It can only be a good thing because of the money it will bring in.\"\n\nMetiers d'Art celebrates the work of the fashion craftspeople that Chanel works with\n\nIn another nearby shop, a worker points out the disparity between the wealth that will be on show and the poverty in the area.\n\n\"There are going to be A-list celebrities there, but they're probably going to clean up the city and make it look like there's no homeless people in this area. But there's plenty,\" he says.\n\nIndeed, the edginess that Chanel has bought into inevitably indicates that there are problems, which you wouldn't have to walk too far in the Northern Quarter to see signs of.\n\nThe event is held in a different city every year\n\nChanel's choice of location is presumably also connected to Manchester's history at the heart of the textiles trade.\n\nOne of the derelict buildings on Thomas St was saved from demolition because it's a rare example of weavers' small-scale workshop dwellings that were built as the industrial revolution took off in the city in the 18th Century.\n\nManchester has retained its place in the industry, but is normally associated with fast fashion brands like Boohoo and Missguided, which have their headquarters there, rather than luxury labels.\n\nThe Metiers d'Art was last held in the UK in 2012, at Linlithgow Palace in Scotland\n\nOther past venues have included a historic former fairground in Dallas in 2013\n\nIt also has the largest concentration of fashion students and undergraduates in the UK outside London, as well as smaller-scale designers, says Miles Lambert, curator of the new fashion gallery at Manchester Art Gallery.\n\n\"It's certainly not known as an uber-fashionable town in the high-end way,\" he says.\n\n\"But it has a very vibrant street fashion, and it has lots of amazing little creative enclaves where people make things. It's not big scale but I guess it does feed into high-end fashion.\"\n\nThere is currently a major exhibition about Coco Chanel at the V&A Museum in London, while the Manchester fashion gallery has an exhibition called Unpicking Couture, featuring a 1983 Chanel boucle suit from Karl Lagerfeld's first runway show for the house.\n\nManchester is \"very different from Paris\", Lambert says. \"So maybe they are also tempted by that.\n\n\"You are in an area that's edgy and it's full of creativity. And I think it is seen as a city that is going places and has been for a while.\"", "Hostages' families held a rally at the weekend calling for the remaining people held captive to be released\n\nFamilies of people being held captive in Gaza say they have \"solid intelligence\" that the health of several hostages has deteriorated.\n\nSome are \"now in immediate danger\", the group of hostages' families said in a letter to Israel's war cabinet.\n\nPressure has been growing on officials over the 138 people still being held by Hamas and other armed groups.\n\nSome of the freed hostages met Israel's leaders on Tuesday in a meeting that witnesses say turned rowdy.\n\nIsrael has repeatedly pledged to do everything it can to rescue the remaining hostages. Some 110 hostages have been released in total - but a week-long truce under which dozens were freed ended last week and since then Israel has resumed its bombing of Gaza.\n\nIn a letter sent to the war cabinet, the Hostages Families HQ group said: \"We have received solid intelligence that there are abductees whose condition has deteriorated and are now in immediate danger.\"\n\nThey said at least one-third of the hostages were suffering from underlying illnesses and needed regular medical treatment - and going without such treatment was dangerous.\n\nMany abductees were also suffering from injuries from the 7 October attack - such as gunshot wounds or amputations - while some were tortured and abused, the group added.\n\n\"Based on this data, we demand that you act urgently, with initiative and creativity to obtain a deal for the immediate release of all the abductees - for them every additional day in captivity is a real danger to their lives,\" it said.\n\nIt is thought the evidence they cite has come from the newly-released hostages, who on Tuesday evening held a meeting with Israel's prime minister and war cabinet and described what they saw during their captivity.\n\nObservers say the meeting turned tense and disorganised - with some accusing the government of putting politics before the wellbeing of their loved-ones.\n\nAccording to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, one former hostage - Israeli nurse Nili Margalit - told the meeting she had been looking after some of the elderly people being held captive, and that they suffered from heart disease, kidney failure and Parkinson's.\n\n\"They lie on mattresses all day long. I don't know how they manage since I left,\" she said.\n\nAnother former hostage said she was scared by the bombing in Gaza, Haaretz reported.\n\n\"I see [Israeli] bombings there, and you have no idea where the captives are. I was in a house surrounded by explosions. We slept in tunnels, and we feared not Hamas, but Israel might kill us, and then it would have been said, 'Hamas killed you,'\" she said.\n\nIn an audio recording from the meeting, obtained by Israeli news site Ynet, another unnamed former hostage whose husband is still in captivity said she saw an 85-year-old Israeli man killed.\n\n\"I saw Aryeh Zalmanovich die in front of me,\" she said. \"And is that what you have to say, that you want to bring down the Hamas regime? That you want to show them who has bigger balls?\"\n\nApplause could be heard in the auditorium at the woman's outburst.\n\nIn the recording, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can be heard telling the families that there was \"no possibility right now of bringing everyone home\".\n\nHaaretz also quoted Mr Netanyahu as saying: \"We couldn't bring them all at once. If we could have done it, we would have.\"\n\nHe said that the reports of hostages' hearing Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombings while in captivity \"pierces the heart. It not only pierces the heart, but as you'll surely understand, it also affects our operational considerations\".\n\nAnd he repeated Israel's pledge to rescue all hostages, saying: \"Our responsibility is to bring them all back. We'll fulfil this responsibility and bring them home.\"\n\nIDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari repeated the pledge, saying: \"As the IDF expands its operations to dismantle Hamas in Gaza, we have not lost sight, not for one moment, of our critical mission to rescue our hostages, to do everything in our power to bring our hostages home.\"", "Adverts for Air France, Lufthansa and Etihad have been banned for misleading consumers about the airlines' environmental impact.\n\nAir France's ad said it was \"committed to protecting the environment\" and Lufthansa urged passengers to \"fly more sustainably\". Etihad's ad used the words \"environmental advocacy\".\n\nThe Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the ads did not show the impact airlines have on climate change.\n\nThe ASA said Air France did not provide a \"substantive response\" to its investigations. It did not respond to the BBC's request to comment.\n\nThe advertising watchdog said by claiming Air France enabled people to \"travel better and sustainably\", customers would think the airline offered a sustainable and environmentally friendly way to travel by air, which was not true.\n\nThe ASA investigates adverts by companies it suspects of overstating their environmental friendliness, known as \"corporate greenwashing\".\n\nLufthansa said the words \"fly more sustainably\" were a reference to its \"Green Fares\" option for passengers on European flights. It said this used some sustainable aviation fuel and made a contribution to climate protection projects.\n\nLufthansa told the BBC it aimed to be carbon neutral by 2050. It said it had taken the decision to remove \"fly more sustainably\" from future ads.\n\nEtihad Airways said it had immediately removed all references to \"environmental advocacy\" from its paid-for Google search ads, after receiving the complaint. It told the BBC sustainability was a \"key priority\".\n\nThe advertising watchdog said it had picked up the adverts using an artificial intelligence (AI) system, which uses the technology to search for possible rule breakers.\n\nWednesday's ruling is not the first time Lufthansa has been pulled up by the ASA for greenwashing.\n\nIn March, the airline's Make Change Fly campaign was found to have misled consumers into thinking the airline had already taken steps to make sure the environmental impact of its business was not harmful.\n\nLufthansa responded that the purpose of the ad was to address the need to reduce the impact of flying on the environment and make consumers aware, but the ASA upheld the decision. It said that air travel produced high levels of both CO2 and non-CO2 emissions, which were making a substantial contribution to climate change, a statement it repeated on Wednesday in its latest ruling.\n\nCompanies are receiving greater scrutiny than ever to lower carbon emissions, with airlines under particular pressure to reduce their footprint.\n\nIn November, the first transatlantic flight by a large passenger plane powered only by so-called sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) flew from London to New York.\n\nIt was seen as a demonstration that a greener way of flying is possible. But SAF accounts for less than 0.1% of the aviation fuel consumed around the world and there are currently no dedicated commercial plants in the UK.\n\nThe UK government plans to require 10% of aviation fuel to be SAF by 2030.\n\nCorrection: This article has been updated after an earlier version suggested Emirates airlines was affected by the ASA ruling.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment police teams arrive at scene of active shooter in Las Vegas\n\nThree people were killed an another injured after a gunman opened fire on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, campus Wednesday afternoon.\n\nThe suspect, described as a former college professor in his 60s, was killed in a shootout with police.\n\nHe has not been named, but sources identified him as Anthony Polito, 67, to the BBC's US partner CBS News.\n\nPolice are expected to name the victims at a news conference on Thursday. Media reports say none were students.\n\nInvestigators at the state, local and federal levels are currently digging into what drove the Wednesday shooting, which also injured one person.\n\nCBS News reported that Mr Polito, a former business professor who had taught in Georgia and North Carolina, had applied for a position at the UNLV but did not get the job.\n\nOfficials told the BBC partner network that being denied the position may have factored into his motive for the attack.\n\nSpeaking at a Wednesday press conference, Kevin McMahill, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's sheriff, said that they had \"no idea on the motive\" as of now and did not have details on the weapon used in the shooting.\n\nMr Polito's online presence - through his personal website, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter account- provides no strong indications of why he might have opened fire at UNLV's business school.\n\nHe had been a tenured associate professor at Eastern Carolina University when he resigned in 2017. He started teaching there in 2001.\n\nHe appears to have moved to Nevada soon after and referred to himself as \"semi-retired\" on his personal website. He wrote positively about Las Vegas, posting on his site that he had \"had the pleasure of making more than two dozen trips\" there over 15 years.\n\nPolice have searched an apartment believed linked to the suspect in the nearby city of Henderson, and have seized electronics as possible evidence, CBS reports.\n\nThe university first tweeted at around 11:53 local time (19:53 GMT) on Wednesday that police were responding to reports of shots fired on campus.\n\nAbout 20 minutes later, the university said campus police were responding to an additional report of shots near the Student Union building.\n\nIt warned students at Beam Hall, home to the university's business school, to \"evacuate to a safe area\" and to \"RUN-HIDE-FIGHT\", which is a common active shooter protocol in the US.\n\nThe gunman moved among the floors of Beam Hall before exiting the building, according to police.\n\nAdam Garcia, university police chief, said the suspect was then killed in a shootout with two officers.\n\nSheriff McMahill said the university force's response saved the lives of students who were gathered outside of Beam Hall playing games and eating food.\n\n\"If it hadn't been for the heroic actions of one of those police officers who responded, there could have been countless additional lives taken,\" he said.\n\nThe surviving shooting victim is in stable condition at a local hospital, the sheriff said. Four other people were also taken to hospital for panic attacks and two police officers were treated for minor injuries.\n\nOne student who was on campus told a local ABC station that it seemed like police were on campus right away.\n\nDescribing the scene to the reporter he said: \"You don't know what to do. You're calling your family, texting your friends like 'I love you guys' because he [the shooter] could burst through the door at any minute.\"\n\nPresident Joe Biden said in a statement that UNLV is the \"latest college campus to be terrorized by a horrific act of gun violence\" and that he and First Lady Jill Biden are \"praying for the families of our fallen\".\n\nThe campus, about two miles from the world-famous Las Vegas Strip, will remain closed through Friday.\n\nThere have been more than 630 mass shootings in the US this year. Las Vegas is also the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, where more than 50 people were killed at a music festival in 2017.", "Family and friends of Odhrán Kelly want him to be remembered as a \"loving, funny and caring\" person\n\nA vigil is to be held on Wednesday night for a man who has been named locally as the victim of a murder in Lurgan.\n\nFamily and friends of Odhrán Kelly, 23, say they want to remember him as a \"loving, funny and caring\" person.\n\nA major police investigation has been taking place since a man's body was found in the Edward Street area in the early hours of Sunday.\n\nForensic teams and police officers have remained there for a third day.\n\nTwo women, aged 35 and 43, and a 31-year-old man who were arrested on Sunday on suspicion of murder remain in police custody.\n\nFloral tributes have been placed close to the scene.\n\nThe area inside a police cordon includes a block of flats and a nearby green space where a car was found burnt out.\n\nThe police did not reveal the gender of the victim until Monday evening.\n\nDet Ch Insp Anthony Kelly, who is leading the investigation, said CCTV footage showed three people close to the burning car.\n\n\"I believe these people may have witnessed the suspects in the area and I would like to speak to them to find out what they know,\" he said.\n\n\"My thoughts remain with the victim's family who are still trying to comprehend this horrific incident.\"\n\nDet Ch Insp Kelly said a post mortem was taking place and it is hoped the victim will be identified \"imminently\".\n\nHe added: \"I am aware there may be some video footage circulating on social media and I would be keen to see it.\"\n\nPolice have appealed for CCTV footage or information from anyone who was around the Edward Street area between 02:00 and 05:00 GMT on Sunday.\n\nA Major Incident Public Portal where anyone can upload footage has also been set up.", "Beth Mead said England are \"devastated\" while manager Sarina Wiegman said it \"really hurts\" after her side agonisingly missed out on a place in the Women's Nations League finals on goal difference.\n\nThe Lionesses thrashed Scotland 6-0 at Hampden Park but it was not enough to top the table as the Netherlands, who defeated Belgium 4-0, advanced on a night of high drama.\n\nEngland's game had finished when the Netherlands scored their decisive fourth goal in the 95th minute, ending the Lionesses' Nations League campaign and also meaning Team GB will not be in the Paris 2024 Olympics football competition.\n\n\"We thought we'd got over the line but it wasn't to be,\" Mead told BBC Sport.\n\nEngland needed to better the Netherlands' result by three clear goals to reach the Nations League finals and keep Olympic hopes alive, as the nominated nation to qualify on behalf of Team GB.\n\nIn the end, both England and the Dutch finished on 12 points in Group A1, with the Netherlands advancing because of a superior goal difference of plus eight. England finished with plus seven.\n\n\"We're devastated. We did everything we possibly could on the pitch,\" said Mead.\n\n\"It's a tough one. The girls have worked incredibly hard. We let ourselves down maybe earlier in the competition.\"\n\nWiegman, who oversaw a 30-match unbeaten run when she first took charge of the Lionesses, said she was \"proud\" of the performance but \"gutted\" not to get over the line.\n\n\"We scored six goals, and we were so close. In the dying seconds the Netherlands scored a goal, you can't control that,\" she said.\n• None England thump Scotland but GB Olympic dream is over\n\n'I thought it was going to happen for us'\n\nWhen Lucy Bronze's header hit the back of the net in the 93rd minute at Hampden Park - England's sixth goal - Wiegman said she thought her side had secured their progression to the finals and the noise from a pocket of fans inside the stadium echoed that feeling.\n\nAlex Greenwood had opened the scoring before goals from Lauren James, Beth Mead and Fran Kirby put the finals in sight.\n\nBut the elation of Bronze's sixth was quickly forgotten as the players gathered in a huddle at full-time and discovered the news that the Netherlands had scored a fourth to end Team GB's Olympic dream.\n\n\"It was about two minutes I think but they took forever,\" said Wiegman. \"I did think actually that as they [Netherlands] had just scored the third goal, in extra time just as we scored, that wow, it's going to happen for us. I really thought that.\n\n\"I actually don't know what to say because I'm really proud of this performance but we're not through and I'm very disappointed.\"\n\nMistakes earlier in the campaign have ultimately proved costly for England with the 3-2 loss to Belgium in October giving them an uphill task for these December fixtures.\n\nAnother loss away to the Netherlands despite periods of dominance was also key and even just one more goal in their 3-2 win over the Dutch on Friday would have put qualification in England's hands this week.\n\n\"This is part of football, it's not easy to keep performing, we need a high level and sometimes it dropped,\" said Wiegman.\n\n\"After the Belgium game we had a very good camp, because the result against Belgium was not related to how we trained as a team.\"\n\nBut while the players will undoubtedly reflect on this campaign as a missed opportunity and feel disappointed to miss out on another chance to win a title, a hectic schedule in recent years means they may also be thankful for the rest.\n\n\"On the back of the World Cup going again, having injuries, being unlucky at moments and pushing ourselves,\" said Wiegman.\n\n\"Hardly any rest and going again. We conceded in September, players were tired, some more injuries, but we were building and building.\"\n\nEngland won the Euros in 2022 before reaching a historic World Cup final this summer and fatigue and injuries have clearly been factors in what has ultimately been a difficult campaign.\n\n\"Of course it hurts because you want to be in major tournaments and we wanted to win the Nations League group but if you see the bigger picture, what we have done over the last say two and a half years,\" said Wiegman.\n\nEngland have also missed key players Mead, Kirby and Leah Williamson through serious injuries, with captain Millie Bright also missing the latter stages of the Nations League campaign through injury.\n\n\"You want to go to every major tournament so every player wants that,\" said Wiegman.\n\n\"But in the bigger picture we have to look at the calendar and think that the players are not robots and they need some rest too, that's very obvious.\"", "Earlier this year, Mr Kim pulled off a seemingly impossible escape from North Korea. He fled by sea with his entire family - his pregnant wife, his mother, his brother's family, and an urn containing his father's ashes.\n\nThey are the first people to have fled the country this year and make it to the South. When Covid struck, North Korea's government panicked and sealed the country off from the rest of the world, closing its borders and cutting off trade. Defections, once fairly common, virtually ceased.\n\nMr Kim told the BBC how he masterminded such a remarkable escape, in the first interview with a defector to have got out since the pandemic. He revealed new details about life in the country, including cases of people starving to death and increasing repression. He asked us not to use his full name, to help protect his family in Seoul and back in the North.\n\nThe BBC cannot independently verify all of Mr Kim's account, but much of the detail tallies with what we have been told by other sources.\n\nThe night of the escape was a turbulent one. Fierce winds swept up from the south, bringing a storm in their wake. This was all part of Mr Kim's plan. The rough seas would force any surveillance ships to retreat, he hoped.\n\nHe had been dreaming of this night for years, planning it meticulously for months, but this did little to temper his fear.\n\nHis brother's children were asleep, knocked out by sleeping pills he had fed them. He and his brother now had to carry them through a minefield in the dark, to where their getaway boat was secretly moored. They inched along, careful to avoid the beams from the guards' searchlights.\n\nThe boat used by Mr Kim and his family to escape\n\nOnce they reached the boat, they hid the children in old grain sacks, disguising them to look like bags of tools. With that, the family set sail for South Korea: the men armed with swords, the women with poison. Each clutched a single eggshell, hollowed out and filled with chilli powder and black sand, to crack into the faces of the coastguards if a confrontation ensued.\n\nTheir engine roared, but all Mr Kim could hear was his thumping heart. One mistake now, and they could all be executed.\n\nWhen I met Mr Kim in the outskirts of Seoul last month, he was accompanied by a plain clothes police officer - a typical safety measure for recent defectors. It had only been a few weeks since he and his family were released from the resettlement centre that North Koreans are sent to after arriving in South Korea.\n\n\"There has been a lot of suffering,\" he said, as he began to recount the past four years.\n\nIn the early days of Covid-19, people were \"extremely scared\", he said. The state broadcast images of people dying around the world, and warned that if the rules were not followed, the entire country could be wiped out. Some people were even sent to labour camps for breaking Covid rules, he said.\n\nWhen a suspected case was reported, guards would quarantine the entire village, he said. Everyone would be locked up and the area sealed off, leaving those inside with little or nothing to eat.\n\n\"After they'd starved people for a while, the government would bring in truckloads of food supplies. They claimed to be selling the food cheaply, so people would praise them - like starving your baby, then giving them a small amount, so it would thank you.\"\n\nMr Kim said people began to question whether this was part of the state's strategy to profit from the pandemic.\n\nAs more people survived Covid, they began to think the state had exaggerated the dangers, he said. \"Now many believe it was just an excuse to oppress us.\"\n\nIt was the border closures that caused the most severe damage, he said.\n\nFood supplies in North Korea have long been precarious, but with less coming into the country, prices skyrocketed, he said, making everyone's lives \"so much harder\". In the spring of 2022, he noticed the situation deteriorate further.\n\n\"For seven or eight years there wasn't much talk of starvation, but then we frequently started hearing about cases,\" he said. \"You'd wake up one morning and hear: 'oh, someone in this district starved to death'. The next morning, we'd get another report.\"\n\nThis poster from the state broadcaster KCNA tells people to stringently follow Covid rules\n\nOne day this February, Mr Kim said a customer from a neighbouring county turned up late to a meeting. He told him the police had rounded up everyone in his village over the suspected murder of an elderly couple. But after the autopsy, they announced the couple had starved, and rats must have eaten their fingers and toes while they were dying. The gruesome scene had made the investigators suspect foul play.\n\nThen in April, he says two farmers he personally knew starved to death. The farmers had the hardest time, he said, because if the harvest was bad, the state would force them to make up for it by handing over more of their personal food supply.\n\nWe cannot independently confirm these deaths. The 2023 Global Report on Food Crises stated that since North Korea's borders closed, it has been \"challenging to obtain accurate information on food insecurity\" but there were \"indications the situation is worsening\". In March 2023 North Korea asked the World Food Programme for help.\n\nAmnesty International's North Korea specialist, Choi Jae-hoon, said he had heard of cases of starvation, from escapees in Seoul who had managed to speak to family back home. \"We are hearing that the food situation worsened during the Covid period, and that in some areas farmers tended to suffer the most,\" he said. But Mr Choi noted that the situation was not nearly as catastrophic as during the famine in the 1990s: \"We're hearing that people have found ways to survive within their means.\"\n\nMr Kim himself found ways not only to survive, but to thrive. Like most people in North Korea before Covid, he made his money selling items on the black market - in his case motorbikes and televisions smuggled from China. But when the borders closed, stifling virtually all trade, he switched to buying and selling vegetables. He figured everyone needed to eat.\n\nHe set himself up as a \"grasshopper seller\", hawking his items covertly at home or in alleyways. \"If someone reported us, we'd pick up the food and run, like a grasshopper,\" he said.\n\n\"People would come to me, begging me to sell to them. I could ask for whatever price I wanted,\" he said. Mr Kim found himself richer than ever before. He and his wife could afford to eat stew for dinner, with any meat of their choosing.\n\n\"That counts as eating very well in North Korea.\"\n\nThe life Mr Kim describes paints a picture of an exceptionally savvy and, at times, unscrupulous businessman. Now in his 30s, he hustled and saved for more than a decade, finding ways to outsmart the North Korean system.\n\nThis was partly because he became disillusioned with the system at a young age. From as early as he can remember, he and his father would sit watching South Korean TV in secret. They lived so close to the border they could tune into the channels on their set. Mr Kim became captivated by a country where people were free.\n\nAs he got older, the corruption and injustice he witnessed in the North began to chip away at him. He recalled one incident where security officials raided his home. \"Everything you have belongs to the state,\" they said. \"You think this oxygen is yours?\" one officer jeered. \"Well, it's not, you bastard.\"\n\nThen, in 2021, Mr Kim said powerful crackdown squads were formed to try to supress what the state deemed \"anti-social behaviour\". They would arbitrarily stop people on the street and intimidate them. \"People started calling these crackdown officials mosquitoes, like vampires sucking out our blood.\"\n\nThe most serious offence was consuming and sharing outside information, particularly South Korean culture. The crackdown on this, Mr Kim said, had become \"much more intense. Once you get caught, they'll shoot you, kill you, or send you to a labour camp.\"\n\nIn April last year, Mr Kim said he was forced to watch a 22-year-old man he knew be shot to death in a public execution. \"He was killed for listening to 70 South Korean songs and watching about three films and sharing them with his friends.\"\n\nThe authorities told the onlookers they wanted to punish the man harshly, to set the right precedent. \"They're ruthless\", Mr Kim said, \"everyone is scared.\"\n\nWe cannot independently verify this execution, but in December 2020 North Korea passed a new law, stating that those who shared South Korean content could be executed.\n\nJoanna Hosaniak from the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights said Mr Kim's account of the execution was \"completely unsurprising\". Ms Hosaniak has interviewed hundreds of defectors over two decades. \"North Korea has always used public executions as a means to control the population,\" she said. \"Whenever it implements new laws, it introduces a wave of executions.\"\n\nAs Mr Kim recounted these memories, he became distressed. He said it was a friend's suicide last year that had finally broken him.\n\nDesperate to divorce a woman he no longer loved and marry another - the friend was told by officials that the only way he could get a divorce was to spend time in a labour camp. He sunk into debt trying to find another way out, before ending his life. Mr Kim visited his bedroom after his death. The carnage on display spelt out what a slow and agonising end he must have suffered. He had clawed the walls until his nails came out.\n\nAlthough Mr Kim had fantasised about escaping hundreds of times, he could never bear to leave his family behind. By 2022, life had become so desperate, he felt he could finally convince them to join him.\n\nHe targeted his brother first. He and his wife ran an illicit seafood business, but the government had recently cracked down on unofficial sellers. Despite owning a boat, they could no longer fish. With money tight, he was easily persuaded.\n\nFor the next seven months, the pair meticulously plotted their escape.\n\nOver the course of the pandemic, many of the well-established escape routes across the country's northern border with China had been blocked off. But the brothers lived in a small fishing town in the far south-west of the country, close to the South Korean border. This gave them an alternative, yet risky, way out - by sea.\n\nFirst, they needed permission to access the water. They had heard about a nearby military base, where civilians were sent out to catch fish that was then sold to pay for military equipment. Mr Kim's brother enrolled in the scheme.\n\nMeanwhile Mr Kim started befriending the coastguards and security guards who patrolled the area, surreptitiously mining them for information about their movements, protocols and shift patterns, until he was confident he and his brother could take the boat out at night, without getting caught.\n\nThen came the hardest of his tasks: convincing his elderly mother and wife to join him. Both were opposed to leaving. Eventually the brothers shouted their mother into submission, threatening to cancel the trip if she did not join them, and hold her responsible for their misery to the end of their days.\n\n\"She was distraught and cried a lot but finally agreed,\" Mr Kim said.\n\nHis wife, however, was immovable, until one day the couple learnt they were expecting a baby. \"You're not just your own body any more,\" he argued with her. \"You're a parent, do you want our child to live in this hellhole?\" It worked.\n\nAfter talking for several hours, Mr Kim and I headed for dinner, where he ran through the final preparations for his escape. Fearful the authorities would desecrate their father's grave after they left, the brothers went to dig up his body. After repacking the ground to appear untampered, they took it into the surrounding wilderness and burnt it.\n\nThey went on to survey the remote minefield they would later need to cross in the dark. They pretended to pick medicinal herbs, while mapping a clear route through it. The coastline had been recently planted with landmines to prevent people leaving, Mr Kim said, but with fewer guards on duty there, it offered the safest way out.\n\nThen it was a matter of waiting for the weather and the tide to turn.\n\nAt 10pm on 6 May they set sail, travelling as far as they were allowed, then continuing on. Low tide had exposed reefs and boulders, which they navigated ever so slowly, hoping to disguise themselves as floating rubbish on the radars. All the while, Mr Kim's heart was pounding, his clothes soaked with sweat.\n\nAs soon as it felt safe, they went full-speed with the currents. Mr Kim looked back to see a ship following, but it could not catch them. Within minutes they had crossed the maritime border.\n\nThe stretch of sea Mr Kim had to cross to make it to Yeonpyong island\n\n\"In that moment, all my tension released. I felt like I was collapsing,\" he said. They flashed their light as they approached the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong and were rescued by the navy, after nearly two hours at sea.\n\nEverything had gone exactly as planned. \"It was like the heavens helped us,\" he said.\n\nMr Kim's escape is exceptional for several reasons, said Sokeel Park from Liberty in North Korea, an organisation which helps refugees from the North resettle in the South. Not only have sea defections always been extremely rare, he explained, but since the pandemic it has become almost impossible for people to defect.\n\n\"These sea escapes take meticulous planning, incredible bravery and for everything to go miraculously well,\" he said. \"There must be many more North Koreans who have tried but not made it.\"\n\n\"The only people who can defect now are the rich and well-connected,\" added Pastor Stephen Kim from JM Missionary, who helps North Koreans defect through China. Around 1,000 used to make it across the Chinese border each year, but to his knowledge only 20 have crossed during the past four years, and just four of them have arrived in South Korea. In October, he and Human Rights Watch accused China of sending some defectors back to the North.\n\nPyongyang is currently deepening its ties with China and Russia, while turning its back on diplomacy with the West. This has made it increasingly difficult for the international community to address these reported human rights violations.\n\nSouth Korea's government has made North Korean human rights one of its top priorities, but its vice-unification minister Moon Seong-hyun said it had \"limited tools to use\".\n\n\"What we have been trying to do is to increase people's awareness, by continuously raising these issues through the UN and elsewhere,\" he said. \"There is a tendency for North Korea to listen to countries in Europe,\" he added, citing the UK and Germany as examples. But Seoul's role has largely been reduced to helping the dwindling number of refugees who make it to the South, supporting them with counselling, housing and education.\n\nAfter their rescue Mr Kim and his family first had to be debriefed by South Korea's intelligence service, to check they were not North Korean spies. They were then educated about life in the South at a resettlement centre. Despite being so physically close, their old and new homes are worlds apart, and defectors often struggle with the transition.\n\nMr Kim says he has found adjusting to life in Seoul easier than the rest of his family\n\nThe family moved from the resettlement facility into an apartment in October, just as Mr Kim's wife gave birth. She is healthy, but finding it difficult to adjust, he said, though his mother is having the toughest time. None of them had ever ridden a subway before, and she keeps getting lost. Each mistake further knocks her confidence. \"She is kind of regretting coming here now,\" he admitted.\n\nBut Mr Kim, who was already so familiar with South Korean culture, said he was adapting easily. \"The world I imagined and the world I am now physically navigating feel very similar.\"\n\nAs we were speaking, he curiously picked up my AirPods case from the table beside us, turning it over in his hand. I opened it to reveal the wireless headphones, but still he looked confused. It wasn't until I placed the buds in my ears that a wave of understanding flashed across his face, and he laughed.\n\nThere will be many more of these surprises and challenges ahead. This is only the beginning of his journey.\n\nAdditional reporting by Hosu Lee and Leehyun Choi, Illustrations by Lilly Huynh", "Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson will have a chance to defend his handling of the pandemic in two days of questioning at the Covid inquiry.\n\nMr Johnson is expected to apologise to the inquiry and admit his government made mistakes during the pandemic.\n\nBut sources close to Mr Johnson have told the BBC he will argue he got big calls right that saved lives.\n\nThe inquiry has seen heavy criticism of Mr Johnson by former colleagues who worked with him when Covid-19 struck.\n\nHis ex-director of communications, Lee Cain, said the pandemic was the \"wrong crisis\" for Mr Johnson's \"skill set\", describing dither and delay on key decisions.\n\nThe former chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said Mr Johnson was \"bamboozled\" by scientific data.\n\nAnd his ex-chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, repeated his past criticisms of his one-time boss, telling the inquiry that everyone called Mr Johnson \"the trolley\" because of his tendency to veer from one point of view to another.\n\nMore on Covid and the Covid Inquiry\n\nBut other figures at the centre of the UK's response have defended the former prime minister and his style of government.\n\nLevelling Up Secretary Michael Gove disputed claims Mr Johnson was \"incapable of making decisions\" about lockdowns.\n\nHe said Mr Johnson preferred \"gladiatorial decision-making\" and wanted to see opposing arguments \"rehearsed in front of him\".\n\nFormer health secretary Matt Hancock said Mr Cummings had been attempting to grab power from Mr Johnson and created a \"toxic\" culture at the heart of government which undermined its pandemic response.\n\nMr Johnson himself will now have the opportunity to put his version of events on the record at the Covid inquiry.\n\nA spokesman for Mr Johnson said he was looking forward to assisting the inquiry with its important work.\n\nCovid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said it hoped to see the ex-prime minister challenged \"on clear falsehoods\".\n\nLorelei King, who lost her husband Vince to Covid-19, told the i newspaper she wanted to know \"why didn't Mr Johnson move more quickly\" to introduce the first lockdown in March 2020.\n\nWhile Helen Brewer, who lost her mother Dilys, said she wanted to know whether he said \"let the bodies pile high\". The ex-prime minister has previously denied reports he made the comments when reportedly talking about not wanting a third lockdown.\n\nMr Johnson's written statement, which is about 200 pages, has already been submitted to the inquiry.\n\nBut the former prime minister has not been able to provide the inquiry with any communications from February to June 2020 - a crucial period ahead of and during the first lockdown.\n\nThe inquiry has requested the WhatsApp messages as part of its investigations into UK government decision-making on Covid.\n\nOn Tuesday, the Times reported that Mr Johnson had not managed to access WhatsApps on an old phone, which he used before May 2021.\n\nLabour shadow cabinet minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said it was \"typical and will be deeply disappointing\" to bereaved families who \"deserve nothing less than full disclosure\".\n\nMr Johnson's spokesman denied the former PM had \"deleted any messages\" and said the Times report \"refers to a technical issue in recovery of material that is for the technical team to address\".", "Paddy McCourt, who played for Celtic, Derry City and Northern Ireland, denied the charge against him\n\nThe former Celtic star Paddy McCourt has had his sexual assault conviction overturned.\n\nMr McCourt, of Wheatfield Court in Muff, Donegal, was found guilty in May of inappropriately touching a woman in a bar in Londonderry in January 2022.\n\nThe former international, who had denied the charge, was given a three-month suspended sentence in July.\n\nOn Tuesday, a court in Derry quashed that conviction after prosecutors offered no evidence.\n\nDefence counsel Eoghan Devlin told the court there had been \"a series of failures\" in the case and said no one doubted the young woman had been assaulted but not by Paddy McCourt.\n\nJudge Philip Babington granted the appeal. He reminded everyone that there had been a victim in the case.\n\nPaddy McCourt and his solicitor Ciarán Shiels arriving at Bishop Street courthouse for the appeal\n\nPaddy McCourt played for Celtic between 2008 and 2013 and also represented Northern Ireland 18 times, scoring two goals.\n\nHis solicitor, Ciarán Shiels, described his conviction as a \"grave miscarriage of justice\".\n\nSpeaking outside the court, Mr Shiels said the former footballer had been \"very shabbily treated by the PSNI in this city\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"He should never have been charged, in relation to this case, never mind prosecuted,\" the solicitor said.\n\nHe added: \"This man should never have been charged let alone been put through the process and the ordeal he has had to face for the guts of two years.\"\n\nA police spokeswoman said the PSNI would not be issuing further comment.\n\nIn a statement, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said it had a duty to keep all decisions under continuous review.\n\n\"In light of evidential issues relating to key witnesses which arose after the conviction at the lower court, the prosecution reviewed the position in the case,\" the PPS spokeswoman said.\n\n\"Whilst it was considered that the prosecution had been properly brought in the first instance, it was determined that in view of these evidential issues, the test for prosecution was no longer met.\"\n\nThe spokeswoman added that all decisions by the PPS were taken \"strictly impartially, independently and fully in line with the PPS code for prosecutors\".", "Samir Shah's appointment means there will now be a journalist at the top of the BBC\n\nTV executive Samir Shah has been named as the government's choice for the new BBC chairman, following Richard Sharp's resignation in April.\n\nDr Shah, 71, previously held a series of roles at the BBC, including as its head of current affairs.\n\nIn a statement, he said he was \"delighted\" to have been named the government's preferred candidate.\n\nMr Sharp resigned earlier this year after breaking rules over dealings with Boris Johnson ahead of his appointment.\n\nProfessor Dame Elan Closs Stephens, a BBC board member, stepped in as acting chairwoman following his exit.\n\nAlthough the BBC is politically independent, its chairperson is appointed by the government.\n\nCulture Secretary Lucy Frazer said Dr Shah had \"a wealth of experience to bring to the position\".\n\n\"He has a clear ambition to see the BBC succeed in a rapidly changing media landscape, and I have no doubt he will provide the support and scrutiny that the BBC needs to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future,\" she added.\n\nThe DCMS select committee will need to approve ministers' choice for chairperson, before it is sent to the privy council and the King for approval.\n\nDr Shah said: \"The BBC is, without doubt, one of the greatest contributions we have made to global culture and one of our strongest calling cards on soft power.\n\n\"The BBC has a great place in British life and a unique duty to reach a wide audience right across the country and I will do all I can to ensure it fulfils this in an increasingly competitive market.\"\n\nAs chairman of the BBC's board, Dr Shah will be in charge of upholding and protecting the BBC's independence and ensuring the BBC fulfils its mission to inform, educate and entertain.\n\nHe will also lead negotiations with the government over the future of the licence fee.\n\nA BBC spokesperson said: \"We welcome the announcement that Samir Shah has been selected as the government's preferred candidate to take up the role of BBC chair and look forward to him joining the board once the formal process has been completed.\"\n\nHis selection marks a sea change, as it means there will now be a journalist at the top of the BBC.\n\nDr Shah has worked in TV for more than 40 years, starting at London Weekend Television in 1979.\n\nSince then, he has held positions as the BBC's head of television current affairs, and later went on to head the corporation's political journalism across radio and television.\n\nIn 2007, he was appointed as a non-executive director on the BBC Board.\n\nDr Shah is currently chief executive of Juniper, an independent production company, which supplies programmes to the BBC, as well as other organisations including Channel 4, Netflix and National Geographic.\n\nThe announcement that Dr Shah was the preferred candidate was broadly welcomed on social media, with broadcaster Andrew Neil describing him as \"superb\" choice.\n\n\"He's a brilliant broadcaster. Smart, focused, across the issues, fiercely independent. I wish him all good fortune in the job,\" he added.\n\nJournalist Liam Halligan said Dr Shah was \"hugely talented\", adding: \"While he rightly champions on- and off-screen diversity, it is my experience that Samir truly values cognitive diversity as well.\"\n\nDr Shah's half-brother is Mohit Bakaya, the controller of BBC Radio 4.\n\nMore than 30 jobs will close at Newsnight\n\nHis appointment comes at a challenging time for the BBC, which is looking to make £500m of savings in the face of high inflation and a two-year freeze to the cost of a TV licence.\n\nThe licence fee, which provides most of the BBC's funding, is currently £159 but is due to rise in April in line with inflation.\n\nOn Monday, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said an increase to the fee by almost £15 would \"absolutely\" be too much.\n\nShe also said she was looking at how \"we fund the BBC going forward\".\n\nThe licence fee is due to stay in place until at least 2027, when the BBC's Royal Charter ends, with a debate taking place about how the broadcaster should be funded after that.\n\nLast week, the BBC announced it was cutting back BBC Two's Newsnight programme, in what the National Union of Journalists described as a \"major blow to investigative news\".\n\nThe long-running show will lose its dedicated reporters, be shortened by 10 minutes and drop its investigative films to focus on studio-based debates.\n\nMr Sharp, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs, resigned earlier this year after his communication with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was scrutinised.\n\nA report published in April found Mr Sharp created the appearance of a conflict of interest by not fully disclosing his knowledge of the ex-PM's personal finances.\n\nIt emerged Mr Sharp tried to facilitate a high-level government meeting for a businessman offering Mr Johnson financial help.\n\nMr Sharp defended his conduct but said he did not want to be a distraction.", "Newly released police footage showed PC Lewis Marks jumping out of his van and commandeering a member of the public's bike to catch a suspected drug dealer.\n\nThe man, who was tackled to the ground on 23 August, was charged with two counts of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs, possession of criminal property and escaping lawful custody.\n\nHe has been sentenced to three years and eight months in prison.\n\nThe video shows PC Marks using the bike to chase the man across the grass and intercept him in Northampton town centre, where he was arrested.", "Paramilitary intimidation has led to an increase in the number of homeless people in Northern Ireland, a report by the Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) has found.\n\nIt urged the need for \"a sustained focus\" to tackle paramilitarism.\n\nThe body added the situation is not being helped by political instability.\n\nIt stated it was shocking that 194 households were \"accepted\" as homeless by the Housing Executive in 2022-23 due to intimidation.\n\nThis is 45 more than the year before and a figure which \"only provided a snapshot\", according to the IRC.\n\n\"We are mindful of the life-changing effect of paramilitary threats forcing people to leave an area and that there is limited information available about this,\" the report continued.\n\nFigures show that 111 of the cases were in the Ards and North Down council area.\n\nEstablished in 2017, by the Irish and British governments, the IRC issues annual reports on efforts to tackle paramilitarism.\n\nThe report published on Tuesday is its sixth.\n\nIt repeated its call for the two governments to appoint an individual to \"prepare the ground\" for engagement with paramilitary groups on disbandment.\n\nIn March, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said the idea was under consideration.\n\n\"We urge them to progress the implementation of this as soon as possible,\" the report stated.\n\n\"We fear that if we do not move forward with scoping the potential for a formal group transition process, there is little or no chance of achieving the goal of ending paramilitarism once and for all.\n\n\"We feel that would be a major missed opportunity.\"\n\nIRC commissioner Monica McWilliams, speaking at a press conference marking the report, said she hoped there would be progress on an appointment soon.\n\n\"We are hoping that process will be taken forward in the next weeks or months... We await the announcement and that's over to the two governments.\"\n\nThe commissioners also responded to reports that the leadership of the east Belfast UVF had been stood down over its drug-dealing and other criminal activities.\n\nMs McWilliams said: \"It is good that this has happened. I am sure communities in east Belfast are breathing a sigh of relief.\n\n\"Clearly the question everybody will now ask is 'what comes next?'\"", "Satellite images commissioned by the BBC reveal the extent of destruction across Gaza, showing that nearly 98,000 buildings may have suffered damage.\n\nThe satellite images were taken last Thursday - before the start of a seven-day suspension of hostilities, which has now ended.\n\nDrone footage and verified video also show buildings and entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble after Israeli air strikes and on-the-ground fighting.\n\nWhile northern Gaza has been the focus of the Israeli offensive and has borne the brunt of the destruction, widespread damage extends across the entire strip.\n\nIsrael says northern Gaza, which includes the major urban centre of Gaza City, was a \"centre of gravity of Hamas\", the group behind the deadly 7 October attacks on Israel. The Israeli military says its bombing campaign has successfully targeted Hamas commanders and fighters and accuses the group of embedding itself in civilian areas.\n\nSatellite data analysis suggests that almost 98,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip may have suffered damage, mostly in the north - as shown in the above map.\n\nAnalysis of the data was carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University. It is based on comparisons of two separate images, revealing changes in the height or structure of buildings which suggests damage.\n\nWe have analysed satellite imagery from several areas with extensive damage.\n\nThe cities of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the north and north-east of the Gaza Strip were among the first to be targeted by air strikes after the 7 October attacks by Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the area was a hideout for Hamas.\n\nParts of Beit Lahia, which overlooked olive groves and sand dunes stretching towards the border with Israel, were flattened. The satellite image below shows an area in the north-east of Beit Lahia, where a significant block of buildings was destroyed.\n\nBulldozers appear to have cleared roads through the rubble and the Israeli military cleared land and set up defensive positions in surrounding fields.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe IDF also struck the small nearby city of Beit Hanoun, less than 1.6km (1 mile) from the border. It said 120 targets were hit in the area on the first day of air strikes.\n\nAs the images above show, a skyline of multi-storey buildings and a mosque was gradually reduced to rubble between 14 October and 22 November.\n\nAfter weeks of air strikes on Gaza, Israel moved in on the ground - tanks and bulldozers going through areas which had been heavily bombarded. The IDF worked its way southwards along the coast towards Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in the Gaza City area.\n\nAs the image below shows, a whole series of craters are visible in what was once a residential area. Some of the buildings on the beach front, which boasted Gaza's first five-star hotel, the Al-Mashtal, as well as huts and restaurants, appear to have been partially destroyed.\n\nAbout a week after the air strikes began, the IDF warned Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south of a river known as Wadi Gaza for their own safety.\n\nDespite the warning and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Gaza City, areas in the south continued to be targeted.\n\nNuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza was hit several times before the temporary pause in hostilities began. The camp was said to be home to about 85,000 people, according to the UN.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn this verified video, which emerged online, people are seen picking through the rubble of collapsed and damaged buildings.\n\nThe distinctive black chimney stacks of the Gaza Power Plant, situated just north of the camp, are visible in the background.\n\nThe BBC has approached the IDF for comment.\n\nIn Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, thousands of people are living in tents or the rubble of bombed-out buildings.\n\nAlthough the damage was not as widespread as in the north, up to 15% of buildings across the city may have been damaged, according to Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek's analysis.\n\nAs well as pushing down from the north, Israeli forces also cut across the Gaza Strip westwards, isolating Gaza City from the south.\n\nIn this image below, taken to the south of Gaza City, we can see that a previously populated residential area was cleared by the IDF with heavy machinery and a road bulldozed towards the western Mediterranean shoreline.\n\nYou can also see dozens of military vehicles, including tanks, grouped behind fortifications made from earth.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nSatellite images also show an open square of land with a Star of David carved into the earth by vehicle tracks in Gaza City, near al-Azhar University.\n\nImages online from before the war showed children playing there and suggested it was a park, but IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said the ground was used by Hamas as a parade square near a base. The area was taken over by the IDF's Golani Brigade.\n\nA Star of David - which is used as a Jewish and Israeli symbol - was made by armoured vehicles in a ceremony in memory of Israeli soldiers who had been killed since the war began, according to a post by Rear Adm Hagari on X.\n\nAdditional reporting by Thomas Spencer, Paul Brown, Jake Horton, Alex Murray and Shayan Sardarizadeh and Jemimah Herd", "A North Yorkshire bridal shop owner has spoken of her \"honour\" at helping a terminally-ill woman fulfil a bucket list wish.\n\nMolly Fuchs wanted to try on one of the gowns at the store in Skipton as \"she's always wanted to be a bride\".\n\nAfter being able to fulfil her dream, Ms Fuchs said: \"It's just amazing, this is my wedding day.\"\n\nShop owner Mandy Abramson said: \"It's amazing, to just be a little part of that, I think it's a great honour.\"", "\"We see women of all ages... We see the bruises, we learn about the cuts and tears, and we know they have been sexually abused,\" Captain Maayan told the BBC\n\nThe BBC has seen and heard evidence of rape, sexual violence and mutilation of women during the 7 October Hamas attacks.\n\nWARNING: CONTAINS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND RAPE\n\nSeveral people involved in collecting and identifying the bodies of those killed in the attack told us they had seen multiple signs of sexual assault, including broken pelvises, bruises, cuts and tears, and that the victims ranged from children and teenagers to pensioners.\n\nVideo testimony of an eyewitness at the Nova music festival, shown to journalists by Israeli police, detailed the gang rape, mutilation and execution of one victim.\n\nVideos of naked and bloodied women filmed by Hamas on the day of the attack, and photographs of bodies taken at the sites afterwards, suggest that women were sexually targeted by their attackers.\n\nFew victims are thought to have survived to tell their own stories.\n\nTheir last moments are being pieced together from survivors, body-collectors, morgue staff and footage from the attack sites.\n\nPolice have privately shown journalists a single horrific testimony that they filmed of a woman who was at the Nova festival site during the attack.\n\nShe describes seeing Hamas fighters gang rape a woman and mutilate her, before the last of her attackers shot her in the head as he continued to rape her.\n\nHamas fighters stormed the Nova festival on 7 October and killed hundreds\n\nIn the video, the woman known as Witness S mimes the attackers picking up and passing the victim from one to another.\n\n\"She was alive,\" the witness says. \"She was bleeding from her back.\"\n\nShe goes on to detail how the men cut off parts of the victim's body during the assault.\n\n\"They sliced her breast and threw it on the street,\" she says. \"They were playing with it.\"\n\nThe victim was passed to another man in uniform, she continues.\n\n\"He penetrated her, and shot her in the head before he finished. He didn't even pick up his pants; he shoots and ejaculates.\"\n\nOne man we spoke to from the festival site said he heard the \"noises and screams of people being murdered, raped, decapitated\".\n\nTo our question about how he could be sure - without seeing it - that the screams he heard indicated sexual assault rather than other kinds of violence, he said he believed while listening at the time that it could only have been rape.\n\nA statement he made through a support organisation describes it as \"inhuman\".\n\n\"Some women were raped before they were dead, some raped while injured, and some were already dead when the terrorists raped their lifeless bodies,\" his statement says. \"I desperately wanted to help, but there was nothing I could do.\"\n\nIsraelis are still grappling with the Hamas attack in October\n\nPolice say they have \"multiple\" eye-witness accounts of sexual assault, but wouldn't give any more clarification on how many. When we spoke to them, they hadn't yet interviewed any surviving victims.\n\nHamas has rejected Israel's accusation that its men sexually assaulted women during the attacks.\n\nIsrael's Women's Empowerment Minister, May Golan, told the BBC that a few victims of rape or sexual assault had survived the attacks, and that they were all currently receiving psychiatric treatment.\n\n\"But very, very few. The majority were brutally murdered,\" she said. \"They aren't able to talk - not with me, and not to anyone from the government [or] from the media.\"\n\nVideos filmed by Hamas include footage of one woman, handcuffed and taken hostage with cuts to her arms and a large patch of blood staining the seat of her trousers.\n\nIn others, women carried away by the fighters appear to be naked or semi-clothed.\n\nMultiple photographs from the sites after the attack show the bodies of women naked from the waist down, or with their underwear ripped to one side, legs splayed, with signs of trauma to their genitals and legs.\n\n\"It really feels like Hamas learned how to weaponise women's bodies from ISIS [the Islamic State group] in Iraq, from cases in Bosnia,\" said Dr Cochav Elkayam-Levy, a legal expert at the Davis Institute of International Relations at Hebrew University.\n\n\"It brings me chills just to know the details that they knew about what to do to women: cut their organs, mutilate their genitals, rape. It's horrifying to know this.\"\n\n\"It really feels like Hamas learned how to weaponise women's bodies from ISIS in Iraq, from cases in Bosnia,\" said Cochav Elkayam-Levy\n\n\"I spoke with at least three girls who are now hospitalised for a very hard psychiatric situation because of the rapes they watched,\" Minister May Golan told me. \"They pretended to be dead and they watched it, and heard everything. And they can't deal with it.\"\n\nIsrael's police chief Yaacov Shabtai said that many survivors of the attacks were finding it difficult to talk and that he thought some of them would never testify about what they saw or experienced.\n\n\"Eighteen young men and women have been hospitalised in mental health hospitals because they could no longer function,\" he said.\n\nOthers are reportedly suicidal. One of those working with the teams around survivors told the BBC that some had already killed themselves.\n\nMuch of the evidence has come from the volunteer body-collectors deployed after the attacks, and those who handled the bodies once they arrived at the Shura army base for identification.\n\nOne of the body-collectors volunteering with the religious organisation Zaka described to me signs of torture and mutilation which included, he said, a pregnant woman whose womb had been ripped open before she was killed, and her foetus stabbed while it was inside her.\n\nThe BBC has not been able to independently verify this account, and Israeli media reports have questioned some testimony from volunteers working in the traumatic aftermath of the Hamas attacks.\n\nAnother, Nachman Dyksztejna, provided written testimony of seeing the bodies of two women in kibbutz Be'eri with their hands and legs tied to a bed.\n\n\"One was sexually terrorised with a knife stuck in her vagina and all her internal organs removed,\" his statement says.\n\nAt the festival site, he says small shelters were \"filled with piles of women. Their clothing was torn on the upper part, but their bottoms were completely naked. Piles and piles of women. […] When you took a closer look at their heads, you saw a single shot straight to the brain of each.\"\n\nHundreds of bodies were collected from the attack sites by volunteers.\n\nMay Golan: \"For the first five days, we still had terrorists on the ground in Israel. And there were hundreds, hundreds of bodies everywhere.\"\n\nInvestigators admit that in those first chaotic days after the attacks, with some areas still active combat zones, opportunities to carefully document the crime scenes, or take forensic evidence, were limited or missed.\n\n\"For the first five days, we still had terrorists on the ground in Israel,\" May Golan said. \"And there were hundreds, hundreds of bodies everywhere. They were burned, they were without organs, they were butchered completely.\"\n\n\"This was a mass casualty event,\" police spokesman Dean Elsdunne told journalists at a briefing.\n\n\"The first thing was to work on identifying the victims, not necessarily on crime scene investigation. People were waiting to hear what happened to their loved ones.\"\n\nIt was staff at the army's Shura base, where bodies arrived for identification, who have provided investigators with some of the most crucial evidence.\n\nThis evidence emerged from a makeshift hub of tents and refrigerated shipping containers set up at the base to identify the bodies.\n\nWhen we visited, hospital trolleys, their iron skeletons topped with khaki stretchers, stood neatly lined up in front of the containers that housed the dead; the white plastic overalls of those on shift translucent under the floodlights.\n\nFighter jets roared overhead, drowning out the cicadas, as Israel's bombardment of Gaza continued.\n\nTeams here told us they'd seen clear evidence of rape and sexual violence on the bodies coming in, including broken pelvises from sustained violent abuse.\n\n\"We see women of all ages,\" one of the reservists on the forensic team, Captain Maayan, told the BBC. \"We see rape victims. We see women who have been through violation. We have pathologists and we see the bruises, we learn about the cuts and tears, and we know they have been sexually abused.\"\n\nI ask her what proportion of the bodies she's handled show signs of this.\n\n\"Abundant,\" she said. \"Abundant amount of women and girls of all ages.\"\n\nDebris litters the ground at the Nova festival site\n\nThe number of victims is hard to define, partly because of the state of the bodies.\n\n\"It's definitely multiple,\" said another serving soldier who asked us to use only her first name, Avigayil. \"It's hard to tell. I've dealt with more than a few burned bodies and I have no idea what they went through beforehand. And bodies that are missing the bottom half - I also don't know if they were raped. But women that were clearly raped? There are enough. More than enough.\"\n\n\"Sometimes we are left only with a very small part of the body,\" Dr Elkayam-Levy tells me. \"Maybe it's a finger, a foot or a hand that they're trying to identify. People were burned to ashes. Nothing was left. […] I want to say that we'll never know how many cases there were.\"\n\nPrivately some of those working on this talk in terms of \"dozens\" of victims but quickly caution that evidence is still being gathered and pieced together.\n\nThe civil commission headed by Dr Elkayam-Levy, to collect testimony on sexual crimes, is calling for international recognition that what happened on 7 October was systematic abuse, constituting Crimes Against Humanity.\n\n\"We see definite patterns,\" she told me. \"So it wasn't incidental, it wasn't random. They came with a clear order. It was […] rape as genocide.\"\n\nAvigayil agrees there were similarities in the violence visited on the bodies that arrived at the Shura base.\n\n\"There are patterns in that groups of women from the same place were treated in a similar manner,\" she said.\n\n\"There might be a set of women who were raped in one way, and we're seeing similarities in the bodies; and then a different set that were not raped but shot multiple times in the exact same pattern. So it seems that different groups of terrorists had different forms of cruelty.\"\n\n\"Israel on 7 October is not the same country that woke up the following morning\": police chief Yaacov Shabtai\n\nDavid Katz from Israel's cyber crime unit which is involved in the investigation, told journalists that it was too early to prove that sexual violence was planned as part of the attack, but that data extracted from the phones of the Hamas attackers suggested that \"everything was systematic\".\n\n\"It would be reckless to say we can already prove it […] but everything that was done there was done systematically,\" he said. \"Nothing happened by coincidence. Rape was systematic.\"\n\nIsrael's government points to documents it says were found on Hamas fighters that appear to support the idea that sexual violence was planned. It's released clips of interrogations with some captured fighters in which they appear to say that women were targeted for this purpose.\n\nLast week, UN Women put out a statement saying it \"unequivocally condemn[ed] the brutal attacks by Hamas\" and was \"alarmed by the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during those attacks\".\n\nDr Elkayam-Levy said before the statement that international women's rights organisations had taken far too long to respond to her call for support.\n\n\"This is the most documented atrocity humanity has known,\" she told me.\n\n\"Israel on 7 October is not the same country that woke up the following morning,\" said police chief Yaacov Shabtai.\n\nAmid the horror of what happened to women here, Captain Maayan from the Shura identification unit says the hardest moments are when she sees \"the mascara on their eyelashes, or the earrings they put on that morning\".\n\nI ask where that lands in her, as a woman.\n\n\"Terror,\" she replied. \"It terrorises us.\"", "Earlier this year, Mr Kim pulled off a seemingly impossible escape from North Korea. He fled by sea with his entire family - his pregnant wife, his mother, his brother's family, and an urn containing his father's ashes.\n\nThey are the first people to have fled the country this year and make it to the South. When Covid struck, North Korea's government panicked and sealed the country off from the rest of the world, closing its borders and cutting off trade. Defections, once fairly common, virtually ceased.\n\nMr Kim told the BBC how he masterminded such a remarkable escape, in the first interview with a defector to have got out since the pandemic. He revealed new details about life in the country, including cases of people starving to death and increasing repression. He asked us not to use his full name, to help protect his family in Seoul and back in the North.\n\nThe BBC cannot independently verify all of Mr Kim's account, but much of the detail tallies with what we have been told by other sources.\n\nThe night of the escape was a turbulent one. Fierce winds swept up from the south, bringing a storm in their wake. This was all part of Mr Kim's plan. The rough seas would force any surveillance ships to retreat, he hoped.\n\nHe had been dreaming of this night for years, planning it meticulously for months, but this did little to temper his fear.\n\nHis brother's children were asleep, knocked out by sleeping pills he had fed them. He and his brother now had to carry them through a minefield in the dark, to where their getaway boat was secretly moored. They inched along, careful to avoid the beams from the guards' searchlights.\n\nThe boat used by Mr Kim and his family to escape\n\nOnce they reached the boat, they hid the children in old grain sacks, disguising them to look like bags of tools. With that, the family set sail for South Korea: the men armed with swords, the women with poison. Each clutched a single eggshell, hollowed out and filled with chilli powder and black sand, to crack into the faces of the coastguards if a confrontation ensued.\n\nTheir engine roared, but all Mr Kim could hear was his thumping heart. One mistake now, and they could all be executed.\n\nWhen I met Mr Kim in the outskirts of Seoul last month, he was accompanied by a plain clothes police officer - a typical safety measure for recent defectors. It had only been a few weeks since he and his family were released from the resettlement centre that North Koreans are sent to after arriving in South Korea.\n\n\"There has been a lot of suffering,\" he said, as he began to recount the past four years.\n\nIn the early days of Covid-19, people were \"extremely scared\", he said. The state broadcast images of people dying around the world, and warned that if the rules were not followed, the entire country could be wiped out. Some people were even sent to labour camps for breaking Covid rules, he said.\n\nWhen a suspected case was reported, guards would quarantine the entire village, he said. Everyone would be locked up and the area sealed off, leaving those inside with little or nothing to eat.\n\n\"After they'd starved people for a while, the government would bring in truckloads of food supplies. They claimed to be selling the food cheaply, so people would praise them - like starving your baby, then giving them a small amount, so it would thank you.\"\n\nMr Kim said people began to question whether this was part of the state's strategy to profit from the pandemic.\n\nAs more people survived Covid, they began to think the state had exaggerated the dangers, he said. \"Now many believe it was just an excuse to oppress us.\"\n\nIt was the border closures that caused the most severe damage, he said.\n\nFood supplies in North Korea have long been precarious, but with less coming into the country, prices skyrocketed, he said, making everyone's lives \"so much harder\". In the spring of 2022, he noticed the situation deteriorate further.\n\n\"For seven or eight years there wasn't much talk of starvation, but then we frequently started hearing about cases,\" he said. \"You'd wake up one morning and hear: 'oh, someone in this district starved to death'. The next morning, we'd get another report.\"\n\nThis poster from the state broadcaster KCNA tells people to stringently follow Covid rules\n\nOne day this February, Mr Kim said a customer from a neighbouring county turned up late to a meeting. He told him the police had rounded up everyone in his village over the suspected murder of an elderly couple. But after the autopsy, they announced the couple had starved, and rats must have eaten their fingers and toes while they were dying. The gruesome scene had made the investigators suspect foul play.\n\nThen in April, he says two farmers he personally knew starved to death. The farmers had the hardest time, he said, because if the harvest was bad, the state would force them to make up for it by handing over more of their personal food supply.\n\nWe cannot independently confirm these deaths. The 2023 Global Report on Food Crises stated that since North Korea's borders closed, it has been \"challenging to obtain accurate information on food insecurity\" but there were \"indications the situation is worsening\". In March 2023 North Korea asked the World Food Programme for help.\n\nAmnesty International's North Korea specialist, Choi Jae-hoon, said he had heard of cases of starvation, from escapees in Seoul who had managed to speak to family back home. \"We are hearing that the food situation worsened during the Covid period, and that in some areas farmers tended to suffer the most,\" he said. But Mr Choi noted that the situation was not nearly as catastrophic as during the famine in the 1990s: \"We're hearing that people have found ways to survive within their means.\"\n\nMr Kim himself found ways not only to survive, but to thrive. Like most people in North Korea before Covid, he made his money selling items on the black market - in his case motorbikes and televisions smuggled from China. But when the borders closed, stifling virtually all trade, he switched to buying and selling vegetables. He figured everyone needed to eat.\n\nHe set himself up as a \"grasshopper seller\", hawking his items covertly at home or in alleyways. \"If someone reported us, we'd pick up the food and run, like a grasshopper,\" he said.\n\n\"People would come to me, begging me to sell to them. I could ask for whatever price I wanted,\" he said. Mr Kim found himself richer than ever before. He and his wife could afford to eat stew for dinner, with any meat of their choosing.\n\n\"That counts as eating very well in North Korea.\"\n\nThe life Mr Kim describes paints a picture of an exceptionally savvy and, at times, unscrupulous businessman. Now in his 30s, he hustled and saved for more than a decade, finding ways to outsmart the North Korean system.\n\nThis was partly because he became disillusioned with the system at a young age. From as early as he can remember, he and his father would sit watching South Korean TV in secret. They lived so close to the border they could tune into the channels on their set. Mr Kim became captivated by a country where people were free.\n\nAs he got older, the corruption and injustice he witnessed in the North began to chip away at him. He recalled one incident where security officials raided his home. \"Everything you have belongs to the state,\" they said. \"You think this oxygen is yours?\" one officer jeered. \"Well, it's not, you bastard.\"\n\nThen, in 2021, Mr Kim said powerful crackdown squads were formed to try to supress what the state deemed \"anti-social behaviour\". They would arbitrarily stop people on the street and intimidate them. \"People started calling these crackdown officials mosquitoes, like vampires sucking out our blood.\"\n\nThe most serious offence was consuming and sharing outside information, particularly South Korean culture. The crackdown on this, Mr Kim said, had become \"much more intense. Once you get caught, they'll shoot you, kill you, or send you to a labour camp.\"\n\nIn April last year, Mr Kim said he was forced to watch a 22-year-old man he knew be shot to death in a public execution. \"He was killed for listening to 70 South Korean songs and watching about three films and sharing them with his friends.\"\n\nThe authorities told the onlookers they wanted to punish the man harshly, to set the right precedent. \"They're ruthless\", Mr Kim said, \"everyone is scared.\"\n\nWe cannot independently verify this execution, but in December 2020 North Korea passed a new law, stating that those who shared South Korean content could be executed.\n\nJoanna Hosaniak from the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights said Mr Kim's account of the execution was \"completely unsurprising\". Ms Hosaniak has interviewed hundreds of defectors over two decades. \"North Korea has always used public executions as a means to control the population,\" she said. \"Whenever it implements new laws, it introduces a wave of executions.\"\n\nAs Mr Kim recounted these memories, he became distressed. He said it was a friend's suicide last year that had finally broken him.\n\nDesperate to divorce a woman he no longer loved and marry another - the friend was told by officials that the only way he could get a divorce was to spend time in a labour camp. He sunk into debt trying to find another way out, before ending his life. Mr Kim visited his bedroom after his death. The carnage on display spelt out what a slow and agonising end he must have suffered. He had clawed the walls until his nails came out.\n\nAlthough Mr Kim had fantasised about escaping hundreds of times, he could never bear to leave his family behind. By 2022, life had become so desperate, he felt he could finally convince them to join him.\n\nHe targeted his brother first. He and his wife ran an illicit seafood business, but the government had recently cracked down on unofficial sellers. Despite owning a boat, they could no longer fish. With money tight, he was easily persuaded.\n\nFor the next seven months, the pair meticulously plotted their escape.\n\nOver the course of the pandemic, many of the well-established escape routes across the country's northern border with China had been blocked off. But the brothers lived in a small fishing town in the far south-west of the country, close to the South Korean border. This gave them an alternative, yet risky, way out - by sea.\n\nFirst, they needed permission to access the water. They had heard about a nearby military base, where civilians were sent out to catch fish that was then sold to pay for military equipment. Mr Kim's brother enrolled in the scheme.\n\nMeanwhile Mr Kim started befriending the coastguards and security guards who patrolled the area, surreptitiously mining them for information about their movements, protocols and shift patterns, until he was confident he and his brother could take the boat out at night, without getting caught.\n\nThen came the hardest of his tasks: convincing his elderly mother and wife to join him. Both were opposed to leaving. Eventually the brothers shouted their mother into submission, threatening to cancel the trip if she did not join them, and hold her responsible for their misery to the end of their days.\n\n\"She was distraught and cried a lot but finally agreed,\" Mr Kim said.\n\nHis wife, however, was immovable, until one day the couple learnt they were expecting a baby. \"You're not just your own body any more,\" he argued with her. \"You're a parent, do you want our child to live in this hellhole?\" It worked.\n\nAfter talking for several hours, Mr Kim and I headed for dinner, where he ran through the final preparations for his escape. Fearful the authorities would desecrate their father's grave after they left, the brothers went to dig up his body. After repacking the ground to appear untampered, they took it into the surrounding wilderness and burnt it.\n\nThey went on to survey the remote minefield they would later need to cross in the dark. They pretended to pick medicinal herbs, while mapping a clear route through it. The coastline had been recently planted with landmines to prevent people leaving, Mr Kim said, but with fewer guards on duty there, it offered the safest way out.\n\nThen it was a matter of waiting for the weather and the tide to turn.\n\nAt 10pm on 6 May they set sail, travelling as far as they were allowed, then continuing on. Low tide had exposed reefs and boulders, which they navigated ever so slowly, hoping to disguise themselves as floating rubbish on the radars. All the while, Mr Kim's heart was pounding, his clothes soaked with sweat.\n\nAs soon as it felt safe, they went full-speed with the currents. Mr Kim looked back to see a ship following, but it could not catch them. Within minutes they had crossed the maritime border.\n\nThe stretch of sea Mr Kim had to cross to make it to Yeonpyong island\n\n\"In that moment, all my tension released. I felt like I was collapsing,\" he said. They flashed their light as they approached the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong and were rescued by the navy, after nearly two hours at sea.\n\nEverything had gone exactly as planned. \"It was like the heavens helped us,\" he said.\n\nMr Kim's escape is exceptional for several reasons, said Sokeel Park from Liberty in North Korea, an organisation which helps refugees from the North resettle in the South. Not only have sea defections always been extremely rare, he explained, but since the pandemic it has become almost impossible for people to defect.\n\n\"These sea escapes take meticulous planning, incredible bravery and for everything to go miraculously well,\" he said. \"There must be many more North Koreans who have tried but not made it.\"\n\n\"The only people who can defect now are the rich and well-connected,\" added Pastor Stephen Kim from JM Missionary, who helps North Koreans defect through China. Around 1,000 used to make it across the Chinese border each year, but to his knowledge only 20 have crossed during the past four years, and just four of them have arrived in South Korea. In October, he and Human Rights Watch accused China of sending some defectors back to the North.\n\nPyongyang is currently deepening its ties with China and Russia, while turning its back on diplomacy with the West. This has made it increasingly difficult for the international community to address these reported human rights violations.\n\nSouth Korea's government has made North Korean human rights one of its top priorities, but its vice-unification minister Moon Seong-hyun said it had \"limited tools to use\".\n\n\"What we have been trying to do is to increase people's awareness, by continuously raising these issues through the UN and elsewhere,\" he said. \"There is a tendency for North Korea to listen to countries in Europe,\" he added, citing the UK and Germany as examples. But Seoul's role has largely been reduced to helping the dwindling number of refugees who make it to the South, supporting them with counselling, housing and education.\n\nAfter their rescue Mr Kim and his family first had to be debriefed by South Korea's intelligence service, to check they were not North Korean spies. They were then educated about life in the South at a resettlement centre. Despite being so physically close, their old and new homes are worlds apart, and defectors often struggle with the transition.\n\nMr Kim says he has found adjusting to life in Seoul easier than the rest of his family\n\nThe family moved from the resettlement facility into an apartment in October, just as Mr Kim's wife gave birth. She is healthy, but finding it difficult to adjust, he said, though his mother is having the toughest time. None of them had ever ridden a subway before, and she keeps getting lost. Each mistake further knocks her confidence. \"She is kind of regretting coming here now,\" he admitted.\n\nBut Mr Kim, who was already so familiar with South Korean culture, said he was adapting easily. \"The world I imagined and the world I am now physically navigating feel very similar.\"\n\nAs we were speaking, he curiously picked up my AirPods case from the table beside us, turning it over in his hand. I opened it to reveal the wireless headphones, but still he looked confused. It wasn't until I placed the buds in my ears that a wave of understanding flashed across his face, and he laughed.\n\nThere will be many more of these surprises and challenges ahead. This is only the beginning of his journey.\n\nAdditional reporting by Hosu Lee and Leehyun Choi, Illustrations by Lilly Huynh", "The couple appeared together at the premiere of Netflix's The Diplomat\n\nBritish actor Rufus Sewell has become engaged to actress Vivian Benitez, who is 30 years his junior.\n\nThe 26-year-old US actress shared photos of the pair and her engagement ring on Instagram.\n\nShe is best known for her roles in Arsenal, Criminal Minds and Sky Dancers Grown Up.\n\nSewell, who played Jasper in the festive film The Holiday, has been married twice before.\n\nThe couple had been dating for two years and made only a handful of public appearances together.\n\nOn Tuesday, Benitez shared two photographs on Instagram to announce the engagement - one of Sewell kissing her on the cheek and the other a close up picture of the ring.\n\nThe photographs had the caption: \"Till death (or him continuing to walk on bathmats with his outside shoes) do us part.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by vivv This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSewell has two children from previous relationships, a 21-year-old son with his ex-wife Amy Gardner who he married in 2003 and divorced in 2006, and a 10-year-old daughter with ex-girlfriend Ami Komai.\n\nHe was first married in 1999 to long-term girlfriend Yasmin Abdallah, but the couple divorced the following year.\n\nThe Holiday, the 2006 film which has become a staple film of the Christmas season, saw Sewell play Jasper, the former partner of Kate Winslet's character Iris.\n\nSewell starred opposite Kate Winslet, as her character Iris's ex partner Jasper, in 2006's The Holiday\n\nAfter learning Jasper is now engaged to someone else, Iris escapes the country and rents out her cottage to Cameron Diaz's character Amanda Woods, who in turn offers Iris her large home in Los Angeles.\n\nSewell, who has also appeared in The Diplomat and The Man in the High Castle, is set to play Prince Andrew in a dramatisation of the Duke of York's interview on BBC Newsnight in 2019.\n\nThen-presenter Emily Maitlis questioned the duke over his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nThe adaptation, based on the book Scoops: Behind The Scenes of the BBC's Most Shocking Interviews, will also star Gillian Anderson as Maitlis.\n\nYou may also be interested in:", "A fourth woman has accused Sean \"Diddy\" Combs of sexual assault, alleging he and two others gang raped her when she was 17.\n\nJane Doe, as she is referred to in the legal action, claims the rapper flew her to his New York studio in 2003.\n\nShe alleges she was given \"copious amounts of drugs and alcohol\" before Diddy and two other men took turns raping her.\n\nMr Combs, 54, said he \"did not do any of the awful things being alleged\".\n\nThe woman claims she drifted in and out of consciousness during the alleged ordeal, and says she was left in so much pain that she could barely stand or remember how she got home.\n\nIn a statement to BBC News, lawyers for the woman said: \"As alleged in the complaint, Defendants preyed on a vulnerable high school teenager as part of a sex trafficking scheme that involved plying her with drugs and alcohol and transporting her by private jet to New York City where she was gang raped by the three individual defendants at Mr. Combs' studio.\n\n\"The depravity of these abhorrent acts has, not surprisingly, scarred our client for life.\"\n\nThe woman's legal team confirmed a federal lawsuit had been filed against Mr Combs and two other men, as well as two responsible corporate entities.\n\nLawyers allege one of the other two men named in the lawsuit \"approached Ms Doe at a lounge in Michigan, near to where she was living at the time, told her that he was 'best friends' with Mr Combs, and proceeded to call Mr Combs, who was in New York City.\n\nThe two allegedly \"convinced\" Ms Doe to take a private jet to Mr Combs' recording studio in New York City.\n\n\"Once there, the defendants plied Ms Doe with drugs and alcohol and viciously gang raped her, one after the other.\"\n\nIt is also claimed one of the men forced her to give him oral sex, which allegedly left Ms Doe \"choking and struggling to breathe\".\n\nResponding to the latest allegations, Diddy said in a statement to BBC News: \"Enough is enough.\n\n\"For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy.\n\n\"Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday.\n\n\"Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.\"\n\nLast month, Diddy was accused in a lawsuit by R&B singer Casandra Ventura, known as Cassie, of rape and sex trafficking. The pair settled out of court the day after it was filed.\n\nTwo further women subsequently came forward accusing the rapper of rape. Diddy has denied the claims.", "On James \"Jemmy\" Wood's death, people lined the streets of Gloucester to boo and throw stones at his coffin\n\nCharles Dickens' Scrooge may have been inspired by a miserly Gloucester banker known as \"the richest commoner in England\".\n\nLocal historian Roger Smith said it was \"widely accepted\" Scrooge was based on James \"Jemmy\" Wood, who owned a bank on Westgate Street.\n\nMr Smith said Dickens knew of Jemmy but never actually met him.\n\n\"Jemmy was notorious for never spending any money on clothes and was very, very shabby and very grubby,\" said Mr Smith.\n\nBorn in 1756, Mr Wood inherited a shop and bank from his father.\n\n\"It was an old fashioned hardware store and in the corner of the shop was the Old County Bank,\" Mr Smith said.\n\nDespite being \"quite illiterate\", Jemmy was said to be very shrewd and managed to accumulate a lot of money.\n\n\"He was always looking for ways to make money but he was very reluctant to spend it,\" Mr Smith said.\n\n\"He was known as the richest commoner in England.\"\n\nJames \"Jemmy\" Wood inherited a shop and bank from his father at the start of the 19th Century\n\nDressed in ragged clothes, the Gloucester miser also chose to shun public transport to save his precious pennies.\n\n\"He was travelling back from Tewkesbury in the rain but he was too miserly to pay for a carriage so he decided to walk,\" said Mr Smith.\n\n\"A hearse stopped and asked him if he wanted a lift and he climbed in the back with the coffin.\n\n\"He would also go down to the docks to fill his pockets with the coal that had fallen off the ships rather than paying for it.\"\n\nOn his death in 1836, Mr Wood left an estate worth \"about £50m in today's money\".\n\n\"He was abhorred because of his business practices,\" he said.\n\n\"During his funeral procession, the streets were lined with people and they all booed his coffin as it passed and threw stones at it.\"\n\n\"All that's left of him is his grave and a Blue Plaque outside McDonalds,\" said Mr Smith\n\nBut it may have been Jemmy's spectacular meanness that inspired Dickens to immortalize him as the \"covetous, old sinner\" in A Christmas Carol, where Scrooge is visited by ghosts that show him his past, present and deathly future.\n\n\"Charles Dickens was a regular visitor to Gloucester and he knew of Jemmy,\" said Mr Smith.\n\n\"He didn't actually meet him but he knew of Jemmy's practices so it's widely accepted that Jemmy was the inspiration for Scrooge.\n\n\"Jemmy was buried in St Mary de Crypt and that's all that's left of him - his grave and a Blue Plaque outside McDonalds.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "Fewer households will struggle to keep up with mortgage payments than previously expected, the Bank of England has suggested.\n\nClose to 500,000 households are predicted to spend more than 70% of their post-tax income on their mortgage by the end of next year, it said.\n\nThat's down from 650,000 predicted in July.\n\nBut its analysis also shows the scale of the \"payment shock\" that some mortgage borrowers are facing.\n\nAccording to the bank's estimates, just under 900,000 will see mortgage payments jump by more than £500 a month due to higher interest rates.\n\nAround 20% of that number are predicted to see a jump of more than £1,000 per month.\n\nIn the Bank's latest Financial Stability Report published on Wednesday, it said that five million mortgage accounts had been re-priced since interest rates started to rise in December 2021.\n\nIt estimated five million more would see their mortgage payments rise by 2026.\n\nThere was some better news for mortgage holders though, with the bank downgrading its forecast of those predicted to struggle to pay back their loans.\n\nThe Bank said households were opting to borrow over longer time periods to manage higher interest rates.\n\nAs many as 12% of new mortgages are now for terms of more than 35 years. The proportion of new loans extended for more than 30 years has reached 28%.\n\nWhile that makes borrowing more affordable in the short term, it could increase the amount of debt borrowers have to repay over the longer term, meaning they are ultimately paying substantially more for their home.\n\nMeanwhile, the picture has improved for some savers, according to the City regulator.\n\nIn an update on Wednesday, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that there were signs of more competitive interest rates for cash savers between July and October, and indications that some were shopping around for a better deal.\n\nA number of easy-access savings products are now paying interest of 5% or more, it said.\n\nHowever, some people who had not moved their money for years were still getting little back, it said.\n\n\"There are still low paying accounts out there, particularly products that are no longer on sale,\" said Sheldon Mills, from the FCA.\n\n\"We want firms to keep prompting customers in lower paying accounts to move, and we encourage customers to shop around for the best savings deals.\"\n\nThe FCA hauled bank bosses in for talks earlier in the summer, and MPs had criticised the biggest High Street banks for failing to pass on rising interest rates in full to their savings customers.", "The Scottish bereaved families representative is talking now.\n\nClaire Mitchell KC is questioning the relationship between the SNP and UK government. Johnson is asked whether there was a \"reluctance\" to have the Scottish first minister - at the time, Nicola Sturgeon - contact him during the pandemic.\n\nJohnson says that he has \"no ill will\" towards Sturgeon and that the two \"got on very well\". He then adds that that as much as he \"loves the SNP\", politically there was a certain amount of back and forth between he and them.\n\nAnd when asked whether he should have included the devolved administrations more in meetings, Johnson says that he was worried they would come out of \"confidential meetings\" and talk to their own media about what was going on.\n\nJohnson has previously talked about needing \"leak-proof system\" between the administrations for emergencies, Mitchell says, and asks him how establishing such a system might be done.\n\nJohnson tells the inquiry he doesn't know \"at present\" because this is \"difficult\", but \"that's the ideal\".", "British trader Sanjay Shah has landed in Denmark after being extradited from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over tax fraud charges worth £1.46bn.\n\nMr Shah, who lives in Dubai, is accused of participating in fraudulent share trading schemes.\n\nHe was arrested by Dubai police last year following the Danish investigation into Solo Capital, a hedge fund that he founded.\n\nMr Shah denies the charges and insists that the trades were legal.\n\nDenmark is one of the countries hardest hit by so-called \"cum-ex\" schemes, although they also flourished in Germany and Belgium. The scam involved rapidly selling shares between investors in order to create confusion over who owned the shares at the time a dividend was paid out.\n\nTax on the dividends was subsequently reclaimed by multiple parties, although it was only paid once.\n\nDenmark says Mr Shah's Solo Capital ran fraudulent schemes for companies and investors between 2012 and 2015. Mr Shah is the primary suspect in the Danish case of tax fraud.\n\nThe money Danish authorities are seeking to recoup amounts to some 12.7bn crowns (£1.46bn; $1.84bn; €1.7bn) - nearly 0.5% of the country's entire GDP.\n\n\"This is one of our biggest and most serious cases of financial fraud,\" Justice Minister Petter Hummelgaard said.\n\nProsecutors will ask for Mr Shah to be held in custody until the start of his trial, scheduled for January next year.\n\nAfter Mr Shah lost his job as a trader during the 2008 financial crisis, he founded Solo Capital and moved to the UAE. In Dubai, he led an extravagant lifestyle, including living on the exclusive Palm Jumeirah island. Musicians who played for an autism charity he founded included Elton John and Drake.\n\nHe bought two yachts, naming them the Solo and Solo II.\n\nBut since 2020, he has been doggedly pursued by Danish authorities over the fraud charges. Much of Mr Shah's fortune, including a £15m central London property, has been frozen.\n\nLast month, in a separate case, Mr Shah lost a bid in the UK Supreme Court to block Denmark from pursuing him in English courts.\n\nAlso in November, British national Guenther Klar, who worked for Solo Capital between 2010 and 2012, went on trial in Denmark in the country's first court case over cum-ex fraud.\n\nMr Klar, who was extradited from Belgium, is accused of defrauding the government of some 320m Danish crowns (£37m). He denies wrongdoing.", "An Ohio woman who was convicted of assault for hurling a burrito bowl at a Chipotle worker was offered an unusual way to reduce her time in jail.\n\nA judge has ordered Rosemary Hayne, 39, must now work at a fast-food job for two months.\n\nHayne was captured in a viral video screaming at a Chipotle employee before throwing her food in the worker's face.\n\nAt first, she was slated to pay a fine and serve 180 days in jail, with 90 days suspended.\n\nBut then, the judge had another idea.\n\n\"You didn't get your burrito bowl the way you like it, and this is how you respond?\" Judge Timothy Gilligan told Hayne at her sentencing in Parma, Ohio.\n\n\"This is not 'Real Housewives of Parma.' This behaviour is not acceptable,\" he said, according to local Fox affiliate WJW.\n\nJudge Gilligan told Hayne she could cut off 60 days in jail if she agreed to work at least 20 hours per week at a fast-food restaurant for two months.\n\nThe incident on 5 September was captured by a bystander, who posted the video to Reddit, where it went viral.\n\nIn court, Hayne apologised and tried to explain the rationale behind her screaming at the Chipotle worker, 26-year-old Emily Russell.\n\n\"If I showed you how my food looked and how my food looked a week later from that same restaurant, it's disgusting looking,\" Hayne said, according to WJW.\n\n\"I bet you won't be happy with the food you are going to get in the jail,\" Judge Gilligan quipped.\n\nEmily Russell told the court she had been traumatised by the incident and had quit her job at Chipotle since.\n\nShe told the Washington Post she was stepping in to protect a 17-year-old employee who was getting yelled at by Hayne. The food was hot and burned her face, she said.\n\n\"I was so embarrassed and in shock,\" she told the outlet. \"I couldn't believe my customers had to witness that.\"\n\nA GoFundMe campaign had raised $7,200 (£5,700) for Ms Russell as of Tuesday morning.", "Tariffs on electric vehicles traded between the UK and EU will be delayed for three years, the European Commission has proposed.\n\nIt comes after carmakers on both sides of the Channel warned they were not ready for the change to post-Brexit trade rules planned from January.\n\nThe rules were meant to protect the EU car industry, but the 10% tariffs were likely to lead to huge costs.\n\nEU member states still need to approve the plan at a meeting next week.\n\nThe Commission had initially rejected the idea delaying the rules, despite pleas from carmakers and the UK government.\n\nBut on Wednesday, the Commission said the \"one-off extension\" was needed to support the bloc's car industry, which was still struggling with the impacts of the pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and competition from US subsidies.\n\nUnder EU \"rules of origin\" that were due to come in from January, cars produced in either the EU or UK would need to have been largely made from locally sourced parts to qualify as being tariff free.\n\nThe aim was to protect the European industry from cheap imports from countries such as China, which has become a dominant force in the global electric vehicle (EV) market.\n\nBut in terms of cross-Channel trade, the rules would have meant that EVs needed to have batteries produced in either the UK or the EU, and many carmakers warned they would struggle to meet the criteria.\n\nThe pace of local battery production has been slower than expected, leaving manufacturers reliant on imports.\n\nIndustry bodies raised concerns that the rules would cost European manufacturers £3.75bn over the next three years.\n\nThere were also fears that steep tariffs could make electric cars more expensive to produce and potentially push up prices.\n\nThe UK government had been lobbying the EU to postpone the rules.\n\nWhile the Commission's move will not be a huge surprise, carmakers will be relieved on both sides of the Channel given the tariffs were due to come in from January.\n\nThe UK is by far the largest export market for European manufacturers, with 1.2 million vehicles being delivered to UK ports last year. At the same time the UK sells more cars to the EU than any other region.\n\nAlthough it has proposed a three-year delay to the rules, the European Commission said it would add a clause to the Brexit trade deal making it \"legally impossible\" for the extension to last any longer. This, it said, would lock in its rules of origin from 2027.\n\nThe Commission also said it would provide €3bn in funding over the next three years to help boost European battery manufacturers.\n\nThe new deadline places UK electric car production in the spotlight, with plans for so-called gigafactories, such as Jaguar Land Rover's in Somerset, being announced, but none close to producing batteries yet.\n\nDoubts also remain over a site in Blyth in Northumberland which has been earmarked for making car batteries.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson has said he should have \"twigged\" the seriousness of Covid sooner, conceding earlier action could have been taken against the virus.\n\nGiving evidence to the Covid inquiry, the former prime minister said he had underestimated the \"scale and the pace of the challenge\" posed.\n\nBut he said this was also true of scientists and the \"entire Whitehall establishment\".\n\nAnd he insisted ministers did their \"level best\" in the circumstances.\n\nIn the first of two days of testimony, Mr Johnson sought to defend his record in office, which has come in for criticism from other witnesses who have given evidence to the inquiry.\n\nHe defended the timing of the first lockdown, saying that modelling had been incorrect and he had been advised not to impose measures too early.\n\nHe admitted to a \"certain amount of incoherence in our thinking,\" but added: \"Once we decided to act, I think it was pretty fast from flash to bang.\"\n\nMore on Covid and the Covid Inquiry\n\nHe began his testimony by saying he was sorry for the \"pain and the loss and the suffering\" people experienced during the pandemic.\n\nHis comments were interrupted by protesters, who were ordered to leave the inquiry room. Some members of bereaved families stood up holding pieces of paper, spelling out the message: \"The dead can't hear your apologies.\"\n\nMr Johnson has been criticised for being slow to make decisions during the pandemic and being unable to make up his mind about what to do.\n\nOver several hours of questioning by lead inquiry lawyer Hugo Keith KC he put in a measured performance, which largely lacked the tetchy exchanges seen during his grilling over Partygate by a committee of MPs earlier this year.\n\nBut the former prime minister had to take back an accusation that Mr Keith had suggested he \"put his feet up\" at his official country retreat during the 2020 February half-term, adding he had confused it with comments from someone else.\n\nAnd he choked up when he described the return of the virus after the first national lockdown, describing 2020 as a \"tragic, tragic year\".\n\nMr Johnson defended his overall approach to the pandemic, adding that Covid had required \"completely novel\" measures and it was his job to \"go through the arguments\".\n\nHe added that people within government had collectively been reluctant to believe worse-case predictions about the impact of the virus, given the experience of previous diseases.\n\n\"It would certainly be fair to say of me, the entire Whitehall establishment, scientific community included, that we underestimated the scale and the pace of the challenge,\" he said.\n\nHe added that he was subsequently \"rattled\" by scenes of chaos in northern Italy in mid-February, when pictures of swamped hospitals hit the world's media.\n\n\"We should have collectively twigged much sooner. I should have twigged,\" he added.\n\nOver more than five hours of testimony, he also:\n\nHe added, however, that given what is known now, mass gatherings should have been stopped earlier than they were.\n\n\"With hindsight, as a symbol of government earnestness rather than just being guided by the science, we should perhaps have done that,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"They partied while we all suffered\" - bereaved relatives Larry Burn and Amos Waldman\n\nHe also defended his decision to keep Matt Hancock as health secretary, despite being urged to sack him by his former adviser Dominic Cummings, telling the inquiry he considered him a \"good communicator\".\n\nHe rejected suggestions that expletive-laden WhatsApp messages between his advisers revealed by the inquiry showed a \"toxic\" culture in his Downing Street operation.\n\nThe language in the messages reflected the \"deep anxiety\" of people doing their best, he said.\n\nHe added it also showed that the people around him were \"naturally self-critical, and critical of others,\" adding that this was \"creatively useful\" when it came to making decisions.\n\nAnd he revealed that he had spoken to former civil servant Helen MacNamara, who has previously accused him of failing to tackle \"misogynistic language\" used about her in a WhatsApp group by Mr Cummings.\n\n\"I don't remember seeing it at the time, but I must have seen it because I was on the group,\" he told the inquiry.\n\n\"I have rang Helen MacNamara to apologise to her for not having called it out.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Suella Braverman tells her party it is \"now or never\" to act over illegal migration into the UK\n\nThe Conservative Party faces \"electoral oblivion\" if the government's Rwanda legislation is \"destined to fail\", Suella Braverman has warned.\n\nThe ex-home secretary told MPs the bill must block all routes of legal challenge to allow flights to take off.\n\nLast month the UK's Supreme Court ruled plans to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda were unlawful.\n\nThe government has promised emergency legislation, designed to address the court's concerns.\n\nOn Tuesday, Home Secretary James Cleverly also signed a new treaty with Rwanda. The government hopes the treaty, combined with the new bill, will be enough to allow the Rwanda scheme to go ahead.\n\nThe policy, which was first announced by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April 2022, aims to deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats.\n\nBut it has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges and no asylum seekers have been sent to Rwanda from the UK yet.\n\nIn a personal statement to the House of Commons after she was sacked from her cabinet role last month, Mrs Braverman said she welcomed the decision to introduce emergency legislation but said \"we are running out of time\".\n\n\"The Conservative Party faces electoral oblivion in a matter of months if we introduce yet another bill destined to fail,\" she told MPs.\n\n\"Do we fight for sovereignty or do we let our party die?\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has made stopping small boat crossings one of his top priorities ahead of the next general election, which must take place by January 2025.\n\nMrs Braverman said the bill must deliver on the prime minister's pledge to stop small boat crossings and set out a number of tests she said it must meet to do this.\n\nThese included addressing the Supreme Court's concerns about the safety of Rwanda and \"blocking off all routes of challenge\" to enable flights carrying asylum seekers to the east African country before the next election.\n\nAlthough Mrs Braverman said she supported leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), she said this was not the only way to stop the boats.\n\n\"I accept that the government won't do that and that it is a debate for another day,\" she added.\n\nInstead she proposed that the bill should override the UK's Human Rights Act, the ECHR and other international law.\n\n\"The powers to detain and remove must be exercisable notwithstanding the Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Refugee Convention, and all other international law,\" she said.\n\nShe added that Parliament should be prepared to sit over Christmas to pass the bill.\n\nMrs Braverman was flanked by supporters as she gave her statement but there are splits within the Conservative Party over her proposals.\n\nOne senior Tory MP told the BBC her statement \"was just the latest performance in the leadership pantomime\".\n\nRather than disregarding human rights law, another option is for the bill to simply declare Rwanda a safe country.\n\nThe BBC understands Mr Sunak is hoping to steer a middle course between those options.\n\nThe One Nation Caucus, which has a current membership of 106 Tory MPs, called on the prime minister to \"think twice before overriding\" either the ECHR and HRA.\n\nThe group's chairman, former Deputy Prime Minister Damian Green said: \"Successive Conservative governments have played a vital role in creating and protecting the ECHR as well as the Refugee and Torture conventions.\"\n\nAnother leading member of the group, Matt Warman, said overriding the ECHR was \"a red line for a number of Conservatives\".\n\nHowever, Mark Francois, chairman of the right-wing European Research Group (ERG), said it would not back any new legislation that does not \"fully respect the sovereignty of Parliament, with unambiguous wording\".\n\nFormer Minister Sir Simon Clarke said there was \"raw anger\" among his constituents about migration.\n\nHe told the BBC's Politics Live programme: \"It cannot be the case that a human rights framework which was set up in the late 1940s, which could never have envisaged a world in which tens of thousands of people were coming to this country illegally and we were unable to deport them, is regarded as so sacrosanct that we can't change it.\"\n\nThe UK's highest court ruled the Rwanda policy was unlawful because there were \"substantial grounds\" to believe that some of those deported to the country could be sent back to places where they would be unsafe.\n\nThe government says its new treaty will address these concerns by ensuring no one is removed by Rwanda to any other country except the UK.\n\nExperts from the UK will also be sent to Rwanda to assist with the processing of asylum decisions.\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly signed a new treaty with Rwanda on Tuesday\n\nSince leaving government, Mrs Braverman has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.\n\nIn a scathing letter following her sacking she accused the PM of \"betraying\" his promise to do whatever it takes to \"stop the boats\".\n\nHowever, in her Commons statement she struck a more conciliatory tone, saying Mr Sunak \"should be commended for dedicating more time and toil than any of his predecessors\" to the issue.\n\nShe added that tougher visa rules announced earlier this week \"start to better reflect public frustration on legal migration\".\n\n\"If we summon the political courage to do what is truly necessary, difficult though it may be, to fight for the British people, we will regain their trust,\" she said.\n\n\"And if the prime minister leads that fight, he has my total support.\"", "Heavy rain has brought flooding and disruption to roads in Northern Ireland.\n\nA yellow weather warning was in place for heavy rain through Thursday for counties Antrim, Armagh and Down.\n\nThe Met Office had warned that up to 30mm of rain could fall in some places, possibly reaching 60mm or more on high ground.\n\nPolice in Lisburn and Castlereagh say they have received numerous reports of flooded roads.\n\nMotorists have been advised to exercise caution at Garron Road, Carnlough, due to flooding in the area.\n\nEarlier, the Shore Road in Newtownabbey was closed also due to the flooding but has since reopened.\n\nPolice have said: \"If out driving please show some consideration for other road users. Slow down, increase the distance between yourself and the vehicle in front and be prepared for the vehicle in front to brake suddenly.\"\n\nThe rainfall warning came into effect at 10:00 on Thursday and follows a separate weather warning, also for rain, that was in place overnight on Wednesday until 04:00.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Met Office This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland, weather warnings have been issued for strong winds on Wednesday toward the south and west coasts.\n\nA rainfall warning has also been issued for seven counties on Wednesday, lasting until Thursday afternoon.\n\nThe unsettled weather marks the end of a cold snap that has been gripping Northern Ireland over the past week.\n\nMilder conditions can be expected both by day and by night in the coming week.", "Sitcom writer and producer Norman Lear has died aged 101, a spokesperson for his family has confirmed.\n\nLear was best known for his trailblazing sitcoms in the 1970s and 80s, including Sanford and Son and The Jeffersons.\n\nThe celebrated US writer was a five-time Emmy Award winner and a member of the Television Academy Hall of Fame.\n\nIn a statement, his family said knowing Lear had \"been the greatest of gifts\".\n\nThey added: \"Thank you for the moving outpouring of love and support in honour of our wonderful husband, father, and grandfather.\n\n\"Norman lived a life of creativity, tenacity, and empathy. He deeply loved our country and spent a lifetime helping to preserve its founding ideals of justice and equality for all.\"\n\nLear died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles.\n\nPaying tribute, George Clooney said in a statement: \"It's hard to reconcile that at 101 years old, Norman Lear is gone too soon. The entire world of reason just lost its greatest advocate and our family lost a dear friend. A giant walked in his shoes.\"\n\nLear was pictured with actress Rita Moreno at the premiere of the film 80 For Brady earlier this year\n\nActress Jane Fonda said Lear \"changed the face and soul of American comedy\", adding: \"My heart is heavy.\"\n\nAvengers actor Mark Ruffalo praised Lear as one of the \"great Humanists who changed the world by being honest about the love, laughter, and troubles we all share\".\n\nRolling Stone's chief TV critic Alan Sepinwall said Lear was \"one of the greatest to ever do it\".\n\n\"Almost single-handedly transformed our idea of what kinds of stories TV was capable of telling. To do that within the confines of the multi-cam sitcom format is almost unfathomable.\"\n\nSharing a photo of herself with Lear, actor Jamie Lee Curtis said in a post on Instagram that she was had recently been working with the sitcom writer.\n\n\"He was working on a project with me and he and Lyn welcomed us into their home in October where we talked politics and comedy and family,\" she said.\n\n\"Norman Lear was a great example to me and millions and millions of other people.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by jamieleecurtis This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nLear, born in 1922, grew up in Hartford, Connecticut and began his career in PR after the war where he was part of the army air forces based in Foggia, Italy.\n\nHis career as a comedy writer began in 1970 with his first sitcom, All in the Family, a US remake of the British series Til Death Do Us Part.\n\nThe show, which followed two working-class families living in Queens, New York, was often seen as controversial for its depiction of the day's political and and social issues.\n\nThe ground-breaking show ran for nine seasons until 1979 and earned 57 Emmy nominations, winning 22 of them, including outstanding comedy series.\n\nHe previously said that the character of Archie Bunker was based on his father, a Jewish traveling salesman who was sent to prison for selling fake bonds when Lear was nine.\n\nEpisodes of All in the Family have been recreated in recent years for Jimmy Kimmel's US show Live in Front of a Studio Audience\n\nAcross his decades-long career, Lear wrote a number of other comedy shows including 1974's Good Times, which was the first show to regularly feature an African-American family on TV.\n\nHis subsequent sitcom, The Jeffersons, which ran from 1975 to 1985, unapologetically portrayed the success of an African-American couple in New York society.\n\nDuring the mid-970s, Lear had five popular sitcoms airing in prime time. According to broadcaster CBS, an estimated 120 million Americans were watching his shows each week.\n\nAmong them was Sanford and Son, which retooled the BBC's Steptoe and Son for a US audience, and was one of America's Top 10 most-watched programmes for five of its six seasons.\n\nLear also produced a number of films including 1963's Come Blow Your Horn starring Frank Sinatra and Divorce American Style in 1967 which received an Oscar nomination for best screenplay.\n\nNorman Lear poses with the cast of All in the Family in 1971\n\nIn addressing issues such as misogyny, racism and homophobia, Lear became a controversial figure, and earned a spot on president Richard Nixon's so-called enemies list.\n\nLear, who married three times and had six children, also said he was called \"the number one enemy of the American family\" by televangelist Jerry Falwell.\n\nIn a 2016 documentary, Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, comedy writer Phil Rosenthal said: \"Television can be broken into two parts, BN and AN: Before Norman and After Norman\".\n\nFellow comedy icon Mel Brooks hailed Lear as \"the bravest television writer, director and producer of all time.\"\n\nActor Albert Brookes said Lear was \"the greatest of the greats\", while filmmaker Rob Reiner called the sitcom writer a \"second father\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Rob Reiner This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Simpsons writer and producer Al Jean said: \"RIP Norman Lear. Comedy colossus, tireless fighter for the little guy and a pleasure to know. Will be well and truly missed.\"\n\nIn recent years, Lear had collaborated with TV host Jimmy Kimmel on several Live in Front of a Studio Audience! specials in which star-studded casts performed remakes of his classic shows.\n\nHe continued to be politically active and founded the liberal non-profit organisation People for American Way which challenged the religious right way of thinking.\n\nKimmel told Deadline: \"It is obviously silly to want more time with a person who outlived a whole century but losing Norman Lear, even at 101 years old, feels unfair.\n\n\"His bravery, integrity and unmatched moral compass were equalled by his kindness, empathy, and wit.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson's evidence was, for the most part, shorn of his usual performative theatrics.\n\nSitting on the press bench in the hearing room, the contempt in which Mr Johnson was held by many of the families of the bereaved sitting metres away was obvious; sniggers of derision from some of them punctuated his early testimony.\n\nThe thrust of Mr Johnson's case - contrition, with hindsight, at his tardiness in clocking the imminent scale of the pandemic in early 2020 - was mixed with his best effort to take on the cavalry of his former colleagues who have questioned his competence and the culture of his Downing Street operation.\n\nCrude WhatsApp exchanges were framed as entirely typical of the style of many on the messaging service; indulging in the \"ephemeral, pejorative, hyperbolical\" as he put it.\n\nPrivate, internal anger at his failings was a good thing, he claimed, a \"disputatious culture\" better than a \"quietly acquiescent\" one.\n\nTwo sentence siblings appeared frequently: \"I can't remember\" and \"I don't know.\"\n\nClaims to this end may be judged individually plausible.\n\nBut their volume stood out.\n\nMore on Covid and the Covid Inquiry\n\nThe UK's governance structures - the wiring of where power lies and who takes decisions - also featured, and there was a parallel here with what the former health secretary Matt Hancock said last week.\n\nMr Johnson felt devolution didn't work during the pandemic because mixed messages were sent, depending on where you were in the UK, because devolved governments did different things, at different times, from the government at Westminster.\n\nHe suggested the Public Health Act 1984 had a consequence unforeseen at the time of its passing nearly 40 years ago, because the devolution that was to follow meant lots of pandemic powers rested away from Westminster.\n\nWhat should now happen, he argued, was that this act should be amended to discount pandemics from it.\n\nSome will see this as a self-serving argument for a former prime minister to make, perhaps keen on hoarding power at the centre. Others will insist at a time of emergency clarity is key and it was absent during Covid.\n\nIn big picture terms, Mr Johnson sought to remind the inquiry of his central role as a pandemic prime minister; judging trade offs of a colossal nature; confronting a scenario without modern precedent.\n\nThe question not asked explicitly but hanging over the inquiry is this: would the UK have coped better had there been a different prime minister?\n\nMr Johnson will fear evidence is already accumulating to suggest the answer to that is yes.\n\nWe have now seen and heard his first stab at trying to take on that hunch.\n\nHe is back on Thursday morning to face more questions.", "Police are still on the scene near Vine Close, Hackney\n\nA woman has died and a man and teenage boy have been wounded in a shooting in east London.\n\nThe woman, 42, died at the scene and the 20-year-old man and boy, 16, were taken to hospital.\n\nThe shooting happened on Vine Road which is in a small housing development in Lower Clapton, Hackney, at about 18:30 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police has launched a murder inquiry. No arrests have been made.\n\nInquiries are ongoing to establish the motive, the force added.\n\nDet Supt Vicky Tunstall said it was a \"shocking\" incident and appealed for witnesses, adding that officers would remain at the scene in the coming days.\n\n\"I do not underestimate the impact this incident will have on people in Hackney and I understand the community will want answers about what has happened this evening. We will share further information as our investigation progresses,\" she said.\n\n\"Gun crime has no place on the streets of London and we will do all we can to bring whoever is responsible for this despicable crime to justice.\"\n\nThe Met said officers were in the process of informing the female victim's next of kin.\n\nThe conditions of the man and boy are being assessed.\n\nAt the scene, a large police cordon is in place and a white tent has been erected to the side of one of the front doors.\n\nForensic teams have been spending time looking at a car in the entrance to the close.\n\nFive police officers have been standing guard at the cordon throughout the night and into the morning.\n\nMayor of Hackney Caroline Woodley and cabinet member for community safety Susan Fajana-Thomas said in a statement: \"We are deeply shocked and saddened to learn that a woman has died after a fatal shooting which left two others injured in Vine Close, Hackney Downs last night. Our thoughts and condolences are with all those affected, their family, neighbours and friends.\n\n\"While incidents like this are rare in Hackney, we know that the events of last night will cause concern for local people. We want to reassure everyone that we're committed to doing all we can to prevent what are fortunately isolated events.\n\n\"The police will be working in the area over the coming days to continue their investigation. Council officers will be supporting the police and helping to reassure those affected within the community.\"\n\nThe MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Diane Abbott said: \"This is clearly a terrible incident. My heart goes out to the victim and relatives.\n\n\"As the full detail cannot be known just yet, it is important that any witnesses come forward and help the police in their inquiries.\"", "Taylor Swift told Time she is \"the proudest and happiest I've ever felt\"\n\nTaylor Swift has capped off a stellar 2023 by being named Time Magazine's person of the year.\n\nThe star, whose Eras tour broke box office records and provoked an inquiry into Ticketmaster's sales practices, follows the likes of Barack Obama, Greta Thunberg and Volodymyr Zelensky.\n\nShe told the magazine that she is \"the proudest and happiest I've ever felt\".\n\nThe award goes to an event or person deemed to have had the most influence on global events over the past year.\n\nThe singer also admitted to the magazine that the toll of her 180-minute Eras concerts often left her feeling physically exhausted.\n\nAfter a run of shows, \"I do not leave my bed except to get food and take it back to my bed and eat it there,\" she said.\n\n\"I can barely speak because I've been singing for three shows straight. Every time I take a step my feet go crunch, crunch, crunch from dancing in heels.\"\n\nThe star also talked about her blossoming romance with American Football star Travis Kelce.\n\nThe couple hit the headlines in September when Swift was spotted at with Kelce's mother at one of his games.\n\n\"By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple,\" she explained, adding they had first hooked up over the summer.\n\n\"I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard-launch a first date.\"\n\nTravis Kelce and Taylor Swift have become the biggest celebrity couple of the year\n\nBut Swift's love life is small beans compared to her cultural impact. Already a superstar before 2023, her career has reached new heights thanks to the Eras tour - which sees the singer perform a career-spanning 45-song set every night.\n\nDemand for tickets was so high that it crashed Ticketmaster's website, prompting a hearing into its business practices by the US Senate.\n\nWhen the tour began in the summer, ticketless fans gathered in car parks just to hear the music. In Seattle, her concerts generated seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.\n\n\"It feels like the breakthrough moment of my career, happening at 33,\" she told Time. \"And for the first time in my life, I was mentally tough enough to take what comes with that.\"\n\nSwift's imperial phase comes after a period where she was vilified for her positions on feminism and politics - although her silence on those issues stemmed from nothing more sinister than a lack of confidence.\n\nAfter speaking out against Donald Trump and in favour of abortion rights, she hit a creative purple patch with the pandemic-era albums Folklore and Evermore.\n\nShowcasing a more organic, indie-folk approach than the country-pop that made her famous, the records confirmed her status as a generational songwriting talent.\n\nShe cemented her comeback with last year's Midnights - a bleary, sleep-deprived collection of pop songs based around the thoughts that keep her up at night.\n\nSwift is due to bring her Eras tour to Europe in May 2024\n\nTime editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs said the US pop icon was \"the rare person who is both the writer and hero of her own story\", adding that Swift had \"found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light\".\n\nOn Monday, Time Magazine announced its shortlist of nine candidates for the title. Those included Chinese President Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Barbie and the striking Hollywood actors and writers.\n\nAs well as her tour, Swift has also released the biggest-selling record of 2023 - a re-recording of her decade-old album 1989.\n\nIncredibly, she also has the second and third biggest-sellers of the year in America, with Midnights and Speak Now (Taylor's Version) eclipsing records by Drake, Olivia Rodrigo and Ed Sheeran.\n\nAmongst her other achievements this year:\n\nTaylor Swift's Eras Tour movie overtook Justin Bieber's Never Say Never as the most profitable concert film of all time\n\nLast month, the star was declared a billionaire by business publication Bloomberg, which estimated her net worth to be $1.1bn (£907m).\n\nOnly three other musicians have achieved billionaire status - Rihanna, Beyoncé and Jay-Z.\n\nHowever, Swift is the first to reach the milestone based on music alone, as her rivals' fortunes incorporate business ventures in fashion, beauty products and hi-fi equipment.\n\nIn a social media post, Swift celebrated her latest accolade by turning the spotlight on her beloved cat, Benjamin - who appeared draped around her shoulders on Time Magazine's cover.\n\nSwift is currently on a break before launching the Asian and Australian legs of her Eras tour in February.\n\nThe shows come to Europe in May, and Swift is also expected to release a re-recorded version of her Reputation album in the new year.\n\nHer decision to re-make all of her first six albums came after her old record label, Big Machine, sold her master tapes to music mogul Scooter Braun in 2019. He later sold them to an investment company.\n\nSpeaking to Time, she said she had initially recoiled at the idea, which had been suggested by both her father and fellow pop star Kelly Clarkson.\n\n\"I'd look at them and go, 'How can I possibly do that?' Nobody wants to redo their homework if on the way to school, the wind blows your book report away.\"\n\nIn the end, she went ahead with the project as an act of rebellion.\n\n\"It's all in how you deal with loss,\" she says. \"I respond to extreme pain with defiance.\"", "More councils in England are at risk of going bust after the government set out its tax and spending plans last month, local government leaders have warned.\n\nLocal authorities say a lack of funding in the Autumn Statement has left many facing effective bankruptcy.\n\nLeaders of some of the largest councils - including 26 Conservatives - have written to the government warning of \"painful\" cuts to front-line services.\n\nThe government says it is open to talks with councils with financial issues.\n\nTwo of the bodies that represent councils in England, the Local Government Association (LGA) and the County Councils Network (CCN), carried out snap surveys of their members following last month's Autumn Statement.\n\nThe \"worrying\" findings paint a picture of a \"growing financial crisis\", according to the LGA, which said almost one in five of its members were at risk of running out of funds either this year or next.\n\nLast week Nottingham City Council became the latest local authority to issue a Section 114 notice, which means halting spending on anything that is not required by law.\n\nThe authority has faced questions over some spending and investment decisions, but local government leaders are warning other councils could soon follow suit.\n\nShaun Davies, the chairman of the LGA, said: \"The lack of funding for local services in the Autumn Statement has left councils facing a growing financial crisis.\n\n\"No council is immune to the risk of running into financial difficulty. As our worrying survey shows, many now face the prospect of being unable to meet their legal duty to set a balanced budget and having Section 114 reports issued.\n\n\"While councils have worked hard to reduce costs, find efficiencies and transform services, the easy savings have long since gone. The government urgently needs to act to address acute financial challenges faced by councils.\"\n\nCouncils have been warning about a precarious financial picture for some time.\n\nAfter a period of austerity which saw budgets cut, the government has increased the funding available to councils, including for this year and next.\n\nBut a combination of inflation and growing demand for services, particularly support for vulnerable adults and children and housing services, has left many councils facing budget shortfalls.\n\nIs your local council in financial crisis?\n\nThe government did increase local housing allowance in the Autumn Statement - a move that was welcomed - but there was no additional funding for councils, which will also have to fund increases in the National Living Wage.\n\nThe CCN said that would cost its members around £230m next year.\n\nBarry Lewis, finance spokesperson for the CCN, said: \"The results of our new survey show that our councils' financial position is significantly worse than before the Autumn Statement.\n\n\"The majority of the County Councils Network's member councils will now have no choice but to increase their planned level of service reductions, reduce investment on growth-creating capital projects, and levy higher council tax rises: all of which impact our residents.\n\n\"For some, even this drastic action will not be enough, with seven in 10 now no longer confident they can balance their budget next year.\"\n\nThirty-three of the organisation's council leaders, including 26 Conservatives, have written to the Levelling Up Secretary, Michael Gove, calling for additional funding.\n\nThe letter warns that without this, councils \"would face the prospect of outlining painful reductions to front-line services\" and raising council tax to the maximum rate allowed.\n\nThe government is due to set out funding for local councils for the coming year later this month.\n\nMr Gove is also giving evidence to the Commons Levelling Up Committee on the financial situation of councils later.\n\nIn a written statement on Tuesday, Mr Gove said the total finance settlement for next year of £64bn would provide an above-inflation increase in funding for local government, with the average council seeing a real-term increase in their core spending power.\n\nHe also asked councils to \"consider how they can use their reserves to maintain services over this and the next financial year\".\n\n\"We have made an extra £5.1bn of funding available to local authorities in the last financial year worth an additional 9.4% in cash terms to budgets,\" a Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said.\n\n\"Councils are ultimately responsible for the management of their own finances, but we stand ready to talk to any council that is concerned about its financial position.\"", "Robert Jenrick has resigned as immigration minister, saying the government's emergency Rwanda legislation \"does not go far enough\".\n\nHe said \"stronger protections\" were needed to end \"the merry-go-round of legal challenges which risk paralysing the scheme\".\n\nThe government said the bill, unveiled earlier, made clear in UK law Rwanda was a safe country for asylum seekers.\n\nBut it stops short of what some on the Tory right were demanding.\n\nIn his resignation letter to Rishi Sunak, Mr Jenrick said the prime minister had \"moved towards my position\" on the emergency legislation.\n\n\"Nevertheless, I am unable to take the currently proposed legislation through the Commons as I do not believe it provides us with the best possible chance of success.\"\n\nMr Jenrick added that the bill was \"a triumph of hope over experience\".\n\nIn response, the prime minister described Mr Jenrick's resignation as \"disappointing\" and \"based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation\".\n\n\"If we were to oust the courts entirely, we would collapse the entire scheme,\" Mr Sunak said.\n\n\"The Rwandan government have been clear that they would not accept the UK basing this scheme on legislation that could be considered in breach of our international law obligations.\"\n\nThe plans to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda aim to deter people from crossing the English Channel in small boats.\n\nBut the scheme has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges and no asylum seekers have been sent to the east African country from the UK so far.\n\nMr Jenrick, who had supported Mr Sunak's leadership campaign, said the emergency legislation was the \"last opportunity\" to prove the government would do \"whatever it takes\" to stop small boat crossings.\n\nLosing a minister who was once a key ally is a blow for Mr Sunak, in a week when the government had been trying to get on the front foot on migration.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: \"It is a sign of the total chaos in the Tory party and the complete collapse of Rishi Sunak's leadership that even while he is sitting in the Commons for the announcement of his new Rwanda plan, his own immigration minister is resigning because he doesn't think it will work.\"\n\nSenior figures are musing privately that they would not be surprised if Mr Sunak ended up facing a confidence vote from his own MPs.\n\nAlthough it may not come to that, it is a measure of the bleak mood among many Conservatives.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Suella Braverman tells her party it is \"now or never\" to act over illegal migration into the UK\n\nReports of Mr Jenrick's resignation first started swirling after the government published the draft bill.\n\nThe legislation aims to address the concerns of the UK's Supreme Court, which last month ruled plans to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda were unlawful.\n\nThe bill - which must be approved by Parliament - orders the courts to ignore key sections of the Human Rights Act in an attempt to sidestep the Supreme Court's existing judgement.\n\nIt also orders the courts to ignore other British laws or international rules - such as the international Refugee Convention - that stand in the way of deportations to Rwanda.\n\nHowever, it does not go as far as some Tory MPs wanted.\n\nFormer Home Secretary Suella Braverman and her supporters had called for it to override the entire Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Refugee Convention, and all other international law.\n\nThe bill allows ministers to ignore any emergency order from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to temporarily halt a flight to Rwanda while an individual case is still being considered.\n\nBut it stops short of providing powers to dismiss the whole of the ECHR.\n\nIt also allows migrants to legally challenge their removal to Rwanda on specific individual grounds, if they can prove that being put on a plane would leave them at real risk of serious harm.\n\nA source close to Mrs Braverman said the bill was \"fatally flawed\" and would be \"bogged down in the courts for months and months\".\n\nHowever, if the government had agreed to her demands this would have provoked a backlash from centrist Tories.\n\nThe One Nation group, which is made up of more than 100 Tory MPs, had warned that overriding the ECHR was a \"red line\" for a number of Conservatives.\n\nThe group cautiously welcomed \"the government's decision to continue to meet the UK's international commitments which uphold the rule of law\" but added that it would seek legal advice \"about concerns and the practicalities of the bill\".\n\nThe draft legislation concedes that it may not be compatible with the ECHR.\n\nThis means government lawyers have told ministers the measures could still be legally challenged.\n\nThe former solicitor became a Conservative MP when he was elected in the 2014 by-election in the Nottinghamshire seat of Newark.\n\nHe was promoted into the cabinet as housing secretary in 2019 by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nMr Jenrick, a 41-year-old father-of-three, also briefly served as a junior health minister in Liz Truss's government, despite backing Mr Sunak for the Tory leadership.\n\nAs immigration minister he consistently pushed for a harder line on legal and illegal immigration, expressing frustration at the high levels of both.\n\nHe was also at the centre of several controversies, including a row over approving planning permission for Tory donor Richard Desmond.\n\nMr Jenrick was also criticised for ordering a mural of Disney characters at a child asylum centre to be painted over.", "Tui, one of world's largest travel firms, has said it is considering quitting the London Stock Exchange in favour of a listing in Frankfurt.\n\nThe holiday giant said some shareholders had asked whether its UK listing was \"optimal and advantageous\".\n\nThe move would deal another blow to London's attractiveness as a base for big firms, with several opting to list on exchanges overseas in recent years.\n\nTUI said it was considering putting the plan to a shareholder vote next year.\n\nThe firm, which has had its main listing on the London Stock Exchange since 2014, already has a secondary listing in Frankfurt.\n\nBosses said they would consider an \"upgrade\" to list on Germany's main stock exchange at the group's annual general meeting in February, but added delisting from London would require the backing of at least 75% of shareholders.\n\nChief executive Sebastian Ebel said the announcement had \"no political background\" - suggesting any potential de-listing would not be due to Brexit - adding that the British travel market was still the \"most important\".\n\nBut such a move would add to concerns over London's ability to attract big businesses after Britain's biggest chip company, Arm Holdings, listed its shares in New York earlier this year. Building supplies firm CRH and plumbing equipment company Ferguson also shifted listings to the US.\n\nTui Group has a market value of £3.2bn and owns 400 hotels, 16 cruise ships, five airlines with 130 aeroplanes and 1,200 travel agencies, according to its website.\n\nThe company said in its full-year results that it was looking at whether simplifying its listing structure would benefit the firm following changes and mergers within the group.\n\nIt added there had been \"a notable liquidity migration\" from the UK to German stock markets in the past four years and that the move could \"potentially enhance\" the profile of Tui's shares.\n\nThe travel giant also said it could help the company deal with European Union regulations on airline ownership and cut costs.\n\nMathias Kiep, Tui's chief financial officer, said the main reason for considering de-listing was that 75% of the company's shares were traded in Germany.\n\nRuss Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said \"you can see the company's reasoning\" due to more trade being struck through Frankfurt.\n\nBut he added: \"No-one in the London market will be celebrating if another firm does decide to de-list, especially as Tui is a member of the FTSE 250 [index of listed companies] and was part of the FTSE 100 not that long ago.\"\n\nHowever, he said supporters of London would note it still had around 1,860 listed firms and that \"losing TUI's £3bn cap, while unfortunate, is not terminal for a market with a valuation well above of £2 trillion\".\n\nOn Wednesday, Tui said it expected its full-year earnings to increase by at least 25% after posting bumper profits, helped by increased sales and higher prices.\n\nIt reported pre-tax earnings of €551.2m (£471.9m) for the year to September, against losses of €145.9m (£124.9m) the previous year.", "Braverman continues by saying some progress was made during her tenure as home secretary - citing a 30% drop in overall crossings - but she stresses that saying \"crossings are down is not the same as stopping the boats\".\n\nShe goes on: \"I advised that we should scrap rather than continue passage of the Illegal Migration Bill, in favour of a more robust alternative that excluded international and human rights laws.\"\n\nShe says she urged the need for a \"credible Plan B in the event of a Supreme Court loss\".\n\n\"It is now three weeks on and we are yet to see a Bill. I am told its publication is imminent but we are running out of time. This is an emergency and we need to see the bill now,\" she tells the Commons.\n\nBraverman explains that in her view, previous attempts to address the issue of illegal crossings failed because they did not address what she called the \"root cause of the problem\".\n\nShe says: \"Expansive human rights laws - flowing from the European Convention on Human Rights, replicated in Labour’s Human Rights Act - are being interpreted elastically by courts domestic and foreign, to literally prevent our Rwanda plan from getting off the ground\".", "K-pop superstars Blackpink have renewed their agency contract as a group, ensuring that the quartet will continue to perform together.\n\nThis follows months of contract negotiations during which fans feared the group could split up.\n\nIn a statement on Wednesday, YG Entertainment said \"an exclusive contract for group activities based on strong trust\" has been signed.\n\nBlackpink, formed in 2016, have become the world's biggest K-pop girl group.\n\nThe new contract is believed to be among the most lucrative signed by any music group this year.\n\nThe agency also said Blackpink plan to \"repay their fans around the world with activities that match their global status in the K-pop scene with new albums and world tours\".\n\nDetails of the new group contract are not immediately clear, and YG's statement also did not mention the agency's individual contracts with Jisoo, Lisa, Jennie and Rosé. South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that these contracts are still being negotiated.\n\nAccording to previous South Korean media reports, if the four stars choose not to renew their individual contracts, they are free to pursue solo careers under different representation. This means that they would perform as a group only when their schedules allow.\n\nIt is very rare for K-pop groups to fully reunite after some members leave or refuse to renew individual contracts with their management. This has happened to popular YG acts such as Bigbang and 2NE1.\n\nLocal newspaper Munhwa Ilbo reported in November that no Blackpink member had agreed an individual contract with YG and that there were offers from rival agencies worth \"tens of billions of won\" ($1=₩1314).\n\nNow their fans, who have been been on tenterhooks since the group's contract expired in August, are overjoyed by the news.\n\n\"See you next tour,\" a post liked more than a hundred times on X, formerly known as Twitter, reads.\n\n\"The biggest girl group in the world is there to stay! Blackpink will and always remain as four,\" says another X user.\n\nYG's share price closed more than 25% higher on Wednesday. However, the company's stock market value is still almost 30% lower than it was six months ago.\n\nThe four members - all in their 20s - are celebrities in their own right. Their official YouTube channel has more than 92 million subscribers, while each of them has more than 70 million followers on Instagram.\n\nThey have represented some of the biggest fashion brands, such as Chanel and Dior, and headlined major international music festivals such as Coachella and BST Hyde Park.", "Joint military drills were held between Palestinian armed factions from 2020 onwards\n\nFive armed Palestinian groups joined Hamas in the deadly 7 October attack on Israel after training together in military-style exercises from 2020 onwards, BBC News analysis shows.\n\nThe groups carried out joint drills in Gaza which closely resembled the tactics used during the deadly assault - including at a site less than 1km (0.6 miles) from the barrier with Israel - and posted them on social media.\n\nThey practised hostage-taking, raiding compounds and breaching Israel's defences during these exercises, the last of which was held just 25 days before the attack.\n\nBBC Arabic and BBC Verify have collated evidence which shows how Hamas brought together Gaza's factions to hone their combat methods - and ultimately execute a raid into Israel which has plunged the region into war.\n\nOn 29 December 2020, Hamas's overall leader Ismail Haniyeh declared the first of four drills codenamed Strong Pillar a \"strong message and a sign of unity\" between Gaza's various armed factions.\n\nAs the most powerful of Gaza's armed groups, Hamas was the dominant force in a coalition which brought together 10 other Palestinian factions in a war games-style exercise overseen by a \"joint operation room\".\n\nThe structure was set up in 2018 to coordinate Gaza's armed factions under a central command.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Videos reveal how armed groups trained together before 7 October attacks\n\nPrior to 2018, Hamas had formally coordinated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Gaza's second largest armed faction and - like Hamas - a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK and other countries.\n\nHamas had also fought alongside other groups in previous conflicts, but the 2020 drill was billed in propaganda as evidence a wider array of groups were being unified.\n\nHamas's leader said the first drill reflected the \"permanent readiness\" of the armed factions.\n\nThe 2020 exercise was the first of four joint drills held over three years, each of which was documented in polished videos posted on public social media channels.\n\nThe BBC has visually identified 10 groups, including PIJ, by their distinctive headbands and emblems training alongside Hamas during the Strong Pillar drills in footage posted on the messaging app Telegram.\n\nFollowing the 7 October attack, five of the groups went on to post videos claiming to show them taking part in the assault. Three others issued written statements on Telegram claiming to have participated.\n\nThe role of these groups has come into sharp focus as pressure builds on Hamas to find dozens of women and children believed to have been taken as captives from Israel into Gaza by other factions on 7 October.\n\nThree groups - PIJ, the Mujahideen Brigades and Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades - claim to have seized Israeli hostages, alongside Hamas, on that day.\n\nEfforts to extend the temporary truce in Gaza were said to be hinging on Hamas locating those hostages.\n\nWhile these groups are drawn from a broad ideological spectrum ranging from hard-line Islamist to relatively secular, all shared a willingness to use violence against Israel.\n\nHamas statements repeatedly stressed the theme of unity between Gaza's disparate armed groups. The group suggested they were equal partners in the joint drills, whilst it continued to play a leading role in the plans to attack Israel.\n\nFootage from the first drill shows masked commanders in a bunker appearing to conduct the exercise, and begins with a volley of rocket fire.\n\nIt cuts to heavily armed fighters overrunning a mocked-up tank marked with an Israeli flag, detaining a crew member and dragging him away as a prisoner, as well as raiding buildings.\n\nWe know from videos and harrowing witness statements that both tactics were used to capture soldiers and target civilians on 7 October, when around 1,200 people were killed and an estimated 240 hostages were taken.\n\nThe first Strong Pillar drill propaganda video showed a command room overseeing the joint exercise\n\nThe second Strong Pillar drill was held almost exactly one year later.\n\nAyman Nofal, a commander in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades - the official name for Hamas's armed wing - said the aim of the exercise on 26 December 2021 was to \"affirm the unity of the resistance factions\".\n\nHe said the drills would \"tell the enemy that the walls and engineering measures on the borders of Gaza will not protect them\".\n\nAnother Hamas statement said the \"joint military manoeuvres\" were designed to \"simulate the liberation of settlements near Gaza\" - which is how the group refers to Israeli communities.\n\nThe exercise was repeated on 28 December 2022, and propaganda images of fighters practising clearing buildings and overrunning tanks in what appears to be a replica of a military base were published to mark the event.\n\nThe exercises were reported on in Israel, so it's inconceivable they were not being closely monitored by the country's extensive intelligence agencies.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have previously carried out air strikes to disrupt Hamas's training activities. In April 2023, they bombed the site used for the first Strong Pillar drill.\n\nWeeks before the attacks, female surveillance soldiers near the Gaza border reportedly warned of unusually high drone activity and that Hamas was training to take over observation posts with replicas of their positions.\n\nBut, according to reports in the Israeli media, they say they were ignored.\n\nBrigadier General Amir Avivi, a former IDF deputy commander in Gaza, told the BBC: \"There was a lot of intelligence that they were doing this training - after all, the videos are public, and this was happening just hundreds of metres from the fence (with Israel).\"\n\nBut he said while the military knew about the drills, they \"didn't see what they were training for\".\n\nThe IDF said they \"eliminated\" Nofal on 17 October 2023, the first senior Hamas military leader to be killed during the conflict.\n\nHamas went to great lengths to make sure the drills were realistic.\n\nIn 2022, fighters practised storming a mock Israeli military base built just 2.6km (1.6 miles) from the Erez crossing, a route between Gaza and Israel controlled by the IDF.\n\nBBC Verify has pinpointed the site in the far north of Gaza, just 800m (0.5 miles) from the barrier, by matching geographic features seen in the training footage to aerial images of the area. As of November 2023, the site was still visible on Bing Maps.\n\nThe training camp was within 1.6km (1 mile) of an Israeli observation tower and an elevated observation box, elements in a security barrier Israel has spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing.\n\nThe mock base is on land dug several metres below ground level, so it may not have been immediately visible to any nearby Israeli patrols - but the smoke rising from the explosions surely would have been, and the IDF is known to use aerial surveillance.\n\nHamas used this site to practise storming buildings, taking hostages at gunpoint and destroying security barriers.\n\nBBC Verify has used publicly available information - including satellite imagery - to locate 14 training sites at nine different locations across Gaza.\n\nThey even trained twice at a site less than 1.6 km (1 mile) from the United Nations' aid agency distribution centre, and which was visible in the background of an official video published by the agency in December 2022.\n\nOn 10 September 2023, the so-called joint committee room published images on its dedicated Telegram channel of men in military uniforms carrying out surveillance of military installations along the Gaza barrier.\n\nTwo days later, the fourth Strong Pillar military exercise was staged, and by 7 October, all the tactics that would be deployed in the unprecedented attack had been rehearsed.\n\nFighters were filmed riding in the same type of white Toyota pickup trucks which were seen roaming through southern Israel the following month.\n\nThe propaganda video shows gunmen raiding mock buildings and firing at dummy targets inside, as well as training to storm a beach using a boat and underwater divers. Israel has said it repelled attempted Hamas boat landings on its shores on 7 October.\n\nThe fourth and final Strong Pillar drill saw fighters training on raiding buildings\n\nHowever, Hamas did not publicise its training with motorcycles and paragliders as part of the Strong Pillar propaganda.\n\nA training video posted by Hamas three days after 7 October shows fences and barriers being demolished to allow motorcycles to pass through, a tactic they used to reach communities in southern Israel. We have not identified similar earlier videos.\n\nFootage of fighters using paragliding equipment was also not published until the 7 October attack was under way.\n\nIn a training video shared on the day of the attack, gunmen are seen landing in a mock kibbutz at an airstrip we have located to a site north of Rafah in southern Gaza.\n\nBBC Verify established it was recorded some time before 25 August 2022, and was stored in a computer file titled Eagle Squadron, the name Hamas uses for its aerial division - suggesting the paragliders plan was in the works for over a year.\n\nBefore 7 October, Hamas was thought to have about 30,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip, according to reports quoting IDF commanders. It was also thought that Hamas could draw on several thousands of fighters from smaller groups.\n\nHamas is by far the most powerful of the Palestinian armed groups, even without the support of other factions - suggesting its interest in galvanising the factions was driven by an attempt to secure broad support within Gaza at least as much as bolstering its own numbers.\n\nThe IDF has previously estimated 1,500 fighters joined the 7 October raids. The Times of Israel reported earlier this month the IDF now believes the number was closer to 3,000.\n\nWhatever the true number, it means only a relatively small fraction of the total number of armed operatives in Gaza took part. It is not possible to verify precise numbers for how many fighters from smaller groups took part in the attack or the Strong Pillar drills.\n\nWhile Hamas was building cross-faction support in the build-up to the attack, Hisham Jaber, a former Brigadier General in the Lebanese army who is now a security analyst at the Middle East Centre for Studies and Research, said he believed only Hamas was aware of the ultimate plan, and it was \"probable [they] asked other factions to join on the day\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAndreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at Kings College London, told the BBC: \"While there was centralised planning, execution was de-centralised, with each squad operationalising the plan as they saw fit.\"\n\nHe said people inside Hamas were said to be surprised by the weakness of Israel's defences, and assessed militants had likely bypassed Israel's surveillance technology by communicating offline.\n\nHugh Lovatt, a Middle East analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Israel would have been aware of the joint training drills but \"reached the wrong conclusion\", assessing they amounted to the \"standard\" activity of paramilitary groups in the Palestinian territories, rather than being \"indicative of a looming large-scale attack\".\n\nAsked about the issues raised in this article, the Israel Defense Forces said it was \"currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organisation Hamas\" and questions about any potential failures \"will be looked into in a later stage\".\n\nIt could be several years until Israel formally reckons with whether it missed opportunities to prevent the 7 October massacre.\n\nThe ramifications for its military, intelligence services and government could be seismic.\n\nAdditional reporting by Paul Brown, Kumar Malhotra and Abdirahim Saeed. Video production by Soraya Auer.", "Expert lawyers who have been involved in the Rwanda case - or supported the challenge to the policy - have described new legislation as potentially setting up a politically explosive fight with both the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.\n\nIn last month's Supreme Court ruling, five justices unanimously ruled that the country was not safe - and they listed the detailed evidence about how its asylum system was deeply flawed.\n\nThe key element of the government's package tries to deal with this part of the defeat by asking Parliament to declare Rwanda to be \"conclusively\" safe and simultaneously banning British judges from ever saying it is not.\n\nThat is aimed at preventing the courts from once again considering documented evidence about injustices in Rwanda's asylum system. Taken to a hypothetical extreme, if Rwanda exploded with civil war like in 1994 (not something currently likely to happen), British law would still state the country was a safe place to send people.\n\nThe plan then orders British judges and courts to ignore the sections of the Human Rights Act that set out how they should interpret safeguards set out in the European Convention of Human Rights. That includes the right not to be tortured, or the right to a fair hearing before a court.\n\nIt also prevents judges from considering other international laws - most importantly the Refugee Convention and the United Nations' ban on torture.\n\nThis is quite a move to pull off legally and politically on the world stage. On the one hand, the UK freely entered into these laws because it wanted to set a global example for others to follow. On the other, the government has designed a law, say critics, that allows it to pick and choose when it adheres to such global rules - while demanding that Rwanda sticks to the letter all the time.\n\nOne highly-respected legal thinker, Professor Mark Elliott of Cambridge University, has already blogged that this is \"an astounding level of hypocrisy\".\n\nFinally, it says our courts must ignore any other British law that stands in the way of finding the country to be safe - this is important because the Supreme Court said such laws exist.\n\nSo where does this leave the plan?\n\nThe front page of the bill gives it away. Every piece of new legislation must carry a statement as to whether the plan is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.\n\nThis bill comes without that assurance - and that means government lawyers have warned ministers it is more likely than not to fall apart under sustained legal challenges.\n\nSo if the bill is passed, many experts are gearing up for a new and profoundly messy court battle - if not lots of them. Some of those battles might even start in Edinburgh if the plan runs roughshod over some part of Scots law that Downing Street has not thought of. If that sounds like a plot twist, it happened to Boris Johnson when he was roundly defeated over illegally closing down Parliament amid the Brexit crisis.\n\nAt worst, it could lead to an unprecedented constitutional stand-off between Parliament and judges.\n\nThe Supreme Court cannot strike down primary legislation - but it has the power to make a \"Declaration of Incompatibility\". This is a rare judgment that says an Act of Parliament should be rethought because it is incompatible with the basic European Convention of Human Rights safeguards embedded in British law.\n\nTwo such rights that come to mind in relation to the Rwanda plan are the right not to be subject to inhuman treatment and the right to have a fair hearing of your case before you are put onto a plane to equatorial Africa.\n\nIf the Supreme Court makes a Declaration of Incompatibility, in theory a government should then ask Parliament to amend the offending law. But it does not have to do so - hence the potential stand-off.\n\nSo if ministers pressed ahead with flights, it is a racing certainty that claimants would then try to take their case, as would still be their right under the law, to the European Court of Human Rights.\n\nThe court in Strasbourg would then have to consider whether it wants to block the plan - and flights - while it considers the case.\n\nIf it did that, the bill includes a measure that says ministers can ignore such an order and send a plane skywards anyway.\n\nBut two massive obstacles stand in the way of the plan becoming reality.\n\nThe first is politics. They need to get this through Parliament - and there is no certainty the House of Lords will comply.\n\nSome observers are already wondering why Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, and Victoria Prentice, the Attorney General, have stood by the bill when they both have constitutional roles in upholding international laws that may soon be ignored. A lot of votes in the Commons may rest on their shoulders.\n\nSecondly, just supposing it did become law, some of the best legal minds in the country have fought the government over Rwanda. The plan could become so mired in challenges in court that it never gets to a final judgment before the General Election clock runs out.", "Amiram Cooper, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Tsachi Idan are being held in Gaza\n\nIsrael says 132 people remain unaccounted for after they were abducted and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attacks by Hamas.\n\nAn estimated 240 people were taken prisoner, but 105 were later released by Hamas during a six-day ceasefire at the end of November.\n\nThe Israeli military said it mistakenly killed three hostages in northern Gaza who had escaped from their captors and expressed \"deep remorse\" over the incident.\n\nOf the 132 still unaccounted for, Israel says that 20 of them are believed to be dead.\n\nThese are the stories of those hostages who are still being held, which have either been confirmed by the BBC or credibly reported.\n\nThis list is regularly updated and names may change, as some people feared kidnapped are confirmed to have been killed or released.\n\nLast updated on 19 December 2023 at 10:33 GMT\n\nYagev Kirsht, 34, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nirim, alongside his wife, Rimon Buchstab Kirsht. She has now been released.\n\nAlexander Trupanov, was taken hostage with his mother Lena Trupanov, 50, his partner Sapir Cohen, 29, and his grandmother Irina Tati, 73. All were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz as they spent the Sabbath together, according to a statement by Canada's Raoul Wallenburg Center for Human Rights. Irina and Lena were released on Wednesday 29 November and Sapir was freed the next day.\n\nAriel Cunio, his girlfriend Arbel Yahud and her brother Dolev are also thought to have been abducted in the same attack on Nir Oz. Eitan Cunio, Ariel's brother who escaped Hamas, told the Jewish Chronicle that his last message from Ariel said: \"We are in a horror movie.\"\n\nDavid Cunio, 33, another of Ariel's brothers, was also kidnapped from Nir Oz, family say. David's wife Sharon Aloni Cunio and their three-year-old twin daughters Ema and Yuly were released on 27 November. Sharon's sister Daniele Aloni, and her six-year-old daughter Emilia were both released on 24 November.\n\nDoron Steinbrecher, 30, a veterinary nurse, was in her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas attacked, the Times of Israel reported. At 10:30 on 7 October, the newspaper said, she sent a voice message to friends: \"They've arrived, they have me.\"\n\nItzhak Gelerenter, 53, was taken from the Supernova festival. His family said the IDF found his phone was located in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported. His daughter Pivko told the paper: \"I'm trying to think good thoughts, I have a powerful, smart, resourceful father.\"\n\nDoron Steinbrecher sent a voice message to friends during Hamas' attack\n\nNaama Levy, 19, was filmed being bundled into a jeep, her hands tied behind her back. The footage was released by Hamas and circulated widely on social media. According to her mother, the teenager had just begun her military service.\n\nYousef Zyadna, a 53-year-old Bedouin dairy farmer, was abducted from Kibbutz Holit and taken to Gaza along with his sons Hamza, 22, and Bilal, 18, and his daughter, Aisha, 16. Aisha and Bilal were released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nElad Katzir, 47, was abducted from Nir Oz with his mother Hanna. Hanna has now been released.\n\nOhad Ben Ami, 55, was kidnapped from Be'eri with his wife, Raz. She was released by Hamas on 29 November.\n\nTwin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, 26, were taken from Kfar Aza. Ziv was messaging a friend as the attack happened. Their family said the IDF has told them the brothers are being held in Gaza. Their brother Liran told CBN news the pair had \"twin power\" and were the centre of attention wherever they went.\n\nIraq-born Shlomo Mansour, 85, was taken captive from Kibbutz Kissufim, where he lived and worked as a chicken coop manager. His wife, Mazal, managed to escape.\n\nMichel Nisenbaum, 59, is a dual Brazilian-Israeli citizen who has lived in Israel for 45 years and works as a computer technician, his family told Brazilian media. They also say he is diabetic and has Crohn's disease. On 7 October, they say, someone claiming to be from Hamas answered his phone when they tried to call him.\n\nDaniela Gilboa, 19, sent messages saying that Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where she was staying, was under attack and asked her mother to pray for her. Her boyfriend, Roy Dadon, told the Economist 1843 magazine that he believes he saw a glimpse of her in a video showing three girls being driven away in the back of an SUV.\n\nItay Chen, 19, a dual US-Israeli citizen and IDF solider, was on active duty with a tank unit on 7 October, according to the Times of Israel. The paper reported that his family was notified by the IDF that he is officially considered missing in action and probably being held hostage. Another soldier in his unit, Matan Angrest, 21, is also presumed to be in Gaza.\n\nYosi Sharabi, 51, was taken from Be'eri with his brother, Eli Sharabi, 55. Eli's wife and two daughters were murdered in the attack. Ofir Engel, the boyfriend of Yosi's daughter, Yuval, was also taken, but released on 29 November.\n\nAgam Berger, 19, was kidnapped from Nahal Oz. She was seen being taken away in videos released by Hamas.\n\nEdan Alexander, 19, is an Israeli-US citizen who volunteered to join the Israeli army. He was serving near the Gaza border at the time of Hamas's attack. Edan's family said they had been told by Israeli officials that he had been taken to Gaza as a hostage.\n\nKaid Farhan Elkadi, 53, lives with his family south of Rahat and worked as a security guard, according to Israeli media. Reports said his family believes he was kidnapped and taken to Gaza, based on images shared by Hamas.\n\nIlana Gritzewsky and Matan Zanguaker were captured near the Gaza border, family say\n\nMatan Zanguaker, 24, was taken with his partner Ilana Gritzewsky, 30, from Nir Oz, according to Ilana's father. Ilana, a Mexican national, was released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nThe family of Eitan and Yair Horn believe they were taken from Nir Oz kibbutz\n\nEitan Horn, 37, and his brother Yair, 45, both Argentinian citizens, were also in Nir Oz at the time of the attack. Their father Itzik said he believes they were kidnapped. Yair is a construction worker while Eitan works in education.\n\nItai Svirsky, 38, is thought to have been abducted when his elderly parents were killed in Be'eri. He had been visiting them for the holiday of Simhat Torah.\n\nKeith Seigel, 64, and his wife Adrienne - often known as Aviva - Seigel, 62, were taken from their home in Kfar Aza, Keith's brother Lee Seigel told the BBC. Adrienne was released on 26 November.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, lived in Nahal Oz with his wife and two daughters. Omri was led away by Hamas with his hands tied, his wife Lishay told the Guardian newspaper. She told him not to be a hero, urging: \"Do whatever they want because I want you back.\"\n\nBipin Joshi, 23, a Nepalese student, is believed to have been taken from Kibbutz Alumim. Nepalese newspaper Setopati says he was one of 49 university students studying agriculture in Israel. It says 10 students were killed in the attack.\n\nIlan Weiss, 58, went missing from Kibbutz Be'eri after he was last seen leaving the house to defend the community. On 25 November, his wife Shiri Weiss, 53, and their daughter, Noga, 18, were freed from captivity in a hostage deal.\n\nAmiram Cooper, 85, and his wife Nurit, 80, were taken from their home in Nir Oz, their daughter-in-law Noa told the BBC. The family last spoke to the couple during the Hamas attack, Noa said, when the couple were in their safe room. The family later traced Amiram's phone to Gaza. On Monday 23 October, Nurit was one of two women to be released.\n\nAmiram and Nurit Cooper, pictured with their granddaughter, Gali\n\nOded Lifshitz, 83, and his wife Yocheved, 85 were taken hostage from Nir Oz. On Monday 23 October, Yocheved was one of two elderly women to be freed. After hearing the news of her mother's release, their daughter Sharone - a London-based artist - said: \"While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those - some 200 innocent people - who remain hostages in Gaza.\"\n\nHaim Peri, 79, was taken from his home in Nir Oz, reports the Times of Israel, and freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz said she saw that he was alive and well. His son Lior Peri told Talk TV that Haim had locked his wife inside the safe room before giving himself up to kidnappers.\n\nAvraham Munder, 78, was kidnapped from Nir Oz, Israeli officials say. His wife Ruthi, daughter and grandson have since been released.\n\nOmer Neutra, a 22-year-old Israeli-American and grandson of Holocaust survivors, put off plans to go to college in the US to study in Israel, and eventually joined the IDF. He was serving as a tank commander near Gaza when Hamas attacked. Omer's parents say they were told by the Israeli embassy that he had been kidnapped.\n\nRon Benjamin's vehicle was found empty following the attacks\n\nRon Benjamin, 53, had been taking part in a group cycle ride near the Gaza border when the Hamas attack began and he decided to drive home, his family told Israeli media. Days later, his vehicle was found empty and his family believe he was kidnapped.\n\nLouis Har, 70, is believed to have been taken from Nir Yitzhak. His partner Clara Marman was released on 28 November along with her sister Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and Gabriela's daughter Mia Leimberg,17. Clara and Gabriela's brother Fernando Simon Marman, 60, also remains in captivity.\n\nJudith Weinstein Haggai, 70, and her husband, Gad Haggai, 73, also went missing from Nir Oz after the Hamas attack. Ten days later, the Israeli military confirmed to the family they had been taken hostage, CTV News in Canada reported.\n\nAlex Danzig, 75, a scholar and historian of the Holocaust, was at his home in Nir Oz, when it was attacked by Hamas. \"We know for sure he was kidnapped,\" his son Mati told the BBC. Alex - whose older sister Edith is a Holocaust survivor - has spent the last 30 years working for Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance centre. His disappearance has triggered a campaign for his release, both in Israel and in Poland, the country of his birth.\n\nAlex Danzig has spent decades educating people about the Holocaust\n\nItzhk Elgarat, 68, was kidnapped at the same time as Alex Danzig, his brother Danny Elgert told Israel's Kan 11 TV station, adding that he had tracked his brother's phone to the border with Gaza.\n\nGadi Moses, 79, was also abducted during the same attack on Nir Oz, according to relatives and the Israeli aid agency where he worked as an agricultural expert. Efrat Katz, his partner, was initially thought to have been captured as well, but she was later found dead, the Times of Israel reported. Efrat was the mother of Doron Asher, who was taken hostage and later released with her two daughters. Ravid Katz, 51, Doron Asher's brother, was originally thought to have been taken hostage from Nir Oz, but on 28 November his family confirmed that he had been killed on 7 October.\n\nYair Yaakov, 59, is listed among the hostages. His partner Meirav Tal, 53, was released on 28 November. Yair's children Yagil, 13, and Or, 16, were released on 27 November.\n\nYair Yaakov was pictured being held captive by a gunman in a video shared online\n\nNimrod Cohen, 19, had studied software engineering in high school, according to reports. After he was kidnapped, his father was invited to meet Pope Francis in Rome along with other hostages' families.\n\nTsachi Idan, 51, was last seen by his wife, Gali, as he was taken away by Hamas gunmen. Their family had been ambushed in their safe room in Nahal Oz. Their ordeal was live-streamed by Hamas. Their eldest child, Maayan - who had just turned 18 - was shot dead, Gali told the BBC.\n\nTsachi Idan was ambushed with his wife and children and then led away\n\nYarden Bibas, 34, was abducted from Nir Oz. His wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel and Kfir, were also taken hostage, but on 29 November, Hamas claimed they had been killed in an Israeli air strike while in captivity. The Israeli government has said it is checking the claim.\n\nRonen Engel, 54, was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his wife, Karina Engelbert, 51, and their two daughters, Mika, 18 and Yuval, 11. On 1 December, the organisation representing the families said he had been murdered. Karina, Mika and Yuval were released on 27 November.\n\nKarina Ariev, a 19-year-old soldier, was serving at an army base near Gaza when she was kidnapped. Her sister Alexandra told the BBC she heard shooting as Karina called her during the attack, and later saw a video showing Karina being taken away in a vehicle.\n\nKarina Ariev was at the Nahal Oz military base, which was among the first to be attacked\n\nOfer Kalderon, 53, was taken by Hamas from Nir Oz. On 27 November his two children, Erez, 12, and Sahar, 16, were released. Two other relatives, 80-year-old Carmela Dan and her granddaughter, Noya, 12, were also believed to have been taken, but Israeli authorities later announced they had been found dead.\n\nYoram Metzger, 80, was a resident of Nir Oz. He has diabetes and broke his hip six months ago, his daughter-in-law said. Yoram's wife Tamar was released on 28 November.\n\nNadav Popplewell, 51, and his mother Channah were taken hostage by Hamas, said Channah's daughter Ayelet Svatitzky, who was speaking to them on the phone when the gunmen burst in. She said the captors sent pictures of her two relatives, who both have diabetes, with armed men in the background. Channah has now been released.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, was abducted after his family opened the door to their secure shelter to an Israeli child, who said he would be killed otherwise. Omri's wife, Lishay Lavi, said she saw him being taken away in handcuffs with three other hostages from Nahal Oz.\n\nLiri Elbag, 18, had just started military training as an Army lookout near the Gaza border when Hamas attacked, her father Eli told the Associated Press. Eli said he saw her in a video circulated later by Hamas, crowded with others on the back of a military truck which had been seized by the gunmen.\n\nLior Rudaeff, 61, was taken from Nir Yitzhak during the attack. His family have heard nothing from him since then.\n\nA number of people are believed to have been abducted from the Supernova music festival in southern Israel. Among them:\n\nShlomi Ziv, 40, was part of the security detail at the festival and was initially in contact with his sisters as the attack unfolded, according to an interview with The Times of Israel. A few weeks later the family learned he was officially considered to be a hostage, the report says.\n\nAlexander Lobanov, 32, is a Russian-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped at the festival.\n\nOri Danino, 25, is reported to have got away from the festival in his car, but it's believed he was captured after turning back in an attempt to save some people he had met there.\n\nAlmog Sarusi, 26, was kidnapped from the music festival and his partner Shahar Gindi was killed, according to Israeli media. Almog's father, Yigal, was among the relatives of hostages who met with Israel's prime minister in October.\n\nOmer Shem Tov, 21, called his parents as he was running away from gunfire and managed to get into a friend's car. His parents, Shelly and Malki Shem Tov, told Israeli media they lost contact with their son and the live location on his phone showed he was beyond the border in Gaza.\n\nIdan Shtivi, 28, an environmental sciences student, was attending the festival to take pictures at music and yoga workshops being held by friends. He escaped the site in his car but was attacked by Hamas along the route. The bodies of two of his passengers were found, and his family told the Jerusalem Post they suspect he was kidnapped.\n\nYosef Ohana, 24, had been at the festival with a friend, who told his mother he and Yosef had remained to help people escape the gunfire before running themselves. Yosef was last seen hiding under a car, and Israeli authorities have visited his mother to say he was kidnapped.\n\nAndrei Kozlov, 27, a Russian who moved to Israel in 2022, is missing from the Supernova festival, where he was working as a security guard. His mother told the De Taly publication the family was told by the IDF on October 26 that he was being held hostage.\n\nElyakim Libman, 23, was working as a security guard at the festival. In a Facebook post his father Eliyahu Libman said another guard told him his son had helped rescue others before trying to escape. He was last seen trying to help two badly-injured women.\n\nNoa Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was also kidnapped from the festival. Video footage - verified by her father Yaakov Argamani to Israel's Channel 12 - shows the 25-year-old being taken away on the back of a motorbike screaming, \"Don't kill me!\" Her boyfriend Avinatan Or, 30, also appears in the video being marched away from her by Hamas, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nEden Yerushalmi's family say they were told she had been taken hostage\n\nEden Yerushalmi, 24, called her family during Hamas's attack on the festival, her sister May told CBS News. The family say they were subsequently informed by the IDF that Eden had been abducted.\n\nChanan Yablonka, 42, is a father-of-two from Tel Aviv. According to reports, he attended the festival with friends and was due to celebrate his birthday a few days after the attacks.\n\nJonathan Samerano, 21, has been missing since 7am on the morning of the festival. His family have been told to presume he is being held in Gaza, Israeli media reported.\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal was filmed in captivity in Gaza, his family say\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal, 22, attended the festival with his brother. Guy appears in a hostage video that his family say confirms he is in Gaza.\n\nUriel Baruch, 35, was injured during the attack on the festival, his wife said on Facebook. Reports in Israeli media say his mother, Naomi, has heard from the IDF that he is a hostage.\n\nMaxim Kharkin's mother described speaking to him on the morning of 7 October\n\nMaxim Kharkin is aged 35 and a Russian speaker, his mother told Russian media. She added that he had called her at 07:00 on the morning of the attack.\n\nElkana Bohbot was seen in a video posted by Hamas\n\nElkana Bohbot, 34, had gone to the party with friends and, before losing contact, he spoke to his wife and mother telling them he was helping to evacuate the wounded, the Times of Israel reported. Hours later, his family found a video of him posted online by Hamas, which has been seen by BBC Verify.\n\nRom Braslavski, 19, was working on security for the festival. According to an account published by Hostages and Missing Families Forum, he was trying to rescue an injured person in the attack when he was caught in a volley of fire. He has not been heard from since.\n\nOmer Wenkert, 22, a restaurant manager, sent a message to his family to say he was going to a safe shelter but then lost contact, his father Shai Wenkert told the BBC's Today Programme. Shai Wenkert said he had seen footage of his son in captivity, including a photo of him handcuffed and wearing only underwear.\n\nEvyatar David's family say they were sent a video of him in captivity\n\nEvyatar David, 23, was at the festival and on the morning of the attacks, described fleeing from gunfire before losing contact with the outside world, his brother says. Later, his family say, Evyatar's sister posted on Instagram appealing for information about his whereabouts. She then received a text from an unknown number, which contained video footage of Evyatar handcuffed on the floor of a dark room. According to Israel's foreign ministry he is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nEitan Mor, 23, lives in Jerusalem, and was working as a security guard at the festival, the Times of Israel said. He reportedly texted his uncle after Hamas arrived and was last seen with a friend bringing others to safety.\n\nAlon Ohel, 22, a Serbian citizen, took refuge in a shelter after the festival came under attack, his family say. They have seen footage of him being dragged away after a grenade attack.\n\nAlmog Meir Jan, 21, tried to flee the festival. He and a friend made it to the friend's car but only managed to drive a short distance before being forced to stop. Almog's family say they have seen a hostage video in which he appears.\n\nInbar Heiman, a student aged 21, was seen by two young Israeli men being taken away from the festival on a motorcycle. Hamas have released a video in which she is seen very briefly.\n\nHersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a dual US-Israeli citizen, was badly injured in the attack, his family told the BBC. Eyewitness accounts say he was seen being forced onto a white pick-up truck - the last-known signal from his phone came from just inside Gaza.\n\nSegev Kalfon, 26, was running away from the festival, across the highway, when he was captured by Hamas, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.\n\nOrión Hernández Radoux, 30, from Mexico, attended the festival with his girlfriend, Shani Louk. He has not been seen since. The Sun newspaper says it has seen threatening messages written in Arabic sent from his phone. Shani, a tourist from Germany, was initially thought to be among those seized. But on 30 October, her mother Ricarda told German media that the family had been informed by Israeli military of her death following DNA identification.\n\nRomi Lesham Gonen, 23, was on the phone to her mother as she tried to escape from the Supernova festival. Merav Leshem Gonan has recounted a conversation in which her daughter begged for help after being shot. ABC News reports that Romi's phone is now in Gaza.\n\nBar Kuperstein, 21, last spoke to his family early on the morning of 7 October, as the attack unfolded. Later the same day, his family say they identified him in a video of Israeli prisoners, posted by Hamas. Since then, they say they have had no further information.\n\nEliya Cohen, 26, was hiding with his girlfriend Ziv from the attack, when Ziv felt him being pulled up and driven away by the gunmen, Eliya's mother has told the video initiative #BringThemHomeNow. The family then found a photo of Eliya in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nAmit Buskila, 28, from Ashdod, was last heard of making a call to her uncle, Shimon, as Hamas overran the festival. Her family say they have now been told by the government that she is being held in Gaza.\n\nCarmel Gat, 39, is Jordan's sister-in-law, and also was seen by her father being taken by gunmen from Kibbutz Be'eri, Haaretz newspaper reported. She has not been heard from since.\n\nOhad Yahalomi, 49, was abducted from Nir Oz, along with his 12-year-old son, Eitan, who was released during the November ceasefire.\n\nDror Or, 48, was seen by a neighbour being dragged out of his home in Be'eri, according to their nephew Emmanuel Besorai, along with his son and daughter. On Saturday 25 November Dror's son Noam, 17, and daughter Alma, 13, were released from captivity. The body of Yonat, 50 - Dror's wife and the children's mother - was identified among the 120 people murdered at the kibbutz, Yonat's brother told the Guardian newspaper.\n\nTal Shoham, 38, was taken from Kibbutz Be'eri. His wife Adi, also 38, her mother Dr Shoshan Haran, 67, were released by Hamas on 25 November, along with the couple's children Nave, eight, and Yahel, three. Dr Haran's husband, Avshalom - an economist and dual German/Israeli citizen - was killed on 7 October.\n\nTamir Adar, 38, who defended Nir Oz as part of the kibbutz's emergency squad, was taken to Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen, 35, an American-Israeli citizen, has been missing since Hamas's attack on Nir Oz, his father Jonathan told the BBC. He said his son was not found among the dead and the \"only reasonable explanation\" is that he was taken to Gaza.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen's father has not heard from him since Hamas attacked the kibbutz where he lived\n\nThailand's ambassador to Israel says 26 of its citizens were taken hostage, 23 of whom have now been released.\n\nThose still being held are believed to include Watchara Sriuan, 32. His mother, Viewwaew, told the Thaiger news site that the family had been informed he was being held captive.\n\nKiattisak \"Top\" Patee and a Mr Pongtorn (no first name given) have also been named by the Thai foreign ministry as hostages.\n\nA number of other people thought to have been held hostage are now confirmed to have died, either during the 7 October attack or while in captivity.\n\nAs well as Ron Scherman and Nik Beizer, four bodies were identified this week. They were Tal Chaimi, an Israeli-Romanian citizen aged 41, and Joshua Mollel, a 19-year-old Tanzanian student. Also, 27-year-old Eden Zecharya, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, and 36-year-old Ziv Dado, who had already been declared dead by the Israeli military.\n\nOthers known to have died include Dror Kaplun, 68, Aviv Atzili, 49, Arye Zalmanovich, 85, Ronen Engel, 54, Maya Goren, 56, Guy Iluz, 26, Ofir Tzarfati, 27, Ofra Keider, 70, and Eliyahu Margalit, 75.\n\nThe bodies of 19-year-old soldier, Noa Marciano, and 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss were found by Israeli troops in buildings close to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.\n\nOn Saturday 9 December Kibbutz Bari announced that Sahar Baruch, 25, had been killed in Gaza.\n\nOther hostages whose death has been reported, but not confirmed include Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir.\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? If it is safe to do so, please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Animal-loving backbench MPs are trying to breathe new life into welfare legislation quietly dropped by the government last year.\n\nPlans to ban trophy hunting imports, live animal exports and crack down on puppy smuggling were included in the 2019 Conservative election manifesto.\n\nThree MPs are now attempting to get some of these policies into law.\n\nTwo Tory MPs - Selaine Saxby and Anna Firth - have launched separate PMBs to ban live animal exports and make pet abduction a criminal offence.\n\nThese two measures were originally included in the Kept Animals Bill, which was dropped by the government over fears it could be used to force a vote on hunting - a deeply divisive issue in the Conservative Party.\n\nOn Wednesday, Ms Saxby tabled a PMB to restrict the import of dogs, cats and ferrets to crack down on pet trade.\n\nThe RPSCA thanked Ms Saxby for \"rescuing\" the plans, which they say are crucial for ending puppy farming - where dogs often kept in terrible conditions which would be illegal in the UK, and used to breed multiple litters.\n\nDavid Bowles, head of public affairs at the RSPCA, said: \"Buying an imported puppy leaves new owners open to the very real risk that they are supporting cruel overseas puppy farming.\n\n\"We are delighted that Selaine Saxby's Bill will give the UK government another opportunity to support an end to this cruel trade.\"\n\nMs Firth introduced a PMB to specifically criminalise abducting cats, dogs, and other common pets.\n\nPMBs rarely become law without the support of government, as they do not get the same amount of time dedicated to government businesses.\n\nCampaigners inflated two giant animal figures to protest the slow progress of the Hunting Trophies Bill\n\nThe government has been under pressure to dedicate government time to fresh legislation to fulfil a manifesto commitment to ban the import of hunting trophies into Great Britain.\n\nEvery year, hunters from the UK travel abroad, often to southern Africa, and pay thousands of pounds to legally shoot animals, such as lions and elephants.\n\nUnder current rules, with the right paperwork, they can then bring trophies, such as stuffed heads or horns, back to the UK.\n\nThe measures had been expected in government legislation but ministers instead backed a PMB from Conservative MP Henry Smith during the last parliamentary session.\n\nIt passed the Commons comfortably, but ran out of time as its face opposition in the House of Lords.\n\nTime for PMBs are allocated by a lottery - 20 MPs are randomly chosen for a chance to debate their bill on one of seven Fridays set aside for this purpose.\n\nThe top seven MPs get priority for these debating slots.\n\nJulie Elliott, Labour MP for Sunderland Central, won the top spot in the ballot, giving her first priority. Her PMB seeks to level the banking sector's competitive field by modernising rules that currently restrict building societies' lending abilities.", "The councils and a local resident in Essex claimed the government's plan to use RAF Scampton and MDP Wethersfield was unlawful\n\nGovernment plans to use two former RAF stations to house thousands of asylum seekers can progress, the High Court has ruled.\n\nAt a recent London hearing, West Lindsey District Council argued the use of land at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire should be stopped.\n\nBraintree District Council in Essex also challenged changes to ex-RAF Wethersfield, along with a resident.\n\nHowever, Mrs Justice Thornton dismissed the claims for a judicial review.\n\nThe Home Office is expected to apply for a Special Development Order to use MDP Wethersfield and RAF Scampton as asylum centres for three years until 2027.\n\nUp to 2,000 male asylum seekers could be housed at RAF Scampton, where the Dambusters were based during World War Two, when operational.\n\nThe BBC understands there are currently about 600 asylum seekers living in refurbished barracks and portable buildings at MDP Wethersfield.\n\nPlans are in place to house up to 1,700 single men at the Essex site.\n\nAt the two-day hearing on 31 October and 1 November, lawyers representing the councils made complaints about ministers' use of emergency planning rules and also raised concerns about migrants being housed for longer than an initially envisaged 12 months.\n\nGabriel Clarke-Holland, a resident of Braintree in Essex, also challenged the plans for Wethersfield after crowdfunding his legal action.\n\nMinisters from the Home Office and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities fought the claims.\n\nIn her ruling, Mrs Justice Thornton wrote: \"The Secretary of State for the Home Department has statutory responsibility to provide accommodation and other support to asylum seekers and their dependants who would otherwise be destitute.\n\n\"Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of asylum seekers requiring accommodation has reached unprecedented levels.\n\n\"As a result of the strains on the asylum system, in January 2023, the Home Office approached the Ministry of Defence and other government departments enquiring about availability of Crown Estate assets which could be made suitable in the short term to assist with accommodating asylum seekers.\n\n\"A submission to the minister for immigration, dated 27 January 2023, sought a decision to explore the use of RAF Wethersfield and RAF Scampton to accommodate single adult male asylum seekers.\"\n\nMDP Wethersfield, near Braintree, Essex, is already being used to house asylum seekers\n\nDuring the hearing, Paul Brown KC, for the home secretary, told the High Court the increasing numbers of people seeking asylum was a clear emergency and therefore emergency planning powers - known as Class Q of the Town and Country Planning Act - were required.\n\nUnder Class Q, sites can be used without the need to adhere to the usual planning process for a 12-month period.\n\n\"The Secretary of State used the legally correct construction of emergency in the emergency statement,\" the judgment said, adding the \"reliance on Class Q was, in the court's view, lawful\".\n\nFollowing the ruling, Braintree District Council requested permission from to appeal against the decision and said it was awaiting \"to hear more if this is granted\".\n\nMr Clarke-Holland also announced his intention to appeal.\n\n\"The evidence strongly suggests that we were misled by the government, especially about how long they planned to use the site,\" he said.\n\nSir Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, said he was \"disappointed at the result\" for RAF Scampton, which is in his constituency.\n\n\"I understand West Lindsey District Council intends to appeal and has solid grounds for doing so,\" he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.\n\nCampaigners have staged protests outside the former RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire (pictured) and MDP Wethersfield\n\nIn March, West Lindsey District Council agreed a £300m deal with Scampton Holdings Limited to revive the site as a business, aerospace and heritage centre.\n\nSir Edward previously said he was concerned the \"site might start deteriorating\" if the asylum centre plans went ahead and Scampton Holdings \"might give up\".\n\nCouncillor Trevor Young, Liberal Democrat leader of the local authority, said it had already been given leave to appeal.\n\n\"We've always said it was the wrong place and we still believe that,\" he said.\n\n\"Using surplus military sites provides more orderly accommodation for those arriving in small boats while reducing the use of hotels, as we continue to deliver our plan to stop the boats,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"We are working with councils and key partners to manage the impact of using these sites, including liaising with local police to make sure appropriate arrangements are in place.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Women's Football\n\nRuthless England thumped Scotland in their final Women's Nations League group match but it was not enough to top the table after the Netherlands scored two injury-time goals against Belgium to deny them in a dramatic finish.\n\nThat means the Dutch are through to the Nations League semi-finals and, as a result of England's exit, Team GB now will not be in the Paris 2024 Olympics football competition.\n\nEngland needed to better the Netherlands' result by three clear goals to reach the Nations League finals and keep Team GB's Olympic hopes alive.\n\nA determined first half saw goals from Alex Greenwood, Lauren James with two and Beth Mead before Fran Kirby made it 5-0 just after the break.\n\nBut as the game entered stoppage time, the Dutch went 3-0 up against Belgium and the Lionesses needed to produce a sixth goal to put qualification back in their sights.\n\nLucy Bronze delivered in the 93rd minute with a headed effort but, as relief seemed to take hold at full-time, the Netherlands scored a dramatic fourth goal to ensure they won the group ahead of England.\n\nEngland would have secured Team GB's place in Olympics football had they reached the Nations League final.\n• None England 'devastated' to miss out on goal difference - Mead\n• None Is Martinez Losa still man to lead Scotland to Euros?\n• None Women's Nation League finals: Who has qualified? And who has missed out?\n\nAs England huddled at full-time to await the result of the Netherlands match having scored six goals, they must have felt they had done enough to progress.\n\nThe odds were heavily stacked against the Lionesses with a three-goal margin separating them from the Dutch, but they were in fine goalscoring form in Glasgow and the mountain they had to climb started to look smaller.\n\nGreenwood's header had opened the scoring before James' deflected shot found the back of the net one minute before she curled an effort into the top corner.\n\nMead marked her first England start since recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury with a stunning finish into the top right corner before Kirby poked home from Georgia Stanway's cutback four minutes after the break to make it five.\n\nEngland did not celebrate any of the goals, each time picking the ball out of the back of the net and racing back to the halfway line to go again, knowing they needed a significant margin to top the group.\n\nUltimately, even a six-goal win was not enough and questions will be asked about England's performances in this Nations League campaign after they lost to the Netherlands and Belgium away and needed a last-minute goal to beat the Dutch at Wembley on Friday.\n\nWhen it mattered, the Lionesses were ruthless, but mistakes and missed opportunities earlier in the campaign will be scrutinised as the European champions miss out.\n\nIn the build-up to the match, both camps were quick to dismiss the idea that Scotland may go easy on their closest rivals as a heavy loss would benefit Scottish players' chances of appearing in Paris.\n\nScotland captain Rachel Corsie said on Monday it was \"disrespectful\" and \"outrageous\" to question her team's integrity while England defender Lucy Bronze said it was \"the rudest thing ever\".\n\nAlready consigned to last place and relegation to League B in the Nations League, Pedro Martinez Losa's side had nothing to play for but pride.\n\nBut while Scotland's efforts should not be questioned - Claire Emslie saw her effort flash just wide and Kirsty Hanson missed the target after beating Mary Earps - the gap in quality was exposed on a freezing night in Glasgow.\n\nScotland crumbled in a dominant first half from England but Kirby's goal just after half-time took some of the urgency out of the game and forward Martha Thomas' arrival from the bench woke the home side up.\n\nA nervy final period saw the Tottenham striker's header well saved by Earps and a goal from the home side at 5-0 would have denied England's progression - and in turn Team GB's hopes of competing at the Games.\n\nA six-goal defeat is, in itself, disappointing for Scotland but some of their players will be equally dejected not to have the chance to represent Team GB next summer in Paris.", "Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has resigned \"with great sadness\" over the government's Rwanda policy.\n\nHere is the letter in full:\n\nIt is with great sadness that I write to tender my resignation as Minister for Immigration. I cannot continue in my position when I have such strong disagreements with the direction of the government's policy on immigration.\n\nAs you know, I have been pushing for the strongest possible piece of emergency legislation to ensure that under the Rwanda policy we remove as many small boat arrivals, as swiftly as possible, to generate the greatest deterrent effect.\n\nThis stems from my firmly held position that the small boats crisis is a national emergency that is doing untold damage to our country, and the only way we will be able to stop the boats completely is by urgently introducing a major new deterrent.\n\nI have therefore consistently advocated for a clear piece of legislation that severely limits the opportunities for domestic and foreign courts to block or undermine the effectiveness of the policy.\n\nOne of the great advantages of our unwritten constitution is the unfettered power of our sovereign parliament to create law, and that is a power we must take full advantage of.\n\nThe government has a responsibility to place our vital national interests above highly contested interpretations of international law.\n\nIn our discussions on the proposed emergency legislation you have moved towards my position, for which I am grateful.\n\nNevertheless, I am unable to take the currently proposed legislation through the Commons as I do not believe it provides us with the best possible chance of success.\n\nA bill of the kind you are proposing is a triumph of hope over experience. The stakes for the country are too high for us not to pursue the stronger protections required to end the merry-go-round of legal challenges which risk paralysing the scheme and negating its intended deterrent.\n\nReflecting on my time in the Home Office, I am proud of the improvements we have delivered together working alongside dedicated and capable civil servants.\n\nI am grateful to you for agreeing to much of my five-point plan to reduce net migration which, once implemented, will deliver the single largest reduction in legal migration ever.\n\nHowever, I refuse to be yet another politician who makes promises on immigration to the British public but does not keep them.\n\nThis package must be implemented immediately via an emergency rules change and accompanied by significant additional reforms at the start of next year to ensure we meet the 2019 manifesto commitment that every single Conservative MP was elected upon.\n\nThe consequences for housing, public services, economic productivity, welfare reform, community cohesion and, more fundamentally, for trust in democratic politics are all too serious for this totemic issue to be anything other than a primary focus for the government.\n\nTogether we have also made progress tackling illegal migration.\n\nSmall boats arrivals are down by more than a third compared to last year, against a forecast of a 40% increase and an almost 100% per cent rise in Italy in the same period.\n\nThe deal we negotiated with Albania has led to a more than ninety per cent reduction in Albanians arriving illegally on small boats and has demonstrated that a fully functioning scheme with Rwanda will act as a powerful deterrent.\n\nFor the first time we have developed a comprehensive upstream strategy to disrupt the organised immigration crime gangs in important countries including Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria and Turkey.\n\nThis has made the United Kingdom a partner of choice to those who share a determination to tackle illegal migration and has led to record numbers of small boat equipment seizures, preventing thousands more people making the illegal, unnecessary and dangerous crossing.\n\nAt home we have relentlessly focussed on removing the pull factors the United Kingdom.\n\nWe have increased raids on illegal working by seventy per cent and returns of immigration offenders by over 50%, transformed the asylum case-working system with a ten-fold increase in weekly decisions to eliminate the legacy backlog, and began closing hundreds of the farcical asylum hotels.\n\nBehind the scenes we have also instilled greater rigour in scrutinising visa applications which will tackle the equally concerning rise in non-small boat asylum claims.\n\nHowever, we said that we would stop the boats altogether. That is what the public rightly demands and expects of us. We must truly mean that we will do 'whatever it takes' to deliver this commitment when we say so.\n\nThis emergency legislation is the last opportunity to prove this, but in its current drafting it does not go far enough.\n\nYou and I have been friends for a long time. In cabinet I have seen up close your hard work, dedication and the deep sense of public service that drives you every day.\n\nAgainst strong headwinds you have stabilised the country, showed leadership on the world stage and done much to improve the lives of millions of citizens across the United Kingdom, for which you deserve much greater recognition.\n\nThis is not a decision I have arrived at lightly, but one born of principle and reached after careful consideration and many months of trying to convince you of the merits of my position.\n\nYou will retain my full support on the backbenches even as I campaign on illegal and legal migration policy and the intersecting challenges of generating meaningful economic growth, solving the housing crisis and improving integration. The fortunes of the Conservative Party at the next general election are at stake.\n\nIt has been an honour to serve in government for five Conservative Prime Ministers. I will continue to represent the interests of my constituents in Newark to whom I owe so much.\n\nThank you for your letter and your service in government. Your hard work has helped us cut boat crossings by more than a third. You have strived to cut the asylum backlog and return hotels to their communities.\n\nYour resignation is disappointing given we both agree on the ends, getting flights off to Rwanda so that we can stop the boats. I fear that your departure is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation. It is our experience that gives us confidence that this will work.\n\nOur returns deal with Albania, that you were instrumental in securing, has cut Albanian arrivals by ninety per cent. These Albanian arrivals have far more recourse to the courts than people will under this new legislation. But we have still succeeded in returning 5,000 illegal migrants this year and cutting the numbers dramatically because it has shown that if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay.\n\nThis bill is the toughest piece of illegal migration legislation ever put forward by a UK Government.\n\nIt makes clear that Parliament deems Rwanda safe and no court can second guess that, it disapplies the relevant parts of the human rights act and makes clear that it is for ministers to decide whether or not to comply with any temporary injunctions issued by the European Court of Human Rights.\n\nIf we were to oust the courts entirely, we would collapse the entire scheme.\n\nThe Rwandan government have been clear that they would not accept the UK basing this scheme on legislation that could be considered in breach of our international law obligations. There would be no point in passing a law that would leave us with nowhere to send people to.\n\nI know that you have more to contribute and that you will continue to represent your constituents in Newark and Bingham with dedication and determination.", "Men stand outside Nasser hospital in Khan Younis as the injured from an Israeli airstrike arrive\n\nYoung men in jeans and flip-flops stand in line in front of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, as if they are watching a funeral procession.\n\nIt's another night in the tense gloom outside the accident and emergency department.\n\nMedical personnel in scrubs are poised to receive more casualties. Voices are raised and men crowd around.\n\nPublic order is starting to break down - people are traumatised and exhausted.\n\nA car pulls up, its horn blaring and lights flashing. A young man is pulled out and put onto a stretcher, then rushed inside.\n\nThen another car arrives, covered in dust, and a child who is only four or five is helped out. He is able to walk.\n\nHospitals in Khan Younis - the Gaza Strip's second largest city - have been overwhelmed since the Israeli air force intensified its bombardment of the south on Friday.\n\nIsraeli tanks and troops have also now entered the city, after the ground offensive was widened following the collapse of a temporary truce with Hamas.\n\nGaza's Hamas-run health ministry says at least 1,200 people have been killed across the territory since the fighting resumed.\n\nThat has brought to more than 16,000 the total number killed in Gaza during the war, which was triggered by Hamas's attacks on southern Israel on 7 October.\n\nGunmen from Hamas - a proscribed terrorist organisation in Israel, the UK, US and EU - killed at least 1,200 people and took more than 240 back to Gaza as hostages.\n\nMany of Gaza's 2.3 million residents sought refuge in the south after the Israeli military ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the war.\n\nBut with the fighting spreading to Khan Younis, they're running out of places to flee to.\n\nThousands of displaced people are crammed inside the grounds and corridors of the city's European Hospital.\n\n\"When we are playing and there is bombardment, we immediately run to the tents near the walls and [pretend to be] asleep,\" says one of the children there as the sounds of explosions fill the air.\n\n\"We are afraid. The glass of windows shatters above us.\"\n\nA UN official has said that the humanitarian crisis across Gaza is \"getting worse by the hour\"\n\nA woman at the hospital says she fled to al-Fakhari, an area east of Khan Younis, after receiving phone calls telling them that it was a \"safe zone\". But now, she says, the area is being bombarded and the situation is \"very bad\".\n\n\"I don't see any area being safe when it comes to us, nor is any area habitable.\"\n\nA 75-year-old man agrees that nowhere is safe.\n\n\"The situation is indescribable. There are children and women. We, as elderly, can withstand what is happening,\" he says.\n\n\"Listen to the ongoing sounds - how could someone sit and wait for the opportunity to leave a safe zone? Where is the safety? We can't sense it. Every place we go to, they say it is safe but we can't find that.\"\n\nIn downtown Khan Younis, Samah Ilwan waves two empty water bottles in the air and says her six children - five girls and one boy - are thirsty.\n\n\"We have become like cats and dogs. Perhaps cats and dogs get shelters. We don't have any. We're stranded in the street.\"\n\nBBC Arabic reporter Adnan El-Bursh reporting from outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis\n\nLife is also closing in on me.\n\nDespite everything that has happened to me and my family since the start of the war, this is the first time that I feel completely lost.\n\nAll willpower and control have been ripped from me.\n\nI'm used to keeping my family safe and secure, coming up with a plan. Now, I am torn by indecision.\n\nI'm originally from the north but I fled south with my family after being ordered to do so by the Israeli army, who said the south was \"safe\".\n\nCurrently, I am alone in Khan Younis, while my family is in central Gaza.\n\nI was able to travel up to see them every few days. But now, the Israelis have shut one road and the second one is very dangerous.\n\nShould I go south to Rafah, keep working and hope that my family will be ok?\n\nOr should I try to get back to them, stop reporting, and if it comes to the worst, then at least we die together?\n\nI hope no-one else ever has to face this awful choice, which is not a choice at all.", "King Charles III, Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales pose before the reception for diplomats\n\nA new photo of the King Charles III and Queen Camilla with the Prince and Princess of Wales has been released.\n\nIt was taken ahead of the annual \"white tie and tiaras\" reception for diplomats held at Buckingham Palace.\n\nThe image is likely to be considered a royal show of unity after a difficult week for the family.\n\nIt is the first time the royal couples have been seen together since the release of author Omid Scobie's book Endgame, which reignited a race row.\n\nIn a Dutch version of the book, the King and Catherine, Princess of Wales, are alleged to have discussed the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's then unborn son, Prince Archie.\n\nNeither Buckingham Palace nor Kensington Palace have officially responded to the allegations.\n\nBut for the Royal Family's advisers, this new image probably says it all.\n\nThe four most senior members of the Royal Family posed for the photo before welcoming 500 ambassadors, high commissioners and other dignitaries to the Palace State Rooms.\n\nCatherine wore a shimmering pale pink dress by Jenny Packham and the Lover's Knot Tiara, which was often worn by Diana, Princess of Wales.\n\nMeanwhile the Queen wore a cream embroidered evening gown by Fiona Clare and tiara worn by Elizabeth II.\n\nThe release of an official photo at the diplomatic reception is not a regular occurrence. It is something seen more often during a state visit.\n\nBut after a week of difficult headlines and a family drama again played out in public, this image is timely.\n\nIt is a united front and a show of togetherness following a bumpy few days.\n\nThe white-tie event is held every year\n\nRead the latest from our royal correspondent Sean Coughlan - sign up here.", "James Cleverly is the third UK home secretary to travel to Rwanda since the scheme's launch\n\nI am writing this in a minibus making its way to Kigali Airport.\n\nDiplomacy comes in many forms. Today it was a day trip to Rwanda.\n\n\"The plane is your hotel,\" said a cheery government official as we stumbled off in a sleepy stupor first thing.\n\nI travelled here on the home secretary's plane as what is known as the broadcast pool reporter - where, in addition to the reports I did for the BBC, I would share my interviews, and our pictures, with ITN and Sky.\n\nJames Cleverly had a dozen or so folk in his delegation. Then there were a handful of print journalists.\n\nAs I wrote on the way here, Mr Cleverly is the third home secretary to make this journey. Not a single migrant from the UK has yet.\n\nThe consistent argument from ministers is that illegal migration poses a colossal, generational challenge.\n\nThey add that small boat crossings were increasing hugely, and carrying on as normal wasn't going to be good enough.\n\nSo, a novel, eye-catching, controversial idea: sending migrants to Rwanda.\n\nBut after multiple courts and an even greater multiple of months, the Supreme Court comprehensively shredded it last month.\n\nOut of that wreck emerges today's treaty, which attempts to address the court's concerns.\n\nBut in my questions to the home secretary, both in a news conference and in an interview, he simply could not be certain all of this effort would pay off.\n\nSuch has been the political and psychological commitment to this policy from ministers, that abandoning it would have amounted to surrender.\n\nInstead, there has been extra effort to attempt to make it work.\n\nSome might think our scrutiny unfair.\n\nThe development of a novel concept is rarely straightforward: Mr Cleverly acknowledged as much today.\n\nAnd the setbacks of the last 18 months or so, while easy and reasonable to point out, may seem insignificant if the scheme became workable, and if other countries adopted the same model, as some are considering.\n\nBut they are big ifs surrounding a policy that has always hauled around a lot of ifs.\n\nAnd here's another one. What if Labour win the next general election, as many expect they will?\n\nLabour say they will scrap the project: so where does that leave the Rwandans, as they begin the process of ratifying the treaty here, and making profound legal changes to accommodate the views of a court 4,000 miles away?\n\nThere will be more moments around this project, that is a given.\n\nWhat is not is whether migrants will ever make it here.\n\nAs I write this last sentence, I can hear the noise of jet engines through an open door - we are about to fly back.\n\nAnd as we do, the treaty itself has been published.\n\nScrutiny now turns next to the 43 pages of text.", "Jesse Darling has given crowd control barriers legs and made them look like they are running amok\n\nAn exhibition featuring crowd control barriers that have gone out of control, twisted railway tracks, barbed wire and tattered union jack bunting - all making a comment on modern British life - has won this year's Turner Prize.\n\nJesse Darling picked up the prestigious art award and its £25,000 cheque at a ceremony in Eastbourne, East Sussex.\n\nHe has spoken about being inspired by his view of the effects of austerity, Brexit and the pandemic on the town, and the \"hostile environment\" immigration policy.\n\nThe artist says he uses objects that are cheap and easy to find, but that hold meaning for viewers\n\nSpeaking to BBC News after his win, he explained: \"You have to love something to be able to critique it. I was born in this country and I'm looking at what's going on here.\n\n\"I wanted to make a work that reflected that, and I wanted to make work about Britain for the British public.\n\n\"Whether they like it or don't like it, it was a great honour and privilege to be able to do something so public for the British public.\"\n\nBarbed wire and a piece of net curtain hang above a crumbling mock checkpoint at the gallery entrance\n\nThe judges praised his use of common objects like barriers, hazard tape, office files and net curtains \"to convey a familiar yet delirious world\".\n\n\"Invoking societal breakdown, his presentation unsettles perceived notions of labour, class, Britishness and power,\" they said.\n\nDarling said he would spend his prize money on dentistry and rent\n\nThe chair of the judges, Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson, added that his art was \"bold\", \"engaging\" and partly a reflection on \"the state of the nation\".\n\n\"It's one element of it, one layer of it. I don't think it's the whole story. There is some sense, from his point of view, that these are times of crisis.\"\n\nTattered and faded union jack bunting hangs from the ceiling\n\nIn his acceptance speech, Darling also spoke up for the power of teaching children art in schools, and said Conservative governments had sent the message that self-expression and culture were \"only for particular kinds of people from particular socio-economic backgrounds\".\n\n\"Don't buy in. It's for everyone,\" he said.\n\nAt the end of his speech, Darling pulled a Palestinian flag out of his coat pocket and waved it.\n\nJesse Darling was many of the critics' favourite for the prize. His room of jaunty crash barriers and union jacks is inventive and original.\n\nDarling - who was born in Oxford but lives and works in Berlin - has said he is reflecting the hostile environment in the UK towards immigration in this work.\n\nThe exhibition entrances are turned into checkpoints complete with barbed wire. But the space itself feels alive and humorous.\n\nThat's down to the crowd control barriers Darling has sculpted at prancing angles. This is anthropomorphising writ large - the very things that are used to corral people by the police are given a life of their own, turned into creatures that can't be controlled.\n\nWe're also surrounded by frilly curtains and a maypole adorned with police tape and anti-pigeon spikes.\n\nDarling has said British towns these days are showing the effects of austerity, Brexit and Covid. He's riffing on that in a show that tackles nationhood and British identity.\n\nAll the four nominated artists were reflecting what's happening in Britain right now. In the end, Darling was felt by the judges to be a cut above.\n\nThe other nominated artists were Ghislaine Leung, Rory Pilgrim and Barbara Walker.\n\nThe Telegraph's art critic Alastair Sooke called Darling's room at Eastbourne's Towner gallery \"the most exhilarating presentation I've encountered at the annual exhibition in recent years\".\n\nFiles are filled with concrete as a comment on bureaucracy\n\nSooke wrote that the artist \"offers an unruly vision of contemporary Britain as both ruinous and suffused with impish magic\".\n\n\"Compared with such sculpturally compelling work, which boils and bubbles with brilliant ideas and touches, the offerings from the other shortlisted artists seem lukewarm.\"\n\nHowever, the Sunday Times' Waldemar Januszczak did not like Darling's entry. \"I suppose it's a glumly poetic interpretation of Britain today,\" he wrote.\n\n\"Where it fails is in its overall visual impact. It's too bitty.\"\n\nRollercoaster rails appear to crash through the gallery wall\n\nDarling, 41, who only went to art school in his 30s, was nominated for two exhibitions in Oxford and London last year.\n\nHe said he would use the prize money to \"get some dentistry [and] I'll probably pay my rent.\"\n\nA cabinet contains hammers that are decorated like toys, with colourful ribbons and bells", "Scientists Josie and Joan Ferrer Obiol says their dream of returning to the UK has been turned upside down\n\nCouples planning a new life in the UK have been left heartbroken by changes restricting who can apply to live here.\n\nFrom April 2024, British citizens or people already settled in the UK will need to show they earn £38,700 before their overseas partner can live here with them - a sharp jump from the current threshold of £18,600.\n\nThey also still need to show they are in a marriage or civil partnership when they apply for a family visa, intend to be within six months, or that they have been living together for at least two years.\n\nMinisters say the increased income threshold will help cut immigration levels, which have reached record highs in recent years, and ensure families can support themselves.\n\nLee, 24, from Belfast, told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"This policy means that the girl I want to marry, the girl I love...I cannot live with her and it's destroyed me.\"\n\nHe had planned to propose to his girlfriend Sarah, who lives in Malaysia, in the coming months. They met in Leeds three years ago, where he was studying engineering and she was studying law.\n\nLee was planning to pop the question in February next year\n\nThe couple were planning a new chapter together in the UK, but Lee said their plans for a family life are \"basically destroyed by this\".\n\nLee earns £26,000 as a researcher in Belfast, and said his chances of earning much more than that at his age and experience level are remote.\n\nHe continued: \"I just hate this, all this planning we've had and it's just now all crashing down. Now basically if I want to be with someone I love, I can't be in this country anymore.\n\n\"My mind has kind of went everywhere, to some very dark places I'll be honest.\"\n\nBritish citizen Josie lives with her Italian husband in Ancona, Italy. The couple - both scientists - married in December 2020 and were planning on moving to the UK to settle.\n\nBut Josie said the prospect of earning £38,700 as a lab assistant at a British university is highly unlikely, with going-rate salaries routinely below that level.\n\nAsked what her family's plan was now, the 33-year-old told 5 Live: \"I don't know, not come back? That would break my mum's heart. I don't know, I really don't know.\n\n\"Basically it's forcing us into a position that will make it very, very difficult - if not impossible - to come to the UK.\"\n\nJosie says the new threshold is a 'crazy' amount\n\nCam, 28, told the BBC how he is already looking for a new home in London where his American wife can come and join him after four years of long-distance relationship.\n\nThey were planning to apply for a family visa in March, by which time Cam would have been in his new job long enough to show he has a stable income - but with the new threshold due to come into force from April, they are facing uncertainty over whether their application will make it through in time.\n\nHe told BBC News: \"There's a huge amount of anxiety. This is going to cause a lot of hurt and pain to a lot of people.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, Rishi Sunak's spokesman said the new minimum threshold could be disapplied in \"exceptional circumstances where there would be unjustifiably harsh consequences for the applicant, their partner, a relevant child or another family member\".\n\nPersonal savings and benefits can also be taken into consideration when applicants have to demonstrate how they would be able to support their family, No 10 said.\n\nThe government argues the new £38,700 threshold - which is also being introduced as a minimum salary for many migrants seeking work visas - brings it into line with average earnings.\n\nAccording to the Office of National Statistics, median gross annual earnings for full-time employees in the UK were £34,963 in April 2023.\n\nThe change to family visas is expected by the government to reduce net migration by 10,000 a year. Family visas accounted for a net migration of 39,000 in the 12 months up to June 2023.\n\nOverall net migration for the same period was 672,000, a number the government is trying to cut by 300,000 with its wider reforms to legal immigration.\n\nDr Madeleine Sumption, director of the University of Oxford-based Migration Observatory, said the change will disproportionately hit those who are already less likely to be on higher wages.\n\nShe said: \"The largest impacts will fall on lower income British citizens, and particularly women and younger people who tend to earn lower wages.\n\n\"The income threshold will also affect people more if they live outside of London and the South East, in areas of the country where earnings are lower.\"\n\nOne of them is Katie, a 25-year-old supermarket worker from Lincoln, who was \"crying all night\" when the change was announced.\n\nKatie and Quinlan will at least be reunited over Christmas - just are unsure what the future holds\n\nIn 2020, she met Quinlan, from Indiana, US, on an online dating app. The pair got married in July 2023 and plans were under way for him to relocate to the UK.\n\nAs a supermarket worker, Katie earns £19,000 a year, including overtime pay - less than half of the new salary threshold.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"Everything we were planning for ages has just gone down the drain. We finally are stable enough to start doing more hours to get the amount needed and then it practically jumps up by 50%.\"\n\nThe couple's next steps are not certain. She continued: \"To stay here or go there. We shouldn't have to choose something like this. It's cruel.\"\n\nRuby and Furkan are in a similar position. When they met on holiday in Turkey in the summer of 2021, she thought it was \"a holiday romance - I didn't expect anything more to come of it\".\n\nFast forward two-and-a-half years and the pair are newly married, but forced to live apart.\n\nThe 31-year-old from Plymouth was self-employed, but decided she would stand a better chance of demonstrating she had a steady income to support her husband's visa application by taking a job as a veterinary receptionist, and now earns £23,000 a year.\n\nBut the changes announced this week have upended their plans completely, and they are still digesting what it means.\n\nRuby said: \"I woke up this morning and saw the news posted on Facebook. I was devastated. I thought that surely there is no way they have hiked it up that amount.\"\n\nStarting to cry, she told the BBC: \"I can't believe I have revolved my life around this and then they change the rules after 11 years. Now I just have to hope we can be approved before April.\n\n\"If that doesn't happen, there is no option but for me to move to Turkey. That is not the end of the world as it is a beautiful country but I would like it to be my decision, not Rishi Sunak's.\"", "Robert Jenrick says he is prepared to \"take further steps\" if net migration does not come down.\n\nGaps in the labour market caused by new immigration plans will \"be filled by British workers\", the immigration minister has said.\n\nRobert Jenrick said the government's five-point plan will cut net migration to the UK \"by at least 300,000\", from its current record high.\n\nBusinesses can no longer rely on foreign labour to fill gaps, he said.\n\nBut the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said the plans fail to deal with the UK's labour shortages.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Mr Jenrick said the government did not want to cut net migration \"for abstract reasons\".\n\n\"We want to build an economy which is more productive where employers invest in their staff and in their skills and pay,\" he said.\n\nThe immigration plans were part of a broader mission set out in the Autumn Statement, which saw an increase in the national living wage increased and a £2.5bn overhaul of benefits for people with long-term health conditions or disabilities, or those facing long-term unemployment, Mr Jenrick said.\n\n\"My message for big business is it is not right that they reach for the easy lever of foreign labour in the first instance - we want them to be improving and investing in British workers,\" he said.\n\n\"We want to see a country in which business invest in the domestic workforce,\" Mr Jenrick said.\n\nMr Jenrick said the government is still committed to its 2019 manifesto promise to reduce net legal migration to 225,000, and he suggested further measures may be needed.\n\nThe migration plan comes after official figures last month showed net migration had soared to a record 745,000 in 2022.\n\nConservative MPs have since piled pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his government to bring down net migration, which is the difference between those entering and leaving the UK.\n\nMr Sunak has previously declined to say he wants to stick to the 2019 manifesto pledge. In May he said the numbers were \"too high\" but that he did not \"want to put a precise number on it\".\n\nOn Monday, Home Secretary James Cleverly announced plans to hike the minimum salary needed for skilled overseas workers to £38,700.\n\nHe also announced that from next spring, care workers will be banned from bringing family dependants to the UK.\n\nAccording to Mr Jenrick, overseas workers in the UK will be considered for \"short term placements\" without their families to avoid extra strain on public services.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing criticised the proposals, labelling it cruel and saying it \"will only add to the dire workforce crisis in the health and care sector\".\n\nBut Mr Jenrick said the scheme \"will see a reduction in the number of people coming to work in social care from overseas\".\n\nAny vacancies in health and social care \"we hope and expect will be filled by British workers,\" Mr Jenrick said.\n\nOn top of the new salary requirements and ban on dependents the government said it would:\n\nThe government was prepared to \"take further steps\" if net migration does not come down, Mr Jenrick said.\n\nThe government is still committed to its 2019 manifesto promise to reduce net legal migration to 225,000, according to Mr Jenrick.\n\nHealth Secretary Victoria Atkins told the House of Commons she had been consulted over the new migration plans, which she described as a \"tough and careful package to tackle legal migration\".\n\nShe said her department \"carefully\" monitors the level of overseas care workers.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Monday's announcement was \"an admission of years of Tory failure on both the immigration system and the economy\".\n\nShe said while net migration \"should come down\", the Conservatives were \"failing to introduce more substantial reforms that link immigration to training and fair pay requirements in the UK, meaning many sectors will continue to see rising numbers of work visas because of skills shortages\".\n\nProfessor Brian Bell, chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee, said some industries could struggle with recruitment because of the new visa rules.\n\nSpeaking on Times Radio, he said: \"I think we're going to see quite a lot of what you might describe as middle-skilled jobs that are going to struggle.\n\n\"Social care will still be allowed to employ people at lower wages; the big change is workers won't be able to bring their dependants with them, and that's a fundamental change.\"", "The government hope the Rwanda plan will deter people arriving in the UK on small boats\n\nSplits have emerged in the Conservative Party over Rishi Sunak's flagship Rwanda legislation, ahead of its publication.\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly signed a new treaty with Rwanda on Tuesday, after the Supreme Court found previous plans unlawful.\n\nHis predecessor, Suella Braverman, has argued the UK must override human rights laws to push through the plan.\n\nBut MPs from a different section of the party described this as a \"red-line\".\n\nThe prime minister promised a bill to deal with concerns raised last month by the Supreme Court over the government's scheme to send asylum seekers to east Africa.\n\nMr Sunak is due to announce emergency legislation in \"days not weeks\", Home Office minister Chris Philp told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nThe bill is designed to work in conjunction with the new treaty, which will see the UK pay for Rwandan authorities to process asylum applications for people who come to the UK.\n\nThe new agreement will mean that the UK will also pay for British and Commonwealth judges to preside over a newly established appeals process as well as the costs of all legal fees from anyone sent to Rwanda.\n\nSpeaking at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Sunak said the Rwanda scheme was designed to act as a deterrent to people coming to the UK in small boat crossings and to \"break the cycle of tragedy\" of people smuggling.\n\nIn January, Mr Sunak made \"stop the boats\" one of his top five priorities. He said he would \"do everything it takes to get this scheme working so that we can indeed stop the boats\".\n\nLabour has pledged to scrap the policy if it wins the next election.\n\nAt PMQs, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer labelled the plan a \"gimmick\" that cost the UK \"hundreds of millions of pounds for nothing in return\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Keir Starmer asks Rishi Sunak: How many people sent to Rwanda?\n\nThe BBC understands centrist Tory MPs are worried Mr Sunak may be considering Mrs Braverman's plans to disregard human rights law as part of the Rwanda plan.\n\nMrs Braverman, the former home secretary, has previously argued that the bill should ignore \"the entirety\" of the Human Rights Act (HRA) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as well as other relevant international obligations including the Refugee Convention.\n\nAnother option is for the bill to declare Rwanda a safe country.\n\nThe BBC understands Mr Sunak is hoping to steer a middle course between those options.\n\nMrs Braverman has made a personal statement to MPs on Wednesday afternoon, saying the bill must block all routes of legal challenge, to allow flights to Rwanda to take off.\n\nThe One Nation Caucus, which has a current membership of 106 Conservative MPs, called on the prime minister to \"think twice before overriding\" either the ECHR and HRA.\n\nFormer deputy prime minister Damian Green, who now chairs the One Nation Caucus, said: \"Successive Conservative governments have played a vital role in creating and protecting the ECHR as well as the Refugee and Torture conventions.\n\n\"We have continued to hold these treaties dear and they should be seen as fundamental to part of protecting the UK's democratic legacy.\"\n\nMatt Warman, a leading member of the group, said: \"Overriding the ECHR is a red line for a number of Conservatives. Protecting and reforming institutions and upholding human rights should be the cornerstone of any Conservative government.\"\n\nMark Francois, the chair of the right-wing European Research Group (ERG), said the group would not back any new legislation that does not \"fully respect the sovereignty of Parliament, with unambiguous wording\".\n\nThe ERG, an influential group among Brexit-supporting MPs, said they would only support the bill if it won the approval of the group's \"star chamber\" of legal experts chaired by the veteran MP Bill Cash.\n\nFormer minister Tory MP Sir Simon Clarke said there was raw anger among his constituents about migration.\n\nHe said: \"It cannot be the case that a human rights framework which was set up in the late 1940s, which could never have envisaged a world in which tens of thousands of people were coming to this country illegally and we were unable to deport them, is regarded as so sacrosanct that we can't change it.\"", "This Gaza war, unprecedented in scope, has now been raging for two months. The Hamas-run health ministry says more 17,000 people have been killed, including thousands of children.\n\nIsrael’s military operation in the southern Gaza Strip, currently focussed on the largest city there, Khan Younis, is making a difficult humanitarian situation worse. The UN says 80% of the population has been displaced. People are running out of safe havens and not enough aid is getting in. Speaking in Geneva, the UN’s top aid official, Martin Griffiths, gave this bleak assessment.\n\nGriffiths said negotiations were under way with Israel to improve the flow of aid. Israeli officials say are willing to do what they can, to increase the amount of aid coming in and to facilitate the opening of additional field hospitals to help cope with the vast number of casualties. On his first visit to the region since the crisis began, the UK Defence Secretary, Grant Schapps, said other routes were being looked at that could involve the Royal Navy.\n\nWith fighting raging around Khan Younis and in the north, images are circulating on social media showing dozens of Palestinian men, stripped to their underwear, kneeling on the ground, being guarded by Israeli soldiers. Other pictures show them being transported in military trucks.\n\nIsrael’s chief military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said hundreds of what he called terror suspects had been detained and that many had given themselves up. But already one well-known Palestinian journalist has been identified among those being held.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nTurkish football bosses suspended all leagues after a referee was punched to the ground by a club president following a top-flight game on Monday.\n\nHalil Umut Meler was struck by MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca, who ran on to the pitch after his team conceded a 97th-minute equaliser in a 1-1 Super Lig draw with Caykur Rizespor.\n\n\"The matches in all leagues have been postponed indefinitely,\" Turkish FA [TFF] chairman Mehmet Buyukeksi told a news conference.\n\n\"This attack is a night of shame for Turkish football,\" he added.\n\nFifa president Gianni Infantino called the incident \"totally unacceptable\" and said that violence has \"no place in our sport or society\".\n\n\"Without match officials there is no football,\" he said. \"Referees, players, fans and staff have to be safe and secure to enjoy the game, and I call on the relevant authorities to ensure that this is strictly implemented and respected at all levels.\"\n\nMeler received several blows from others as he lay on the turf and suffered injuries including a minor fracture.\n\nKoca required treatment in hospital but \"detention procedures will be carried out after the treatment\", said Turkey's minister of internal affairs, Ali Yerlikaya.\n\nYerlikaya added others had been arrested for their part in the incident, which he \"strongly condemned\".\n\nMeler, 37, is one of Turkey's top referees and officiates international games for Fifa. He is also on Uefa's elite referee list.\n\nHe also required hospital treatment and the chief physician of the hospital where he was treated, Dr Mehmet Yorubulut, said: \"There is no life threat for the moment. He only has bleeding around his left eye and a small fracture.\n\n\"We will [monitor] our referee until the morning due to head trauma. We will discharge him from hospital after the necessary examinations in the morning.\"\n\nThe country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spoke out after the shocking scenes. \"I condemn the attack on referee Halil Umut Meler after the MKE Ankaragucu-Çaykur Rizespor match played this evening, and I wish him a speedy recovery,\" he said.\n\n\"Sports means peace and brotherhood. Sport is incompatible with violence. We will never allow violence to take place in Turkish sports.\"\n\nHome club MKE Ankaragucu expressed regret following their president's actions, saying in a statement: \"We are saddened by the incident that took place this evening.\n\n\"We apologise to the Turkish football public and the entire sports community for the sad incident that occurred after the Caykur Rizespor match at Eryaman Stadium.\"\n\nCaykur Rizespor sent a message of support to Meler and expressed general dismay, stating: \"We strongly condemn the undesirable events that occurred after the Ankaragucu match we played today.\n\n\"We convey our wishes to the entire referee community, especially the referee of the match, Halil Umut Meler, to get well soon.\"\n\nThe TFF chose to take a decisive course of action that it hopes will lead Turkish football to become a safer place.\n\nTFF chairman Buyukeksi added: \"Football matches are not a war, there is no death at the end. Not all teams can become champions at the same time. We all need to understand this. We invite everyone to take responsibility.\n\n\"[Ankaragucu] and its managers will be punished most severely.\"\n\nHe said the penalties will be discussed in the relevant decision-making committees starting on Tuesday.\n\nIn a statement on what it called the \"inhumane and despicable attack\", the TFF said: \"The irresponsible statements of club presidents, managers, coaches and TV commentators targeting referees have paved the way for this vile attack today.\n\n\"In coordination with our State, all the criminal proceedings they deserve have begun to be implemented against those responsible and instigators of this inhumane attack. The responsible club, its president, its managers and all criminals who attacked Meler will be punished in the most severe way.\"\n\nGalatasaray, one of the country's biggest teams, had earlier called for an emergency meeting to allow clubs to address what they say is a growing issue in the Turkish game.\n\n\"We must all come together today and act to solve the problems we are a part of,\" read a Galatasaray statement.\n\nThe Association of Active Football Referees and Observers of Turkey called on all referees not to take the fields, adding: \"The violent attack on Meler was not only against our referee Halil Umut Meler but also against the entire referee community.\"\n\nThe Turkish Super Lig Professional Football Clubs Foundation condemned the attack and said clubs were \"ready to take all steps to prevent violent incidents\".", "Spy cameras disguised as clothes hooks are for sale on Amazon, despite the firm being sued over the gadgets.\n\nOne clothes hook camera listing seen by the BBC features a picture of the device positioned in a bathroom.\n\nA US judge recently ruled the retail giant must face a case brought by a woman who alleges she was filmed in the bathroom using a clothes hook camera purchased on Amazon.\n\nA privacy expert has said the misuse of such devices may break British laws.\n\nAmazon declined to comment on the issue.\n\nThe US legal action against the company was brought by a foreign exchange student and aspiring actress.\n\nShe alleges that while staying in a West Virginia home and still a child she was surreptitiously recorded in the bathroom using a camera disguised as a clothes hook, which she says was purchased on Amazon.\n\nThe man alleged to have been responsible is facing trial.\n\nHer complaint to a United States District Court notes that the listing on Amazon, from where the camera had allegedly been purchased was illustrated with a picture of it being used to hang towels along with the phrase \"it won't attract attention\".\n\nThe complaint also alleges that the use of the camera was \"foreseeable to Amazon\" and seeks punitive damages against Amazon Inc, Amazon.com Services LLC and other unnamed defendants.\n\nAmazon recently attempted unsuccessfully to have the case dismissed arguing, in very simple terms, that it wasn't responsible for how the camera was used.\n\nThe BBC searched for similar cameras on Amazon.co.uk and found a number of listings.\n\nOne clothes hook camera product description showed it positioned over a bath, another image showed it beside a bed.\n\nAnother clothes hook camera has an illustration showing it positioned in a bedroom, and separately in a section displaying potential uses, has an image of a couple arguing with the text \"cheating\" superimposed.\n\nThere are other cameras for sale on the site, including:\n\nThere was even a \"bathroom spy camera\" disguised as a shower radio which although having no reviews and rather implausibly suggesting it might be of use to the CIA - raises questions about how such a listing can remain on Amazon.\n\nMany of the cameras stress their usefulness in monitoring children or for security but experts warn misuse of the cameras could break a number of UK laws.\n\nJaya Handa, a privacy partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, told the BBC: \"Given the expectation of privacy within the home, individuals could be committing a crime under a number of other legal frameworks including harassment, child protection, voyeurism, sexual offences or human rights laws.\"\n\nIf videos were broadly shared there could also be data protection issues, she added.\n\nCampaigner Gina Martin, who played a key role in bringing about the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019, told the BBC that the victims of hidden cameras were often women and girls.\n\nSuch cameras, she said, \"are being hidden from the people who have been videoed, and we should all be able to explicitly consent to being videoed\".\n\nHidden cameras are legal to sell and own, and are available for purchase from many retail platforms and online stores.\n\nBut Ms Martin argues: \"Retailers do need to be doing more. They need to be stamping out hidden cameras because there are very few instances in which hiding the fact that you're filming someone is applicable or acceptable.\"\n\nProfessor Leonie Tanczer of University College London argues other uses of hidden cameras can also be problematic such as \"spying on partners or monitoring employees such as domestic cleaners\".\n\nShe argues these uses illustrate how the tools \"are often misused against vulnerable groups and communities\".\n\nHave you discovered a hidden camera? Or do you use or sell them? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The House of Commons has voted in support of a new law aimed at sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nDespite rebels from his own party failing to vote for the bill, the prime minister won by 313 to 269 votes\n\nThe BBC's Ione Wells explains what happens next for Rishi Sunak and his Rwanda plan.", "Hundreds of millions of people access gaming apps through Google's Play Store\n\nThe maker of popular video game Fortnite has won a US court battle against Google, with a jury deciding that the search giant had operated an illegal monopoly.\n\nEpic Games sued Google in 2020, accusing it of unlawfully making its app store dominant over rivals.\n\nHundreds of millions of people use the store to install apps for smartphones powered by Google's Android software.\n\nGoogle said it would challenge the outcome.\n\n\"Victory over Google! After four weeks of detailed court testimony, the California jury found against the Google Play monopoly on all counts,\" Mr Sweeney wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.\n\nHe said the court would start considering the issue of compensation in January.\n\nThe lawyers for the two companies made their final arguments on Monday in a trial that lasted more than a month.\n\nJurors unanimously found in favour of Epic on all counts.\n\nDespite the legal defeat, Google is continuing to defend its business model.\n\n\"Android and Google Play provide more choice and openness than any other major mobile platform,\" Wilson White, vice-president of government affairs and public policy at Google, said.\n\n\"The trial made clear that we compete fiercely with Apple and its App Store, as well as app stores on Android devices and gaming consoles,\" he added.\n\n\"We will continue to defend the Android business model and remain deeply committed to our users, partners, and the broader Android ecosystem.\"\n\nThe case also challenged transaction fees of up to 30% that Google imposes on Android app developers, and how the tech giant ties together its Play Store and billing service, which means developers must use both to have their apps in the store.\n\nThe ruling therefore could give developers more agency over how their apps are distributed and how they make money from them.\n\nGoogle maintains that its commissions are competitive for the industry, and that it provides added bonuses like reach, transaction security and protections against malware.\n\nBut, if the ruling stands, Google may have to allow more app stores onto Android-powered devices and will lose revenue it makes from any in-app purchases.\n\nEpic has its own app store on PC, which offers its own products as well as third-party apps and games.\n\nIt is a competitor to Steam, one of the world's largest video game distribution platforms.\n\nGoogle Play Store is one of the world's largest app stores and competes directly with Apple's App Store.\n\nAndroid powers roughly 70% of smartphones globally, and according to Epic games, more than 95% of Android apps are distributed through the Play Store.\n\nThe store is not as profitable for the tech giant as its search business, but the platform gives Google access to billions of mobile phones and tablets.\n\nEpic said in the lawsuit that Google \"suppresses innovation and choice\" through a \"web of secretive, anti-competitive agreements\".\n\n\"Over the course of the trial we saw evidence that Google was willing to pay billions of dollars to stifle alternative app stores by paying developers to abandon their own store efforts and direct distribution plans, and offering highly lucrative agreements with device manufacturers in exchange for excluding competing app stores,\" Epic games said in a statement after the verdict.\n\nGoogle had countersued for damages against Epic for allegedly violating the company's developer agreement.\n\nThe tech giant has faced a number of anti-trust cases, settling similar claims from dating app Match before the Epic trial started.\n\nEpic filed a similar antitrust case against Apple in 2020, but a US judge largely ruled in favour of Apple in 2021.\n\n\"The evidence presented in this case demonstrates the urgent need for legislation and regulations that address Apple and Google strangleholds over smartphones,\" Epic Games said in its statement.", "Last updated on .From the section Sports Personality\n\nVenue:Date: Coverage: Live on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app\n\nA shortlist of six contenders has been announced for the 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.\n\nCricketer Stuart Broad, jockey Frankie Dettori, footballer Mary Earps, wheelchair tennis player Alfie Hewett, athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson and golfer Rory McIlroy are the nominees.\n\nVoting will take place during the show on BBC One on Tuesday, 19 December.\n\nGary Lineker, Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott will present the 70th edition of the annual awards.\n\nThe programme - broadcast live at MediaCityUK in Salford - will celebrate 12 months of incredible sporting action.\n\nThe public can vote by phone or online on the night for the main award, with full details announced during the show.\n\nOther awards to be announced include Young Sports Personality of the Year, Team and Coach of the Year, Unsung Hero and the Helen Rollason Award.\n\nThe Lifetime Achievement and World Sport Star awards will also be presented.\n\nVoting for the World Sport Star award is still open, but will close at 22:00 GMT.\n• None Recap: Who did you want to see on the shortlist?\n\nStuart Broad bowed out of cricket in 2023 with a fairytale ending. After the shock announcement he was retiring after the fifth Ashes Test, he scored a six with his last ball as a batter and took the final wicket of the match to give England victory.\n\nIt was his 22nd of a series in which he surpassed Ian Botham to become the highest wicket-taker from any nation against Australia.\n\nHe finished his career with 604 Test wickets, placing him fifth on the all-time list and behind only long-time England team-mate James Anderson among fast bowlers. He is also one of only 10 men in history to score more than 3,000 runs and take 300 wickets at Test level.\n\nFrankie Dettori's farewell tour in his final year racing in the UK brought a host of big wins in his customary flamboyant style.\n\nThey included two Classics - claiming the 2000 Guineas on Chaldean and the Oaks on Soul Sister. Other successes included the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot on Courage Mon Ami, and the Coronation Cup at Epsom on Emily Upjohn.\n\nHis final UK meeting was Champions Day at Ascot and, needless to say, it brought more glory. Having already won the opening race on the card, he bowed out with a last-to-first victory on King Of Steel in the Champion Stakes in his final ride on British soil before moving to the United States.\n\nMary Earps was England's standout player as they reached the Women's World Cup final for the first time - playing every minute of their seven matches, conceding only four goals and keeping three clean sheets which helped her win the World Cup's Golden Glove award.\n\nShe was voted England Women's Player of the Year for 2022-2023 and finished fifth in the voting for the Ballon d'Or award. The Fifa Best Women's Goalkeeper was also integral as England won the inaugural Women's Finalissima with a penalty shootout defeat of Brazil in April.\n\nIn domestic football, Earps claimed the Women's Super League Golden Glove for the 2022-23 season with Manchester United, having kept a record 14 clean sheets.\n\nAlfie Hewett enjoyed a stunning 2023, winning seven singles tournaments including the Australian and US Opens, and only narrowly missing out on a third Grand Slam title at Wimbledon.\n\nHis achievements also included winning the Wheelchair Singles Masters, and ending the year as world number one for the first time.\n\nIn doubles, he and Gordon Reid claimed three of the four Grand Slam titles on offer - the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon - and took their career tally to 18 titles together at the majors. He was also an integral part of the Great Britain squad that were crowned World Team Cup champions.\n\nKatarina Johnson-Thompson won her second heptathlon World Championship title in sensational style, edging out the United States' Anna Hall by just 20 points after a titanic battle in Budapest.\n\nThe Liverpudlian was 93 points behind at the end of day one but roared back the following morning, posting a huge long jump of 6.54m, and a personal best in the javelin. She then recorded another PB in the final event, the 800m, to secure an emotional gold.\n\nHer win was even more impressive given the injury troubles that have blighted her career since tearing her Achilles after her first world gold in 2019, and which led her to questioning her future in the sport.\n\nAfter a chastening experience at the 2021 Ryder Cup, in which he was left in tears after Europe lost by a record margin to the United States, Rory McIlroy gained revenge at this year's tournament.\n\nA talismanic performance led to him finishing as the top points scorer on either side with four out of five matches won, and Europe's victory gave the Northern Irishman his fifth Ryder Cup triumph.\n\nOn the PGA Tour, he posted a remarkable 13 top-10 finishes in 18 events, including at three of the four majors, and won the Scottish Open. He also retained the Race to Dubai title for the fifth time and spent part of the year ranked as the world number one.\n• None Sports Personality of the Year: Terms and conditions\n\nWho was on the judging panel?\n\nThe industry panel for this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year included former England footballer Ellen White, ex-hurdler Colin Jackson, Paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds and ex-Scotland rugby international Chris Paterson.\n\nSports journalists Charlotte Harpur (The Athletic), David Coverdale (Daily Mail) and Rob Maul (The Sun), were also on the 2023 panel, in addition to UK Sport chair Kath Grainger and broadcaster Holly Hamilton.\n\nRepresenting the BBC were director of sport Barbara Slater, head of TV sport Philip Bernie and Sports Personality of the Year executive producer Gabby Cook.", "Seventeen journalists have been killed covering the war began between Israel and Hamas which erupted on on 7 October, according to the Reporters Without Borders (RWB) international non-governmental organisation.\n\nOf these 13 were killed in the Gaza Strip, RWB says .\n\nBut if you include journalists killed in \"circumstances unproven to be related to their duties\", a total of 63 have been killed in the war.\n\nThe data was accurate as of 1 December.\n\nReuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed in an apparent strike across the Israel-Lebanon border in October Image caption: Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed in an apparent strike across the Israel-Lebanon border in October\n\nEarlier this month, human rights groups said Israel should be investigated for a possible war crime over the death of a journalist in Lebanon in October.\n\nReuters reporter Issam Abdallah, 37, died in apparent tank fire across the Israel-Lebanon border. Six other people were wounded.\n\nAmnesty and Human Rights Watch said investigations had shown the journalists had probably been fired on deliberately by an Israeli tank crew.", "Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has seen off a Tory rebellion over his flagship Rwanda bill but still faces a battle to get it through Parliament.\n\nThe legislation comfortably passed its first Commons hurdle with a majority of 44, but there will be further votes in the new year.\n\nNo Tory MPs voted against but some critics on the right of the party rebelled by abstaining.\n\nRebels said they had been told the PM would consider \"tightening\" the bill.\n\nBut this could risk losing the support of more centrist Tory MPs, who have warned they would oppose any future changes which would breach international law.\n\nThe emergency legislation was drawn up to revive the government's plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nThe government say the scheme is designed to deter migrants from crossing the Channel in small boats - something Mr Sunak has made one of his key priorities.\n\nIn a sign of nerves in Downing Street over the potential for a tight result, Climate Minister Graham Stuart flew back from the COP28 climate conference in Dubai to vote.\n\nBut despite some Tories on the right threatening to vote against the bill, in the end only opposition MPs did, and the bill passed by 313 votes to 269.\n\nAround 29 Conservative MPs - including former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, who resigned over the legislation last week, and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman - chose to abstain and not support the bill.\n\nAltogether 37 Tory MPs did not record a vote, however some of those may have simply been unable to attend the vote rather than deliberately abstaining.\n\nShortly before the vote, five factions of backbench MPs - the European Research Group (ERG), the New Conservatives, the Common Sense Group, the Conservative Growth Group and Northern Research Group - announced they could not support the bill in its current form.\n\nThey plan to propose amendments and said they could vote the bill down when it returns to the Commons in the new year if the changes they wanted were not accepted.\n\nChairman of the ERG - a faction to the right of the party - Mark Francois, who was among those who abstained, told BBC News: \"Our objection was that we don't believe, as it's currently drafted, the bill is firm enough to ensure that flights will take off to Rwanda.\"\n\n\"The prime minister had said that he would entertain tightening up the bill. We're taking him at his word,\" he said.\n\n\"A number of MPs voted with the government... because they were told in private that there would be amendments later on.\"\n\nHowever, agreeing to their demands would create new problems for the government.\n\nThe centrist One Nation group, which includes more than 100 Tory MPs, had recommended that its members vote for the bill, but warned it would oppose any future amendments \"that would mean the UK government breaching the rule of law and its international obligations\".\n\nGroup member Matt Warman told the BBC's World Tonight programme: \"We don't want to see the bill change in a way that goes over the red lines of international law… anything that goes over those red lines is out of the question\".\n\nHe added that \"there is a possibility for sensible compromise as we go into the next stages of this bill\".\n\nTougher legislation may be more difficult to get through the House of Lords.\n\nOne Nation Chairman Damian Green told BBC News the vote had seen far fewer abstentions than expected and that \"if the government sticks to its guns then it can probably get this legislation through intact\".\n\nHome Office Minister Chris Philp said the government would listen to ideas from MPs on how to improve the bill.\n\n\"Like with any bill, government ministers will be talking to members of Parliament to see if there are ways of tightening this even further, to improve the drafting to make sure there are absolutely no loopholes at all,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Why Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill battle is far from over\n\nBen Bradley MP of the Common Sense Group told BBC's Newsnight that \"pragmatism has got to meet ideology at some point. What is the strongest we can deliver versus what is perfect'.\"\n\nThe bill seeks to declare in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country to send asylum seekers to, after the Supreme Court ruled the policy was unlawful last month.\n\nHowever, critics on the right of the party have argued it is not currently strong enough to prevent legal challenges to deportations.\n\nA No 10 spokesperson said the bill was \"the toughest legislation ever introduced to Parliament\" and \"makes clear that this Parliament, not any foreign court is sovereign\".\n\n\"We will now work to ensure that this bill gets on to the statute book so that we can get flights off to Rwanda and stop the boats,\" the spokesperson added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nLabour voted against the bill, along with other opposition parties, and the party has said it would scrap the Rwanda plan if it wins the next election.\n\nIt says the millions of pounds given to Rwanda as part of the deal would be better spent tackling people-smuggling gangs.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: \"The Conservatives' civil war is continuing, and the country is paying the price for this chaos.\n\n\"Today's debate shows how weak Rishi Sunak is with this Tory psychodrama now dragging on into the new year.\"", "Claudine Gay testified before Congress last week alongside presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT\n\nHarvard University says its president, Claudine Gay, will keep her job despite mounting controversy over her appearance before Congress last week.\n\nDr Gay was facing pressure to step down after she failed to say whether students calling for the genocide of Jewish people would be disciplined.\n\nBut in a letter over the weekend nearly 700 staff members rallied behind her.\n\nIn a statement on Tuesday, the school's board said it was \"reaffirm[ing] our support\" for her leadership.\n\n\"Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing,\" said the Harvard Corporation, the highest governing board at the university.\n\n\"In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay,\" the 13-member board added.\n\nThe news Dr Gay will remain as president comes just days after the head of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), Elizabeth Magill, said she would resign after facing a similar backlash over her own congressional testimony.\n\nDr Gay testified alongside Ms Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Sally Kornbluth at a House of Representatives hearing on antisemitism last week.\n\nDuring tense questioning from Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Dr Gay said she believed calls for the genocide of Jews were abhorrent, but said whether it would constitute a violation of Harvard's code of conduct regarding bullying and harassment depended on the context.\n\nIn an interview with Harvard's campus newspaper, the Crimson, shortly after, she apologised.\n\n\"When words amplify distress and pain, I don't know how you could feel anything but regret,\" she said.\n\nIn its statement, the Harvard Corporation said calls for genocide were \"despicable\" and added that Dr Gay's initial statement \"should have been an immediate, direct, and unequivocal condemnation\".\n\nBut the school noted Harvard's president had apologised for how she handled her testimony before Congress.\n\n\"Harvard's mission is advancing knowledge, research, and discovery that will help address deep societal issues and promote constructive discourse, and we are confident that President Gay will lead Harvard forward toward accomplishing this vital work,\" the board said.\n\nNearly 700 faculty members signed a petition over the weekend asking Harvard to \"resist political pressures that are at odds with Harvard's commitment to academic freedom\" and keep Dr Gay as president.\n\nOne signatory, Harvard Professor Alison Frank Johnson, told the BBC's Newshour programme that Dr Gay had given a \"catastrophic set of answers\" at the hearing, but said the \"question of university autonomy\" drove her and others to sign the petition supporting the president.\n\n\"I think it was a catastrophic set of answers that didn't do justice to her or to our university and I don't want to defend them. But I don't think they actually reveal a moral degeneracy on the part of the Presidency or the university leadership that requires that she should be fired\" she said.\n\nBut StopAntisemitism, a non-profit focused on combatting discrimination against Jewish people, lambasted the Harvard Corporation for \"failing to hold\" Dr Gay accountable.\n\n\"The Corporation's decision serves only to greenlight more Jew-hatred on campus,\" the group said. \"StopAntisemitism continues to call for President Gay's resignation and urges the Corporation to reconsider its decision and hire someone who is committed to protecting every Harvard student.\"\n\nMeanwhile, more than 70 lawmakers, mostly Republicans, had called on Dr Gay to resign, claiming university president's answers at the hearing were \"abhorrent\".\n\nIn the wake of the war in Gaza, college campuses across the US have emerged as the sites of frequent pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli protests, raising concerns about both Islamophobia and antisemitism.\n\nAppointed in July, Dr Gay is Harvard University's first black president in its 368-year history. The daughter of Haitian immigrants, she earned a degree in economics from Stanford University, where she once taught.\n\nDr Gay went on to obtain a PhD in government from Harvard, where she began teaching African and African-American Studies in 2007.\n\nWhile Dr Gay quickly received significant backing, Elizabeth Magill came under fierce external pressure to resign.\n\nThe UPenn president announced her decision to resign from the University of Pennsylvania shortly after a major university donor withdrew a $100m (£80m) grant in protest over her comments.\n\nShe had faced a backlash before her congressional testimony, including from some of the school's wealthiest donors, who argued she had not issued a swift and strong enough rebuke of the Hamas attacks.\n\nMolly McPherson, a crisis management strategist, told the BBC that larger dynamics at their two universities also explain why one president is still standing and the other has resigned.\n\n\"Each institution has their own set of values, their own donors and donor expectations,\" she said. \"Harvard was ready to support Gay, and UPenn was ready to let Magill go.\"\n\nBut she added that the way Ms Magill chose to respond to the backlash over her testimony likely did not help. While Dr Gay went directly to the student body through the school newspaper, Ms Magill issued an apology video that appeared \"awkward, stilted, unrehearsed and scripted\", she said.\n\nThe video \"lacked all authenticity and seemed removed from what the real problem was, and that is the disconnection between her views and the protection of the students\", Ms McPherson said.\n\nDr Gay's response stood in stark contrast, she said. \"Her remarks were relatable,\" she said. \"She chose a proactive approach.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Rishi Sunak has seen off, at least for now, the threat to his Rwanda legislation from various groups of Conservative MPs who were unhappy with it.\n\nIt was thought his bill, which would revive the plan to send some asylum seekers to the east African country after the Supreme Court ruled the previous version was unlawful, might be in jeopardy.\n\nBut it lives on and will return to the Commons in the new year.\n\nAt one stage before Tuesday's vote, five of the groups on the right of the party held a joint meeting in Westminster, describing themselves as the \"five families\".\n\nThis was widely seen as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the five Italian-American mafia crime families that operate in New York.\n\nAll political parties have factions - like-minded MPs who get together to campaign on issues they care about.\n\nTheir membership tends to be loose and sometimes overlaps. They don't all vote the same way, though in some cases they have been remarkably disciplined.\n\nAnd, despite a hefty Commons majority, the prime minister needs to keep most of them onside.\n\nBut who are these and other Conservative factions? And why do they exert so much influence?\n\nThe largest single group within the parliamentary party says more than 100 Conservative MPs are members, almost a third of the total.\n\nThe phrase, \"one-nation Tory\", goes back to 19th-century Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, but the caucus was formed only in 2019.\n\nChaired by former First Secretary of State Damian Green, it says it is \"committed to the values of the liberal centre right\".\n\nMany of its members represent traditionally Tory \"blue wall\" seats where the Liberal Democrats are the main challengers.\n\nSome were known to be unhappy that Mr Sunak's new Rwanda bill sets aside some of the UK's obligations in international law, but they backed the bill while warning the PM not to toughen it further.\n\nFormer Solicitor General Lord Garnier, who advised the caucus, had described the bill as political and legal \"nonsense\", equivalent to ruling \"all dogs are cats\".\n\nOther leading lights include Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, Security Minister Tom Tugendhat and Caroline Nokes, who chairs the women and equalities committee.\n\nOnce the most powerful grouping of Tory MPs, the ERG played a key role in blocking Theresa May's Brexit deal and then bringing her down as prime minister, which paved the way for successor Boris Johnson to strike a harder Brexit.\n\nIt does not publish information about its membership, but this is currently thought to be in the 30s, significantly down on its Brexit heyday.\n\nHowever, the ERG has often punched above its weight, and numerous leading lights have gone on to bigger things - including Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Suella Braverman. New illegal migration minister Michael Tomlinson was deputy chair of the group from 2016-2018.\n\nIt has been pressing for a hardline approach on the illegal migration issue and its so-called \"star chamber\" - a group of lawyers chaired by veteran Eurosceptic Sir Bill Cash - concluded the Rwanda legislation did not go far enough.\n\nThe ERG - chaired by Mark Francois - said \"very significant amendments\" were needed.\n\nIt is likely to push strongly for these in the new year.\n\nFormed only in May 2023, the New Conservatives have fast become one of the most vocal factions within the party.\n\nAround 30 MPs are members, including deputy Tory chairman Lee Anderson, and group co-chairs Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger.\n\nMost were elected in 2019, many in marginal, traditionally Labour, \"red wall\" seats in the north of England and the Midlands.\n\nThe New Conservatives have called for radical measures to cut migration and pressed the government to deliver deportations to Rwanda by \"unpicking\" many of the UK's international obligations.\n\nMs Cates and Mr Kruger were among the 29 Tories who refused to back the Rwanda bill in the Commons.\n\nOn broader policy, the group says the party needs to return its 2019 manifesto by delivering levelling up and reducing taxes, rein back on green measures, and ban \"gender ideology\" in schools.\n\nLaunched in 2020 and with around 30 members, the CSG is led by former Home Office minister Sir John Hayes, a close ally of Suella Braverman.\n\nLike her, he has been fiercely critical of Mr Sunak's Rwanda approach and, alongside the New Conservatives, the group has been pressing for tougher action on both illegal and legal migration.\n\nIt has also pushed hard on culture issues, such as Mr Sunak's plans to phase out smoking, other manifestations of what it regards as \"the nanny state\", and what it described as the National Trust's \"woke agenda\" on colonialism.\n\nSir John and Mrs Braverman both abstained on the government's bill.\n\nThought to number more than 50 MPs, the group was formed in 2019 to press for greater investment in \"red wall\" areas in the north of England, Wales and the Scottish borders.\n\nSenior figures include former party chairman and Northern Powerhouse minister Sir Jake Berry, former Brexit Secretary David Davis, and Esther McVey, who returned to the cabinet last month.\n\nThe NRG regards immigration as an important issue for many of its MPs' voters.\n\nSir Jake was one of those who withheld his support for the Rwanda bill.\n\nFormer prime minister Liz Truss addressed a packed fringed event at the Conservative Party conference in October\n\nAround 50 MPs are thought to be members of a group set up in the aftermath of Liz Truss's disastrous, short tenure at No 10.\n\nIts focus is chiefly economic: it advocates the libertarian policies it believes Ms Truss was prevented from introducing by the unravelling of her mini-budget in September-October 2022.\n\nIt says the policies needed to break out of a long period of low growth include slashing business taxes and stamp duty, toughening benefit requirements, relaxing planning, and reintroducing fracking.\n\nProminent figures include former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel and former Levelling-Up Secretary Sir Simon Clarke.\n\nShe backed the bill in the Commons; he abstained.\n\nThese include No Turning Back - formed as far back as 1985 - to promote Margaret Thatcher's policies.\n\nSince 2005, it has been chaired by Sir John Redwood, who has campaigned for the UK to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights to ensure the Rwanda plan can go ahead without further legal delays. He abstained on the bill.\n\nThe Conservative Democratic Organisation, launched a year ago, was widely thought to be front for an effort to restore Boris Johnson to Downing Street. It has denied this.\n\nIt calls for greater party democracy and condemned Mr Sunak's \"coronation\" as prime minister without a Tory members' vote. It has also described his sacking of Ms Braverman as \"political suicide\".\n\nDame Priti Patel, Nadine Dorries, who is no longer an MP, and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg are prominent. supporters. Sir Jacob voted for the bill.", "A cordon remains in place at the property in Ipswich where the baby was found\n\nA post-mortem is taking place later to establish the cause of death of a newborn baby found in Ipswich on Saturday.\n\nOfficers were called to a property on Norwich Road. The body of a baby was found outside and detectives say they are treating the incident as isolated.\n\nTwo men and a \"teenage female\" were arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nThe men, aged in their 30s, have been released on bail while the third person is still being questioned, police said.\n\nAs well as police, paramedics were also called to the scene on Saturday, where the baby was pronounced dead.\n\nDetectives said local residents will continue to see an increased police presence, including uniformed officers.\n\nMembers of the public are encouraged to approach officers and discuss any concerns they may have, Suffolk Police said.", "A residential structure partially collapsed in the Bronx borough of New York City on Monday. No casualties were reported and officials are investigating what caused the incident. Residents were safely evacuated to a nearby school.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Australian swimmers approach the whale while it was still alive\n\nA sperm whale filmed swimming among people at Western Australian beach has died after becoming stuck on a sandbar.\n\nWildlife officers had spent several days trying to guide the elderly whale - which was injured and severely sunburnt - back to deeper waters.\n\nSwimmers were pictured stroking the 15m (49ft) mammal on Saturday while it was still alive, prompting experts to warn of dangers to both it and humans.\n\nThe whale's carcass will now be removed to minimise shark risks.\n\nThe largest toothed whale in the world, sperm whales are deep sea feeders and rarely spotted near shore. Authorities were alarmed to find the whale swimming dangerously close to Port Beach in Fremantle on Saturday.\n\n\"We were pretty aware very quickly that it wasn't in good condition,\" said Mark Cugley, a spokesman for the state's Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.\n\nThe 30-tonne animal returned to sea but wildlife experts warned it was at risk of stranding and that interacting with it was dangerous.\n\nThe whale reappeared on Monday nearby at Rockingham, where it beached itself.\n\nAuthorities closed the beach as they tried to save it. Rescuers sprayed the animal with water to minimise its blistering and sunburn, but it was too weak to return to sea and deteriorated further before dying on Tuesday morning.\n\nMr Cugley said the department would now make plans to remove the carcass using a crane, and transport it to landfill.\n\n\"We will be looking at certainly doing some post-mortem or necropsy analysis as well to understand anything more we can about the death of the whale and also about this species, given it's quite unusual to have a sperm whale in this area of Perth,\" he said.\n\nIndividual whale strandings are not uncommon in Australia, particularly when the animals are sick, which can often cause them to become disorientated.\n\nSperm whales are listed as endangered in Australia. Numbers are recovering after they were hunted to near extinction in the 19th and 20th centuries.", "Hundreds of vulnerable women and children are being trafficked to the UK to shoplift for Eastern European crime groups, the BBC has learned.\n\nOne company in Scotland told BBC File on 4 it had identified a gang with 154 shoplifters stealing high-value items in bulk to sell or ship abroad.\n\nMembers have been arrested in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Darlington.\n\nRetailers Against Crime (RAC) said it was tracking 56 shoplifting groups that are funding organised crime.\n\nThe criminals activities have been linked to drugs, firearms and human trafficking.\n\nMaxine Fraser, managing director at RAC, works in partnership with Police Scotland and 1,500 shops in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England.\n\nRAC has been tracking the 154-person group since 2019. It is based in Glasgow and travels across the UK to shoplift.\n\nThe gang based in Glasgow is operating across the UK\n\nMs Fraser said the gang has a number of children who have been trafficked to the UK specifically to shoplift.\n\nShe cites four girls who arrived in 2019 and are still working with the group.\n\n\"They've all been here in the UK since they were between 12 and 14 years old,\" she added.\n\n\"There are probably in the region of 15 children working in this group at the moment.\n\nMany members of this gang have been arrested and jailed for shoplifting.\n\nHowever, when charged with a single offence they're not imprisoned for long. Upon release, the cycle of shoplifting continues.\n\nMaxine Fraser says many women and children are trafficked specifically to shoplift\n\nIt is a problem seen across the UK.\n\nThe British Retail Consortium estimates that shoplifting cost retailers £953m last year, with a 25% rise in reported incidents.\n\nOrganised crime groups are blamed for many of the largest losses.\n\nAnother 100-strong gang operates in London with members that are almost exclusively female, all trafficked from Eastern Europe.\n\nFormer police officer Adam Ratcliffe, who runs the Safer Business Network, has worked through hours of CCTV and police information to establish links within this group.\n\nHe said the gang has clear aims.\n\n\"This group is targeting cosmetic stores going after fragrance, high value face creams and cosmetics,\" he said.\n\n\"They are stealing keys to the secure cabinets within these stores where the products are stored.\n\n\"They go in. Five, six, seven of them at a time. They open the drawer and they fill the bags\".\n\nMen are also involved, often on the periphery, running operations from a safe distance.\n\nHe said gangs will choose young women to carry out crimes because they are less likely to be seen as criminals by security guards and shop staff.\n\nMr Ratcliffe said those carrying out the crimes are often at the bottom of the ladder, carrying all the risk and seeing none of the reward.\n\n\"It's a godawful life for these people, they are vulnerable and have been exploited,\" he said.\n\n\"Their lives are horrific. They are living in houses of multiple occupancy, 30, 40 of them at a time, sleeping on mattresses in dirty rooms, being used and abused as criminals for financial gain.\"\n\nFile on 4: Organised crime and shoplifting is on BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 on Tuesday 12 December 2023.", "The painting by Giuseppe Cesari was put before pupils in the first year of high school\n\nFrance's education minister has visited a school where some pupils refused to look at a painting of nude women in class, sparking a teacher walkout.\n\nThe pupils also accused their teacher of making racist and Islamophobic remarks, which the school denies.\n\nTeachers at the Jacques-Cartier school near Paris refused to work in response.\n\nTensions had apparently been high since the start of term, with officials citing repeated complaints by parents about coursework and punishments.\n\nThe row began when a teacher showed Diana and Actaeon, a Renaissance-era painting portraying a mythical scene from Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses.\n\nSeveral first-year high school students, aged 11 and 12, said they were offended by the work by 17th-Century Italian painter Giuseppe Cesari, Sophie Venetitay from the Snes-FSU teachers union told AFP.\n\n\"Some students averted their gaze, felt offended, said they were shocked,\" Ms Venetitay said, adding that \"some also alleged the teacher made racist comments\" during a class discussion.\n\nThe next day, according to French reports, a parent wrote to the head teacher claiming that his son had been prevented from expressing himself in a later class discussion.\n\nStaff felt they had been left unsupported and were working in a \"degraded climate\", Ms Venetitay said.\n\nShe said the case recalled the brutal killing of Samuel Paty, who was murdered after he showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a class.\n\nFrench authorities believe untrue rumours spread about the class contributed to inciting an 18-year-old radicalised Chechen refugee to murder him close to the teacher's school in a Paris suburb. Last week, six teenagers were convicted for their role in the murder.\n\nEducation Minister Gabriel Attal said the pupils behind the complaints at the Jacques-Cartier school would face disciplinary measures and a team would visit the school to make sure it adhered to \"values of the republic\".\n\nOn Tuesday, classes at the school restarted after several days' interruption.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nA Turkish football club president has been arrested after punching a referee following a top-flight match on Monday.\n\nMKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca ran onto the pitch and struck match official Halil Umut Meler after his team conceded a 97th-minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Caykur Rizespor.\n\nJustice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said Koca and two others were formally arrested for \"injuring a public official\".\n\nAll Turkish league football has been suspended.\n\nFifa president Gianni Infantino said the incident was \"totally unacceptable\" and violence had \"no place in our sport or society\".\n\n\"Without match officials there is no football,\" he said. \"Referees, players, fans and staff have to be safe and secure to enjoy the game, and I call on the relevant authorities to ensure that this is strictly implemented and respected at all levels.\"\n\nTunc said Koca and two others had been arrested after prosecutors took statements and a judicial control decision had been imposed on three other suspects.\n\n\"The investigation is continuing meticulously,\" he added.\n\nKoca later issued a statement via Ankaragucu saying he had resigned as club president and apologising for his actions.\n\n\"No matter how great an injustice or how wrong [the officiating] was, nothing can legitimise or explain the violence that I perpetrated,\" he said.\n\n\"I apologise to the Turkish refereeing community, the sports public and our nation.\"\n\nHe added he felt \"great embarrassment\" for the \"grave incident that I caused\" but hoped it could help Turkish football address its \"culture of violence\".\n\nHosts Ankaragucu had taken an early lead in Monday night's Super Lig match before they had a player sent off after 50 minutes. Caykur equalised late on after also having a player sent off, and chaotic scenes followed the final whistle.\n\nHaving been knocked to the ground, Meler received several blows as he lay on the turf, suffering injuries including a small facial fracture.\n\nHe was pictured on Tuesday lying in a hospital bed with a swollen face and wearing a neck brace.\n\nMehmet Yorubulut, chief doctor of Acibadem hospital, said Meler had not suffered any brain damage and was likely to be discharged on Wednesday.\n\n\"The bleeding in Meler's left eye started to decrease,\" said Yorubulut, who added there would be no permanent damage.\n\nMeler, 37, is one of Turkey's top referees and officiates international games for Fifa. He is also on Uefa's elite referee list and officiated West Ham's Europa Conference League semi-final first leg against AZ Alkmaar last season and took charge of Lazio's Champions League group game with Celtic last month.\n\nAccording to Turkish news agencies, Meler said: \"Faruk Koca punched me under my left eye - I fell to the ground. While I was on the ground, other people kicked me in the face and other parts of my body many times.\"\n\nKoca, 59, was twice elected to Turkey's parliament as part of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party.\n\nHe was earlier quoted by news agencies in Turkey as saying he does not accept responsibility, adding: \"This incident developed due to the wrong decisions and provocative behaviour of the referee. My aim was to react verbally to the referee and spit in his face.\"\n\nPresident Erdogan spoke to Meler in hospital and said the incident had \"saddened and disturbed\" him.\n\nHe had earlier said: \"Sports means peace and brotherhood. Sport is incompatible with violence. We will never allow violence to take place in Turkish sports.\"\n\nWhat has been the reaction?\n• None 'Attack leaves crisis that goes beyond football'\n\nAnkaragucu expressed regret following their president's actions, saying in a statement: \"We are saddened by the incident.\n\n\"We apologise to the Turkish football public and the entire sports community for the sad incident that occurred after the Caykur Rizespor match at Eryaman Stadium.\"\n\nCaykur Rizespor sent a message of support to Meler and said: \"We strongly condemn the undesirable events that occurred after the Ankaragucu match.\n\n\"We convey our wishes to the entire referee community, especially the referee of the match, Halil Umut Meler, to get well soon.\"\n\nIn a news conference on Monday night, Turkish FA [TFF] chairman Mehmet Buyukeksi said: \"The matches in all leagues have been postponed indefinitely.\n\n\"This attack is a night of shame for Turkish football.\"\n\nBuyukeksi also visited Meler in hospital on Tuesday and said that Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin had been in contact and told him: 'We are with you, we are ready to do whatever it takes'.\"\n\nTurkey is set to co-host Euro 2032 with Italy but Buyukeksi said the incident had not jeopardised hosting rights, adding: \"There is no negativity. Please let us not misinform the public. Our goal is to ensure that football is played properly in Turkey and to continue as quickly as possible without any problems.\n\n\"But right now, our referee is important, the mental health of our referees is important. Other issues are not important.\"\n\nHe also said the federation's board of directors would meet on Wednesday and they will \"give detailed information about the decisions we will make about how the league will continue.\"\n\nHe added: \"This sad event should definitely not be forgotten. This should be a milestone.\"\n\nUefa chief Refereeing Officer Roberto Rosetti say European football's governing body \"strongly condemns\" the incident, adding: \"Violence and abuse against referees have no place in football and must stop immediately.\n\n\"We urge the authorities and the responsible disciplinary bodies to take decisive and necessary action against anyone involved in acts of abuse and violence against referees.\n\n\"Such unacceptable and distressing behaviour is detrimental to the efforts of national associations to recruit referees, which are essential for the running of the game.\n\nThe Association of Active Football Referees and Observers of Turkey called on all referees not to take the pitch until changes are made, adding: \"The violent attack on Meler was not only against our referee Halil Umut Meler but also against the entire referee community.\"\n\nThe Turkish Super Lig Professional Football Clubs' Foundation condemned the attack and said clubs were \"ready to take all steps to prevent violent incidents\".\n\nHoward Webb, Chief Refereeing Officer of the English refereeing body PGMOL, said: \"PGMOL stand in solidarity with our refereeing colleagues in Turkey and in particular Halil Umut Meler. We wish Halil a full and speedy recovery.\n\n\"There is no game without match officials. Like all participants, they need to be valued and respected for the good of the game.\"", "Three people who tortured, starved and beat to death a woman from west London have been found guilty of her murder.\n\nOn the evening of Monday 12 September last year, 35-year-old Shakira Spencer was driven back to her flat in a car boot by people she had once believed to be friends. A member of the public saw her fall as she was unable to walk from the car. It was the last time she was seen alive.\n\nShakira had suffered a campaign of cruelty and humiliation by her tormentors, who left her body to rot. It was found when neighbours reported maggots crawling under her front door two weeks later.\n\nAn Old Bailey jury has convicted Ashana Studholme, Lisa Richardson and Shaun Pendlebury of taking Ms Spencer's life and preventing her lawful burial.\n\nShakira Spencer had been a healthy young woman with a partner, two children and a home until she encountered evil. She fell under the control of Studholme, now 38, who had befriended her and went on to dominate and then abuse her in the year before her death.\n\nStudholme was the leader of the sadistic trio which included her friend, Lisa Richardson, 44, and one-time boyfriend, Shaun Pendlebury, 26.\n\nTheir trial heard how over a long period of time, they tormented, tortured, starved, burned and eventually battered Shakira to death. Prosecutor Allison Hunter KC, compared them to \"a pack of feral savages\".\n\nThey treated Shakira as their slave, ordering her to wake up in the early hours to run errands, feeding her only sachets of ketchup, while Studholme took control of her money.\n\n\"Shakira Spencer was clearly viewed as less than human by these three wicked defendants,\" Ms. Hunter told the Old Bailey jury.\n\nShakira Spencer (r) gradually fell under the control of Ashana Studholme (l)\n\nMonths of abuse came to a horrific conclusion in September 2022 at Ashana Studholme's flat in Harrow, north-west London, when their beatings took Shakira to the brink of death.\n\nStudholme and Pendlebury drove the dying young woman, in a car boot, back to her own flat in Ealing, west London, locked her in a hall cupboard. The killers later returned to move her to the bottom of a bunk bed. It is not known whether she was alive or dead at this point.\n\nThey left her body to rot. It was not found for two weeks.\n\nDet Ch Insp Brian Howie of the Metropolitan Police, who led the homicide investigation, says Shakira was vulnerable: \"I think she just wanted to be cared for, loved, have a friendship group around her and was just coerced and manipulated over a long period of time by these people.\"\n\nShakira Spencer first met Ashana Studholme when they became neighbours. Studholme targeted the young woman, described by another neighbour as \"a loveable person, but very slow and socially awkward who presented as someone with learning difficulties\".\n\nShe drew Shakira into what was described in court as her \"seedy\" social scene. She took her out drinking and introduced her to drugs, leading to a change in Shakira's behaviour.\n\nShakira's relationship broke up and so she became closer to Studholme who wound her tentacles around her, slowly isolating her.\n\n\"Ashana Studholme is a cruel, manipulative, coercive individual,\" says Det Ch Insp Howie. \"She seems to have a power over people and controls them. She is just a vile person.\"\n\nShakira Spencer, pictured on the left in 2017, was once a healthy young woman but was unrecognisable by the time she died in 2022\n\nAt the end of August, Shakira was stopped near Studholme's flat by police, who were concerned about her appearance and demeanour. She said nothing to them and returned to her solitary hell.\n\nTen days later, Studholme sent Richardson a message saying: \"I've buss her head I need you here I will go to jail.\" This was the signal for all three to gather at Studholme's flat.\n\nOver a weekend in September they carried out their final sustained attacks on Shakira, which would prove fatal. Boiling water was poured over her, a lighter and spray can was used as a blowtorch, burning her face and she was beaten around the head with a heavy massager.\n\n\"They have no remorse,\" says Det Ch Insp Howie. \"None of them gave her any medical assistance. None of them called any professionals, any doctors, tried to get any help for her at all, when they could have. That death could hopefully have been prevented at that point. But they didn't. And it was two weeks later that she was found in a badly decomposed state in her home.\"\n\nConcerned only for themselves, the killers tried to remove evidence of the \"beating, blood and torture\", he says. They scrambled to mount a clean-up operation. They were caught on CCTV buying products, using Shakira's bank card. Studholme was heard shouting: \"I can't go back to prison.\"\n\nSoon afterwards, the trio's bond of complicity was broken. Pendlebury confessed to members of his family what he and the two women had done. His uncle called the police. During the trial Pendlebury changed his story, saying he was not involved in Shakira's death.\n\nAt Studholme's flat, police found paperwork, showing she was receiving all Shakira's benefits and had control of her finances. Some documents were hidden under a mattress, others were in a bag emblazoned with the logo: \"It wasn't me.\"\n\nShakira Spencer's remains were so badly decomposed an exact cause of death could not be established. A post-mortem examination listed a catalogue of injuries to her head and feet. The prosecution said: \"Her body just simply wore out.\"\n\nThe smiling, healthy young woman, seen in photographs before she fell under the control of her abusers, died an emaciated wreck.\n\nThose who knew Shakira Spencer have been reflecting on her isolation and her slow degrading death.\n\nHer cousin, Tashica Loo, told the BBC: \"For someone who is bubbly and kind and caring, to just be taken away for what? It's heart-breaking.\"\n\nStudholme has a history of violence. The jury heard how she kicked and punched a woman in the back as she lay in the middle of the street, and was remanded in prison. Four years later, in 2017, she admitted a racially aggravated common assault on another female.\n\nNeighbours of Lisa Richardson in Northolt, west London describe her flat as a hive of anti-social behaviour, with visitors coming and going at all hours and fights in the stairwell. Shaun Pendlebury, whose attempt to distance himself from Shakira's killing has failed, has served a jail term for Class A drugs offences, intending to supply heroin and cocaine.\n\nJurors deliberated for nearly 18 hours to reach their verdicts, and were excused by the judge from jury service for life due to the \"harrowing nature\" of the case.\n\nPendlebury clapped the guilty of murder verdict twice ironically before walking out of the dock.\n\nHe and the two other defendants will be sentenced at a later date.\n\nTashica Loo says: \"No amount of time would be enough for what they have done. They have taken someone very special and what they have done is disgusting and sickening.\"\n\nEaling Council says it is carrying out a Safeguarding Adult Review into the case.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Morgan Smith, Callum Griffiths and Jesse Owen all died at the scene\n\nFamilies of three teenagers killed in a crash between a bus and an Audi A1 have paid tribute to them.\n\nCallum Griffiths, 19, and Jesse Owen and Morgan Smith, both 18, all died at the scene in Coedely, Rhondda Cynon Taf, at 19:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nMr Owen's family said his presence \"would light up any room\" while Mr Smith's family said they had been \"left with a void that can never be filled\".\n\nThe family of Mr Griffiths said their hearts were \"broken beyond repair\".\n\nThe BBC has been told the three teenagers had all been at a funeral prior to the fatal collision.\n\nTwo other people, aged 18 and 19, remain in hospital with life-threatening injuries while another two people were treated for minor injuries.\n\nThe terraced street where the crash happened, Elwyn Street, is a 20mph (32km/h) road and mourners have left floral tributes at the scene.\n\nThe crash happened on Elwyn Street, Coedely, on Monday night\n\nThe family of Mr Owen, from Penygraig, said he was \"loved by all\" who knew him.\n\nThey described him as a \"loving, happy, kind, calm and beautiful soul\" who would do \"absolutely anything for anyone\".\n\n\"He loved his family and friends and was loyal to the core. Jesse loved his boxing, watches and socialising with friends.\n\n\"He has left a huge void in all of our hearts and our lives will never be the same without him.\"\n\nMorgan Smith (centre) was a Welsh youth amateur boxing champion (pictured with Brett and Jac Parry from Maerdy Amateur Boxing Club)\n\nThe family of Mr Smith, from Clydach Vale, Tonypandy, said he was popular and a loved son, brother, grandson, nephew and cousin.\n\n\"Morgan was best known as a talented boxer previously gaining a Welsh title. He was an up-and-coming star with a promising boxing career ahead of him.\n\n\"We as a family are devastated by the loss of Morgan, we have been left with a void that can never be filled. We love you our boy.\"\n\nCalum Griffiths's family said \"our love is endless\"\n\nThe family of Mr Griffiths - his mum Natalie, dad Lee and his 15-year-old sister Erin - said the Porth teenager had a \"beautiful smile that would light up the room\".\n\n\"He was the most precious gift of a son and our love is endless,\" they added.\n\n\"Our hearts have been broken into a million pieces, broken beyond repair. He was so loving and had a caring soul. He has left a hole in our hearts that cannot be filled.\"\n\nJesse Owen's family said he was \"loved by all\"\n\nThey said he had just qualified as a barber.\n\nHis sister Erin added: \"Callum was my best friend and the most selfless person in the world. I will always love him and am so proud of him.\"\n\nMorgan Smith's father Daniel Chalfont said on Facebook: \"Literally the most perfect son you could ever wish for. Don't know how I'll live life without you.\"\n\nA joint statement issued on behalf of the teenagers' former schools said it was \"incredibly sad that lives full of potential and promise have been sadly taken too soon\".\n\n\"The school communities of Porth Community School, Tonyrefail Community School and Ysgol Nantgwyn are completely devastated by the news that former pupils were involved in a fatal incident yesterday evening in Coedely,\" the three head teachers said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. On the scene of fatal Coedely crash\n\n\"Pupils and staff from all our schools send their heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the families of the former pupils who have died.\"\n\nRhys Edwards, who trains at Rhondda Amateur Boxing Club, said he was friends with four of the five people involved in the crash and \"everyone's just devastated\".\n\nMaerdy Boxing Club paid tribute to Morgan, saying it had lost \"one of our own\".\n\n\"Morgan was the nicest person you could ever wish to meet\", said the club, adding he was \"a very talented boxer, becoming Welsh Champion, representing Wales in the British Championships\".\n\nWelsh Boxing said its thoughts were with his family and friends adding: \"Morgan became Welsh youth champion last year and represented Wales at the GB Three Nations tournament where he won a bronze medal.\"\n\nRhondda Cynon Taf's deputy mayor Dan Owen-Jones said he was one of the first at the scene, after receiving a call from someone living on the street.\n\nHe said: \"Later on there was lots and lots of family and friends. It was very distressing to see the family, but understandable, if it was one of my family I would have wanted to be there.\"\n\nMourners have begun leaving flowers at the scene of the fatal crash\n\nIn a Facebook post on a community page, he said: \"I have faced this evening tragedy and bereaved families at its worse, at times I was numb and helpless to the grieving families.\n\n\"I cannot even describe the pain, shock and suffering I have witnessed tonight… Horrific.\"\n\nOn Tuesday night, there was an event at St Alban's Church in Coedely where people lit candles and prayed.\n\nThe church said it would open its doors on Saturday between 09:00 and midday for people to come and pay their respects.\n\nPontypridd Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones, who lives in the village where the crash happened, told BBC Radio Wales' Drive the close-knit community was grieving for the dead and praying for those in hospital.\n\nShe added: \"It's going take us a very long time to recover from this awful, awful accident.\"\n\nMr Smith's former rugby club, Penygraig RFC, said: \"To those who knew Morgan, and the other young men involved, we would like you all to know there is always someone you can talk to.\"\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said on X, formerly Twitter: \"My thoughts are with the families and friends of those involved in this tragic incident.\"\n\nSupt Esyr Jones of South Wales Police said family liaison officers were supporting the families.\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service said seven ambulances were sent to the scene of the crash.\n\n\"Four people were taken to University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, and a fifth person was taken to Royal Glamorgan Hospital for further treatment,\" it added.", "Lincolnshire Police said the woman and the man had been released on bail\n\nTwo people have been arrested on suspicion of murder following the death of an eight-week-old baby.\n\nThe child died in hospital after officers were called to an address in Bourne, in Lincolnshire, on 31 October.\n\nFollowing an investigation into the child's death Lincolnshire Police said a 23-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man had been arrested.\n\nThe force said both had been since released on bail while the inquiry continues.\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Home Office seized clothes and accessories made from snakeskin\n\nThousands of illegal wildlife products, including crocodile blood, big cat body parts and rhino horns, have been seized in an operation by UK Border Force.\n\nClothes and accessories made from turtle shell, snakeskin and ivory were also among the 145 seizures in October, the Home Office said.\n\nMore than 50 live birds were also among the illegal wildlife products.\n\nThe UK seizures were part of a global operation across more than 133 countries that led to 500 arrests.\n\nConsumer products containing cactus, orchid and caviar were found, alongside more than 300kg of ivory.\n\nThousands of turtle eggs, 30 tonnes of plants, as well as primates, birds and marine species were also discovered.\n\nThe Home Office has been asked about the number of UK arrests linked to the action, known as Operation Thunder.\n\nMinister for legal migration and delivery Tom Pursglove said: \"The illegal wildlife trade is driven by criminal gangs and threatens species with extinction, fuels corruption, and deprives the world's poorest communities of sustainable livelihoods.\n\n\"Border Force plays a leading global role in eradicating this damaging illegal trade and our recent successes under Operation Thunder are proof of this.\"\n\nThe Home Office said it wants to help protect the overall decline of nature and meet the government's target of protecting 30% of nature by 2030 - which was agreed internationally at a UN summit.\n\nWildlife crime is believed to be worth up to £17bn globally a year and is the fourth-largest international crime, according to Interpol who co-led the global operation with the World Customs Organisation.\n\nThe Born Free charity, which campaigns to end the wildlife trade, said trafficking was closely tied to corruption, fraud and money laundering.\n\nDr Mark Jones, the organisation's head of policy, said: \"With so much of the world's wildlife in crisis, it's vital that our enforcement agencies are properly resourced to enable this essential and highly specialised work to continue.\"", "The Polish parliament has given former Prime Minister Donald Tusk a mandate to form a new coalition government.\n\nThe incoming administration will be sworn in at the presidential palace by President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday.\n\nIt will put an end to the eight-year rule of the right-wing nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which repeatedly clashed with EU authorities.\n\nHowever, Mr Tusk may face difficulties in meeting his promise to undo the effects of PiS rule.\n\nMr Tusk's centrist coalition won most seats in October's elections but had been unable to take office until now.\n\nThe PiS, led by Mateusz Morawiecki, emerged as the single biggest party after the election, but other parties refused to work alongside it and it was not able to form a majority in parliament.\n\nMr Morawiecki lost a vote of confidence on Monday, paving the way for Mr Tusk to return to power.\n\nMr Tusk was previously prime minister of Poland between 2007 and 2014, later becoming European Council president.\n\nOctober's elections saw his pro-EU coalition win a majority of seats with a record turnout of more than 70%.\n\nThe grouping comprises three parties, Mr Tusk's Civic Coalition (KO), the Third Way and the Left.\n\nCoalition MPs chanted Mr Tusk's name and sang the national anthem after the vote to designate him as prime minister.\n\nAmong those expected to be nominated to the new cabinet is Radoslaw Sikorski, who previously served as foreign minister under Mr Tusk.\n\nExpectations for the new coalition are high. The new government has pledged to restore the independence of the judiciary, which it says has been systematically undermined under previous administrations.\n\n\"We are working… on a whole set of measures that will restore the rule of law as much as possible,\" Mr Tusk said.\n\nHe has also pledged to unblock €36bn (£30bn) of EU funds earmarked for Poland, which Brussels has refused to release over rule of law concerns.\n\nA 2020 court decision which banned abortion in almost all cases will also be reversed, he said, while protections for LGBT people will be strengthened.\n\nMr Duda's decision to nominate Mr Morawiecki to form a government without any hope of winning a vote of confidence indicates that the president, who will be in office until 2025, intends to stymie Mr Tusk's plans.\n\nTo become law, bills approved by parliament need to be signed by Mr Duda, who can veto them. Mr Tusk's coalition does not have enough MPs to override a presidential veto.", "Nicaraguan Sheynnis Palacios won the Miss Universe title this year, a huge source of pride for the local owner of the franchise, Karen Celebertti\n\nThe director of the Miss Nicaragua beauty pageant, Karen Celebertti, has stepped down 10 days after she was accused of treason.\n\nPolice said Ms Celebertti had rigged the contest in favour of anti-government beauty queens.\n\nThe accusations were made days after Miss Nicaragua, Sheynnis Palacios, won the Miss Universe title.\n\nAfter her win, photos of Ms Palacios at a 2018 anti-government protest emerged, triggering the government's anger.\n\nThousands of Nicaraguans took to the streets to celebrate Ms Palacios's unexpected success at Miss Universe - the first time Nicaragua has won the pageant.\n\nMany waved the nation's official blue-and-white national flag, which has become associated with the anti-government protests which swept through the country in 2018 before being brutally repressed.\n\nAt pro-government events, the red-and-black flags of the Sandinsta movement are more popular than the national flag\n\nThe government of President Daniel Ortega - who has been in power since 2007 - initially released a statement welcoming Sheynnis Palacios's victory with \"pride and joy\". But it quickly turned against her and those linked to the pageant when the photos of her waving the national flag at a 2018 anti-government demonstration went viral.\n\nMs Palacios has not returned to Nicaragua since being crowned Miss Universe and opposition media reported that Ms Celebertti and her daughter were denied entry to Nicaragua, forcing them to fly to Mexico.\n\nLocal media also say that police arrested Ms Celebertti's husband and son, who co-own the local Miss Universe franchise. All three have been accused of treason.\n\nA police statement said they had taken part \"in the terrorist actions of the failed coup attempt\", a reference to the 2018 anti-government protests.\n\nThe statement claims that the family \"remained in communication with exponents of treason to the homeland, preparing to use their franchises and platforms allegedly devoted to 'innocent' beauty contests in a conspiracy to turn the contests into traps and political ambushes, financed by foreign agents.\"\n\nIt adds that they \"must serve their sentence according to Nicaraguan law\", even though no trial has so far been held.\n\nIn a statement published on X, formerly known as Twitter, Ms Celebertti insisted that there had never been any politics involved in the beauty pageants she had organised.\n\nMiguel Mendoza, a veteran Nicaraguan journalist who was among 222 critics of the government deported to the United States earlier this year, said that he hoped Ms Celebertti's resignation would lead to the release of her husband and son.\n\nAnti-government protests have been illegal in Nicaragua since 2018.", "Ms Gonoi said her colleagues made remarks about her body and would grope or rub against her with others watching\n\nA Japanese court has found three ex-soldiers guilty of sexually assaulting a female colleague.\n\nThe landmark verdict comes after Rina Gonoi, 24, caused a public outcry and drew international attention when she put her story on YouTube in 2022.\n\nFukushima prosecutors then brought charges against the three men in March, reversing their earlier decision.\n\nSpeaking out against sexual violence in deeply conservative Japan is rare and remains a taboo.\n\nMany such incidents go unreported and the topic has only gained national attention in recent years in the wake of high-profile cases such as Ms Gonoi, Shiori Ito's court battle and the Johnny Kitagawa expose.\n\n\"The ruling today proves what they did was a crime - so I want them to face up to it and reflect on their actions. And I hope that this verdict will encourage victims to speak out,\" Ms Gonoi told reporters outside court.\n\nThis is the first major verdict on sexual assault in Japan since June when the country overhauled its sex crime laws, which included redefining rape and raising the age of consent.\n\nIt was the result of years of activism following a series of controversial court rulings that acquitted alleged attackers. Activists say the previous laws often deterred survivors from speaking up.\n\n\"While there are still areas of improvement within society, today's ruling is a welcome sign that the voices of survivors of sexual violence in Japan will not go unheard, and that accountability for such rights abuses is possible,\" Kanae Doi, Japan Director at Human Rights Watch told the BBC.\n\n\"A 2021 government survey showed that about six percent of assault victims - both men and women - went to the police, while nearly half of [the female] respondents said they could not because of 'embarrassment'.\"\n\nWarning: This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault\n\nIn August 2021, three male colleagues pinned Ms Gonoi to a bed, forcibly spread her legs open and alternately and repeatedly pressed their crotches against her.\n\nShe earlier told the BBC that while around a dozen other colleagues were also present at the time, no one stopped the trio: \"Many were laughing.\"\n\nMs Gonoi reported the incident to her superiors but her complaint was dismissed as she was unable to obtain any witness testimony.\n\nLater, the three men were referred to prosecutors on suspicion of indecent assault by the Ground Self-Defence Force (GSDF) police unit, but the case was dropped for lack of evidence. Ms Gonoi eventually left the army.\n\nHer YouTube video went viral last year and she collected more than 100,000 signatures for a petition calling on the defence ministry to investigate her case. The ministry later apologised to her and launched a rare investigation that officials said found more than 100 other complaints of harassment across the ministry.\n\nBut with the publicity also came a barrage of online abuse - and even death threats.\n\n\"Some [online] would say 'you are ugly'...[others] would say 'are you actually a man?\" she told the BBC. \"When I was collecting signatures for the petition, I got a threatening email saying, 'I'll kill you if you go any further'\".\n\nMembers of Japan's Ministry of Defense and Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force bowing to apologise to Rina Gonoi in September 2022\n\nShe added that even before the incident, she experienced sexual harassment \"on a daily basis\". Colleagues made remarks about her body and would grope or rub against her with others watching.\n\nMs Gonoi has also filed a civil lawsuit against the five perpetrators and the Japanese government, seeking 5.5 million yen ($40,000; £32,000) in damages from the men for causing her mental distress, and an additional 2 million yen from the state for its failure to prevent abuse.\n\nIt was only in June that authorities passed a landmark overhaul of sex crime laws, broadening the definition of rape to \"non-consensual sexual intercourse\" from \"forcible sexual intercourse\" - aligning Japanese law's definition with other countries. The legal age of consent, previously at only 13, was also raised to 16 years.\n\nIn addition, the new laws explicitly outline eight scenarios where it is difficult for a victim to \"form, express, or fulfil an intention not to consent\" to sexual intercourse.\n\nThese include situations where the victim is intoxicated with alcohol or drugs; or subject to violence or threats; or is \"frightened or astonished\". Another scenario appears to describe an abuse of power, where the victim is \"worried\" of the consequences of refusal.\n\nMs Gonoi was included on the BBC 100 Women list of inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2023, and also made it to the TIME100 Next 2023 List.\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story you can visit BBC Action Line.", "As MPs retreat to Commons bars to debrief - after all the kerfuffle, it was a comfortable win for the government.\n\nBut prime ministers don't normally have to beg to get a planned new law through its very first stage in Parliament, and that is what Rishi Sunak has had to do here.\n\nA win is a win, though - and a win is the absence of a defeat, which would have been crushing for Sunak.\n\nInstead, he can say a variation of 'what was all the fuss about?' and press on with his plans. But it is in the pressing on that more fuss lies.\n\nAbout an hour before the vote, one Conservative MP texted me saying: \"It will go through - he lives to fight another day - but spring election looks more likely as party multi-factional now - not just factional.\"\n\nThe Conservative Party is split in multiple directions on this policy, and those splits aren't going away.\n\nYou can read more from Chris here.", "Kacey Boothe was killed with the same gun which his brother had previously been shot with, a jury heard\n\nA drill rapper who boasted about killing a member of a rival gang in a video has been found guilty of murder.\n\nKacey Boothe, 25, was fatally shot outside the Peterhouse Community Centre in Walthamstow, north-east London, on 13 August last year.\n\nKammar Henry-Richards, 25, known as Kay-O, and three others have been convicted of his murder.\n\nThe Old Bailey jury also found them guilty of plotting to murder Khalid Samanter.\n\nDuring the trial, the court was told the killers had planned to shoot Khalid Samanter, a close friend of Mr Boothe and the father of the child whose party was being held at the community centre.\n\nThe shooting took place \"against a background of violent incidents\" arising from rivalry between two gangs, with which Mr Boothe and Mr Samanter and the defendants associated.\n\nJurors were told the gun used in Mr Boothe's murder was used on seven occasions between 2020 and the day he was killed.\n\nMr Boothe's older brother Kyle Boothe survived being shot with it on 1 August 2020.\n\nThe Old Bailey was told that days after Mr Boothe's death, Henry-Richards bragged about the killing in a rap video called Kay-O Laughing Stock.\n\nHenry-Richards, Kamani Brightly-Donaldson, 24, Jeffrey Gyimah, 21, and Joao Pateco-Te, 27, were found guilty of murder.\n\nThey were also found guilty of conspiracy to murder Mr Samanter and conspiracy to possess a firearm or firearms with intent to endanger life.\n\nBrightly-Donaldson was convicted of having a prohibited firearm.\n\nRoody Thomas, 26, admitted having a prohibited firearm, but other charges against him were dropped.\n\nThe jury was discharged on Tuesday after failing to reach verdicts on a further defendant, Kadeem Brightly-Barnes, 31.\n\nThe other defendants were remanded in custody to be sentenced at a later date.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Five men, aged between 69 and 90, have been arrested and charged in connection with historical abuse at Edinburgh Academy.\n\nThe men are alleged to have abused young people at the school over a 24-year period between 1968 and 1992.\n\nA sixth man, aged 74, has also been reported to the procurator fiscal.\n\nNearly 50 witnesses gave evidence about abuse at the school to the Scottish Child Abuse inquiry, including television presenter Nicky Campbell.\n\nAs many as 20 staff were accused of abusing pupils at the fee-paying school.\n\nAn investigation by the BBC's Panorama programme later found alleged records of abuse in the 1970s were not retained.\n\nA spokesperson for the school said it was \"appalled\" by historical incidents of abuse.\n\n\"It wouldn't be appropriate for us to comment on any individual cases while there are active legal proceedings,\" said the spokesperson.\n\n\"However, we can say that we deeply regret what happened at the Academy in the past.\n\n\"This was examined in detail at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, which we have fully supported, and we applaud the bravery of those who came forward to tell their stories.\n\n\"We will continue to respect the ongoing legal process and would encourage anyone who has been the victim of abuse to contact Police Scotland.\"\n\nDet Insp Colin Moffat thanked everyone who had come forward to help the police inquiries.\n\n\"While the investigation of child abuse, particularly non-recent offences, can be complex and challenging, anyone who reports this type of crime can be assured that we will listen and we will investigate all reports,\" he said.\n\nNicky Campbell alleged he witnessed abuse at the academy by a maths teacher, Iain Wares, who also taught at Fettes College.\n\nThe 84-year-old now lives in South Africa, but has appealed against his extradition to the UK, where he faces more than 80 abuse charges.\n\nHe is due to stand trial for indecent assault in Cape Town in February 2024.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"We hope we can count on you,\" Zelensky says to US\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued an impassioned appeal for continued US military aid as he arrived in Washington on Monday.\n\nAddressing military officials, he said Ukraine is not fighting just for its own freedom but for global democracy.\n\nHis comments come as an aid package worth billions languishes in Congress amid a partisan political row.\n\nRebuking Republicans, who are blocking the aid, Mr Zelensky called the delay a \"dream come true\" for Vladimir Putin.\n\n\"If there's anyone inspired by unresolved issues on Capitol Hill, it's just Putin and his sick clique,\" the Ukrainian leader argued.\n\nMr Zelensky is expected to make similar remarks in a meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Tuesday. He will also meet House Speaker Mike Johnson, a noted sceptic of additional military aid.\n\nThe visit marks Mr Zelensky's third trip to the US since Russia's 2022 invasion, and the White House said in a statement on Sunday that his visit was meant \"to underscore the United States' unshakeable commitment to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Russia's brutal invasion\".\n\nThe US military aid package, worth $60bn (£47.9bn; €55bn), is currently stalled in Congress, facing pushback from Republicans who argue that more money should be going to domestic security at the US-Mexico border.\n\nA vote in the Senate last week saw a package, which included the funding but no border measures, blocked by Republicans.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How US lawmakers are divided on Ukraine funding\n\nIn addition to more funds for border enforcement, Republicans are seeking reforms to the way in which undocumented migrants seeking political asylum in the US are processed.\n\n\"Quite frankly, we're not going to go help other countries and not look at actually what's happening in the United States,\" Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, told an NBC reporter on Monday.\n\nMr Lankford said that Americans don't want US national security on the border to be ignored while Congress focuses on Ukraine's interests.\n\nHe added that he doubted Mr Zelensky's visit will change any lawmakers' minds.\n\nAlthough the Biden administration has expressed a willingness to accept some asylum policy changes, such concessions risk angering liberal lawmakers and further dividing a party that has already been fractured by the president's support of Israel in the Gaza War.\n\n\"We are concerned about reports of harmful changes to our asylum system that will potentially deny lifesaving humanitarian protection for vulnerable people, including children, and fail to deliver any meaningful improvement to the situation at the border,\" a group of 11 Democratic senators wrote in a statement issued on 30 November.\n\nDemocratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, an ally of Mr Biden's, has said that the White House is becoming \"more engaged\" in the ongoing negotiations, seeking a comprehensive funding agreement that includes money for Ukraine before Congress leaves for its holiday recess on Friday.\n\nEven if the Senate can strike a deal, however, the package would have to also be approved by the House of Representatives, where opposition to more Ukraine aid is even more intense.\n\nMr Biden has been urging lawmakers to approve the funds. In an impassioned televised address last Wednesday, he said the package could not wait and warned that Russia would not stop at victory over Ukraine.\n\nThough Ukraine fended off Russia's original attack, its much-vaunted counter-attack this year has stalled and there have been signs of fatigue from some of the Western nations which have stepped up to support it militarily.\n\nNonetheless, Mr Zelensky insisted on Monday that his troops could still overrun Russian forces if US military aid continued.\n\n\"American Bradleys, HIMARS, 155-caliber shells and ATACMS missiles, Patriots, and F-16s can get the job done in Europe, exactly how global freedom needs it,\" he said. \"The whole world is watching us, observing what destiny other free nations could face - to live freely or to be subjugated. Ukrainians haven't given up and won't give up.\"\n\nThe week is a crucial one for Ukraine, with the EU also deciding whether to open accession talks to the bloc.\n\nHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has signalled that he opposes the move, and has the power to block such a decision.\n\nMr Orban and Mr Zelensky had an apparently intense conversation when they met on Sunday at the inauguration of Argentina's new president. The details of their discussion have not been revealed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Zelensky has animated chat with Orban this week in Argentina\n\nSign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Huge chunks of the cliffs have come away in the landslip at Ventnor\n\nAn area of the Isle of Wight coast where a stretch of cliff collapsed is at risk of further landslides, a council has warned.\n\nResidents from 20 homes on Leeson Road, Ventnor, had to leave after the vast collapse on Sunday night.\n\nIsle of Wight Council said stress fractures had been detected in the surrounding coastal area.\n\nThe road and footpaths between Shanklin and Ventnor, on the south-east coast of the island, have been closed.\n\nOne resident said: \"It is a huge, huge landslip - I have never seen anything like it in the 40 years we've been here.\n\n\"There have been slips during that time… but nothing on the scale of this one, it is absolutely huge.\"\n\nHomes were left perilously close to the edge after the collapse on Sunday\n\nNatasha Dix, from Isle of Wight Council, said: \"The amount of land that has moved is very significant, it has dropped in a way that we have not seen for a very long time.\n\n\"There are stress fractures that move across much of the coastal area here which tells us there's likely to be some smaller movements outside of this very large landslide.\"\n\nAerial photos captured by Island Echo showed the extent of the massive landslip which has left nearby homes teetering on the edge.\n\nResidents who are out of their homes are being allowed to return to their properties for \"short periods of time only\" between 10:00-16:00 GMT, the council said.\n\nA council helpline for residents affected has been set up\n\nThe authority added the affected properties were being monitored by security staff.\n\nA council helpline for residents affected has been set up on 01983 823111.\n\nThe authority is urging people to stay away from the Bonchurch area while the impact of the landslide is assessed.\n\nDrivers are being diverted from Ventnor, via Wroxall, and from Shanklin, via Whiteley Bank.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, X, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The findings of an independent review into a major data breach within the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) were published on Monday\n\nA major data breach within the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has been described as \"a wake-up call\" for forces across the UK.\n\nA report into the data leak has made 37 recommendations for improving information security within the PSNI.\n\nIn August, the surnames and initials of all the PSNI's 9,500 staff were released by mistake.\n\nPolice later confirmed that the information was in the hands of dissident republicans, among others.\n\nThe PSNI and the Policing Board commissioned an independent review of the incident - which was carried out by Pete O'Doherty, temporary commissioner of the City of London Police.\n\nHis report, which was published on Monday, said the leak was \"a wake-up call for every force across the UK to take the security of data as seriously as possible\".\n\nThe PSNI released the information in the form of a vast data spreadsheet, which was attached in error to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request asking for a breakdown of staff roles.\n\nIt was then published on an FoI website, where it was viewable for two-and-a-half hours before the police had it removed.\n\nIt included details of where people worked and their roles.\n\nMr O'Doherty's report said the leak was \"not the result of a single isolated decision or act by one person, team or department\".\n\n\"It was the consequence of many factors, and fundamentally a result of [the] PSNI not seizing opportunities to better and more proactively secure and protect its data,\" the report added.\n\n\"At the time of the incident, these factors had not been identified by risk management or scrutiny mechanisms, internal or external.\"\n\nJon Boutcher described the breach as an \"organisational failing\"\n\nCurrent Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said the report \"was difficult reading but I accept and indeed embrace the learning within it\".\n\n\"As the report shows, no individual, team, department, decision or act caused this breach - this is an organisational failing, an accumulation of issues,\" he said.\n\nHe said every PSNI officer and staff member would be offered a one-off payment of £500 to help with home security measures following the data leak.\n\n\"Because of the support of the Department of Justice and the Secretary of State, we are able to make that offer,\" he told a news conference.\n\n\"It has yet to be finalised. I want to make sure we provide them with the reassurance they deserve.\n\n\"We need to show them that we support them.\n\n\"For what is required for most people, it will be sufficient around some cameras and security measures that they would want.\"\n\n\"We must take responsibility as a leadership team for this and prioritise information security in our day to day business.\"\n\nThe FoI request was answered by the PSNI's human resources department.\n\nAn individual within the department did not remove a hidden tab containing the spreadsheet of raw data used to compile the FoI response.\n\nThe tab was visible as three dots, and was also missed by others.\n\nSome of the report's recommendations deal with how FoI requests are handled, including file formats.\n\nThere also needs to be \"clarity [as] to who has responsibility for data sign off\", it said.\n\nThe Police Federation for Northern Ireland, which represents rank and file officers, warned it would cost millions of pounds to address the deficiencies which led to the breach.\n\nMr Kelly said given the PSNI already had a significant budget deficit, it would be \"impossible for any of these costs to be absorbed by the service, either now or in the future\".\n\nHe said there was an onus on the UK government to allocate funding to implement the report's recommendations.\n\nThe Catholic Police Guild of Northern Ireland said staff \"need and deserve to feel safe\" because \"nobody should be unable to visit their families, friends and places of worship, especially at this time of year\".\n\nThe PSNI apologised at the time for what was described by senior officers as a \"major data breach\".\n\nIt caused considerable concern among PSNI officers and staff, who face a continuing threat from paramilitaries and must be extremely vigilant about their personal security.\n\nIn September, MPs were told that the breach could cost the service up to £240m in extra security for officers and potential legal action.\n\nMr O'Doherty's report said that following the leak, more than 4,000 PSNI staff contacted the organisation's threat assessment group.\n\nOne officer \"felt it necessary to relocate\" and others did so \"temporarily\", the report revealed.\n\n\"The review team heard of officers and staff now too frightened to visit friends or family, who have withdrawn from social aspects of their lives and who fear visiting their place of worship,\" it added.\n\nThe report described \"the potential\" for operational consequences for the force as high.\n\n\"With recruitment and retention already problematic, especially amongst certain communities, this incident is unlikely to provide confidence to those wanting to become part of the service but fearing identification,\" it added.\n\n\"There is a risk to the free flow of intelligence, the lifeblood of policing, if those providing it cannot be reassured that they can do this in confidence.\"\n\nThe data breach contributed to the resignation of the chief constable at the time, Simon Byrne.\n\nHe stood down in September, following increasing pressure - with Jon Boutcher subsequently appointed to the role.\n\nEarlier on Monday, he said the force had \"already taken action\" on one of the report's recommendations.\n\n\"The role of SIRO (Senior Information Risk Owner) has been elevated to the post of deputy chief constable.\n\n\"This will ensure that information security and data protection matters will be immediately visible to the deputy chief constable, chief operating officer and chief constable, and they can be afforded the support and attention they critically deserve.\"\n\nHe added: \"The service executive team will now take time to consider the report and the recommendations contained within it.\n\n\"We will work with the Northern Ireland Policing Board to consider the implications of the report and a timeframe for the completion of relevant actions that have been identified.\"", "The US Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether Donald Trump can be prosecuted for crimes he allegedly committed while he was president.\n\nJack Smith, the special counsel overseeing two criminal investigations into Mr Trump, asked the court on Monday for a quick ruling on whether he is immune from federal prosecution.\n\nThe top court later agreed to consider his request.\n\nIt asked Mr Trump's legal team to file a response by 20 December.\n\nThe justices, however, gave no indication of how or when they would ultimately rule.\n\nMr Trump, 77, is scheduled to stand trial in March on federal charges relating to an alleged plot to overturn the 2020 election results.\n\nBut his lawyers have repeatedly argued that former presidents cannot face criminal charges for conduct related to their official responsibilities.\n\nThat argument, however, was rejected by a lower court judge earlier this month who ruled the case could go ahead as planned. Mr Trump then said he would appeal that decision.\n\nMr Smith's rare direct request to America's highest court on Monday was an attempt to leapfrog the lower courts altogether and avoid any delays to the scheduled 4 March trial date.\n\nMr Smith wrote: \"This case presents a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: whether a former president is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution.\"\n\nHe added that Mr Trump's claims of presidential immunity are \"profoundly mistaken\" and \"only this court can definitively resolve them\".\n\nThe Trump campaign earlier accused Mr Smith of trying \"a Hail Mary by racing to the Supreme Court and attempting to bypass the appellate process\".\n\n\"There is absolutely no reason to rush this sham to trial except to injure President Trump and tens of millions of his supporters,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nProsecutors rarely seek the top court's intervention before a lower appeals court rules on a matter, and Mr Smith's request reflects the urgency of his case.\n\nIf Mr Trump's appeal delays the trial beyond the November 2024 election, it raises the possibility that the former president could return to the White House before his case is fully resolved.\n\nThat would lead to a new round of legal complications.\n\n\"It is of imperative public importance that respondent's claims of immunity be resolved by this court and that respondent's trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected,\" Mr Smith wrote.\n\nWith only five weeks to go before voting begins in the 2024 Republican primary, Mr Trump is currently polling well ahead of his rivals for the party's nomination.\n\nBut he is also facing multiple legal cases, including a second one brought by Mr Smith which accuses him of mishandling classified material after he left office.\n\nIf Mr Trump wins back the White House, he would likely be able to pardon himself in the two cases brought by the special counsel and could force two state criminal cases against him to be put on hold.\n\nHis indictment in the 2020 election case charges him with four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US government.\n\nThe special counsel's court filing on Monday follows his previous accusation that Mr Trump is trying to \"delay and disrupt\" the trial at \"every opportunity\".\n\nThe federal election case has moved fastest of the four criminal cases against Mr Trump and appears likely to be the first one that will go to trial.", "Award-winning South African Afro-pop singer Bulelwa Mkutukana, popularly known as Zahara, has died, the country's culture minister has said.\n\nShe had been in hospital, reportedly with liver complications, and the government had been assisting the family \"for some time\", Culture Minister Zizi Kodwa said.\n\nThe songstress won fame in 2011 with her album Loliwe, loved across Africa.\n\nIn 2019, Zahara opened up about her battle with alcohol addiction.\n\n\"Zahara and her guitar made an incredible and lasting impact in South African music,\" Mr Kodwa posted on X, formerly Twitter.\n\nLast month, the family confirmed the musician had been admitted to hospital and called on South Africans to keep her in their prayers.\n\nShe passed away on Monday night in a Johannesburg hospital at the age of 36, the public broadcaster, SABC, reports.\n\nIn a statement posted on Zahara's Instagram account, her family said: \"She was a pure light, and an even purer heart, in this world. A beacon of hope, a gift, and a blessing to us and countless people around the world.\"\n\nFans have been grieving and sharing fond memories of her on social media.\n\n\"She left us with such beautiful music,\" one X user posted.\n\nZahara, who released five albums, won dozens of awards both local and international. In 2020, she was named in the BBC's 100 Women list.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe songwriter also used her platform to speak out about violence against women in South Africa, something she revealed had happened to her.\n\nIn an interview with a local radio last year, Zahara said her music was not for recognition but to bring comfort to broken souls that need healing.", "The serious crash happened on Elwyn Street, Coedely, at about 19:00 GMT on Monday\n\nPeople have died following a serious crash involving a car and bus, the ambulance service has said.\n\nElwyn Street in Coedely, Rhondda Cynon Taf, is likely to remain closed through Tuesday morning following the crash at around 19:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service said it sent seven ambulances and three doctors.\n\nA spokesman confirmed there had been fatalities, but could not give further details.\n\nHe added that the incident involved a bus and a car, and that they believed a motorbike was also involved.\n\nThe terraced street where the crash happened, Elwyn Street, is a 20mph (32km/h) road.\n\nRhondda Cynon Taf's deputy mayor Dan Owen-Jones said he was one of the first at the scene, after receiving a call from someone living on the street.\n\nElwyn Street in Coedely, Rhondda Cynon Taf, remains closed and a police cordon is in place\n\nIn a Facebook post on a local community page, he said: \"I have faced this evening tragedy and bereaved families at its worse, at times I was numb and helpless to the grieving families.\n\n\"I cannot even describe the pain, shock and suffering I have witnessed tonight… Horrific.\"\n\nSpeaking to BBC Wales, he said: \"It's a distressing time for all. At this time of year it's even worse.\n\n\"I was there immediately, about two minutes past seven. I had a call from one of the neighbours, it happened outside their home. I was on the frontline trying to do the best with the traffic control.\n\n\"Later on there was lots and lots of family and friends. It was very distressing to see the family, but understandable - if it was one of my family I would have wanted to be there.\"\n\nThe serious crash happened on Elwyn Street, Coedely at about 19:00 GMT on Monday\n\nLocal councillor Danny Grehan, who represents the Coedely area, said the collision was a \"terrible blow\" for the community.\n\n\"From what I understand, local people were involved in the horrific accident, and this is going to hit the area very hard,\" he said.\n\n\"Obviously from seeing people's comments last night, a shockwave will go through the whole community.\n\n\"The pain is obviously going to be felt by the families of those who are part of this but also in the whole community and I would like to thank the Coedely community for opening the community centre last night for the emergency services that worked there.\"\n\nSouth Wales Police said the road would be closed \"for some time\" and drivers should find an alternative route.\n\nTraffic was also building up on the A4119 which leads to the M4 at Miskin, the force added.\n\nStagecoach Wales confirmed that \"one of our buses was involved in an incident last night in Rhondda Cynon Taf\", adding that due to the road closure it was unable to serve Coedely.\n\nMartin Gibbon, managing director for Stagecoach South Wales, said: \"Our first priority and heartfelt thoughts go out to the people affected by this incident, as well as their family and loved ones and we are supporting our driver at this time.\n\n\"We are fully cooperating with the police and we will provide every support we can to assist the investigation into this incident.\"\n\nAlex Davies-Jones, Labour MP for Pontypridd, described the incident as \"devastating news from our community\".\n\nShe thanked those who tried to help on Monday night on X, formerly known as Twitter, and added: \"All my thoughts are with the families and loved ones affected by this.\"", "There was a fire and some damage to the ship, but the crew were unharmed\n\nYemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have hit a Norwegian tanker with at least one missile, causing a fire.\n\nThere were no casualties in the attack.\n\nA Houthi spokesman said the MT Strinda was delivering oil to Israel, but the ship's owners said it was headed to Italy with feedstock for biofuel.\n\nThe group has vowed to block ships of any nation heading to Israel until Israel stops its offensive on Gaza, in what the Houthis say is a show of support for the Palestinians.\n\nThe United States has said it will consider \"appropriate responses\" to any such attacks, which it describes as \"fully enabled by Iran\".\n\nHouthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised statement that the ship was targeted on Monday after its crew refused to respond to warnings.\n\nHe said the group had prevented several ships from passing through Yemeni waters in recent days.\n\nThe destroyer USS Mason responded to the Norwegian ship's distress call\n\nThe MT Strinda was attacked in the Bab El Mandeb strait at the entrance to the Red Sea.\n\nThe missile caused a fire on board the ship but it was extinguished and the ship was able to make its way on to a safe port, ship owners J Ludwig Mowinckels Rederi said in a statement.\n\nThey added that the 30-member crew, who are all Indian citizens, were unharmed.\n\nA US Navy destroyer provided assistance to the MT Strinda after receiving a mayday call, US officials said.\n\nThe Bab El Mandeb Strait is a 20-mile wide channel that separates Eritrea and Djibouti on the African side from Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula.\n\nAbout 17,000 ships and 10% of global trade pass through it every year. Any ship passing through the Suez Canal to or from the Indian Ocean has to come this way.\n\nThe Houthis - who are fighting Yemen's Saudi-backed government - have declared themselves part of an \"axis of resistance\" of Iran-affiliated groups opposing Israel, the US, and the wider West.\n\nThey have already attacked several commercial ships this month, prompting a US destroyer to intervene, and in November they seized the cargo ship Galaxy Leader.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nManchester United's season of misery plunged even further into the depths of despair as they exited the Champions League at the group stage after defeat by Bayern Munich at Old Trafford.\n\nErik ten Hag's side, beaten 3-0 at home to Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday, needed to beat the Bundesliga champions and hope that there was no winner in the other group game between Copenhagen and Galatasaray.\n\nAnd even though Bayern were already comfortable winners of Group A, United were still unable to fulfil their part of the bargain on a night of bitter disappointment.\n\nUnited were already handicapped by first-half injuries to England duo Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw, with news filtering through that Copenhagen were ahead in Denmark.\n\nBayern sealed their fate by scoring the winner with 20 minutes left.\n\nEngland captain Harry Kane, inevitably, was involved with a deft touch to release Kingsley Coman, who easily beat exposed United keeper Andre Onana in front of the Stretford End.\n\nUnited won just one of their six group games in the competition and defeat against Bayern means they also missed the chance to drop into the Europa League by finishing third.\n\nIn the other match in Group A, Copenhagen held on to beat Galatasaray 1-0 to qualify for the last 16.\n• None How did you rate United's performance? Have your say here\n\nThe smattering of jeers that greeted the final whistle as United slid out of the Champions League, and indeed all European competition for this season, mirrored the mood of resignation that hung over Old Trafford long before the final whistle.\n\nAnyone who expected United to come out swinging in an attempt to overturn the odds and reach the knockout stages would have been sorely disappointed as Ten Hag's team were timid and toothless, mustering a miserly single shot on target against a Bayern side who did not have anything to play for.\n\nThe injuries to Maguire and Shaw, watched by England manager Gareth Southgate, did not help United's cause but this cannot be offered up as an excuse for a performance desperately lacking in quality, inspiration and creation.\n\nBayern's veteran goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was untroubled throughout, with all the pace and threat on offer on a low-key night coming from the Germans, who were rewarded for their superiority with Coman's winner.\n\nThe space and time afforded before his finish almost embarrassing.\n\nRasmus Hojlund had a chastening sight, running tirelessly without any service and being outmuscled comprehensively by Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae. The Dane was bent over exhausted and beaten seconds before the final whistle.\n\nWhen the draw for this group was made, United must have relished their return to the Champions League but it has been a harrowing experience.\n\nThey came up short on the twin faults of a team that is not fit for purpose and also only too happy to engineer their own downfall, as they did when conceding two-goal leads to lose in Copenhagen and draw away to Galatasaray.\n\nUnited now have all the feel of a club in crisis with Ten Hag under serious scrutiny and the prospect of a tough trip to Liverpool on Sunday, with Maguire and Shaw likely missing through injury and captain Bruno Fernandes suspended.\n\nEngland captain Kane had a relatively quiet night as he returned to Old Trafford but offered up a touch of class that helped Coman to settle the game.\n\nKane's delicate touch on the edge of the area unlocked the United defence, leaving the France forward to complete the formalities on this dismal night for the home supporters.\n\nAnd the former Spurs striker showed exactly what he has brought to Bayern, dropping deep as a creator while also showing a willingness to do the dirty work by chasing back to defend.\n\nKane is a class act, as we know. No wonder United manager Ten Hag was keen to bring him to Old Trafford before reluctantly accepting this was a deal that could not be done.\n• None Leon Goretzka (FC Bayern München) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Aaron Wan-Bissaka (Manchester United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Harry Kane (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Joshua Kimmich with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Kim Min-Jae (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt blocked. Leon Goretzka (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.\n• None Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "The Texas Supreme Court has ruled against a woman seeking an abortion for her high-risk pregnancy, hours after her lawyers said she was leaving the state for the procedure.\n\nKate Cox, 31, had sought an abortion after her foetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition that doctors said threatened her fertility.\n\nA lower court granted an exception, but that order was overturned on Monday.\n\nTexas has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.\n\nThe state's overlapping bans prohibit abortion from the point of conception, except in rare cases where the life of the expectant mother is under threat. Abortion advocates argue the exception is too vague and puts women's health at risk.\n\nIn its seven-page ruling, the Texas Supreme Court found that Ms Cox's doctor had not proven that her safety was threatened due to a \"life-threatening physical condition\" as required under the law.\n\n\"These laws reflect the policy choice that the Legislature has made, and the courts must respect that choice,\" the justices wrote.\n\nThe case was believed to be the first instance of a woman seeking a court's permission for an abortion since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade last year, giving individual states power to control abortion access.\n\nMs Cox, a mother of two from the Dallas area, sought an abortion after her foetus was diagnosed with Trisomy 18, a chromosomal disorder which in the majority of cases results in miscarriage, stillbirth or the death of the baby within the first year of life. Ms Cox's physicians told her that continuing the pregnancy could jeopardise her future fertility.\n\nAccording to Ms Cox's court filings, doctors refused to perform an abortion on her, saying their \"hands were tied\" as long as her baby had a heartbeat.\n\nShe was granted an exception by a Texas judge on Thursday. But the state's Attorney General Ken Paxton quickly threatened criminal prosecution against any doctors or healthcare providers who helped her obtain an abortion.\n\nMr Paxton also asked the state's Supreme Court - whose nine members are all Republicans - to intervene. The court obliged, temporarily blocking Ms Cox from obtaining an abortion while it reviewed the case.\n\nOn Monday, lawyers for Ms Cox announced she had left Texas to obtain an abortion outside of the state. There is no Texas-wide law prohibiting travel outside of the state for an abortion.\n\n\"This past week of legal limbo has been hellish for Kate,\" said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, the pro-choice group representing Ms Cox. \"Her health is on the line. She's been in and out of the emergency room and she couldn't wait any longer.\"\n\nJust hours after the announcement by Ms Cox's lawyers, the state Supreme Court announced it had ruled against her.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"This should never happen in America,\" President Joe Biden said on Tuesday in a statement about Ms Cox's case.\n\n\"Legal and medical chaos, as we are witnessing in states like Texas, Kentucky and Arizona, is a direct result of Roe v Wade being overturned, and as we predicted would happen, women's health and lives now hang in the balance,\" he added.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC on Monday, Molly Duane, a lawyer for the Center, called the Supreme Court's ruling \"stunning\".\n\n\"Politicians like to tout medical exceptions as being reasonable and available, as Kate's experience shows they simply don't exist in practice,\" she said.\n\nThe Texas Supreme Court is currently weighing another abortion case related to the state's health exception, also led by Ms Duane and the Center for Reproductive Rights. Twenty-two plaintiffs - including doctors and women denied abortions in the state - have sued to clarify the existing state bans, saying the medical exception is dangerously unclear.\n\nThe near-total bans have left physicians \"terrified\" to use their medical judgment over fear of harsh penalties, Ms Duane told the court last month. Doctors who perform abortions in Texas could risk life in prison, loss of their medical licence and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.\n\nA lawyer for the attorney general, Beth Klusmann, argued existing standards allowed physicians to use \"reasonable\" medical judgment.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. More than half of the site at St Kentigern's has been closed since the spring due to Raac\n\nWest Lothian Council says it cannot afford the £35m cost of rebuilding its largest secondary school following the discovery of crumbling concrete there.\n\nThe local authority wants the Scottish government to meet a £15m shortfall on the work at St Kentigern's Academy in Blackburn.\n\nOtherwise, it says local services will face further cuts.\n\nThe local authority says it is \"inconceivable\" that it is the only Scottish council facing such a bill.\n\nReinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (Raac) was used in building projects across the UK between the mid-1950s and the early 1980s.\n\nIt is a lightweight form of concrete which has a lifespan of around 30 years. After this time it is prone to crumbling and failure, especially if it gets wet.\n\nEarlier this year the Scottish government confirmed that 16 local authority areas had discovered Raac in their schools.\n\nMinisters say work is under way to understand the scale of Raac problems across the public sector estate with the aim of reaching a \"considered solution\".\n\nMore than half of the site at St Kentigern's - including the gymnasium, assembly hall and a number of practical classrooms - has been closed since the spring after surveys revealed that deteriorating Raac roof panels posed an unacceptable safety risk.\n\nBuilt in 1973, more than 1,100 pupils currently attend the school.\n\nStaff describe the situation as \"challenging\" and have praised the resilience of the children who are being taught in temporary classrooms and are bussed elsewhere for PE and other subjects.\n\nSally Cameron, an education officer based at St Kentigern's, said staff and pupils were having to move from one building to another, sometimes with very little notice.\n\nEducation officer Sally Cameron says the school has had many challenges\n\n\"Staff have had to remain very adaptable and pupils have had to be very resilient to accept these changes and ensure that their learning and teaching can continue to a really high standard. It hasn't been easy,\" she said.\n\n\"We have had many challenges and sometimes we've had very little notice about what's about to happen.\"\n\nMs Cameron said exam preparation had been particularly difficult.\n\n\"The pupils are still being taught by their own teachers so that is a real strength. However we're on a construction site so we're having to think carefully about where they sit their prelim exams so that they're not interrupted.\n\n\"We're having to plan very carefully for next year's SQA exams and we're having to conduct those off site,\" she added.\n\nWest Lothian Council said it had been \"pro-active\" in dealing with an issue which has generated a £70m repair bill across its school estate.\n\nThe work to demolish and rebuild a large section of St Kentigern's - the only secondary on a list of five affected schools - is expected to take more than two years.\n\nAndrew Maguire, the executive councillor for education, describes it as a \"colossal\" project.\n\n\"The council can't afford it. If the Scottish government doesn't step in and offer us additional financial resource then the reality is that we'll need to make cuts to other services to be able to afford to do it,\" he said.\n\n\"The situation at St Kent's cannot be left unresolved, so depressingly we'll be looking at yet further cuts to council services.\n\n\"Nothing will be off the table given the extreme financial pressures the council is under.\"\n\nCouncillor Maguire believes it is \"inconceivable\" that other Scottish councils will not face a similar financial burden when it comes to dealing with Raac.\n\nWork could continue at St Kentigern's for another two years\n\nThe BBC has learned that Argyll and Bute Council is spending £3m to replace the Raac roof at John Logie Baird Primary in Helensburgh. Highland Council says repairs to Charleston and Nairn Secondary Schools will cost at least £500,000.\n\nMoray Council has budgeted £624,000 for repairs to Forres Academy, while a committee at Perth and Kinross has been told the price of replacing the Raac roof at Perth Grammar will be £500,000.\n\nThe remaining councils either have not published costs or have not carried out any significant repair work.\n\nPeter Drummond, a member of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) and part of a Scottish government working group on Raac, says \"very many\" public sector bodies in Scotland are exactly the same position as West Lothian.\n\n\"All hands are on deck surveying these buildings but because it's tricky, because it's involved, because it's disruptive to building users, it's not something that can be done overnight,\" he said.\n\n\"It needs skilled structural engineers to undertake the process assisted by surveyors and we've only got a limited number of such skilled professionals in the UK today.\"\n\nThe Scottish government says it takes the issue of Raac \"very seriously\" and will work on a \"considered solution\" once reviews of the public sector estate are complete.\n\nIn response to West Lothian Council's request for money to fund the rebuild of St Kentigern's Academy, a spokesperson said the Scottish government has increased the resources available to local government this financial year by more than £793m.", "Tejean Kennedy, right, was jailed for 20 years and Ali Kavak, left, 13 years\n\nTwo men who killed a radio DJ in an empty bar near Tottenham Hotspur's stadium have been jailed.\n\nMehmet Koray Alpergin and his girlfriend Gozde Dalbudak were kidnapped in central London last October.\n\nMr Alpergin, 43, was beaten, throttled, burned and stabbed before his body was dumped in an Essex woodland.\n\nTejean Kennedy, 33, of Cricklewood Broadway, was jailed for 20 years and Ali Kavak, 26, of Tottenham, 13 years.\n\nThey had been found guilty of manslaughter, kidnap and false imprisonment after a trial at the same court, the Old Bailey, last month.\n\nThe Met Police said the circumstances of Mr Alpergin's death were \"like something you see in a gangster movie\".\n\n\"We cracked this case through painstaking and lengthy analysis of CCTV,\" said Det Ch Insp Matt Webb.\n\nDuring the trial, the court was told Mr Alpergin and Ms Dalbudak were travelling home to Enfield from a restaurant Mayfair when they were snatched and taken to the Stadium Lounge wine bar, which backs on to White Hart Lane.\n\nDuring the attack on 13 October 2022, Ms Dalbudak was locked in a toilet for two days before she was freed by her captors and given money for a taxi.\n\nReading a statement on behalf of Mr Alpergin's family at the Old Bailey, his cousin, Neliz Halil, spoke of their \"indescribable pain\".\n\nMr Alpergin, who was originally from northern Cyprus, was a well-known figure in the British Turkish community and owned a Turkish language radio station in London, Bizim FM.\n\nProsecutor Crispin Aylett KC had told jurors the normally \"happy-go-lucky\" DJ had seemed anxious and on edge in the days before his death.\n\nThe court heard he was heavily in debt, owing £32,405 for his Audi as well as other claims against him.\n\nJudge Sarah Whitehouse KC said drugs were \"at the heart\" of the case, having heard evidence that it was related to \"international organised crime\".\n\nShe also jailed Samuel Owusu-Opoku, 35, who was found guilty of two counts of kidnap, for seven years.\n\nSteffan Gordon, 34, who had admitted kidnap and was found guilty of two counts of false imprisonment, was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment.\n\nYigit Hurman, 18, from Muswell Hill, north London, who admitted perverting the course of justice, was sentenced to two years in jail.\n\nTwo more suspects are still at large and are believed to have fled abroad.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "Zara says it \"regrets\" a \"misunderstanding\" about an ad campaign criticised for using photos resembling images from the Israel-Gaza war.\n\nIt has pulled the remaining pictures following days of backlash on social media and complaints to the UK's advertising watchdog.\n\nZara said some customers saw \"something far from what was intended when they were created\".\n\nSome social media users on X, formerly Twitter, had called for a boycott of the fashion retailer.\n\nZara said that the campaign, advertising its Atelier line, was \"conceived in July and photographed in September\".\n\nOn 7 October, Hamas launched an attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people. Israel launched retaliatory attacks on Gaza, which the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory says has killed about 18,200 people.\n\nZara's campaign - called \"The Jacket\" - contained a series of images in which the model was pictured against a background of cracked stones, damaged statues and broken plasterboard.\n\nSome on social media suggested they were similar to images emerging from Gaza.\n\nBut Zara said the campaign presented \"a series of images of unfinished sculptures in a sculptor's studio and was created with the sole purpose of showcasing craftmade garments in an artistic context\".\n\nIn a statement issued days after the controversy first emerged, Zara said: \"Unfortunately, some customers felt offended by these images, which have now been removed, and saw in them something far from what was intended when they were created.\n\n\"Zara regrets that misunderstanding and we reaffirm our deep respect towards everyone.\"\n\nIn November, M&S apologised after being accused of posting an Instagram photo of Christmas party hats in the colours of the Palestinian flag on fire.\n\nThe image, taken from a Christmas advert filmed in August, show showed red, green and silver paper hats burning in a fireplace.\n\nM&S said its intent was to \"playfully show that some people don't enjoy wearing paper Christmas hats\".\n\nBut following criticism from social media users, it said: \"We have removed the post following feedback and we apologise for any unintentional hurt caused.\"\n\nThe Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it had received 116 complaints about M&S's advert.\n\nZara's campaign has led to 110 complaints to the ASA, across social media and TV, which it is currently reviewing.\n\nA spokesperson for the advertising watchdog, said: \"Complainants argue that the imagery references the current Israel-Hamas conflict and is offensive.\"\n\nPrior to the backlash, Zara said \"The Jacket\" campaign was \"an exercise in concentrated design that is conceived to showcase the finest aspects of Zara's creative and manufacturing capabilities, Zara Atelier offers one garment, six ways - and with unlimited possibilities\".", "Student Theo Brennan-Hulme was 21 when he killed himself in the bedroom of his student accommodation\n\nCampaigners have written to the chief constables of Norfolk and Suffolk to request an investigation into thousands of mental health deaths in those areas.\n\nThey say coroners are raising safety issues but no improvements are being made.\n\nA report by independent auditors found as many as 8,440 patients had died unexpectedly over three years.\n\nNorfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust said it had started a review of patient deaths.\n\nCoroners worried about the risk of future deaths highlight unsafe practices in what are known as prevention-of-future-deaths reports (PFDs). And authorities are required by law to respond with an action plan within 56 days.\n\nThe Norfolk and Suffolk trust said it had responded to all PFDs and was working to ensure recommendations and actions were implemented.\n\nBut Mark Harrison, from the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk, said: \"There's a criminal case to answer. And we want the police to investigate, where the same mistakes have been repeated time and time again.\"\n\nHe said coroners were repeatedly warning of risks such as:\n\nMr Harrison said: \"The mental health trust always responds saying they've learned lessons, they are changing policy and practices.\n\n\"But then what we're seeing in analysing the orders from the coroner are repeat circumstances where other people have died in similar circumstances to a previous prevention-of-future-deaths notice.\"\n\nTheo's family was not contacted after an emergency mental-health assessment\n\nStudent Theo Brennan-Hulme, 21, suffered from bouts of severe anxiety. And in early 2019, in the midst of a crisis, he had sought help from his GP, his mother, Esther Brennan, told BBC News.\n\nMr Brennan-Hulme was referred to the community mental-health service in Norfolk as an emergency but waited eight hours before being assessed at Hellesdon Hospital, Norwich.\n\nHis family was not contacted after the assessment, despite this being part of the treatment plan in place, or referred to the mental-health home-treatment team to enable treatment options to be explored.\n\nHis absence at a previously arranged wellbeing service appointment, on 6 March 2019 was not followed up.\n\nAnd on 12 March, he was found in his university bedroom having killed himself.\n\nMiss Brennan said it had taken several years of pursuing the trust to discover mistakes in his care had happened before.\n\n\"The lack of training, lack of staffing, the lack of following policy, the lack of care was known about,\" she said.\n\n\"I know there were previous PFDs, before Theo, that suggested things needed to improve urgently.\n\n\"They couldn't have got any worse for Theo and that's abhorrent to the memory of all the people who went before him.\"\n\n\"He died horrifically, alone, with nobody, and everything that they didn't do exacerbated his state.\"\n\nSerious questions remain about the deaths of mental-health patients in Norfolk and Suffolk.\n\nIn June this year, independent auditors Grant Thornton concluded the trust had simply lost track of who had died.\n\nBetween 2019 and 2022, more than 8,000 patients had died unexpectedly and, for three-quarters, the trust still did not know how or why, their report found.\n\nThe trust defines an \"unexpected death\" as the death of a patient \"who has not been identified as critically ill or whose death is not expected by the clinical team\".\n\nIt said: \"We offer our sincere condolences to all families and carers of people affected.\"\n\nAnd it added it would do its very best to ensure deaths were \"minimised in future\".\n\nBut a nurse at the trust told BBC News senior management was still not listening.\n\nCharlie, not his real name, said: \"It's very toxic within the trust - there are undertones of bullying. And if you raise concerns about patient safety, or even staff safety, you're not listened to.\"\n\nA \"significant proportion\" of the deaths he was aware of had been preventable, he said.\n\nCampaigner Mark Harrison said changes to mental-health services could not come quickly enough\n\n\"Very simple measures could have been put into place to avoid these people dying,\" Charlie said, adding staff shortages were compounding the problem.\n\nA youth team had lost eight members of staff in a month and one of the crisis teams was so short-staffed it no longer functioned at night.\n\nTwo months ago, trust deputy chief executive Cath Byford told the Norfolk Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee it would take another four years \"at least\" for the \"measurable culture\" to improve.\n\nThe trust told BBC News it had begun a review of PFDs, \"to ensure improvements in practice have been made and learning is embedded across clinical services\".\n\nFor Mr Harrison, changes cannot come quickly enough.\n\n\"We've got lots of members of the campaign who are bereaved parents, or parents of children who can't get services, so their biggest fear is that their children will end up in the same way as the bereaved parents,\" he said.\n\n\"So it's toxic. And we've been doing this for 10 years.\"\n\nThe campaign has also written to NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Care Quality Commission and local MPs.\n• None Norfolk & Suffolk Mental Health Crisis – The radical restructure is the end of hope for a better NSFT The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The toy industry generally is facing a slowdown in demand for its products\n\nUS toy giant Hasbro says it is cutting more jobs as it struggles with weaker sales in the build-up to Christmas.\n\nThe maker of Transformers action figures and Monopoly will lay off about 1,100 workers globally - close to 20% of its staff.\n\nThe job cuts come as the toy industry generally is facing a slowdown in demand for its products.\n\n\"Market headwinds... have proven to be stronger and more persistent than planned,\" Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks said.\n\nIn an email sent to employees on Monday, he said: \"I know this news is especially difficult during the holiday season.\"\n\nHe added that there was \"no sugar-coating how hard this is, particularly for the employees directly affected\".\n\nThe company, which also makes the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy game, expects layoffs to be largely completed in the next 18 to 24 months, the Reuters news agency reported.\n\nThe latest reductions come on top of 800 cuts that have been made so far this year as the firm tries to save up to $300m (£238m).\n\nThe Associated Press news agency reports that like many other toy makers, Hasbro is struggling with a slowdown in sales after a surge during the pandemic when some parents bought toys to keep their children busy.\n• None Furby toy from the 1990s revived by Hasbro", "Topped with razor wire and split by mountains, the infamous border wall that cuts through the desert between Mexico and the state of California has long been a focal point for America's heated debate on migration.\n\nBut with funding for the war in Ukraine and Gaza on the line in Washington DC, the issues at the wall have taken on new urgency.\n\nSince the start of the year, about two million migrants have been apprehended at the US-Mexico border for crossing into the country illegally, a record high.\n\nThe futility of the border fortifications is obvious near the small town of Jacumba. Wherever the wall meets the mountains it simply stops, creating a large gap that anyone can walk through to enter the US, and serving as a visual reminder of America's broken immigration system.\n\nIn a Senate vote this week, Republicans blocked additional funding for Ukraine or Israel unless the Biden administration agrees to hardline immigration reform.\n\n\"I will not go back to South Carolina and try to explain why I helped Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel and did nothing to secure our own border. I will help all of our allies, but we got to help ourselves first,\" Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told media on Thursday.\n\nYou can read more about the border crisis here.", "The British Museum's outgoing director Dr Hartwig Fischer acknowledged that \"the situation facing the Museum is of the utmost seriousness\"\n\nThe British Museum has said the staff member they believe stole or damaged around 2,000 objects is not co-operating with their search for them.\n\nA review into the thefts has now produced a series of recommendations to protect the collection, including identifying all unregistered artefacts.\n\nPeter Higgs, who was a senior curator at the museum, is accused of stealing artefacts including Roman gems.\n\nMr Higgs has not responded to the BBC's attempts to contact him.\n\nHe has previously denied any wrongdoing.\n\nHis family told reporters in August that he was innocent and \"devastated\" to have lost his job.\n\nThe recommendations also include reviewing the approach to suspending employees, to give due weight to protecting the collection.\n\n\"One of the things that we've got to get to the bottom of is exactly the motivation of the individual who we believe is responsible,\" museum chairman George Osborne told the BBC. \"But he has not been talking or co-operating.\"\n\nOne of the artefacts found to be up for sale on Ebay\n\nAn external review into what happened estimates that the alleged thief pocketed around £100,000 over a 30-year period, selling items from the museum store rooms.\n\nSome of the artefacts - most of which had never been catalogued by the museum - were sold on eBay for as little as a few pounds. The true value of the items is still unknown.\n\nThe independent review, conducted by former British Museum board member Sir Nigel Boardman, Chief Constable of British Transport Police Lucy D'Orsi, and Deputy High Court Judge Ian Karet, runs to 30 pages.\n\nOnly four pages - which contain its recommendations - have been made public. Mr Osborne said the museum can't share more due to security concerns and the ongoing police investigation.\n\nAll 36 recommendations contained in the review have been accepted by the trustees.\n\nThey suggest making more frequent and more extensive inventory checks of all of the collection, including unregistered items, and adopting a \"modern and inclusive approach\" to management.\n\nMore than a third of the published recommendations are already under way or completed, according to the museum.\n\nMr Osborne said: \"We were the victim of an inside job. We're determined to learn the lessons, make sure the collection is safe and be a more open, transparent and self-confident institution going forward.\"\n\nAntiquities dealer Ittai Gradel first warned management that a thief was operating inside the museum in February 2021. He wrote to the British Museum's deputy director Jonathan Williams, alleging he had seen three ancient artefacts belonging to the museum for sale on eBay.\n\nHe had found the full name and email address of the suspect insider on a PayPal receipt for some gems he bought and included this in his evidence to Mr Williams.\n\nThe museum admitted that an investigation prompted by Mr Williams at the time was inadequate.\n\nMr Osborne acknowledged the lapse over Dr Gradel's warnings, saying: \"It was not taken as seriously as it should have been. And that's a big lesson for us to learn.\"\n\nLater in 2021, an unconnected spot check revealed an item was missing and the museum began to uncover how many items had been taken or damaged.\n\nThe museum's director, Hartwig Fischer, stepped down in August 2023 after the story broke.\n\nMr Williams \"agreed to voluntarily step back from his normal duties\" until the investigation was over, a statement said at the time, but the BBC understands he is still employed at the museum.\n\nThe British Museum told the BBC: \"This is a confidential HR matter and we can't comment further.\"\n\nSpeaking to the BBC on Tuesday, Dr Gradel said of the recommendations: \"They do not have a single word about anyone within the British Museum doing anything whatsoever wrong at any point in time here. This is ridiculous… there is absolutely zero accountability for anything that has gone wrong here.\n\n\"Judging from this, no-one within the museum walls did anything wrong whatsoever here. It's ridiculous.\"\n\nHe added that Mr Williams \"displayed incompetence to a degree which should have resulted in immediate resignation or failing that immediate dismissal\".\n\n\"I wanted [Mr Williams] to have been sacked months ago... Failing that he should be kicked out immediately…. Even if we say it was sort of incompetent in all innocence, rather than a deliberate attempt to cover up, how do you explain, for instance, that they never contacted me?\n\n\"I made these discoveries [and] they had not a single follow-up question to ask me. They didn't even inform me that they were doing an internal investigation until if they had finished it and closed it.\"\n\nThe BBC has asked Mr Williams for comment.\n\nDr Gradel has played a key role in the museum's recovery process, which involves tracking down dealers and collectors from all over the world who may have bought stolen items.\n\nOut of the 651 items identified by the museum so far, 351 have already been handed back.\n\nAnd 350 of those have come from Dr Gradel, with just one returned by another buyer.\n\nDr Gradel told the BBC: \"A few of them I bought individually but most of them came in batches of say 20, 30 or even 40, and they kept coming.\n\n\"If you add it all up, I paid maybe £50 per gem.\"\n\nMany of the items were returned based on \"circumstantial evidence\" that they had come from the museum, Dr Gradel said, because the vast majority had not been catalogued.\n\nThe thief also damaged some of the objects, none of which were on display, according to the museum. About 350 gold mounts were destroyed, possibly melted down to sell for scrap. Tool marks defaced 140 other items.\n\nMr Osborne admitted to security failings at the museum, acknowledging that rules were \"not always properly enforced\".\n\nHe said: \"People get a bit lax in the way they follow those rules. And the review, therefore, recommends that the rules we have in place are properly followed.\"\n\nThe Metropolitan Police interviewed a man under caution in August. A police investigation is ongoing.", "Kyivstar is said to be working on additional security measures to prevent future incidents\n\nUkraine's main mobile network, Kyivstar, says it's been the target of a \"powerful hacker attack\".\n\nCustomers have been left without phone or internet access, while one city's air raid sirens stopped working. Kyivstar's chief executive implied Russia could be responsible.\n\nThe Kyivstar network is estimated to have some 24 million mobile customers and a million home internet users.\n\nReports emerged on Tuesday morning that people and businesses had lost mobile and internet signal.\n\nAir raid sirens in the north-eastern city of Sumy also malfunctioned as a result of the outage.\n\nMilitary authorities in the area announced they would send out police and emergency vehicles to alert residents of any incoming missile or drone strikes.\n\nUkraine's largest bank, PrivatBank, said some cash machines were not working and might be \"unstable\" or \"have no connection\".\n\nAn investigation has been opened by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).\n\n\"One of the versions currently being investigated by SBU investigators is that the Russian special services may be behind this hacker attack,\" SBU said in a statement.\n\nKyivstar said earlier it had called in law enforcement agencies because of the \"illegal interference\".\n\nThe company's general director, Oleksandr Komarov, also appeared to suggest Russian actors could be to blame.\n\n\"The war with Russia has many dimensions and one of them is in cyberspace,\" he said.\n\n\"We are working to restore communication as soon as possible,\" he added and promised compensation for affected customers.\n\nThe operator said no-one's personal data had been compromised.\n\nRussia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the war now well into its second year.\n\nDutch-domiciled parent company Veon said it would work with Kyivstar on \"additional security measures\" to prevent similar incidents in future.\n\nSeparately, Ukraine's military intelligence claimed to have carried out a cyber-attack on Russia's federal tax system in recent days.\n\n\"During the special operation, military intelligence of Ukraine managed to break into one of the well-protected key central servers of the federal tax service,\" read a statement on Telegram.\n\nIt said Russian efforts to restore services were now into their fourth day.", "The panel was told it was \"a matter of legal fact\" that Letby was convicted of seven counts of murder and six of attempted murder\n\nChild serial killer Lucy Letby has been struck off the nursing register at a hearing which was told she maintains her innocence over her convictions.\n\nLetby was convicted of murdering seven babies and trying to murder six others.\n\nA Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) fitness to practise panel heard she would not \"resist\" being struck off, but did not accept she was \"guilty of any of the allegations\".\n\nThe panel found her unfit to practise and removed her from the register.\n\nLetby, who committed her crimes while working as a neonatal nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016, was sentenced to a whole-life order for each of her offences.\n\nThe NMC's representative Christopher Scott told the three members of a fitness to practise panel in east London that the charges brought by the body against Letby reflected her criminal convictions.\n\nHe said it was \"a matter of legal fact\" that she was convicted of seven counts of murder and six of attempted murder and the NMC had brought 14 charges against her.\n\nThe panel, which chose to proceed in Letby's absence, was told she had been asked in a \"tick-box exercise\" if she accepted the NMC charges.\n\nShe ticked \"yes\" to each of the charges, but added: \"I do not wish to take part or be present at the hearing.\"\n\n\"I do not resist the application to strike me off the nursing register,\" she stated.\n\n\"I accept the fact of the convictions.\n\n\"However, I do not accept that I am guilty of any of the allegations.\"\n\nThe panel was told she also stated that she maintained her \"innocence in respect of all of the convictions\", adding: \"These convictions are now the subject of an appeal.\"\n\nMr Scott said the harm that Letby caused was \"so egregious, the lack of insight and remorse that she demonstrated so striking, that the finding of impairment is necessary\".\n\nHe added that her convictions were so serious that they cannot be remediated and that a failure to find her unfit to practise \"would invoke a crisis in public confidence\".\n\nPanel chairman Bernard Herdan said they were satisfied that Letby caused harm to patients, brought the profession into disrepute and breached fundamental tenets of the profession.\n\nHe said there were no mitigating factors to consider and Letby was a convicted murderer who had shown no remorse.\n\nThey found the fact of her convictions was proven and her fitness to practise was impaired and as such, she was removed from the nursing register.\n\nLetby, originally of Hereford, is due to face a retrial over one count of attempted murder in June 2024.\n\nSpeaking after the hearing, the NMC's chief executive and registrar Andrea Sutcliffe said the body's \"thoughts and sympathies... remain with the parents, families and children whose lives have been so terribly impacted by Lucy Letby's heinous and heartbreaking crimes\".\n\nShe said the NMC had \"moved forward\" with fitness to practise proceedings \"as quickly as possible\" following Letby's conviction.\n\nShe added that the striking off order against Letby would \"take effect in January [and] in the meantime, she remains under interim suspension from the register\".\n\nAn NMC representative said its regulatory processes were \"guided by strict legislation, which sets out a process we must follow before we can impose a sanction\".\n\nThey said that includes \"certain notice periods we need to allow for\" and the council had \"followed this process as quickly as possible\" in respect of Letby's case.\n\nThey said Letby would now be sent a letter \"confirming the panel's decision\", after which she would have 28 days to appeal.\n\n\"If no appeal is received, the strike-off will take effect,\" they added.\n\nGiven the gravity of her offences, and the fact she will never leave prison, Lucy Letby's barring from the nursing profession may have seemed like a foregone conclusion.\n\nBut the NMC's fitness to practice panel allotted two days for the hearing to determine her professional future.\n\nIn the event, the formalities have moved along quickly and having refused to appear at her crown court sentencing, it was hardly a surprise that Letby also declined to appear at the NMC.\n\nInstead, she filled out the paperwork from her prison cell, accepting the proposal to strike her off the nursing register.\n\nShe then added the first comments she has made anywhere about her case - writing that she does not accept her guilt, maintains her innocence, and is appealing against her convictions.\n\nClearly, her focus is on the Court of Appeal, which is still considering her case.\n\nShe will also have to prepare for the retrial on one charge of attempted murder which is expected in June.\n\nThis is not the last we will hear about Lucy Letby.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Kenneth Law faces charges relating to 14 deaths in Canada but police believe there may be many more victims\n\nA Canadian man accused of supplying a poisonous chemical to people who died by suicide is facing multiple murder charges.\n\nPolice in Canada have charged Kenneth Law, a 57-year-old former chef, with 14 counts of second-degree murder.\n\nMr Law was previously charged with aiding suicide in relation to deaths of people who had allegedly purchased the lethal chemical from him online.\n\nBritish detectives have also linked Mr Law to 90 deaths in the UK.\n\nIn an emailed statement to the BBC, Mr Law's lawyer, Matthew Gourlay, said his client intended to plead not guilty to the charges.\n\nThe murder charges announced by police on Tuesday mark an escalation in the prosecution of Mr Law in Canada, who has been the subject of a \"very active and very complex\" investigation involving 11 police agencies in the country's largest province, Ontario.\n\nSpeaking on behalf of the multijurisdictional investigation, Simon James, an inspector with York Regional Police, said the new murder charges were related to a total of 14 victims in Ontario.\n\nMr James said that \"evidence has come in that supports the charge of second-degree murder\", but declined to add further details as the investigation was ongoing.\n\nAlong with the murder charges, Mr Law faces 14 counts of aiding and counselling suicide in connection to the same Ontario deaths, for a total of 28 charges. He faces imprisonment for life if he is found guilty of second-degree murder under Canadian law.\n\nMr Law, who remains in police custody, is also the subject of probes by police agencies in other parts of Canada and countries, including the UK.\n\nMr James said police in Ontario are cooperating with those international investigations.\n\nCanadian detectives said Mr Law had run a number of websites offering equipment and substances to help people end their lives. Police believe he may have sent more than 1,200 parcels containing lethal substances to around 40 countries.\n\nHe was first arrested and charged in May with counselling or aiding suicide. In August, police brought additional counts against him, all linked to deaths that occurred in Ontario.\n\nThe ages of the people who died ranged from 16 to 36. Mr James said more than one victim was under the age of 18.\n\nMany of Mr Law's alleged victims were also based in the UK. There, the National Crime Agency (NCA) in London said Mr Law was known to have sent packages to 272 people.\n\nThe NCA, which is now investigating if any criminal offences were committed in the UK, said 90 of those recipients later died, though they could not confirm that a toxic substance was the direct cause of each death.\n\nOne individual died after police had carried out welfare checks on all the addresses which received a parcel, the agency added.\n\nA spokesman for the NCA said: \"This investigation will explore viable leads that help us identify evidence of crimes committed in the UK or against its citizens.\"\n\nThe news of the charges were welcomed by David Parfett, whose 22-year-old son Tom bought the chemical from Mr Law and ended his life in October 2021.\n\n\"It sends a signal to other people who encourage vulnerable people to self harm and provide suicide kits that they're not beyond the law,\" Mr Parfett told the BBC.\n\nAnd he said there are wider lessons for the authorities on what more needs to be done to protect people online.\n\n\"Actions like encouraging others to kill themselves that would be prosecuted in real life are tolerated online. That has to stop,\" he said.\n\nWhile this is a significant moment for many of the victims' families, some said they still have outstanding concerns.\n\nThey worry there are other sellers out there who have taken Mr Law's place and are still selling the poisonous chemical he allegedly supplied. Many also feel the UK government has not done enough to stop this type of crime.\n\nMr James of York Regional Police said one major challenge is that some of the websites used by Mr Law are based in countries outside of Canada, where Canadian law does not apply.\n\nFamilies of victims said they also want action taken against those who set up and run a pro-suicide forum which encourages and instruct the vulnerable how to die. The BBC reported on the forum in October and even confronted one of its founders, who claimed he is no longer involved.\n\nMany of the dead found out about Mr Law and other sellers through the forum, which the BBC is not going to name.\n\nThey followed detailed instructions posted there on how to end their lives.\n\nIf you've been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line or by phone at 988 in the US and Canada", "Health workers staged a noisy protest demanding politicians \"get back to work\" as parties arrived for crucial talks with the government.\n\nProtesters cornered the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) delegation after shouting \"shame on you\".\n\nThey also chanted slogans calling for a return to Stormont as other parties, including Sinn Féin, arrived.\n\nThe talks involved the five largest Stormont parties and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.\n\nAt the meeting, Mr Heaton-Harris told the parties the UK government was offering £2.5bn to support the return of Stormont.\n\nIt would include a lump sum to settle public sector pay claims and a new \"needs-based\" funding formula for public services.\n\nStormont government departments are facing financial pressures and the responsibility for setting a budget has lain with Mr Heaton-Harris in the absence of devolved government.\n\nThe DUP has been boycotting power sharing for 22 months in protest at post-Brexit trade arrangements.\n\nThe party says the current plans undermine Northern Ireland's position in the UK internal market.\n\nIt has refused to nominate a deputy first minister to allow an executive to be formed and has also blocked the election of an assembly Speaker on a number of occasions.\n\nStephanie Greenwood of Unison speaks to Michelle O'Neill about public sector pay on the way into the talks\n\nMr Heaton-Harris said separate talks with the DUP aimed at ending the devolution hiatus had not ended, but were making progress.\n\nThose discussions are taking place in parallel with discussions about finances.\n\n\"I want to agree the basis upon which the Northern Ireland Executive can return on a stable financial footing,\" Mr Heaton-Harris said before the talks with the five parties began.\n\n\"I also want to ensure that public services are able to meet the needs of the people of Northern Ireland.\n\n\"The UK government is willing to help, but all these issues can best be addressed by the return of locally accountable institutions built on secure foundations.\"\n\nThree has been speculation that the DUP is preparing to agree to re-enter government, however, the party has denied this.\n\nIts leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and deputy leader Gavin Robinson were heckled by health workers as they arrived at Hillsborough Castle.\n\nThe workers also shouted \"fair pay\" as other politicians, including Sinn Féin's leader and deputy leader, arrived.\n\nOne protester told deputy leader Michelle O'Neill to tell Mr Heaton-Harris that he was \"playing hide and seek\".\n\nMs O'Neill said he was \"playing hide and seek with everybody\".\n\nStephanie Greenwood, chairperson of Unison, told Ms O'Neill: \"You promised us in 2019 pay parity, we're just asking you to deliver on that promise.\"\n\nThe Sinn Féin deputy leader said she would be making that case to Mr Heaton-Harris.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jayne McCormack This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFollowing the meeting, Ms O'Neill said the financial package offered by the UK government did not even \"touch the surface\" in terms of aiding public services.\n\n\"Public sector workers are standing behind us striking for fair pay and safe working conditions - that's not an acceptable position for them to be in,\" she said.\n\nSpeaking of returning to an executive, she said \"We have a battle, but it's a battle the parties must fight together and take this right to the British government.\"\n\nSir Jeffrey Donaldson says his party feel the UK government's financial package isn't enough to restore devolution\n\nThe leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said his party felt the UK government's financial package was not enough to restore devolution.\n\n\"Our initial reaction is that it fall short of what is required to enable our public services to be placed on a sustainable basis in terms of the funding of those public services\".\n\nThe DUP leader said there was \"some way to go\" on discussions both about finances and on the and Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nAlliance leader Naomi Long said the party was \"heartened\" by some of the financial offers put forward but it was \"not sufficient\" to address issues.\n\n\"This is not about a short-term fix, it is not about dangling baubles at us before Christmas and getting everybody to rush back,\" she said.\n\nShe added it was essential the parties get this deal right as it will have \"generational impact\".\n\nThe UUP leader, Doug Beattie, said the figures were \"eyewatering but it's what happens next year and the year after that\".\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie talks to health care workers outside the talks' venue\n\n\"Initially it's quite attractive, but in the long term were not quite sure - we have to do a little bit more looking through it and negotiating around it,\" he said\n\nHe added he did not believe an executive could be established before Christmas.\n\nSDLP leader Colum Eastwood said that there was still \"work to do\".\n\nOn the financial package being offered, he said: \"In every discussion I have ever been in with the British government about money, everyone says that it is not enough.\"\n\nMr Eastwood said: \"Most of the parties were clear that we have to get Stormont back up and running immediately.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jayne McCormack This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn Sunday, Sinn Féin said the government had told it that post-Brexit arrangement talks with the DUP had ended.\n\nBut the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) said this was \"totally incorrect\".\n\nThe DUP said there was \"further work yet to be completed\" before negotiations with the government were over.\n\nBut Doug Beattie said he understood the talks were making good progress and were \"nearing an end\".\n\nThe government may believe it's offered the parties an early Christmas present with the promise of lots of cash - but it's clear the parties have a much bigger wish list.\n\nOne local leader described it as London trying to \"dangle baubles before Christmas\", in the hopes of turning up the heat on the DUP to bring Stormont out of cold storage.\n\nWhile Sinn Féin wants these discussions done within the next two days, the DUP has suggested that the process could run much longer.\n\nParty leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson still has another deal to finalise with the government and crucially, sell that to his party members and unionist grassroots.\n\nWhen it comes to financial packages in Northern Ireland, memories run long and the parties still point out that the last agreement they reached in 2020 saw the promise of more money than was delivered.\n\nSo while we're now officially in another Christmas talks process, in the view of one source who was in the room today there's not a \"snowball's chance\" of this being wrapped up before the new year.", "An asylum seeker on board the Bibby Stockholm barge, which houses migrants off the Dorset coast, has died.\n\nSources told the BBC that the man is thought to have taken his own life.\n\nMigrants added that the man had complained about life onboard the barge before his death. The Home Office said welfare was of the utmost importance.\n\nDorset Police were called to the vessel, docked off Portland, just after 06:20 GMT on Tuesday and its officers are carrying out enquiries.\n\nDowning Street said support continues to be made available to those on the barge.\n\nThe three-storey barge houses people awaiting the outcome of their asylum applications and has capacity for up to 500 men.\n\nThe death happened in one of the more than 200 cabins on board, a source familiar with the incident said.\n\nBBC News spoke to asylum seekers, who did not want to be identified, but said they were on the barge at the time the man died.\n\nOne claimed the man who died had been shouting in a corridor between 22:00 and 23:00, when security asked him to be silent and return to his room.\n\n\"He was shouting at someone and complaining [saying] everyday this happen to me, the food is not good, and the environment... and the one line he repeated 'I am not a scapegoat'\".\n\nOne of the group said the man began shouting again around 03:00 before he was confronted by security.\n\nAnother migrant said he woke up at 06:30 to the sounds of ambulance sirens, before learning of the death.\n\n\"There's no good food, the procedures are not good, then stress\", he added, suggesting staff talk to migrants like they are prisoners.\n\nWhen asked about the claims, a Home Office spokesperson said it took its responsibility for wellbeing incredibly seriously.\n\n\"This will now be investigated by the police and coroner. It is right that the facts and circumstances surrounding this death are established.\"\n\nHome Secretary James Cleverly told MPs the death would be fully investigated, adding: \"I'm sure that the thoughts of the whole House, like mine, are with those affected.\"\n\nThe age and nationality of the dead man are yet to be confirmed. The coroner's office has been notified.\n\nThe Prime Minister's official spokesman said migrants on the barge have a medical assessment and have been assessed for signs of emotional trauma, and continue to have support available to them.\n\nThe Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, which investigates deaths in immigration detention centres, has said it would not investigate the case because Bibby Stockholm is not a detention facility.\n\nDeborah Coles, director of the charity Inquest, said \"given reports that conditions on the barge are prison-like\" it was \"reasonable\" to expect the ombudsman to investigate the death.\n\n\"This was a tragic death forewarned,\" she said. \"It is vital that it is investigated by an independent body and not by the government whose own policy it was to place asylum seekers there.\"\n\nThe vessel was first used for accommodating asylum seekers in August but was evacuated after Legionella bacteria was found in the water supply, with people returning to it in October.\n\nThe barge is the first to be used as part of government plans to reduce the cost of asylum accommodation.\n\nThere was considerable opposition to the plan, both from local people and national organisations, with campaigners calling it \"cruel and inhumane\". Many of them responded to Tuesday's news by calling for an end to the use of the barge for accommodation.\n\nReacting to the death, Richard Drax, Conservative MP for South Dorset, said it was a \"tragedy born of an impossible situation\".\n\nThe Refugee Council's chief executive Enver Solomon called for an independent review to be carried out following the \"appalling loss of life\" in order \"to avoid any further tragedies of this kind\".\n\nHe said: \"A new approach that always sees the face behind the case and treats every individual person with the dignity and humanity they deserve is urgently needed.\"\n\nMr Solomon added the asylum system has \"more hostility than compassion built into it\".\n\nFlowers have been left at the entrance to Bibby Stockholm\n\nAmnesty International UK's refugee and migrants director, Steve Valdez-Symond, argued that the people fleeing \"persecution and conflict in countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Sudan and Eritrea\" were being \"completely lost\" in the current debate.\n\nSteve Smith, CEO of refugee charity Care4Calais, said: \"The UK government must take responsibility for this human tragedy.\"\n\nThe Bishop of Sherborne, Karen Gorham, said news of the death had \"shaken the community\", as local church and faith groups had got to know some of the men on board.\n\nNews of the death comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saw off a rebellion to pass the Rwanda bill through its first stage in the Commons tonight.\n\nThe scheme would see those who arrive in the UK illegally sent to the east African country, where they could claim asylum.\n\nBBC News investigates the community reaction to the arrival of the Bibby Stockholm barge in the town of Portland, Dorset.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"We've been dealing with mental health call-outs pretty much all day\"\n\nLess than an hour into the backshift at Edinburgh's Howdenhall police station, a call comes through about a man armed with an axe and knife and in a state of distress.\n\nThe police race to the scene and within minutes the immediate threat is safely resolved.\n\nBut for some of the officers, it's only the start of their involvement with the man.\n\nTwo constables spend four hours waiting with him before he can be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Another has to guard his flat until a joiner fixes the broken front door.\n\nPolice Scotland says there has been a vast increase in calls about individuals giving cause for concern at a time when its frontline resources are increasingly over-stretched.\n\nA small battering ram is used to gain entry to a property\n\nThe pandemic and now the cost of living crisis have been blamed for a deterioration in the nation's mental wellbeing.\n\nBudget pressures at Police Scotland mean officer numbers are falling towards their lowest level since 2007.\n\nThis year the force has attended about 20,000 mental health incidents every month. Roughly nine out of 10 of them did not involve a crime.\n\nAround one in six incidents dealt with by the police involved mental health.\n\nPC Kate Gardner, who has been an officer for two years, says: \"It's becoming more and more common that mental health is what we do now.\"\n\nThe blue light call to the man with the hammer and knife is a dramatic start to a shift which then largely settles into a series of welfare checks which have to be dealt with within four hours.\n\nPC Gardner and her colleague PC David Macleod trace a vulnerable person who had not responded to phone calls from their support worker for three weeks.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as police track down woman missing from Edinburgh hospital\n\nThey establish that a man who had told the police he wants a self-loading rifle presents no risk to himself or others.\n\nWhen the officers are sent to look for a woman who had absconded from a psychiatric ward, they find her flat in darkness.\n\nNo-one is answering the front door but there are signs that someone is inside, so PC Macleod uses a small battering ram - \"the big red key\" - to gain entry.\n\nThe woman is there. The officers speak to her quietly and gently as they take her back to the hospital.\n\nSenior officers have long believed that they are filling gaps left by other agencies.\n\nPolice Scotland's Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Graham says officers can struggle to access services that are better placed than they are to deal with mental health.\n\nDCC Malcolm Graham said a new system for assessing calls was beginning to reduce officer deployments\n\nIn another recent incident in a different city, the police spent two hours trying to help get for a man in distress.\n\nThey were unsuccessful but stayed with him until they felt he was well enough to be left alone.\n\nAn hour later, they learned he had taken his own life.\n\nIt is a UK-wide issue. In England and Wales, many forces are adopting a new approach where they will only attend mental health-related incidents if a crime is being committed or if there's an immediate threat to life.\n\nDCC Graham says Police Scotland is not seeking to copy that approach but a new system for assessing calls is beginning to reduce officer deployments.\n\n\"At national level, we're talking to senior partners in different health services to make sure we're providing care and support that's needed, when it's needed,\" he explains.\n\n\"If we can assure needs are going to be met through a risk-based approach and through other services stepping in when needed, that can hopefully free up the police to deal with what only the police can deal with - serious crime, serious harm and serious vulnerability at the point of crisis.\"\n\nThere is general agreement that most of the time, the police are not the most appropriate organisation to respond to people in crisis or distress.\n\nThe search for a solution is underway but with public finances tighter than ever, it will be difficult.\n\nThe Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland says there's a workforce crisis in the police, social work and psychiatry.\n\nScotland's chief inspector of constabulary has called for a strategic whole system review of mental health services.\n\nAnd campaigners at Scottish Action on Mental Health say any change in approach by Police Scotland force must have people with mental health problems its heart.\n\nThe Scottish government is well aware of the issue. It says it is working with the health service and the police to reduce unnecessary demand on the frontline.\n\nPC Macleod has been with Police Scotland for six years\n\nTowards the end of the shift, the ambulance service tells the force that it has been unable to find a woman who had reported feeling suicidal.\n\nWhen PCs Macleod and Gardner arrive, the woman has returned and is standing outside her home.\n\nThe officers established she was no longer thinking of harming herself and said they would look into whether she should be given extra care.\n\nWhen they left, she was watching from her front window, cuddling her dog.\n\nAsked if this was what she signed up for, PC Gardner replied: \"Yes and no. I've signed up to help people. I didn't expect there to be so many of these calls and it's been quite eye-opening.\"\n\nPC Macleod has been with the force for six years.\n\n\"This was a normal shift,\" he said. \"It's what we deal with. Someone's got to do it.\"", "It is just gone 00:30 here in London and 02:30 in Gaza where we can hear the occasional thud of an explosion on a live video feed, set up across the boundary in Israeli territory.\n\nMany civilians in Gaza have gone to bed hungry after another day of serious shortages of food, water and medicine, while Israel stepped up its bombardment of targets both in the north and south of the territory.\n\nIsraeli tanks moved towards the centre of the southern city of Khan Younis, where hundreds of thousands of Gazans have sought shelter. Israel has now told them to move to al-Mawasi but international aid organisations criticise the call, since the area is a small strip of land with few buildings and no infrastructure to provide for basic human needs.\n\nThe rest of the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a \"total breakdown of civil order\" when it comes to the delivery of limited humanitarian aid, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees says.\n\nAt least 18,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, since 7 October when Hamas launched its devastating surprise attack on Israel.\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Hamas fighters have been surrendering to IDF forces and it is the \"beginning of the end\" for the group which has controlled Gaza for years. However, one military analyst speaking to the BBC described the claim as “wildly optimistic”.\n\nThe UK and the EU said they were planning to impose sanctions on Israelis responsible for violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Violent attacks there, including fatal shootings of Palestinians by armed Jewish settlers, have risen sharply.\n\nAnd protests over the war go on, with pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Chile demanding a ceasefire outside the US embassy in the cpaital, Santiago.\n\nPolice in Chile hold off protesters demanding a ceasefire outside the US embassy in Santiago Image caption: Police in Chile hold off protesters demanding a ceasefire outside the US embassy in Santiago", "A display at a Zara store in Spain uses props similar to those in its online campaign for \"The Jacket\"\n\nZara is facing a backlash about an advertising campaign which some people claim resembles images from the Israel-Gaza war.\n\nThe Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it had received 50 complaints about the social media campaign called \"The Jacket\".\n\nOne image shows the model holding a mannequin wrapped in what appears to be white plastic.\n\nIn a series of images, the model is pictured against a background of cracked stones, damaged statues and broken plasterboard.\n\nSome on social media have suggested they are similar to images emerging from Gaza following Israeli bombing in retaliation for the 7 October attack by Hamas when 1,200 people were killed.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said Israel has killed about 18,000 people.\n\nThe campaign for Zara's Atelier line is no longer on the company's app or website.\n\nThe BBC understands the advertising campaign was conceived in July and filmed in September, before the Israel-Gaza war began.\n\nSome images appear to have been removed from Zara's Instagram account, though others remain.\n\nIn the comments several users call for a boycott of the firm.\n\nOne Zara shop in Spain has a window display with some props similar to those used in the campaign.\n\nThe company describes its thinking behind \"The Jacket\" as \"an exercise in concentrated design that is conceived to showcase the finest aspects of Zara's creative and manufacturing capabilities, Zara Atelier offers one garment, six ways - and with unlimited possibilities\".\n\nA spokesperson for the ASA said: \"We've received 50 complaints about this ad. Complainants argue that the imagery references the current Israel-Hamas conflict and is offensive.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added that the ASA was reviewing the complaints but was not currently investigating the advert.\n\nRecently, M&S apologised after the retailer was accused of posting an Instagram photo of Christmas party hats in the colours of the Palestinian flag on fire.\n\nThe ASA said that it had received 116 complaints about the image.\n\nIt said that following a review, it determined that M&S had not broken ASA rules and \"no additional investigation was warranted\".\n\nNevertheless, M&S said it had \"removed the post following feedback and we apologise for any unintentional hurt caused\".\n\nZara's Spanish parent company, Inditex, is scheduled to announce its latest quarterly results on Wednesday.", "At least 23 soldiers have been killed and dozens injured in Pakistan after militants attacked a police compound.\n\nThe attack took place in the early hours when a vehicle containing explosives rammed into the building in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the Afghan border.\n\nA militant group affiliated to the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack.\n\nThe compound was being used as a base camp for the Pakistani army.\n\nAhead of the vehicle ramming, several militants attempted to enter the compound in the Dera Ismail Khan district but failed, the army said in a statement.\n\nThe group then used an explosive-laden truck to ram into the compound's boundary wall, which was followed by a suicide bomb attack which caused the building to collapse, the statement added.\n\nThere are concerns that the ammunition stored inside the compound in the Dera Ismail Khan district might have also exploded. An official said many people were killed while they were sleeping.\n\nSix attackers were killed, the military said. It added that a total of 27 militants were killed following military operations in the area overnight.\n\nThe Tahreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP), which emerged earlier this year, said its members carried out Tuesday's attack.\n\nAttacks by militant groups in Pakistan have been on the rise, particularly in its border regions with Afghanistan, after the hard-line Islamist militant group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) withdrew from a ceasefire last year.\n\nExperts say the TTP have been emboldened by the Afghan Taliban, following the group's return to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021.\n\nIslamabad has claimed that insurgents operate from areas across the border. The Taliban in Afghanistan has repeatedly denied this.\n\nThe TTP, or Pakistan Taliban group, has been fighting the country's armed forces and police for years. The group shares the same hard-line ideology as the Afghan Taliban but is separate from it.\n\nThe group wants to impose its interpretation of Sharia law in Pakistan's north-west.\n\nAt least 100 people were killed in a bomb blast at a mosque in the city of Peshawar in January. At the time, the TTP denied it carried out the attack, instead blaming it on a commander of a breakaway faction.", "Expert lawyers who have been involved in the Rwanda case - or supported the challenge to the policy - have described new legislation as potentially setting up a politically explosive fight with both the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.\n\nIn last month's Supreme Court ruling, five justices unanimously ruled that the country was not safe - and they listed the detailed evidence about how its asylum system was deeply flawed.\n\nThe key element of the government's package tries to deal with this part of the defeat by asking Parliament to declare Rwanda to be \"conclusively\" safe and simultaneously banning British judges from ever saying it is not.\n\nThat is aimed at preventing the courts from once again considering documented evidence about injustices in Rwanda's asylum system. Taken to a hypothetical extreme, if Rwanda exploded with civil war like in 1994 (not something currently likely to happen), British law would still state the country was a safe place to send people.\n\nThe plan then orders British judges and courts to ignore the sections of the Human Rights Act that set out how they should interpret safeguards set out in the European Convention of Human Rights. That includes the right not to be tortured, or the right to a fair hearing before a court.\n\nIt also prevents judges from considering other international laws - most importantly the Refugee Convention and the United Nations' ban on torture.\n\nThis is quite a move to pull off legally and politically on the world stage. On the one hand, the UK freely entered into these laws because it wanted to set a global example for others to follow. On the other, the government has designed a law, say critics, that allows it to pick and choose when it adheres to such global rules - while demanding that Rwanda sticks to the letter all the time.\n\nOne highly-respected legal thinker, Professor Mark Elliott of Cambridge University, has already blogged that this is \"an astounding level of hypocrisy\".\n\nFinally, it says our courts must ignore any other British law that stands in the way of finding the country to be safe - this is important because the Supreme Court said such laws exist.\n\nSo where does this leave the plan?\n\nThe front page of the bill gives it away. Every piece of new legislation must carry a statement as to whether the plan is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.\n\nThis bill comes without that assurance - and that means government lawyers have warned ministers it is more likely than not to fall apart under sustained legal challenges.\n\nSo if the bill is passed, many experts are gearing up for a new and profoundly messy court battle - if not lots of them. Some of those battles might even start in Edinburgh if the plan runs roughshod over some part of Scots law that Downing Street has not thought of. If that sounds like a plot twist, it happened to Boris Johnson when he was roundly defeated over illegally closing down Parliament amid the Brexit crisis.\n\nAt worst, it could lead to an unprecedented constitutional stand-off between Parliament and judges.\n\nThe Supreme Court cannot strike down primary legislation - but it has the power to make a \"Declaration of Incompatibility\". This is a rare judgment that says an Act of Parliament should be rethought because it is incompatible with the basic European Convention of Human Rights safeguards embedded in British law.\n\nTwo such rights that come to mind in relation to the Rwanda plan are the right not to be subject to inhuman treatment and the right to have a fair hearing of your case before you are put onto a plane to equatorial Africa.\n\nIf the Supreme Court makes a Declaration of Incompatibility, in theory a government should then ask Parliament to amend the offending law. But it does not have to do so - hence the potential stand-off.\n\nSo if ministers pressed ahead with flights, it is a racing certainty that claimants would then try to take their case, as would still be their right under the law, to the European Court of Human Rights.\n\nThe court in Strasbourg would then have to consider whether it wants to block the plan - and flights - while it considers the case.\n\nIf it did that, the bill includes a measure that says ministers can ignore such an order and send a plane skywards anyway.\n\nBut two massive obstacles stand in the way of the plan becoming reality.\n\nThe first is politics. They need to get this through Parliament - and there is no certainty the House of Lords will comply.\n\nSome observers are already wondering why Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, and Victoria Prentice, the Attorney General, have stood by the bill when they both have constitutional roles in upholding international laws that may soon be ignored. A lot of votes in the Commons may rest on their shoulders.\n\nSecondly, just supposing it did become law, some of the best legal minds in the country have fought the government over Rwanda. The plan could become so mired in challenges in court that it never gets to a final judgment before the General Election clock runs out.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The workers were confronted by members of the public. Credit: @damocrat\n\nA homeless man who was filmed being soaked by a McDonald's security guard has said he was made to feel \"like I was nothing\".\n\nAaron McCarthy, 25, said his bedding was left unusable after the worker threw water over the pavement where he was sitting.\n\nA McDonald's spokesperson said the firm had \"permanently removed\" the \"third-party security guards involved\".\n\nMr McCarthy said McDonald's had also bought him new bedding.\n\nAfter the incident, Mr McCarthy said he was given money which enabled him to stay in a hotel for the night.\n\nHe said he didn't blame the fast-food chain, and said it had apologised to him. Mr McCarthy said he did plan to follow up with the yet unnamed external security company.\n\nA video of the guard's actions, filmed by a bystander, showed the worker kicking Mr McCarthy's belongings away as he cleaned the ground on Victoria Street on Saturday.\n\nMr McCarthy told the BBC: \"Most people think we're just all drug addicts; no, I don't chose to be out here, I don't want to be out here.\"\n\n\"I'm only 25 years old - I've been out here since I was 17.\"\n\nAaron McCarthy said he doesn't leave his usual spot outside McDonald's\n\nHomeless charity Crisis told the BBC it condemned the actions of the security guard.\n\nCrisis CEO Matt Downie said: \"It's appalling to see people mistreated like that.\"\n\nWestminster Council said it would also be offering support.\n\nIt said it was very concerned to see the video and would also be raising the issue with McDonald's.\n\nFootage of the incident posted on social media showed the security guard soaking the pavement where the man had been sitting with his sleeping bag outside a Nationwide bank branch, next door to the McDonald's.\n\nIn the video, the rough sleeper said \"leave me alone\" before one security guard kicked his blanket out of the way and splashed more water along the pavement.\n\nMr Downie from Crisis said \"There's a climate of this going on at the moment.\n\n\"The recent comments from the (now former) home secretary saying that homelessness was a lifestyle choice have not helped at all.\n\n\"Words really do have consequences and we end up in situations like this where people are more likely to be abused and mistreated in this way.\"\n\nDamon Evans, who filmed the incident, could be heard telling the security guard \"you're covering his sleeping bag\" and he and other witnesses described the situation as \"outrageous behaviour\" and called it \"disgusting\" and \"bang out of order\".\n\nA spokesperson for McDonald's said they were \"shocked and saddened by this incident\".\n\nThey added: \"The restaurant team has been reminded of the importance of treating all people with respect including vulnerable people both in the restaurant and within the wider community.\n\n\"We would like to wholeheartedly apologise to the gentleman in the video and will work with the council to locate him and make amends, as part of our continued support for homelessness charities and organisations across London.\"\n\nSuella Braverman's office has been approached for comment.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury was on holiday during the hearing\n\nTyson Fury and his brothers must pay nearly £100,000 after a judge ruled they owed unpaid business rates in a row over land used as a car park.\n\nCheshire East Council argued the sum was due on land owned by the boxing champion and his brothers John and Shane near Manchester Airport.\n\nTheir representatives said they were not liable because they rented out the land to be run as an airport car park.\n\nThe boxer's father John appeared at the hearing at Chester Magistrates Court.\n\nDistrict judge John McGarva said the family's evidence was \"wholly unsatisfactory\" partly because none of the brothers were present in court.\n\nTheir father said his son paid \"millions of pounds in tax each year\" and assertions that the fighter had \"anything to do\" with the land in Styal were \"ridiculous\".\n\nThe boxer and his brothers were ordered to pay the council £82,000 in unpaid rates and £17,000 in court costs.\n\nJohn Fury, the father of boxer Tyson, appeared at Chester Magistrates' Court\n\nThe land on Moss Lane in Styal was transferred by John Fury to his sons in 2010 but the family's defence counsel Martin Budworth argued their father was still \"the effective controller of operations on the site\".\n\nJohn Fury had rented it out to tenants Holiday Car Parks Manchester Ltd, meaning the brothers would not be liable for the bill, he claimed.\n\nThe court heard the brothers had been issued with Cheshire East Council demands for unpaid business rates owed since April 2021, totalling £82,166.\n\nMr Fury said he was \"the man of that land\" and his sons had \"nothing to do with it\".\n\nDescribing himself as \"semi-illiterate\", he said: \"I'm a boxing coach. I had no knowledge of any of this. This technical stuff it's not my field.\n\n\"I try to keep away from paperwork because I've no understanding. I don't want to embarrass myself in public.\"\n\nThe Fury family said Holiday Car Parks Manchester Limited was responsible for the site\n\nCheshire East Council business rates manager Helen Sefton said they could find \"no evidence\" that Holiday Car Parks Manchester Limited was trading from the land.\n\nIn his ruling, Judge McGarva said evidence produced to demonstrate the land was being used by the company was \"wholly conflicted\".\n\nTyson Fury grew up in Styal before moving to Wythenshawe in Manchester.\n\nThe court heard he and his family are on holiday in Saudi Arabia, where he is due to fight Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight title next year.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The government's Rwanda plan and Rishi Sunak's authority as PM are on the line\n\nWooed in person, wooed over the phone, wooed over the airwaves.\n\nThe government is embarking on a persuasion job, the like of which we've not seen since Rishi Sunak became prime minister.\n\nMPs are being tracked down physically - to make sure they are around to vote later.\n\nAnd MPs are being tracked down politically - to make sure ministers know how they're intending to vote.\n\nAbout 20 MPs were invited in to Number 10 first thing for some cornflakes or perhaps something even more alluring.\n\nSenior government figures are adamant, for now at least, that the vote will definitely go ahead.\n\nOne option - if they're staring defeat in the face - would be to cancel the vote. That would be an admission of defeat - and doom-laden for the prime minister's authority - but less bad from his perspective than an actual defeat.\n\nBut no, I am told by multiple senior figures, pulling the vote will not happen.\n\nThey know the government's majority will be squeezed - some Conservative MPs will abstain or vote against - but they reckon they will win.\n\nOne Tory insider reckons north of 20 of their colleagues will rebel.\n\nWere that number to vote against, rather than abstain, things would be getting mighty tight for the government.\n\nAnd rebels reckon they have the numbers to defeat the government.\n\nAnd that is why every vote counts.\n\nThe Conservatives have been courting Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party. Would they lend them a hand?\n\nThe DUP are keeping their powder dry for now, seeing what leverage they may be able to extract.\n\nAnd MPs on the International Development Committee have missed out on a trip to the Caribbean of all places.\n\nThe visit was cancelled because government whips refused to grant permission for MPs to miss Tuesday's vote.\n\nJeopardy is in the air at Westminster, even if the MPs' plane to Barbados isn't.\n\nThe government's Rwanda plan and Rishi Sunak's authority are on the line.", "The E3 gaming show, once the biggest event in the gaming calendar, has been permanently cancelled.\n\nIn a statement, the organisers said: \"After more than two decades of E3, each one bigger than the last, the time has come to say goodbye.\"\n\nIt added: \"Thanks for the memories. GGWP [good game well played]\".\n\nThe 2023 expo had already been called off after analysts said it had \"struggled to remain relevant\".\n\nIndustry body Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which ran E3, confirmed to the BBC that the event will not go ahead in the future.\n\nE3 - which stands for Electronic Entertainment Expo - was last held virtually in 2021.\n\nThe last in-person event was in 2019.\n\nTwitch streamer Hollie Bennett said it was \"sad\" to see E3 \"fizzle out\".\n\nShe wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that it was \"hard to sum up the impact E3 had on the industry\".\n\n\"Your year almost revolved around it!\", she wrote. \"Nothing generated buzz like E3 did.\"\n\nE3 was once the industry's main showcase for new games and technology.\n\nIt started as a trade show in LA in 1995, just after the launch of the PlayStation and the year before the Nintendo 64 was released.\n\nIts 2005 event unveiled the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and a prototype of the Nintendo Wii.\n\nThat was its best-attended expo ever, according to gaming website IGN, with 70,000 visitors.\n\nBut as big players such as Nintendo, Ubisoft and Sony began launching new games at their own in-house events, E3 became less relevant and struggled to attract the exclusive announcements it once had.\n\nIt then faced an enforced pause because of the pandemic.\n\nThe 2023 event was cancelled because of a lack of interest from people within the industry.\n\nESA President and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis said in a statement: \"ESA's focus and priority remain advocating for ESA member companies and the industry workforce who fuel positive cultural and economic impact every day.\"\n\n\"The death of E3 is a significant moment for the games sector,\" research director for games at Ampere Analysis Piers Harding-Rolls told the BBC.\n\nHe added that gaming companies running their own events \"are a cheaper, flexible, and more effective way to reach an audience and control the release of news\".\n\n\"In its heyday E3 was viewed as an unmissable event and was hugely important for pre-launch buzz and the reveal of upcoming games and products.\n\n\"From a nostalgia point of view, it is sad to see it go.\"", "Following the reform's defeat, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin offered to step down\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron's government is in crisis after opposition parties united to defeat a key immigration bill.\n\nMPs from the far right, far left and moderate parties voted on Monday to reject the draft law.\n\nThe left argued its measures were too repressive, while the right said they were not tough enough.\n\nFollowing the defeat, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin offered to step down.\n\nViewed as a hardliner on immigration issues, he had strongly supported the draft law. However, Mr Macron rejected his resignation.\n\nThe government argued the bill would both control immigration and better integrate migrants.\n\nThe bill would have made it easier for the government to expel migrants who are sentenced to prison sentences of five years or longer and would have made it more difficult for migrants to bring family members to France.\n\nIt was, however, significantly more lenient than a draft proposed by the Senate, the upper house of parliament dominated by the right, which would have severely reduced access to healthcare and benefits for migrants.\n\nBefore the vote, Mr Darmanin said on X (formerly Twitter) that, if passed, the bill would allow the government to deport \"very dangerous\" foreign nationals, including drug dealers.\n\nBut his efforts to convince opposition MPs to back him failed when disparate factions voted for a motion to reject the bill. MPs from the far-right National Rally joined those from the far-left France Unbowed, the right-wing Republicans and smaller parties to defeat the government by 270 votes to 265.\n\nBefore the vote, Arthur Delaporte, an MP for the Socialist party, said his party would vote against the bill as it was \"unjust, scandalous and a threat to freedom\".\n\nMr Macron's centrist Renaissance party lost its a majority in parliament in elections in June 2022. Since then, the government has frequently found itself unable to win votes in parliament.\n\nThe government has said it will now seek to redraft the bill. A measure used by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne to pass laws without a vote cannot be used to clear this version.\n• None Dying for the right to be French", "Prince Harry and Meghan set up the charity when they moved to the US\n\nPrince Harry and Meghan's Archewell organisation donated grants of $1.2m (£950,000) to charities this year, its annual report reveals.\n\nUnder the banner \"Show up, do good\", the foundation backed projects ranging from helping Afghan women in the US to tackling misinformation.\n\nThere was also support for a mine charity made famous by Princess Diana.\n\nUS tax filings show donations at the same level as last year, with Archewell now holding funds of more than $11m.\n\nWhile much has been written about this high-profile couple, the Archewell Foundation's report for 2023 and tax information for 2022 cast a clearer financial light on Prince Harry and Meghan's working lives in the United States.\n\nArchewell, founded when Prince Harry and Meghan moved to the US and stepped down from official royal duties, is now in its third full year of operating, with the charitable foundation working alongside its production arms.\n\nTax filings for 2022, published this year, show donations of $1.2m from the foundation - including $100,000 for the Halo Trust, a mine-clearing charity once supported by Princess Diana.\n\nThe Halo Trust was supported by Princess Diana on a visit to a mine-clearance project in Angola\n\nPrince Harry's mother had brought attention to the charity when she visited a minefield-clearing project in Angola in 1997.\n\nPrince Harry had contacted members of the Halo Trust working in Ukraine after the Russian invasion.\n\nOther funded projects included $200,000 for a \"gender justice\" project in Washington, $125,000 for a civil-rights charity and $100,000 for a project promoting responsible use of technology.\n\nArchewell was launched with an initial start-up revenue of $13m in 2021, with a further $2m raised in 2021 and then $5m in 2022 - making grants of $5.4m across those years.\n\nTax returns show that the foundation spent more than it received in 2022, but the gap of $674,000 was less than the $8.5m in remaining funding, which has since risen to $11.2m.\n\nPrince Harry and Meghan are seen in a promotional video with some of the causes and campaigns they've backed in 2023, with a similar amount - $1.2m - being donated, in figures yet to be audited for this year's tax returns.\n\nThat includes a project helping Afghan women to settle and have a greater connection to local communities in the US.\n\nThere has also been support for a non-profit new project, intended to tackle misinformation in parts of the US that have lost their local newspapers and become \"news deserts\".\n\nThe most recent tax returns show that Prince Harry and Meghan don't draw an income from the charity, and are listed as directors working an average of one hour per week.\n\nBut Archewell has an annual salary bill of more than $640,000.", "US singer Alicia Keys has surprised commuters in London with a performance of some of her biggest hits inside St Pancras International.\n\nWatch this video to see her sing If I Ain't Got You and No One, on a public piano donated to the station by Sir Elton John.", "Thames Water is facing a \"seminal moment\", its chairman has said, during an intense grilling by MPs on the firm's financial performance.\n\nSenior management admitted the company did not have enough money to pay off a £190m loan due in April next year.\n\nThey also warned that if it was nationalised, taxpayers would face a hefty bill.\n\nConcern over Thames' financial strength led to speculation in July that it might be taken over by the government.\n\nThames, which serves 15 million households, and its parent company Kemble Water, owes a total of £18bn in debt.\n\nSir Adrian Montague, flanked by acting co-chief executives, admitted that the situation was precarious.\n\nSpeaking to the Environment Committee in Parliament, he said: \"This is a seminal moment for Thames. You know, we were very fragile in July.\"\n\n\"The chief executive resigned without notice 10 days before a change of chairman. The financial markets took fright.\"\n\n\"We have stabilised the business. We need to make a fresh start. I know management always says this, but it's true in this case, because this is a fresh team.\"\n\nThe numbers are going in the wrong direction for Thames.\n\nProfits fell 54% in the first six months of this year, complaints rose 13%, debt rose to £18bn.\n\nThames recently announced a £500m cash injection - but that was financed by a further loan to its parent company.\n\nIts own auditors have warned it may not continue as a going concern.\n\nThe company has said it will need another £2.5bn of investment in the coming years but that is contingent in part on the regulator, Ofwat, agreeing to household bills increasing by 40% on top of inflation by 2030.\n\nCommittee member Barry Gardiner said that amounted to Thames having the regulator \"by the short and curlies\" - suggesting that if Ofwat did not agree to the rise, it would essentially trigger a quasi-nationalisation that would cost the taxpayer billions.\n• None Thames Water says turnaround will 'take time'", "\"Is this it? Is this the moment?\" I shouted to my colleague in disbelief over the rapturous applause breaking out just moments after COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber began speaking here in Dubai.\n\nAfter almost 40 hours of deadlock over the future of fossil fuels, many were bracing for a messy fight on the conference floor. But as Jaber banged the gavel, it was all over.\n\nThe host country, the United Arab Emirates, had built expectations sky-high in the first few days, with Jaber proposing a deal to \"phase out\" fossil fuels.\n\nIn the end, the final pact doesn't go so far. It \"calls on\" countries to \"transition away\" from fossil fuels, and specifically for energy systems – but not for plastics, transport or agriculture.\n\nMoments later, the applause had turned to stunned silence when a delegate representing small island states, who are particularly vulnerable to climate change, accused the president of pushing through the text while they weren't in the room. The final text had a “litany of loopholes”, they said.\n\nTheir speech kicked off several hours of symbolic statements made from countries – but they had all accepted the compromise.\n\nWell, the remaining team here at COP28 are going to unfold ourselves from the novelty-sized rocking chairs we've found - one of the last remaining pieces of furniture at Expo 2020 - and head home.\n\nBut there's plenty more to help you understand exactly what happened here in Dubai:\n• My colleague Georgina Rannard has the full story here\n• What does this mean for the future? Environment correspondent Matt McGrath takes a look here\n• New episodes of Newscast and the Climate Question will drop soon - our climate editor Justin Rowlatt will be digging into the detail\n\nFrom the team here in Dubai, thanks for joining us. See you in Azerbaijan for COP29.", "Graham Stuart has been representing the UK at the Cop climate summit\n\nClimate Minister Graham Stuart flew back from the COP28 conference in Dubai to take part in a crunch Commons vote on the government's Rwanda bill.\n\nMr Stuart is due to return to the Dubai summit after the vote - a round trip of 6,824 miles.\n\nDespite speculation it would be tight, the government comfortably won the vote, with a majority of 44.\n\nMost Tory MPs - including Mr Stuart voted in favour of it - and none voted against.\n\nThere were a number of high-profile abstentions, including former ministers Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick, with more rebellions expected in the new year.\n\nRight-wing critics of the bill fear it does not go far enough to prevent legal challenges to asylum seekers being sent to Rwanda.\n\nIn a further sign of government nerves ahead of Tuesday night's vote, Tory MPs on the International Development Committee had to cancel a fact-finding trip to the Caribbean after party managers refused to grant them permission to miss the vote.\n\nDowning Street confirmed that Mr Stuart was returning to take part in the vote, adding: \"Ministers have a number of roles, the negotiations continue and he will return to COP.\"\n\nAsked about the carbon emissions from the flights, the prime minister's official spokesman said: \"This government is not anti-flying.\n\n\"We don't lecture the public to that regard. The most important thing is the outcomes of COP, which minister Stuart is obviously leading for the UK on.\"\n\nChiara Liguori, Oxfam's senior climate change policy advisor, said: \"There can be no more tragic outcome for UK climate diplomacy than this - flying home from talks to avert a climate catastrophe at the most critical moment in an attempt to salvage a cruel and impractical policy.\"\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"There will continue to be full official representation on the ground at the summit, including by Lord Benyon at ministerial level.\"\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: \"I guess they can say at least one flight has taken off as a result of this legislation.\"\n\nLabour voted against the Rwanda bill and says it would scrap the policy if it wins the next election.\n\nDelegates at COP28 are awaiting the publication of the next draft version of the final agreement, with the deadline having passed on Tuesday morning.\n\nThe previous version published on Monday made many countries and NGOs furious for excluding a commitment to phase out fossil fuel use, suggesting instead that countries \"could\" do so within an undefined time.", "Mr Sunak has made deterring migrants from crossing the Channel one of his key priorities\n\nRishi Sunak is racing to shore up support for his Rwanda bill among right-wing Conservative MPs, ahead of a crucial vote later.\n\nThe PM has been meeting potential rebels, as he tries to convince them to back the legislation.\n\nThe bill seeks to revive the government's plan to send some asylum seekers to the east African country.\n\nBut some on the right of the Tory party say a tougher law is needed to ensure the scheme works.\n\nDanny Kruger and Miriam Cates, who chair the New Conservatives group of Tory MPs, said they could not vote for a bill \"that fails to establish the superiority of our democratically-elected UK Parliament over foreign courts\".\n\nWriting in the Telegraph, the pair said the draft law did not block off the right to individual appeals over removals and was highly unlikely to ensure significant numbers of migrants were sent to Rwanda before the next election.\n\nThey called on the government to come forward with amendments to address its limitations.\n\nMeanwhile, Tory MPs from the more liberal end of the party say they will support it in its current form, but have warned against any changes further down the line, arguing they could breach international law.\n\nIt means Mr Sunak is facing the biggest challenge to his authority from his MPs, who could inflict humiliation on the PM over one of his key policies.\n\nMPs are currently debating the bill in the Commons, with a vote due from 19:00 GMT onwards.\n\nThe government's legislation has been drawn up to revive the Rwanda scheme, after the Supreme Court ruled it unlawful last month over fears it could lead to human rights breaches.\n\nThe legislation seeks to declare in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country to send asylum seekers to, and stop flights being grounded for legal reasons.\n\nThe aim of the policy is to deter migrants crossing the Channel in small boats - something Mr Sunak has made a key priority of his government.\n\nHowever, some Tory MPs are concerned it does not go far enough to prevent further legal challenges derailing deportations.\n\nWith Labour and other opposition parties opposing the bill, and with several Tory MPs indicating they could abstain, the parliamentary maths is looking tight for the government.\n\nA bill has not been defeated at second reading since 1986.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer says he will scrap the Rwanda plan if his party wins the next election, arguing the £290m due to be given to the east African country as part of the scheme would be better spent tackling people-smuggling gangs.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAhead of the vote, several senior Tories, including former defence secretary Ben Wallace and attorney general Sir Geoffrey Cox, have called on MPs to unite, warning disunity would spell disaster for the party ahead of the next election.\n\nThe New Conservatives group, whom Mr Sunak met for around an hour on Tuesday morning, has said the bill requires \"major surgery or replacement\".\n\nAccording to MPs present at the meeting, the prime minister told potential rebels he was willing to discuss \"tightening up\" the draft law.\n\nSome MPs told Mr Sunak they would abstain or vote against the bill later. However, it is understood others are planning to vote for the bill, in the hope it gets amended further down the line.\n\nThe European Research Group (ERG) - another group on the party's right - has argued \"very significant amendments\" are needed to prevent legal challenges to Rwanda deportations.\n\nThe group have not yet revealed how they plan to vote and have been meeting to decide their next steps.\n\nRobert Jenrick - who quit as immigration minister over the legislation last week - said it was \"not a bad bill,\" but needed strengthening to prevent individual claims against deportation.\n\nSpeaking in the Commons, he said deportees would \"stop at nothing\" to avoid being sent to Rwanda, telling MPs: \"give them an inch, and they'll take a mile\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Mark Francois and David Jones of the European Research Group calls on the government to scrap the bill\n\nHowever, agreeing to the demands of MPs on the right of the party would risk losing the support of more centrist Tories.\n\nThe One Nation group, which includes more than 100 Tory MPs, said it was recommending its members vote for the bill at this stage, but warned it would oppose any future amendments \"that would mean the UK government breaching the rule of law and its international obligations\".\n\nA defeat of such a key piece of legislation would potentially presage a leadership election for Mr Sunak, perhaps even a general election.\n\nDowning Street said the government was listening to the views of MPs but insisted it would not pull the vote.\n\nThose who want the Rwanda bill to go further argue it could still leave the scheme open to legal challenge by individuals, who could argue deportation to Rwanda would put them at risk of serious harm.\n\nIn an attempt to win over critics, the government took the unusual step of publishing a summary of its own legal advice on the scheme.\n\nThe advice argues that the grounds for individual challenges to deportation will be \"exceptionally narrow\" under the bill, and a blanket ban on appeals would breach international law.\n\nIt gives examples such as people in the late stages of pregnancy who are unfit to fly or with very rare medical conditions that could not be cared for in Rwanda.\n\nHowever, critics argue that even if only some of these claims succeed, they would still clog up the courts and delay removals.", "Clara has interviewed high-profile stars such as Doja Cat, Raye and Elton John, and will be focusing on special artist interviews\n\nClara Amfo is to quit her BBC Radio 1 show.\n\nThe presenter, who joined the station in 2015, has been the voice of new music showcase Future Sounds since 2021.\n\nChart Show host Jack Saunders will be taking over the evening slot from April.\n\nClara, who will stay at Radio 1 to work on artist specials and a new Sounds show, said she's \"so proud\" of the work she's done so far.\n\n\"I'm energised and excited for my next chapter as part of the network and beyond,\" she said.\n\nJack Saunders, who currently presents Radio 1's Future Artists, said the new role means his \"dreams have become a reality\" and he couldn't wait \"to champion new music\".\n\nSian Eleri, who currently presents The Chillest Show and The Power Down Playlist, will step in behind Jack with a new programme focused on launching new artists and bands.\n\n\"I'm excited to build on what is undoubtedly one of the most rewarding parts of the job - finding and championing the best new artists in the world for listeners to enjoy,\" she said.\n\nThese announcements come as part of wider changes by the station.\n\nCurrent Early Breakfast show presenter Arielle Free will be joining Radio 1 Dance with a new show on Thursday nights starting in April.\n\nShe said launching it on her \"six-year anniversary\" of joining Radio 1 felt \"particularly special\".\n\nIt was also announced that BBC Introducing Rock Show host Alyx Holcombe will take over hosting duties on the Indie Show from January.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Danielle Waldman was killed in the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival\n\nDanielle Waldman danced the last dance of her young life some time before dawn on 7 October. Soon afterwards she and her friends had to run for their lives, but they never made it home.\n\nThere is a record of her final moments - a brief video, recorded on a phone. It gives only a hint of the horrors to come.\n\nThe 24-year-old sits in the back seat of a car with two friends - strands of her long curly hair escaping from her grey hoodie. All three are casually dressed. There are fleeting smiles and overlapping voices, and a glimpse of blue wrist bands from the Supernova trance music festival they have just attended.\n\nThey are trying to remain calm, but they are being hunted.\n\nDanielle's boyfriend Noam Shai is in front, behind the wheel.\n\n\"Want me to drive very, very fast?\" he asks. \"I know how to do that.\"\n\n\"Correct,\" replies a female passenger. A bearded young man sitting beside Danielle tries to provide reassurance. \"We will be all right,\" he says. \"Everything is ok, right?\"\n\nNext, from the front, an urgent demand - \"left, or right?\"\n\nMinutes later Hamas gunmen riddled the car with bullets. Noam, Danielle, and their friends in the back seat were killed - as were nearly 360 other Israelis who went to dance at the festival in the Negev desert near the Gaza border.\n\nThe front seat passenger was taken hostage.\n\nWhen the sun set on that day, 1,200 Israelis had been slaughtered - either at the festival or in their homes in kibbutzim close to the border. It was the worst loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust. The vast majority were civilians.\n\nSince then, Israel has gone to war in Gaza \"to eradicate Hamas\", and Palestinians in turn have been slaughtered.\n\nAlmost 18,000 people have been killed at last count - according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza - 7,300 of them children.\n\nIn Gaza now, as in Israel after 7 October, parents are burying their children. And for every parent, Palestinian or Israeli, the loss is incomparable.\n\nWe meet Danielle's father Eyal in his art-filled office, high above Tel Aviv. He has long been a tech giant - who founded the Israeli chip maker Mellanox Technologies, and sold it for $6.8bn in 2019.\n\nBut now he is simply a father, raw with grief, robbed of his youngest daughter.\n\n\"She was an amazing girl,\" he says in a voice laden with love and grief. \"She loved to dance. She loved animals. She loved people. She had many, many friends. She loved to snowboard, to scuba dive, to go on a motorcycle with Noam.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Eyal Waldman still has hopes for peace\n\nWhen he got word that Danielle was missing, he raced back from a trip to Indonesia - getting permission to land in Israel, even though the airspace was closed. Three hours later he went looking for her, tracking her apple watch. It was a journey into a battlefield.\n\n\"We were close to an engagement with seven terrorists, creatures, call them what you want,\" he says. \"They had killed three or four soldiers. After that we took three officers in a jeep and went down south.\"\n\nHe found the bullet-riddled car, but there was no sign of Danielle.\n\n\"There was a lot of blood inside the car,\" he says. \"I was hoping she wasn't in the car, or that she was wounded but was able to escape, or was taken hostage.\"\n\nTwo days later her body was found.\n\n\"Everything she touched was with a smile. She never did anything wrong to anyone,\" he says, choking back tears. \"She just loved doing good things. And they [Hamas] just murdered her for no reason.\"\n\nDespite the brutal killing of his youngest daughter, Eyal Waldman still believes that the Palestinians should have a state - and soon.\n\n\"We need to change leadership on both sides. And then I hope in two to four years we'll be able to do peace and build two states for the two people and be able to live together next to each other,\" he says.\n\nBut before that, he wants something else.\n\n\"Anyone that was responsible, anyone that was associated with what happened on 7 October 2023, will be eliminated. And we will take care of that,\" he says firmly.\n\n\"We know exactly who came, who raped, who butchered. We have videos, we have their cell phone numbers. We know who they are. We can eliminate them. And I think we can eliminate Hamas.\"\n\nDanielle and Noam were together for six years before they were killed by Hamas gunmen\n\nThe former Israeli army officer knows about waging war. He served in an elite unit - the Golani Brigade.\n\nHe also knows about building bridges. In the past he opened a design centre in Gaza, donated $360,000 (£286,200) to a hospital there, and created jobs for Palestinians both in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank.\n\n\"No, I don't,\" he replies without hesitation. \"I think we need to do everything we can to make this place the best place to live in.\n\n\"And we need to stop killing each other and find a way to live together. I have been working for two-and-half decades trying to make peace.\"\n\nJust 10 days before Danielle was killed, she was chatting with her father about the future.\n\n\"She said 'you know Dad, I decided I am going to marry Noam,'\" he recalls. \"They were together for six years, and it was an amazing friendship and partnership. They were going to live in the country, raising kids. She wanted many kids and a lot of dogs and horses.\"\n\nThe devoted young couple - who never got the chance to marry - were buried together instead.", "Wage growth has slowed and the UK jobs market is showing signs of stalling, according to latest official figures.\n\nPay growth, excluding bonuses, eased to 7.3% in the three months to October while the number of vacancies dropped.\n\nBut while earnings are not rising as quickly as before, they are still outpacing inflation - which measures the rate at which prices are going up.\n\nThis suggests that the Bank of England is less likely to cut interest rates anytime soon.\n\nThe number of people on payrolls eased while UK job vacancies also continued to fall, this time by 45,000 between September and November.\n\n\"This is now the longest period of decline on record, longer than in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 downturn,\" said Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the Office for National Statistics, which published the figures.\n\nIt is the 17th month in a row that the number has fallen.\n\nHowever, overall vacancies totalled 949,000, which Mr Morgan said \"remains well above pre-pandemic levels\".\n\nKate Stephens says the job market has changed over the year and it is taking longer for women to find work\n\nKate Stephens, chief executive of Smart Works, a charity which helps women secure employment through coaching, says the market has changed and it is taking people longer to get a job.\n\n\"They're having to apply for more jobs and actually, they feel a little bit overqualified for some of the jobs that they're actually changing [to],\" she said. \"And I think a lot of that is driven by the cost of living crisis.\n\n\"People want to take a job because they want the security of income but it's not necessarily the job they might choose.\"\n\nInflation has been falling following a long run of interest rate rises by the Bank of England. This has prompted financial markets and some economists to suggest the Bank may soon start cutting interest rates from the current level of 5.25%.\n\nBut while inflation has eased to 4.6%, it remains more than double the Bank's target of 2%. In addition, regular pay grew faster than inflation in the three months to October.\n\nLast month, the Bank of England's governor Andrew Bailey said it was \"much too early to be thinking about rate cuts\".\n\nThe Bank is widely expected to hold interest rates for a third time in a row when it announces its latest decision on Thursday.\n\nYael Selfin, chief economist at accountancy firm KPMG in the UK, said: \"While momentum has weakened, the labour market is still tight.\n\n\"The Bank of England will remain alert as continued tightness could cause a setback in its battle against inflation, particularly if strong wage growth contributes to persistence in domestic inflation.\"\n\nHigher interest rates make it more expensive for people and businesses to borrow money.\n\nAt the same time, it can make saving money more attractive - if banks choose to pass on the higher savings rates to their customers in the same way that some lenders have passed on higher mortgage rates.\n\nThe theory is if people and firms spend or invest less and save more, demand falls and price rises ease. But it can also mean that the economy struggles to grow.\n\nThe latest data from the ONS showed that the UK's unemployment rate remained at 4.2%.\n\nBut the Bank of England is among those predicting that, amid higher borrowing costs, unemployment is set to top 5% in the next couple of years, possibly signalling the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.\n\nIt is against this challenging backdrop that the government's \"back to work\" plans are unfolding. They are aimed at getting more people into work, and not just those on the unemployment count.\n\nUnlike in other rich nations, the UK has hundreds of thousands more classed as \"inactive\" - neither seeking nor available for work - than prior to the Covid pandemic. But finding employment is a tricky prospect if there are fewer jobs available.\n\nBut there is a silver lining for those already in work. As those higher interest rates batter down the pace at which prices are rising, wages are outpacing inflation at their fastest rate for more than two years.\n\nThat means household budgets stretch further, but also underlines economists' expectation that, as the Bank of England has warned, interest rates aren't about to fall soon.\n\nReacting to the latest figures, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said it was \"positive to see inflation continue to fall and real wages growing\".\n\nBut Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said the UK was \"the only G7 country with an employment rate that hasn't returned to pre-pandemic levels\".\n\n1. Search beyond a 40 mile radius - Remote, hybrid and flexible working open up opportunities further away.\n\n2. Use key words in your searches - Online algorithms will pick up on daily searches and send you more of the same.\n\n3.Don't wait for a job to be advertised - Contact a manager at a business that you like the look of as you never know what opportunities might be coming up.\n\n4. Sell your skills - Use social media sites like Linkedin which showcase your skills and experience. Other platforms like Twitter and Instagram can prove useful when touting yourself out to potential employers as well.\n\nYou can read tips from careers experts in full here.\n\nHow are you affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Defending Eat Out to Help Out - Rishi Sunak's day at the Covid inquiry\n\nRishi Sunak has robustly defended his Eat Out To Help Out scheme, implemented in summer 2020, saying it prevented \"devastating\" job losses.\n\nThe scheme encouraged people to attend pubs and restaurants by subsidising meals after lockdown rules were eased.\n\nMr Sunak said it was introduced after the safe reopening of restaurants.\n\nHe dismissed criticism that senior advisers were not consulted, saying they had had \"ample opportunity\" to raise concerns.\n\nIn previous sessions of the inquiry Matt Hancock and Sir Patrick Vallance - the health secretary and the government's chief scientific adviser during the pandemic - have both said they did not know about the Eat Out To Help Out Scheme before it was announced.\n\nThe inquiry has also been told that chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty referred to the scheme as \"eat out to help out the virus\" and Sir Patrick said it was \"highly likely\" to have fuelled deaths.\n\nHowever, Mr Sunak - who was chancellor during the pandemic - strongly backed his decision to introduce the scheme.\n\nMore on Covid and the Covid Inquiry\n\nHe said it was announced on 8 July and came into force at the beginning of August, and that in that period the chief medical officer had identified children returning to school, and winter, as \"two significant risk moments\".\n\n\"He did not mention Eat Out To Help Out,\" Mr Sunak said.\n\nHe also argued it was a \"micro policy\" introduced along with other safety measures such as table-only service, contactless payments and one-way systems.\n\n\"This was a very reasonable, sensible policy intervention to help safeguard those jobs in that safe reopening.\n\n\"I didn't believe that it was a risk. I believe it was the right thing to do.\n\n\"All the data, all the evidence, all the polling, all the input from those companies suggested that unless we did something, many of those jobs would have been at risk with devastating consequences for those people and their families.\"\n\nHe added that the evidence \"conclusively demonstrates that this was in no way, shape or form responsible for a second wave\".\n\nProtestors gathered outside the inquiry where Mr Sunak was giving evidence\n\nRishi Sunak served food at Wagamama as part of a promotional event for Eat Out to Help Out\n\nMr Sunak was also asked about claims the Treasury had been nicknamed the \"pro-death squad\" due to its stance on keeping hospitality and retail sectors open.\n\nThe prime minister said that wasn't \"a fair characterisation\", adding that the Treasury had worked \"very hard\" and \"done things to save millions of people's livelihoods\".\n\nHe argued that the sectors most impacted by the lockdown, such as retail and hospitality, were more likely to employ \"the most vulnerable in society\" such as those on the lowest incomes.\n\nHe said trying to protect jobs in those areas was a \"matter of social justice\".\n\nThe inquiry has also heard criticism about Boris Johnson's leadership style, with advisers saying he had a tendency to change his mind.\n\nHowever, Mr Sunak defended his former boss, saying his interactions with No 10 \"felt fine\" and that Mr Johnson was right to \"go over the arguments\".\n\nHe added he was not aware of complaints from advisers about Mr Johnson's approach.\n\nThe prime minister began his evidence by saying he was \"deeply sorry\" to all of those who lost loved ones and family members in the pandemic.\n\nHe also offered an apology to \"all those who suffered in the various different ways throughout the pandemic as a result of the actions that were taken\".\n\nHe added it was \"important we learn the lessons so we can better prepare in the future\".\n\nSpeaking after the six-hour hearing, Aamer Anwar, the lead solicitor for the Scottish Covid Bereaved group, said: \"Rishi Sunak's one-man mission to torpedo lockdown to gain a competitive advantage resulted in the false economy of sacrificing tens of thousands of lives to save the economy.\n\n\"Today the Covid bereaved do not accept his empty words of sorrow.\"", "First Minister Humza Yousaf dismissed criticism from the UK government\n\nHumza Yousaf has branded David Cameron \"petty\" and \"misguided\" over a threat to withdraw UK support for Scottish ministers during overseas visits.\n\nThe first minister responded to claims from the foreign secretary that he breached protocols by meeting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan without a UK official present.\n\nThe SNP leader dismissed the criticism from an \"unelected lord\".\n\nLord Cameron has also threatened to close Scottish offices in UK embassies.\n\nThe former prime minister, who returned to the cabinet as foreign secretary last month, said in a letter to the Scottish government that ministers had failed to provide \"sufficient advance notice\" of the meeting with Mr Erdogan at COP28 in the United Arab Emirates.\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack has accused the Scottish government of five breaches of protocol during the climate summit.\n\nMr Yousaf said the meeting had been rearranged at short notice by the Turkish president's team but that he would have \"no problem\" with a UK government official - including Lord Cameron himself - attending.\n\nHe said a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) official \"chose not to stay with the Scottish delegation the whole day, and because of that they ended up missing the meeting\", which was described as a brief \"brush-by\".\n\nMr Yousaf said that a UK representative had been at the \"vast majority\" of discussions he held during the climate summit.\n\n\"Nothing was discussed that hadn't been discussed at other meetings, such as the climate crisis, and in this particular meeting the issue of the Israel-Gaza conflict,\" the first minister said.\n\nHe warned Scotland's economy would be harmed if the FCDO withdrew support for the Scottish government overseas.\n\n\"For Lord Cameron to say he's basically going to stop Scotland's international engagement because of one meeting, where one FCDO official wasn't able to attend - because, of course, at events like COP, diaries can change quite last minute - is really petty, really misguided,\" Mr Yousaf told reporters.\n\n\"I suggest to Lord Cameron that next time, if he has an issue like that, he should just pick up the phone, I'm sure it can be resolved.\"\n\nIn his letter, the foreign secretary warned there would be no further FCDO \"facilitation of meetings or logistical support\" for the Scottish government if there were any \"further breaches\" of protocol, adding he would also \"consider the presence of Scottish government offices in UK government posts\".\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack told MPs on the Scottish Affairs Committee that the Erdogan meeting had not been the first minister's only \"offence\" during COP28.\n\nHe said Mr Yousaf also met four other foreign ministers - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Pakistan Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar - without FCDO officials present.\n\n\"Foreign affairs is reserved under the Scotland Act and it's important for the UK to speak on the world stage with one consistent voice,\" Mr Jack told MPs.\n\n\"It is wholly unacceptable for the Scottish government to promote foreign policies which are at odds with those of the United Kingdom government. It risks causing confusion and it damages the UK's standing in the world.\"\n\nThe Conservative minister said FCDO officials had only been given \"very last minute\" notice that the Erdogan meeting had been rescheduled, and claimed Scottish officials had more advanced warning of the change.\n\nFormer foreign secretary James Cleverly made a similar threat to cut diplomatic support to the Scottish government after Mr Yousaf met the Icelandic prime minister in August without UK diplomats present.\n\nHowever a UK government source said this latest intervention represented and \"escalation\" over the issue and the foreign secretary wished to take a \"harder line\" approach than Mr Cleverly.\n\nMr Yousaf posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he had discussed the climate crisis and the Israel-Gaza conflict with Mr Erdogan and the Lebanese prime minister during their meeting on 1 December.\n\nHe said he had called for an immediate ceasefire in the region. BBC Scotland News understands this contradiction of the UK government position has caused particular concern in the foreign office.\n\nA Scottish government source said Lord Cameron's letter was a \"gross overreaction\", adding: \"You can hardly say to a president, 'Can you wait a second while we find our chaperone?'\"\n\nThey said that the FCDO representative was \"very late\" for a couple of meetings at the summit, but that was \"the nature of fast moving things like COP\".", "A British aid worker says ambulances faced a dangerous journey through Gaza beset by hold-ups - and came under fire\n\nThe \"dehumanising\" treatment of paramedics, ambulances shot at, and unexploded bombs on the road.\n\nJake Morland, a British aid worker with the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), has given the BBC his eyewitness account of a high-risk mission to transfer patients under appalling conditions in Gaza.\n\nLast Saturday, 9 December, a joint World Health Organisation (WHO)/UN/Palestine Red Crescent Society convoy of six ambulances and a truck set off from southern Gaza to deliver desperately-needed medical supplies to the al-Ahli Hospital in the north, and to transfer critically-injured patients from there to a hospital in the south.\n\nTo get to al-Ahli, the convoy had to pass through the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) checkpoint at Wadi Gaza.\n\n\"The one thing we expect when we go through a checkpoint in any military setting is free access for humanitarian personnel and goods\", says Mr Morland, who has been a UN aid worker for 20 years.\n\nBut this time, he says, \"we approached huge sand dunes with Israeli soldiers standing on the top with their machine guns squarely aimed at the Palestinian paramedics, at the UN vehicles, and at the UN trucks carrying medical supplies\".\n\nAs they were held there for over an hour, two of the Palestinian paramedics were led away for questioning. \"We understand one was put on his knees, stripped and detained for some time until we were able to negotiate his release and carry on to Gaza,\" says Mr Morland.\n\n\"These moves (of aid) are clearly co-ordinated with the IDF,\" he says. \"We provide all the details of what's on the convoy, what it's going to do, and indeed the names of all the members of the convoy… So what was really a dehumanising treatment of Palestinian colleagues was unacceptable.\"\n\nFrom Wadi Gaza, the aid convoy pressed on north into the old city of Gaza, which Mr Morland describes as a rabbit warren of debris-strewn streets - with unexploded ordnance on the road and beside it.\n\n\"We were also shot at. The ambulance took a couple of bullets as indeed did a truck. So it really was putting humanitarian workers' lives on the line as they went to try and save lives.\"\n\nOn the return journey south, they were again held up at the checkpoint - but this time they were carrying 19 critically injured patients from a tiny trauma hospital in Gaza City, so every minute counted.\n\n\"All of these patients had life-critical injuries - amputations; horrific wounds that needed immediate attention. We were held for over two hours at the checkpoint. The walking wounded were forced at gunpoint from the ambulance and again were stood in the sand to be profiled by the IDF,\" Mr Morland recalls.\n\n\"Even the children who were wounded and terrified were carried out by the paramedics, and stood there for over an hour while pictures were taken.\"\n\nEventually, as night fell and the sound of air strikes grew closer, the group had to take a difficult decision: to leave behind one of the paramedics who was still detained by the IDF. \"We had patients who were literally dying because of all the delays that were being imposed on us,\" says Mr Morland.\n\n\"I heard that one of the patients died from his injuries on the way to a hospital in the south. We think that may have been avoidable if we'd been allowed free and fair access through the checkpoint.\"\n\nBriton Jake Morland (C) has been working in Gaza for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)\n\nWe put these allegations to the IDF, who told us that one of the Palestinian paramedics was detained because he was suspected of \"association with terror activities\".\n\nThe IDF said they encouraged the rest of the convoy to move on south, but that of the six ambulances containing injured patients, three opted to remain with the suspect despite being encouraged to move to the southern hospital.\n\nRegarding the patient who reportedly died, the IDF said this was only reported to them days later and they have yet to be able to independently confirm it.\n\nFor Jake Morland though, it was not just the hardship of getting a medical convoy through IDF lines that shocked him - it was what he witnessed in Gaza's al-Ahli Hospital that day.\n\n\"This is a hospital that normally treats 80 patients with 80 beds,\" he says. \"There are currently over 200 patients in that hospital.\n\n\"They're no longer dealing with broken bones. They're now dealing with life-threatening wounds; horrific, shrapnel wounds.\n\n\"I've never seen so many people dying in front of me. They were lying on stretchers with horrific wounds next to body bags. The scenes were horrific. And yet these Palestinian paramedics and the other aid workers that go there (to northern Gaza) time and time again - at great risk to themselves - act with compassion and dignity, and help these patients, and try to bring them to safety\".\n\nAsked what the wounds were caused by, Mr Morland says: \"They are just praying for the bombs to stop raining down on them in Gaza City, and they are all wounds and injuries of war. Pure and simple.\"\n\nOn Wednesday, the WHO put out its own statement, calling for healthcare and humanitarian aid workers to be protected.\n\nMorland described scenes of devastation during the convoy's journey through the Palestinian territory", "Danielle Evans was described as a fiercely loyal and loving wife\n\nA woman whose body was found at the site of an explosion in Treforest, south Wales, has been named as 40-year-old Danielle Evans.\n\nHer body was found after a police search following the blast at Treforest Industrial Estate in Rhondda Cynon Taf on Wednesday evening.\n\nIn a tribute, her family said she was a \"whirlwind of a woman\".\n\nThey said she was a \"fiercely loyal and loving wife\" and an \"intelligent, caring and beautiful soul\".\n\nThey added she had started her own business, Celtic Food Labs, saying she \"poured her heart and soul into it, but the most important things to her were her husband, family, dogs and friends\".\n\n\"She met strangers and friends with the same positive, infectious and loving energy, she pulled you into her orbit like nobody you will ever meet or will again, a magnet that pulled us all together.\"\n\nThey said her passions were science, camping, partying with her friends and quality time with her beloved family.\n\nHer family added: \"She was an amazing aunty and cherished every second with her nieces.\n\n\"She came from a loving family and was so close to her mum, dad, brother, aunties and uncles - her love was boundless.\n\n\"She touched so many lives. She will be so sorely missed but, my word, do we all have some amazing memories that we made and cherish.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAt least one building was destroyed and a major incident declared after the \"massive\" blast on Severn Road at about 19:00 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nThe fire was in a 60,000 sq ft (5,574 sq m) warehouse called Rizla House which houses 13 commercial units including a gym, a towel manufacturer and a telecoms service company.\n\nShe founded Celtic Food Laboratories, which specialised in the microbial testing of food, in 2009.\n\nThe blast and fire on Treforest Industrial Estate took place on Wednesday evening\n\nFloral tributes were left at the site on Friday, while tributes have been paid to Ms Evans on social media.\n\nDet Supt Richard Jones of South Wales Police said: \"Our thoughts remain with Danielle's family, friends and work colleagues, at what is a very difficult time for them.\n\n\"Our enquiries are ongoing to establish the cause of the incident, and these enquiries are being carried out in partnership with relevant agencies.\"\n\nHe thanked businesses and residents for their patience and understanding.\n\nThe force added that it was working with the fire service and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to establish the cause of the explosion.\n\nIt said there were no other reports of serious injuries.\n\nA two-storey building on Treforest Industrial Estate was devastated by the explosion and fire\n\nA business affected by the blaze, Mindset Gym, posted on Facebook: \"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the lady's family and community after such a tragic accident.\n\n\"Mindset will do everything to show support to the lady's family and keep her legacy alive.\"\n\nPolice have appealed for anyone with CCTV, doorbell or dashcam footage to contact them.\n\nEarlier on Friday, Pontypridd MP Alex Davies-Jones reiterated her call to prevent the sharing of distressing images and speculation on social media.\n\n\"This week has been incredibly challenging for our community, but we all have a role to play in looking after each other during this very difficult time,\" she said.", "Police said Market Place was likely to remain closed \"for some time\"\n\nA man has died after a van struck a group of people in a town centre, police have said.\n\nDerbyshire Police said officers were called to Market Place, Ilkeston, at about 02:10 GMT on Saturday.\n\nThe force said one person suffered serious injuries and died at the scene, while two other people were taken to hospital.\n\nIt added that a man, thought to be the driver of the van, had been arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nHe is being held in custody while investigations continue.\n\nA police representative said officers did not believe the incident was terror-related and were not seeking anyone else in connection with it.\n\nThe injuries suffered by the other two people were not thought to be serious, they said.\n\nAppealing for witnesses and dashcam footage, they said Market Place was likely to remain closed \"for some time\".\n\nThey added a van had been recovered in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, which they believed was involved in the incident.\n\nMarket Place had earlier been busy with Christmas revellers at the start of the weekend.\n\nFootage shared on social media showed a crowd of people gathered in the area after the emergency services were called.\n\nAn area between the King's Head and Sir John Warren pubs was then taped off by police as paramedics dealt with the casualties.\n\nPolice recovered a van in Stapleford, in Nottinghamshire, after the incident\n\nIn a post on social media, Erewash MP Maggie Throup said her \"thoughts and prayers\" were with \"those who have been affected\".\n\n\"This is a developing situation and I would urge against speculating online as to what has happened,\" she added.\n\nErewash Borough Council leader James Dawson said he was being briefed by police on what he described as a \"terrible incident\".\n\nHe confirmed the council had cancelled the Saturday market and said traders had been offered alternative stalls in Long Eaton.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Police who found a body in the search for missing Gaynor Lord do not suspect any \"third-party involvement\".\n\nDivers made the discovery on Friday morning in the River Wensum in Norwich - a week after the mother of three was last seen.\n\nFormal identification has not taken place but the 55-year-old's family has been informed.\n\nHe said: \"Whilst we establish her identity, our thoughts are with Gaynor's family at this difficult and distressing time.\n\n\"We have specialist family liaison officers supporting the family and keeping them updated with what we are doing at all stages.\n\n\"We remain open-minded to the circumstances of Gaynor's disappearance and will continue to pursue all lines of inquiry to ascertain why she went missing.\"\n\nSpecialist divers had been searching the river for three days\n\nCh Supt Buckley said: \"I am keen to say that this remains a missing person inquiry at this stage. I am also satisfied, at the moment, based on the evidence we have, that Gaynor did not meet anybody on the way to the park and we now have a better understanding of her movements through the city centre.\"\n\nHe said a post-mortem examination would now take place.\n\n\"I would reiterate at this stage, there is no evidence of third part involvement - nothing in our inquiries has changed this position,\" he added.\n\nCh Supt Dave Buckley has said police do not suspect any third party involvement in the case\n\nMs Lord was reported missing after her belongings were found in Wensum Park.\n\nTwo members of the police dive team were seen recovering a body from the river after marking the area of water with an orange buoy.\n\nPrevious searches had focused on the river, close to the park where a member of the public reported seeing a woman matching Ms Lord's description at about 16:00 GMT last Friday.\n\nMembers of the public laid flowers outside the park after it emerged a body had been found.\n\nA body was found in the river near to St Martins Close, about 400m from Wensum Park\n\nMs Lord was reported missing after failing to return home from Jarrolds department store in Norwich where she worked on a gin counter as a retail assistant.\n\nCCTV footage showed her leaving work more than an hour earlier than expected before hurrying through the city on foot.\n\nShe spent 33 minutes in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral before heading in the direction of Wensum Park via St Augustines Street.\n\nMoments later, a member of the public reported seeing a woman matching Ms Lord's description in the park doing a \"yoga pose\".\n\nFlowers have been laid outside Wensum Park after a body was found on Friday morning\n\nHer friend, Julie Butcher, said Ms Lord phoned her at about 14:15 on the day she disappeared.\n\nShe told the BBC on Thursday that she \"feels terrible\" after cutting the conversation short to take a work call and was unable to reach her after that.\n\nMs Butcher, who spoke to officers on Saturday, also received a \"pocket call\" from Ms Lord at about 16:45.\n\n\"I keep going over the conversation. If I hadn't answered that call [from the client] would she have talked to me? I feel terrible. I feel so sorry for the family,\" she said.\n\nOn Thursday, police said there was a \"high probability\" that Ms Lord had entered the water and that her disappearance was \"out of character\".\n\nHer family will \"continue to be supported\" by specially trained officers, Norfolk police confirmed.\n\nMs Lord's children had previously posted on social media and said \"we want her home\".\n\nStore cameras show Gaynor Lord at work shortly before she left\n\nA large search operation began on 8 December when her belongings, including clothing, two rings and a mobile phone were found scattered across Wensum Park.\n\nNorfolk Fire and Rescue has been helping the search, assisted by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service's specialist underwater drone.\n\nThree types of sonar - a technique that uses sound to detect objects - have been used.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Kuwait's leader Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah has died at the age of 86, Kuwaiti state TV announced.\n\nThe sheikh had led the oil-rich nation for the last three years after taking over from his half brother, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.\n\nThe crown prince, 83-year-old Sheikh Mishal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, has been named as his successor.\n\nKuwait has announced 40 days of mourning and government offices are to close for three days.\n\n\"With great sadness and sorrow, we mourn... the death of Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah\" a statement aired on state TV said.\n\nSheikh Nawaf was named crown prince in 2006 and took over as emir in 2020.\n\nBorn in 1937, he was the fifth son of Kuwait's former ruler Sheikh Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah.\n\nHe was defence minister when Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait in 1990, sparking the beginning of the Gulf War, and later went onto serve as interior minister.\n\nCompared to his predecessor, who served as emir for more than a decade and shaped the country's foreign policy for 50 years, Sheikh Nawaf's time as ruler was relatively short.\n\nKuwait - which has a population of 4.8 million, including 3.4 million foreign workers - has the world's sixth-largest known oil reserves and is a major US ally.\n\nThe emirate's parliament has the most powers of any elected body in the Gulf and opposition MPs openly criticise the Sabahs.\n\nHowever, the ruling family retains full control over key government and executive posts and the emir has the last say in political matters. He also has the power to override or dissolve parliament, and call elections.\n\nRegular programming on TV channels has been cut following the announcement.", "That's it from us for now, goodbye\n\nIt's just coming up to 18:00 here in London and 20:00 in Gaza and Israel so we are going to finish our live coverage now. We've been bringing you the updates from the conflict and if you want to read more you can follow the links below:\n• The UK, France and Germany joined calls for a ceasefire in the war\n• We've been keeping across updates from Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, whose family is trapped in a Catholic Church in Gaza City\n• Four shipping companies have halted their routes through the Red Sea after attacks on vessels by the Iran-backed Houthis rebels in Yemen\n• Civilians have been chasing aid trucks, hungry for food and desperate for supplies We realise this coverage often contains distressing content. If you have been affected by anything in this page, go to BBC Action Line. This live page has been brought to you by Andrew Humphrey, Tarik Habte and Gem O'Reilly in London and of course our colleagues in the Middle East. As for further coverage you can read more about the stories from the war here and keep up to date on BBC TV and radio. We will be back to bring you the latest from tomorrow morning.", "Prince Harry has hailed the phone hacking ruling as a \"great day for truth\".\n\nAnd the truth is, according to the judgement, that editors and powerful executives at the Mirror Group Newspapers knew of phone hacking - and the judge accepted evidence that it included former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan.\n\nIn the time it took Mr Justice Fancourt to deliver a summary of his judgement in open court, the celebrity TV presenter's years of claiming it was nothing to do with him withered, legally-speaking, on the vine.\n\nOver the course of the seven weeks, the High Court heard lawyers for Prince Harry argue that there was an evidence trail that linked knowledge of hacking to Mr Morgan and a string of other executives and in-house lawyers.\n\nNot all of that case has been proven - and the allegations against Mr Morgan were fragmentary.\n\nThere was no smoking gun - but there was a tapestry of limited but well-sourced incidents.\n\nFollowing the judgement Mr Morgan insisted he \"never hacked a phone or told anyone else to hack a phone\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Morgan was the Daily Mirror's editor between 1995 and 2004 - and, as my colleague Tom Symonds has previously reported, he was largely unscathed by the outcome of first hacking case against the group in 2015.\n\nThe most important of the claims against him this time around came from the now royal author Omid Scobie.\n\nBack in 2002 he was a student intern who fancied a career in entertainment journalism.\n\nHe told the court, while working on the Mirror's \"3am\" entertainment desk, he had witnessed Mr Morgan discuss with a journalist an article about Kylie Minogue - and the then editor asked how confident they were about the story.\n\nMr Morgan was told, Mr Scobie recalled, that the source had been a voicemail.\n\nMr Justice Fancourt said an article about Ms Minogue appeared in the paper around the time Mr Scobie had been on work experience, under the byline of \"a well-known phone hacker\", James Scott.\n\nThere was also evidence that a private investigator had billed the paper for obtaining Ms Minogue's mobile phone number and that of her then partner, James Gooding.\n\nMr Justice Fancourt said: \"I found Mr Scobie to be a straight-forward and reliable witness and I accept what he said about Mr Morgan's involvement in the Minogue/Gooding story.\n\n\"No evidence was called by MGN to contradict it.\"\n\nAnother crucial piece of evidence came from Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, who was once communications chief for Tony Blair in Downing Street.\n\nIn the same year that Mr Scobie had witnessed the chat about Ms Minogue, Mr Wegg-Prosser had dinner with Mr Morgan and asked him how his newspaper had discovered that the England football manager Sven Goran-Eriksson had an affair with television presenter Ulrika Jonson.\n\n\"Mr Morgan responded to my question by initially asking me which network provider I used for my mobile phone,\" he wrote in his witness statement to the court.\n\n\"Mr Morgan told me the default PIN for that network. He then explained that the default PIN numbers were well known and rarely changed, which is how mobile phone messages could be accessed remotely. He said to me, 'That was how we got the story on Sven and Ulrika', with a smile, or words to that effect.\"\n\nThat evidence was not challenged by MGN and was said by the judge to \"speak for itself\".\n\nPiers Morgan in 2003 when he was editor of the Daily Mirror\n\nDavid Seymour was once the Mirror's political editor. He was not involved in phone hacking and gave evidence about his observations and concerns about Piers Morgan.\n\nHe told the court that his former boss was \"unreliable and boastful [and] apt to tell untruths when it suited him\".\n\nHe recalled that in March 2001 Mr Morgan had played a recording of a voicemail in the newsroom of Paul McCartney singing a Beatles song to Heather Mills, his soon-to-be wife.\n\nThe court head that the recording had been lent to Mr Morgan by Neil Wallis, then editor of The People.\n\nThe Mirror Group's lawyer later challenged Mr Seymour's account of once hearing that Piers Morgan had shown off about phone hacking to the head of BT.\n\nThe judge's conclusion? \"Mr Seymour struck me as a man of intelligence and integrity. I accept his evidence without hesitation.\"\n\nBut Mr Morgan was not the only one who knew what was going on, said the judge.\n\nMr Justice Fancourt said other editors were aware of hacking and two directors knew before the end of 2011: Paul Vickers, group legal director, and Sly Bailey, the chief executive officer.\n\n\"The board as a whole was not told about it,\" the judge told the court.\n\n\"That was because the editors of the three newspapers, the editorial managers of the company and Ms Bailey and Mr Vickers did not report what they knew, or suspected, to the board.\n\n\"I have found that Mr Vickers certainly knew about phone hacking from about the end of 2003, but quite possibly before then.\n\n\"Ms Bailey knew or - what in law amounts to the same thing - turned a blind eye to it from about the end of 2006.\n\n\"The likelihood of extensive illegal activity should have been investigated properly.\n\n\"Instead, it was concealed from the board, from Parliament in 2007 and 2011, from the Leveson Inquiry, from shareholders, and from the public for years - and the extent of it was concealed from claimants in the Mirror Newspapers hacking litigation and even from the court at and before the trial in 2015.\"\n\nHours after the ruling was delivered Mr Morgan gave a forceful statement outside his home, denying his involvement in phone hacking.\n\nAs well as taking aim at the prince among others, Morgan denied personally hacking a phone or ordering someone to and said \"nobody has produced any actual evidence to prove that I did\".\n\nHe added he had not been called as a witness by either side in the case or been asked for a statement and said he would have \"very happily agreed to do either or both of those things had I been asked\".", "The tree is a reminder that Christmas does not require extravagance, auctioneers said\n\nA sparse vintage Christmas tree has sold at auction for £2,600, well above its list price of £60 to £80.\n\nThe modest tree, with just 25 branches, was gifted in 1920 to Dorothy Grant who kept it until she died in 2014.\n\nHer daughter, Shirley Hall, 84, said she was selling the 31in (79cm) tree as a \"humble reminder of 1920s life\".\n\nHansons Auctioneers, in Banbury, Oxfordshire, said it was an \"astonishing\" price for \"the humblest Christmas tree in the world\".\n\nDorothy Grant, pictured at the age of 21 in 1933\n\nThe firm's owner, Charles Hanson, said the tree would have been bought for a few pence, probably from a London department store.\n\nHe said: \"It reminds us that extravagance and excess are not required to capture the spirit of Christmas.\n\n\"It survives as a reminder of 1920s life - a boom-to-bust decade.\n\n\"The Roaring Twenties saw major advances in science and technology. But the decade also brought the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.\"\n\nMrs Grant's daughter, Shirley Hall, said the tree was a \"humble reminder of 1920s life\"\n\nMrs Grant, who was given the tree when she was eight years old and living in Loughborough, Leicestershire, kept it until she died at the age of 101.\n\nShe decorated it economically, using cotton wool to mimic snow, the auctioneers said.\n\nAn anonymous UK buyer paid £3,411, including fees and tax, at the auction earlier.\n\nSimilar trees have attracted winning bids of £150 and £420 in recent years, Mr Hanson said.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, X, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Halliwell was the second longest-serving cast member of Emmerdale\n\nActor Steve Halliwell, known for his long-running role as Zak Dingle in Emmerdale, has died at the age of 77.\n\nHe first made his appearance on the ITV soap in October 1994 and remained in the show for 29 years.\n\nIn a statement, his family said he had passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones.\n\n\"He was making us laugh to the end, the most amazing father and grandfather you could ever wish for,\" they said.\n\nJames Hooton, who has played Halliwell's on-screen son Sam Dingle since 1995, led the tributes to the late actor, calling him a \"soap icon\".\n\n\"Steve Halliwell was the first person I met when I walked through the door into the Emmerdale studios and we remained friends until the end,\" he wrote on social media.\n\nFellow Emmerdale star Danny Miller, who plays Aaron Dingle, shared a photo of him with Halliwell on Instagram and wrote: \"From day one he took me under his wing and helped guide me on and off set.\"\n\nHe added: \"We'll miss you mate. On and off set. Rest well Steve and leave one in the pump for me.\"\n\nITV drama executive John Whiston said the actor was \"one of those rare human beings who was as wonderful off screen as on\", and was the \"undoubted father of the show, but also its fun mischievous uncle\".\n\nHalliwell was born in Lancashire and worked in cotton and paper mills before retraining as an actor.\n\nBetween the 1970s and 90s, he appeared in television series including Here I Stand, Heartbeat and Coronation Street, before joining Emmerdale.\n\nKnown for his flat cap, wellies and wax jacket attire, he played the head of the Dingle household and became the Yorkshire-based soap's the second longest-serving cast member.\n\nHis character was involved in a number of dramatic storylines, including divorcing his first wife Nellie (played by Sandra Gough) and later marrying Lisa (Jane Cox) before having an affair and marrying Joanie Wright (Denise Black).\n\nThe actor said the turbulent storylines were not too far from his own personal life, having had issues with alcohol and his mental health.\n\nHe told the Mirror in 2014: \"I was born to play Zak Dingle - the cap really does fit. Most of the storylines I've lived in real life. I've been broke, evicted, in trouble with the law.\n\n\"Then there's depression, drinking and having to fight your way out of situations. I've lived all those things and more.\n\n\"I can't blame anyone else. I pressed the self-destruct button.\"\n\nHe also described himself as a \"functioning alcoholic\" because he could work and live his life but admitted he was \"too reliant on drink\".\n\nIn 2018, Halliwell left the show for five months to have a pacemaker fitted after being diagnosed with a serious heart condition.\n\nHis family paid tribute to staff at St James's Hospital in Leeds and Wheatfield Hospice for \"their love and kindness in his final days\".", "Cardinal Becciu intends to appeal against the verdict\n\nA Vatican court has sentenced Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a former adviser to Pope Francis, to five-and-a-half years in jail for financial crimes.\n\nBecciu, 75, was the most senior Vatican official ever to face such charges and once seen as a papal contender himself.\n\nThe trial centred on a London property deal that ended in huge losses for the Catholic Church.\n\nHe strongly denied charges including embezzlement and abuse of office.\n\nCardinal Becciu's lawyer said his client was innocent and would lodge an appeal.\n\nHe was on trial with nine other defendants. All were convicted on some counts and found not guilty on others.\n\nThe trial, which exposed infighting and intrigue in the highest Vatican ranks, had been going on for two-and-a-half years.\n\nAfter three judges spent more than five hours considering the verdict, Court President Giuseppe Pignatone announced that Cardinal Becciu had been convicted of embezzlement.\n\nThe others, who included financiers, lawyers and ex-Vatican employees, were accused of various crimes, including fraud, money laundering and abuse of office. They all denied wrongdoing.\n\n\"We reaffirm Cardinal Angelo Becciu's innocence and will appeal,\" stated Becciu's lawyer, Fabio Viglione, after the verdict. \"We respect the ruling, but we will definitely appeal.\"\n\nThe case - the first of a Cardinal standing trial in a Vatican court - was the stuff of intrigue and skulduggery. It involved allegations of financial impropriety at the top of the Vatican, cloak-and-dagger activity of the kind that has often characterised the secretive world of the Holy See.\n\nIt centred around a building not in the Vatican, or even in Rome, but a thousand kilometres away in London - 60 Sloane Avenue in affluent Chelsea, a former warehouse belonging to the department store Harrod's.\n\nCardinal Becciu (L) had been a close adviser to Pope Francis\n\nIn 2014, the Vatican spent more than €200m ($220m; £170m) acquiring a 45% stake in the building, which was planned to be converted into luxury apartments. By 2018, the Vatican's Secretariat of State had decided to buy the property outright, sinking a further €150m euros into the purchase. Allegedly signing off on the whole deal was Cardinal Becciu, who was at the time the Vatican's Substitute for General Affairs - in effect chief of staff to the Pope.\n\nThe money, part of which was intended to be used for charitable works, had been paid into a trust run by a London-based Italian financier Raffaele Mincione, who orchestrated the purchase. When the Secretariat later sought financial help from the Vatican's own bank, it sparked concern - and a raid by Vatican police that led to the charges against Becciu, Mincione, and eight others.\n\nBut the investigation into Becciu's affairs wasn't limited to the London property deal.\n\nThe cardinal was also accused of funnelling vast sums of money to his home diocese of Sardinia, some of which reportedly benefited his family. And it was alleged he paid almost €600,000 to another of the accused, Cecilia Marogna, to help free a nun kidnapped in Mali. Prosecutors said she instead spent much of the money on luxury goods and holidays. Marogna, who had offered her services to the Vatican as an intelligence expert, visited Becciu's residence on several occasions. Both denied claims of a sexual relationship.\n\nThe charges against Becciu made him the first cardinal ever tried for financial crimes. It also prompted Pope Francis to strip him of rights including that of voting in a future conclave to select Francis's successor.\n\nAfter he was removed from office by the Pope in 2020, he gave a news conference to plead his innocence.\n\n\"Until 6:02 p.m. on Thursday I felt like a friend of the Pope, a faithful executor of his will,\" Cardinal Becciu said. \"Then the Pope says he no longer has faith in me.\"\n\nThe whole affair became a test case for Pope Francis's aim of clearing up the Vatican's finances, which were long plagued by scandal, bedevilling the papacy of Francis's predecessor, Benedict XVI.\n\nThe result of the case could have significant implications for Francis's legacy as a reformer.", "Both England's Manu Tuilagi (second from right) and ex Wales centre Jamie Roberts (right) were brought through at Rumney RFC\n\nA rugby club that has played just two games on its first team pitch in two seasons says the wet Welsh weather is taking its toll on grassroots sports.\n\nRecent bad weather has left pitches across Cardiff under water and players struggling to get minutes on the field.\n\nRumney RFC has five pitches at Riverside Park but said that most of them are unusable.\n\nCardiff council said additional drainage measures were due to be installed to counter the problem.\n\nBut Rumney team manager Kelvin Hurley has been left facing a fixture headache.\n\nHe said the situation had got worse since building work started on a BMX track next to their site.\n\n\"We're in a position where we've got 300 kids and three senior sides at the club, and we can't play any home games,\" he said.\n\n\"As a result there are no away sides coming down here and utilising the club, which means we're losing revenue.\"\n\nRumney RFC's home base has been left under water regularly over the past two seasons\n\nThere are concerns too that the club will lose players - especially in the youth and mini section - because they cannot play games regularly.\n\nAnd that is at a time when the number of youngsters who want to play for the club that helped produce former Wales international Jamie Roberts and England's Manu Tuilagi is high.\n\n\"I would say we're probably hitting the 300 mark with players at the moment,\" said mini and juniors chairman, Jack Hedges.\n\n\"We're really successful and we're getting great numbers - my only concern is, while we're without the facilities, how long are those numbers going to stay?\"\n\nCardiff University's 3G sports fields are next door to Rumney RFC's pitches and the club are currently using those facilities for training sessions, but that comes at a cost\n\n\"I think between the various teams and the fact we're now block booking for Sundays, we're going to be hitting almost £10,000 this year,\" said Mr Hedges.\n\n\"That's just not going to be sustainable going forward without some support or a long-term solution.\"\n\nJack Hedges says something needs to be done to help the club as soon as possible\n\nHe added something needed to be done to help the club as soon as possible.\n\n\"I think it's quite well documented that Welsh rugby is already struggling,\" said Mr Hedges.\n\n\"I think we buck that trend at Rumney - we're very successful, have a great community here and plenty of children coming through the ranks.\n\n\"Our senior team are also doing well, many of whom have come through the ranks from the mini and junior sides.\n\n\"My concern is that the club's 50-year history is going to be ruined and I can't bear the thought of that.\"\n\nCardiff council said: \"During recent periods of heavy rainfall sports pitches like those at Riverside Park can become waterlogged and this issue is becoming increasingly common as our climate changes.\n\n\"In light of this, the council is focusing resources on the development of new 4G pitches across the city and community facilities at schools which can be utilised by multiple sports clubs.\n\n\"The international standard BMX track in Llanrumney will be first of its kind in the city, alongside which an additional sustainable drainage scheme is also due to be installed to help surface water drain more quickly.\"", "Migrant boats in the Mediterranean (file pic) are often overcrowded and unstable\n\nMore than 60 migrants are believed to have drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.\n\nCiting survivors, the UN agency said on Saturday the vessel left the city of Zuwara with around 86 people on board.\n\nIt said high waves swamped the boat and that 61 migrants, including children, were missing and presumed dead.\n\nLibya is among the main departure points for migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean and enter Europe.\n\nThe IOM estimates that more than 2,200 people have drowned while attempting the crossing this year alone, making it one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world.\n\nThe agency said most of the victims of the latest incident were from Nigeria, Gambia, and other African countries, the AFP news agency reports.\n\nIt also said 25 survivors had been transferred to a Libyan detention centre and were being given medical support.\n\nWriting on X, formerly Twitter, an IOM spokesperson called the death toll for this year a \"dramatic number which unfortunately demonstrates that not enough is being done to save lives at sea\".\n\nIn June, at least 78 people died and another 100 were rescued after a fishing boat sank off southern Greece.\n\nThe Mediterranean crossings frequently see scores of migrants crowded onto boats too small to safely hold them.\n\nThose making the trip are typically hoping to land in Italy before making their way to other countries in Europe, some escaping conflict or persecution, others in search of work.\n\nMore than 153,000 migrants have arrived in Italy this year from Tunisia and Libya, according to the UN's refugee agency.\n\nOn Saturday, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had talks in Rome with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni and Albania's PM Edi Rama on how to reduce illegal migration to Europe.\n\nAt the start of this year, Mr Sunak made stopping small boat crossings in the English Channel one of the five key priorities of his government.", "Louis Theroux pictured in November with his eyebrows affected by hair loss\n\nLouis Theroux has announced he has shaved off his eyebrows in response to facial hair loss.\n\nThe documentary maker, who suffers from alopecia, said he is considering microblading - a semi-permanent tattooing technique - to create the illusion of full eyebrows.\n\nPosting pictures and a video of him shaving his face on Instagram, he asked his one million followers: \"Can you tell what's different?\"\n\nThe 53-year-old explained: \"I'm also thinking about getting microblading soon.\n\n\"In the meanwhile I figure no eyebrows is better than patchy eyebrows.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by officiallouistheroux This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Bafta-award winner has been sharing his journey with alopecia since January. It has also affected his beard and hair on his head, which could lead to him being bald in \"two years or less\".\n\n\"I'd like to know how I'm supposed to continue a career based largely on raising and lowering different eyebrows without any eyebrows,\" he asked in a post in November.\n\nTypically it affects the head, but the severity of hair loss can vary from a small area to the entire body, according to the NHS.\n\nTheroux is best known for his work with the the BBC, which has ranged from documentaries involving embedding himself into fringe political groups, to long-form celebrity interviews.\n\nA second series of Louis Theroux Interviews is currently airing on BBC Two and iPlayer in which he sits down one-on-one with big names including boxer Anthony Joshua, singer Raye and actor Ashley Walters.", "Julian De Bono who works at the Ipswich job centre was last seen at a party in the early hours of Sunday\n\nDivers searching for the missing man Julian De Bono have found a body, police have confirmed.\n\nSuffolk Police said the body was found by members of a specialist underwater search team in the River Gipping in Ipswich just after 15:00 GMT.\n\nThe force said the body had yet to be formally identified but the family of Mr De Bono, aged 63, had been informed.\n\nPost-mortem tests will now take place to find the cause of death, which is currently being treated as unexplained.\n\nCCTV footage and eyewitnesses put Mr De Bono on Yarmouth Road at 01:45 GMT on Sunday and he was seen heading towards London Road.\n\nHe had been at a work event before continuing back towards town to continue his night, Suffolk Police said.\n\nFranstine Jones said Mr De Bono is \"a really popular friendly guy\"\n\nFranstine Jones, a friend of Mr De Bono and a former president of the National Black Police Association, said he was \"a really popular friendly guy, a lot of people know him around Ipswich\".\n\n\"He's always laughing, he's very approachable,\" she said, adding his friends were \"very, very worried\" and concerned about his going missing.\n\nMr De Bono had been at a work event before continuing back towards town to continue his night\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Infighting by unions is jeopardising attempts to save thousands of steel making jobs, the BBC has been told.\n\nThe UK's largest steel plant at Port Talbot is facing 3,000 job cuts under plans being considered by owner Tata.\n\nThere is a deep rift with Community and GMB on one side and Unite on the other, which has withdrawn its support for a cross-union approach to talks.\n\nIt is understood Community, the largest steel union, has invited Unite leaders to meet next week to resolve divisions.\n\nLast month, all unions were told by Tata, the owners of Port Talbot, that the company planned to close both blast furnaces at the south Wales site, and build a less energy emitting - and labour intensive - Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) over the next three years.\n\nWhile plans to manufacture steel in a greener way were announced, the Indian company conceded the move would result in the loss of between 2,500 and 3,000 jobs.\n\nUnions appeared united in the fight to prevent job losses following Tata's announcement, but a major rift between them has now become bitter, with senior officials at Community and GMB - and even some members of Unite - describing Unite's position as \"reckless\".\n\nSharon Graham, Unite's general secretary, was singled out as having an \"unrealistic\" approach to the dispute, but a spokesperson for the union hit back saying the leader's \"record speaks for itself\".\n\n\"We are a trade union and will make no apology for acting like one,\" they said.\n\n\"Whilst many seem to be resorting to attacks from the sidelines and supporting managed decline, Unite has a real plan for the growth of the steel industry.\"\n\nThe infighting between union officials first emerged and battle lines were drawn when the GMB, Community, and Unite all responded to Tata's plans with joint proposals, prepared by consultants Syndex. Community is the steel industry's largest union representing around two thirds of workers, while Unite represents less than a third.\n\nAll three unions originally suggested that closing the oldest blast furnace, but keeping the younger one active until 2032 while the small EAF is built, would preserve 2,300 jobs and would require few compulsory redundancies.\n\nBut Unite withdrew its support for the plan and has insisted on no redundancies at all, arguing both blast furnaces at the site could be kept open indefinitely while a larger EAF is constructed.\n\nUnite's plan has not yet been formally presented to steelworkers and Community and GMB reps described some unusual lengths Unite has gone to in order to keep its plan under wraps.\n\nAt a Unite meeting in November in a social club, attendees were asked to hand in their phones and were not allowed to take a copy of the plan away from the meeting.\n\nThe rift has become bitter with senior officials at Community and GMB describing the Unite position as \"unrealistic\" and \"in really bad faith\". Insiders at Community told the BBC they had \"implored\" the Unite leadership to fall back in behind a plan developed by the industry analysts Syndex.\n\nPeople familiar with Tata's position are also understood to not be seriously considering the Unite proposal as it has yet to be presented through the National Steel Committee - the usual forum for plans to be shared.\n\nA meeting is set to take place soon where Unite is expected to present its proposal, but other union reps have told the BBC there is \"no chance\" the Unite proposals will be adopted as the main negotiating position.\n\nUnite's Ms Graham said her union's plan for Port Talbot would \"ensure jobs are created not lost, provide a bright future for South Wales, and guarantee the UK as a global leader in green steel production\".\n\n\"As the country and the world transition to net zero, the demand for steel is growing - especially low carbon steel,\" she said.\n\n\"So the question is not whether we will be using more steel - simply where it is going to be made. If Tata and the government continue on their current course, it will leave us in the ridiculous situation of needing more steel while we run down our own capacity to make it.\"\n\nTata has said its UK operations are losing over £1m a day.\n\nThe BBC understands talks between the government and the Indian conglomerate are ongoing but that a support package of around £500m is conditional on the funds being spent on investment in decarbonisation, rather than subsidising or compensating the company for ongoing losses.\n\nOne thing the warring unions do agree on is that Tata's plans would not only see up to 3,000 jobs lost, but would also require the UK to import the newly made - or \"virgin steel\" - from overseas until an EAF was up and running.\n\nThat would mean importing steel made in more carbon-intensive ways - and with more carbon emissions through shipping costs - than using UK-made steel.\n\nThe leadership of Community has told Tata's management that proceeding with their current plan would be met with \"everything we have, including industrial action\".\n\nHowever, it is understood there is a potential landing ground which would preserve more than 2,000 jobs for the next few years.\n\nPeople close to the Tata have indicated they may be willing to delay the closure of at least one blast furnace for four to five years.\n\nAnd unions have indicated that might be acceptable if Tata is prepared to consider building a further modern steel-making facility on one of its other UK sites.\n\nUnions hoping to poach members is not unusual or new, but this division between them in this dispute with Tata to save UK steel jobs appears not to be about that. As one insider at a union looking from the sidelines put it, the current rift is \"unhelpful and counterproductive\".\n\nThe stakes are high and at present the unions are not currently presenting a united front for their members.", "For the first time in six years, Doctor Who is part of BBC One's Christmas Day line-up. And there's a new Doctor taking control of the Tardis.\n\nNcuti Gatwa's 15th Doctor has already been seen in action, when he appeared earlier this month in the final special featuring David Tennant's 14th Doctor.\n\nBut the Christmas Day special is Gatwa's first full episode, an occasion when the BBC expects millions to sit down with their families to watch and enjoy.\n\nIt is not surprising that the actor, who's been filming his first series for most of this year, has spent a lot of that time feeling anxious about the weight of expectation.\n\n\"It's daunting taking on a role with a lot of history, which is where my anxiety has come from. Because you want to do a good job, because the show lives in people's hearts.\n\n\"Rightfully so, because it's a magical show. And it is our show, it is a British show. It's part of our family. And you don't want to let the family down.\n\n\"And so yeah, I was very nervous to keep this beloved sacred thing beloved and sacred.\"\n\nGatwa, who made his name as one of the stars of Netflix hit Sex Education, was announced as the new Doctor in May 2022 and began filming this February.\n\nHe says the anxiety, not helped by such a long build-up, has never really gone away.\n\n\"From the moment I wake up, to the moment I go to bed, it's anxiety,\" he says.\n\n\"But people tell me that it means that I care. And I do, I love the show massively.\n\n\"It is also hard. It's a hard role. It's a prestigious role, which means that it is complex and difficult. And I'm just trying to do my best. Hopefully I've done that. But yeah, you're anxious to do a good job.\"\n\nAll this is said with a huge smile and is interspersed with laughter - giving the clear impression that he isn't letting these feelings diminish how much he's been enjoying playing an alien exploring time and space.\n\nThe 15th Doctor hits the dancefloor in the Christmas special\n\nAnd, like his predecessors, he's brought something different to the role. Early in the Christmas special, he's seen dancing and whirling on a nightclub dancefloor, filled with euphoria and excitement.\n\nI suggest that, among the new elements he's brought to this incarnation of the Time Lord, are incredible passion, energy and perhaps a youthful sexiness.\n\n\"Do I?\" he laughs. \"Cool! I think we've all been sexy in our own way.\"\n\nHe laughs again. \"I think I've just tried to bring energy and fun.\"\n\nThere's certainly an abundance of that in the story, which sees the Doctor and his new companion Ruby Sunday (played by Millie Gibson) take on a shipload of singing and dancing goblins.\n\n\"Yeah,\" he says. \"We are bringing a little musical flair to this Christmas special.\"\n\nMore seriously, it's inevitable that his casting as the first black actor to take on the show's lead role will be seen as symbolic.\n\n\"I think it means that we're here, and we're not going anywhere,\" Gatwa says.\n\n\"I mean, Doctor Who is a show that kind of reflects where Britain is at, in a way, because it's so quintessentially British.\n\n\"It's been on our screens for so long, it's a bit of a mirror to where we are in society.\n\n\"And so I think it's showing that we're here, and we're part of the cultural landscape. And we're not going anywhere.\"\n\nNcuti Gatwa's first full series will air in 2024\n\nGatwa was born in Rwanda in 1992, during the country's civil war. His family fled to the UK when he was two and he grew up first in Edinburgh, then in Dunfermline.\n\nIt's something that has helped him relate to a character who shares a sense of displacement.\n\n\"Yes, I think at many times in my life I have felt like an alien,\" he agrees.\n\n\"A kid like me growing up in Scotland - there's been many times I felt like an alien, and so I feel like I get it.\n\n\"It's always a joy to get a character like that in which you're able to draw on elements of your own life, your own upbringing, and deliver them through the character, because fundamentally it just comes out more truthfully.\"\n\nHis first full series will be broadcast in 2024. What can he tell fans about what might be coming?\n\n\"I can't, I can't,\" he laughs. \"Please don't get me in trouble now. I'm so bad with spoilers. Don't do this to me!\"\n\nBut he's more willing to reflect on his experience so far of playing such a well-known role.\n\n\"How I felt playing it was, yes, joyous and triumphant and [I] just loved it. Quite simply loved it.\"\n\nDoctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road is on BBC One on Christmas Day at 17:55 GMT.", "There was speculation over whether another uprising was brewing in the West Bank, even before the Hamas attacks on Israel in October.\n\nFrequent raids by the Israeli army, emboldened by a hard-right Israeli government - following deadly attacks by Palestinians, and violent attacks on Palestinians by settlers - had already increased pressure on Palestinians there.\n\nSince the war in Gaza, those pressures have spiralled: Israeli raids into West Bank towns have become more frequent and more forceful, and many families are suffering economically after Israel withheld tax revenues used to pay public servants in the West Bank, and banned Palestinian workers from entering Israel too.\n\nSmoke and fire rises from a Palestinian house in the Jenin refugee camp after it was targeted by the Israeli army on 13 December\n\nThere is anger at almost 20,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, and support for Hamas is rising.\n\nBut despite all this, calls by the armed group for an uprising in the West Bank over the past couple of months have come and gone.\n\nSupport for Hamas - and armed resistance more generally - has risen sharply since the war in Gaza began.\n\nAn opinion poll by the Centre for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah found that support for Hamas in the West Bank had more than tripled. Meanwhile, support for the West Bank's ruling party, Fatah, had dropped significantly. More than 90% of respondents thought Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas should resign.\n\nBut it seems that support for armed resistance, and disillusion with politics, is not translating into action on the ground.\n\nPalestinian inspects the damage inside a destroyed house in the Jenin refugee camp after it was targeted by the Israeli army on 13 December\n\nSince the war began, weekly demonstrations have been held in West Bank cities. The slogans chanted there are against Israel - but also against the Palestinian Authority. But they're usually held in city centres where there is much less risk of confrontation with Israeli soldiers, rather than at checkpoints - as happened during the last Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.\n\nAnd the numbers turning out for these weekly demonstrations are smaller than they were during previous moments of tension.\n\n\"People hesitate to come when Hamas calls for demonstrations, because there is a clear security price to be paid from the Israeli response,\" said Raed Debiy, a political scientist and youth leader in Fatah.\n\nBut they also don't come when Fatah calls for them, Debiy says, because \"people have lost hope in political parties\".\n\nDestruction in Jenin after the Israeli army operation\n\nAs the actions of Israel's army in the West Bank have become harsher, and the Palestinian security services more efficient, many people fear that becoming an active member of a militant group could make them a target for arrest or assassination.\n\nMore than 270 people have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October - including 70 children - according to the UN. That's more than half the total number killed this year.\n\nFour Israelis - including three from the armed forces - have been killed by Palestinians there in the same period.\n\nAn operation to arrest Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp this week lasted several days, with frequent bursts of heavy gunfire, rocket attacks and air strikes. Hundreds of people were detained, with 60 of them handed over to the security services for further questioning.\n\nAn ambulance trying to reach Jenin Hospital is stopped for search by the Israeli forces\n\nThe Israeli army has also been trying to destroy infrastructure used by armed groups.\n\nThis time, it claimed to have found more than a dozen underground tunnel shafts in the camp, as well as facilities for making explosives and \"observation control rooms\" to monitor Israeli forces.\n\nOne young man from the camp, who was among those detained this week and released after questioning, said the reason people ignored calls by Hamas to rise up in solidarity was that the group did not supply the West Bank with enough equipment to fight the Israeli army.\n\n\"Hamas in the West Bank has not done a good job of organising itself over the last decade,\" said Khalil Shikaki, head of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah.\n\n\"The Israelis have been arresting a lot of their members. Hamas is just incapable right now in the West Bank of mobilising and organising an eruption of violence that would be sustainable.\"\n\nBut previous uprisings here did not rely on Hamas. The second intifada (uprising), which began in 2000, was led by members of the West Bank's ruling party, Fatah.\n\nThe current leader of Fatah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is widely seen as trying to avoid an escalation in violence against Israel - a major shift in position from his predecessor, Yasser Arafat.\n\nHis security services co-operate with Israel to arrest members of armed groups - something that is widely criticised by Palestinians.\n\nSabri Saidam, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, denies that the party's position is at odds with public feeling in the territory, or that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is somehow avoiding a fight.\n\n\"To say that Fatah is in control and keeping the calm, [it's] as if you are hinting that there is a forceful implementation of a state of calm,\" he said. \"Nobody is forcing anything on anyone.\"\n\n\"People in the West Bank know that Netanyahu is throwing down bait, through persistent attacks every night against the people of Palestine regardless of their political affiliation - because he wants to provoke the Palestinians into a confrontational mood that he will use as an excuse to escalate the situation.\"\n\nThe US is pushing Israel to allow a \"revitalised\" PA to govern Gaza once the war there ends. Israel has so far said it will not consider it.\n\nBut the chance to govern a unified Palestinian bloc for the first time since 2006 is another incentive for the Fatah-dominated PA to prove its credentials and stop the situation in the West Bank from spiralling out of control.\n\n\"It's very clear that Fatah don't want any intifada,\" explained Raed Debiy, the party youth leader. \"They are still very keen to keep the status quo. But the grassroots of Fatah will not be controlled forever. How can you stay silent under daily assassination, daily invasion, daily violation of settlers - this will definitely lead to explosion.\"\n\nIn 2000, the spark for the second intifada was a visit by then-Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to a contested holy site in Jerusalem, known to Muslims as the al-Aqsa compound and to Jews at the Temple Mount.\n\nSharon's visit happened amid smouldering Palestinian frustration at the failure of the Oslo peace process - and, Dr Shikaki says, was \"exploited\" by Fatah's young guard to launch the uprising.\n\nA small event like this could still trigger something significant, but the situation has shifted since 2000.\n\nNow, far-right ministers in the Israeli government visit the compound, and make inflammatory claims about Israeli control of the site, without triggering a major response - at least not in the West Bank.\n\n\"We told the American administration many times that the pressure would definitely lead to some sort of reaction,\" said the senior Fatah leader, Sabri Saidam. \"But no-one anticipated that the reaction would come from Gaza.\"\n\nA map illustration showing the wider region of Israel, the occupied West Bank, Gaza, Tel Aviv and Jordan. Gaza and the occupied West Bank are highlighted in red, and show the locations of Jenin, Jerusalem and Nablus.\n\nWhere the West Bank goes from here depends partly on what follows the war in Gaza.\n\nThat transition is likely to be a precarious time for the West Bank, with hopes of a unified Palestinian leadership - possibly opening the door to talks on a future Palestinian state - clashing with the opposition of Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.\n\nAnd lifting restrictions imposed by Israel after the attacks - separating Palestinian and settler vehicles on some roads, for example - could prompt a spike in friction.\n\nBut a sustained uprising, of the kind seen two decades ago, will likely require a change in the policy of the West Bank's main political movement - and possibly even a change in its leader.\n\n\"It seems Fatah remains critical for an uprising to happen,\" Dr Shikaki told me. \"And as long as Fatah and the security services are not directly involved in the preparation for such an intifada, it seems highly unlikely we'll see one emerging.\n\n\"I don't yet see Fatah or the security services on the verge of a turning point,\" he continued. \"But we're moving in that direction.\"\n\nOthers point to the dwindling faith in Palestinian politics to provide peace, a state, or just a better life.\n\n\"If we had anything on the political agenda, things could go quiet,\" Raed Debiy told me. \"But I'm not sure with this right-wing [Israeli] government whether there is anything solid on the table - so the only scenario I see is explosion. It's just a matter of time.\"", "The London mayor said he does not have the legal powers to export Ulez non-compliant vehicles\n\nVehicles eligible for scrappage as part of London's Ulez scheme cannot legally be sent to Ukraine, the mayor's office has said.\n\nThe Telegraph reported Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko had written to to his London counterpart to suggest the idea as part of the scrappage scheme.\n\nHowever, Sadiq Khan's office said the Labour mayor was legally unable to alter it to allow vehicle exports.\n\nSusan Hall, the Tory mayoral candidate, said the response was \"absurd\".\n\nUnder the Ulez scrappage scheme, which came into force in August, Londoners with vehicles that fall foul of emission standards can claim up to £2,000 when their non-compliant vehicles are taken to be destroyed.\n\nIn the letter obtained by The Telegraph, Mr Klitschko said some of the vehicles being scrapped, particularly 4x4s, had \"enormous potential\" to help the country in a \"variety of life-saving and transport roles\" to aid its war with Russia.\n\nBBC News has not seen the full contents of the letter, reportedly sent in September, but a spokesperson for Mr Khan confirmed it had been received.\n\n\"Unfortunately, altering the Ulez scheme for the purpose of exporting vehicles to Ukraine is not possible within the current limits of the Greater London Authority Act,\" they said.\n\nThey said exporting the vehicles to Ukraine would \"not meet the legal threshold of the benefit to Londoners from an economic, social, or environmental perspective\" as set out within the act.\n\nThey added that Mr Khan was \"deeply frustrated\" and had instead set up a website which enabled Londoners with a \"suitable non-compliant vehicle to donate their vehicles directly to Ukraine\".\n\nOwners of vehicles donated directly through a charity will not be entitled to claim £2,000 from the Ulez scrappage scheme.\n\nMs Hall said Londoners who choose to scrap their cars \"should have the freedom to decide for themselves if they want their car sent to support Ukraine\".\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "British teen Alex Batty, found after six years missing, decided to leave his mother because she wanted to move to Finland, French officials said.\n\nThe 17-year-old said he was constantly on the move with his grandfather and mother after they disappeared in 2017, and wanted to get his UK life back.\n\nAlex was found by a motorist in southern France on Thursday.\n\nThe officials said he should be able to return to his family in the UK on Saturday or Sunday at the latest.\n\nThe current whereabouts of Alex's mother - who does not have parental guardianship of him - are unknown.\n\nAlex himself has not said where she is. They lived in Morocco for two years and then in the French Pyrenees but he has not said exactly where.\n\nHis grandfather is believed to have died six months ago.\n\nGreater Manchester Police (GMP) said Alex's Oldham-based relatives were \"massively relieved\" and going through a \"whole host of emotions\".\n\nIn a statement issued through GMP on Friday afternoon, Alex's grandmother Susan Caruana, who is also his legal guardian, said: \"I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found safe and well.\n\n\"I spoke with him last night and it was so good to hear his voice and see his face again. I can't wait to see him when we're reunited.\"\n\nRequesting privacy for the family, she added: \"The main thing is that he's safe, after what would be an overwhelming experience for anyone, not least a child.\"\n\nAlex Batty, centre, disappeared with his mother, Melanie Batty, and grandfather, David Batty\n\nToulouse Assistant Public Prosecutor Antoine Leroy told journalists the French authorities were still trying to piece together Alex's life since he went missing.\n\nHe said that the teenager came across as a very intelligent boy who was very easy to engage with, despite having no formal education since his disappearance.\n\nAlex told French officials how the three of them were always moving around as part of a small community of about 10 people, Mr Leroy said.\n\nThe area in the foothills of the Pyrenees is known for attracting people in search of alternative lifestyles.\n\nIt appears the group had a phobia for certain types of energy and took solar panels wherever they went. He says that at no time during his disappearance was he enrolled at a school.\n\nBut he spoke about the community as being \"spiritual\" and the word cult was not mentioned, Mr Leroy added. He said he suffered no physical violence.\n\nThe assistant prosecutor said that when Finland was mentioned, the teenager decided to \"get his life back in the UK\".\n\n\"When his mother indicated that she was going to leave with him to Finland, this young man understood that this had to stop,\" he said.\n\n\"So he then decided to leave the place where he was with his mother and he went walking for four days and four nights.\"\n\nHe walked during the night and slept in the day, getting food from fields and gardens, Mr Leroy added, until he was offered a lift by delivery driver Fabien Accidini.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Fabien Accidini says he found Alex Batty in a remote mountainous area in the Pyrenees\n\nMr Accidini spoke earlier about their encounter, saying that they talked for more than three hours in which Alex told him his story.\n\nThe delivery driver said he lent the teenager his phone and let him use his Facebook account to contact his grandmother.\n\nHis first words to his grandmother for six years were: \"Hello Grandma, it's me Alex. I'm in France Toulouse. I really hope that you receive this message. I love you, I want to come home.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Chris Sykes said on Friday morning GMP was \"relieved and overjoyed\" to receive the news that Alex was safe and well.\n\n\"This is a huge moment for Alex, for his family and for the community in Oldham,\" he said in a news conference.\n\n\"The young man and Alex's grandmother spoke on a video call last night and whilst she is content that this is indeed Alex, we obviously have further checks to do when he returns to the United Kingdom,\" he said.\n\nMelanie and David Batty left Greater Manchester with Alex for a pre-agreed week-long holiday to Marbella in Spain on 30 September 2017.\n\nHe was last seen at the Port of Malaga on 8 October that year, the day they were expected to return to the UK.", "Israeli forces have focused on the city of Khan Younis in the south of Gaza\n\nIsrael's bombardment of Gaza is \"narrowing the window\" for a new truce, the Qatari prime minister has said.\n\nSpeaking at the Doha Forum, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said Qatar would continue its efforts to pressure both sides into a ceasefire.\n\nThe Gulf state played a key role negotiating the week-long pause in violence at the end of November, which allowed the release of hostages.\n\nIsraeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday \"the war is in full swing\".\n\nHe said in recent days \"dozens of Hamas terrorists\" had surrendered, and were \"laying down their weapons and handing themselves over to our heroic fighters\".\n\n\"This is the beginning of the end for Hamas,\" he said.\n\nThe comments come as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen.\n\nOn Sunday afternoon, the Hamas-run health agency in Gaza said almost 18,000 Palestinians had now been killed.\n\nIn an audio message to Al Jazeera, Hamas's armed wing said the temporary ceasefire had \"proved its credibility\" and that no more hostages would be freed until Israel engaged in talks.\n\nIn the message, spokesman Abu Ubaida also said Hamas fighters had fully or partially destroyed 180 military vehicles and killed \"a large number\" of Israeli soldiers, and that it is still inflicting blows on Israel, and \"what is coming is greater\".\n\nCivilians have been called on to evacuate the centre of Khan Younis\n\nAt the conference in Doha, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said the area had become \"hell on earth\" and was \"definitely the worst situation I have ever seen\".\n\nAlso speaking at the conference, Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh said Israel \"should not be allowed to keep violating international humanitarian law\", and called for international sanctions.\n\nMr Shtayyeh represents the Palestinian Authority, the organisation which operates in the West Bank and which is separate to the Hamas government operating in Gaza.\n\nAs the meeting took place in Doha, in the south of Gaza fighting continued to rage.\n\nThe city of Khan Younis, the place people were told to head to to escape the fighting in the north, is now under heavy bombardments - with Israel asking civilians to leave its centre.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News, senior Israeli adviser Mark Regev said there was going to be \"difficult fighting\" in Khan Younis, and urged civilians to \"move to safe zones\" - with Israeli tanks reaching the centre of the city on Sunday evening.\n\nCivilians in the city have been pictured collecting bodies and mourning family members killed in fighting.\n\nAddressing his cabinet on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said international allies had been inconsistent\n\nWhen asked about the situation in what Israel calls safe areas, Mr Regev said his country has made a maximum effort to try to safeguard civilian lives.\n\nCivilians in Gaza have formerly been advised to make their way to a \"safe zone\" at al-Mawasi. Measuring just 8.5 sq km (3.3 sq miles), the area is smaller than London's Heathrow Airport, has few buildings and largely consists of sandy dunes and agricultural land.\n\nMeanwhile, Israel has also been engaging in international diplomacy - calling out its allies for an inconsistent approach.\n\n\"You cannot on the one hand support the elimination of Hamas and on other pressure us to end the war, which would prevent the elimination of Hamas,\" said Mr Netanyahu while briefing his cabinet.\n\nHe was speaking two days after 13 members of the UN Security Council supported a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, with the US vetoing the move and the UK abstaining.\n\nIsrael also denied a claim by UNRWA chief Mr Lazzarini that it was trying to force Gazans out of the region and into Egypt - something previously reported in Israeli media.\n\nThe World Health Organization has also taken the unusual step of passing a resolution calling for immediate medical access to Gaza, with its director-general earlier calling the situation in the area \"catastrophic\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rudy Giuliani says he plans to appeal 'absurd' penalty\n\nRudy Giuliani, a longtime associate of former President Donald Trump, has been ordered to pay more than $148m (£116m) to two women over false claims they tampered with votes in 2020.\n\nA judge had already found Mr Giuliani liable of making defamatory claims about Georgia poll workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea \"Shaye\" Moss.\n\nMs Moss said after the verdict that the past few years had been \"devastating\".\n\nThe verdict came after a four-day trial to determine the penalty.\n\nOn Friday, the eight-person jury ordered $20m payments for defamation to be made to each victim.\n\nThey were also each awarded over $16m for emotional distress, the jury ruled. Another payment of $75m in punitive damages was ordered to be split between them.\n\nThey had originally sought between $15m and $43m in damages from Mr Giuliani, Mr Trump's former personal lawyer.\n\nAddressing reporters outside the court, Mr Giuliani said: \"I don't regret a damn thing.\"\n\nMichael Gottlieb, the lawyer for Ms Freeman and Ms Moss, said during closing arguments on Thursday that Mr Giuliani was \"patient zero\" of the misinformation.\n\nHe said that, during three days of evidence and testimony, the jury had \"experienced a sliver of the unspeakable horror that [Ms Freeman and Ms Moss] suffered\".\n\nHe said a stiff financial penalty was necessary to \"send a message\" to Mr Giuliani and to \"any other powerful figure with a platform\".\n\nMr Giuliani had been expected to testify in his own defence on Thursday, but those plans were abruptly cancelled.\n\n\"Honestly, I didn't believe it would do any good,\" Mr Giuliani said after the verdict on Friday, adding that he planned to appeal the \"absurd\" penalty.\n\nMr Giuliani is worth about $50m, according to an estimate by CBS News, the BBC's US partner.\n\nHis lawyers earlier urged the jury to be measured as they considered the penalty.\n\nThey said that, although the former mayor of New York did spread lies after the 2020 presidential election, he was not as responsible - or as malicious - as lawyers for the two women argued.\n\nIn courtroom testimony in Washington DC on Wednesday, Ms Freeman recounted having to flee her home after a group of Trump supporters gathered outside and the FBI told her she was in danger.\n\nThe incident happened after Mr Giuliani shared a video of them, which he falsely said showed evidence of ballot tampering.\n\nRuby Freeman (in front) and her daughter Shaye Moss say they are still rebuilding their lives\n\n\"I took it as though they were going to hang me with their ropes on my street,\" Ms Freeman said. \"I was scared. I didn't know if they were coming to kill me.\"\n\nMs Freeman said that she was left isolated by Mr Giuliani's actions. Friends and acquaintances grew afraid to be linked to her, she said, and she has felt forced to live a life of seclusion because of lingering fears she will be recognised publicly.\n\nAddressing reporters on Friday, the women said that more lawsuits may be forthcoming for other public figures that had spread lies about them.\n\n\"They must be held accountable too,\" said Ms Freeman.\n\n\"Money will not solve all of my problems,\" she continued. \"I can't move home, I will always have to be careful... I miss my home, I miss my neighbours and I miss my name.\"\n\nThe trial in Washington DC was just one of the legal cases Mr Giuliani is facing.\n\nIn Georgia, Mr Giuliani faces criminal charges, including making false statements, in an election-subversion case against Mr Trump. Mr Giuliani has pleaded not guilty.\n\nA former business associate is also suing him for $10m over sexual harassment claims.\n\nAnd according to recent court filings from the Internal Revenue Service, Mr Giuliani owes more than half a million dollars in federal taxes.\n\nIn September, Mr Trump reportedly hosted a $100,000-a-plate dinner at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to raise money for a legal defence fund for Mr Giuliani.\n\nBack in 2018, Mr Giuliani's divorce case heard claims of his lavish spending. His ex-wife, Judith Giuliani, said that in a five-month period he spent nearly a million dollars.\n\nThis was said to include $12,012 on cigars, $7,131 on fountain pens, $286,000 on an alleged mistress, $447,938 \"for his own enjoyment\" and $165,000 on travel.", "A seasoned performer, Alexander has scored several top 10 hits around Europe\n\nPop star Olly Alexander will represent the United Kingdom at next year's Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden.\n\nThe former Years and Years frontman will hope to improve on the UK's disappointing performance this year, when Mae Muller came second to last.\n\nAlexander is already known around Europe for hits including Desire, King and If You're Over Me.\n\nHe is also a Bafta-nominated actor, having played the lead role in Channel 4's hard-hitting Aids drama It's A Sin.\n\nThe star's participation was revealed during the final of Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday, months before the BBC usually confirms its Eurovision plans.\n\n\"I love Eurovision so much, it's a dream come true,\" he told host Claudia Winkleman. \"I'm just so, so excited.\"\n\nIn a press release, he added: \"I really can't believe I'm going to be a part of such a special legacy and fly the flag for the UK in the gayest way possible.\n\n\"I'm determined to give it everything I've got and put on an excellent and unforgettable performance for you all!\"\n\nYears and Years became a solo project in 2021, but now Alexander is releasing music under his own name\n\nThe song he will perform in Malmö next May is still under wraps - but it was co-written by Alexander and Danny L Harle, who has produced hits for Dua Lipa, Chic and Charli XCX.\n\n\"It's gonna be electronic, something you can dance to,\" Alexander told BBC News. \"But I can't say much more than that.\n\n\"I just can't wait to get out there and meet the fans and everyone else taking part,\" he added.\n\n\"It's going to be the wildest experience of my life.\"\n\nThe singer is a seasoned performer with a big fanbase, having scored five UK top 10 singles and two number one albums over the past decade with Years and Years.\n\nThe band also enjoyed chart success in Eurovision countries including Belgium, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden.\n\nAlexander's hometown of Harrogate previously played host to the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest, after Bucks Fizz won for the UK the previous year.\n\nLoreen is one of only two people to score multiple Eurovision victories - the other being Ireland's Johnny Logan\n\nSweden is hosting Eurovision 2024 after Swedish icon Loreen won this year's trophy with the jackhammer pop anthem Tattoo.\n\nIt was her second Eurovision victory, having previously won in 2012 with Euphoria.\n\nSweden is now tied with Ireland for the most Eurovision victories, with seven apiece - but the UK hasn't won since 1997, and its recent track record has been largely underwhelming.\n\nMichael Rice and James Newman came last in 2019 and 2021 respectively. Mae Muller was only saved from the same fate this year by German rock band Lord of the Lost.\n\nThe bright spot in the UK's otherwise dismal recent Eurovision history was Sam Ryder, who took second place in Turin in 2022 with his pop-rock anthem Spaceman.\n\nThe star, who is currently in contention for the Christmas number one crown with his festive song You're Christmas To Me, sent Alexander a message of good luck on Saturday night.\n\n\"What's up mate?\" he said. \"Best of luck, go sing your head off, enjoy Sweden and send us a postcard!\"\n\nOlly Alexander performed It's A Sin with Sir Elton John at the 2021 Brit Awards\n\nBoth Ryder and Muller were chosen by TaP management, the music company behind Lana Del Rey and Dua Lipa.\n\nHowever, they pulled out after this year's contest, and the latest selection was made internally at the BBC.\n\nAlexander is the most well-established artist to be picked to represent the UK since Bonnie Tyler, who finished 19th in 2013.\n\nWhile the UK has generally sent newer and less well-known singers to Eurovision, other countries send some of their biggest stars to the contest.\n\nThis year, Italy was represented by the swoonsome balladeer Marco Mengoni, who has 70 platinum records to his name.\n\nRussia, who are currently excluded from the contest due to the war in Ukraine, put forward the globally successful pop duo Tatu in 2003, while Sweden's Måns Zelmerlöw had three number one albums before winning the 2015 contest with Heroes.", "Julian De Bono who works at the Ipswich job centre was last seen at a party in the early hours of Sunday\n\nA friend of a man who disappeared following a night out said it is unusual for him not to be in touch.\n\nJulian De Bono, 63, was last seen on Yarmouth Road, Ipswich, at 01:45 GMT on Sunday, heading towards London Road.\n\nFranstine Jones said he is a \"popular friendly guy\" and they are \"worried\".\n\nPolice said the searches had included \"drones, small craft on the water and physically entering the water\". A dive team arrived on Saturday to \"provide specialist support\".\n\nFranstine Jones said if anyone has any information about Julian, to get in touch with the police\n\nMs Jones, who is a former president of the National Black Police Association, said: \"Julian is a really popular friendly guy, a lot of people know him around Ipswich.\n\nShe added his friends were \"very, very worried\" and concerned about his silence.\n\n\"It's unusual for someone like Julian, who is well known, to not hear anything from him - despite people calling him either through social media or the phone.\n\n\"Everyone wants to support the family, I feel for the family at the moment and I just hope everything ends up positively.\n\n\"If anybody has got any information let the police know, no matter how little it is, it might be that final bit in the puzzle that makes sense.\"\n\nA specialist Nottinghamshire Police dive team is helping emergency services with the search of the River Gipping\n\nMr De Bono went to a work event on Saturday evening, before heading back to Ipswich town centre to continue his night, police said.\n\nHe was wearing a white, partially see-through shirt, with red trousers and high-shine black shoes.\n\nCCTV footage and eyewitnesses put him on Yarmouth Road shortly before 02:00 GMT, but Suffolk Police has re-appealed for CCTV and dashcam footage from the area, which may aid the investigation.\n\nCh Insp Richard Burton, from Suffolk Police, said: \"We want to give the water as much attention as possible.\"\n\nThere had been a number of house-to-house inquiries and searches will continue to take place in and around the river, the force added.\n\nAn area of the River Gipping, near the Suffolk Retail Park, has been cordoned off for police to carry out searches\n\nJulian De Bono was captured on CCTV on Yarmouth Road, near to the River Gipping\n\nMr De Bono's family has appealed on Facebook for anyone with information to get in touch.\n\n\"They're very concerned, as you would expect, so we're doing everything we can to provide them the support that they deserve,\" said Ch Insp Burton.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Store cameras showed Gaynor Lord at work shortly before she left\n\nPost-mortem tests on a body found in the search for missing Gaynor Lord show the cause of death was not suspicious.\n\nCCTV footage had showed the 55-year-old hurrying through the streets of Norwich just hours before her belongings were found dumped in a park on 8 December.\n\nA body was found by police divers on Friday and formal identification is expected to take place on Sunday.\n\nNorfolk Constabulary said the post-mortem examination showed \"no signs of third party involvement\".\n\nMs Lord's family is being supported by specialist officers.\n\nSpecialist divers had been searching the river for three days\n\nCh Supt Dave Buckley said: \"The post-mortem examination has found no signs that any other parties were involved.\n\n\"Although our searches have concluded, officers are continuing to work to establish the full circumstances surrounding Gaynor's disappearance.\n\n\"We will pursue all lines of enquiry to understand why she went missing.\n\n\"Our thoughts remain with Gaynor's family at this incredibly difficult time.\"\n\nMs Lord was reported missing after failing to return home from Jarrolds department store in Norwich where she worked on a gin counter as a retail assistant.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nCCTV footage showed her leaving work more than an hour earlier than expected before hurrying through the city on foot.\n\nShe spent 33 minutes in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral before heading in the direction of Wensum Park via St Augustines Street.\n\nMoments later, a member of the public reported seeing a woman matching Ms Lord's description in the park doing a \"yoga pose\".\n\nWensum Park was closed while the searched were carried out and has since reopened.\n\nA friend of Ms Lord told the BBC she received two calls from her on the day she disappeared - one which had to be cut short at about 14:15 GMT; the second, a \"pocket call\" at about 16:15.\n\nJulie Butcher said she\"feels terrible\" after cutting the conversation short to take a work call and was unable to reach her after that.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Left to right: Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka\n\nThe Israeli military says it has mistakenly killed three hostages during its campaign in Gaza after they were mis-identified as a \"threat\".\n\nThey were named as Yotam Haim, 28, Samer Talalka, 22, and Alon Shamriz, 26.\n\nThe military shared its remorse and said the three were shot by troops operating in Shejaiya, in Gaza's north.\n\nMore than 100 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza after being captured in the 7 October attacks on Israel.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Friday's incident was under investigation, and that it \"expresses deep remorse over the tragic incident and sends the families its heartfelt condolences\".\n\n\"Our national mission is to locate the missing and return all the hostages home,\" it added.\n\nHundreds of people gathered in central Tel Aviv following the announcement and marched to an IDF military base in the city, calling on the government to secure a deal for the release of the remaining hostages.\n\nDemonstrators held candles and carried placards that read \"Bring [them] home\" and \"Hostage exchange now!\"\n\nThe bodies of the three men have been returned to Israeli territory, where checks confirmed their identities.\n\nYotam Haim, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on 7 October, was a musician who loved animals and cooking Italian food.\n\nOn the morning of the Hamas attack, he called his family and told them that his house was on fire. When he opened the window for some fresh air, Yotam was kidnapped by Hamas.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC before her son's death, his mother said they had messaged each other as they hid in their home shelters - before their connection was lost.\n\nAlon Shamriz was also at Kfar Aza at the time of the attack. His family gave permission for him to be named after asking earlier that his identity not be revealed.\n\nSamer Talalka, a Bedouin, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Am. An avid motorcycle enthusiast, he loved to travel in the countryside and spend time with friends.\n\nHe lived in the town of Hura and worked at a chicken hatchery in the kibbutz. On the morning of 7 October, he was at work. He called his sister after the attack to tell her that he had been injured by gunfire.\n\nHis father told local media they lost touch at 07:00 local time on the morning of the attacks. A photograph of him being led through Gaza was shared on Telegram.\n\nHundreds of people marched through central Tel Aviv on Friday calling on the Israeli government to secure the release of the remaining hostages\n\n\"Even on this difficult evening, we will bind up our wounds, learn the lessons and continue with a supreme effort to return all our abductees home safely,\" he said.\n\nWhite House spokesperson John Kirby said the killings were a \"tragic mistake,\" and that the US did not have \"perfect visibility on exactly how this operation unfolded\".\n\nMore than 100 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza after being captured on 7 October when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages - some of whom were released during a brief truce.\n\nThe Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 18,800 people have been killed and 50,000 injured in the enclave so far in the war that followed.\n\nHen Avigdori, whose wife and daughter were among the released, said he often heard people say hostages could be rescued \"by military means.\"\n\nBut \"there is no military way\" that would bring them back safely, he wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.\n\n\"The conclusion for every person who has both heart and mind is the same: Israel must initiate a deal to bring them back alive and not in coffins.\"", "Cameras captured the nervous rehearsals ahead of the King's Coronation Day\n\nBehind the scenes footage of the King and Queen during their Coronation rehearsals has been released by the BBC.\n\nA documentary, to be broadcast on Boxing Day, will reveal private moments that the public did not get to see.\n\nCameras captured the nervous rehearsals and the emotion of friends and family as they followed the King and Queen as they prepared for Coronation Day.\n\nThe King and Queen are also seen joking and laughing during dress rehearsals.\n\nThe 90-minute documentary Charles III: The Coronation Year features exclusive footage of the King and Queen in the first year of King Charles's reign.\n\nIn one clip, King Charles holds up his robes like wings on the morning of the Coronation in Buckingham Palace and says: \"I can fly\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAnother moment shows Queen Camilla's sister, Annabel Elliot, who was a \"Queen's Companion\" at the event.\n\nIn one of the clips released, she is seen looking tearful as she watches her sister head to Westminster Abbey to be crowned Queen.\n\n\"When I thought back to being two years old and watching the Queen's Coronation on a tiny black and white television and there goes this golden coach with my sister in it,\" she says.\n\n\"I can't explain the feeling because its so surreal. This cannot be happening. It was quite a moment.\"\n\nThe programme also shows the Queen in her Coronation gown at Buckingham Palace as she prepares to leave for the Abbey.\n\nShe reminds herself to walk slowly. She warns the pages not to stand on her dress and she refers to them as the \"lads\".\n\nOne of the Queen's closest friends, Fiona, Marchioness of Lansdowne, was also a \"Queen's Companion\" on Coronation Day.\n\nShe described seeing her long-time friend Camilla for the first time that morning.\n\n\"It wasn't until we were all ready that we actually all came together to see each other for the first time,\" she said.\n\n\"It was a very special moment. That was when it was like a wedding. The bridesmaids going to see the bride.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Queen Camilla's sister tears up as royals depart for Coronation\n\nIn the run up to the Coronation Service, not everything went to plan, even for the most experienced hands.\n\nInside Westminster Abbey, cameras showed one of the final rehearsals.\n\nThe King is sat on the Coronation Chair, surrounded by clergy as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, practises his blessing.\n\nBut the Archbishop forgets his words.\n\nA laughing King does not seem perturbed by what the Archbishop described as a \"glitch\", comparing his memory to one of his spaniels.\n\nOn Coronation Day, so much was shared with public who watched the event in their millions.\n\nThis film shows the private, unguarded moments of a royal family and their friends during an historic year for the British Monarchy.\n\nYou can see more royal stories in the weekly BBC News Royal Watch Newsletter - sign up here from within the UK. or here, from outside the UK.", "Police have released video footage of a man, who has since been convicted of plotting a gun attack in Hyde Park, lunging at a detective during a police interview.\n\nEdward Little was arrested on his way to south London to buy a gun.\n\nOn Friday, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison, after admitting preparing to commit acts of terrorism.", "A younger Alex Batty, pictured before he went missing\n\nBritish teenager Alex Batty, found in France after six years missing, is expected to return home to the UK in the coming hours.\n\nAlex vanished in 2017 on a holiday in Spain with his mother and grandfather.\n\nHis mother does not have parental guardianship of the 17-year-old and her current whereabouts are unknown.\n\nAlex was found on Wednesday by a motorist, who spotted him on a road in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, near Toulouse.\n\nThe Agence France-Presse news agency reported British police officers will accompany the boy on a flight from France, citing French prosecutor Antoine Leroy.\n\nAlex is believed to have been living a nomadic lifestyle in spiritual communities with his mother and grandfather for the past few years.\n\nFrench officials said he decided to leave when his mother wanted to go to Finland.\n\nAlex is believed to have walked through the mountainous terrain of southern France for four days before being found by a delivery driver in the middle of the night.\n\nThe driver, Fabien Accidini, said he lent the teenager his phone and let him use his Facebook account to contact his grandmother, Susan Caruana.\n\nMs Caruana, who is the teenager's legal guardian based in Oldham, said she can't wait to be reunited with him.\n\nAlex's grandmother Susan Caruana, pictured in 2019, spoke of her relief and happiness\n\n\"I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found safe and well,\" she said in a statement issued on Friday by Greater Manchester Police.\n\nShe added it was \"so good to hear his voice and see his face again\".\n\nShe requested privacy for the family, so that they could \"make his return as comforting as possible\".\n\nThe BBC has spoken to residents of the small hamlet of La Bastide in the Pyrenees.\n\nLocals said Alex had been staying at a guesthouse there on and off for the past two years.\n\nThe guesthouse in the Pyrenees where locals say Alex was living\n\nThey said he was living with his grandfather, who did odd jobs in the area, and his mother was in the neighbouring region.\n\nThe residents added while his French wasn't great, he was always polite.\n\nFrench police said Alex told them his grandfather died about six months ago.\n\nThree locals, however, have told the BBC his grandfather was seen alive as recently as last week.", "Journalist Piers Morgan has said he has \"never hacked a phone or told anyone else to\", after a judge ruled he knew about the practice - and was involved - while editor of the Daily Mirror between 1995 and 2004.\n\nSeparately, the High Court ruled Prince Harry was the victim of phone hacking by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) and awarded him £140,600 in damages.\n\nMirror Group Newspapers has admitted phone hacking took place, but insists blame cannot be pinned on executives or editors because it says the unlawful activity was deliberately concealed by the journalists.", "A High Court ruling that Prince Harry's phone had been hacked by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) is the \"start of something\", actor Steve Coogan said.\n\nCoogan said the ruling exposed \"widespread contempt\" by newspaper editors for the Leveson Inquiry, which looked at the ethics of the press.\n\nHe said the press needed to be held accountable with \"proper, independent regulation\".\n\nCoogan was a victim of phone hacking by MGN and settled with the group in 2017.\n\nThe actor and comedian has long been an outspoken critic of sections of the tabloid press.\n\nPrince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, won in relation to 15 articles published by MGN, with the judge finding evidence of \"widespread and habitual\" use of phone hacking at the group's newspapers.\n\nCoogan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"What this shows is the contempt that newspaper editors had for a judge-led public inquiry.\n\n\"Now we've got prima facia evidence of crimes having been committed, perjury being one of the most serious.\n\n\"The police need to apply the law evenly and fairly, without fear or favour. It doesn't matter how much time has passed.\"\n\nFollowing the High Court ruling on Friday, Prince Harry called on the police and prosecuting authorities to \"investigate bringing charges against the company and those who have broken the law\".\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said it would \"carefully consider the civil judgment\" but added that there was \"no ongoing investigation\".\n\nCoogan told the BBC the second part of the Leveson Inquiry, which was officially abandoned by the Conservative government in 2017, should now take place.\n\nHe said he would like to know what Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer would do about it if he became prime minister.\n\n\"Is he going to fold like a deckchair as previous, mostly Conservative prime ministers, have?\" he asked.\n\nThe Leveson Inquiry was established under then-Prime Minister David Cameron following the phone-hacking scandal at News International. The second stage was meant to look into the relationship between journalists and the police.\n\nThe inquiry found politicians and the press had been too close, and that a new self-regulated body independent of serving editors, government and business should be established.\n\nIt concluded that a legal framework was needed to underpin the body. The industry rejected this, arguing the move would give politicians too much power.\n\nThe current regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), was set up in 2014 as successor to the Press Complaints Commission, which was criticised for its lack of action in the phone-hacking scandal.\n\nCoogan told the BBC a new regulatory body was needed, claiming Ipso was \"run by the press, for the press\".\n\n\"What we need to see is proper, independent regulation, not run by the press, not run by the government, but independent voices,\" he added.\n\nBut Sir Alan Moses, former chair of Ipso, told the Today programme it was \"ridiculous\" to regard the regulator as \"controlled or toothless\".\n\n\"It's not run by the press, it's run by independent people with whom I worked,\" he said.\n\nIpso is paid for by its members through the Regulatory Funding Company, and has come under criticism from the Hacked Off campaign group - which Coogan is affiliated with - as being \"owned and controlled by the very newspapers it is supposed to regulate\".\n\nPrince Harry became the first senior member of the Royal Family to testify in court since the late 19th century\n\nThe judge in the case found that editors and executives at MGN knew of phone hacking, and accepted evidence that that group included former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan.\n\nMr Morgan has repeatedly denied involvement in phone hacking and delivered a further statement about it outside his home hours after Friday's ruling.\n\n\"There is just one article relating to the prince published in The Daily Mirror during my entire nine-year tenure as editor that he [the High Court judge] thinks may have involved some unlawful information gathering,\" he said.\n\n\"To be clear, I had then and still have zero knowledge of how that particular story was gathered.\"\n\nAs well as taking aim at the prince among others, Mr Morgan denied personally hacking a phone or ordering someone to, and said \"nobody has produced any actual evidence to prove that I did\".\n\nBut Coogan said that nobody had accused Mr Morgan of this, and that Mr Morgan's statement did not address the judge's comments.\n\n\"Piers Morgan could have quite easily received illegally gained information whilst he was editor of the Mirror, used that knowing it was illegally gathered, and still be able to claim that he hadn't instructed anyone to hack anyone's phone or he personally hadn't hacked anyone's phone,\" Coogan told the BBC.\n\nThe BBC has approached Mr Morgan for further comment.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The BBC's Rushdi Abualouf says Mr Abudaqa \"would bring joy to any place\"\n\nThe funeral has been held of an Al Jazeera cameraman who was killed by an Israeli drone strike on Gaza.\n\nSamer Abudaqa was wounded in the strike on a school in Khan Younis on Friday along with his colleague, Wael Al-Dahdouh.\n\nAl Jazeera said Abudaqa bled to death because a heavy bombardment prevented paramedics from reaching him.\n\nThe Qatar-based network said it had referred the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC).\n\nPosting on X, formerly known as Twitter, Al Jazeera referred to Abudaqa's death as an \"assassination\", and said that its legal filing to the ICC would include repeated attacks on network crews working in the Palestinian territories.\n\nThe network said Abudaqa was its 13th journalist to die on duty since it was created in 1996.\n\nDahdouh, who lost several family members in an earlier Israeli bombing, survived the attack.\n\nDuring his eulogy at this colleague's funeral, Dahdouh said journalists in Gaza would \"continue to do our duty with professionalism and transparency\".\n\nHe said that journalists in Gaza were carrying a \"human and noble message\" for the world amid the ongoing war and would continue to work despite Israeli attacks.\n\nAccording to Al Jazeera, Dahdouh was hit by shrapnel on his upper arm and managed to walk to Nasser hospital for treatment.\n\nAbudaqa also suffered shrapnel injuries, but paramedics struggled reach him as the area was under heavy bombardment from Israeli forces.\n\nAl Jazeera said the cameraman was \"left to bleed to death for over five hours,\" adding it held Israel accountable for targeting its journalists and their families.\n\nAbudaqa joined Al Jazeera in June 2004, working as a cameraman and editor.\n\nHe had three sons and a daughter, and lived in the town of Abasan al-Kabira near Khan Younis.\n\nAl Jazeera's managing editor, Mohamed Moawad, described Abudaqa as \"a skilled professional but a compassionate soul who understood the power of visual storytelling\".\n\n\"His unwavering commitment to truth and storytelling has left an indelible mark on our team,\" he said on X.\n\nAccording to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 64 journalists - mostly Palestinians - have been killed since the Israel-Gaza conflict began on 7 October.\n\nThe Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents several hundred journalists working for international news organisations, said it grieved the cameraman's death. saying he was the first FPA member to be killed in the Israel-Gaza conflict.\n\n\"We consider this a grave blow to the already limited freedom of the press in Gaza and call on the army for a prompt investigation and explanation.\"", "International calls for a ceasefire in Gaza have been growing with the UN passing a non-binding resolution on Wednesday\n\nJust getting to the end of the day and surviving the night must feel like a miracle in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians \"plead for safety\", wrote Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the main UN relief agency in Gaza, in an \"endless, deepening tragedy… hell on earth\".\n\nIt must be just as hellish for the hostages taken by Hamas and for the families of their victims. War is a cruel furnace that puts humans through terrible agonies. But its heat can produce changes that seemed impossible.\n\nIt happened in western Europe after World War Two. Old enemies who had killed each other for centuries chose peace. Will the war in Gaza shock Israelis and Palestinians into ending their century of conflict over the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan river?\n\n18,600 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry\n\nI've been watching a video of a woman wracked by grief, sitting next to the body of her husband, Muhammad Abu Shaar. As Israel and Egypt are not allowing journalists to enter Gaza, I have not met her. I haven't been able to find out her name, which was not posted alongside those of her dead husband and children.\n\nIn the video, it is as if she hopes, somehow, that the power of her grief will bring him back.\n\n\"I swear, we promised to die together. You died and left me. What are we supposed to do, God? Muhammad, get up! For God's sake my beloved, I swear to God, I love you. For God's sake get up. Our children Nour and Aboud are here with you. Get up.\"\n\nThe two children were with their father because all three of them had just been killed by Israel. An air strike destroyed the house they were hoping would shelter them in Rafah.\n\nYonatan Zeigan (left) quit his job to campaign for peace after his mother, well-known peace activist Vivian Silver (centre), was killed by Hamas on 7 October\n\nI visited Yonatan Zeigen at his flat in Tel Aviv. It was a comfortable home, full of his children's toys. Among the family photos I recognised his mother, Vivian Silver, who was one of Israel's leading campaigners for peace with the Palestinians. Vivian was in the family home in kibbutz Be'eri, on the border with Gaza, when Hamas attacked on 7 October.\n\nThe first time I met Yonatan, in the days after their kibbutz was attacked, he was hoping his mother had been taken into Gaza as a hostage.\n\nWhen he heard the air raid sirens in Tel Aviv, he rang Vivian. They switched to WhatsApp as they heard gunfire and explosions in the kibbutz, hoping that if she made no noise, Hamas would bypass the house.\n\nHe read out the texts they exchanged, first some black humour and suddenly serious and full of love as she realised a massacre was happening.\n\n\"She wrote me, they're inside the house, it's time to stop joking and say goodbye,\" he tells me.\n\n\"And I wrote back that 'I love you, Mum. I have no words, I'm with you'. Then she writes, 'I feel you'. And then that was it, that's the last message.\"\n\nA drawing by Vivian's grandchildren reads, \"I am afraid my grandma will die\"\n\nThe next day, I visited her house in the kibbutz and saw it was burnt out. It took weeks for investigators to find Vivian Silver's remains in the ash left behind in the safe room. Yonatan has given up his career as a social worker to campaign for peace.\n\n\"They came into my country and killed my mother because we didn't have peace. So, to me, this just proves the point that we need it,\" he says.\n\n\"It could go either way. Catastrophes like this create changes in societies in the world. And I believe that it can lead to a better future.\"\n\nActivist Issa Amro says life for Palestinians in the West Bank has become much harder since October 7\n\nIssa Amro is a Palestinian activist in Hebron in the West Bank. The city is holy to Muslims and Jews, who revere it as the burial place of the prophet Abraham. It has been a flashpoint for decades.\n\nIssa is well known in Hebron and considered a troublemaker by Israeli soldiers who have enforced a curfew on Palestinians who live near the Jewish settlement in the heart of the city. He told me he was detained and beaten after the 7 October attacks.\n\nPalestinian activist Issa Amro told the BBC his hands were bound so tightly when he was detained by the IDF on October 7 that it cut off his circulation\n\nLike Yonatan Zeigen in Tel Aviv, Issa Amro believes that the war could produce a chance for Israelis and Palestinians to lead better and safer lives.\n\n\"I think it's two opportunities. Either we choose to make it deeper and worse, or we make it as an opportunity to solve the conflict and to solve the occupation, to solve the apartheid and make living together possible because the security solution failed… only peace is the solution.\"\n\nIt might seem a long way off now, and many more people are going to be killed before it happens, but like every war this one will stop.\n\nAll the wars in and around Gaza since Hamas seized control there in 2007 have ended the same way, with a ceasefire deal. The ceasefires all came with a fatal flaw that guaranteed the next war between Israel and Hamas. That was because no attempt was made to end a century of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.\n\nThe killing and destruction in this war are of such a different order that no one can pretend there is any kind of normality to restore. This time it must be different. That much is accepted by Palestinians and Israelis and the outside powers that matter the most.\n\nThe problem is agreeing which future to try to create. The Israeli government is heading for a diplomatic row with the United States, its most important ally, about what happens after the ceasefire.\n\nPresident Joe Biden is exasperated by what he called Israel's \"indiscriminate bombing\" of Gaza. Even so, he continues to back Israel, as he has since the start of the war, by deploying aircraft carriers, sending planeloads of weapons and vetoing ceasefire resolutions at the UN Security Council.\n\nIn return, Joe Biden wants Israel to agree that the only way forward is revive talks to establish an independent Palestinian state. That was the objective of the Oslo peace process, which failed after years of negotiations.\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not said much about how Gaza would be governed if and when he declares victory over Hamas. But he has rejected Joe Biden's plan.\n\nOne constant in Netanyahu's long political career has been opposition to the independent Palestinian state that Oslo tried and failed to produce.\n\nTotal victory and the unconditional surrender of anyone left alive in Hamas remain Israel's objectives. Annihilating Hamas, Mr Netanyahu believes, is the only way to rescue the hostages.\n\nA few hours before Mr Biden said Israel's bombing was indiscriminate, Mr Netanyahu made his own speech.\n\n\"I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo,\" he said. \"After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism. Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan.\"\n\nFatahstan is a derogatory reference to the Palestinian Authority, the rival to Hamas, which recognises Israel and co-operates with it on security.\n\nIsraeli domestic politics feed into Mr Netanyahu's calculations. Opinion polls indicate that many Israelis blame him for the intelligence and security failures that allowed Hamas to break into Israel with such force. By doubling down on his opposition to Palestinian self-determination, Mr Netanyahu is trying to regain the trust of the right-wing Jewish nationalists who support his government.\n\n1200 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October, including from Kibbutz Be'eri\n\nYonatan Zeigen, the son of the slain peace campaigner Vivian Silver, says his mother would have been heartbroken to see the war, believing that wars cause more wars.\n\n\"I think she would have said 'not in my name'… a war, if we're not too naïve, should be a means, right? But it feels like this war is a cause in itself, of revenge.\"\n\nYonatan senses a new opportunity, to put peace back on Israel's political agenda.\n\nPeace campaigners were prominent in Israel until they were discredited as an armed Palestinian uprising erupted after the Oslo process collapsed in 2000. The idea of peace with the Palestinians vanished from mainstream Israeli politics. Now, Yonatan hopes, it is inching its way back.\n\n\"Absolutely. You couldn't even say the word. And now people are talking about it.\"\n\nIssa Amro, the Palestinian activist in Hebron, told me life there is much harder for Palestinians since 7 October.\n\n\"It got much worse. Ten times worse. More restrictions. More violence. More intimidation. People don't feel safe at all. People don't have enough food to eat. People don't get any access to a social life. No schools, no kindergartens, no work. It's a collective punishment inside an area which is very restricted.\"\n\nFormer Palestinian shops in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron\n\nIssa got into a verbal spat with a group of Israeli soldiers while we were walking with him through the centre of Hebron. One of them, in combat gear, with an assault rifle and large pistol in a holster, wearing a black mask that only exposed his eyes, listened closely as Issa told me that peace was the only way ahead as there was no military solution to the conflict. The soldier wouldn't give his name when he butted into the conversation.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"You don't know what it's like to grow up in Israel with neighbours like this,\" he said. \"Gay rights, they beat the women, I saw this with my eyes. Yes. They kill their daughters if they have an affair with someone they don't like. They [Palestinians] are violent. I know them, I live with them. They don't want peace… They hate me. You know I can feel it. I know all the stuff they are telling. I don't talk to them.\"\n\nA chance for a peaceful future, for an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel that the Americans, the British and many other countries say they want, will not emerge without sustained diplomatic and political will and determination.\n\nThe old Oslo format, of negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis brokered by the Americans, ended in failure.\n\nIf there is a next time, one idea mentioned by senior Western diplomats is to make Palestinian independence a crucial part of a broader package of change in the Middle East. Israel would be offered the prize of mutual recognition with Saudi Arabia, if they made the concessions necessary for Palestinian independence. Jordan and Egypt would be crucial players, as countries who have made lasting peace with Israel. Also vital would be Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, immensely wealthy Gulf states. Like the Saudis, they need peace in the Middle East as they spend hundreds of billions establishing themselves as global players.\n\nA blueprint already exists. Twenty years ago, the Saudi peace plan offered Israel full recognition and peace with Arab states, in return for a viable and sovereign Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, with a capital in East Jerusalem. It could be relaunched by extending the existing Abraham Accords between Israel and some Arab countries, but adding to it the price tag of a Palestinian state.\n\nIt is an ambitious idea, that would not happen without new Israeli and Palestinian leaders who believed in the project.\n\nThe Americans could mediate, though they would have to be even-handed, something they have never managed before. Both sides would have to be prepared to make painful compromises on cherished beliefs, especially concerning territory. Political storms would break over leaders prepared to take risks for peace.\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist in 1995 when he tried to make peace with the Palestinians. An Islamist extremist killed Egypt's President Anwar Sadat because he made peace with Israel.\n\nAnd the war in Gaza would have to end as soon as possible. If it spreads, nightmare scenarios include desperate Palestinians breaching the Egyptian border as Israeli tanks close in and the escalation into full-scale war of the current cross-border exchanges between Israel and the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah.\n\nSo much needs to go right for peace to have a chance. So much has already gone wrong that peace might just be impossible.", "Left to right: Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka\n\nThree Israeli hostages mistakenly killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza were shot dead while holding a white cloth, an Israeli military official says.\n\nThe official said the case was \"against our rules of engagement\" and an investigation was happening at the \"highest level\".\n\nThe hostages - Yotam Haim, 28, Samer Talalka, 22, and Alon Shamriz, 26 - were killed in Shejaiya on Friday.\n\nIsraeli troops have been facing stiff resistance in the area near Gaza City.\n\nThe case has added pressure on Israeli authorities to reach a deal for the release of the more than 120 captives who remain in Gaza.\n\nThe wait of their families has gripped Israel, as the military carries out its offensive against Hamas.\n\nSpeaking at a news conference, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would be no let-up in the Israeli operations.\n\n\"Military pressure is necessary both for the return of the hostages and for victory. Without military pressure... we have nothing,\" he said.\n\nHamas, for its part, said it had told mediators there would be no negotiations to release hostages \"unless the aggression against our people stops once and for all\".\n\nAn Israeli military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said an initial investigation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) suggested the three hostages emerged shirtless from a building, with one carrying a stick with a white cloth.\n\nOne of the soldiers, the official added, felt threatened, as the men were at a distance of tens of metres, declared them \"terrorists\" and opened fire. Two were immediately killed while the third, wounded, returned to the building.\n\nA cry for help was heard in Hebrew and the battalion commander ordered the troops to cease fire. The wounded hostage later re-emerged, and was shot and killed, the official said.\n\nThe hostages had either been abandoned by their captors or escaped, the official added.\n\nA building with a message SOS was found in the area, and the authorities were investigating whether it was linked to the killed hostages.\n\nMeanwhile Wichian Temthong, a freed Thai hostage who was held with the three men, recalled his time with them, saying that, as they had no common language they used hand signals to communicate and give each other moral support. He was \"very shocked\" and \"saddened\" to learn of the deaths of the men he spent nearly 50 days in captivity with, he said.\n\nHostages' relatives are keeping up pressure on the Israeli government\n\nSince the end of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas earlier this month, the families have urged the Israeli government to reach a new truce for at least some of the captives to be freed. The initial deal led to the release of more than 100 hostages, in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.\n\nIn Tel Aviv, thousands of people gathered outside the city's Museum of Art, in what is now known as Hostages Square, and called for a truce, chanting \"Bring them home now\".\n\n\"It's our biggest fear what happened - hostages who were alive are now dead,\" Naama Weinberg, whose cousin Itai Svirsky is a hostage, said at the vigil. \"We don't need bodies, or bags. Make a ceasefire until all hostages are back, alive. Every day that passes by we're just discovering more and more names of hostages that were taken alive and are now coming back dead.\"\n\nThe war in Gaza, launched in response to the Hamas attacks that killed around 1,200 in Israel, has killed more than 18,000 people, according to the local health authorities, and pushed hundreds of thousands of others from their homes.\n\nVast areas of the territory have been destroyed, and the United Nations has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe amid widespread shortages of basic supplies.\n\nIsraeli authorities say the offensive's goal is to destroy Hamas and release the hostages.\n\nAmid mounting Palestinian civilian casualties, Israeli authorities have come under growing international pressure, including from the country's main ally, the US, but they have resisted calls for a ceasefire.\n\nMr Netanyahu deflected the pressure again on Saturday.\n\n\"Despite grief, despite international pressure, we continue until the end, nothing will stop us,\" he said.\n\nThe BBC's Thanyarat Doksone in Bangkok contributed to this article", "Prince Harry faced questions from the Mirror lawyers in court\n\nThere is little doubt the High Court ruling that Prince Harry was a victim of phone hacking by Mirror Group Newspapers on multiple occasions has huge implications.\n\nThe court has ruled that Prince Harry was hacked, as were his friends and associates. The case established that Mirror titles also used other unlawful methods to get information about him.\n\nIt raises questions. Firstly, will any criminal proceedings follow from it?\n\nThe Metropolitan Police has already said it will consider the judgment carefully. Clearly the burden of proof is higher in a criminal trial - but there is no doubt it is what Prince Harry wants.\n\nWhat - if anything - will lead from the ruling that phone hacking was going on, even during the Leveson Inquiry which investigated the scandal? A government-appointed inquiry that was told by many senior newspaper executives they had no knowledge of this illegal behaviour.\n\nThose executives include the former Mirror CEO Sly Bailey. On Friday the judge said she knew about what was happening.\n\nAnother question brought up by the ruling - can we read anything from it about the actions and methods used by other newspaper groups?\n\nThe prince is also pursuing News Group which owns the Sun and the defunct News of the World, as well as Associated Newspapers which owns the Daily Mail.\n\nThese are different cases, with different evidence.\n\nThe power and influence of tabloids has reduced in the age of the internet and social media\n\nBut, as the judge put it, \"the duke has been one of the most important storylines in town for much of his life\".\n\nAnd clearly, that does not just apply to Mirror titles.\n\nThe articles that broke the law date back to a time when newspapers were the gatekeepers of information and when millions read the tabloids.\n\nThey were in a vicious battle for exclusives and stories about the royals sold.\n\nCertainly, at the time, Mirror Group's newspapers implicated in the judgment wanted scoops and were willing to break the law to get them.\n\nThe media landscape is very different now, with newspaper groups buffeted by the headwinds of social media and the internet, as well as a fall in advertising - and crucially, readers.\n\nCirculations are a fraction of what they were. Which means the value of these newspapers has fallen dramatically too.\n\nIn March 2005 for example, at their peak, shares in Reach PLC which owns the Daily and Sunday Mirror and the People were worth £6.72. Earlier on Friday, they were valued at 71p.\n\nInterestingly, after the judgment the share price rose 4%, perhaps because the damages awarded to the prince were not as high as he had wanted. Or perhaps it was because the decision offered \"clarity\", as MGN put it.\n\nIt is a sign of the difficulties facing the press. This judgment can only add to that existential crisis.\n\nReach is valued at around £250m. It has already paid out around £100m in damages and legal costs over phone hacking.\n\nIt must pay Prince Harry £140,600, and potentially more over other articles that have not yet been decided on.\n\nAnd there are around 80 other people waiting in the wings, with their own claims they want to pursue.\n\nDuring the trial, the Mirror barrister referred to the \"catastrophic effects\" of previous settlements.\n\nAs recently as last month, Reach announced 450 job cuts, blamed on the economic environment.\n\nThese are very difficult times.\n\nPrince Harry has long maintained that the newspapers have an agenda against him.\n\nCovering the trial, I often felt as if I was in a parallel universe.\n\nWhat I saw in court did not seem to equate with what I read about in the reporting by some papers about the trial.\n\nSome of this was trivial. Something the prince clearly said as a joke was described in the Mail as a grumble. It really wasn't.\n\nA polite ask to \"repeat the question\" was written up as a demand. He was described as a combustive mixture of \"victimhood and arrogance\".\n\nMore damagingly perhaps, some headlines too appeared a little skewed. For example, that he had told the judge he \"is not aware of any evidence he was hacked by the Mirror\".\n\nClearly, he and his legal team believed there was evidence, or they would not have brought this case.\n\nHe has had the last laugh. This is the most comprehensive legal judgment about one media organisation's unlawful methods since the scandal of phone hacking first emerged.\n\nAnd as he put it, his \"mission\" continues.", "A younger Alex Batty, pictured before he went missing\n\nBritish teenager Alex Batty, who was found in France after being missing for six years, has returned to the UK, Greater Manchester Police has said.\n\nAlex, his mother and grandfather all vanished in 2017 while they were on holiday in Spain.\n\nHis mother does not have parental guardianship of the 17-year-old and her current whereabouts are unknown.\n\nThe force said at a press conference it is yet to establish the circumstances about his disappearance.\n\nPolice are yet to determine whether there will be a criminal investigation.\n\nAlex was found on Wednesday by a motorist, who spotted him on a road in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, near Toulouse.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Matt Boyle said his force are yet to determine whether there will be a criminal investigation\n\nSpeaking at a news conference on Saturday night, GMP Assistant Chief Constable Matt Boyle said Alex was met at Toulouse airport by a family member and specially-trained officers earlier, before flying back to the UK.\n\n\"This moment was undoubtedly huge for him and his loved ones and we're glad that they have been able to see each other again after all this time.\"\n\nGMP said as it had not obtained formal statements from Alex, it could not comment on details disclosed by French authorities about what he may have been doing while he has been missing.\n\n\"Speaking with him at a pace that feels comfortable to him will ultimately determine how this case is progressed and whether a criminal investigation is to ensue,\" ACC Boyle added.\n\n\"We are yet to fully establish the circumstances surrounding his disappearance.\"\n\nAlex is believed to have been living a nomadic lifestyle in spiritual communities with his mother and grandfather for the past few years.\n\nMelanie and David Batty left Greater Manchester with Alex for a pre-agreed week-long holiday to Marbella in Spain on 30 September 2017.\n\nHe was last seen at the Port of Malaga on 8 October that year, the day they were expected to return to the UK.\n\nIt is understood that, since that time, Alex had been living in the remote Pyrenean valleys, travelling about from place to place in a kind of itinerant commune.\n\nThe area in the foothills of the Pyrenees is known for attracting people in search of alternative lifestyles.\n\nResidents of the small hamlet of La Bastide in the Pyrenees have told the BBC that Alex had been staying at a guesthouse on and off for the past two years.\n\nFrench officials said he decided to leave when his mother wanted to go to Finland.\n\nAlex is believed to have walked through the mountainous terrain of southern France for four days before being found by a delivery driver in the middle of the night.\n\nThe driver, Fabien Accidini, said he lent the teenager his phone and let him use his Facebook account to contact his grandmother, Susan Caruana.\n\n\"I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found safe and well,\" she said in a statement issued by police on Friday.\n\nShe added it was \"so good to hear his voice and see his face again\".\n\nShe requested privacy for the family, so that they could \"make his return as comforting as possible\".", "The world's largest shipping group, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), has announced it is diverting its ships away from the Red Sea because of an increased threat of attacks.\n\nFrench company CMA CGM took a similar step a day after Danish shipping giant Maersk and German transport company Hapag-Lloyd suspended Red Sea journeys.\n\nThe decision comes after attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.\n\nThey say they are targeting ships travelling to Israel.\n\nThe Houthis have declared their support for Hamas after Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza following the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed 1,200 people and saw 240 more taken hostage.\n\nSince then, Israel has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians in Gaza, Hamas health officials say.\n\nThe Red Sea is one the world's most important routes for oil and fuel shipments.\n\nBut the Houthis have been stepping up their attacks, using drones and rockets against foreign-owned vessels.\n\nThey have also been firing drones and missiles towards Israel. The US said on Saturday its guided-missile destroyers had shot down 14 Houthi drones in the Red Sea.\n\nIn its announcement, MSC said the situation in the area had become \"serious\".\n\nIt said that its container ship MSC PALATIUM III was attacked on Friday as it was transiting the Red Sea. There were no injuries to the crew, but the ship had been taken out of service.\n\nIts ships were being re-routed via the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.\n\nIn its statement, CMA CGM - the world's third-largest shipping company - said it had instructed all its container ships there \"to reach safe areas and pause their journey in safe waters with immediate effect until further notice\".\n\nMaersk, the world's second-biggest shipping firm, has described the situation as \"alarming\".\n\n\"Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to pause their journey until further notice,\" it told the BBC on Friday.\n\nThe four companies that have now suspended operations in the area comprise four of the top five in the world - and shipping experts say the decisions are going to be costly.\n\n\"It's security to the crew, to the ship itself and also insurance policies. Premiums are now going sky high if they can get insurance at all, so it's going to have serious implications on stock levels, on costs and the whole dynamics of supply chains,\" Sue Terpilowski from the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, which represents companies concerned with supply chains, told the BBC.\n\nThe added crewing, fuel and insurance costs are all likely to be passed on to consumers, says BBC business reporter Vivienne Nunis.\n\nThe Bab al-Mandab strait - also known as the Gate of Tears - is a channel 20 miles (32km) wide, and known for being perilous to navigate.\n\nIt sits between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea on the African coast.\n\nIt is the route by which ships can reach the Suez Canal from the south - itself a major shipping lane. Avoiding it means vessels must take much longer routes, for example navigating around southern Africa.\n\nAbout 17,000 ships and 10% of global trade pass through it every year. Any ship passing through Suez to or from the Indian Ocean has to come this way.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Nestled in the foothills of the Pyrenees, with the River Aude flowing gently through, Quillan could lay claim to one of the most picturesque scenes in all of France.\n\nIt was here that British 17-year-old Alex Batty, missing since going on holiday with his mother and grandfather in 2017, reportedly emerged this week from the mountain mist after six years in the wilderness.\n\nBy the time he had stumbled upon the narrow streets of Quillan he had been walking for four days, according to French police.\n\n\"It was such a sad story, but at least it has a happy outcome,\" says pensioner Martine Vincent, who we meet walking her three-year-old dog called Rambo.\n\n\"Although I worry for him psychologically, having spent those years far from home in such a remote place.\"\n\nMartine, who moved here from Marseille after retiring, is a link between two parallel universes that co-exist in this vast corridor of southern France.\n\nThe first embraces the tiny world of the church, the brasserie and the village square.\n\nThe second - all around us, but out of sight - is home to a mixture of international nomads who have opted out of what may be regarded as \"normal life\".\n\nConnecting the realms, Martine sells crepes in the summer to members of the communes, who venture down from their fields and plateaux for this staple of French cuisine.\n\n\"A lot of people here think they're wrongdoers, high on drugs, but you find drugs everywhere. They just want an alternative life,\" she says.\n\nThe further you travel from Toulouse - the region's largest city - the weaker the phone signal and the less stable the link to the outside world.\n\nFor decades, this portal to the Pyrenees has offered a pathway to a different existence - one in which the teenager from north-west England found himself for at least two years.\n\nSome communities in this part of France are rooted in religion, others strive for spiritual enlightenment and then there's the yoga retreats. A hodge-podge of ideals and aspirations. Utopia for some - danger in the eyes of detractors.\n\nQuillan resident Martine Vincent says those living in communes near the town simply want an \"alternative life\"\n\n\"There are so many different people here,\" Agathe tells us as she sips a lunchtime beer outside the Healthy Life restaurant in the town of Espéraza.\n\nThe 26-year-old explains that she was studying for a psychology degree before she realised she wanted to live her subject, not study it in textbooks.\n\n\"I live about 20km from here. It's one piece of land, I'm with the forest, with the river. I have fire and eat from my garden,\" she says.\n\nAgathe says Germans, Spanish and Britons come and go and she wasn't surprised that Alex lived around the area with his mother and grandfather.\n\n\"Here the nature is wild. People share everything. Everyone has a free mind. It's a choice to live as simply as possible. You can really live outside of everything,\" she says.\n\nLooking on across the table and nodding slowly is Agathe's friend Julien who, like her, has been leading an itinerant life for the last six years.\n\nHe has a pet crow tethered to his large black rucksack.\n\nSoon they will begin the journey back to resume their remote lives, devoid of shops, electricity and all that most people would deem essential.\n\n\"This is my vision of happiness but it is not for everyone,\" admits Agathe.\n\nFurther along the valley, the temperature is dangling above freezing but we find half a dozen nearly-naked figures huddled in a stream.\n\n\"Saint Magdalene used to bathe here,\" a woman tells us, as we explain from a respectful distance the story we are working on.\n\n\"Go in the water,\" she tells us, \"and you will find the answer to all of your questions.\"\n\nThe woman goes by the name \"Plume\" or feather.\n\nShe and three others are painting stones before they venture into the natural thermal bath here at Rennes-les-Bains.\n\n\"I've travelled, and I'm still travelling,\" says the 32-year-old mother of one.\n\nJulien, a member of one of the communes, seen with his pet crow\n\nI immediately think of Alex's experience from the age of 11 to 17: having never gone to a school in this time, so say the French police.\n\nI ask Plume about her own son.\n\n\"My child is nine and I've been home-schooling him for nine years. But this is the first year he's been at a school - because it is an alternative school,\" she says.\n\nShe says they follow the curriculum, but there is more.\n\n\"They also teach how to live in nature, build huts, do blacksmithing - things that society needs as we get back to basics,\" she says.\n\nRather than feel estranged from reality, Plume says her way of life is making sense to more and more people.\n\n\"I don't think there are two worlds, there's only one, but it's a world that's changing. There are things that we moved away from, but we are now coming back to them.\"\n\nBack in Toulouse - France's fourth largest city, and a symbol of the modernity many Pyrenees communities have eschewed - the authorities say that Alex experienced no physical violence during his years in the mountains.\n\nThe psychological impact will take longer to assess, but there was no evidence he was living in a cult, declared the public prosecutor.\n\nBut plenty of people are concerned that many ending up in the seclusion in the mountains rapidly become brainwashed and divorced from their families - and reality.\n\n\"We have identified what we call the triple break: the break with family, social ties and with society,\" says Catherine Katz, who supports families whose loved ones have joined cults.\n\nHer organisation - the National Union of Associations for the Defence of Families and Individuals (UNADFI), which works to identify and help the victims of cults - was set up nearly 50 years ago and is funded by the French state.\n\nShe fears that Alex will have already suffered from being prised from the life he knew in Oldham.\n\n\"The fact that he was not attending school here is a social break: no contact with children, teachers.\"\n\nBut it was his separation from his grandmother - his legal guardian - that seems to have been the split he was most keen to reconcile.\n\nAfter walking away from his itinerant lifestyle of the past six years, his first message to the outside world was to her.\n\n\"Hello Grandma, it's me Alex,\" he wrote. \"I'm in France Toulouse. I really hope that you receive this message. I love you. I want to come home.\"", "Comedian Morgan Rees wants to bust myths about bisexuality\n\nMorgan Rees was on a first date with a woman he had met online and all was going well - that is until he mentioned he was bisexual.\n\n\"She went 'What! What? You lied to me' and just threw her drink over me,\" he recalls.\n\nAlthough this is one of the most memorable reactions he has had to his sexuality, he says bisexual people are too often labelled as greedy, promiscuous or untrustworthy.\n\nMorgan says he has been \"gaslit\" by both straight female and gay male partners who had wrongly suggested he was \"kidding himself\".\n\nMorgan, 30, who grew up in Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales and now lives in London, explains he can find people of all genders attractive - men, women and people who are trans or non-binary - and identifies himself as bisexual and queer.\n\n\"I just find people so lush,\" he says.\n\nMorgan said when he is in a relationship with a man people often wrongly assume he is gay\n\nHe says he first came out as bisexual aged 22 after growing up \"filled to the brim with internalised homophobia\".\n\nSince then he has become aware of stigma around being bisexual - some of which he thinks is unconscious.\n\n\"If I'm in a same-sex relationship, people will just refer to me as gay,\" he explains.\n\n\"Now, obviously, there's nothing wrong with being referred to as gay but I'm not gay, I'm bisexual. It's that bi-erasure... don't just dismiss it, I haven't changed, I'm still bisexual.\"\n\nHe says he had experienced misassumptions from both straight and LGBTQ+ people.\n\n\"You get straight people going 'oh, you're just kidding yourself' and a lot of queer people going 'you're just kidding yourself,\" he adds.\n\nMorgan identifies himself as bisexual and queer\n\nHe says he has had brilliant experiences dating women, but others have \"seen it as this massive betrayal\".\n\nMorgan, who co-hosts podcast Chatting With Cherubs, explains part of the reason he talks about his sexuality to \"predominantly straight people at comedy clubs\" is because he wants to increase bisexual visibility and be an example for others.\n\n\"I try and make queer comedy for everybody,\" he says.\n\nHis sexuality is a subject he intends to keep exploring on his first UK tour, Turning Thirsty, in May and June next year, where he will raise money for different LGBTQ+ charities at each gig.\n\n\"I love being attracted to people's spirits, people's energies, people's kindness and don't get me wrong, people's looks,\" he admits.\n\nRees is going on his first UK tour next year\n\nBut Morgan says he has sometimes been made to feel that his sexuality makes him inherently \"filthy\" and \"promiscuous\".\n\nHe shares that one time a male partner he had was told 'you've got be careful because they're attracted to everyone, there's a lot of competition'.\n\n\"There's this inherent assumption that you can't be trusted,\" he says.\n\n\"Just because I'm bisexual and I can find attraction in all genders and all sexes I must be deemed untrustworthy... there's this assumption or expectation that you must be on the hunt for it constantly like you've got this craving. It's a heavy hit.\"\n\nMorgan grew up in Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales\n\n\"The world is full of so many phenomenal people and I'm so grateful that I can find so many of them attractive.\"\n\nHe says while others have seen bisexuality as \"a lily pad\" - part of the journey to eventually coming out as gay - this was not the case for him.\n\n\"Bisexuality is not a stepping stone for me, it's my final destination.\"", "Yazen Alhasnat, 17, the morning after his release from prison. \"It is still possible to have hope,\" he said\n\nIn a family home in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, Yazen Alhasnat was sitting next to his mother rubbing sleep from his eyes.\n\nThe 17-year-old had been released from prison the night before, nearly five months after being arrested in a 4am Israeli military raid on the home.\n\nYazen had been held under \"administrative detention\" - a longstanding security policy, inherited from the British, that allows the Israeli state to imprison people indefinitely without charge, and without presenting any evidence against them.\n\n\"They have a secret file,\" Yazen said. \"They don't tell you what's in it.\"\n\nHe was back at home because he was among the 180 Palestinian children and women released from prison by Israel in the recent exchange for hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nBut at the same time the Palestinian prisoners were being released, Israel was detaining people at its highest rate in years. In the weeks since 7 October, the number of people in administrative detention - already at a 30-year high of 1,300 - has shot up to more than 2,800.\n\nIsraeli soldiers detain a young boy during demonstrations in Hebron, 2022. Israel has been accused of heavy-handed tactics\n\nWhen Yazen was released, his family was told not to publicly celebrate in any way or to talk to the media. The same instructions were given to the families of two other teenagers who spoke to the BBC about their experiences. But all three families said they wanted to highlight the issue of administrative detention.\n\nIsrael says that its use of the policy is compliant with international law and a necessary preventative measure to combat terrorism. Maurice Hirsch, a former director of military prosecutions for the West Bank, from 2013 to 2016, told the BBC that Israel was \"not only meeting international law but far surpassing it\", by allowing detainees to appeal and ensuring that their detentions were reviewed every six months.\n\nBut human rights groups say Israel's expansive use of the measure is an abuse of a security law not designed to be employed at such scale, and that detainees cannot effectively defend themselves, or appeal, because they have no access to the evidence against them.\n\n\"Under international law, administrative detention should be a rare exception,\" said Jessica Montell, the executive director of HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organisation that monitors detention of Palestinians.\n\n\"You are supposed to use it when there is a present danger and no other way to prevent that danger than detaining someone. But it is clear Israel is not using it that way. It is detaining hundreds, thousands of people, without charge, and using administrative detention to shield itself from scrutiny.\"\n\nMusa Aloridat in his bedroom in Jericho, where Israeli soldiers fired a bullet into the wardrobe as they raided the house\n\nPalestinians have been subject to administrative detention in this region since 1945, first under the British Mandate and then in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The law has in some very rare instances been used against Israeli settlers, but it is overwhelmingly used to detain West Bank Palestinians, including children.\n\nAdministrative detainees are granted a hearing - at a military court, in front of an Israeli military judge - but the state is not required to disclose any of its evidence to the detainees or their lawyers. The detainees can then be sentenced to up to six months. But the six months can be extended indefinitely by the military court, meaning that administrative detainees have no real idea at any point how long they are going to be locked up.\n\n\"What really gets to you is the uncertainty,\" Yazen said, sitting in his living room. \"Will you finish your six months and leave? Or will you be extended for a year, for two years?\"\n\nThe detainees can mount an appeal, all the way up to Israel's Supreme Court, but with no access to the evidence against them, they have nothing to base it on. Palestinians who are formally tried in the military courts have more access to evidence, but the courts boast a roughly 99% conviction rate.\n\n\"Defending Palestinians in the military courts is an almost impossible task,\" said Jerusalem-based defence lawyer Maher Hanna.\n\n\"The entire system is designed to limit a Palestinian's capacity to defend himself. It imposes harsh constraints on the defence and relieves the state prosecutor of the burden of proof.\"\n\nIsrael's use of the policy in the West Bank had \"crossed all lines - red, green, every colour\", Yazen's mother Sadiah said.\n\n\"We are living under a parallel system of justice.\"\n\nA photograph taken by Musa Aloridat's parents shows him being detained by the IDF following an early-morning raid\n\nWhen 16-year-old Osama Marmesh was detained, he was pulled off the street and into an unmarked car, he said. So for the first 48 hours of Osama's detention, his father Naif had no idea where he was. \"You call everyone you know to ask if they have seen your son,\" Naif said. \"You don't sleep.\"\n\nOsama asked repeatedly during his arrest for the charges against him, he said, but was told each time to \"shut up\".\n\nWhen 17-year-old Musa Aloridat was arrested, in a 5am raid on his family home, Israeli forces pulled apart the bedroom he shared with his two younger brothers and fired a bullet into the wardrobe, smashing the glass, he said.\n\n\"They took him away in his underwear,\" Musa's father Muhannad said, holding up a picture on his phone. \"For three days we knew nothing.\"\n\nNeither Yazen, Osama nor Musa, nor their parents or lawyers, were shown any evidence against them during their months of detention. When Israel published lists of the detainees to be released in the recent exchanges, in the column detailing the charges, against Yazen, Osama and Musa's names there was only the vague line, \"Threat to the security of the area\".\n\nAnother version of the list said Yazen and Musa were suspected of being affiliated with Palestinian militant groups. When Osama was released, he was handed a brief charge sheet which said that on two occasions, months earlier, he had thrown a stone, \"half the size of his palm\", towards Israeli security positions.\n\nOfer Prison, where Yazen and Musa were held alongside hundreds of other administrative detainees are held.\n\nMaurice Hirsch, the former director of military prosecutions, said that it would be wrong to draw any conclusions from the limited information available. \"There's a very stark difference between the openly available evidence against these terrorists and what the intelligence information carries,\" he said.\n\n\"We see administrative detention being used by the Americans in Guantanamo, so we know that this measure is internationally recognised and accepted,\" he added. \"And since this is an internationally accepted measure, why should it be only Israel that is prevented from using it, when we are dealing with probably the highest terror threat that anyone has ever seen?\"\n\nIn the end, Yazen, Osama and Musa spent between four and seven months in prison. All three said that conditions had been relatively comfortable until the Hamas attack on 7 October, when their bedsheets, blankets, extra clothes and most of their food rations were removed, and all communication with the outside world was cut off, in what they described as collective punishment for the attack.\n\nOther detainees have alleged that they were beaten, tear-gassed or had dogs set on them.\n\nThe Israeli Prison Service confirmed that it had put the prisons into emergency mode and \"reduced the living conditions of the security prisoners\" in response to the Hamas attack.\n\nOsama Marmesh at his home in the West Bank. \"All countries are standing with them, we are alone,\" he said.\n\nYazen, Osama and Musa were all released early, because the exchange for Israeli hostages prioritised women and children. But, according to the most recent numbers from the prison service, there are still 2,873 people being held under administrative detention in Israeli jails.\n\nThe day after he got home, Musa was back in his room, where he had been grabbed from his bed by the Israeli military four months earlier. The wardrobe doors, smashed by a bullet, had been taken off to be replaced, but the room had otherwise been put back together carefully by his parents. Musa had expected to be in prison much longer, he said. His lawyer had told him there was a 90% chance his detention would be extended.\n\nAll three boys said they wanted to try to finish school. But living under the constant threat of being locked up again was its own \"kind of psychological detention\", Musa said.\n\n\"They released us into a bigger prison\", Yazen said.\n\n\"There is no peace,\" Yazen's mother said, looking over at him. \"They can take you at any time.\"\n\nMuath al-Khatib contributed to this report. Photographs by Joel Gunter.", "Last updated on .From the section Luton\n\nLuton Town captain Tom Lockyer is \"stable\" after he suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch during the abandoned Premier League match at Bournemouth, his club confirmed.\n\nBoth sets of players were taken off midway through the second half as Lockyer received medical treatment.\n\nThe 29-year-old was responsive as he was carried off on a stretcher to applause and taken to hospital.\n\nLuton said Lockyer was \"stable and currently undergoing further tests\".\n\n\"Our medical staff have confirmed that the Hatters captain [Tom Lockyer] suffered cardiac arrest on the pitch, but was responsive by the time he was taken off on the stretcher,\" Luton said.\n\n\"He received further treatment inside the stadium, for which we once again thank the medical teams from both sides.\n\n\"Tom was transferred to hospital, where we can reassure supporters that he is stable and currently undergoing further tests with his family at his bedside.\"\n\nFollowing confirmation the game was abandoned, both the Luton and Bournemouth players came back out on to the pitch to applaud the supporters, with Hatters manager Rob Edwards visibly emotional.\n\nLockyer collapsed during the play-off final win against Coventry in May before being taken to hospital.\n\nHe subsequently had heart surgery and was given the all-clear to return to playing in June.\n\nThe Premier League said in a statement: \"The match between AFC Bournemouth and Luton Town FC has been abandoned due to a player medical incident.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with Tom Lockyer and all players involved in today's match.\"\n\nLuton called for players, staff and supporters \"to come together\" in support of Lockyer and his family.\n\n\"We are sorry to all supporters present that players from both sides were in no state of mind to continue with the game after seeing their much-loved team-mate and friend taken off like that and staff could not carry on with managing the game in such circumstances,\" Luton said.\n\n\"We thank everyone for the wonderful applause and singing of Locks' [Lockyer's] name inside the stadium at such a difficult time.\"\n\nBournemouth responded to Luton's update on Lockyer's condition, saying: \"We're relieved to hear Tom is responsive.\"\n\nThe club added: \"Our thoughts will continue to be with Tom and his family at this time. We'd like to thank all the medical staff for their quick action as well as everyone inside the stadium for their support and unity during a difficult moment.\"\n• None Our coverage of Luton Town is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Hatters - go straight to all the best content", "Perry was a fan favourite as Chandler Bing in Friends\n\nActor Matthew Perry's death was an accident caused by the \"acute effects of ketamine\", medical officials in Los Angeles have confirmed.\n\nThe star was found unresponsive in the pool of his LA home in October, but a post-mortem examination was inconclusive at the time.\n\nDrowning was listed as a contributing factor in his death.\n\nHe was best known for playing the wise-cracking Chandler Bing in the sitcom Friends.\n\nThe show followed six young friends living in New York City and aired from 1994 until 2004. Its finale was watched by 52.5 million in the US, making it the most watched TV episode of the 2000s.\n\nAt the height of his fame, Perry was battling with addiction to painkillers and alcohol, and attended rehabilitation clinics on multiple occasions.\n\nIn 2016, he told BBC Radio 2 that he could not remember three years of filming during Friends, because of drink and drugs.\n\nAfter attempts at treatment, he wrote in his memoir that he had been mostly sober since 2001 - \"save for about 60 or 70 mishaps\".\n\nOther contributing causes of the 54-year-old's death were given as coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid use disorder, the LA County medical examiner said in a statement.\n\n\"At the high levels of ketamine found in his post-mortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression,\" senior deputy medical examiner Raffi Djabourian wrote, according to the Press Association.\n\n\"Drowning contributes due to the likelihood of submersion into the pool as he lapsed into unconsciousness; coronary artery disease contributes due to exacerbation of ketamine induced myocardial effects on the heart.\"\n\nHe was found unresponsive at his home on 28 October, and paramedics pronounced his death when they were called to the scene.\n\nA day later, the medical examiner's office updated its file to say his case had been deferred, which usually means that the post-mortem is complete but more detail is needed.\n\nHis fellow Friends actors paid tribute to Perry in the weeks following his death, with actress Jennifer Anniston - who played Rachel in the sitcom - writing that \"having to say goodbye to our Matty has been an insane wave of emotions that I've never experienced before\".\n\nDavid Schwimmer, who played Ross, thanked Perry \"for 10 incredible years of laughter and creativity\".\n\nHe was laid to rest at an LA cemetery following a private funeral, US media reported in November.\n\nFilms he starred in included crime caper The Whole Nine Yards and sequel The Whole Ten Yards with his friend Bruce Willis. He played the lead in romantic comedy Fools Rush In with Salma Hayek, and he played the older Zac Efron in 17 Again.\n\nIn 2016, he also wrote a play called The End of Longing - which the Times noted \"explores his characters' search for love and commitment and the damage that can be wrought when those things continue to be absent from life\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Matthew Perry appeared on Newsnight in 2013 to debate addiction", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUK MP Layla Moran says her relatives are among hundreds of civilians trapped in a Catholic Church in Gaza City as Israeli forces operate nearby.\n\nThe Liberal Democrat says her family are \"days away from dying\" without access to water or food.\n\nThe Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem say a mother and daughter were killed inside the Holy Family Church complex on Saturday by sniper fire.\n\nThe IDF said it found no evidence to show the incident took place.\n\nIn a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said: \"During the dialogue between the IDF and representatives of the community, no reports of a hit on the church, nor civilians being injured or killed, were raised.\n\n\"A review of the IDF's operational findings support this.\"\n\nThe Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said two Christian women - named as Nahida and her daughter Samar - were shot and killed while walking to a building in the church complex known as the Sister's Convent.\n\n\"One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,\" a statement said. Seven more people were shot and wounded as they \"tried to protect others inside the church compound\" on Saturday.\n\nThe patriarchate said no warning had been given and added: \"They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents.\"\n\nThe patriarchate said that earlier on Saturday an Israeli tank fired on part of the church compound with 54 disabled people inside. It caused a fire that destroyed the building's generator, the only source of electricity, and some of the disabled people can no longer use their respirators, the statement said.\n\nMembers of Ms Moran's extended family - a grandmother, her son, his wife and their 11-year-old twins - are Christian Palestinians who sought refuge inside the church after their home was bombed in the first week of the war.\n\nThey have been staying on mattresses along with dozens of others in rooms in the Holy Family Church for more than 60 days.\n\n\"I'm now no longer sure they are going to survive until Christmas,\" Ms Moran told the BBC.\n\nThey have been keeping in touch with Ms Moran and other family members sporadically through WhatsApp messages and calls - though they have no internet and power is intermittent.\n\nA sixth member of the family - a grandfather - died last month after not being able to get to hospital to receive medical treatment, Ms Moran says.\n\nThe five remaining members say they now no longer have access to food or water, and the last remaining generator - which was pumping water from wherever they could get it - has stopped working in the church.\n\nThey say soldiers entered the church compound in the last 24 hours and took over a room in a building.\n\nEarlier in the week, the family heard shots being fired and saw bullet casings in the church compound. They say two men were killed on Tuesday while they were coming and going from the building - a bin collector and a janitor.\n\nThe family have sent a photo, seen by the BBC, of two bodies lying on a street outside the church building. Ms Moran's relatives say the bodies have been decaying outside for days. The BBC has not verified the circumstances of what the image shows.\n\nMs Moran says there has been no explanation as to why Israeli soldiers would target the church and no warnings or leaflets were sent to people sheltering there.\n\n\"It does feel like it's making a mockery of keeping civilians safe,\" Ms Moran adds.\n\nIsrael says it is carrying out military operations in Gaza to \"eradicate\" Hamas and rescue hostages taken by the group.\n\nEarly on in the war Israel told people in northern Gaza to move to southern Gaza for their safety. It has also paused military activity in some areas for short periods to allow people to leave. There was also a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to allow a swap of some Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.\n\nHowever Israel has also bombed southern Gaza, where it told people to go, and a large number of Palestinians have remained in Gaza City and other northern areas.\n\nMs Moran says she has been in touch with a number of countries about getting her relatives out of Gaza, but the situation is \"incredibly complex\".\n\nShe adds that the family have considered trying to travel to Rafah in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt but say it is too dangerous while no ceasefire is in place.\n\nHamas broke through Israel's heavily guarded perimeter on 7 October, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages - some of whom were released during the brief truce.\n\nThe health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says more than 18,700 people have been killed and 50,000 injured in the enclave since the start of the Gaza war.", "TV sports quiz show Question of Sport has been shelved after more than 50 years on air, the BBC has confirmed.\n\nThe corporation said production on the show had stopped, and that \"difficult decisions\" had been necessary.\n\nBut a BBC spokesman insisted it was \"not the final whistle\" and the programme could come back in the future.\n\nThe first episode of the BBC One programme was broadcast in 1970, presented by David Vine.\n\nQuestion of Sport was not on screens for two years in the 1970s but has remained in continuous production since 1978.\n\nIt was one of the most popular shows in the 1980s when David Coleman was the host - with Princess Anne's appearance as one of the guests in 1987 attracting its highest-ever viewing figures of 19 million.\n\nFormer tennis player Sue Barker took over in 1997 and spent 24 years as host, before being replaced by actor Paddy McGuinness in 2021.\n\nSue Barker - seen here with team captains Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell - stood down as host in 2020\n\nQuestion of Sport also underwent a revamp, with non-sporting celebrities being invited to appear as guests.\n\nThe most recent team captains were GB hockey star Sam Quek and former England rugby union international Ugo Monye.\n\nFormer team captains include rugby union players Matt Dawson and Sir Bill Beaumont, cricketers Ian Botham and Phil Tufnell, and ex-footballers Ally McCoist and Emlyn Hughes.\n\nThe BBC said that \"due to inflation and funding challenges, difficult decisions have to be made, therefore Question of Sport is currently not in production at the moment\".\n\nIt is understood the decision to cease production was connected to falling viewing figures and low audiences on iPlayer.\n\nAudience numbers dropped below one million last year, having regularly hit four to five million under Barker.\n\nReacting to the news, Sir Bill, who was a captain on the show for 14 years, said: \"I still enjoy the programme. I think it's a pity it's finishing now, it is sad because it's the end of an era.\n\n\"It's amazing how many come up to me now when I'm going through railway stations and things like that and [say] 'I use to watch it with my dad'.\"\n\nPaddy McGuinness is the most recent host of Question of Sport\n\nA spokesman for the corporation insisted the show was \"not being cancelled - it is just not in production at the moment\".\n\nHe cited the example of another quiz show, the Weakest Link, which has had gaps in production.\n\n\"Question of Sport is not going to appear on any other channels,\" he added. \"It is the BBC's intellectual property.\"\n\nThe decision to bench Question of Sport comes just weeks after the BBC announced its flagship motoring show Top Gear would not return \"for the foreseeable future\".\n\nIn a statement in November, the BBC said it had \"decided to rest the UK show\".\n\nTop Gear presenter Andrew \"Freddie\" Flintoff was seriously injured in a crash while filming the show last year.", "CalMac cancelled services on Saturday and warned of further disruption\n\nTrains and ferry services have been cancelled as a weather warning for heavy rain is in force in parts of Scotland.\n\nA yellow warning was in place in the Highlands, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and Argyll and Bute from 18:00 on Saturday. This was upgraded to Amber in parts of north west Scotland.\n\nThe Met Office said some areas could see a month of rain in one day.\n\nCalMac cancelled 13 ferry services with some disruption again on Sunday.\n\nScotRail said speed restrictions are in place for its routes around West Highland, Highland, Far North and Kyle of Lochalsh, as well as a small section at Wemyss Bay.\n\nIt said passengers in those areas can expect disruption to train services until about 09:00 on Monday.\n\nThe Met Office said the weather alert was expected to earlier than previously forecast, with the Amber warning until 18:00 and the yellow rain warning until just before midnight.\n\nUp to 200mm of rain is expected to fall on hills in parts of the Highlands and northern Argyll, bringing a warning of potential landslides and road debris.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDrivers have been advised to take care with five regional flood alerts put in place by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.\n\nThese cover Argyll and Bute, Caithness and Sutherland, Easter Ross and Great Glen, Skye and Lochber and Wester Ross.\n\nFerry operator CalMac said its services were liable to disruption or cancellation at short notice due to the weather.\n\nServices affected include Talbert to Lochranza, Oban to Castlebay, Oban to Coll and Tiree, Uig to Tarbert, and Mallaig to the Small Isles.\n\nPassengers are advised to check the CalMac website for the latest information.\n\nThe flooded culvert on the A832 in the Highlands\n\nHighland Council said sandbags had already been used to contain flooding at a culvert on a section of the A832 road at Dundonnell.\n\nRoad maintenance firm BEAR Scotland said drivers should not make journeys within the amber alert area.\n\nBEAR Scotland north west representative, Ian Stewart, said: \"If you do come across flooding, the best option is to turn about and go back the way you came because you just don't know how deep it is.\"\n\nScotland's Transport Minister Fiona Hyslop said it was important that motorists \"play their part\" in minimising disruption.\n\nShe said: \"Make sure your route is available, follow the travel advice from Police Scotland and drive in accordance with the conditions.\n\n\"If you are planning to travel by train, ferry or plane, please check with your operators as the forecast conditions also have potential to impact your services.\"\n\nThe Met Office warning comes after an autumn in which flooding during Storm babet caused extensive damage to parts of the country, including Angus and Aberdeenshire.", "The Destroyer HMS Diamond only recently arrived in the region\n\nA British warship has shot down a suspected attack drone in the Red Sea, the defence secretary has said.\n\nHMS Diamond, a Type 45 Destroyer, successfully destroyed the target on Saturday, Grant Shapps said.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said it was the first time in decades the Royal Navy had shot an aerial target in anger.\n\nThe MoD did not say who was behind the incident, but Yemen's Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for recent attacks in the Red Sea.\n\nThe Houthis have targeted foreign ships in the area since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. They have declared support for Hamas and have said they were targeting ships travelling to Israel.\n\nMerchant shipping was believed to be the drone's intended target in Saturday's incident, the defence secretary said.\n\nThe Red Sea lies between north Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and connects the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal.\n\nHMS Diamond was sent to the region just two weeks ago \"to bolster international efforts to maintain maritime security\", Mr Shapps said in a statement.\n\nThe defence secretary said the attacks represented \"a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security\" in the Red Sea.\n\n\"The UK remains committed to repelling these attacks to protect the free flow of global trade,\" he added.\n\nOne Sea Viper missile fired and successfully destroyed the target, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said\n\nEarlier this month, the US military said the Unity Explorer, sailing under the flag of the Bahamas and owned by a British company, was among three commercial vessels targeted in an attack by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.\n\nOn Friday, shipping company Maersk told all its vessels planning to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea to \"pause their journey until further notice\" after a missile attack on a Liberian-flagged cargo ship.\n\nAbout 50 large merchant ships pass through the strait every day while double that number pass through the Strait of Hormuz.\n\nAccording to the MoD, the last time the Royal Navy shot down an aerial target in anger was in the First Gulf War in 1991, when Type 42 Destroyer HMS Gloucester destroyed an Iraqi Silkworm missile bound for a US warship.\n\nFirst Sea Lord Admiral Sir Ben Key said: \"One sixth of the world's commercial shipping passes through the Bab-al-Mandeb Strait and Red Sea.\n\n\"HMS Diamond deployed at short notice to the region from Portsmouth just two weeks ago and is already delivering effect together with our American, French and other allies and partners.\n\n\"The Royal Navy is committed to upholding the right to free use of the oceans and we do not tolerate indiscriminate threats or attacks against those going about their lawful business on the high seas.\"", "Nasa has released video of the strongest solar flare emitted by the Sun for several years.\n\nOn Thursday, the space agency's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the X2.8 burst on its camera that constantly monitors the Sun. This is the largest since September 2017 when a X8.2 flare was recorded.\n\nNasa's classification of X is reserved for the most intense flares while the number reflects more information about its strength.\n\nThursday's flare temporarily disrupted radio communication on Earth for a couple of hours, with multiple pilots reporting communication problems.\n\nSolar flares are powerful bursts of energy known to impact electric power grids, navigation signals, radio communications and can pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.\n\nThe US National Oceanic and Atmospheric and Administration's weather centre called it \"likely one of the largest solar radio events ever recorded\" and issued a geomagnetic storm watch meaning some may see the northern lights in the days after.\n\nIn 2003 the strongest ever flare was recorded at an estimated X28, according to the European Space Agency.", "The Home Office says 292 migrants crossed to the UK from France in seven boats on Friday (library photo)\n\nAlmost 300 people crossed the English Channel in small boats on the day one person died and another was seriously injured off the French coast.\n\nThe Home Office said 292 migrants crossed to the UK in seven boats on Friday.\n\nThey are the first recorded arrivals since 3 December when 118 people made the crossing.\n\nSo far this year 29,382 people have made the journey. Last year 45,774 migrants crossed in small boats.\n\nOn Friday more than 60 people were on board a boat which got into trouble about 8km (5 miles) from the French coast when it partially deflated, according to the French coastguard.\n\nOne person died and another was taken to a Calais hospital in a life-threatening condition.\n\nThe first group of people were pulled from the water at 01.15 local time (00.15 GMT) in the French-led operation, with a total of 66 rescued within an hour, the French coastguard said.\n\nIn August, at least six people died after a boat carrying migrants sank off the French coast.\n\nIn November 2021, at least 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK from France, the highest recorded number of deaths from a single incident.\n\nOn Friday, home secretary James Cleverly said in a post on X: \"The incident in the Channel last night is a horrific reminder of the people smugglers' brutality. 25,000 people have been averted from crossing this year - but we must and will do more.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "Danish shipping company Maersk has said it is pausing all journeys through the Red Sea.\n\nThe decision comes after a spate of attacks on vessels launched from a part of Yemen controlled by the Houthis - an Iran-backed rebel movement.\n\nThe group has declared its support for Hamas and say it is targeting ships travelling to Israel.\n\nThe Red Sea is one the world's most important routes for oil and fuel shipments.\n\nGerman transport company Hapag-Lloyd later said it was making a similar move.\n\nThe firm owns a ship that recently came under attack, and confirmed to the BBC later on Friday it was also suspending operations in the area until Monday.\n\nIn a statement to the BBC, Maersk, one of the world's biggest shipping companies, said: \"The recent attacks on commercial vessels in the area are alarming and pose a significant threat to the safety and security of seafarers.\n\n\"Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to pause their journey until further notice.\"\n\nThe Bab al-Mandab strait - also known as the Gate of Tears - is a channel 20 miles (32km) wide, and known for being perilous to navigate.\n\nIt sits between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea on the African coast.\n\nIt is the route by which ships can reach the Suez Canal from the south - itself a major shipping lane. Avoiding it means vessels must take much longer routes, for example navigating around southern Africa.\n\nAbout 17,000 ships and 10% of global trade pass through it every year. Any ship passing through Suez to or from the Indian Ocean has to come this way.\n\nMaersk pausing its Red Sea shipping journeys \"could not come at a more difficult time\", director general at the Institute of Export & International Trade Marco Forgione said.\n\n\"This impacts every link in the supply chain... and will only increase the chances of critical products not making their destinations in time for Christmas,\" he added.\n\nAt least two other cargo ships in the strait came under attack on Friday. The US says one was hit with a drone and another by missiles, blaming the Houthis for both attacks.\n\nThe Houthis did not confirm the drone strike, but said they did fire missiles at two boats.\n\nThe group has controlled parts of Yemen since seizing power from the country's government in 2014, triggering an ongoing civil war.\n\nSpeaking before the announcements by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan - who is on a trip to the Middle East - said the Houthis were threatening freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, which is vital for oil and goods shipments.\n\n\"The United States is working with the international community, with partners from the region and from all over the world to deal with this threat,\" he said.\n\nEarlier this month, a US warship shot down three drones fired from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen after three commercial vessels came under attack in the Red Sea.\n\nJust days before that incident, the US said another warship had captured armed men who had earlier seized an Israeli-linked tanker off Yemen's coast.\n\nLast month, the Houthis released video footage showing armed men dropping from a helicopter and seizing a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "An owl was discovered living in a Kentucky family's Christmas tree.\n\nThe bird was discovered when carpet cleaner Bob Hayes was working in the house and noticed the tree branches moving.\n\nThe family says the bird was able to go undetected for four days because it blended into the tree's branches.", "Amiram Cooper, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Tsachi Idan are being held in Gaza\n\nIsrael says 132 people remain unaccounted for after they were abducted and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attacks by Hamas.\n\nAn estimated 240 people were taken prisoner, but 105 were later released by Hamas during a six-day ceasefire at the end of November.\n\nThe Israeli military said it mistakenly killed three hostages in northern Gaza who had escaped from their captors and expressed \"deep remorse\" over the incident.\n\nOf the 132 still unaccounted for, Israel says that 20 of them are believed to be dead.\n\nThese are the stories of those hostages who are still being held, which have either been confirmed by the BBC or credibly reported.\n\nThis list is regularly updated and names may change, as some people feared kidnapped are confirmed to have been killed or released.\n\nLast updated on 19 December 2023 at 10:33 GMT\n\nYagev Kirsht, 34, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nirim, alongside his wife, Rimon Buchstab Kirsht. She has now been released.\n\nAlexander Trupanov, was taken hostage with his mother Lena Trupanov, 50, his partner Sapir Cohen, 29, and his grandmother Irina Tati, 73. All were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz as they spent the Sabbath together, according to a statement by Canada's Raoul Wallenburg Center for Human Rights. Irina and Lena were released on Wednesday 29 November and Sapir was freed the next day.\n\nAriel Cunio, his girlfriend Arbel Yahud and her brother Dolev are also thought to have been abducted in the same attack on Nir Oz. Eitan Cunio, Ariel's brother who escaped Hamas, told the Jewish Chronicle that his last message from Ariel said: \"We are in a horror movie.\"\n\nDavid Cunio, 33, another of Ariel's brothers, was also kidnapped from Nir Oz, family say. David's wife Sharon Aloni Cunio and their three-year-old twin daughters Ema and Yuly were released on 27 November. Sharon's sister Daniele Aloni, and her six-year-old daughter Emilia were both released on 24 November.\n\nDoron Steinbrecher, 30, a veterinary nurse, was in her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas attacked, the Times of Israel reported. At 10:30 on 7 October, the newspaper said, she sent a voice message to friends: \"They've arrived, they have me.\"\n\nItzhak Gelerenter, 53, was taken from the Supernova festival. His family said the IDF found his phone was located in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported. His daughter Pivko told the paper: \"I'm trying to think good thoughts, I have a powerful, smart, resourceful father.\"\n\nDoron Steinbrecher sent a voice message to friends during Hamas' attack\n\nNaama Levy, 19, was filmed being bundled into a jeep, her hands tied behind her back. The footage was released by Hamas and circulated widely on social media. According to her mother, the teenager had just begun her military service.\n\nYousef Zyadna, a 53-year-old Bedouin dairy farmer, was abducted from Kibbutz Holit and taken to Gaza along with his sons Hamza, 22, and Bilal, 18, and his daughter, Aisha, 16. Aisha and Bilal were released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nElad Katzir, 47, was abducted from Nir Oz with his mother Hanna. Hanna has now been released.\n\nOhad Ben Ami, 55, was kidnapped from Be'eri with his wife, Raz. She was released by Hamas on 29 November.\n\nTwin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, 26, were taken from Kfar Aza. Ziv was messaging a friend as the attack happened. Their family said the IDF has told them the brothers are being held in Gaza. Their brother Liran told CBN news the pair had \"twin power\" and were the centre of attention wherever they went.\n\nIraq-born Shlomo Mansour, 85, was taken captive from Kibbutz Kissufim, where he lived and worked as a chicken coop manager. His wife, Mazal, managed to escape.\n\nMichel Nisenbaum, 59, is a dual Brazilian-Israeli citizen who has lived in Israel for 45 years and works as a computer technician, his family told Brazilian media. They also say he is diabetic and has Crohn's disease. On 7 October, they say, someone claiming to be from Hamas answered his phone when they tried to call him.\n\nDaniela Gilboa, 19, sent messages saying that Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where she was staying, was under attack and asked her mother to pray for her. Her boyfriend, Roy Dadon, told the Economist 1843 magazine that he believes he saw a glimpse of her in a video showing three girls being driven away in the back of an SUV.\n\nItay Chen, 19, a dual US-Israeli citizen and IDF solider, was on active duty with a tank unit on 7 October, according to the Times of Israel. The paper reported that his family was notified by the IDF that he is officially considered missing in action and probably being held hostage. Another soldier in his unit, Matan Angrest, 21, is also presumed to be in Gaza.\n\nYosi Sharabi, 51, was taken from Be'eri with his brother, Eli Sharabi, 55. Eli's wife and two daughters were murdered in the attack. Ofir Engel, the boyfriend of Yosi's daughter, Yuval, was also taken, but released on 29 November.\n\nAgam Berger, 19, was kidnapped from Nahal Oz. She was seen being taken away in videos released by Hamas.\n\nEdan Alexander, 19, is an Israeli-US citizen who volunteered to join the Israeli army. He was serving near the Gaza border at the time of Hamas's attack. Edan's family said they had been told by Israeli officials that he had been taken to Gaza as a hostage.\n\nKaid Farhan Elkadi, 53, lives with his family south of Rahat and worked as a security guard, according to Israeli media. Reports said his family believes he was kidnapped and taken to Gaza, based on images shared by Hamas.\n\nIlana Gritzewsky and Matan Zanguaker were captured near the Gaza border, family say\n\nMatan Zanguaker, 24, was taken with his partner Ilana Gritzewsky, 30, from Nir Oz, according to Ilana's father. Ilana, a Mexican national, was released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nThe family of Eitan and Yair Horn believe they were taken from Nir Oz kibbutz\n\nEitan Horn, 37, and his brother Yair, 45, both Argentinian citizens, were also in Nir Oz at the time of the attack. Their father Itzik said he believes they were kidnapped. Yair is a construction worker while Eitan works in education.\n\nItai Svirsky, 38, is thought to have been abducted when his elderly parents were killed in Be'eri. He had been visiting them for the holiday of Simhat Torah.\n\nKeith Seigel, 64, and his wife Adrienne - often known as Aviva - Seigel, 62, were taken from their home in Kfar Aza, Keith's brother Lee Seigel told the BBC. Adrienne was released on 26 November.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, lived in Nahal Oz with his wife and two daughters. Omri was led away by Hamas with his hands tied, his wife Lishay told the Guardian newspaper. She told him not to be a hero, urging: \"Do whatever they want because I want you back.\"\n\nBipin Joshi, 23, a Nepalese student, is believed to have been taken from Kibbutz Alumim. Nepalese newspaper Setopati says he was one of 49 university students studying agriculture in Israel. It says 10 students were killed in the attack.\n\nIlan Weiss, 58, went missing from Kibbutz Be'eri after he was last seen leaving the house to defend the community. On 25 November, his wife Shiri Weiss, 53, and their daughter, Noga, 18, were freed from captivity in a hostage deal.\n\nAmiram Cooper, 85, and his wife Nurit, 80, were taken from their home in Nir Oz, their daughter-in-law Noa told the BBC. The family last spoke to the couple during the Hamas attack, Noa said, when the couple were in their safe room. The family later traced Amiram's phone to Gaza. On Monday 23 October, Nurit was one of two women to be released.\n\nAmiram and Nurit Cooper, pictured with their granddaughter, Gali\n\nOded Lifshitz, 83, and his wife Yocheved, 85 were taken hostage from Nir Oz. On Monday 23 October, Yocheved was one of two elderly women to be freed. After hearing the news of her mother's release, their daughter Sharone - a London-based artist - said: \"While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those - some 200 innocent people - who remain hostages in Gaza.\"\n\nHaim Peri, 79, was taken from his home in Nir Oz, reports the Times of Israel, and freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz said she saw that he was alive and well. His son Lior Peri told Talk TV that Haim had locked his wife inside the safe room before giving himself up to kidnappers.\n\nAvraham Munder, 78, was kidnapped from Nir Oz, Israeli officials say. His wife Ruthi, daughter and grandson have since been released.\n\nOmer Neutra, a 22-year-old Israeli-American and grandson of Holocaust survivors, put off plans to go to college in the US to study in Israel, and eventually joined the IDF. He was serving as a tank commander near Gaza when Hamas attacked. Omer's parents say they were told by the Israeli embassy that he had been kidnapped.\n\nRon Benjamin's vehicle was found empty following the attacks\n\nRon Benjamin, 53, had been taking part in a group cycle ride near the Gaza border when the Hamas attack began and he decided to drive home, his family told Israeli media. Days later, his vehicle was found empty and his family believe he was kidnapped.\n\nLouis Har, 70, is believed to have been taken from Nir Yitzhak. His partner Clara Marman was released on 28 November along with her sister Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and Gabriela's daughter Mia Leimberg,17. Clara and Gabriela's brother Fernando Simon Marman, 60, also remains in captivity.\n\nJudith Weinstein Haggai, 70, and her husband, Gad Haggai, 73, also went missing from Nir Oz after the Hamas attack. Ten days later, the Israeli military confirmed to the family they had been taken hostage, CTV News in Canada reported.\n\nAlex Danzig, 75, a scholar and historian of the Holocaust, was at his home in Nir Oz, when it was attacked by Hamas. \"We know for sure he was kidnapped,\" his son Mati told the BBC. Alex - whose older sister Edith is a Holocaust survivor - has spent the last 30 years working for Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance centre. His disappearance has triggered a campaign for his release, both in Israel and in Poland, the country of his birth.\n\nAlex Danzig has spent decades educating people about the Holocaust\n\nItzhk Elgarat, 68, was kidnapped at the same time as Alex Danzig, his brother Danny Elgert told Israel's Kan 11 TV station, adding that he had tracked his brother's phone to the border with Gaza.\n\nGadi Moses, 79, was also abducted during the same attack on Nir Oz, according to relatives and the Israeli aid agency where he worked as an agricultural expert. Efrat Katz, his partner, was initially thought to have been captured as well, but she was later found dead, the Times of Israel reported. Efrat was the mother of Doron Asher, who was taken hostage and later released with her two daughters. Ravid Katz, 51, Doron Asher's brother, was originally thought to have been taken hostage from Nir Oz, but on 28 November his family confirmed that he had been killed on 7 October.\n\nYair Yaakov, 59, is listed among the hostages. His partner Meirav Tal, 53, was released on 28 November. Yair's children Yagil, 13, and Or, 16, were released on 27 November.\n\nYair Yaakov was pictured being held captive by a gunman in a video shared online\n\nNimrod Cohen, 19, had studied software engineering in high school, according to reports. After he was kidnapped, his father was invited to meet Pope Francis in Rome along with other hostages' families.\n\nTsachi Idan, 51, was last seen by his wife, Gali, as he was taken away by Hamas gunmen. Their family had been ambushed in their safe room in Nahal Oz. Their ordeal was live-streamed by Hamas. Their eldest child, Maayan - who had just turned 18 - was shot dead, Gali told the BBC.\n\nTsachi Idan was ambushed with his wife and children and then led away\n\nYarden Bibas, 34, was abducted from Nir Oz. His wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel and Kfir, were also taken hostage, but on 29 November, Hamas claimed they had been killed in an Israeli air strike while in captivity. The Israeli government has said it is checking the claim.\n\nRonen Engel, 54, was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his wife, Karina Engelbert, 51, and their two daughters, Mika, 18 and Yuval, 11. On 1 December, the organisation representing the families said he had been murdered. Karina, Mika and Yuval were released on 27 November.\n\nKarina Ariev, a 19-year-old soldier, was serving at an army base near Gaza when she was kidnapped. Her sister Alexandra told the BBC she heard shooting as Karina called her during the attack, and later saw a video showing Karina being taken away in a vehicle.\n\nKarina Ariev was at the Nahal Oz military base, which was among the first to be attacked\n\nOfer Kalderon, 53, was taken by Hamas from Nir Oz. On 27 November his two children, Erez, 12, and Sahar, 16, were released. Two other relatives, 80-year-old Carmela Dan and her granddaughter, Noya, 12, were also believed to have been taken, but Israeli authorities later announced they had been found dead.\n\nYoram Metzger, 80, was a resident of Nir Oz. He has diabetes and broke his hip six months ago, his daughter-in-law said. Yoram's wife Tamar was released on 28 November.\n\nNadav Popplewell, 51, and his mother Channah were taken hostage by Hamas, said Channah's daughter Ayelet Svatitzky, who was speaking to them on the phone when the gunmen burst in. She said the captors sent pictures of her two relatives, who both have diabetes, with armed men in the background. Channah has now been released.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, was abducted after his family opened the door to their secure shelter to an Israeli child, who said he would be killed otherwise. Omri's wife, Lishay Lavi, said she saw him being taken away in handcuffs with three other hostages from Nahal Oz.\n\nLiri Elbag, 18, had just started military training as an Army lookout near the Gaza border when Hamas attacked, her father Eli told the Associated Press. Eli said he saw her in a video circulated later by Hamas, crowded with others on the back of a military truck which had been seized by the gunmen.\n\nLior Rudaeff, 61, was taken from Nir Yitzhak during the attack. His family have heard nothing from him since then.\n\nA number of people are believed to have been abducted from the Supernova music festival in southern Israel. Among them:\n\nShlomi Ziv, 40, was part of the security detail at the festival and was initially in contact with his sisters as the attack unfolded, according to an interview with The Times of Israel. A few weeks later the family learned he was officially considered to be a hostage, the report says.\n\nAlexander Lobanov, 32, is a Russian-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped at the festival.\n\nOri Danino, 25, is reported to have got away from the festival in his car, but it's believed he was captured after turning back in an attempt to save some people he had met there.\n\nAlmog Sarusi, 26, was kidnapped from the music festival and his partner Shahar Gindi was killed, according to Israeli media. Almog's father, Yigal, was among the relatives of hostages who met with Israel's prime minister in October.\n\nOmer Shem Tov, 21, called his parents as he was running away from gunfire and managed to get into a friend's car. His parents, Shelly and Malki Shem Tov, told Israeli media they lost contact with their son and the live location on his phone showed he was beyond the border in Gaza.\n\nIdan Shtivi, 28, an environmental sciences student, was attending the festival to take pictures at music and yoga workshops being held by friends. He escaped the site in his car but was attacked by Hamas along the route. The bodies of two of his passengers were found, and his family told the Jerusalem Post they suspect he was kidnapped.\n\nYosef Ohana, 24, had been at the festival with a friend, who told his mother he and Yosef had remained to help people escape the gunfire before running themselves. Yosef was last seen hiding under a car, and Israeli authorities have visited his mother to say he was kidnapped.\n\nAndrei Kozlov, 27, a Russian who moved to Israel in 2022, is missing from the Supernova festival, where he was working as a security guard. His mother told the De Taly publication the family was told by the IDF on October 26 that he was being held hostage.\n\nElyakim Libman, 23, was working as a security guard at the festival. In a Facebook post his father Eliyahu Libman said another guard told him his son had helped rescue others before trying to escape. He was last seen trying to help two badly-injured women.\n\nNoa Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was also kidnapped from the festival. Video footage - verified by her father Yaakov Argamani to Israel's Channel 12 - shows the 25-year-old being taken away on the back of a motorbike screaming, \"Don't kill me!\" Her boyfriend Avinatan Or, 30, also appears in the video being marched away from her by Hamas, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nEden Yerushalmi's family say they were told she had been taken hostage\n\nEden Yerushalmi, 24, called her family during Hamas's attack on the festival, her sister May told CBS News. The family say they were subsequently informed by the IDF that Eden had been abducted.\n\nChanan Yablonka, 42, is a father-of-two from Tel Aviv. According to reports, he attended the festival with friends and was due to celebrate his birthday a few days after the attacks.\n\nJonathan Samerano, 21, has been missing since 7am on the morning of the festival. His family have been told to presume he is being held in Gaza, Israeli media reported.\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal was filmed in captivity in Gaza, his family say\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal, 22, attended the festival with his brother. Guy appears in a hostage video that his family say confirms he is in Gaza.\n\nUriel Baruch, 35, was injured during the attack on the festival, his wife said on Facebook. Reports in Israeli media say his mother, Naomi, has heard from the IDF that he is a hostage.\n\nMaxim Kharkin's mother described speaking to him on the morning of 7 October\n\nMaxim Kharkin is aged 35 and a Russian speaker, his mother told Russian media. She added that he had called her at 07:00 on the morning of the attack.\n\nElkana Bohbot was seen in a video posted by Hamas\n\nElkana Bohbot, 34, had gone to the party with friends and, before losing contact, he spoke to his wife and mother telling them he was helping to evacuate the wounded, the Times of Israel reported. Hours later, his family found a video of him posted online by Hamas, which has been seen by BBC Verify.\n\nRom Braslavski, 19, was working on security for the festival. According to an account published by Hostages and Missing Families Forum, he was trying to rescue an injured person in the attack when he was caught in a volley of fire. He has not been heard from since.\n\nOmer Wenkert, 22, a restaurant manager, sent a message to his family to say he was going to a safe shelter but then lost contact, his father Shai Wenkert told the BBC's Today Programme. Shai Wenkert said he had seen footage of his son in captivity, including a photo of him handcuffed and wearing only underwear.\n\nEvyatar David's family say they were sent a video of him in captivity\n\nEvyatar David, 23, was at the festival and on the morning of the attacks, described fleeing from gunfire before losing contact with the outside world, his brother says. Later, his family say, Evyatar's sister posted on Instagram appealing for information about his whereabouts. She then received a text from an unknown number, which contained video footage of Evyatar handcuffed on the floor of a dark room. According to Israel's foreign ministry he is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nEitan Mor, 23, lives in Jerusalem, and was working as a security guard at the festival, the Times of Israel said. He reportedly texted his uncle after Hamas arrived and was last seen with a friend bringing others to safety.\n\nAlon Ohel, 22, a Serbian citizen, took refuge in a shelter after the festival came under attack, his family say. They have seen footage of him being dragged away after a grenade attack.\n\nAlmog Meir Jan, 21, tried to flee the festival. He and a friend made it to the friend's car but only managed to drive a short distance before being forced to stop. Almog's family say they have seen a hostage video in which he appears.\n\nInbar Heiman, a student aged 21, was seen by two young Israeli men being taken away from the festival on a motorcycle. Hamas have released a video in which she is seen very briefly.\n\nHersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a dual US-Israeli citizen, was badly injured in the attack, his family told the BBC. Eyewitness accounts say he was seen being forced onto a white pick-up truck - the last-known signal from his phone came from just inside Gaza.\n\nSegev Kalfon, 26, was running away from the festival, across the highway, when he was captured by Hamas, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.\n\nOrión Hernández Radoux, 30, from Mexico, attended the festival with his girlfriend, Shani Louk. He has not been seen since. The Sun newspaper says it has seen threatening messages written in Arabic sent from his phone. Shani, a tourist from Germany, was initially thought to be among those seized. But on 30 October, her mother Ricarda told German media that the family had been informed by Israeli military of her death following DNA identification.\n\nRomi Lesham Gonen, 23, was on the phone to her mother as she tried to escape from the Supernova festival. Merav Leshem Gonan has recounted a conversation in which her daughter begged for help after being shot. ABC News reports that Romi's phone is now in Gaza.\n\nBar Kuperstein, 21, last spoke to his family early on the morning of 7 October, as the attack unfolded. Later the same day, his family say they identified him in a video of Israeli prisoners, posted by Hamas. Since then, they say they have had no further information.\n\nEliya Cohen, 26, was hiding with his girlfriend Ziv from the attack, when Ziv felt him being pulled up and driven away by the gunmen, Eliya's mother has told the video initiative #BringThemHomeNow. The family then found a photo of Eliya in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nAmit Buskila, 28, from Ashdod, was last heard of making a call to her uncle, Shimon, as Hamas overran the festival. Her family say they have now been told by the government that she is being held in Gaza.\n\nCarmel Gat, 39, is Jordan's sister-in-law, and also was seen by her father being taken by gunmen from Kibbutz Be'eri, Haaretz newspaper reported. She has not been heard from since.\n\nOhad Yahalomi, 49, was abducted from Nir Oz, along with his 12-year-old son, Eitan, who was released during the November ceasefire.\n\nDror Or, 48, was seen by a neighbour being dragged out of his home in Be'eri, according to their nephew Emmanuel Besorai, along with his son and daughter. On Saturday 25 November Dror's son Noam, 17, and daughter Alma, 13, were released from captivity. The body of Yonat, 50 - Dror's wife and the children's mother - was identified among the 120 people murdered at the kibbutz, Yonat's brother told the Guardian newspaper.\n\nTal Shoham, 38, was taken from Kibbutz Be'eri. His wife Adi, also 38, her mother Dr Shoshan Haran, 67, were released by Hamas on 25 November, along with the couple's children Nave, eight, and Yahel, three. Dr Haran's husband, Avshalom - an economist and dual German/Israeli citizen - was killed on 7 October.\n\nTamir Adar, 38, who defended Nir Oz as part of the kibbutz's emergency squad, was taken to Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen, 35, an American-Israeli citizen, has been missing since Hamas's attack on Nir Oz, his father Jonathan told the BBC. He said his son was not found among the dead and the \"only reasonable explanation\" is that he was taken to Gaza.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen's father has not heard from him since Hamas attacked the kibbutz where he lived\n\nThailand's ambassador to Israel says 26 of its citizens were taken hostage, 23 of whom have now been released.\n\nThose still being held are believed to include Watchara Sriuan, 32. His mother, Viewwaew, told the Thaiger news site that the family had been informed he was being held captive.\n\nKiattisak \"Top\" Patee and a Mr Pongtorn (no first name given) have also been named by the Thai foreign ministry as hostages.\n\nA number of other people thought to have been held hostage are now confirmed to have died, either during the 7 October attack or while in captivity.\n\nAs well as Ron Scherman and Nik Beizer, four bodies were identified this week. They were Tal Chaimi, an Israeli-Romanian citizen aged 41, and Joshua Mollel, a 19-year-old Tanzanian student. Also, 27-year-old Eden Zecharya, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, and 36-year-old Ziv Dado, who had already been declared dead by the Israeli military.\n\nOthers known to have died include Dror Kaplun, 68, Aviv Atzili, 49, Arye Zalmanovich, 85, Ronen Engel, 54, Maya Goren, 56, Guy Iluz, 26, Ofir Tzarfati, 27, Ofra Keider, 70, and Eliyahu Margalit, 75.\n\nThe bodies of 19-year-old soldier, Noa Marciano, and 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss were found by Israeli troops in buildings close to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.\n\nOn Saturday 9 December Kibbutz Bari announced that Sahar Baruch, 25, had been killed in Gaza.\n\nOther hostages whose death has been reported, but not confirmed include Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir.\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? If it is safe to do so, please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This is the most significant moment so far in Prince Harry's legal battles with newspapers\n\nPrince Harry has won 15 claims in his case accusing Mirror Group Newspapers of unlawfully gathering information for stories published about him.\n\nA judge has ruled in his favour on almost half of the sample of 33 stories used in his claims of phone hacking and other methods.\n\nA High Court ruling found evidence of \"widespread and habitual\" use of phone hacking at the Mirror newspapers.\n\nPrince Harry described it as a \"great day for truth\" and accountability.\n\nHe was awarded £140,600 in damages and in a statement read out on the Duke of Sussex's behalf outside the High Court, his lawyer David Sherborne called the ruling \"vindicating and affirming\".\n\nPrince Harry won on his claim about how this story was obtained\n\n\"This case is not just about hacking - it is about a systemic practice of unlawful and appalling behaviour, followed by cover ups and destruction of evidence, the shocking scale of which can only be revealed through these proceedings,\" he said.\n\n\"I've been told that slaying dragons will get you burned. But in light of today's victory and the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press - it's a worthwhile price to pay,\" Prince Harry's statement said.\n\nHe also called on the police and prosecuting authorities to \"investigate bringing charges against the company and those who have broken the law\".\n\nIn a statement, the Metropolitan Police said it would \"carefully consider the civil judgment handed down today at the High Court. There is no ongoing investigation.\"\n\nThe stakes have also been high for the Mirror newspapers - the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People - with estimates that £100m has already been spent on damages and legal costs over previous hacking cases.\n\nMr Justice Fancourt ruled that unlawful information gathering had been \"widespread\" at all three of the Mirror titles and had become \"habitual\".\n\nAmong the headlines of articles on which Prince Harry won his claims was \"Harry is a Chelsy fan\" - about his relationship with Chelsy Davy - and \"Davy stated\" about the couple arguing.\n\nPrince Harry has complained about his personal relationships being targeted and he also won his claim over the story \"Harry's date with Gladiators star\", which was about him visiting television presenter Caroline Flack.\n\nIn response a Mirror Group Newspapers spokeswoman said it welcomed the judgement which gave the business \"clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago\".\n\n\"Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid appropriate compensation,\" she said.\n\nThe landmark ruling follows Prince Harry's appearance at the High Court in June, where he became the first senior royal of modern times to give such extensive evidence in court in person.\n\nOver two days, he was grilled about his claims that the group's newspapers had published many stories about him, over several years, based on phone hacking and other unlawful ways of obtaining information.\n\nPrince Harry faced questions from the Mirror lawyers in court\n\nIn his findings, Mr Justice Fancourt concluded that Prince Harry had faced phone hacking - although to \"a modest extent\" - and other forms of dishonest gathering of information.\n\nPrince Harry had told the court a sustained breach of his privacy had undermined his relationships, such as with ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, and he had faced \"intrusion and hate\".\n\n\"For my whole life, the press has misled me and covered up the wrongdoing,\" he said.\n\nThe Mirror Group's lawyers had called the allegations \"wildly overstated\", unsuccessfully arguing that the prince's evidence had failed to definitively prove a single example of being hacked.\n\nDamages have been awarded - but this has been about much more than the money, with the prince wanting his day in court to prove his allegations of phone hacking and other dishonest intrusions, which he has blamed for much anxiety and disruption in his life.\n\nPrince Harry's success could open the door to dozens of others said to be considering claims.\n\nAlthough two people who brought claims alongside Prince Harry - Nikki Sanderson and Fiona Wightman - were ruled out of time.\n\nThe judge's ruling said that the newspaper group's board \"as a whole\" did not know about the use of phone hacking, but he believed former chief executive officer Sly Bailey and former group legal director Paul Vickers were aware.\n\nMr Justice Fancourt also ruled that he accepted the evidence of journalist Omid Scobie, who gave evidence that then-Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan had been told about a use of phone hacking relating to Kylie Minogue.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBut Mr Morgan robustly rejected the claims made in court as being made by people with an \"axe to grind\", labelling Prince Harry as \"hypocritical\" in his privacy battle when he had \"trashed his family in public\".\n\nMr Morgan denied any knowledge of the hacking claims: \"I've never hacked a phone or told anybody else to hack a phone.\"\n\nPrince Harry's claim against Mirror Group is one of several legal battles he is fighting against newspaper groups, including Associated Newspapers and News Group Newspapers.\n\nHe has had many procedural legal skirmishes and claims and counter-claims - but this was the most significant ruling so far, with a judge reaching a decision after a full trial.\n\nYou can see more royal stories in the free BBC Royal Watch newsletter emailed each week - sign up here from within the UK. or here, from outside the UK.", "Peter Bone was suspended from the Commons for six weeks for breaching the code of conduct for MPs\n\nMP Peter Bone has lost his seat after being removed by constituents in a recall petition, meaning a by-election will be held next year.\n\nThe move came after he was suspended as an MP over bullying and sexual misconduct claims, which he denies.\n\nMr Bone turned Wellingborough in Northamptonshire into a safe Tory seat after becoming its MP in 2005.\n\nBut the by-election will be seen as a tough test for Rishi Sunak, with the Tories trailing Labour in the polls.\n\nThe recall petition was prompted by Mr Bone's suspension from the House of Commons for six weeks for breaching the code of conduct for MPs.\n\nThe Conservative Party had withdrawn the whip from Mr Bone, meaning he had been sitting as an independent MP in Parliament.\n\nThe petition was signed by 13.2% of eligible voters in the constituency, above the 10% threshold required for Mr Bone to lose his seat.\n\nIn a statement on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Bone said the majority of the electorate in the constituency had chosen not to sign the recall petition, describing the process as \"bizarre\".\n\nHe said the allegations that led to the recall petition were \"totally untrue and without foundation\".\n\n\"I will have more to say on these matters in the new year,\" Mr Bone wrote.\n\nA petition is triggered if an MP is convicted of a crime or suspended from the Commons for more than 10 days. If 10% of eligible voters in the constituency sign the petition, it triggers a by-election - where people can vote for a new MP.\n\nMr Bone could choose to contest the seat and did not confirm in his statement whether he would do so or not.\n\nHe retained the seat at the last general election in 2019 with a majority of 18,540.\n\nLabour's chair, Anneliese Dodds, said the result of the recall petition showed \"Wellingborough is ready for change\".\n\nShe said Mr Bone \"has dragged his constituents through a lengthy recall petition rather than doing the right thing and offering his resignation\".\n\nLabour has picked councillor Gen Kitchen as its candidate for the seat, while the Lib Dems have selected former Northamptonshire Police officer Ana Savage Gunn.\n\nThe coming by-election in Wellingborough - not expected to be held before February - will be the 20th such vote since the last general election in 2019.\n\nThere have been six by-elections so far this year, with Labour winning four, and the Lib Dems and Conservatives each taking one.\n\nThe prime minister suffered major blows in the Tamworth and Selby and Ainsty by-elections, when Labour overturned majorities of more than 20,000 to take the seats.\n\nLast month, an investigation by Parliament's behavioural watchdog, the Independent Expert Panel, found Mr Bone had broken sexual misconduct rules by indecently exposing himself to a staff member during an overseas trip.\n\nIt also upheld five allegations of bullying, including verbally belittling the member of staff, physically striking him and throwing things at him.\n\nMr Bone appealed against the investigation's findings, arguing it had been flawed. However, his appeal was dismissed.\n\nThe staff member told the BBC \"physical, emotional and psychological abuse\" by the MP left him a \"broken shell of the young man I once was\".\n\nAre you affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The names of more than 170 associates of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein could be made public next month after a ruling from a US judge.\n\nPrince Andrew is expected to be among them, if evidence is released from a woman who claims he groped her in 2001.\n\nThe identities are being revealed under a settled lawsuit against sex trafficker and Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.\n\nAnyone on the list has until 1 January to appeal to have their name removed.\n\nEpstein, a millionaire financier known to mix with high-profile figures like Prince Andrew, died in jail in 2019.\n\nHis death, as he awaited federal sex-trafficking charges, was ruled to be a suicide by the New York medical examiner.\n\nThe 51-page ruling issued on Monday by New York Judge Loretta Preska calls for Epstein's connections to be \"unsealed in full\".\n\nIt is the latest filing in the case brought by Virginia Giuffre against Maxwell, a former British socialite who is serving a 20-year prison term for the crimes she committed with Epstein.\n\nMs Giuffre's defamation lawsuit was brought in 2015 and settled in 2017, leaving the names of scores of Epstein associates under a court-ordered seal.\n\nThey include 40 documents of evidence from Johanna Sjoberg, who has claimed Prince Andrew groped her breast while sitting on a couch inside Epstein's Manhattan apartment in 2001.\n\nBuckingham Palace has previously said the allegations are \"categorically untrue\".\n\nLast year, the Duke of York paid millions to Ms Giuffre to settle a lawsuit she filed claiming that he sexually abused her when she was 17 years old.\n\nPrince Andrew said he had never met Ms Giuffre and denied her allegations.\n\nIn her ruling, Judge Preska noted that many of the individuals named in the lawsuit have already been publicly identified by the media or in Maxwell's criminal trial.\n\nShe added that many others \"did not raise an objection\" to the release of the documents.\n\nSome of the names on the list will remain sealed, including those belonging to child victims, the judge said in her ruling.\n\nUS congressional Republicans are pushing to subpoena the flight logs for Epstein's private plane.\n\nConvicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor, Epstein had moved in social circles that included key figures in the world of business and politics.", "Quote Message: Prior to the trial I had moments where I felt sorry for the defendants because they had ruined their own lives as well as ours. But now, knowing the true nature and seeing neither display an ounce of remorse for what they have done to Brianna, I have lost all sympathy that I may have previously had for them. And I am glad that they will spend many years in prison and away from society.\" from Esther Ghey\n\nPrior to the trial I had moments where I felt sorry for the defendants because they had ruined their own lives as well as ours. But now, knowing the true nature and seeing neither display an ounce of remorse for what they have done to Brianna, I have lost all sympathy that I may have previously had for them. And I am glad that they will spend many years in prison and away from society.\"", "Margaret lost her husband last December and has been tackling grief by attending a bereavement café\n\nAbout 15,000 people die in Northern Ireland each year, according to official statistics.\n\nFor those left behind, Christmas can be a particularly difficult time.\n\nMargaret Colhoun's husband John died last December. As she learns to live with her grief, she has been attending the monthly bereavement cafés at the Marie Curie Hospice.\n\nShe said she initially felt like she was alone in her grief but the cafés have shown her that she's not.\n\n\"There's people who have also been through it and the social workers, they understood your grief,\" Mrs Colhoun told BBC News NI.\n\n\"I thought I was alone in that, but you're not alone.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A woman, whose husband died last December, has been attending monthly grief cafés.\n\nJohn Colhoun had battled illness for a number of years before passing away last year.\n\n\"By month five or six, I hit tears,\" said his widow.\n\n\"It was horrendous - I can't explain it. I was in bits.\n\n\"But coming to the bereavement café, I wasn't alone.\"\n\nThe couple had lived in the same crescent growing up but didn't speak until Mrs Colhoun was 19.\n\n\"Until my next door neighbour came home on leave,\" she said.\n\n\"He was best friends with John and he came to see me because we were just good friends and John just fell madly in love with me.\n\n\"We were only going together six weeks when we got engaged. We married two years later, just before my 22nd birthday, and we were married for just over 50 years.\"\n\nMargaret and John Colhoun on their wedding day\n\nPacked into that happy half century were children and grandchildren and lots of happy memories, especially at Christmas.\n\nWhile Mrs Colhoun knows Christmas will be different, and difficult, she is hopeful for the future.\n\n\"I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year because it's a new era,\" she said.\n\n\"You have to look forward. You can look back and have your regrets and think of the good times and the bad, but you have to stay positive. It is the only way you are going to get on in life.\n\n\"We are having Christmas together in my daughter's house and I'm really looking forward to it.\"\n\nMargaret and John with their family\n\nEmma Smyth is a social worker at the Marie Curie Hospice and helps run the bereavement café.\n\n\"People are able to share their raw experiences of what they are worried about, what they are fearful about and how they are going to tackle those big events that are coming up,\" she said.\n\nEmma Smyth said the café allows people to remember those they have lost to help cope with that loss\n\n\"Sometimes it's about sharing ideas, about creating an extra seat at the table or a bauble in memory of that person or, if they always cooked the turkey, who will be the person who takes forward that tradition?\n\n\"It's a painful thing to think about but in planning for it hopefully it will make it that little bit easier to deal with.\"\n\nIf you have been affected by the issues raised in this story, help and support can be found at BBC Action Line.", "It is believed that more than 100 hostages remain alive in Gaza, 10 weeks after Hamas's attacks on Israel\n\nWhile a full ceasefire in the Gaza Strip still looks a long way off, there are fresh signs that a new pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas could be possible.\n\nHowever, that would require a shift in Hamas's public position. It has consistently said that it will only free more Israeli hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire.\n\nHamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who usually lives in Doha, has now travelled to Cairo along with a \"high level\" delegation for talks with Egypt's intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel.\n\nThat indicates a level of seriousness.\n\nBoth Egypt and Qatar play key roles in mediation efforts and helped secure a week-long truce late last month.\n\nIsrael maintains that the war in Gaza will only end when its goal of dismantling Hamas - which has governed there since 2007 - has been achieved.\n\nAccording to mainstream Israeli media reports, Israel has presented a plan to mediators which could secure the release of some 30 to 40 hostages. This prioritises the remaining women, as well as men who are elderly or in need of urgent medical care.\n\nIt is thought that they could be exchanged for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons who have been convicted of more serious offences than the women and teenagers released in the previous deal, and that a truce could last for a week or two.\n\nHamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met Iran's foreign minister and spoke to Iranian media in Doha before flying to Cairo\n\nThe Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, told foreign diplomats on Tuesday that his country was ready for \"another humanitarian pause, and additional humanitarian aid in order to enable the release of hostages\".\n\nLater, after meeting a select group of families with loved ones held in captivity in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that \"retrieving them is a top goal\".\n\nHe confirmed that the head of Israel's Mossad spy agency had been twice to Europe in recent days to promote a new release deal. On Monday, in Poland, he and his US counterpart met the Qatari prime minister.\n\nIsraeli leaders have continued to assert that only strong military pressure on Hamas will bring it to the negotiating table. However, the families of the remaining hostages have openly expressed scepticism about that.\n\nTheir anxiety has risen since Friday's accidental killing by Israeli forces of three hostages.\n\nIn recent days, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a smaller armed faction, have put out two videos showing a total of five men still held captive, pleading to be brought home. All appear thin and the speakers say they fear becoming victims of Israel's bombardment.\n\nNext week, the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, is also due to travel to Cairo with other senior officials from his group.\n\nAlon Shamriz was one of the three Israeli hostages who were mistakenly killed by Israeli forces last week\n\nIt is believed that more than 100 hostages remain alive in Gaza, after 105 civilians were released from captivity in late November, most of them Israeli women and children.\n\nFour hostages had been released prior to that and one had been rescued by Israeli troops.\n\nA number of bodies have also been recovered and the Israeli prime minister's office has confirmed the deaths of more than 20 people who had been held by Hamas.\n\nAt a global level, there are growing calls for a complete ceasefire, including at the UN General Assembly.\n\nWith the death toll now close to 20,000 in Gaza, according to local health officials in the Hamas-run territory, the UN estimates that 1.9 million of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled or lost their homes. There is growing concern about the limited scope for aid agencies to help them.\n\n\"Amid displacement at an unimaginable scale and active hostilities, the humanitarian response system is on the brink,\" Tor Wennesland, the UN's Special Co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council on Tuesday.\n\nWhile UN officials say much more needs to be done, a new pause in fighting could at least allow a boost in aid delivery and distribution.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Trump says indictments are \"badge of honour\"\n\nColorado's Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump cannot run for president next year in the state, citing a constitutional insurrection clause.\n\nThe court ruled 4-3 that Mr Trump was not an eligible candidate because he had engaged in an insurrection over the US Capitol riot nearly three years ago.\n\nIt does not stop Mr Trump running in the other states and his campaign says it will appeal to the US Supreme Court.\n\nThe decision, they said, was \"completely flawed\".\n\nThe ruling only mentions the state's primary election on 5 March, when Republican voters will choose their preferred candidate for president. But it could affect the general election in Colorado next November.\n\nIt is the first-ever use of Section 3 of the US Constitution's 14th Amendment to disqualify a presidential candidate. The measure was ratified after the American Civil War to block secessionists from returning to previous government roles once southern states re-joined the Union.\n\nTuesday's decision - which has been placed on hold pending appeal until next month - only applies in Colorado. Similar attempts to kick Mr Trump off the ballot in New Hampshire, Minnesota and Michigan have failed.\n\nThe justices wrote in their ruling: \"We do not reach these conclusions lightly. We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us.\n\n\"We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.\"\n\nOne of the three justices who dissented, Carlos Samour, though, said the government could not \"deprive someone of the right to hold public office without due process of law\".\n\nThe decision reverses an earlier one from a Colorado judge, who ruled the ban did not apply to presidents but found Mr Trump had participated in an insurrection. The former president's supporters stormed Congress on 6 January 2021 while lawmakers were certifying President Joe Biden's election victory.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe decision does not go into effect until 4 January 2024, coming right up to the deadline for printing the state's presidential primary ballots.\n\nThat delay could be extended if the Supreme Court takes up the case, which legal experts speaking to the BBC expect it to do.\n\nThey also expect the Colorado ruling to have a tough time in the highest court in the land, where conservatives hold a 6 to 3 majority.\n\nThe Supreme Court will likely not uphold the disqualification of Mr Trump out of \"institutional caution\", said Professor Samuel Issacharoff, a constitutional law professor at New York University.\n\n\"It cannot be that the national candidacy for presidency is determined on a state by state basis,\" he said. \"That would be a breakdown of democratic order.\"\n\nThe Supreme Court is also wary of state courts when it comes to the election, said Robert Tsai, a constitutional law professor from Boston University.\n\nThe last time it heard a case involving a presidential election was Bush v Gore in 2000, when it stopped the state of Florida from carrying out a vote recount.\n\n\"Since then, the court has become even more hostile or sceptical of state court judges doing things to interfere with the election of a president,\" he said.\n\nThe Trump campaign and fellow Republicans, including other candidates in the primary, accused the Colorado court of playing politics.\n\nCalling the ruling \"completely flawed\", campaign spokesman Steven Cheung lambasted the justices, who were all appointed by Democratic governors.\n\n\"Democrat Party leaders are in a state of paranoia over the growing, dominant lead President Trump has amassed in the polls,\" Mr Cheung said in a statement.\n\nThe Colorado Republican party said it would withdraw from the state's primary process if the ruling was allowed to stand and one of Mr Trump's rivals, Vivek Ramaswamy, pledged to withdraw his name from the ballot it Mr Trump was blocked.\n\nSpeaking to reporters on Wednesday, President Biden said it is up to the courts to decide if Mr Trump qualifies, but added there's \"no question\" his predecessor supported an insurrection.\n\nVivek Ramaswamy called on all candidates to withdraw from Colorado's ballot\n\nMr Trump, the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination, lost Colorado by a wide margin in the last presidential election. But if courts in more competitive states followed suit on Tuesday's ruling, his White House bid could face serious problems.\n\nDuring a one-week trial in the state last month, his lawyers argued he should not be disqualified because he did not bear responsibility for the US Capitol riot.\n\nBut in its ruling, the court majority said Mr Trump's messages before the riot were a \"call to his supporters to fight and… his supporters responded to that call\".\n\nMr Trump is facing four criminal cases, including one federal and one state case in Georgia related to the his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.", "Last updated on .From the section Sports Personality", "Many Iranian woman are openly defying the dress code by going out on to the streets without a hijab\n\n\"Highly confidential\" documents obtained by BBC Persian outline how Iran's government is trying to crack down on women who do not wear a hijab.\n\nTwo documents from April and May reveal the judiciary could set up \"mobile courts\" in public places like shopping malls to punish dress code violations.\n\nThey also show schoolgirls could face action by the education ministry and that celebrities could be jailed for up to 10 years for \"promoting corruption\".\n\nHowever, an Iranian newspaper that published a short section of one of the directives has been charged with publishing classified documents.\n\nAnd some of the directives were included in the controversial \"Hijab and Chastity Bill\" that is currently being reviewed by the Guardian Council watchdog before becoming law.\n\nIran's parliament passed the bill in September - a year after protests erupted over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.\n\nWomen burnt their headscarves or waved them in the air at the demonstrations against clerical rule, during which hundreds of people were reportedly killed in a brutal crackdown by security forces.\n\nAlthough the unrest has subsided, a growing number of women and girls have stopped covering their hair in public altogether in open acts of defiance.\n\nAccording to the leaked documents, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi approved a series of directives aimed at coordinating action by the government and other entities to address the issue of women not covering their hair in public - several months before parliament began debating the hijab bill in secret.\n\nSecurity services - including the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence service, the ministry of intelligence, and the Security Police - were granted extensive powers to implement those directives, they show.\n\nSome of the directives state that:\n\nA significant portion of the directives in the leaked documents has already been implemented, including setting up hijab enforcement units inside metro stations and other public spaces; impounding cars that transport unveiled women; denying services to women violating the dress code; and closing cafes.\n\nAccording to the documents, the police force is required to assign a sufficient number of officers to \"identify and warn women who have unveiled themselves\", and that in areas where there is sufficient manpower IRGC personnel will help carry out the task.\n\nInterior Minister Ahmad Vahidi approved the directives included on two documents marked as \"highly confidential\"\n\nIn the past few months Iranians have noticed the presence of hijab enforcers at metro stations across the capital, Tehran.\n\nThe interior ministry and Tehran municipality have described them as \"self-motivated forces that do not require a licence for their activities\".\n\nBut the documents show that their presence is the result of a government decision, which has required planning and the allocation of resources.\n\nThe documents also emphasise the importance of \"extensively filming and documenting the identity of those involved in unveiling\", and indicate that hijab enforcers filming women and girls are affiliated to the security services.", "Bodhana Sivanandan began playing the game aged five during the pandemic\n\nAn eight-year-old girl has been crowned best female player at the European blitz chess championships.\n\nBodhana Sivanandan, from Harrow, north-west London, scored 8.5/13 at the event in Croatia, finishing ahead of seasoned professionals in the process.\n\nShe defeated an international master and drew with a grandmaster, in a result described as \"unbelievable\".\n\nThe chess prodigy, who began playing aged five, said she was \"proud\" of her performance over the weekend.\n\nThe tournament was held at the blitz time control - a quick form of chess where players have just minutes on their clocks for their moves.\n\nChair of the board at English Chess Federation (ECF) Stephen Woodhouse said: \"In essence, there are three types of timings in a chess game - standard, rapid play and blitz.\"\n\n\"A blitz game usually varies from three minutes to five minutes, so it's very quick,\" he explained.\n\nBodhana's opponents included grandmasters - the highest title given to the world's strongest players - international masters and experts.\n\n\"I always try my best to win, sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't,\" Bodhana told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"I was very proud of myself when I got top girl in the European blitz.\"\n\nAsked if she gets nervous, she replied: \"No, I just play the board.\"\n\nRomanian International Master Irina Bulmaga, one of the players Bodhana finished ahead of, wrote on X that it was an \"unbelievable result\" and added \"what a phenomenon she is\".\n\nDominic Lawson, president of the English Chess Federation, described it as an \"extraordin­ary result for an eight-year-old and something we've certainly never seen in this country\".\n\n\"She has a remarkably mature playing style, it's strategic and patient. She has what you might describe as a long game,\" he added.\n\nBritish International Master and commentator Lawrence Trent described Bodhana as \"one of the greatest talents I've witnessed in recent memory\".\n\n\"The maturity of her play, her sublime touch, it's truly breath taking,\" he wrote on X.\n\n\"I have no doubt she will be England's greatest player and most likely one of the greatest the game has ever seen,\" Mr Trent added.\n\nSiva Sivanandan said his daughter was \"trying her best and it has worked in favour of her\".\n\n\"She likes chess and she likes travelling. We keep trying and keep going,\" he added.\n\nBodhana will next compete at the International Chess Congress in Hastings, one of the world's longest running tournaments, on 28 December.\n\nEarlier this year, Bodhana met Rishi Sunak when the prime minister hosted young chess champions at Downing Street.\n\nListen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Woman convicted for role in Forest of Dean student's murder\n\nA serial killer's ex wife has been sentenced to life in prison for her complicity in two murders and a kidnap.\n\nMonique Olivier, 75, was on trial in France for her part in the rape and murder of 20-year-old Joanna Parrish, from Gloucestershire, in 1990 and 18-year-old Marie-Angèle Domèce in 1988.\n\nShe was also accused of helping kidnap nine-year-old Estelle Mouzin, whose body has never been found, in 2003.\n\nMichel Fourniret died before he could be brought to trial for the killings.\n\nOlivier is already serving life in prison for her part in the past crimes of her former husband, who died in 2021.\n\nShe has now been handed a second life sentence, with a minimum of 20 years.\n\nMs Parrish's father Roger Parrish held a moment of silence for all of Fourniret's victims.\n\nOn Olivier's role in the crimes, he added: \"Her presence alone would've gained the confidence of all the victims, who would never have believed a woman could've been such a part of such an appalling and depraved act.\"\n\nThe Parrish family lawyer, Didier Seban, said: \"This is first of all a victory, a victory for the families.\"\n\nMonique Olivier was sentenced after a three-week trial in Paris\n\nThe three-week trial concerned Olivier's part in the abduction, rape and murders of Miss Parrish and Miss Domèce, and the kidnap of Miss Mouzin.\n\nThe court was told how Olivier's role in the murders was to reassure the victims so they would enter Fourniret's van.\n\nOlivier admitted her presence in Auxerre when Miss Parrish was kidnapped, imprisoned, raped and murdered.\n\nShe said the rape and murder could have been at the house in St Cyr les Colons, and not in the van.\n\nDubbed the \"Ogre of the Ardennes\", Fourniret was jailed for life in 2008 after being convicted of the murders of seven girls and young women.\n\nFourniret, pictured here in 2004, died in jail two years ago\n\nIn 2018 he was given a second life sentence for an eighth murder.\n\nIn total, he confessed to 11 murders before he died - including that of Miss Parrish.\n\nFourniret's victims - most of whom were raped - were aged between nine and 30. They were shot, strangled or stabbed to death.\n\nShortly before the jury in Paris retired to consider her role in the crimes, Olivier expressed regret and asked for forgiveness from her victims' families.\n\nShe told the court: \"I regret everything I did and I ask for forgiveness from the families of the victims, while knowing that it is unforgivable.\"\n\nJoanna's body was found in a river on 17 May 1990\n\nDuring sentencing on Tuesday, the court was told Estelle Mouzin was coming home from school at 6pm, but that she never made it.\n\nHer body has never been found.\n\nOlivier was questioned for hundreds of hours in 2019, and accepted Fourniret had left for France, looking for a young girl to rape.\n\nThe court heard she knew he had \"gone hunting\".\n\nDuring sentencing, President of the court Didier Safar said: \"This is about the extreme gravity of the facts that contributed to the death of two young women, and a nine-year-old girl, in inhumane circumstances.\n\n\"Monique Olivier had no empathy for her victims, who she dehumanised.\"\n\nMost of Fourniret's victims were killed in the Ardennes region of northern France and in Belgium.\n\nLanguages student Miss Parrish had moved from Newnham-on-Severn in Gloucestershire, to Auxerre in France in 1990 for part of her university course.\n\nBut after posting an advert offering English lessons, she was murdered by Fourniret.\n\nHer body was found in the Yonne River on 17 May. She had been raped, beaten and strangled.\n\nMr Seban said he hoped this trial would start a new chapter in French justice, adding: \"For the Parrish family, it has been hard.\n\n\"They've waited more than 30 years for this trial. They led the charge, coming every year to Auxerre to show their drive to get this done.\n\n\"Their dignity throughout… there hasn't been an angry word, a cry or a desire of vengeance. It's been a desire for justice.\"\n\nMr Parrish said: \"After this last obstacle in our struggle to gain an element of justice for Joanna, we can remember our daughter and sister with a smile on our faces.\"\n\nEstelle's father Eric Mouzin said: \"The suffering of all the victims must have a purpose against the evil we've seen.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville says the government remains committed to supporting the trans community\n\nScottish ministers have confirmed they will abandon their legal challenge against a UK government veto of gender recognition reforms.\n\nSocial Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the Scottish government remained committed to improving transgender health care.\n\nThe Court of Session ruled earlier this month that the block on the gender self-ID reforms was legal.\n\nThe Scottish government had until 29 December to appeal against that ruling.\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack welcomed the decision and said the UK government would seek to reclaim expenses from the case, understood to be about £150,000.\n\nLegislation making it easier for people to change their legally-recognised sex was passed by the Scottish Parliament last year.\n\nThe UK government used a Section 35 Order of the Scotland Act to prevent it from becoming law over concerns it would impact equality laws across Great Britain.\n\nA Scottish government legal challenge against the block was rejected by the Court of Session earlier this month, with ministers given 21 days to appeal.\n\nReports that the government was going to drop its legal challenge were leaked to media outlets ahead of Ms Somerville's statement to parliament on Wednesday.\n\nCampaigners gathered outside the Scottish Parliament before the bill was passed\n\nDeputy First Minister Shona Robison also talked about the case during an earlier interview with BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme.\n\nMs Somerville said that media speculation on the government's decision was \"deeply disappointing\" and \"regretful\".\n\nShe said that while Ms Robison did not confirm or deny the reports, she accepted it was \"inferred by the comments made\".\n\n\"She in no way meant to pre-empt the statement made today,\" Ms Somerville said, adding that Ms Robison had apologised to Presiding Officer Alison Johnston.\n\nMs Somerville said that while the bill would not be withdrawn from parliament, that it was \"impossible\" to see a way forward.\n\nShe told MSPs the bill was \"not in the bin and awaits an incoming UK government that has more respect for devolution\".\n\nThe minister claimed the Scottish secretary views the Section 35 powers as a \"veto\" which can be used on legislation they \"disagree with\".\n\n\"Regardless of people's views and opinions on gender recognition, that is a very worrying place for our parliament to be,\" Ms Somerville said.\n\nDeputy First Minister Shona Robison apologised for discussing the government's decision ahead of the announcement\n\nShe told parliament that while many trans people would be disappointed by this decision, the government would \"never waver\" in its commitment to their rights.\n\n\"You are not a threat and you will always be free to live your lives free from prejudice and abuse in the type of Scotland we all want to see,\" the minister said.\n\nShe said the government remained committed to consulting on plans to end conversion practices for both sexual orientation and gender identity.\n\nIn response to the statement, Mr Jack said the Scottish government had pursued the case despite warnings about the cost to the taxpayer.\n\n\"These resources would have been better spent addressing the priorities of people in Scotland - such as growing the economy, cutting NHS waiting lists and improving our children's education,\" he said.\n\n\"The UK government now intends to lodge an application with the court seeking our expenses in defending this matter.\"\n\nSpeaking to the Scottish Affairs Committee last week, the Conservative minister said he was \"minded\" to pursue the Scottish government for abound £150,000 in costs relating to the court battle.\n\nThe Scottish Secretary told MPs he was holding discussions with UK government law officers about that possibility.\n\nHe also warned the total cost to the taxpayer could be \"the thick end of £2m\" if the case were to go all the way to the Supreme Court.\n\nThis has been a long and bruising episode for the Scottish government.\n\nPerhaps they have had devastating legal advice, or concluded that this is not a hill they want to keep fighting on - at great expense.\n\nBut their key concern is that it doesn't become an even more damaging affair for the trans community.\n\nIf this were simply a question of the veto power contained in the Scotland Act, ministers might have been tempted to fight on.\n\nThey do not want to give in on the principle of that - but nor do they want to leave a marginalised group at the centre of a constitutional stand-off.\n\nThe promise to keep the bill on ice is mostly a bid to put pressure on a future UK administration, whatever party forms it.\n\nIn practice, the legislation is off the agenda - and the question is now what the government will deliver instead, having long promised to do something for the trans community.\n\nThe Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was backed by MSPs from all parties, passing by 86 votes to 39 following heated debates.\n\nThose opposed to the changes have warned they could risk the safety of women and girls in same-sex spaces such as hospital wards and refuges.\n\nSupporters argued it would make the process of obtaining a gender recognition certificate easier and less traumatic for trans people.\n\nThe legislation would remove the need for trans people to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria by a doctor before they are allowed to change their legally-recognised sex in Scotland, and would lower the age that someone can apply for a GRC from 18 to 16.\n\nThe period in which applicants would need to have lived in their acquired gender would be cut from two years to three months.\n\nScottish Tory justice spokesman Russell Findlay said the announcement was a \"hard won victory\" for opponents of the \"dangerous\" bill.\n\nThe gender recognition reforms have been championed by the SNP's government partners, the Scottish Greens.\n\nGreen equality spokesperson Maggie Chapman said the court ruling was a \"bitter blow\" to trans people, who would now have to \"wait indefinitely\" for the reforms.\n\nAlba Party MSP Ash Regan, who resigned as community safety minister over the bill while formerly an SNP parliamentarian, said the \"sorry and sad episode has created a culture where women are dismissed as transphobes and bigots\".\n\nShe called for the government to apologise and said the law must never be passed.", "Ecuadorean police posted on social media that Mr Armstrong had been found\n\nA prominent businessman from North Yorkshire who was kidnapped in Ecuador has been released from captivity.\n\nColin Armstrong, 78, was abducted on Saturday from a farm he owned near the city of Guayaquil.\n\nMr Armstrong, who also owns the Forbidden Corner visitor attraction in the Yorkshire Dales, is the president of Ecuadorean agriculture firm Agripac.\n\nHis spokesperson Leo Morris said Mr Armstrong was now with the police and authorities in Ecuador.\n\nMr Morris, who manages Forbidden Corner as well as Mr Armstrong's affairs in the UK, said: \"The staff, tenants, farmers and friends of Colin are absolutely delighted at the news. It couldn't have come at a better time.\"\n\nThe businessman would be spending Christmas with his family in South America, he added.\n\nMr Morris also praised the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, saying its staff had done \"a very good job\" of helping the family and keeping them updated.\n\nPosting on X, formerly Twitter, Chris Campbell, the British Ambassador in Ecuador, said he was \"delighted\" Mr Armstrong had been \"safely released\".\n\nAccording to a message from the Ecuadorean police, also posted on X, Mr Armstrong was found on a road near Manabi.\n\nCesar Augusto Zapata Correa, Ecuador's police chief, posted: \"Our units released citizen Colin A, kidnapped a few days ago in Los Rios. At the moment he is safe and healthy.\"\n\nHe added that nine people had been arrested in connection with the kidnap.\n\nMr Armstrong was awarded the OBE and Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George for services to the British Monarchy in 2011.\n\nHe was a former UK honorary consul to Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, a voluntary role which involved supporting British interests and providing support to British nationals who found themselves in difficulty.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Spectacular helicopter shots show the eruption on the island's coast\n\nA volcano that erupted in south-west Iceland on Monday is weakening, although new vents could open at short notice, the country's meteorological office has said.\n\nThe eruption, which took place on the Reykjanes peninsula, came after weeks of intense earthquakes and tremors.\n\nAbout 4,000 people were evacuated last month from Grindavik, a fishing town threatened by the lava flow.\n\nThere are no reports of injuries, but some houses have been damaged.\n\nThe Icelandic Met Office said on Tuesday evening that the eruption \"continues to weaken\", with aerial images showing there are three vents erupting, down from the previous five.\n\nVents are openings on a volcano through which magma erupts or volcanic gases are emitted.\n\nThe Met Office said that, while the eruption continues, \"there is an increased likelihood that more vents may open\" along the original fracture, as well as further north or south, and that the warning time for new vent openings \"could be very short\".\n\nIt earlier warned that pollution from the volcano could reach the capital, Reykjavik, about 42km (26 miles) from Grindavik, although as of mid-morning on Wednesday, this had not happened.\n\nOn Tuesday night, a man had to be rescued by helicopter after getting lost near the eruption site, Icelandic media reported.\n\nAuthorities have warned people to stay away from the area, saying it is not a tourist attraction.\n\nIn 2010, a volcanic eruption caused an ash plume to rise several kilometres into the atmosphere, leading to several days of air travel disruption in Europe.\n\nVolcanologist Dr Evgenia Ilyinskaya told the BBC on Tuesday that there would not be the same level of disruption as 2010, as these volcanoes in south-west Iceland were \"physically not able to generate the same ash clouds\".\n\nSpeaking from Iceland, Dr Ilyinskaya, associate professor of volcanology at Leeds University, said local people had been both \"fearing and waiting for\" the volcano to erupt.\n\nAlso on Tuesday Iceland's foreign minister, Bjarni Benediktsson said on X, formerly Twitter, that \"there are no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland, and international flight corridors remain open\".\n\n\"The jets [of lava] are quite high, so it appears to be a powerful eruption at the beginning,\" he said.\n\nWere you in Iceland when the volcano erupted? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "People walk past a collapsed building in Dahejia town in the worst-hit Jishisan county\n\nRescue efforts for survivors of an earthquake that killed at least 131 in China's north-west are coming to an end.\n\nAuthorities on Wednesday said they were wrapping up operations and would now focus on treating the injured and helping those who lost their homes.\n\nThe 6.2 magnitude quake hit Gansu province Monday night, injuring nearly 1,000 in the mountainous region.\n\nThousands of workers have been operating in sub-zero temperatures.\n\nTemperatures hit -13C (8.7F) on Tuesday, Chinese media reported. Large parts of northern China are caught in a cold snap, with many cities reporting record low temperatures.\n\nSixteen people remain missing in neighbouring Qinghai province, to the south of Gansu.\n\nLocal officials in Jishishan county, the worst-hit in Gansu province, said more than 5,000 buildings in the area had been damaged.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch moment diners sprint out of restaurant as earthquake hits\n\nMany other buildings in the province were hit by mudslides triggered by the quake, while roads were damaged by landslides.\n\nPictures from the region showed entire villages split by the quake, as well as collapsed buildings and houses.\n\nResidents who fled their homes were also shown huddling over makeshift fires at hastily erected evacuation camps.\n\nSurvivors said the tremors had felt like \"being tossed by surging waves\" and recalled rushing out of their apartments.\n\n\"I woke my family up and we rushed down all 16 floors in one breath,\" said one man named Mr Qin by Chinese outlets.\n\nMonday's quake was reported as China's deadliest earthquake since 2014, when more than 600 people were killed by a quake in south-western Yunnan province.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nChinese President Xi Jinping ordered thousands of firemen, soldiers and policemen, as well as medical personnel, to the region, which is among the poorest and most diverse in China.\n\nGansu lies between the Tibetan and Loess plateaus and borders Mongolia. The remote region is one of China's poorest and most ethnically diverse.\n\nThe epicentre of the quake was in Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, home to many Chinese Muslim groups, including the Hui, Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar people.\n\nChinese authorities said the quake measured 6.2 on the Richter scale, while the US Geological Survey (USGS) recorded a magnitude of 5.9 and depth of 10km (6 miles). Dozens of smaller aftershocks followed the initial quake. Officials also warned of possible tremors with a magnitude of more than 5.0 in the coming days.\n\nOfficials had told the BBC on Monday they had limited time to rescue people in the sub-zero conditions.\n\n\"It is too cold to bear... it's -15C [here],\" Wang Yi, chief commander of the Blue Sky Rescue Team, told the BBC. Blue Sky is China's largest non-governmental humanitarian organisation, with more than 30,000 volunteers across the country.\n\nMr Wang said he expected the number of casualties to climb. \"We now need to dig deeper [into the rubble]. But there are no big buildings in the area. So it will rise, but it won't be much,\" he said.\n\nPresident Xi has said \"all efforts should be made to carry out search and rescue, treat the injured in a timely manner, and minimise casualties\".\n\nChina sits in a region where a number of tectonic plates - notably the Eurasian, Indian and Pacific plates - meet. It is particularly prone to earthquakes.\n\nAn earthquake in Yushu in Qinghai province, which is next to Gansu, claimed almost 2,700 lives in 2010.\n\nChina's most devastating earthquake in recent decades was in the south-western province of Sichuan in 2008 when 87,000 people were killed.\n\nIf you are in north west China how have you been affected by the earthquake? Tell us your story by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nYou can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Angus Bain, who is now recovering at home, must spend a year waiting for the outcome of the pioneering operation\n\nAngus Bain has suffered debilitating epileptic fits every Christmas for the past 13 years.\n\nBut this year the 17-year-old is hoping to have a seizure-free festive season, after undergoing life-changing laser brain surgery just 11 weeks ago.\n\nAfter years of enduring almost weekly attacks, they appear to have been virtually eliminated by the pioneering procedure.\n\n\"I've never had such a long period not having a seizure, it's an amazing relief. I'm so happy,\" Angus told BBC Scotland News.\n\n\"Christmas is a big occasion and now it will be even bigger this year.\n\n\"Being able to have this surgery is amazing. I think it could change my life forever by making me able to do the things I haven't been able to do.\"\n\nEach seizure is the equivalent in the energy used to run a marathon\n\nAngus, who lives in Gateside, Fife, was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was four years old.\n\nHis seizures are so severe they leave him wiped out for days afterwards.\n\nIn October a piece of his brain that causes the attacks was removed by laser at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh.\n\nIt will take a year before he can come off the strong medication he is on so his brain recovers from the surgery but it is hoped he will then be seizure-free.\n\nHis mum, Nicki Bain, 48, said: \"Our lives have been consumed with Angus's epilepsy since he was four. He has been on lots of very heavy medication, had wires in his head, brain stimulation, so many tests and scans.\n\n\"The build-up to him having a seizure would last a few days, then after the seizure it would take another couple of days for him to recover, so I don't think he's ever actually had a normal day.\n\n\"He would say, 'I just want to get rid of my epilepsy and get on with my life'.\"\n\nAngus has had many tests and scans in his life\n\nAngus, a pupil at Strathallan School in Perthshire, said that, although it's early days, he was daring to dream he could go skiing.\n\nIt was previously deemed too dangerous for him to ride on a chairlift.\n\n\"In the past it made me feel a bit annoyed and upset that it was holding me back and keeping me from doing sport especially rugby,\" he said.\n\n\"And I might also be able to become a singer now, I'd love to do that as a career and to be able to get my driver's licence, something I've not been allowed to apply for as my seizures were too bad.\n\n\"I wish I could go to parties with my friends. I see photos of all my friends together and I am jealous that I can't go but they can.\n\n\"But it's just been too risky for me with all the seizures I have had.\"\n\nThe pioneering new technology is MRI-guided Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT) surgery - which can reach the centre of the brain.\n\nEdinburgh Children's Hospital Charity said The Welch Trust bought the £140,000 equipment, which costs £15,000 a year to maintain.\n\nNicki, from Gateside, said: \"The process was absolutely mind-blowing and recovery was fast. You'd never know he'd had brain surgery.\n\n\"It's extraordinary that this surgery is now available in Scotland. It's going to change so many lives.\n\n\"For the past 13 years, Angus has had seizures at Christmas time. I can't even put into words what it means to him, and all our family, for him to be seizure-free for Christmas this year.\n\n\"He's a remarkable boy who has shown so much resilience. His future is looking so bright, and we're incredibly proud and excited for him.\"\n\nAngus Bain with his parents and brother in Morocco\n\nDr Jothy Kandasamy, consultant neurosurgeon at the hospital, said: \"For some patients, by replacing invasive neurosurgery with cutting-edge laser therapy, we not only dramatically reduce risks to these patients, but significantly reduce their recovery time too.\n\n\"The laser surgery is a breakthrough for some patients and will give some patients with epilepsy a real chance to live a normal life.\n\n\"The surgery has been life-changing not just for Angus, but for the entire family.\n\n\"These experiences are what drive me. My patients motivate and inspire me to provide the highest level of neurosurgical care possible to change young people's lives.\"\n\nThe scar where the laser went in is minimal on Angus' head\n\nTo qualify for the laser surgery patients must go through months of scans and tests. They must also have continued having seizures despite being on anti-epilepsy medication.\n\nRoslyn Neely, chief executive officer of Edinburgh Children's Hospital Charity, said: \"We are encouraged by the life-changing impact that the laser surgery has had for Angus, and his whole family.\n\n\"What an incredible difference this will make to his future, and that of others living with epilepsy who can now go on to have the surgery.\"\n\nAngus said he now cannot wait for Christmas adding: \"I feel like this is a happy ending because I have been through a lot.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mark Drakeford may be full of Christmas cheer... but he won't be raising a glass in many Conwy pubs\n\nMark Drakeford says he is \"intensely relaxed\" about reports that he is banned from a series of pubs in north Wales.\n\nThe outgoing first minister of Wales said the publicans behind the ban were not in \"any danger\" of him visiting.\n\nHis comments came as the last Labour Senedd member to endorse a candidate in the campaign declared their nomination.\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan said she would support Economy Minister Vaughan Gething.\n\nThe health minister and MS for Mid and West Wales said on social media: \"Vaughan has demonstrated his capabilities for high office throughout the pandemic, making him a valuable candidate with a profound understanding of the NHS for the position of first minister.\"\n\nThe announcement means Mr Gething has 10 supporters in the Senedd Labour group, while 16 are for Education Minister Jeremy Miles.\n\nNeither Mr Drakeford nor his Chief Whip Jane Hutt are expected to nominate a candidate.\n\nSenedd nominations officially close on Thursday, before the vote of the membership opens in February.\n\nMr Drakeford will hand over to either Mr Gething or Mr Miles at the end of March.\n\nThe Local Democracy Reporting Service reported claims last week that he is not welcome in 90 pubs in Conwy.\n\nThe protest dates back to restrictions imposed during the Covid pandemic in hospitality.\n\nIn an interview with the PA news agency, Mr Drakeford said: \"I find myself intensely relaxed at this.\n\n\"They are not in any danger of me visiting, so they can be relaxed as well.\"\n\nMeanwhile Mr Drakeford said he would refuse a peerage if asked.\n\n\"I will not be looking to, if I were ever to be asked, become a member of an unelected House of Lords.\"\n\nHe added: \"I simply don't believe that that is the right way to run things in a democracy.\"\n\nLabour promises to replace the lords with an elected second chamber to be called the Assembly of the Nations and Regions.\n\n\"I think they are very important reforms,\" Mr Drakeford said. \"I don't say for a minute that they all have to be done on the first day, but there is a journey of House of Lords reform that we need to embark upon.\n\n\"The fact that there are hereditary peers still making laws in this country is surely, well if I was to call it a democratic anachronism that would be giving you the kindest description I can think of.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Spectacular helicopter shots show the eruption on the island's coast\n\nIn normal years, the Christmas lights around Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, would steal the show.\n\nHuge effort is poured into the festive illuminations.\n\nBut this December, the violent light and sound show that erupted along the Reykjanes peninsula has overshadowed everything.\n\n\"It's a bit stressful,\" says 63-year-old Andrzej, with an understatement characteristic of many we meet.\n\nThe former fisherman was among the 4,000 residents of Grindavik who were evacuated last month over fears the volcano would blow.\n\n\"It's a wonderful, great town. But we're always very worried Grindavik will disappear from the map.\"\n\nIceland has been braced for volcanic activity around its south-west coast for weeks, as the area has been experiencing an uptick in earthquake activity.\n\nA police officer near the volcano spoke to the BBC on Wednesday morning.\n\nShe said nobody is currently allowed near the volcano - only scientists and responders accompanied by the police.\n\nThat's because it's too dangerous, and the terrain is unpredictable.\n\n\"Now, the priority for the police is to try and save the town of Grindavik as it could be damaged by the lava. We are working on a plan on how to do that,\" said the police officer.\n\n\"We will probably go back to people's houses and pick up their most important belongings. It will not be today, as it's too dangerous - likely tomorrow.\n\n\"The people who have been evacuated will almost certainly not be allowed to return home in time for Christmas,\" she said.\n\nA photo taken with a drone on Tuesday shows lava and smoke spewing from the volcano near the town of Grindavik\n\nOn Wednesday, we met Andrzej - who is originally from Poland - at a counselling session at a centre run by local authorities and the Red Cross.\n\n\"They're really great here,\" he said. \"Today I've been talking to a social worker, which I'm finding really helpful.\"\n\nDespite the emotional toll of experiencing four volcano eruptions here, he says he won't abandon his town.\n\n\"No, I'm not afraid of going back. If it starts to shake again, I'm just going to leave. \"\n\nFormer fisherman Andrezj has lived through four volcanic eruptions\n\nInside the centre, a boy and a girl play in a soft area. There's Lego, cuddly dinosaurs and crayons.\n\nCake, fruit salads and coffee await the parents who come here and try to plan the next few weeks of their upended lives.\n\nIt's here that we meet father-of-three Eggert Solberg Jonsson.\n\n\"I think many were afraid to see the images and the videos, but the kids in Grindavik are used to it\"\n\nEggert works as an official in the area that's been evacuated and says the main priority is looking after the 500 children aged six to 16 at the elementary school.\n\n\"We are living in a place where there's lava all around the town. And it is what it is, living in Iceland. There are threats in every town. Our threat is this volcano.\"\n\nEggert's wife is a teacher at the school. They have been trying to find alternative accommodation with their two sons, aged five and 11, and their eight-year-old daughter in the five weeks since they were evacuated.\n\n\"We are fortunate that some friends have just said we can stay until the spring so the next few months,\" he explains.\n\n\"Not all people are as lucky as we are - but the safety net here is strong.\"\n\nGrindavik will always be a great place to live, says Eggert\n\nEggert says his children are doing incredibly well in the circumstances but says he feels sorry for them being away from home this Christmas.\n\n\"But the volcano is part of their lives. They need to go back home and so do we. I hope we can go home as soon as possible.\n\n\"This is a unique location and will always be a great place to live.\"\n\nThe new reality facing the 4,000 evacuees is a stark contrast with the experience of many tourists who can't believe their luck.\n\nAbout 40 minutes' drive away, at the edge of the exclusion zone, emergency services have been moving on the visitors who've been trying to stop at the side of the dual carriageway to try to film the volcano.\n\nGuorun, who works for the Iocal authority, was trying to look after the arrivals.\n\n\"We are fully prepared. Everyone today went to work, and went ahead with their normal lives. We know how to deal with these situations. The only people here taking pictures and videos are tourists.\"\n\nOnlookers gather to watch the lava flow after a volcanic eruption near the town of Grindavik\n\nTwo American friends, George and Matt, were visiting from Chicago with their two young children. They were taking selfies with the bright orange lava forming a spectacular backdrop.\n\n\"This is awesome! It's a force of nature!\"\n\nGeorge's daughter said she was hypnotised by the flames and could hardly look away.\n\nGeorge said: \"It's like when in the US you see a hurricane on TV… you can't look away. But here, we can actually see it happening in real life. I'll never forget it.\"\n\nEven from a distance, you can hear the rumbling of the volcano. And the smell of the smoke hangs in the icy air.", "A woman and her child were left shaken but unhurt when a car veered off a road and flipped on its side right in front of them.\n\nThe crash happened on Warwick Road in Olton, Solihull, at about 16:00 GMT on Saturday, West Midlands Police said.\n\nCCTV footage showed the woman pushing her child in a buggy before the Peugeot mounted pavement, hit a post and turned over.\n\nThe woman driving the car suffered cuts, said the force, adding an investigation was under way and it was reviewing footage.", "TV presenter Phil Spencer's parents died as a result of an accident after their car overturned in a river, a coroner has concluded.\n\nAnne Spencer died after the car she was driving tipped over the edge of a bridge and plunged into the Nailbourne River in Littlebourne, Kent.\n\nShe was travelling with her husband Richard, who also died.\n\nIn Maidstone, coroner Sarah Clarke said: \"These circumstances are some of the most tragic I have heard.\"\n\nMr Spencer, 89, known as David, and Ms Spencer, 82, were chatting as they drove to a family lunch when the car \"veered very slightly\" on 18 August, the coroner said.\n\nThe couple, who were farmers, were submerged in about three feet of water and were pronounced dead at Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate.\n\nTheir carer, who was in the back of the car, escaped through a window.\n\nMrs Spencer was taken to the QEQM hospital, where she was later pronounced dead\n\nA police report read at the inquest said it was a \"most tragic incident\" and that a momentary lapse in concentration had caused the car to slip, despite Ms Spencer being familiar with the road.\n\nThe report said the bridge was primarily used as access for those residing and working on the farm, where Mr and Ms Spencer had lived and worked their whole adult lives.\n\nThe bridge was described as needing a \"great deal of care as it's extremely narrow\" and had \"limited visibility\" for the driver.\n\nThe coroner also said Ms Spencer had passed a driving check five months earlier, in March.\n\nMs Spencer's medical cause of death was previously confirmed as aspiration pneumonia, hypoxic-ischaemic brain injury and near drowning.\n\nHypoxic-ischemic brain injury is caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain, while aspiration pneumonia is an infection of the lungs caused by inhaling food or liquid.\n\nMr Spencer died from a lung injury called aspiration pneumonitis due to near drowning.\n\nAt the time, Phil Spencer said: \"As a family, we are all trying to hold on to the fact mum and dad went together and that neither will ever have to mourn the loss of the other one. Which is a blessing in itself.\"\n\nHe added that with his mother having Parkinson's and his dad having dementia, the \"long-term future was set to be a challenge\" but described his parents as being \"amazing\".\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "Sydney Sweeney is best known for her roles in Euphoria and White Lotus\n\nSydney Sweeney has spoken about the impact of the death of her Euphoria co-star Angus Cloud on her and her castmates.\n\nIn an interview with Glamour, the 26-year-old said Cloud's death in August came as \"such a shock\".\n\nWhen they heard the news, the cast \"were constantly on the phone with each other crying\", the actress said.\n\nCloud, who played drug dealer Fezco in the teen drama, was 25 when he died of an accidental drug overdose.\n\nHBO's hit series follows a group of troubled high school students with hard-hitting storylines. It is returning for a third season in 2025, with filming beginning next year.\n\n\"I don't think it'll truly feel real or hit me until we're filming and I won't see Angus on set,\" Sweeney told Glamour.\n\nAngus Cloud and Sydney Sweeney pictured at the 2021 GQ Men of the Year Party\n\n\"[At least] when we are filming, all of our eyes are on each other and we're there for each other, just in a different way than we're able to when we're all in very separate places in the world.\n\n\"It's really interesting when someone passes away in our industry, because they're still alive in so many forms.\"\n\nShortly after Cloud's death, Sweeney, who is also known for her role in White Lotus, posted a tribute on Instagram.\n\n\"You will be missed more than you know, but I'm so blessed to have known you in this lifetime, and I'm sure everyone who has ever met you feels the same,\" she wrote.\n\n\"This heartache is real and I wish we could've had one more hug and 711 run. All my love is with you.\"\n\nCloud's father had recently died, and the actor's family said he had \"intensely struggled with this loss\".\n\nZendaya started out on such Disney Channel shows as Shake It Up and KC Undercover\n\nAfter first airing in June 2019, Euphoria quickly became a hit and was nominated for best drama series at last year's Emmy Awards.\n\nThe main character Rue, played by Zendaya, was introduced as a 17-year-old drug addict fresh out of rehab.\n\nSweeney, who plays Cassie, a teenager with a promiscuous reputation, said the role was an emotional outlet for her.\n\n\"Cassie is definitely the closest - especially in season one - to me that I've played and she means a lot to me. But it's almost like therapy: where I can let out so much… that when I go home, I feel free.\"", "Dr Emma Walker is a lecturer but is left with less than £100 per month after bills are paid\n\nWith the prospect of a deal to restore devolution in Northern Ireland ruled out before Christmas, people have now been living without a functioning executive for nearly two years.\n\nThe Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) collapsed the power-sharing institutions in early 2022 in protest over post-Brexit trade rules.\n\nIt was hoped an agreement to restore Stormont could have been reached before parliamentary recess on Tuesday.\n\nBut a DUP spokesperson said on Monday that the party would not be \"calendar-led\".\n\nSo what are some of the big issues affecting lives in Northern Ireland as it remains in political limbo?\n\nShe and partner Alison pay nearly £2,000 a month in childcare for three-year-old twins Ivy and Jonah.\n\n\"Last month I ran out of money,\" she said.\n\n\"My father had to help pay for me to get the train to work. I don't think people quite realise, it's embarrassing to have to do that.\n\n\"That is literally where I'm at. I have no money.\n\n\"Once I give all my childcare and pay my bills and my transport to and from work, I'm left with about £80 a month.\n\n\"If I struggle in my profession, in my line of work, I can't bear to think about how other people cope.\"\n\nEarlier this year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced an expansion of free childcare support, but that wasn't implemented in Northern Ireland.\n\nDr Walker hopes a new Executive will change that.\n\n\"The chokehold that's over this country - there's no prosperity, public services, everything has ground to a halt.\n\n\"You're voted in by people and you're letting us down,\" she said.\n\n\"It is so frustrating and I just wish, and I hope, that when they do get back up and running that they can see from stories like us what it's really like to be a citizen here and that they try to improve our lives. That's what they're paid to do.\"\n\nNorthern Ireland's hospital waiting lists are the worst in the United Kingdom.\n\nShe's been told she will have to wait up to three years to be seen at a pain clinic.\n\nNorthern Ireland's waiting lists mean patients like Hazel are waiting years for treatment\n\n\"On a good day my levels are an eight out of ten,\" she said.\n\n\"On a bad day, they're an eleven out of ten. It's as if someone is injecting acid into you.\"\n\nHazel said she was \"saddened and angered\" to be told how long she would have to wait for hospital treatment.\n\n\"I feel like I've been left on a shelf, like many other disabled people,\" she said. \"It's like you have to wait and they'll deal with you when they get around to it.\"\n\nLiam McGuckin, principal of Greenisland Primary School in Carrickfergus, is due to retire at the end of the year.\n\n\"I've been teaching just over 35 years and I have to say that, unfortunately, the system is crumbling,\" he said.\n\n\"Teachers, classroom assistants, school leaders are demoralised in Northern Ireland. We don't have the support we need, our children are not getting the education they deserve.\"\n\nHeadteacher Liam McGuckin is set to retire before Stormont is restored\n\nMr McGuckin said it's time for the institutions to be restored for the future of education.\n\n\"Our politicians have been at fault for this so they need to take action now and get back to work, and they need to get our schools back on a firm footing for the next decade.\n\n\"Our teachers and school leaders do a brilliant job but schools in other places get more funding and they do better. We can do better.\"\n\nSharon Caldwell runs Antrim's baby bank which supplies basic items to new parents like nappies, clothes and buggies.\n\nShe said demand has doubled over the past few months alone as people continue to struggle with the cost-of-living crisis.\n\n\"One of the things I've seen is more people come who normally wouldn't have found themselves in this place,\" she told BBC News.\n\n\"More people who are working, more people who would normally think that they could make it themselves.\n\n\"So many people are struggling to make ends meet,\" she said.\n\nMore people are turning to schemes like Antrim's baby bank due to rising costs, Sharon says\n\nSharon had a message for politicians in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"Parents should always be at the forefront of government's thinking because I think it's very important that not a single child goes without their basic essentials.\n\n\"I wish the need wasn't there but it most definitely is. I know there are other baby banks popping up across the country because people need them.\n\n\"I would just love us to be in a place where there is no child that goes without,\" she said.", "Francis was behind what has been described as one of the most embarrassing incidents in the US Navy's history\n\nAn infamous fugitive billionaire - known as Fat Leonard - has been released as part of a prisoner swap with Venezuela, the White House has confirmed.\n\nThe fugitive, whose real name is Leonard Glenn Francis, masterminded a $35m (£30m) fraud against the US Navy. He escaped from US custody in 2022.\n\nTen US citizens held in Venezuela were released as part of the deal.\n\nIn exchange, the US released Alex Saab, an aide to Venezuela's president.\n\nFrancis, the most high-profile prisoner involved in the deal, was detained in September 2022 trying to board a flight from Venezuela to Russia while on the run from US authorities.\n\nThe Malaysian businessman had escaped house arrest in California two weeks earlier, where he was being held after admitting to his role in a sprawling scam that cost the US tens of millions of dollars and implicated dozens of navy officers.\n\nProsecutors say he used his Singapore-based business - which had contracts to service US naval vessels - to defraud the US Navy, while also plying American officers with cash and gifts as bribes.\n\nCourt documents filed as part of his plea agreement accused Francis of giving US officials millions of dollars worth of gifts, which included lavish trips, \"top-shelf alcohol and wine\", Spanish suckling pigs, Cuban cigars and access to prostitution services.\n\nFrancis was first arrested in 2013, and pleaded guilty to offering $500,000 (£444,000) in bribes in 2015.\n\nJournalist Tom Wright, who made a podcast with Francis entitled Fat Leonard, told the BBC that Francis made \"huge amounts of money\" after the 9/11 terror attacks by overcharging the US Navy.\n\nMr Wright added that Francis had agreed to do the podcast as he was \"furious\" over what he saw as a cover-up. \"Admiral after admiral who were involved with him were not taken to court criminally. In the US, it was more lower level officers [who were taken to court].\"\n\nIn a statement, President Joe Biden said Francis will now be \"sentenced for his lead role in a brazen bribery and corruption case\".\n\nAlluding to the other US nationals released by Venezuela, he added: \"I am grateful that their ordeal is finally over, and that these families are being made whole once more.\"\n\nThe swap deal will also see Mr Saab, a close aide of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, returned.\n\nHe faced allegations of laundering money on behalf of the Maduro government, which he denied.\n\nMr Saab was extradited to the US in 2021 after being arrested during a stopover in Cape Verde.\n\nThe agreement sees the US release an aide close to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro\n\nThe Maduro government has long demanded the release of Mr Saab, whom it describes as a \"diplomat\".\n\nThe Colombian-born businessman was on his way to Iran when he was detained on an Interpol \"red notice\" while his plane refuelled in Cape Verde in 2020.\n\nThe Venezuelan government described him as an \"envoy\" and argued that he had been travelling to Iran to buy medical supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nBut Cape Verde ruled that he did not have diplomatic status and extradited him to the US, where he was charged with money laundering and bribery.\n\nAccording to US prosecutors, Mr Saab siphoned off $350m (£276m) from Venezuelan government contracts by fraudulently using favourable exchange rates.\n\nAlex Saab's wife, Camilla Fabri, is in Venezuela as her home country of Italy has issued an arrest warrant for her\n\nHe then allegedly laundered the money in the US before finally transferring it to accounts controlled by him and his alleged associate.\n\nThe US treasury department has described Mr Saab as a \"profiteer orchestrating a vast corruption network\" that it says enabled \"President Nicolás Maduro and his regime to significantly profit from food imports and distribution in Venezuela\".\n\nMr Saab has denied the charges and the Maduro government has stood by him, even walking out of US-backed talks with the Venezuelan opposition in protest at Mr Saab's extradition in 2021.\n\nThe White House also said Joseph Cristella, Eyvin Hernandez, Jerrel Kenemore, and Savoi Wright were among those released.\n\nIt classes six of the 10 Americans released by Venezuela as having been \"wrongfully detained\".\n\nThe White House also said Venezuela had agreed to release 20 Venezuelan political prisoners, as well as opposition figure Roberto Abdul, and had committed to suspending the arrest warrants of three other Venezuelans.\n\nThis is not the first prisoner swap the US and Venezuela have agreed.\n\nIn October 2022, Venezuela freed seven jailed US citizens in exchange for the release of two nephews of Mr Maduro's wife.\n\nKnown as the \"narco-nephews\", the two men had been serving 18-year sentences in the US for attempting to smuggle cocaine into the US.\n\nRelations between the two countries eased further in October this year when the US agreed to loosen its sanctions on Venezuela in exchange for President Maduro agreeing to allow international observers to monitor next year's presidential election.\n\nBut the US has since reiterated its demand that US citizens \"wrongfully detained\" in Venezuela be freed and threatened to reimpose sanctions if progress was not made on the issue.\n\nHuman rights groups in Venezuela have reacted to the news by demanding that the close to 300 people they list as political prisoners in Venezuelan jails also be freed.", "Ella Smith was killed after a car she was a passenger in crashed in June 2021\n\nTwo 21-year-old learner drivers killed a passenger in a crash after driving dangerously and \"competitively\".\n\nJago Clarke and Emma Price were seen swerving their vehicles before Ella Smith's Ford Ka, which Clarke was driving, collided with another car.\n\nMiss Smith, also 21, from Camrose, near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, died at the scene of the crash on 13 June 2021.\n\nBoth have been found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving following a trial at Swansea Crown Court.\n\nClarke, of Sunningdale Drive, Hubberston, Milford Haven, told the jury he had no memory of the crash after suffering a bleed on the brain, two collapsed lungs and being placed in a coma for two days.\n\nThe blue Citroen driven by Price, of Holloway, Haverfordwest, was not physically involved in the collision, but prosecutors argued she was equally responsible due to the manner of her driving.\n\nThe crash occurred as the group approached Portfield Gate on the B4341 in Pembrokeshire\n\nThe court heard that Ms Smith had met Clarke and Price at Broad Haven beach before the group set off towards Haverfordwest, with Clarke driving Ms Smith's Ford Ka.\n\nAs the group approached the village of Portfield Gate on the B4341, Clarke lost control on a bend and clipped the nearside verge before careering across the road and into the path of an oncoming Seat.\n\nMiss Smith suffered catastrophic injuries in the collision and died at the scene.\n\nThe passenger in the Seat, Daisy Buck, was badly injured and had to undergo surgery.\n\nPrice, giving evidence in the trial, denied \"racing\" with Clarke on the day and denied positioning her Citroen in the road to stop Clarke from overtaking her.\n\nThe trial also heard evidence from Luis Heathfield, a friend who was driving a third car in the convoy ahead of Clarke and Price.\n\nMr Heathfield said Clarke, who he had seen drinking alcohol at the beach, was \"bragging\" about driving and being \"cocky,\" and said he warned Clarke not to drive because it was \"stupid.\"\n\nHe told the court that near to the crash site he could see in his rear view mirrors that both cars behind him were \"swerving\" and said he thought Price was trying to stop Clarke from passing her.\n\nMr Heathfield added that he then saw Clarke's car pull in to the left and clip the kerb before \"twisting and turning\" and crossing into the opposite carriageway into the path of the oncoming Seat.\n\nBoth Clarke and Price were found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by driving.\n\nPrice was also found guilty of causing death by driving while unlicensed and uninsured.\n\nThe pair will be sentenced on 19 January.", "Joe Biden is caught in a dilemma with no good options - to get what he wants, the US president may have to reward his political enemies while angering his allies. That's an uncomfortable position ahead of an election year.\n\nThis week began with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visiting Washington to plead for more US military aid from Congress.\n\nIt ended with Mr Biden and Senate Democrats considering just how far they would be willing to bend in order to fulfil his wish - and just how angry they would be willing to make members of their own party in the process.\n\nRepublicans are setting conditions for more Ukraine aid - included in a $100bn (£82bn) package that also contains support for Israel and Taiwan - that begin and end with immigration.\n\nThat includes not just more money for border security, but also significant changes to the way in which undocumented migrants at the US-Mexico border seeking asylum protections are processed.\n\nAmong the measures under consideration are raising the bar for migrants to qualify for asylum consideration in the US and making it easier to deport undocumented entrants without a hearing when border-crossings surge.\n\nThe Biden administration reportedly wants to preserve the president's flexibility to provide exceptions to these rules.\n\nThe White House would not comment on what hard-line Republican options might be on the table. It is clear, however, exactly how angry some Democrats on the left would be if Mr Biden agreed to such changes.\n\n\"I thought I entered a time machine back to the Trump era,\" Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey said at a Congressional Hispanic Caucus rally on the steps of the US Capitol.\n\n\"I could not comprehend how a Democratic president who vehemently countered Trump's policies as a candidate is seriously putting forward the most Trumpian anti-immigrant proposal.\"\n\nActivists urge the White House to reject Republican proposals for the border\n\nOther legislators condemned the negotiations as a Republican trap and expressed outrage that liberal legislators and Hispanic politicians were left out of the closed-door meetings.\n\nThey said the Biden administration would never consider bargaining away other liberal priorities like abortion freedoms, education or civil rights in exchange for a one-time foreign aid bill.\n\nWhy, they asked, was immigration different?\n\nPublic opinion polling provides a clue. While Democrats have majorities on their side for many of their political priorities, a recent Wall Street Journal poll indicated that 64% of Americans disapproved of Mr Biden's handling of border security.\n\nAnd by a 54% to 24% margin, respondents said Donald Trump, not Mr Biden, was \"best able\" to secure the border.\n\nBeto O'Rourke, who once represented the Texas border town of El Paso in Congress and ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, tells BBC's Americast that Mr Biden needs to reclaim the moral high ground in the immigration debate.\n\nHe wants the president to point out what he says was the cruelty of the Trump-era policies Republicans want to enshrine into law.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"We have not heard that recently from Joe Biden,\" he said. \"And we're not seeing that right now in his policies. But I believe he'll do the right thing.\"\n\nMr O'Rourke knows first-hand how hard an issue immigration can be for Democrats.\n\nLast year, he tried to defeat Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott by running a campaign that emphasised abortion rights and gun control, among other issues. The governor focused like a laser on immigration - and ended up winning by almost 11%.\n\n\"If the president and his administration are not able to offer a comprehensive vision and strategy and demonstrate that they have control over the challenges on the border, it opens the field to Donald Trump on a national level,\" Mr O'Rourke said.\n\nMembers of the House of Representatives have already left Washington for the winter holidays, but senators will be back next week to try to hammer out a deal that includes Ukraine aid and immigration reform.\n\nIt's a hint of progress for the administration - and the opportunity to achieve a foreign policy goal while, perhaps, addressing a political weakness that has bedevilled Mr Biden.\n\nThe potential risk of alienating liberal allies whose faith in the president has been strained by the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza as well as concessions during budget negotiations earlier this year is high, however.\n\n\"For Biden, we're invisible,\" Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois said at the Capitol on Wednesday.\n\n\"They don't do any outreach. They don't do any consultation.\" And that, he continued, would have electoral consequences.\n\n\"Latinos won't come out to vote,\" he said. \"And our efforts to knock on their doors to canvass and to get them out to vote will only become increasingly more difficult.\"\n\nThe president is caught in a bind. What happens next week will help determine how - or if - he can find a way out.", "Rama Zaqout (left) was injured in an Israeli air strike that killed several of her family members\n\nThe children at al-Aqsa hospital do not think of the dead of Gaza in figures of thousands. Theirs is a more intimate reckoning. It is counted in beloved faces that have vanished into the fire and rubble of the war.\n\nThirteen-year-old Rama Zaqout was sleeping when an Israeli missile struck the mosque in which she was sheltering with her family.\n\nShe woke in hospital to discover that her two-year-old brother Hisham and many other family members were dead.\n\nShe lists the names of those killed in a voice that seems detached from the immense loss she has experienced. It is the voice of a child still in shock at the loss of her grandparents, Hashim, Issam and Ni'ma, her aunt Reem, and her cousins Sireen, Riham and Asma. Sireen was pregnant and had a young daughter. That child was also among the dead.\n\nRama survived with severe wounds to her left hand and right leg, but the hospital does not have the facilities to treat her injuries properly. If she is not evacuated from Gaza, she says, both limbs will be amputated.\n\n\"Running and drawing were once my best hobbies,\" Rama says, \"but without the proper treatment, I won't be able to enjoy them again… I dream of a life like other children around the world, where I can again run and draw.\"\n\nNear to where Rama lies, there is another girl - about 10 years old - who lies strapped into a medical brace. She appears to have suffered a serious back injury. Somebody has given the child some Barbie dolls to play with and a plastic tiara to wear. They are symbols of a vanished normality in a place of the dead and maimed.\n\nMore than 52,000 people have been injured in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry\n\nShe picks up a doll with red hair and caresses it gently. A small child's screaming erupts from another ward. Adult voices can be heard trying to console him. The girl with the doll does not react, as if she is trying to close herself into a world that war cannot reach.\n\nOutside the hospital, the soundscape of Gaza is dominated by the rumble of jets, the constant whine of the military drones and the explosions when they find their target.\n\nFor 24-year-old Tala Abu Nahel, who lives in Rafah in a house shared with nine other families, there is a belief that survival is a matter of luck.\n\nWe first interviewed Tala more than a month ago, when she tried to escape Gaza with her severely disabled brother, Yazid, aged 17. They were turned back as they did not have foreign passports. Yazid suffers chronic seizures, made much worse now by the absence of medication.\n\nTala explains the psychological torment of living under constant threat of attack.\n\n\"Every time I hear like a rocket or bomb that's going to drop on people… it's horrible to say this, but sort of it gives me this, this sort of relief, that it's not us,\" she says. \"But that does not mean that we're fully safe. It's like every day it feels like we're next. And it feels like we're just getting by on luck. I don't think I have any more hope.\"\n\nSitting in his wheelchair in the garden of the house in Rafah, Yazid glances repeatedly upwards in the direction of the drones. Tala strokes her brother's hand to comfort him.\n\nTala (left) and her brother Yazid (right) were turned back at the border when they tried to leave Gaza\n\n\"It's been over 70 days, with nothing changing. It keeps getting worse,\" she says. \"I think what I fear the most is that I don't want to be a number. I just don't want to die or get killed to be another one of those 20,000 people who got killed.\"\n\nThe people of Gaza grieve their dead and live in fear of dying themselves. They flee from one unsafe place to another. They endure this because they have no choice. Every border is closed to them.\n\nEach day, the funerals of their dead bring forth corpses of all ages, wrapped in white shrouds or in plastic body bags.\n\nAt the Nasser Medical Complex, a boy prostrates himself on the body of his father lying among a group of corpses. He spreads his arms to hug the dead man, his fingers grasping the plastic sheeting.\n\n\"Our dad,\" he sobs, \"I can't take it any more.\"\n\nAn older male relative reaches in to stroke his arm. But the child is beyond consolation. Eventually he is gently drawn away from his father. The men begin to lift the corpses, one holding each end of the body bag. They move through the gates where they stop and pray for the dead.\n\nBarring a sudden declaration of ceasefire, the same rituals of mourning will be repeated tomorrow by different families in the same small place.", "The eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula has been seen across the world, with spectacular aerial shots showing the scale of the volcanic activity.\n\nThe intensity has diminished on its second day but nearby communities remain off limits for at least a week.\n\nIt spewed lava and smoke more than 100 metres (330 feet) into the air after weeks of waiting on the seismic activity.", "Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said the reform represented an \"ideological victory\" for her party\n\nThe amended bill was backed by both President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Renaissance party and Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN).\n\nThe vote divided Mr Macron's party, and Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau resigned in protest.\n\nLeaders of a third of French regions said they would not comply with certain measures in the law.\n\nA previous draft was rejected by parliament last week when the National Rally as well as the left voted against. In response, the government redrafted the bill, making some of its provisions tougher.\n\nThe new legislation makes it more difficult for migrants to bring family members to France and delays their access to welfare benefits.\n\nIt also bans detaining minors in detention centres.\n\nA controversial provision discriminates between citizens and migrants, even those living in the country legally, in determining eligibility for benefits.\n\nThe tougher version appealed to right-wing parties, who backed it on Monday.\n\nMs Le Pen welcomed the amended bill, calling it an \"ideological victory\" for the far-right.\n\n\"This is our bill,\" said Eric Ciotti, the leader of the right-wing Republican party. He called it \"firm and courageous\".\n\nBut left-wingers said Mr Macron was enabling the far-right. \"History will remember those who betrayed their convictions,\" Socialist party leader Olivier Faure said.\n\n32 of France's 101 departments, including Paris, said they would refuse to implement the provisions of the law on benefits for non-citizens.\n\nThe French vote came hours before an EU agreement to reform the asylum system across the bloc's 27 member states.\n\nThe new pact, agreed by EU governments and European Parliament members, includes creating border detention centres and enabling the quicker deportation of rejected asylum seekers.\n\nHailed as a landmark agreement by Parliament President Roberta Metsola, the new system allows asylum seekers to be relocated from southern member states, which have the highest numbers of arrivals, to other countries.\n\nIt still has to be formally approved by the Parliament and member states.\n\nThe new French legislation exposed divisions within the governing alliance. 27 MPs voted against while 32 abstained - almost a quarter of pro-Macron MPs.\n\nHealth Minister Aurélien Rousseau, who was a member of the Communist party in his youth, stepped down in protest at the immigration law.\n\n\"Some measures in the bill make me very uncomfortable,\" said Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the lower house of parliament and a member of Mr Macron's party.\n\nThe bill would have passed if Ms Le Pen's party had abstained, though not if it had voted against. The government pointed to the size of its majority to argue that it did not depend on National Rally votes.\n\nSpeaking after the vote, the prime minister accepted some measures in the law might not be constitutional.\n\n\"We will ask the Constitutional Council,\" she told French radio, referring to a top court which upholds the constitution's principles.\n\nHuman rights groups denounced the new reform as the most regressive immigration law for decades.\n\nMr Macron's party lost its majority in parliament in elections in June 2022. Since then, the government has frequently found itself unable to win votes in parliament.++", "Dominic West played Prince Charles in the last two seasons, with Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana\n\nThe Crown star Dominic West has said he can understand the criticism of the show's depiction of royal life.\n\nThe sixth and final season of the Netflix hit dramatised events including the death of Princess Diana.\n\nWest, who played Prince Charles in the last two seasons, said: \"I can understand why people think this is too close to the actual events and that the grief is still so real.\"\n\nHe said he \"did think a lot about that\" before taking the role. \"I still do.\"\n\nWest told BBC Radio 5 Live he had persuaded himself that the Royal Family were \"fair game\" - but he was \"uncomfortable\" with that idea.\n\nIn recent years, the show has faced growing criticism for using artistic licence to portray private royal life and sensitive events.\n\nLast month, the Guardian's review said it \"borders on the exploitative\", while the Telegraph called it \"intrusive and clumsy\".\n\nShowing Prince Harry's imagined reaction to being told about his mother's death amounted to \"intruding upon the worst moment of someone's life for the purpose of entertainment\", the Telegraph said.\n\nThe Times' TV critic praised the first part of the final series, despite the fact it was \"obviously mining tragedy for ratings\".\n\nSpeaking to 5 Live's Nihal Arthanayake, West said: \"I acknowledge that there's discomfort about it, and I can see why people think that way, and I have persuaded myself that the Royal Family are public property and therefore fair game.\n\n\"But I'm still uncomfortable with the thought of anyone being fair game or anyone's private life being made public.\"\n\nHowever, he put his trust in writer Peter Morgan, and \"he's a proven great dramatist so that trust was easy to give\", the actor added.\n\nAlthough he felt conflicted over the role, West told 5 Live: \"Someone like me can't turn down a part like Charles. He's so interesting. He's so complex.\n\n\"I did agonise for a while about it, but my wife tells me the result was always inevitable.\"\n\nHe jokingly added that one of the negatives when he considered the part was that he had to \"forgo the British Empire Medal that I might have got for services to acting\".\n\nThe final season, which also includes Prince William meeting Kate Middleton and Princess Margaret's death, was met with generally negative reviews from critics.\n\nBoth the Independent and The Telegraph gave the season two-star reviews, with the latter writing that \"a once fine drama abdicates with a miserable whimper\".", "Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride has signalled his support for another parliamentary vote on assisted dying.\n\nHe said there was no fresh legislation in the works, but he \"would not be averse\" to a new Commons debate.\n\nA bill to legalise assisted dying in the UK was defeated in 2015. Another Tory MP, Alicia Kearns, said national discourse had changed since then.\n\nThe issue is under discussion after Esther Rantzen announced she had joined the Dignitas assisted dying clinic.\n\nDame Esther, 83, has stage-four lung cancer and told BBC Radio 4's The Today Podcast on Monday that she planned to \"buzz off to Zurich\" - where the practice is legal - if her treatment did not work.\n\nAssisted suicide is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. While there is no specific offence of assisted suicide in Scotland, euthanasia is illegal and can be prosecuted as murder or culpable homicide.\n\nMr Stride, one of 27 Conservative MPs who voted for the 2015 bill, said he thought some MPs could be wondering \"whether this should be something we look at again\".\n\n\"The government has not decided to bring forward legislation,\" he told the Today programme on Wednesday, \"but if Parliament in some form or another decided that it wanted to have a fresh look at this, given it was some years ago that we last did so, that's not something that I would be resistant to.\"\n\nThe minister said he understood both arguments for and against assisted dying.\n\nHe said someone should have the \"maximum opportunity to have control of the end of their life\", but also people must not be allowed to \"use any legislation to cajole people into taking these kinds of decisions when it's not really in their best interests\".\n\nDame Esther announced in January that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer\n\nTwo other MPs now in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's cabinet also voted in favour of assisted dying eight years ago - Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer and Andrew Mitchell, the development minister.\n\nMPs voted by 330 to 118 against a change in the law then, but there are now questions around when another vote could take place.\n\nMs Kearns, who chairs the foreign affairs select committee, said she thought there had been \"a fundamental shift in the country, but also in parliament\" since 2015.\n\n\"The amount of my colleagues who say 'I've reflected, I've changed my views'… I really do think that the national conversation has changed,\" she told the BBC, adding: \"In my opinion, assisted dying is not about ending life, it's about shortening death.\"\n\nHealth Secretary Victoria Atkins would not be drawn on her feelings about the highly sensitive issue. \"It has to be a matter for parliament and individual MPs,\" she said, pointing out that the last vote was on a Private Members' Bill.\n\nMichael Gove, another Tory minister, said he thought it would be \"appropriate\" for the Commons to \"revisit\" the issue of assisted dying - but conceded he personally was \"not yet persuaded\" on the issue.\n\nMeanwhile, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson agreed that there was an \"argument for having a vote\".\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday, Dame Esther encouraged MPs discussing the topic to think of their own loved ones \"maybe who are older, maybe who are unwell, and think how you would wish them to spend their last days and weeks\".\n\n\"It is agonising to watch someone you love suffer - nobody wants that for their family,\" she told the PA news agency, following reaction to her BBC interview. \"And we live in a day and age when it's perfectly possible to offer people a gentle, peaceful death.\"\n\nThis file photo from 2022 shows protesters from the Dignity in Dying campaign outside Westminster\n\nDavid Sowry took his wife to Dignitas to help her end her life. Christy had multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease that affects nerves in the brain and spinal cord.\n\nDignitas is a not-for-profit Swiss organisation that provides physician-assisted dying to members who, in its words, have illnesses \"that will lead inevitably to death, unendurable pain or an unendurable disability\" and who have made a \"reasoned request\" with medical proof.\n\nSpeaking on the Today programme, Mr Sowry read out a letter that his wife wrote at the time to explain her decision to family and friends.\n\n\"My only role in life will soon to be a full-time invalid,\" she said. \"I don't want to be invalid, and therefore I don't want to be.\"\n\nMr Sowry said he wanted to see a change in the law to help people with terminal illnesses, and those facing a \"long decline\", avoid \"unbearable suffering\".\n\nOthers however say the focus should be on improving palliative care options.\n\nDr John Sorrell, a retired GP, told the BBC that he felt doctors \"would find it very hard to end somebody's life, as is the case at Dignitas\".\n\nHe also raised concerns about new laws being followed properly, saying they could be hard to monitor.\n\n\"These are vulnerable people and they can be coerced,\" Dr Sorrell said, referencing a potential situation where a struggling family puts pressure on a loved one to end their life due to the cost and emotional impact of keeping someone alive.\n\nDame Esther's own daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, told ITV's Good Morning Britain that she knew it was up to her mother, but she \"personally would want to ground her plane if she was going to fly to Zurich\".\n\n\"I just don't ever want her to go,\" she said.", "Isabel dos Santos is the daughter of former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos\n\nAn Angolan billionaire who has been described as Africa's richest woman has lost a High Court battle to stop her assets being frozen.\n\nIsabel dos Santos, the daughter of a former president, is being sued by telecoms firm Unitel.\n\nThe Angolan company is seeking damages of $733m (£580m) arising from financial decisions taken by Ms Dos Santos during her time as a director of the firm.\n\nMs Dos Santos says the case is a political vendetta.\n\nCritics of Ms Dos Santos have long claimed she used her position of influence in Angola to enrich herself at the expense of the state - allegations she has strongly refuted.\n\nThe BBC has reported on leaked documents alleging she made her fortune through corruption and exploiting resources in Angola during her involvement with some of the country's largest companies.\n\nMs Dos Santos said at the time that the claim was \"based on fake documents and false information, it is a coordinated political attack in coordination with the 'Angolan Government'\".\n\nHer father José Eduardo dos Santos ruled the south-western African country for 38 years until he stepped down in 2017, before he died last year.\n\nHe was succeeded by his hand-picked successor João Lourenço, under whom several of Mr Dos Santos' relatives have been prosecuted on various charges, which they deny. His son Zenu was jailed for five years for fraud.\n\nAs of 2020, Ms Dos Santos was based in London.\n\nUnitel had asked London's High Court to grant a worldwide freezing order over her assets.\n\nMs Dos Santos and companies linked to her are already subject to a number of asset freezes around the world.\n\nThe case against Ms Dos Santos concerns loans made in 2012 and 2013 of around $400m from Unitel to another company, Unitel International Holdings (UIH).\n\nUIH is incorporated in the Netherlands and is owned and controlled by Ms Dos Santos, according to court documents.\n\nFrom early 2020, UIH stopped paying any interest on the loans, the High Court was told.\n\nUnitel alleged that the loans were made at rates below commercial values and without any significant security. It alleges Ms Dos Santos procured the loans \"ultimately, for her own personal benefit\".\n\nMs Dos Santos denies the allegations made by Unitel and says the court case is a political campaign against her brought about by the current Angolan government.\n\nShe says the loans to UIH were approved by Unitel's board and shareholders and were made in good faith.\n\nShe said the freezing order \"must be viewed in the light of political feuding in Angola\" arising from her efforts to \"root out corruption\" during her time running the country's state oil company.\n\nAccording to court documents, Unitel is \"ultimately in the effective control of the Angolan State\" following changes to its ownership and management from 2020.\n\nIn a written ruling handed down by the High Court on 20 December, Mr Justice Bright granted a freezing order in favour of Unitel.\n\nThe court heard Ms Dos Santos's assets are said to include property in the UK worth up to £33.5m ($42m) and $95m worth of property in Monaco and Dubai.\n\nWhile the terms of the order will be decided at a later hearing, the judge warned Ms Dos Santos \"this seems an obvious case for a worldwide freezing order\" which goes beyond the High Court's immediate jurisdiction.\n\nDos Santos has previously been described as Africa's richest woman, with an estimated fortune of $2bn. She is no longer included on Forbes' rankings of the world's wealthiest people because her assets are under dispute in various territories.", "More than half a million students took the gruelling Suneung exam this year\n\nA group of South Korean students are suing the government because their college admission examination ended 90 seconds earlier than scheduled.\n\nThey are asking for 20 million won ($15,400; £12,000) each - the cost of a year's studying to retake the exam.\n\nThe error affected the rest of the students' exams, their lawyer says.\n\nThe country's infamous college admission test, known as Suneung, is an eight-hour marathon with back-to-back papers in multiple subjects.\n\nThe Suneung is one of the hardest exams in the world and stakes are very high.\n\nIt not only determines university placements and jobs but even future relationships. A number of measures to help students concentrate are taken during the annual event such as closing the country's airspace and delaying the opening of the stock market.\n\nThe results of this year's exam were released on 8 December.\n\nThe lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by at least 39 students, claims that the bell rang earlier at a test site in the capital Seoul during Korean - the first subject of the exam.\n\nSome students protested immediately, but say the supervisors still took their papers away. The teachers recognised the mistake before the start of the next session, and gave the one and half minutes back during the lunch break but they could only mark blank columns left on their papers and were not allowed to change any existing answers.\n\nThe students said they were so upset that they could not focus on the rest of the exam, Yonhap news agency reports. Some reportedly gave up and returned home.\n\nTheir lawyer Kim Woo-suk told local media that education authorities had not apologised.\n\nPublic broadcaster KBS quoted officials who said the supervisor in charge of the specific test centre had misread the time.\n\nThis is not the first time students have sued over a bell rung too early. In April, a court in Seoul awarded 7 million won ($5,250; £4,200) to students who claimed they were disadvantaged at the 2021 Suneung exam because their bell rang about two minutes earlier.\n\nAnd the price can be even higher in other countries. In 2012, a man in China was given a one-year suspended sentence for ringing the bell four minutes and 48 seconds early during the national college entrance exam at a school in Hunan province.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Students in South Korea sit one of the hardest exams in the world", "Items worth £25m were stolen from the west London mansion of Tamara Ecclestone\n\nA man accused of being involved in one of the biggest burglaries in English history has been arrested in Serbia.\n\nHe and five others were arrested in Belgrade for alleged money laundering offences, the Metropolitan Police said.\n\nThe man is alleged to have been part of raids on the London homes of three celebrities in December 2019 where £26m of valuables were taken.\n\nThe biggest came at the home of Tamara Ecclestone where £25m of jewellery, cash and other items were stolen.\n\nThe other burglaries targeted homes belonging to the former Chelsea and England footballer Frank Lampard, and the now-deceased former owner of Leicester City, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.\n\nMost of the stolen jewellery and valuable watches have never been recovered.\n\nLast year, three Italians - Jugoslav Jovanovic, Alessandro Maltese and Alessandro Donati - were jailed for 28 years in total after pleading guilty to conspiracy to burgle.\n\nIsleworth Crown Court heard the gang targeted Ms Ecclestone's palatial home on one of the most expensive streets in the world opposite Kensington Palace, which the Formula 1 heiress shares with her husband Jay Rutland.\n\nThe couple had left for a Christmas holiday in Lapland hours earlier.\n\nPolice believe the man known to them as Daniel Vukovic left Heathrow Airport for Belgrade in December 2019\n\nMany of the rooms inside the mansion were cleared of valuables. In just over an hour, the burglars made off with 400 items of jewellery and large sums of cash.\n\nMost of the stolen jewellery and valuable watches have never been recovered.\n\nAn international hunt was launched by the Metropolitan Police for a fourth suspect known to the force as Daniel Vukovic.\n\nA BBC investigation found authorities have linked Mr Vukovic to other alleged burglaries across Europe. He is believed to have used at least 19 identities.\n\nWho is really behind Britain's biggest ever burglary? The police, the victims and even the suspects talk for the first time about the £26m series of raids on celebrity homes.\n\nEfforts to extradite him - under the name Ljubomir Romanov - were denied by Serbia's High Court last July.\n\nDetails in a court document said \"Ljubomir Romanov\" is a \"legal resident\" of Serbia and therefore the legal basis for extradition was not met.\n\nOn Wednesday, the Met Police said one of the six men arrested in Belgrade for money laundering was \"wanted by detectives investigating a series of high-value burglaries committed in Kensington and Chelsea in December 2019\".\n\nIt is understood the alleged money laundering offences are linked to the burglaries in London.\n\nThere is no indication at this stage that UK authorities have renewed their extradition request.\n\nThe burglars used crowbars as they spent an hour ransacking the Kensington mansion of Tamara Ecclestone\n\nAn extradition treaty agreement signed by Serbia and the UK in December 1900 says each country can deny extradition of its own citizens.\n\nIn a statement Serbian police confirmed six members of an \"organised criminal gang\" were arrested and \"many searches\" across the country were taking place.\n\nTwo more suspects were abroad, police said, adding the group's activities stretched from February 2018 until earlier this month.\n\nAccording to the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, the group \"invested the money acquired through criminal activity in the purchase of real estate and thus introduced it into legal cash flows\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA man has been jailed for murdering his ex-partner whose body has never been found.\n\nDarren Osment was recorded on camera by an undercover police officer confessing to killing the mother-of-four Claire Holland, 32.\n\nThe chef, 40, killed her in 2012 during a drunken argument after she left a Bristol city centre pub.\n\nHe has been sentenced to life with a minimum term of 20 years in prison.\n\nOsment, 40, admitted killing her in a 999 call in 2019 but later retracted that confession.\n\nOsment was found guilty of murder after a two-month trial\n\nBut last week he was found guilty of murder after a two-month trial at Bristol Crown Court.\n\nSarah Holland, Claire's younger sister, told the sentencing hearing: \"It doesn't matter how many years pass, it never gets easier. Not knowing her full whereabouts means we cannot grieve.\n\n\"I will never get the chance to tell her I love her. The pain and grief of losing my sister will never leave me.\"\n\nClaire was last seen alive when leaving Seamus O'Donnell's pub on 6 June, 2012, the weekend of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.\n\nDespite police appeals and searches, her body was never found.\n\nMichaela Holland, Claire's half sister, addressed Osment during the hearing on behalf of the entire family, saying: \"You have made the world feel unsafe for the women in our family.\n\n\"Darren, I want you to know you have ruined our family. If you've got it in your heart, tell us where she is.\"\n\nDarren Osment held up a sign saying \"innocent\" as he was sent to the cells, after being told he'll serve a minimum of 20 years for murdering Claire Holland.\n\nHe fidgeted his way through this hearing, at times mouthing his disagreement with the conclusion of the judge that he killed Claire in a fit of rage during a late night argument about their son, who'd been taken into care.\n\nAround 20 members of Claire Holland's family were in court to see him sentenced, hopefully they may get some answers about Claire's last moments and what Darren Osment did with her body.\n\nClaire's half-sister Michaela Holland told me outside court she was pleased with the sentence but the family is still waiting for those answers.\n\n\"It doesn't being her back, we still don't know where she is, we can't lay her to rest, we can't mourn her, she can't rest in peace - that's the worst part,\" she said.\n\nJudge, The Honourable Mrs Justice Cutts, said statements from Claire's family showed she was \"warm and vivacious and deeply loved\".\n\n\"She was happy and optimistic about the future, a fresh start was ahead. You robbed her of that,\" she told Osment.\n\n\"You left her family in limbo, yet it is clear that you were haunted by what you did.\n\n\"I am sure that you killed her yourself. For Claire's family's sake I urge you to stand up to what you've done.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOsment's confession in a call to police in 2019 convinced detectives her disappearance may have a sinister reason behind it, his trial was told.\n\nAn investigation found the former chef, of Chessel Drive, Patchway, had confessed to multiple people, including a former girlfriend, her brother, friends, a 999 call handler and a prison inmate.\n\nThe trial also heard an undercover police officer was deployed to befriend Osment. This officer recorded his repeated confessions over his former partner's disappearance and death.\n\nIn one piece of audio, he said: \"She ain't going to be seeing the light of day again, don't worry about that.\"\n\nThe undercover officer also witnessed many examples of Osment's violent temper, particularly when drinking.\n\nClaire Holland was trying to turn her life around at the time of her death, the judge said\n\nAfter the sentencing, senior investigating officer Det Supt Darren Hannant said: \"Osment's continual refusal to be honest about what he did means we're still unable to provide clarity to Claire's family about what happened to her body after he killed her.\n\n\"I sincerely hope in time Osment does explain fully what he did because Claire's family and friends need to know.\n\n\"Sadly, knowing what we do about Osment, I find it hard to believe he is capable of doing the decent thing.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "Pauline Quinn, 73, was found after paramedics were called to Rayton Spur in Worksop\n\nA triple murderer will never be released after killing his neighbour, who he battered to death with a coffee table while out of prison on licence.\n\nPauline Quinn, 73, was found dead in her home in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, in November 2021 having suffered 29 separate injuries to her head and face.\n\nLawrence Bierton was sentenced to a whole-life order at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday.\n\nHe was previously jailed in 1996 for killing two elderly sisters.\n\nA jury had heard Bierton murdered Mrs Quinn 18 months after being released for the second time while on licence for killing Elsie Gregory, 73, and Aileen Dudill, 79, at their home in Rotherham.\n\nBierton was released on licence for the second time in May 2020 and moved to Rayton Spur six months later.\n\nPolice raised concerns about his move to the area, due to the risk posed to elderly and vulnerable people, however the court heard the move was approved by the Probation Service.\n\nThis decision was described in court by Saika Jabeen, head of the Nottinghamshire probation delivery unit, as \"flawed\" and labelled a \"significant mistake\" by the judge, Mr Justice Pepperall.\n\nShe added senior managers would apologise to the family on behalf of the Probation Service for the \"serious oversights\" in the case.\n\nIn his sentencing remarks, the judge said: \"That decision [to house Bierton at Rayton Spur] was flawed and you should not have been housed among elderly and vulnerable residents.\"Ms Quinn was entitled to expect better, and the system plainly failed her.\"\n\nBierton entered Mrs Quinn's home in Rayton Spur, just after 16:00 GMT on 9 November 2021, after she refused to give him money for alcohol, the court heard.\n\nThe 63-year-old - an alcoholic - had drunk vodka and rum, and taken crack cocaine and an opioid on the morning of the murder.\n\nMrs Quinn, who lived alone and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulled the emergency cord in her accommodation during the attack, which recorded audio of Bierton repeatedly striking her.\n\nLawrence Bierton was found guilty of murdering Mrs Quinn after a two-week trial\n\nThe judge said there were \"extremely worrying parallels\" between the two murders, which took place in 1995, and the killing of Mrs Quinn.\n\nBierton used \"extraordinary levels of violence\" during all three of the murders, showing each of his victims \"no mercy\", he added.\n\nMs Gregory and Ms Dudill were found dead in the front room of their house in South Yorkshire after it was set on fire.\n\nBoth were found to have died before the blaze was started. Ms Dudill suffered head injuries and was smothered to death while Ms Gregory died from a traumatic brain injury.\n\n\"All three women were elderly and suffered at least some degree of physical disability,\" the judge said.\n\n\"All three were known to you.\n\n\"All three women were subjected to extreme and sustained violence and all three women suffered very substantial blunt force trauma to their heads and fractured skulls.\n\n\"I am left in no doubt whatsoever that you must never again be given the opportunity to walk the streets.\"\n\nBierton was given a whole-life order, meaning he will never be released from prison, except in exceptional compassionate circumstances.\n\nMore than 60 criminals are serving a whole-life order, four of whom are being held in secure hospitals, according to the PA news agency.\n\nThe whole-life order is thought to be the first to be issued at Nottingham Crown Court since 2005\n\nIn a statement released by Mrs Quinn's son, Tom Quinn - and daughters Janice Quinn and Lisa Rummery - she was described as a \"beloved mother, sister, and grandmother\".\n\n\"We, her family, are tortured by the circumstances of her death,\" they said.\n\n\"In what should have been the safety of her own home, our mother suffered a vicious and sustained attack.\n\n\"One of the hardest aspects of this case has been the fact that the man who killed our mother was a convicted double murderer who had served a life sentence and was on licence.\n\n\"On his release, instead of seeking to make something of his second chance in life, he resorted to killing our mother.\n\n\"It was our mother's terrible misfortune that Bierton was rehoused next door to her.\n\n\"Like his first two victims, she too was a vulnerable elderly woman. And like them, she too was murdered in the most brutal and pitiless way.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Brianna Ghey was described by her mother as \"fearless, strong and brave\"\n\nThe heartbroken mother of Brianna Ghey has said she will never get over the death of her \"fearless\" daughter, which has left a hole in her heart.\n\nThe 16-year-old, who was transgender, was stabbed 28 times in Culcheth Linear Park in Cheshire in February.\n\nTwo teenagers, known only as girl X and boy Y because of their ages, have been convicted of her murder.\n\nSpeaking before the verdicts, Esther Ghey said she would never forget her daughter's unwavering bravery.\n\n\"She was fearless to be whoever she wanted to be,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"She wanted to identify as a female, and she wanted to wear girls' school uniform.\n\n\"She just did it - it wasn't a hurdle at all for her.\"\n\nBy the age of 16, Brianna had already gone some way towards achieving her dream of being famous.\n\nShe had gained a large following on TikTok, often posting make-up tutorials.\n\nWarning: Some readers might find the following report distressing\n\nBut her life was cut short on the afternoon of 11 February when Brianna was lured to a park and killed in broad daylight.\n\nBrianna died after being stabbed in Culcheth Linear Park\n\nMs Ghey had tears in her eyes as she remembers the day she found out about her daughter's death.\n\n\"I was out walking the dogs with my partner,\" she said.\n\n\"We noticed there was a very high police presence in our area and then police in our street as well.\n\n\"I sort of joked - 'if Brianna doesn't come home soon I'll have to ring the police'.\n\n\"And when we got to the front door, the door was open and there were two policemen stood in the house.\"\n\nThe days and weeks after her daughter's death were a blur.\n\n\"The only way I can describe it is, there's a hole in my heart,\" she said.\n\n\"I know for a fact I will never get over this.\"\n\nMs Ghey said her initial reaction was to hide away, and the family even considered moving house.\n\nBut when friends told her about the vigils being held in Brianna's memory, it began to provide a small glimmer of comfort.\n\nCandlelit vigils were held in memory of the 16-year-old\n\n\"It changed my view on everything,\" she said.\n\n\"It made me feel like there is good out there.\n\n\"Brianna wanted to be famous and in a really sad way, she is now.\"\n\nFinding out that one of Brianna's killers was someone she knew - and considered a friend - was particularly painful.\n\n\"I felt at the time that was the worst possible thing that could have happened,\" she says.\n\n\"Knowing that it's somebody she trusted.\"\n\nBrianna's body was found in Culcheth Linear Park by dog walkers\n\nEmma Mills, head teacher at Birchwood Community High School where Brianna was a pupil, recalled how \"Brianna didn't want to conform like other students\".\n\n\"She would come in wearing the latest fashions, handbags or different coloured nails,\" she said.\n\nFollowing her killing, there was a lot of speculation online, which Ms Mills says was difficult for the pupils.\n\n\"It was incredibly difficult for her friends and peers in school to read things about her that weren't true.\" she said.\n\nShe added: \"There was lots of insinuation and accusation about bullying, about hatred towards Brianna.\n\n\"There was never any evidence of Brianna being bullied either within or outside school.\n\n\"Anyone who said anything to her would have got a short, sharp response.\n\n\"She didn't live her life as a victim, and it was quite hard to see her portrayed in a way that wasn't true to her.\"\n\nMs Ghey and Ms Mills have since joined forces in a bid to bring mindfulness into schools, through a campaign called Peace in Mind.\n\n\"I thought that we need this in schools because I knew how much it had helped me,\" Ms Ghey said.\n\n\"It has helped with my mental resilience, and I knew that it had helped me through my initial stages of grief as well.\"\n\nThey hope to raise enough money to train one teacher in mindfulness in every school in the country and eventually want to change the national curriculum to include health and wellbeing.\n\nFor Ms Mills, she hopes mindfulness will help build resilience in children as they grow up in a world of social media, something many became more reliant on during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"It's a generation of children that are growing up in a way that no other children have ever grown up before, and we don't really know what the impact of that will be in the long run,\" she said.\n\nBrianna struggled with mental health conditions including anxiety and an eating disorder.\n\nThroughout it all, Ms Ghey described her daughter as \"brave and strong\".\n\nThe bereaved mother's desire to help children like Brianna, who struggle with their mental health, even extends to her killers.\n\n\"If they were happy and they had peace of mind, then they wouldn't have wanted to commit a crime like this,\" she said.\n\n\"I hope that they get the help that they need when they are in prison because they will be released and they will be members of society again.\n\n\"I don't think that we'll get anywhere by hating each other, I think that we need to show some love and compassion to each other - and that's the only way that we can make society better.\"\n\nShe now hopes to build on her daughter's legacy, bringing some positivity into the world.\n\n\"If something so horrific happens, then maybe something really good could come out of it,\" she said.\n\n\"I just feel that Brianna's death can't be for nothing.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n• None The Murder of Brianna Ghey - A File On 4 special\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Michaela Ali has been living in temporary accommodation since March because there are rats in her housing association flat\n\nLandlords are failing to resolve increasing numbers of complaints about rats in rental properties - and some are even blaming tenants' lifestyles, a leading housing official says.\n\nIt follows a tenfold increase in rat complaints in the past four years, the Housing Ombudsman for England adds.\n\nIt is a growing problem that needs to be \"tackled with urgency\", Richard Blakeway told the BBC.\n\nThe government says it has new powers to crack down on bad landlords.\n\nTenant Michaela Ali says rats have ruined her life. The 36-year-old nursing assistant is paying £500 per month renting a basement flat in Manchester city centre that she has not slept in since February - because of a rat infestation.\n\nMichaela could hear the rats scurrying around in cavities in the walls, and after she reported the problem, pest control visited and made an access hole in the ceiling in which to lay bait.\n\n\"I used to wake up sweating at night, thinking they're going to fall on my head,\" she says.\n\nPregnant with her first child, Michaela's housing association moved her out of the flat in March.\n\nSince then, she has been put up in four different hotels and two short-stay apartments - and given birth to a baby girl - while the housing association tries to sort out the rodent problem.\n\n\"I do my shift and when I come back here, it hits me,\" she says, and starts to cry. \"I don't know if the system is made for people like myself. Have I caused all this? That's how they make you feel. I didn't put the rats there.\"\n\nMichaela says all she wants is \"to be settled and for my baby to have her own bedroom\". She says: \"I've been living out of bags. It's very unsettling, because we don't know where we will be living - they give me two days before you've got to check out. It's draining.\"\n\nMichaela says she has complained several times to her housing association, the Riverside Group, since she first reported hearing rats in her ceiling, in September 2022.\n\nThe Riverside Group told the BBC the rat problem in Michaela's flat is the result of nearby excavation work and that they have apologised to her.\n\n\"We remain determined and committed to solve this problem,\" it said, adding: \"Like many areas across the country, social housing is scarce, which is why we have been calling on the government to provide further funding for more affordable homes.\"\n\nRichard Blakeway's job is to look into complaints about registered social housing providers\n\nSocial housing landlords have a legal responsibility to ensure their properties are habitable. If tenants are unhappy with their landlord's response to housing complaints, they can escalate their concerns to the independent Housing Ombudsman Service.\n\nThe number of social housing tenants taking complaints to the Ombudsman about rats has risen tenfold in the past four years, from 71 complaints in 2019/20, to 759 in 2022/23.\n\nThe rise in complaints about rats and other pests is likely due to various factors, including increased awareness of the complaints procedure.\n\nBut Housing Ombudsman for England Richard Blakeway says the figures are a snapshot of a growing problem.\n\n\"It's clearly a significant concern that we've seen an increase in reports around rats and pests because of the implications that might have for health and well-being,\" says Mr Blakeway. \"This needs to be tackled with urgency and it needs to be treated with seriousness.\"\n\nHe says that similarly to issues with damp and mould in rental properties, when it comes to complaints about rats, some landlords are blaming their tenants for the problems.\n\n\"Sometimes landlords are over reliant on blaming the lifestyle of the resident rather than accepting responsibility themselves,\" he says.\n\nMichaela and her baby are living in a hotel room and have no access to any cooking facilities\n\nThe British Pest Control Association (BPCA) says it saw pest patterns change considerably during the Covid-19 lockdowns.\n\n\"Rats became more visible in residential areas. With less footfall across city and town centres, there was less associated food waste being left in bins and on the floor,\" says Natalie Bungay from the BPCA.\n\n\"As a result, rats were likely to move further afield to satisfy their need for a food source, often bringing them closer to residential properties.\n\n\"It may be that those habits built up over lockdown have persisted among rodent populations, meaning you're more likely to see a rat near your home now than you were pre-Covid-19.\"\n\nThe government says all landlords must ensure their properties are fit for human habitation and free from dangerously hazardous conditions - including pests such as rats: \"Our ground-breaking Social Housing Regulation Act has introduced new powers to crack down on poor practice by social housing landlords.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Michaela has been moved to new temporary accommodation, and is waiting for her flat to be sorted out.\n\n\"I want a safe home for my baby,\" she says, \"somewhere we can both settle and I can be a mum, and just do the best I can for her.\"\n\nIn this episode of the 5 Minutes On podcast, social housing tenants in Manchester talk about the impact of rat infestations in their rented homes - and how difficult it is to get the problem resolved.\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Mother-of-pearl cloud shimmering high in the sky in Angus on Tuesday evening\n\nResidents in Scotland were amazed by a rare sight in the sky on Tuesday evening.\n\nLooking like a \"portal to the next dimension\" or possibly a spaceship, the shimmering colours of nacreous cloud were spotted.\n\nOne of the highest clouds in our atmosphere, they are often referred to as \"mother-of-pearl\", and are rarely spotted in the UK because of the exceptional conditions needed.\n\nNacreous cloud form in very cold conditions over polar regions and within the stratosphere, around 12-19 miles (19-31km) high, far above our normal clouds.\n\nBBC Weather Watcher SazzyJ \"spotted this cloud iridescence from our garden in Edinburgh late afternoon. We'd never seen anything like it before\".\n\n\"A portal to the next dimension\" said Weather Watcher SkyWatcher.\n\nAnother commented \"Brief, eerie and bright cloud illumination at sunset this evening. Unsure exactly what. No filter, no spaceship.\"\n\nNacrous cloud spotted by BBC Weather Watcher SazzyJ who said that they'd \"never seen anything like it before\"\n\nOccasionally cold polar air, locked in place by strong winds high up in the atmosphere - called the polar vortex - weakens and allows this colder air to sink south to our latitude.\n\nFormed in air that is around -80C, tiny ice crystals refract sunlight, giving the cloud pearly colours - the reason why it is also called mother-of-pearl.\n\nNacreous clouds are mostly seen a couple of hours either side of sunset or sunrise and, being so high, they are still lit by sunlight which makes them appear even brighter in our evening sky.\n\nBecause of the height and temperature needed this cloud is also known as Polar Stratospheric Cloud.\n\nIridescent colours appear even brighter during sunset, giving them a spaceship-type appearance\n\nSmooth nacreous cloud with an orange glow during sunset above Edinburgh\n\nNacreous cloud captured in the evening sky in Musselburgh, East Lothian\n\nSee BBC Weather Watcher pictures in your area and sign up to submit your own at BBC Weather Watchers.", "Michaela Ali has been living in temporary accommodation since March because there are rats in her housing association flat\n\nLandlords are failing to resolve increasing numbers of complaints about rats in rental properties - and some are even blaming tenants' lifestyles, a leading housing official says.\n\nIt follows a tenfold increase in rat complaints in the past four years, the Housing Ombudsman for England adds.\n\nIt is a growing problem that needs to be \"tackled with urgency\", Richard Blakeway told the BBC.\n\nThe government says it has new powers to crack down on bad landlords.\n\nTenant Michaela Ali says rats have ruined her life. The 36-year-old nursing assistant is paying £500 per month renting a basement flat in Manchester city centre that she has not slept in since February - because of a rat infestation.\n\nMichaela could hear the rats scurrying around in cavities in the walls, and after she reported the problem, pest control visited and made an access hole in the ceiling in which to lay bait.\n\n\"I used to wake up sweating at night, thinking they're going to fall on my head,\" she says.\n\nPregnant with her first child, Michaela's housing association moved her out of the flat in March.\n\nSince then, she has been put up in four different hotels and two short-stay apartments - and given birth to a baby girl - while the housing association tries to sort out the rodent problem.\n\n\"I do my shift and when I come back here, it hits me,\" she says, and starts to cry. \"I don't know if the system is made for people like myself. Have I caused all this? That's how they make you feel. I didn't put the rats there.\"\n\nMichaela says all she wants is \"to be settled and for my baby to have her own bedroom\". She says: \"I've been living out of bags. It's very unsettling, because we don't know where we will be living - they give me two days before you've got to check out. It's draining.\"\n\nMichaela says she has complained several times to her housing association, the Riverside Group, since she first reported hearing rats in her ceiling, in September 2022.\n\nThe Riverside Group told the BBC the rat problem in Michaela's flat is the result of nearby excavation work and that they have apologised to her.\n\n\"We remain determined and committed to solve this problem,\" it said, adding: \"Like many areas across the country, social housing is scarce, which is why we have been calling on the government to provide further funding for more affordable homes.\"\n\nRichard Blakeway's job is to look into complaints about registered social housing providers\n\nSocial housing landlords have a legal responsibility to ensure their properties are habitable. If tenants are unhappy with their landlord's response to housing complaints, they can escalate their concerns to the independent Housing Ombudsman Service.\n\nThe number of social housing tenants taking complaints to the Ombudsman about rats has risen tenfold in the past four years, from 71 complaints in 2019/20, to 759 in 2022/23.\n\nThe rise in complaints about rats and other pests is likely due to various factors, including increased awareness of the complaints procedure.\n\nBut Housing Ombudsman for England Richard Blakeway says the figures are a snapshot of a growing problem.\n\n\"It's clearly a significant concern that we've seen an increase in reports around rats and pests because of the implications that might have for health and well-being,\" says Mr Blakeway. \"This needs to be tackled with urgency and it needs to be treated with seriousness.\"\n\nHe says that similarly to issues with damp and mould in rental properties, when it comes to complaints about rats, some landlords are blaming their tenants for the problems.\n\n\"Sometimes landlords are over reliant on blaming the lifestyle of the resident rather than accepting responsibility themselves,\" he says.\n\nMichaela and her baby are living in a hotel room and have no access to any cooking facilities\n\nThe British Pest Control Association (BPCA) says it saw pest patterns change considerably during the Covid-19 lockdowns.\n\n\"Rats became more visible in residential areas. With less footfall across city and town centres, there was less associated food waste being left in bins and on the floor,\" says Natalie Bungay from the BPCA.\n\n\"As a result, rats were likely to move further afield to satisfy their need for a food source, often bringing them closer to residential properties.\n\n\"It may be that those habits built up over lockdown have persisted among rodent populations, meaning you're more likely to see a rat near your home now than you were pre-Covid-19.\"\n\nThe government says all landlords must ensure their properties are fit for human habitation and free from dangerously hazardous conditions - including pests such as rats: \"Our ground-breaking Social Housing Regulation Act has introduced new powers to crack down on poor practice by social housing landlords.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Michaela has been moved to new temporary accommodation, and is waiting for her flat to be sorted out.\n\n\"I want a safe home for my baby,\" she says, \"somewhere we can both settle and I can be a mum, and just do the best I can for her.\"\n\nIn this episode of the 5 Minutes On podcast, social housing tenants in Manchester talk about the impact of rat infestations in their rented homes - and how difficult it is to get the problem resolved.\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Seb Jellema has run every day since January - and plans to continue until he's in his 60s\n\nA super-fit Scottish schoolboy is working to break a world record for running - but he will be in his 60s before he achieves his ambition.\n\nWhen 11-year-old Seb Jellema learned that runner Ron Hill ran every single day for 52 years and 39 days, he decided he wanted to beat it.\n\nSince January he has run at least 3km (1.9 miles) every day, even on school trips, a ski holiday and in sweltering heat in France.\n\nMr Hill, who died in 2021, ran at least a mile a day from 20 December 1964 until 31 January 2017, before ending his streak aged 78.\n\nFor Seb, to beat that record, he will have to run every day until early 2075, when he will be 62 years old.\n\n\"I have started 16 years before Ron did so I hope it is possible to beat his record. I have a dream,\" said Seb, who was named after Olympic middle distance runner Baron (Sebastian) Coe.\n\n\"The hardest bit so far was when I was ill in November, I had to keep getting out of my bed to run.\n\n\"I felt dizzy and it was really hard but I was encouraged to keep going because I did not want to break my challenge and also because I have raised £1,600 so far for charity.\"\n\nRon Hill, who died in 2021, ran at least one mile every single day for 52 years and 39 days\n\nSeb's longest run was 24km (15 miles) on his birthday in August, across the seven hills of Edinburgh in less than four hours.\n\n\"He ran that and then had his birthday party, that's how bonkers he is,\" his mum Claire Jellema, 40, said.\n\n\"When he was ill I felt like a terrible mother when he went out running.\n\n\"We have never pushed him to do this and I wish he would take a day off but he's really committed to this.\n\n\"When we went to the Alps skiing I thought the challenge would stop but, no, he managed to run up and down the roads which were clear of snow and ice.\n\n\"In France in the summer it was roasting hot and it almost killed him running in that, he couldn't breathe and he was sweating and barely moving.\"\n\nSeb Jellema often runs with his family\n\nRon Hill, who was born in Lancashire, ran even when he was seriously injured - in 1993 he suffered serious chest injuries in a head-on crash.\n\nDetermined to keep his record going, he defied doctor's orders and sneaked out to run a mile with a snapped sternum.\n\n\"When my mother and my wife went out to do the weekly shop, I walked quickly to a level stretch of road nearby, ran half a mile out and half a mile back and was back in the chair before they got back,\" he said.\n\nHe even ran a mile a day in a plaster cast for six weeks after an operation on his foot.\n\nDespite having a bad fall in February, Seb has been relatively injury free all year.\n\nSeb with his teacher, Bruce Wilson, running in the early morning before activities while on a school trip\n\nMrs Jellema said she took it in turns with her husband, Nick, to run with their son.\n\n\"What has been wonderful is that on the runs he chats to us and opens up,\" she added.\n\n\"Before he wouldn't tell us any detail about school or anything but on the runs he's not distracted by things going on in the house so he tells us things.\n\n\"He's much more chatty and relaxed, it's been very sweet.\"\n\nHis commitment to the challenge has seen him be late for play-dates so he could run beforehand.\n\nHis Scout leader took him running each day during a camp and his teacher took him running at 07:00 each day before activities on a school trip to Lagganlia in the Highlands.\n\nSo far Seb has run 1,300km (808 miles) and plans to have done another 50km by the end of the year. He has recorded all his runs on Strava.\n\n\"It feels like its been a long way. I'm very proud of myself. The secret is to keep eating.\n\n\"All my friends have been encouraging me and I would love to give a shout out to my friends Harrison and Amos for all their pep talks to keep me going.\"", "The eight safe access zones (SAZ) in Northern Ireland can cover between 100m (328ft) and 250m (820ft) from entrances or exits of designated premises.\n\nThe police are investigating up to 50 potential breaches of laws providing safe access zones (SAZs) outside abortion clinics in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe zones came into effect in September at eight clinics in Northern Ireland.\n\nMore incidents were reported at Causeway Hospital in Coleraine than any other site, police figures show.\n\nThat has prompted pro-choice campaigners and some local politicians to call for the zones to be extended by up to 250m (820ft).\n\nIn a statement, the Northern Trust said it would keep the width of the zone under review.\n\nWarning: This article contains images which some readers may find distressing.\n\nThe legislation, which was passed at Stormont in 2022, makes it illegal for people to be \"impeded, recorded, influenced or to be caused harassment, alarm or distress\" within the eight areas.\n\nIt is a criminal offence, punishable by a fine of up to £500.\n\nThe eight zones can cover between 100m (328ft) and 250m (820ft) from entrances or exits of designated premises.\n\nThe police have said preliminary figures show that since the zones came into effect on 29 September, there have been 20 incidents at the Northern Trust, resulting in 35 reports to police.\n\nThe Southern Trust had 11 incidents, while the Western Trust recorded two and the Belfast Trust recorded one.\n\nNo incidents have been recorded at the South Eastern Trust.\n\nThe Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) said their \"engage, explain and encourage\" approach to policing the new laws had been successful.\n\nOnly two arrests have been made across Northern Ireland, both at Causeway Hospital, the police have said.\n\nIn November, a sign comparing Causeway Hospital to a Nazi concentration camp was seized near the Lodge Road Roundabout and three people were cautioned for public order offences by police.\n\nOfficers were alerted to the sign while attending a report of an alleged assault at a protest at the same time.\n\nIn November, a sign comparing Causeway Hospital to a Nazi concentration camp was seized and three people were cautioned for public order offences by police.\n\nLauren McAuley, a member of the pro-choice group, North Coast for Choice, described the posters, placards and imagery such as white crosses, as very distressing.\n\n\"I believe that the protesters who come here are not showing any remorse or sympathy for those who may need abortion services,\" Ms McAuley said.\n\n\"I would defend anyone's right to protest but nobody needs to protest outside a hospital.\n\n\"Where the protesters stand is on a very busy roundabout and there are schools nearby.\"\n\nNorth Coast for Choice campaigner Lauren McAuley says no one needs to protest outside a hospital\n\n\"People feel harassed - you must have some understanding for what people are going through,\" Ms McAuley said.\n\n\"The 100-metre safe access zone in place is not enough. It can be extended and should be extended\".\n\nMore incidents were reported near the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine than at any other site, according to police figures.\n\nGemma Brolly is the deputy leader of the anti-abortion party Aontú.\n\nMs Brolly said that her party did not participate in the protests, but that she did not support the widening of the zones.\n\n\"I can't see what difference 250 metres is going to make\" she told BBC News NI.\n\n\"I believe it can only escalate the situation further and I find it worrying and disappointing.\n\n\"We are watching the deletion of human rights where you can protest with one frame of mind but you cannot with another.\n\n\"Aontú as a party believe in respectful discourse and compassion and without that, nothing will change.\"\n\nTwo East Londonderry assembly members, the SDLP's Cara Hunter and Independent Claire Sugden, are supporting the extension of the zone.\n\nCara Hunter described the imagery being used at the protests as \"shocking\".\n\nSome protestors have planted signs and mock graves near Causeway Hospital\n\n\"I have spoken to a large number of constituents, both patients and hospital staff who have told about the level of distress they have experienced as a direct result of these protests.\n\n\"There is a right to protest but for many it's traumatising seeing some of the imagery here.\n\n\"I have asked the Northern Trust for an interim report to identify concerns from constituents.\"\n\nCara Hunter described the imagery being used at the protests as \"shocking\"\n\nA former justice minister and Independent MLA Claire Sugden said she also supported extending the zone.\n\n\"I appreciate people have a right to an opinion and a right to protest but it is how they are expressing themselves that is causing the issue,\" Ms Sugden said.\n\n\"The imagery is causing distress, not just to new mothers, but to people coming in and out of the hospital.\n\n\"People have a right to protest but not when others are being harmed by it.\"\n\nIn a statement to BBC News NI, the Northern Trust said at Causeway Hospital, the safe access zones were set at 100m following detailed preparation work.\n\n\"We will continue to keep this under review. While we recognise and acknowledge the legitimate right to peaceful protest, we also have a duty of care to both patients and staff,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nThe Department for Health (DoH) said the safe access zones were monitored by staff and the PSNI.\n\nThe department said it would produce an annual report on all eight zones' effectiveness.\n\nThe anti-abortion groups, Precious Life and Abolish Abortion NI declined to comment, on any extension of the zone at Causeway Hospital.\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.", "Like many from Thailand's poor north-east, Wichian Temthong left for Israel to find better-paid work\n\n\"Am I lucky or unlucky?\" Wichian Temthong pondered the question. \"I guess I'm lucky, because I'm still here, still alive.\"\n\nThe 37-year-old farm worker is one of 23 Thai hostages who were released by Hamas last month. Now Wichian is back in Thailand, living in a small room in an industrial suburb south of Bangkok with his wife Malai.\n\nWhile he survived, three young Israeli men he met in captivity did not. They were mistakenly shot dead by Israeli soldiers.\n\nWichian had gone to Israel only in late September, driven like so many Thais from the poor north-east of the country to find better-paid work on Israeli farms. After nine days he was moved to an avocado orchard on the Kfar Aza kibbutz. He woke up on 7 October, his first morning there, to the sound of gunfire.\n\nHis fellow Thai workers assured him it was normal. But as the shooting got louder towards midday, they decided to lock themselves in one of the buildings. Before they could do that gunmen burst in, one holding a hand grenade. They started beating the Thais with their rifle butts.\n\n\"I crouched down like this and shouted 'Thailand, Thailand, Thailand', he said, showing how he pulled his arms over his head. \"But they kept beating me. All I could do was keep my face down. One guy stamped on me with his feet. I crawled under the bed to hide. I tried to text my wife to say I was being taken, but they dragged me out by my leg.\"\n\nWichian was eventually taken down into tunnels deep under Gaza, and would be kept there for 51 days. His was a lonely ordeal, because he was the only Thai, and he speaks no English, so could only communicate through drawings and hand gestures.\n\nConditions were grim. The hostages were fed just once a day; sometimes this was no more than a piece of bread and a dried date.\n\n\"When I was distressed they would come and talk to me, to calm me down, but I could not understand them. The only way I got by was by thinking of the faces of my children, my wife and my mother.\n\n\"When there was nothing else to do, I'd just sit against the wall and meditate. I kept thinking about the same thing over and over, which was that I had to survive.\"\n\nHe remembers the other hostages who were with him in the tunnels; three young Israeli men - Yotam, Sammy and Alon - who remained in captivity after his release, only to be shot dead by nervous Israeli soldiers as they came out, waving a white cloth, last Friday.\n\nLeft to right: Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka\n\nHe had just seen the news, with their photographs, when we arrived to interview him.\n\n\"Every day my foreign friends and I tried to support each other. We would shake hands and do fist bumps. They would cheer me up by hugging me and clapping my shoulder. But we could only communicate by using our hands.\"\n\nHe found out that Yotam was a drummer, and Sammy loved riding his motorbike, and worked in a chicken farm. Wichian tried to teach them some Thai words. Wichian said two of the Israelis were in the tunnel with him from day one. The third joined them on 9 October.\n\nHe says he was treated leniently by his captors, but that in their first weeks underground two of the Israelis were sometimes beaten with electric cables.\n\n\"We were always hungry. We could only sip our water. A large bottle had to last four to five days, a smaller bottler for two days.\"\n\nHe really suffered from not being able to wash. They were allowed to sleep in the day, not at night. They were always damp - nothing dried in the tunnels.\n\nHe kept himself busy by trying to clean their living area. He even helped the Hamas guards move rubble that came into the tunnel after it was struck by a bomb.\n\nWichian, seen in these pictures with his wife and two children, says he would go back to Israel just for the chance to earn, and save, a little more\n\nAfter a month the four hostages were moved to a new tunnel. \"At around 7pm they brought us up. But as soon as I saw it, my heart wanted to run back down to the tunnel.\n\n\"You could see bright lights everywhere from the aerial fighting. I heard drones flying all over the place, and the sound of gunfire. We had to run for 20 minutes, trying to avoid the drones.\"\n\nWichian says his captors encouraged him to count the days on a calendar, and even brought him a clock, because he kept asking them the time.\n\nThe end of his ordeal came suddenly. \"They came pointing to me and saying 'you, you go home, Thailand'.\" He saw daylight for the first time in 51 days, and was handed over to the Red Cross and driven over the border to Egypt.\n\n\"All the time I was down there I never shed a tear. But once I came up, and saw the two other released Thais, I hugged them and cried. We had a group hug and sat down with tears filling our eyes, asking ourselves how we could have survived.\n\n\"When I got back to Thailand they gave me a new name. They called me 'the survivor' and 'Mr Plenty of Fortune'.\"\n\nHowever, he still needs to pay back the substantial debt he incurred - around 230,000 Thai baht ($6,570; £5,180) - to cover the cost of his trip to Israel. He never had the chance to earn any money there.\n\nSo, like his wife, Wichian is taking a job in a factory. The salary is low - just 800 baht a day. They cannot save much. Their two children are living with their grandparents in their home province of Buri Ram.\n\nWichian sometimes has trouble sleeping, and wakes up calling for his mother. But, he says, he would go back to Israel, just for the chance to earn, and save, a little more.", "Eight reportedly killed in an air strike on a home in Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza\n\nAt least 110 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes in northern Gaza's Jabalia area, the Hamas-run health ministry says, as fighting continues across the Palestinian territory.\n\nFifty people were reportedly killed and dozens trapped under rubble when three homes in Jabalia refugee camp were hit.\n\nVideos showed the bodies of small children lined up at a medical centre.\n\nThe Israeli military said it had been conducting operations against Hamas \"terrorist infrastructure\" in Jabalia.\n\nIt came as the US defence secretary arrived in Tel Aviv for talks with Israeli leaders that were expected to focus on how to lower the intensity of the fighting to protect civilians.\n\nThe UN Security Council was also expected to vote later on a resolution calling for an \"urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities\", amid reports of discussions on a potential new deal to secure the release of more Israeli hostages held by Hamas.\n\nGaza has been devastated by 10 weeks of war triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on 7 October, in which at least 1,200 people - mostly civilians - were killed and about 240 taken hostage.\n\nSince then, more than 19,400 people have been killed in Gaza, about 70% of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.\n\nWitnesses and local journalists said Israeli missiles struck a block of houses in Jabalia refugee camp where three families had been living on Sunday night.\n\nOn Monday morning, Palestinian media cited the Hamas-run health ministry's director general as saying that at least 50 people had been killed when the homes of the al-Bursh and Alwan families were bombed. He added that it brought to 110 the death toll in the wider Jabalia area since Sunday.\n\nLocal journalists also posted videos on social media showing what they said were the bodies of nine children on the floor of the Jabalia Medical Centre. One identified the children as members of the al-Bursh and Suleiman families.\n\nAnother 20 to 30 people were reportedly trapped beneath the rubble of the destroyed homes.\n\nBBC Gaza correspondent Rushdi Abu Alouf, who is currently in Istanbul, says verifying reports from the north is very difficult because of communication and access problems.\n\nBut, he adds, Jabalia refugee camp has been a focus of Israeli ground operations over the past few weeks. And air strikes have intensified since Israeli tanks reportedly pulled out of the camp two days ago.\n\nGaza's health ministry said an Israeli tank shell struck the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis overnight\n\nWhen asked about the Jabalia strikes by AFP news agency, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stressed that it went to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties.\n\n\"When planning a target, the IDF devotes significant time and resources to preparing the attack and where feasible, uses various tools, including advance warnings, roof knocking, street knocking, target clearing operations and a variety of professional calculations,\" it said.\n\nThe IDF separately announced that its troops had been conducting operations in Jabalia and that they had uncovered cash worth almost $1.4m (£1.1m) in suitcases alongside weapons in the home of a senior Hamas figure.\n\nGaza's health ministry also said that a 13-year-old girl was killed when an Israeli tank shell hit the maternity building of Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis on Sunday night.\n\nThe girl, Dunia Abu Mohsen, had been receiving treatment after losing a leg in a previous strike in al-Amal that killed her parents, brother and sister.\n\nAnother eight people, including journalist Haneen al-Qashtan, were reportedly killed in a strike in Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.\n\nIsrael is facing calls from the US to scale back its major combat operations in Gaza\n\nUS Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin was expected to tell Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and war cabinet in their meetings on Monday that Israel had to move away from its major combat operations to a more limited conflict targeting Hamas while shielding civilians.\n\nAt a news conference with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Mr Austin said protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza was \"both a moral duty and a strategic imperative\".\n\nAsked about a transition to lower intensity warfare, he stressed: \"This is Israel's operation, and I'm not here to dictate timelines or terms.\"\n\nThe UK, Germany and France added to the growing global pressure for a ceasefire over the weekend, saying that too many civilians had been killed.\n\nEuropean Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell echoed those comments on Monday, saying: \"We are witnessing an appalling lack of distinction in Israel's military operation in Gaza.\"\n\nIn Israel, there are calls for any pause in the fighting to be linked to a new hostage release deal, after last week's mistaken killing by Israeli forces of three men who had been held captive in Gaza.\n\nIn another development on Monday, Human Rights Watch accused Israel's military of \"using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare\".\n\n\"Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food and fuel, while wilfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival,\" it alleged.\n\n\"Israel has excess capacity to inspect more than twice as many aid trucks as are entering Gaza. We're still pumping water into Gaza through two pipelines and have placed no restrictions on entry of food and water. Direct your anger to Hamas, which hijacks aid,\" he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.", "A female beaver being released into the Cairngorms National Park on Monday\n\nBeavers have returned to the Cairngorms 400 years after the species were driven to extinction in Scotland.\n\nA pair were released at Rothiemurchus Estate, near Aviemore, and another pair on land owned by billionaires Anne and Anders Holch Povlsen.\n\nOver the next five years, 15 families could be released in the Cairngorms National Park.\n\nSome landowners have raised concerns about damage the animals could do to farm and wood land.\n\nThe four beavers were released on Monday under a licence from public agency NatureScot.\n\nThe beavers had earlier been trapped in the River Tay's catchment area before being taken to Five Sisters Zoo, near West Calder, West Lothian, for health checks.\n\nThe reintroduction project partners include Cairngorm National Park Authority, RSPB Scotland and the Polvsens' Wildland Cairngorms Ltd, which manages the Gaick, Glenfeshie and Kinrara estates.\n\nThe upper River Spey catchment in the Cairngorms represents the fifth catchment to which beavers have either been officially granted permission to remain, or have been released.\n\nPopulations are already established in Tayside, on the Forth, in Knapdale and Loch Lomond.\n\nBiodiversity Minister Lorna Slater assisted with the release of the beavers at the Rothiemurchus site.\n\nShe said: \"Today is a key milestone in our ongoing collective efforts to ensure this iconic species can once again thrive across Scotland.\n\n\"I want to thank the Cairngorms National Park Authority and all the organisations involved who have made this truly exciting moment possible.\"\n\nBeavers died out in Scotland about 400 years ago but were reintroduced in 2009.\n\nConservation organisations say beaver activity can improve water quality and natural habitats and also help to alleviate flooding.\n\nBut some farmers have said a proper consultation was not held ahead of the Cairngorms releases.", "Hungary has blocked €50bn ($55bn; £43bn) in EU aid for Ukraine - just hours after an agreement was reached on starting membership talks.\n\n\"Summary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine,\" Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said after Thursday's talks in Brussels.\n\nEU leaders said Ukraine would not be left without support.\n\nUkraine is critically dependent on EU and US funding as it continues to fight occupying Russian forces.\n\nMr Orban announced his block shortly after the EU leaders decided to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant candidate status to Georgia.\n\nHungary - which maintains close ties with Russia - has long opposed membership for Ukraine but did not veto that move.\n\nMr Orban left the negotiating room momentarily in what officials described as a pre-agreed and constructive manner, while the other 26 leaders went ahead with the vote.\n\nHe told Hungarian state radio on Friday that he had fought for eight hours to stop his EU partners but could not convince them. Ukraine's path to EU membership would be a long process anyway, he said, and parliament in Budapest could still stop it happening if it wanted to.\n\nTalks on the financial package ended in the early hours of Friday. EU leaders said negotiations would resume early next year, reassuring Kyiv that support would continue.\n\nSpeaking later that day, European Council President Charles Michel said he was \"confident and optimistic\" the EU would fulfil its promise to support Ukraine.\n\nBelgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo echoed him: \"The message to Ukraine is: we will be there to support you, we just need to figure out a few of the details together.\"\n\nMr Michel had earlier confirmed that all but one EU leader had agreed on the aid package and wider budget proposals for the bloc - although Sweden still needed to consult its parliament. He vowed to achieve the necessary unanimity for the deal.\n\nA long delay in financial aid for the country would cause big problems for Ukraine's budget, Kyiv-based economist Sergiy Fursa told the BBC.\n\n\"It pays for all social responsibilities of the government - wages for teachers, doctors, for pensions,\" he said.\n\nUkraine is also desperately seeking the approval of a $61bn US defence aid package - but that decision is also being delayed because of major disagreements between Democrat and Republican lawmakers.\n\nUkraine's counter-offensive against Russia's occupying forces ground to a halt at the start of winter, and there are fears that the Russians could simply outgun Ukraine.\n\nOlena Zelenska, Ukraine's first lady, warned in a BBC interview last week that Ukrainians were in \"mortal danger\" of being left to die without further Western support.\n\nOn Thursday, President Putin mocked Ukraine and claimed Western \"freebies\" were running out.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Zelensky had an animated chat with Orban this week in Argentina\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was delighted by the EU's announcement on the membership. \"This is a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe. A victory that motivates, inspires and strengthens,\" he said.\n\nUkrainian politician Kira Rudik added that \"we were really elated\" following the news about EU membership talks, but she said the feeling was now \"bittersweet\" because of the funding being blocked. \"It is impossible to have a European future without winning the war,\" she told the BBC.\n\nEarlier this week, a senior Ukrainian official told the BBC that EU membership talks were more important that the €50bn because of the message it sends to both the Ukrainian people and Vladimir Putin.\n\nUkraine and neighbouring Moldova applied to join the EU after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They were both given candidate status last June, while Georgia was passed over at the time.\n\nMoldovan President Maia Sandu said it was an honour to share the path to EU accession with Ukraine. \"We wouldn't be here today without Ukraine's brave resistance against Russia's brutal invasion,\" she wrote.\n\nShe also told the BBC that Moldova's ability to \"stay part of the free world\" depended on it being part of the EU.\n\nGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz praised his fellow leaders for showing a \"strong sign of support\", adding that it was clear that both Ukraine and Moldova belonged to \"the European family\".\n\nA diplomat at the summit said it was Mr Scholz's idea for Mr Orban to leave the room to enable the vote to go through.\n\nThe Hungarian leader later distanced himself from his colleagues with a video message on Facebook: \"EU membership of Ukraine is a bad decision. Hungary does not want to participate in this bad decision.\"\n\nMr Orban has also argued that Ukraine should not get large funds from the EU as it is not part of the bloc.\n\nTalks on joining the EU can take years, so Thursday's decision will not guarantee Ukraine membership.\n\nEU candidate countries have to pass a series of reforms to adhere to standards ranging from the rule of law to the economy, although the EU's executive has already praised Ukraine for completing more than 90% of the steps taken so far on justice and tackling corruption.\n\nThere are also other countries, aside from Hungary, who are sceptical about expanding the EU beyond the current 27.\n\nAnd talk of expansion often comes alongside airy proposals for root-and-branch reform of a bloc that's often unwieldy on far less fundamental issues.\n\nBut it's still a boost for morale and comes just in time as Ukraine heads into a second winter following Russia's full-scale invasion, and as the world's attention is drawn elsewhere by war in the Middle East.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Will it be a white Christmas in Scotland? BBC Scotland Weather's Christopher Blanchett gives the latest forecast.\n\nIt's the question we get asked without fail every year. Will it be a white Christmas?\n\nSpoiler alert: we don't know yet. At least not with any certainty.\n\nFor the big day to be classed as an \"official\" white Christmas, just one snowflake has to be observed within the 24 hour period - and it happens quite a lot.\n\nIt used to be the case that a single location was used for keeping watch and recording any solitary flakes.\n\nBut nowadays there are all sorts of locations included in the count, from Edinburgh Castle to Pittodrie Stadium, home of Aberdeen FC.\n\nAberdeen FC's Pittodrie Stadium is just one of the locations used to measure a white Christmas\n\nSince 1960, more than 50% of Christmases have been classified as white.\n\n2022 was one of them, though no stations recorded any lying snow, 9% recorded falling snow.\n\nBut let's face it, a single snowflake is a rather unconvincing reality.\n\nIt certainly doesn't match those the snowy Dickensian scenes plastered on greetings cards, fake snow sprayed onto shop windows or streaming service Christmas movies.\n\nIf you want the sort of snow dumps Bing Crosby dreamed of, carpeting the streets and crunching underfoot, well that's much more of a rarity.\n\nWidespread lying snow is the classification where more than 40% of recording stations in the UK see it on the ground.\n\nThe last time that happened was 2010. We are more likely to see significant snow later in winter, through late January and into February or even early March - Christmas is right at the start of winter, which doesn't help.\n\nHowever, here in Scotland we are best-placed to see any potential snow on offer, more so than elsewhere in the UK.\n\nMany publications, newspapers, blogs and enthusiasts can get very excited about the prospect of snow.\n\nAnyone proclaiming to tell you the \"exact time snow will fall\" in the weeks leading up to Christmas has been on Santa's sherry a little early.\n\nBraemar woke up to a good covering of Christmas snow in 2021\n\nWeather forecasting is a complex, changing and often times frustrating business. The big numerical weather prediction models that are used to gain an idea of forthcoming weather patterns are run multiple times a day, every day. Sometimes they give a clear indication of a general trend, other times they're more divergent.\n\nOne model run may suggest copious snowfall, then 12 hours later it's the complete opposite. We are forecasting the future after all.\n\nThe closer you get to the day in question, the greater the chance of being correct, which is backed up by all the different models hopefully in agreement and saying the same sort of thing. Patience really is a virtue.\n\nThe week ahead will see a colder spell set in around Thursday to Saturday, with the chance of some wintry showers and snow to low levels on occasion - and that may prove tricky for anyone travelling cross-country before the weekend.\n\nBeyond that, there is still disagreement between the various weather models we use regarding exactly what will happen.\n\nIt is likely Christmas will be white, at least technically, but as we've covered, that's not a green light to dust off the sledge. Showers in December across northern Scotland can often be wintry. Remember it's just a single flake needed, perhaps mixed in with some rain and sleet.\n\nThe general picture at this stage, just under a week out, is that we're expecting the UK to be wedged along a boundary of high pressure and milder air to the south west, with low pressure and colder air to the north or north east.\n\nOver the festive period, it looks as though there will be more of an Atlantic influence - so rain and average or above average temperatures. Though cold incursions from the north mean we could still see some wintry weather at times.\n\nThe air mass chart in the run up to Christmas shows cold air tantalisingly close to the north\n\nWe're keeping a close eye on the detail, as the weather models run time and time again. BBC Scotland weather will keep you updated in the coming days.\n\nSnow-mantic visions aside, Christmas is often a time when people are frantically trying to get somewhere else and many have to travel.\n\nThe general outlook beyond Christmas and towards Hogmanay, is for a rather unsettled picture with spells of wind and rain likely.\n\nDon't write off that street party just yet though. We just need to be patient.", "Palestinians check a destroyed building following Israeli strikes in Rafah on Wednesday\n\nLast-minute negotiations have delayed a UN vote on a draft resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.\n\nWrangles over the wording of the Security Council resolution, reportedly to avoid another veto by the US, mean the vote has moved to Wednesday.\n\nIncreased pressure for a suspension of fighting between Israel and Hamas comes as the leader of Hamas is expected to travel to Egypt for talks.\n\nIsmail Haniyeh is due in Cairo later on Wednesday, a source told the BBC.\n\nEgypt, alongside Qatar, helped broker a truce last month that led to a week-long ceasefire and the release of some 100 hostages captured by Hamas in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians being held in Israeli jails.\n\nIsraeli leaders have rejected a new ceasefire since then, saying it would only benefit Hamas.\n\nBut on Tuesday Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the country was ready for another pause in the fighting to enable more hostages to be released.\n\nHamas official Osama Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut on Monday that the group was \"open to any initiative aiming for a ceasefire\", but he insisted there would be \"no negotiations on a hostage swap deal until the Zionist [Israeli] aggression completely stops\".\n\nThe original draft Security Council resolution proposed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) called for an \"urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities\" to allow \"safe and unhindered humanitarian access\".\n\nInitially diplomats thought they were very close to an agreement, 99% of the way there, but the final discussions have been complex, according to the UAE.\n\nThe US says it is engaging constructively with other members to resolve outstanding issues.\n\nLate on Tuesday, the US Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, was asked by the BBC whether the US supported the draft resolution and he said: \"We're still working on the text with other players and I don't want to get ahead of where we are at this point. So let's just see how the discussions go this afternoon.\"\n\nDiplomats say the main sticking points are how to frame calls for a cessation of hostilities and the proposal for a UN mechanism to inspect aid going into Gaza.\n\nThe US, along with Israel, opposes a ceasefire because they say it would benefit Hamas. Washington vetoed a previous Security Council resolution demanding one.\n\nUS Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood (centre) pictured at a Security Council meeting in New York on Tuesday\n\nThe UK abstained, but every other member supported it.\n\nAnd Israel, according to one Security Council diplomat, is pressuring the US to veto this resolution as well, out of fear that a UN mechanism to monitor aid would prevent them from controlling deliveries in Gaza.\n\nWhen US state department spokesperson Matt Miller was asked whether Israel had asked the US to veto it, he said they had been in discussions with their ally, as well as other countries in the region, and they would ultimately make their own determination about what the best course of action was depending on what the final resolution stated.\n\nThe current draft has already been watered down and now calls for a suspension of hostilities, rather than a sustainable cessation of hostilities, but it still includes a phrase calling for \"urgent steps\" towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities.\n\nThe UAE's Ambassador to the UN, Lana Nusseibeh, said the priority and focus of the resolution were to have a real impact on the ground with a scaling-up of access, the opening of all land, sea and air crossing points, and ensuring Egypt has the support it needed from the UN in the form of a mechanism to streamline the process of monitoring aid.\n\nBut overriding all of that, she said, was ensuring that humanitarian workers could deliver aid safely and were protected by the normal rules of de-confliction.\n\nBut the Israeli government is under growing international pressure to agree to a ceasefire because of the mounting civilian casualties in Gaza.\n\nIt is also facing pressure at home for a deal that would see more hostages freed, after Israeli soldiers mistakenly killed three Israeli men who had been held captive in Gaza last week.\n\nGaza has been devastated by the war, which was triggered by an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on 7 October, in which at least 1,200 people were killed - most of them civilians - and about 240 taken hostage.\n\nSince then, more than 19,600 people have been killed in Gaza, about 70% of them women and children, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.\n\nIt reported that about 100 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli air strikes on Tuesday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How my family escaped bombs in Gaza for a new life in Canada\n\nAhead of the Security Council meeting, UN aid workers in Geneva could not hide their despair at the failure of the international community to put an end to the conflict and tackle the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.\n\nUnicef spokesman James Elder, who recently returned from the territory, told reporters that \"every single child is enduring these 10 weeks of hell and not one of them can escape\".\n\nHe lamented that \"not even lip service\" had been paid to requirements, under international law, to safeguard medical facilities, food and water.\n\nOnly eight of Gaza's 36 hospitals are still partially functioning, according to the World Health Organization. They are overwhelmed by casualties and facing critical shortages of medical supplies and fuel for generators, as well as providing shelter for thousands of displaced people.\n\nWHO spokeswoman Dr Margaret Harris said her colleagues in Gaza had run out of \"words to describe the horror\" they were witnessing. They were not even able to walk through emergency wards at \"for fear of stepping on people\" lying on the floor \"in severe pain\" and asking for food and water, she added.", "A sub-variant of the Omicron strain of coronavirus has been classified as a \"variant of interest\" by the World Health Organization, because of \"its rapidly increasing spread\".\n\nJN.1 has been found in many countries around the world, including India, China, UK and the United States.\n\nThe risk to the public is currently low and current vaccines continue to offer protection, the WHO says.\n\nBut it warns Covid and other infections could rise this winter.\n\nRespiratory viruses such as flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and childhood pneumonia are also on the rise in the northern hemisphere.\n\nThe virus which causes Covid is constantly changing over time and sometimes this leads to new variants developing.\n\nOmicron has been the globally dominant variant for some time.\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) is currently tracking a number of variants of interest linked to Omicron - including JN.1 - although none of them are deemed to be concerning.\n\nBut JN.1 is spreading quickly in many corners of the world.\n\nIt is currently the fastest-growing variant in the United States, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, accounting for 15-29% of infections.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency says JN.1 currently makes up around 7% of positive Covid tests analysed in a lab. It said it would continue to monitor all available data on this and other variants.\n\nJN.1 is spreading fast in all regions, probably because it has an additional mutation in the spike protein compared to the BA.2.86 variant from which it's descended.\n\n\"It is anticipated that this variant may cause an increase in Sars-Cov-2 [coronavirus] cases amid a surge of infections of other viral and bacterial infections, especially in countries entering the winter season,\" the WHO's risk assessment says.\n\nThere is still limited evidence on how capable JN.1 is of getting round the immunity offered by vaccines, the WHO says.\n\nThere are no reports of people becoming more ill with this variant than previous ones.\n\nBut more studies are needed to work out the health impact, the WHO says, as the number of countries reporting data on people admitted to hospital with Covid has dramatically reduced.\n\nTo prevent infections and severe disease, the WHO advises:\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Women's Football\n\nEngland and Manchester United goalkeeper Mary Earps wants \"to change the world\" after being named Sports Personality of the Year 2023.\n\nEarps, 30, topped the public vote, with cricketer Stuart Broad coming second and world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson third.\n\nShe is the second women's footballer in succession to win the BBC award after Arsenal forward Beth Mead in 2022.\n\n\"I'm trying to be a game changer,\" Earps told BBC Radio 5 Live.\n\n\"I'm trying to change the world in whatever small time that I'm here. I enjoy the responsibility of being a role model, I try to inspire as many people as possible - young, old, whatever,\" Earps said.\n\n\"I want people to relate to me and my journey, see that I'm just a normal person trying to live out her dream.\n\n\"I'm trying [to make goalkeeping cool]. It's happening, it's happening. Slowly but surely - it's the Merps mission. Goalkeeping is cool!\"\n\nEarps was the Lionesses' standout player as they reached a first World Cup final in the summer and was rewarded with the Golden Glove for the best goalkeeper at the tournament.\n\n\"It's actually unbelievable to think that this isn't a football award, it's an all round sporting award and it's generic across the country,\" she said.\n\n\"It's not just about what I've achieved in football, it's something bigger than that and that's really humbling and grounding. I'm going to take some time to really reflect on that and what it means.\"\n\nThe Fifa Best Women's Goalkeeper was voted England Women's Player of the Year for 2022-23 and finished fifth in the voting for the Ballon d'Or award.\n\nShe was also named the BBC's Women's Footballer of the Year last month.\n\nRecord growth in women's and girl's football in England\n\nMeanwhile, the Football Association says there has been \"significant progress\" made in its plan to improve women's and girl's football in England.\n\nIn October 2020 the FA launched its 'Inspiring Positive Change' strategy, which had eight objectives to be achieved by 2024, including England winning a major tournament, plus football for all, early participation, coaching and refereeing.\n\nOne of those targets - ensuring 75% of schools deliver equal access to football in PE lessons - has been achieved a year early.\n\nThere has been a 12% increase in affiliated females playing football, an 18% increase in female youth players and a 39% increase in the total number of female youth teams (aged 5-18) since October 2021.\n\nThere has also been substantial growth across refereeing and coaching.\n\nThe talent pathway for players has been \"reformed\" with an increase in the number of players from socio-economically deprived areas and from underrepresented groups.\n\n\"We still have a long way to go for the game to get to where we want it to be,\" said Baroness Sue Campbell, FA director of women's football.\n\n\"But the future of women's and girls' football has never been brighter.\n\n\"The transformational growth we are seeing across the game has been spearheaded by our trailblazing Lionesses and the legacy they have created for the generations of girls who will come after them.\"\n\nThe FA said targets for the professional game have been met before 2024 too.\n\nThis includes the average Women's Super League attendance, which has surpassed the 6,000 target and is now at 7,457.", "Last updated on .From the section League Cup\n\nLiverpool cruised into the Carabao Cup semi-finals with a dominant performance against West Ham at Anfield.\n\nOnce Dominik Szoboszlai had driven a superb 25-yard effort into the bottom corner after 28 minutes, Liverpool's place in the last four was never in doubt.\n\nCurtis Jones added a second 11 minutes after the restart when he deceived Alphonse Areola into thinking he was going to cut a cross back from the edge of the six-yard box, and instead drove a shot through the Hammers' keeper's legs.\n\nCody Gakpo was given too much space to fire home his eighth goal of the season 19 minutes from time, then Mohamed Salah made it four when he raced clear of the visitors defence and finished, before Jones finished off an excellent run by adding his second.\n\nThere could have been more as the excellent Harvey Elliott, Gakpo and substitute Trent Alexander-Arnold all went close and Salah put the rebound wide of an empty net after Areola had touched a Darwin Nunez shot on to a post.\n\nIt was the first time Liverpool had scored five at home against the Hammers since 1998 and keeps them on course for a record-extending 10th triumph in the competition they last won as recently as 2022.\n\nThey will face Fulham in the semi-finals, with the first leg in the week beginning 8 January and the second leg two weeks later.\n\nFor Hammers boss David Moyes, it was a disappointing night. The former Everton boss is still waiting for his first victory in this stadium after 21 visits and Jarrod Bowen's 77th-minute goal with West Ham's first shot on target was scant consolation.\n\nThe match-winning hero at Crystal Palace on 9 December, Elliott has made all but one of his Premier League appearances this season off the bench.\n\nIn the cups, though, the 20-year-old has started every game, and provided more evidence of his talent as he excelled in both wide and central areas.\n\nElliott gave a sign of what was to come for West Ham as he cut in from the right wing and sent a shot narrowly wide from the edge of the area.\n\nThe England Under-21 international was just as likely to turn up on the left and at points in the second half, he played the midfield anchor as well.\n\nElliott drew applause from manager Jurgen Klopp for a deep cross to Gakpo, from which the Dutchman bounced a header millimetres wide of the Hammers goal.\n\nEvidently, Elliott also has a bit of the cheeky chappie about him and after Areola had produced a decent save to turn away a close-range effort from an acute angle, the former Fulham youngster took a short break by sitting on the nearby LED board.\n\nOn a night when Liverpool matched their biggest win of the season, Elliott made a telling contribution without getting his own name on the scoresheet.\n\nWest Ham's sizeable travelling support would have felt better about their trip back to London had they been given any hope to grasp at in terms of a result.\n\nWith only one win on this ground in 60 years, the Hammers have a minimal record of success at Anfield - and their overall performance here was poor.\n\nA side showing six changes from the excellent win against Wolves couldn't string a succession of passes together to generate a meaningful goal threat.\n\nThe only time it seemed as though they would shoot in that first half was when Bowen waited for the ball to drop as it deflected into the area. The hesitation was costly as Kostas Tsimikas nipped in to snuff out the threat.\n\nMohammed Kudus went close with their first shot at goal just before Liverpool scored their third of the night. But by the time Bowen scored his 12th goal of an excellent personal campaign, the game was gone.\n\n\"Whatever you say about us tonight, their performance was very good and they were fast and quick and all over us, right from the first minute. We never got a chance to breathe,\" said Moyes.\n\n\"I don't rotate very often but you just can't play them every game with what the scheduling is like.\n\n\"The only teams who've played more games than us over three years are Liverpool and Manchester City, and then we had the quickest turnaround. All of those things play a part.\"\n• None Darwin Núñez (Liverpool) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Thilo Kehrer (West Ham United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Harvey Elliott (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left.\n• None Goal! Liverpool 5, West Ham United 1. Curtis Jones (Liverpool) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold.\n• None Lucas Paquetá (West Ham United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Goal! Liverpool 4, West Ham United 1. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold with a through ball following a fast break.\n• None Attempt missed. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left.\n• None Attempt saved. Darwin Núñez (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Curtis Jones. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "Brianna Ghey was found dead at Culcheth Linear Park after being stabbed 28 times\n\nWithin 24 hours of the murder of Brianna Ghey, investigating officers had identified the suspects - two teenagers who thought that hiding the most brutal of killings would be easy.\n\nThe pair, who were just 15 at the time, were quickly arrested at their homes and taken away for questioning.\n\nDetectives would soon unravel the crime despite the killers arrogantly presuming their endless lies would save them.\n\nSixteen-year-old Brianna, who was transgender, was stabbed 28 times in broad daylight in Culcheth Linear Park in Cheshire on the afternoon of 11 February.\n\nThe teenagers, who were referred to only as girl X and boy Y during their trial due to their age, have both been convicted of her murder.\n\nWarning: Some readers might find the following report distressing\n\nThe court heard how their web of deceit began shortly after the killing when the pair began to craft what they thought would emerge to be a subtle cover story.\n\nGirl X messaged boy Y to say a \"woman got stabbed\" in the park.\n\n\"Holy crap\" was boy Y's reply despite the pair later admitting to police they were present during the stabbing - albeit blaming each other for the killing.\n\nThe following day, girl X messaged Brianna saying: \"Girl, is everything okay? Some teenage girl got killed in Linear Park its on news everywhere.\n\n\"And why did you ditch us for some random man from Manchester. Like wtf.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The jury was shown footage of the 16-year-old leaving home for the last time\n\nFor Det Ch Supt Mike Evans, it became clear early on that the two school pupils believed they could cover their tracks.\n\nGirl X, who has traits of autism and ADHD, even assured boy Y, who has been diagnosed with selective mutism and autism spectrum disorder, that he would not be caught, criticising the capabilities of police in the area.\n\n\"These are really high functioning, intelligent children,\" said the officer, who is head of crime at Cheshire Police.\n\n\"I know people sat at home reading this will have this sort of image that they've built themselves.\n\n\"But actually they're both really clever kids and very bright, very articulate.\n\n\"I think probably their downfall has been their confidence or arrogance around the fact that they thought that they could take another human life and then thought there would be no comeuppance for them and they'd never get caught.\"\n\nOnce their lies unravelled, the truth that emerged was that both had a fascination with violence, torture and murder and had planned the killing for weeks.\n\nMessages between them showed they encouraged one another to think about how they would actually carry out a killing.\n\nGirl X admitted she enjoyed \"dark fantasies\" but the jury did not accept her claims that she had no intention of turning them into reality.\n\nNeither did the jury accept boy Y's claims that he had simply played along with these fantasies and did not take them seriously.\n\nHowever, police admit they may never know exactly what motivated the teenagers to act.\n\nDet Ch Supt Mike Evans described the attack on Brianna as \"violent and vicious\"\n\nDet Ch Supt Evans continued: \"I don't think many of us has ever seen the level of depravity shown and the dehumanising nature of the text messages between the two, and the hatred towards Brianna and others for no reason whatsoever.\n\n\"And just that thirst for killing from two 15 year olds - that was really disturbing.\n\n\"And we still do not know to why they've done it. What led them to want to do it?\n\n\"Obviously now they've played on the fact that they thought it was fantasy and but when you read those messages, it was quite clear that was a plan. That wasn't a fantasy.\"\n\nBrianna was found by dog walkers in Culcheth Linear Park\n\nBoth teenagers spoke about people they wanted to kill and by 26 January - just two weeks before Brianna's death - they had compiled a \"kill list\" of five people.\n\n\"We never built this case around a transgender element,\" he said.\n\n\"This was about the murder of a young, vulnerable girl. We obviously know there was that kill list, which had five people on it. Brianna was one of them.\n\n\"Brianna was the only person on that list who was transgender. This was about murderous intent for somebody.\"\n\nIn one message, girl X messaged boy Y telling him she was \"obsessed over someone\" called Brianna but did not have feelings for the teenager.\n\nGirl X posted a tribute to Brianna on Snapchat following her death\n\n\"She was really cruel. This girl was the one who has befriended and who has betrayed and who has essentially instigated this attack throughout,\" said Det Ch Supt Evans.\n\n\"She has been the planner behind it. She's been the person who was sending the text messages and ultimately lured Brianna out to her death and then murdered her in the coldest fashion.\"\n\nUrsula Doyle, the Crown Prosecution Service's deputy chief crown prosecutor, said one of the key elements of the case was the messages, which \"provided a terrifying insight into the warped fantasies\" of the teenagers.\n\n\"This actually gave us detailed knowledge and insight into the relationship of the two defendants, what they talked about, the dark fantasies and the content of those messages were chilling,\" she added.\n\n\"It also gave us the evidence to actually see how the whole event had unfolded from the planning right the way through to luring Brianna to the park on that date.\n\n\"In fact, the way the attack was carried out was exactly the way it had been planned.\"\n\nA handwritten note of \"murder plan\" to kill Brianna was found in girl X's bedroom\n\nShe said the investigation was one of the most disturbing cases she had dealt with during her career.\n\n\"The planning, the violence and the age of the killers is beyond belief,\" she said.\n\nDet Ch Supt Evans added: \"I think this case is truly horrific.\n\n\"I would rather we talked about Brianna than these two individuals.\n\n\"I think what they did on that day and leading up to that day was evil. It was cruel and it was vicious.\n\n\"But as I say, I only want to think about Brianna going forward, not these two individuals who hopefully now will remain in prison for a considerable amount of time.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n• None The Murder of Brianna Ghey - A File On 4 special\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Irish government is to begin a legal challenge against the UK government over its decision to offer immunity for Troubles-era crimes.\n\nThe UK's controversial Troubles legacy act became law in September, despite opposition from Dublin and all Northern Ireland's main political parties.\n\nCritics argued the law gave an amnesty and removed access to justice.\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he \"profoundly regrets\" the Irish decision.\n\n\"It did not need to be taken now, given the issues are already before the UK courts,\" he said.\n\nIn a statement on Wednesday evening, he added the Irish government's action was \"inconsistent and hard to reconcile with its own record\" on dealing with legacy matters.\n\nVictims and survivors have already taken action against the UK government at Belfast's High Court, opposing the bill which Boris Johnson, then-prime minister, said in 2021 was to \"draw a line under the Troubles\".\n\nThe 30-year conflict cost more than 3,500 lives and left thousands more seriously injured.\n\nThe legislation also brought an end to all new inquests and civil actions related to the conflict.\n\nIreland's case is being taken under the European Convention on Human Rights.\n\nOutlining the decision, Tánaiste (Irish Deputy PM) Micheál Martin said the UK government had \"pursued legislation unilaterally\" despite the concerns of the Irish government and others.\n\nTánaiste (Irish Deputy PM) Micheál Martin said his government's decision was taken after careful consideration\n\n\"Serious reservations about this legislation have also been raised by a number of international observers, including the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,\" Mr Martin added.\n\n\"Most importantly, this legislation is opposed by people in Northern Ireland, especially the victims and families who will be most directly impacted by this Act.\"\n\nThe Irish government has opposed the UK's new legacy law right from its conception.\n\nVictims' groups had lobbied it repeatedly to take a case in Europe.\n\nIt now means the Troubles Act is being challenged on two legal fronts.\n\nBereaved relatives have gone to court in Belfast and Dublin is acting in Strasbourg.\n\nA decision by the Irish government had been on the cards, but this is a big step which will not have been taken without evaluating political implications.\n\nSome victims' families have backed the Irish government's legal challenge; including Emmett McConomy, whose 11-year-old brother Stephen was killed by a soldier in 1982 in Londonderry.\n\n\"It gives us some hope today, we have never lost hope and I think like all victims out there, the only thing we actually have is hope\".\n\nEmmett McConomy says the legal challenge is 'proper order'\n\nMr McConomy said victims and survivors want \"truth and accountability, justice and our rights upheld\".\n\nHe added: \"I don't think that's too much to ask in a civilised society.\"\n\nIn September, the Northern Ireland secretary said the bill marked a \"significant milestone as the government aims to deliver on our pledge to deliver better outcomes for those most affected by the Troubles, while helping society to look forward\".\n\nHe added it offers \"a real opportunity to deliver greater information, accountability and acknowledgement to victims and families, moving away from established mechanisms that have left far too many empty-handed\".\n\nOn Wednesday, Chris Heaton-Harris said of the Irish government's legal action: \"While this step is disappointing, it is one for which the UK Government was prepared.\"\n\n\"The UK Government remains confident that the Act provides a robust and effective framework to allow the ICRIR (Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery) to discharge our legal obligations.\"\n\nNorthern Ireland Office minister Lord Caine added the bill was \"the only show in town\" and the UK will \"try and minimise\" any consequences for relations between the two governments.\n\n\"But if you're asking me this evening can I rule out any consequences, the answer is no,\" he told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster in an interview to be broadcast on Thursday.\n\nThe ICRIR was set up in an attempt to help families find out more about the circumstances of how their loved ones were killed or seriously injured.\n\nSelf-confessed perpetrators who provide a truthful account of their actions to the ICRIR can be granted immunity from prosecution.\n\nVictims' campaigner Raymond McCord, whose son Raymond was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in 1997, said: \"Anyone in Northern Ireland who condemns or criticises the Irish government over their action is no friend of victims\".\n\nAmnesty International said the Irish government was \"doing the right thing\" for victims of the Troubles by taking the case.\n\nThe human rights organisation the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) said it was \"the right decision and a necessary one\".\n\nThe Democratic Unionist Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson accused the Irish government of double standards.\n\n\"The Irish government have no proposals to deal with the legacy issues, no proposals to deal with the quite significant number of murders that were committed either in their jurisdiction or from their jurisdiction,\" he continued.\n\nSinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald also welcomed the Irish government's move, as did Social Democratic and Labour Party leader Colum Eastwood.\n\nUlster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie said the Irish government's decision was \"not surprising\" and it takes an \"opposition attack line off the table\" ahead of an election year.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Spectacular helicopter shots show the eruption on the island's coast\n\nPollution from a volcano that erupted on Monday could hit Iceland's capital, the country's meteorological office has said.\n\nThe eruption, which broke out on the Reykjanes peninsula of south-west Iceland, comes after weeks of intense earthquakes and tremors.\n\nFumes could reach Reykjavik by Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning.\n\nAbout 4,000 people were evacuated last month from Grindavik, a fishing town threatened by the lava flow.\n\nA resident living near Grindavik described \"crazy\" and \"scary\" scenes on Monday night and said she could still see the volcano exploding on Tuesday.\n\nIceland has been braced for volcanic activity for weeks. Since late October, the region around Reykjavik has been experiencing an increase in earthquake activity.\n\nThe eruption can be seen from Reykjavik, which is about 42km north-east of Grindavik.\n\nAn eyewitness in the capital told the BBC that half of the sky in the direction of the town was \"lit up in red\" from the eruption, and smoke could be seen billowing into the air.\n\nOn Tuesday, British tourists Amrit and Peter, a married couple in their 20s, took selfies with the bright orange lava in the background.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Peter said: \"We are not scared at all, the Icelandic authorities are handling this well and keep giving us information. We feel totally safe.\"\n\nIn 2010, a volcanic eruption caused an ash plume to rise several kilometres into the atmosphere, leading to several days of air travel disruption in Europe.\n\nVolcanologist Dr Evgenia Ilyinskaya told the BBC that there would not be the same level of disruption as 2010, as these volcanoes in south-west Iceland were \"physically not able to generate the same ash clouds\".\n\nSpeaking from Iceland, Dr Ilyinskaya, associate professor of volcanology at Leeds University, said local people had been both \"fearing and waiting for\" the volcano to erupt.\n\nShe added that authorities were preparing for potential lava flows that could destroy homes and infrastructure, including the Blue Lagoon, a popular tourist destination.\n\n\"At the moment it seems not to be threatening, although it remains to be seen,\" she said.\n\nThe Icelandic Met Office said at 12:30 GMT on Tuesday that the power of the eruption was decreasing, but that gases from the volcano could still reach Reykjavik.\n\nAoalheiour Halldorsdottir, who lives in Sandgeroi - about 20km from Grindavik - said she had seen the eruption from her home.\n\n\"It was crazy to see it with my own eyes. We have had volcano explosions before, but this was the first time I got really scared,\" she told BBC News.\n\n\"We're used to volcanoes [erupting], but this was crazy.\"\n\nShe said there was some \"panic\" on Monday night, and that she had bought extra supplies of water, but that things had largely returned to normal on Tuesday.\n\n\"I'm at work now and I can still see it. I can see the lights in the sky,\" she said.\n\nHans Vera was evacuated from Grindavik last month, but hoped before Monday's eruption to return home for Christmas.\n\nBut he said: \"I don't see that in the future they will let people get close to Grindavik - so we are back in the waiting game.\"\n\nIceland's foreign minister, Bjarni Benediktsson said on X, formerly Twitter, that \"there are no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland, and international flight corridors remain open\".\n\n\"The jets [of lava] are quite high, so it appears to be a powerful eruption at the beginning,\" he said.\n\nImages and videos posted on social media showed lava bursting from the volcano just an hour after an earthquake swarm - a series of seismic events - was detected.\n\nPolice have warned people to stay away from the area.\n\nThe length of the crack in the volcano is about 3.5km, with the lava flowing at a rate of around 100 to 200 cubic metres per second, the Met Office said, adding that this was many times more than recent eruptions on the Reykjanes peninsula.\n\nIceland's Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir said defences recently constructed would have a positive effect.\n\nShe said her thoughts were with the local community and she was hoping for the best despite the \"significant event\".\n\nPresident Gudni Johannesson said safeguarding lives was the main priority but that every effort would be made to protect structures too.\n\nAbout 4,000 people were evacuated from the fishing town of Grindavik last month\n\nAre you in Iceland? What can you see? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Polish news anchor pulled off air as Tusk reforms take effect\n\nPolish state TV channel TVP Info has been taken off air after Prime Minister Donald Tusk's new government moved to depoliticise public media.\n\nParliament in Warsaw backed a resolution on Tuesday night calling for independence, objectivity and pluralism in public TV and radio.\n\nThe new culture minister has dismissed the heads of TVP and Polish Radio.\n\nMPs from the Law and Justice (PiS) party who lost power in October reacted by staging a sit-in at state TV HQ.\n\nThe ex-PiS prime minister condemned the Tusk government's \"illegal actions\", and political ally President Andrzej Duda accused it of \"violating constitutional principles and the law\".\n\nState media is an important tool in Poland. About a third of people rely solely on it for their news, having no access to private broadcasters.\n\nIn recent years, TVP's main evening news broadcasts, and TVP Info, became a propaganda machine for the PiS government, and the new coalition, led by pro-EU Prime Minister Donald Tusk, had promised voters to turn state media into a platform for \"reliable information\".\n\nPiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski joined the protest at TVP headquarters in Warsaw all night, leaving the building after 06:00 local time (05:00 GMT).\n\nHe returned, along with dozens of other PiS MPs on Wednesday after TVP's 24-hour news channel was taken off air. TVP Info continued to broadcast on YouTube, showing video of a TV screen airing the output, until it also stopped.\n\nOn Tuesday night, TVP Info, the 24-hour news service, symbolically changed its headline strap from red to black.\n\nThen on Wednesday the new minister of culture, Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, dismissed the heads of state TV and radio as well as state news agency PAP.\n\nNew management boards were also appointed. and then the news channel went off air altogether. Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused the new government of violating its \"supposed care for the rule of law... at every step\".\n\nPrime Minister Donald Tusk has moved quickly to dismiss appointees of the previous government from state bodies\n\nThe Tusk-led coalition was eventually sworn in a week ago, after winning October elections on a promise to overturn years of PiS reforms.\n\nThe former president of the European Council has moved quickly to dismiss PiS appointees from government bodies. On Tuesday he appointed new heads of state security, intelligence and anti-corruption offices. He described the new chiefs, including two women, as \"very good, loyal and disciplined\".\n\nBy law, state media should not serve the political interests of any one party. In practice, it is normally partial to whichever government is in power.\n\nAfter taking office in 2015, PiS went much further than any previous government in controlling TVP's narrative.\n\nIt changed Poland's media law and set up a rival media regulator to allow it to sack management boards and pack the public media with journalists sympathetic to its policies.\n\nWhile it was doing this, it enacted legislation to increase its political control over the judiciary and the civil service. It put its own people in charge of the security services and state-controlled companies.\n\nMany Poles old enough to remember the crude propaganda of the communist-era authorities in the 1970s and '80s said TVP's methods were even worse.\n\nPiS set out to \"repolonise\" Polish media and used the country's state-controlled energy company Orlen to buy Poland's largest regional media outlet, the German-owned Polska Press, taking political control of its newspapers and websites.\n\nIt also passed legislation to limit foreign ownership of the media, leading Washington to protest the bill was aimed at the US-owned TVN. The protest caused President Andrzej Duda to veto the bill.\n\nIn response to PiS's actions, privately owned newspapers and broadcasters, such as TVN 24 news, became markedly more critical of the PiS-led government.\n\nUnder the previous government, Poland dropped from 18th to 57th place in the World Press Freedom Index.\n\nSo how can its former leader, Mr Kaczynski, say the protest is defending democracy and media pluralism?\n\nIn his definition, media pluralism will be reduced by PiS losing control over TVP. For him, TVP acts as a conservative bulwark against the private broadcasters supporting the new coalition government.\n\nPoland's media regulator, the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT), which has also been politicised by PiS, said the dismissals were illegal. \"Turning off the television signal and websites of TVP Info is an act of lawlessness and recalls the worst times of martial law,\" said chairman Maciej Swirski.\n\nPiS said the parliamentary resolution did not give the government the power to sack the management boards. But the culture minister said the ministry had ownership rights over the state companies and did have the authority.\n\nMr Tusk has learned from PiS's eight years in power. When he was first elected prime minister in 2007, he left a PiS appointee, Mariusz Kaminski, in his post as head of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau until 2009.\n\nMr Kaminski served as interior minister under the recently departed PiS-led government.\n\nOn Wednesday he was handed a two-year jail sentence for abuse of power for his part in an anti-corruption sting dating back to 2007, for which President Duda had already pardoned him in 2015.\n\nThe Tusk government may face resistance to its planned changes from the president, who has the power to veto legislation.\n\nMr Duda took to social media on Wednesday evening to call on the prime minister and his cabinet to \"respect the Polish legal order\". He had already written to the parliamentary speaker warning that any changes to state media must be carried out in accordance with the law.\n\nPolish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported that the coalition government did not plan a wide-ranging purge of TVP personnel, saying up to 60 employees who violated journalistic standards would lose their jobs. The newspaper said the government planned to make the changes by Christmas.", "President Zelensky sought to strike a confident note during his two-hour long press-conference\n\nUkraine's military wants to mobilise up to 500,000 extra people, President Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed, as the war with Russia nears a two-year mark.\n\nAt a news conference in Kyiv, he said his commanders were seeking \"450,000-500,000 individuals\", admitting this was a \"sensitive\" and costly issue.\n\nHe said he needed more details before backing the move, hinting that 500,000 soldiers were already on the front.\n\nHis comments come in the wake of aid setbacks from the US and the EU.\n\nRepublicans in the US Congress first blocked a $60bn (£47bn) military package for Ukraine earlier this month. This week, representatives of both the White House and the State Department said the US was planning one more military aid package to Ukraine - but that it had limited ability to send more help after that unless Congress acted.\n\nThe US setback was followed by Hungary's blocking of the EU's €50bn ($55bn; £43bn) financial aid deal last week. EU leaders, however, said Ukraine would not be left without support.\n\nUkraine is facing an ammunition shortage as it continues to fight occupying Russian forces, following Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022.\n\nKyiv's counter-offensive ground to a halt at the start of winter and there are fears that the Russians could simply outgun Ukraine.\n\nOlena Zelenska, Ukraine's first lady, warned in a BBC interview earlier this month that Ukrainians were in \"mortal danger\" of being left to die without further Western support.\n\nRussia President Vladimir Putin said this week that Moscow would continue its invasion, vowing that all his goals would be achieved.\n\nThe Kremlin leader also said that 617,000 Russian soldiers were currently taking part in what Moscow describes as its \"special military operation\". But he admitted that the armed forces had problems with air defence systems and communication, and needed to increase the production of drones.\n\nPresident Zelensky's end-of-year news conference was held in the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday, with the time and venue being kept secret from the general public. Invited Ukrainian and foreign media had been given the details in their confirmation letters.\n\nAppearing in his trademark military-style clothes, the Ukrainian leader was asked a wide range of questions during the two-hour event.\n\nHe revealed that Ukraine's top military commanders had \"proposed to mobilise an additional 450,000-500,000 individuals\" for the country's war effort.\n\nHe said this was a \"very serious number\" and he needed more in-depth discussion before committing to the plan.\n\n\"I need specifics: what will happen to the million-strong army of Ukraine, what will happen to those guys who have been defending our state for two years? We have issues of rotation and holidays. It should be a comprehensive plan.\"\n\nBut he ruled out any proposals to mobilise women.\n\nUkraine's military has admitted it is facing an ammunition shortage\n\nWhen asked by the BBC's Jessica Parker about whether Ukraine could be on the cusp of starting to lose the war, Mr Zelensky was firm. \"No,\" was the answer.\n\nIt's the answer you would expect, but he's not alone in expressing this kind of determination, our correspondent in Kyiv says. Many people she has met will not countenance anything other than beating back their Russian invaders, she adds.\n\nDuring the briefing, Mr Zelensky also said that:\n\nDuring the whole event, the Ukrainian president sought to strike a confident note - but sometimes he appeared to be tense and tetchy when pressed over reports of corruption among Ukrainian government officials and lawmakers.", "There was no sign of Steven Spielberg or terrifyingly realistic velociraptors and T. rexes.\n\nBut a group of friends from the south Wales valleys have breathed new life into the daddy of all dinosaur movies.\n\nThey took to the streets of Porth in Rhondda Cynon Taf dressed as both beloved characters and prehistoric beasts from Jurassic Park for their Christmas fancy dress pub crawl.\n\nFor their 19th annual night out they chose the 1993 blockbuster as their theme, and recreated a classic shot in a kiddies' playground.\n\nMember Matthew Jones remembered one year when they dressed as Oompa Loompas from the Willie Wonka films.\n\n“And an article appeared in the local paper asking if people could help explain why there were 20 Oompa Loompas around Porth,\" he said.", "Rimmel London has been told the ad must not appear again\n\nA Rimmel London advert that featured a Love Islander has been banned for \"playing on young girls' insecurities\".\n\nThe Facebook ad included a video of 25-year-old influencer Lana Jenkins, who was on series nine, applying make-up.\n\nBut the text above her read: \"Get ready to slay this back-to-school season. Get 25% off Multi-Tasker Concealer and other Rimmel faves...\"\n\nThe Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it implied it was necessary to wear make-up at school to succeed.\n\nThe regulator found that the words \"back-to-school season\" would be understood as referring to the time of year students returned to school so would appeal to young girls.\n\nIt also noted that the ad had a bright pink colour scheme, books, star emojis and that Lana was holding a fluffy pink pen in the video.\n\nThe ASA ruled that the ad \"implied that girls or young women were more likely to succeed or do well when they went back to school if they wore make-up, in this case a concealing and contouring product\".\n\n\"We considered the ad had the effect of playing on young girls' insecurities about their appearance and therefore concluded it was irresponsible,\" it said.\n\nCoty UK, which trades as Rimmel London, admitted the ad was part of its \"Back to School\" campaign but denied it communicated a need to wear make-up.\n\nIt said it targeted women aged 18 to 35 who were interested in cosmetics, beauty, fashion and make-up, and said the wording was intended to motivate and build confidence.\n\nTwo people had complained that the ad was irresponsible and the ASA ruled that it must not appear again.\n\nCoty UK has been approached for further comment.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Hannah Taylor and Lewis Conroy are representing themselves in court\n\nTwo climate change activists who climbed to the top of one of the Kelpies put police who had to remove them in danger, a court has heard.\n\nHannah Taylor, 23, and Lewis Conroy, 22 attached a banner to the 98ft (30 metres) sculpture's neck in July.\n\nThe court heard adjoining Helix Park in Falkirk had to be closed and more than 200 visitors had tours cancelled.\n\nThe pair accept they scaled the sculpture but deny committing a breach of the peace.\n\nScottish Canals and the Helix Park operator Falkirk Council lost nearly £2,000 in revenue as a result, the court heard.\n\nMs Taylor, of Derbyshire, and Mr Conroy, of Glasgow, are representing themselves at a summary trial which will continue in January.\n\nLisa Wilson, 41, visitor manager at the Helix, told Falkirk Sheriff Court she received a text at 07:00 telling her \"people were climbing on the Kelpies\".\n\nThe Kelpies have been a feature at the Helix for the last 10 years\n\nWhen she got there, Ms Taylor and Mr Conroy were \"on the cheek of the horse\" and later on top of its head, she said.\n\nQuestioned by Mr Conroy, Ms Wilson agreed that, as someone living in the area, \"it would be a fear\" for her if flooding caused by climate change were to obliterate the Kelpies and the Helix Park.\n\nPolice negotiator Alan Jenkins said he was suspended within the structure for 40 minutes by special operations officers to speak to the two activists, who by then were \"between the ears\" of the horse.\n\nSixteen rope access officers and four supervisors from Police Scotland's special operations unit at Fettes, Edinburgh, were sent to the scene.\n\nPC Jenkins said Mr Conroy and Ms Taylor seemed \"oblivious to the danger\" to themselves and police officers, and he was worried that their banner could blow across the motorway.\n\nMotorists on the M9 were also said to be sounding their horns, making it obvious they were taking their attention off the road.\n\nThe police officer described the activists as \"both very polite\".\n\nHe said: \"When I saw them on the top I was frankly amazed at their disregard for their own safety - they didn't have helmets on.\n\n\"My fear was there could be injuries through misadventure, causing a fatality either to themselves or my colleagues working there.\"\n\nPC Andrew Baird, 36, said the climbing equipment that the two were using was new, but \"absolutely not safe\" for use on the Kelpies.\n\nHe said the sharp metal edges of the sculpture could have \"very easily\" severed the climbing straps they were using.\n\nSheriff Craig Harris adjourned the trial until 30 January to allow the accused to consider whether to make submissions of no case to answer, or to give evidence themselves.", "File photo of women protesting against so-called honour killings in Pakistan\n\nAn Italian court has given a Pakistani couple life sentences for killing their 18-year-old daughter because she refused an arranged marriage.\n\nSaman Abbas's body was found at a farmhouse in northern Italy in November 2022, 18 months after she disappeared.\n\nHer father, Shabbar Abbas, was arrested in Pakistan and extradited to be tried for her murder in August.\n\nHer mother, Nazia Shaheen, was convicted in her absence. She is believed to be in hiding in Pakistan.\n\nShabbar Abbas had earlier made an impassioned plea to the court, asserting that \"never in my life did I think of killing my daughter\".\n\nThe teenager's uncle, Danish Hasnain, was given 14 years in jail for involvement in the murder, but two of her cousins were cleared.\n\nSaman Abbas's so-called honour killing by her family in late April 2021 shocked Italy. Following her disappearance, Italy's union of Islamic communities issued a fatwa - a religious ruling - rejecting forced marriages.\n\nThe teenager had emigrated with her family from Pakistan to the farm town of Novellara in 2016, according to Italian reports.\n\nShe began dating a young man of Pakistani origin, and a photograph of them kissing on a street in the regional capital, Bologna, reportedly drew the fury of her parents.\n\nItalian investigators said Saman Abbas's parents had wanted her to travel to Pakistan for an arranged marriage in 2020, but she refused.\n\nShe then lived for several months under the protection of social services from October that year, but returned to the family home in Novellara in late April 2021 in response to a flurry of messages from her family, Italian reports said.\n\nProsecutors said she had been tricked into returning home and it was at this point she disappeared.\n\nCCTV footage released by the police showed three of Saman Abbas's family members walking with spades, a crowbar and a blue bag on 29 April 2021. The following day, separate footage showed the missing teenager leaving the house with her parents.\n\nHer body was eventually recovered last November, close to a farm house not far from where the family lived, after her uncle had revealed where she had been buried.\n\nA post mortem examination found she had suffered a broken neck bone, possibly as a result of being strangled.\n\nMembers of the family holding spades were captured on video in late April\n\nHer parents had immediately left Italy for Pakistan after she disappeared, while her uncle Danish Hasnain and two of her cousins travelled to France and Spain.\n\nThe uncle was eventually detained in Paris in 2021, while her father was arrested in 2022 and finally extradited on 31 August this year. Her mother remains at large.\n\nAlthough Nazia Shaheen was in absentia, the court in the northern city of Reggio Emilia convicted both parents and sentenced them to life in jail.\n\nShabbar Abbas had earlier told the court he was innocent, insisting he and his wife had only followed their daughter on the night she disappeared because they were unhappy it was so late and they wanted to see where she was going.\n\n\"This trial is not complete. I too want to know who killed my daughter,\" he said, according to Italian media.\n\nThe idea that a murder can be \"honourable\" is believed to have come from some tribal customs, where an allegation against a woman is perceived to bring dishonour to her family.\n\nAccording to these customs, male family members of a woman who has interactions with unrelated men - however innocuous - should first kill the woman, then go after the man.\n\nHuman rights groups say the most common reasons for \"honour killings\" are when the victim refuses to enter into an arranged marriage or have been raped or sexually assaulted.\n\nBut killings can be carried out for more trivial reasons, like dressing in a way deemed inappropriate or displaying behaviour seen as disobedient.\n\nIn Pakistan, hundreds of women are killed in this way each year. A much smaller number of men are also murdered in such cases.\n\nLast month, an 18-year-old woman in the remote Kohistan district was shot dead by her father and uncle on orders from tribal elders - because of a photo that showed her with a man.\n\nThe photo, which went viral, was later found to have been doctored. Her father has been arrested while her uncle is on the run.", "Ukraine has warned it is already being forced to downsize some military operations because of a drop-off in foreign aid.\n\nTop general Oleksandr Tarnavskyi said troops faced ammunition shortages along the \"entire front line\", creating a \"big problem\" for Kyiv.\n\nIt comes as billions of dollars of US and EU aid have been held up amid political wrangles.\n\nUkraine said it hoped to boost its own ammunition industry with western help.\n\nBut it relies heavily on western supplies, particularly on deliveries of long-range missiles and air defence systems, to fight occupying Russian forces.\n\nGen Tarnavskyi told the Reuters news agency that the country lacked artillery shells, particularly for its Soviet-era weapons.\n\n\"The volumes we have are not sufficient, given our needs,\" he said. \"So, we're redistributing it. We're re-planning tasks that we had set for ourselves and making them smaller because we need to provide for them.\"\n\nHe said that diminishing foreign military aid was already having an impact on the battlefield, and forcing a change in tactics.\n\n\"In some areas, we moved to defence, and in some we continue our offensive actions.\n\n\"And we are preparing our reserves for our further large-scale actions. Their intention remains. The only thing is that their actions change, tactics change.\"\n\nHis comments come in the wake of setbacks in both the EU and US. Republicans in the US Congress first blocked a $60bn (£47bn) military package for Ukraine earlier this month.\n\nThat was followed by Hungary's blocking of the EU's €50bn ($55bn; £43bn) financial aid deal last week. EU leaders however said Ukraine would not be left without support.\n\nUkraine was already facing an ammunition shortage as Western powers struggled to maintain supplies. The EU pledged to send one million artillery shells by March 2024, but so far only 480,000 have been either delivered or are in the pipeline.\n\nMeanwhile, the US has provided Ukraine with more than two million 155mm shells for use in Western-made artillery systems. But its own stocks have been depleted, prompting the decision last summer to send cluster munitions.\n\nUkraine is already using ammunition faster than partners can produce it. A report by the Estonian defence ministry said Kyiv needed a minimum of 200,000 artillery shells a month to retain an edge against Russia.\n\n\"Sustaining this rate will empty European and US stockpiles over 2024 and will require significant foreign purchases of ammunition,\" it said.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Ivan Havryliuk said the country was ramping up production of kamikaze drones \"to compensate [for] the lack of artillery shells\".\n\nAdditionally, it was increasing its own production of artillery rounds \"for almost the entire range\" of its Soviet-era weapons.\n\nA Ukrainian gunner on the front line in Donbas\n\nHe also said the country hoped to boost its defence industry by jointly producing ammunition with Western companies on Ukrainian soil.\n\nGen Havryliuk said this was the focus of negotiations with US companies when he accompanied President Volodymyr Zelensky during his December visit to the US.\n\nUkraine signed a number of agreements with US firms to start joint production.\n\nHe said that Ukraine could not match the resources of or manpower of Russia and the goal was to achieve technological superiority.\n\nGen Havryliuk said Kyiv was confident its international partners would overcome political differences to provide Ukraine with aid as before.\n\nEU countries, he added, sent their assistance not only as a bloc but also on a bilateral level.\n\nHowever, the situation has signalled to Russia that international support for Ukraine is weakening - and there are concerns that by switching its economy onto a war footing, Moscow can outlast the West in this battle of attrition.\n\nLast week, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his belief that the war would end only when Russia achieves its goals.\n\nKalle Kirss, the head of the Nato and EU department at Estonia's defence ministry, told the BBC that Europe needed to commit funding to support Ukraine.\n\n\"We need to signal very clearly to Russia that we're ready for a long war and that we will boost our industry and we [will] commit our resources.\"", "'When explosions hit, I can't see anything'\n\nWe've been hearing voices from Gaza discussing the difficulties people with disabilities are facing because of the war. Safa Jalal, 28, who has a visual disability, says she is dependent on her hearing when explosions hit. \"When explosions take place, I cannot see anything, but only hear sounds, and I do not know where I am at the time,\" Safa told the BBC World Service. \"I would like this war to come to an end so that my life goes back to normal, I hope my tragedy ends,\" she said. The UN warned earlier in the conflict that about 15% of the displaced people inside the Gaza Strip have a disability and shelters are not well equipped to meet their needs. Youssef Ali Abu Khater said his sister, who is deaf and unable to speak, refused to flee to Khan Younis with his family. They have been unable to locate her since. \"She was very tired as she was facing a great difficulty in doing anything,\" he said. \"She only wanted to stay at her home. Her family did not want to abandon her, so they asked her to come with them, but she left them and went in the direction of bombing and fighting.\"", "Amiram Cooper, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Tsachi Idan are being held in Gaza\n\nIsrael says 132 people remain unaccounted for after they were abducted and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attacks by Hamas.\n\nAn estimated 240 people were taken prisoner, but 105 were later released by Hamas during a six-day ceasefire at the end of November.\n\nThe Israeli military said it mistakenly killed three hostages in northern Gaza who had escaped from their captors and expressed \"deep remorse\" over the incident.\n\nOf the 132 still unaccounted for, Israel says that 20 of them are believed to be dead.\n\nThese are the stories of those hostages who are still being held, which have either been confirmed by the BBC or credibly reported.\n\nThis list is regularly updated and names may change, as some people feared kidnapped are confirmed to have been killed or released.\n\nLast updated on 19 December 2023 at 10:33 GMT\n\nYagev Kirsht, 34, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nirim, alongside his wife, Rimon Buchstab Kirsht. She has now been released.\n\nAlexander Trupanov, was taken hostage with his mother Lena Trupanov, 50, his partner Sapir Cohen, 29, and his grandmother Irina Tati, 73. All were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz as they spent the Sabbath together, according to a statement by Canada's Raoul Wallenburg Center for Human Rights. Irina and Lena were released on Wednesday 29 November and Sapir was freed the next day.\n\nAriel Cunio, his girlfriend Arbel Yahud and her brother Dolev are also thought to have been abducted in the same attack on Nir Oz. Eitan Cunio, Ariel's brother who escaped Hamas, told the Jewish Chronicle that his last message from Ariel said: \"We are in a horror movie.\"\n\nDavid Cunio, 33, another of Ariel's brothers, was also kidnapped from Nir Oz, family say. David's wife Sharon Aloni Cunio and their three-year-old twin daughters Ema and Yuly were released on 27 November. Sharon's sister Daniele Aloni, and her six-year-old daughter Emilia were both released on 24 November.\n\nDoron Steinbrecher, 30, a veterinary nurse, was in her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas attacked, the Times of Israel reported. At 10:30 on 7 October, the newspaper said, she sent a voice message to friends: \"They've arrived, they have me.\"\n\nItzhak Gelerenter, 53, was taken from the Supernova festival. His family said the IDF found his phone was located in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported. His daughter Pivko told the paper: \"I'm trying to think good thoughts, I have a powerful, smart, resourceful father.\"\n\nDoron Steinbrecher sent a voice message to friends during Hamas' attack\n\nNaama Levy, 19, was filmed being bundled into a jeep, her hands tied behind her back. The footage was released by Hamas and circulated widely on social media. According to her mother, the teenager had just begun her military service.\n\nYousef Zyadna, a 53-year-old Bedouin dairy farmer, was abducted from Kibbutz Holit and taken to Gaza along with his sons Hamza, 22, and Bilal, 18, and his daughter, Aisha, 16. Aisha and Bilal were released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nElad Katzir, 47, was abducted from Nir Oz with his mother Hanna. Hanna has now been released.\n\nOhad Ben Ami, 55, was kidnapped from Be'eri with his wife, Raz. She was released by Hamas on 29 November.\n\nTwin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, 26, were taken from Kfar Aza. Ziv was messaging a friend as the attack happened. Their family said the IDF has told them the brothers are being held in Gaza. Their brother Liran told CBN news the pair had \"twin power\" and were the centre of attention wherever they went.\n\nIraq-born Shlomo Mansour, 85, was taken captive from Kibbutz Kissufim, where he lived and worked as a chicken coop manager. His wife, Mazal, managed to escape.\n\nMichel Nisenbaum, 59, is a dual Brazilian-Israeli citizen who has lived in Israel for 45 years and works as a computer technician, his family told Brazilian media. They also say he is diabetic and has Crohn's disease. On 7 October, they say, someone claiming to be from Hamas answered his phone when they tried to call him.\n\nDaniela Gilboa, 19, sent messages saying that Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where she was staying, was under attack and asked her mother to pray for her. Her boyfriend, Roy Dadon, told the Economist 1843 magazine that he believes he saw a glimpse of her in a video showing three girls being driven away in the back of an SUV.\n\nItay Chen, 19, a dual US-Israeli citizen and IDF solider, was on active duty with a tank unit on 7 October, according to the Times of Israel. The paper reported that his family was notified by the IDF that he is officially considered missing in action and probably being held hostage. Another soldier in his unit, Matan Angrest, 21, is also presumed to be in Gaza.\n\nYosi Sharabi, 51, was taken from Be'eri with his brother, Eli Sharabi, 55. Eli's wife and two daughters were murdered in the attack. Ofir Engel, the boyfriend of Yosi's daughter, Yuval, was also taken, but released on 29 November.\n\nAgam Berger, 19, was kidnapped from Nahal Oz. She was seen being taken away in videos released by Hamas.\n\nEdan Alexander, 19, is an Israeli-US citizen who volunteered to join the Israeli army. He was serving near the Gaza border at the time of Hamas's attack. Edan's family said they had been told by Israeli officials that he had been taken to Gaza as a hostage.\n\nKaid Farhan Elkadi, 53, lives with his family south of Rahat and worked as a security guard, according to Israeli media. Reports said his family believes he was kidnapped and taken to Gaza, based on images shared by Hamas.\n\nIlana Gritzewsky and Matan Zanguaker were captured near the Gaza border, family say\n\nMatan Zanguaker, 24, was taken with his partner Ilana Gritzewsky, 30, from Nir Oz, according to Ilana's father. Ilana, a Mexican national, was released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nThe family of Eitan and Yair Horn believe they were taken from Nir Oz kibbutz\n\nEitan Horn, 37, and his brother Yair, 45, both Argentinian citizens, were also in Nir Oz at the time of the attack. Their father Itzik said he believes they were kidnapped. Yair is a construction worker while Eitan works in education.\n\nItai Svirsky, 38, is thought to have been abducted when his elderly parents were killed in Be'eri. He had been visiting them for the holiday of Simhat Torah.\n\nKeith Seigel, 64, and his wife Adrienne - often known as Aviva - Seigel, 62, were taken from their home in Kfar Aza, Keith's brother Lee Seigel told the BBC. Adrienne was released on 26 November.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, lived in Nahal Oz with his wife and two daughters. Omri was led away by Hamas with his hands tied, his wife Lishay told the Guardian newspaper. She told him not to be a hero, urging: \"Do whatever they want because I want you back.\"\n\nBipin Joshi, 23, a Nepalese student, is believed to have been taken from Kibbutz Alumim. Nepalese newspaper Setopati says he was one of 49 university students studying agriculture in Israel. It says 10 students were killed in the attack.\n\nIlan Weiss, 58, went missing from Kibbutz Be'eri after he was last seen leaving the house to defend the community. On 25 November, his wife Shiri Weiss, 53, and their daughter, Noga, 18, were freed from captivity in a hostage deal.\n\nAmiram Cooper, 85, and his wife Nurit, 80, were taken from their home in Nir Oz, their daughter-in-law Noa told the BBC. The family last spoke to the couple during the Hamas attack, Noa said, when the couple were in their safe room. The family later traced Amiram's phone to Gaza. On Monday 23 October, Nurit was one of two women to be released.\n\nAmiram and Nurit Cooper, pictured with their granddaughter, Gali\n\nOded Lifshitz, 83, and his wife Yocheved, 85 were taken hostage from Nir Oz. On Monday 23 October, Yocheved was one of two elderly women to be freed. After hearing the news of her mother's release, their daughter Sharone - a London-based artist - said: \"While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those - some 200 innocent people - who remain hostages in Gaza.\"\n\nHaim Peri, 79, was taken from his home in Nir Oz, reports the Times of Israel, and freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz said she saw that he was alive and well. His son Lior Peri told Talk TV that Haim had locked his wife inside the safe room before giving himself up to kidnappers.\n\nAvraham Munder, 78, was kidnapped from Nir Oz, Israeli officials say. His wife Ruthi, daughter and grandson have since been released.\n\nOmer Neutra, a 22-year-old Israeli-American and grandson of Holocaust survivors, put off plans to go to college in the US to study in Israel, and eventually joined the IDF. He was serving as a tank commander near Gaza when Hamas attacked. Omer's parents say they were told by the Israeli embassy that he had been kidnapped.\n\nRon Benjamin's vehicle was found empty following the attacks\n\nRon Benjamin, 53, had been taking part in a group cycle ride near the Gaza border when the Hamas attack began and he decided to drive home, his family told Israeli media. Days later, his vehicle was found empty and his family believe he was kidnapped.\n\nLouis Har, 70, is believed to have been taken from Nir Yitzhak. His partner Clara Marman was released on 28 November along with her sister Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and Gabriela's daughter Mia Leimberg,17. Clara and Gabriela's brother Fernando Simon Marman, 60, also remains in captivity.\n\nJudith Weinstein Haggai, 70, and her husband, Gad Haggai, 73, also went missing from Nir Oz after the Hamas attack. Ten days later, the Israeli military confirmed to the family they had been taken hostage, CTV News in Canada reported.\n\nAlex Danzig, 75, a scholar and historian of the Holocaust, was at his home in Nir Oz, when it was attacked by Hamas. \"We know for sure he was kidnapped,\" his son Mati told the BBC. Alex - whose older sister Edith is a Holocaust survivor - has spent the last 30 years working for Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance centre. His disappearance has triggered a campaign for his release, both in Israel and in Poland, the country of his birth.\n\nAlex Danzig has spent decades educating people about the Holocaust\n\nItzhk Elgarat, 68, was kidnapped at the same time as Alex Danzig, his brother Danny Elgert told Israel's Kan 11 TV station, adding that he had tracked his brother's phone to the border with Gaza.\n\nGadi Moses, 79, was also abducted during the same attack on Nir Oz, according to relatives and the Israeli aid agency where he worked as an agricultural expert. Efrat Katz, his partner, was initially thought to have been captured as well, but she was later found dead, the Times of Israel reported. Efrat was the mother of Doron Asher, who was taken hostage and later released with her two daughters. Ravid Katz, 51, Doron Asher's brother, was originally thought to have been taken hostage from Nir Oz, but on 28 November his family confirmed that he had been killed on 7 October.\n\nYair Yaakov, 59, is listed among the hostages. His partner Meirav Tal, 53, was released on 28 November. Yair's children Yagil, 13, and Or, 16, were released on 27 November.\n\nYair Yaakov was pictured being held captive by a gunman in a video shared online\n\nNimrod Cohen, 19, had studied software engineering in high school, according to reports. After he was kidnapped, his father was invited to meet Pope Francis in Rome along with other hostages' families.\n\nTsachi Idan, 51, was last seen by his wife, Gali, as he was taken away by Hamas gunmen. Their family had been ambushed in their safe room in Nahal Oz. Their ordeal was live-streamed by Hamas. Their eldest child, Maayan - who had just turned 18 - was shot dead, Gali told the BBC.\n\nTsachi Idan was ambushed with his wife and children and then led away\n\nYarden Bibas, 34, was abducted from Nir Oz. His wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel and Kfir, were also taken hostage, but on 29 November, Hamas claimed they had been killed in an Israeli air strike while in captivity. The Israeli government has said it is checking the claim.\n\nRonen Engel, 54, was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his wife, Karina Engelbert, 51, and their two daughters, Mika, 18 and Yuval, 11. On 1 December, the organisation representing the families said he had been murdered. Karina, Mika and Yuval were released on 27 November.\n\nKarina Ariev, a 19-year-old soldier, was serving at an army base near Gaza when she was kidnapped. Her sister Alexandra told the BBC she heard shooting as Karina called her during the attack, and later saw a video showing Karina being taken away in a vehicle.\n\nKarina Ariev was at the Nahal Oz military base, which was among the first to be attacked\n\nOfer Kalderon, 53, was taken by Hamas from Nir Oz. On 27 November his two children, Erez, 12, and Sahar, 16, were released. Two other relatives, 80-year-old Carmela Dan and her granddaughter, Noya, 12, were also believed to have been taken, but Israeli authorities later announced they had been found dead.\n\nYoram Metzger, 80, was a resident of Nir Oz. He has diabetes and broke his hip six months ago, his daughter-in-law said. Yoram's wife Tamar was released on 28 November.\n\nNadav Popplewell, 51, and his mother Channah were taken hostage by Hamas, said Channah's daughter Ayelet Svatitzky, who was speaking to them on the phone when the gunmen burst in. She said the captors sent pictures of her two relatives, who both have diabetes, with armed men in the background. Channah has now been released.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, was abducted after his family opened the door to their secure shelter to an Israeli child, who said he would be killed otherwise. Omri's wife, Lishay Lavi, said she saw him being taken away in handcuffs with three other hostages from Nahal Oz.\n\nLiri Elbag, 18, had just started military training as an Army lookout near the Gaza border when Hamas attacked, her father Eli told the Associated Press. Eli said he saw her in a video circulated later by Hamas, crowded with others on the back of a military truck which had been seized by the gunmen.\n\nLior Rudaeff, 61, was taken from Nir Yitzhak during the attack. His family have heard nothing from him since then.\n\nA number of people are believed to have been abducted from the Supernova music festival in southern Israel. Among them:\n\nShlomi Ziv, 40, was part of the security detail at the festival and was initially in contact with his sisters as the attack unfolded, according to an interview with The Times of Israel. A few weeks later the family learned he was officially considered to be a hostage, the report says.\n\nAlexander Lobanov, 32, is a Russian-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped at the festival.\n\nOri Danino, 25, is reported to have got away from the festival in his car, but it's believed he was captured after turning back in an attempt to save some people he had met there.\n\nAlmog Sarusi, 26, was kidnapped from the music festival and his partner Shahar Gindi was killed, according to Israeli media. Almog's father, Yigal, was among the relatives of hostages who met with Israel's prime minister in October.\n\nOmer Shem Tov, 21, called his parents as he was running away from gunfire and managed to get into a friend's car. His parents, Shelly and Malki Shem Tov, told Israeli media they lost contact with their son and the live location on his phone showed he was beyond the border in Gaza.\n\nIdan Shtivi, 28, an environmental sciences student, was attending the festival to take pictures at music and yoga workshops being held by friends. He escaped the site in his car but was attacked by Hamas along the route. The bodies of two of his passengers were found, and his family told the Jerusalem Post they suspect he was kidnapped.\n\nYosef Ohana, 24, had been at the festival with a friend, who told his mother he and Yosef had remained to help people escape the gunfire before running themselves. Yosef was last seen hiding under a car, and Israeli authorities have visited his mother to say he was kidnapped.\n\nAndrei Kozlov, 27, a Russian who moved to Israel in 2022, is missing from the Supernova festival, where he was working as a security guard. His mother told the De Taly publication the family was told by the IDF on October 26 that he was being held hostage.\n\nElyakim Libman, 23, was working as a security guard at the festival. In a Facebook post his father Eliyahu Libman said another guard told him his son had helped rescue others before trying to escape. He was last seen trying to help two badly-injured women.\n\nNoa Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was also kidnapped from the festival. Video footage - verified by her father Yaakov Argamani to Israel's Channel 12 - shows the 25-year-old being taken away on the back of a motorbike screaming, \"Don't kill me!\" Her boyfriend Avinatan Or, 30, also appears in the video being marched away from her by Hamas, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nEden Yerushalmi's family say they were told she had been taken hostage\n\nEden Yerushalmi, 24, called her family during Hamas's attack on the festival, her sister May told CBS News. The family say they were subsequently informed by the IDF that Eden had been abducted.\n\nChanan Yablonka, 42, is a father-of-two from Tel Aviv. According to reports, he attended the festival with friends and was due to celebrate his birthday a few days after the attacks.\n\nJonathan Samerano, 21, has been missing since 7am on the morning of the festival. His family have been told to presume he is being held in Gaza, Israeli media reported.\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal was filmed in captivity in Gaza, his family say\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal, 22, attended the festival with his brother. Guy appears in a hostage video that his family say confirms he is in Gaza.\n\nUriel Baruch, 35, was injured during the attack on the festival, his wife said on Facebook. Reports in Israeli media say his mother, Naomi, has heard from the IDF that he is a hostage.\n\nMaxim Kharkin's mother described speaking to him on the morning of 7 October\n\nMaxim Kharkin is aged 35 and a Russian speaker, his mother told Russian media. She added that he had called her at 07:00 on the morning of the attack.\n\nElkana Bohbot was seen in a video posted by Hamas\n\nElkana Bohbot, 34, had gone to the party with friends and, before losing contact, he spoke to his wife and mother telling them he was helping to evacuate the wounded, the Times of Israel reported. Hours later, his family found a video of him posted online by Hamas, which has been seen by BBC Verify.\n\nRom Braslavski, 19, was working on security for the festival. According to an account published by Hostages and Missing Families Forum, he was trying to rescue an injured person in the attack when he was caught in a volley of fire. He has not been heard from since.\n\nOmer Wenkert, 22, a restaurant manager, sent a message to his family to say he was going to a safe shelter but then lost contact, his father Shai Wenkert told the BBC's Today Programme. Shai Wenkert said he had seen footage of his son in captivity, including a photo of him handcuffed and wearing only underwear.\n\nEvyatar David's family say they were sent a video of him in captivity\n\nEvyatar David, 23, was at the festival and on the morning of the attacks, described fleeing from gunfire before losing contact with the outside world, his brother says. Later, his family say, Evyatar's sister posted on Instagram appealing for information about his whereabouts. She then received a text from an unknown number, which contained video footage of Evyatar handcuffed on the floor of a dark room. According to Israel's foreign ministry he is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nEitan Mor, 23, lives in Jerusalem, and was working as a security guard at the festival, the Times of Israel said. He reportedly texted his uncle after Hamas arrived and was last seen with a friend bringing others to safety.\n\nAlon Ohel, 22, a Serbian citizen, took refuge in a shelter after the festival came under attack, his family say. They have seen footage of him being dragged away after a grenade attack.\n\nAlmog Meir Jan, 21, tried to flee the festival. He and a friend made it to the friend's car but only managed to drive a short distance before being forced to stop. Almog's family say they have seen a hostage video in which he appears.\n\nInbar Heiman, a student aged 21, was seen by two young Israeli men being taken away from the festival on a motorcycle. Hamas have released a video in which she is seen very briefly.\n\nHersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a dual US-Israeli citizen, was badly injured in the attack, his family told the BBC. Eyewitness accounts say he was seen being forced onto a white pick-up truck - the last-known signal from his phone came from just inside Gaza.\n\nSegev Kalfon, 26, was running away from the festival, across the highway, when he was captured by Hamas, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.\n\nOrión Hernández Radoux, 30, from Mexico, attended the festival with his girlfriend, Shani Louk. He has not been seen since. The Sun newspaper says it has seen threatening messages written in Arabic sent from his phone. Shani, a tourist from Germany, was initially thought to be among those seized. But on 30 October, her mother Ricarda told German media that the family had been informed by Israeli military of her death following DNA identification.\n\nRomi Lesham Gonen, 23, was on the phone to her mother as she tried to escape from the Supernova festival. Merav Leshem Gonan has recounted a conversation in which her daughter begged for help after being shot. ABC News reports that Romi's phone is now in Gaza.\n\nBar Kuperstein, 21, last spoke to his family early on the morning of 7 October, as the attack unfolded. Later the same day, his family say they identified him in a video of Israeli prisoners, posted by Hamas. Since then, they say they have had no further information.\n\nEliya Cohen, 26, was hiding with his girlfriend Ziv from the attack, when Ziv felt him being pulled up and driven away by the gunmen, Eliya's mother has told the video initiative #BringThemHomeNow. The family then found a photo of Eliya in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nAmit Buskila, 28, from Ashdod, was last heard of making a call to her uncle, Shimon, as Hamas overran the festival. Her family say they have now been told by the government that she is being held in Gaza.\n\nCarmel Gat, 39, is Jordan's sister-in-law, and also was seen by her father being taken by gunmen from Kibbutz Be'eri, Haaretz newspaper reported. She has not been heard from since.\n\nOhad Yahalomi, 49, was abducted from Nir Oz, along with his 12-year-old son, Eitan, who was released during the November ceasefire.\n\nDror Or, 48, was seen by a neighbour being dragged out of his home in Be'eri, according to their nephew Emmanuel Besorai, along with his son and daughter. On Saturday 25 November Dror's son Noam, 17, and daughter Alma, 13, were released from captivity. The body of Yonat, 50 - Dror's wife and the children's mother - was identified among the 120 people murdered at the kibbutz, Yonat's brother told the Guardian newspaper.\n\nTal Shoham, 38, was taken from Kibbutz Be'eri. His wife Adi, also 38, her mother Dr Shoshan Haran, 67, were released by Hamas on 25 November, along with the couple's children Nave, eight, and Yahel, three. Dr Haran's husband, Avshalom - an economist and dual German/Israeli citizen - was killed on 7 October.\n\nTamir Adar, 38, who defended Nir Oz as part of the kibbutz's emergency squad, was taken to Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen, 35, an American-Israeli citizen, has been missing since Hamas's attack on Nir Oz, his father Jonathan told the BBC. He said his son was not found among the dead and the \"only reasonable explanation\" is that he was taken to Gaza.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen's father has not heard from him since Hamas attacked the kibbutz where he lived\n\nThailand's ambassador to Israel says 26 of its citizens were taken hostage, 23 of whom have now been released.\n\nThose still being held are believed to include Watchara Sriuan, 32. His mother, Viewwaew, told the Thaiger news site that the family had been informed he was being held captive.\n\nKiattisak \"Top\" Patee and a Mr Pongtorn (no first name given) have also been named by the Thai foreign ministry as hostages.\n\nA number of other people thought to have been held hostage are now confirmed to have died, either during the 7 October attack or while in captivity.\n\nAs well as Ron Scherman and Nik Beizer, four bodies were identified this week. They were Tal Chaimi, an Israeli-Romanian citizen aged 41, and Joshua Mollel, a 19-year-old Tanzanian student. Also, 27-year-old Eden Zecharya, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, and 36-year-old Ziv Dado, who had already been declared dead by the Israeli military.\n\nOthers known to have died include Dror Kaplun, 68, Aviv Atzili, 49, Arye Zalmanovich, 85, Ronen Engel, 54, Maya Goren, 56, Guy Iluz, 26, Ofir Tzarfati, 27, Ofra Keider, 70, and Eliyahu Margalit, 75.\n\nThe bodies of 19-year-old soldier, Noa Marciano, and 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss were found by Israeli troops in buildings close to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.\n\nOn Saturday 9 December Kibbutz Bari announced that Sahar Baruch, 25, had been killed in Gaza.\n\nOther hostages whose death has been reported, but not confirmed include Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir.\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? If it is safe to do so, please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said a pay rise for public sector workers should go ahead\n\nA pay rise for public sector workers should be implemented by the Northern Ireland secretary, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader has said.\n\nAt recent talks to restore Stormont, the government had offered what it called a \"generous package offered\" of £3bn for a new executive.\n\nBut the talks ended with the DUP ruling out a return to Stormont before Christmas.\n\nIt collapsed the devolved institutions 22 months ago in protest against post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland.\n\nRecently the DUP has also called for a better financial package for incoming ministers.\n\nSir Jeffrey said the government's current offer was not a \"sound basis\" and did not include \"the recurrent aspect of that public sector pay award\" for next year's Stormont budget.\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday, he called for Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris to increase public sector salaries.\n\n\"The secretary of state has the money and the power to deliver the public sector pay award,\" said Sir Jeffrey.\n\nA spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) said the talks had concluded.\n\n\"It is now for the NI parties to come together, restore the executive and begin to address the challenges facing the people of Northern Ireland, including public sector pay,\" said the NIO statement.\n\nSir Jeffrey also told BBC News NI he expected further meetings to be held \"shortly after Christmas\", despite the government saying talks had ended.\n\n\"I'm holding out to ensure firstly we sort out the issues relating to the NI Protocol and that we get a better deal on our budget,\" he said.\n\nChris Heaton-Harris 'must act now' on public sector pay, according to trade union Nipsa\n\nEarlier in December, the prime minister said the government was ready to legislate on the post-Brexit trade arrangements, which the DUP has said has undermined Northern Ireland's place in the UK internal market.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Protocol and the Windsor Framework have introduced some new checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.\n\nEarlier, Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar said he did not believe a fresh Stormont election would solve anything in the impasse.\n\n\"I think the British government has worked really hard to get the DUP on board in terms of the Windsor framework and bilateral assurances, which they're willing to put in legal form, and also a financial package for Northern Ireland,\" he said.\n\n\"We all want any new executive to last and be successful,\" he said.\n\nThe political talks have been held during protests by public sector trade unions who have called for pay deals for their members.\n\nSpeaking after meeting Sir Jeffrey on Wednesday, Nipsa's Carmel Gates said she did not blame the party for the lack of a pay offer and said \"he's arguing for more money\".\n\n\"We believe the secretary of state can give us the pay rise immediately. It's being used as leverage to try and force the DUP back in,\" she said.\n\n\"We're content for the money to come straight from the secretary of state into the Department of Finance's coffers.\n\n\"It's a very difficult time to be dangling this money in front of workers and then saying you're not getting it.\"\n\nEarlier, Alan Perry of GMB said \"I do firmly believe that the public is very much on our side\" ahead of a strike planned for 18 January.\n\nIn his interview, the leader of the DUP - Stormont's second largest party - called for the Northern Ireland secretary to implement the pay awards.\n\n\"The secretary of state has the money and the power to deliver the public sector pay award,\" said Sir Jeffrey.\n\nIrish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) Assistant General Secretary Gerry Murphy said unions had no option but to \"intensify\" their industrial action.\n\nHe said 18 January would be a \"generalised day of action\" that would affect \"every part of public services\" in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe Royal College of Midwives (RCM) announced midwives and maternity support workers are to take part in the 18 January strike.\n\nThe RCM announced a half-day strike from 08:00 GMT until 12:00, across all five of Northern Ireland's health trusts, but said care would still be provided to those who need it.\n\nKaren Murray from the union said patience had run out.\n\nNorthern Ireland health and social care staff remain the lowest paid in the UK.\n\nThe RCM has sought to reassure patients that the strike will not impact the delivery of safe services.", "The civilians are taking shelter inside the Holy Family Church (file photo)\n\nCivilians trapped in a church in Gaza City are living in an \"unreal\" sense of fear, a relative of one of those confined there has said.\n\nFifi Saba, whose sister is trapped inside the Holy Family Church, said people were scared to move out of fear of being shot.\n\nA mother and her daughter were killed inside the church by sniper fire on Saturday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said.\n\n\"A mother, Mrs Nahida Khalil Anton, and her daughter, Samar Kamal Anton, were killed, and others were wounded by the shooters while they were going to the bathroom,\" he said on Sunday.\n\n\"Some say, 'This is terrorism. This is war.' Yes, it is war. It is terrorism,\" he added.\n\nMs Saba, a Catholic from Gaza who now lives in the US, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she was worried about her sister, her brother-in-law and their two children aged 9 and 12, who were trapped there.\n\nShe said she was receiving news about them through a family member, who was able to speak to her sister once a day.\n\n\"They are locked in,\" she said. \"They can't really see the street very much, and most of the time they're cut off from the world. They don't have their phones, they don't have internet, they don't have the news.\"\n\nShe said her sister often asked for news about what was happening outside, and was able to hear bombs overhead.\n\n\"The fear they have been living is unreal,\" she said.\n\nMs Saba said she received a message in which her sister said the \"situation is really difficult\".\n\n\"I found out later that day that when she said the situation is very difficult, she was witnessing the killing of the two people - the two women in the church,\" Ms Saba said.\n\nMs Saba added that the family had spent \"a couple of hours\" hiding on the ground in the church compound, because \"they believed the Israelis were shooting anything that moves\".\n\n\"They were terrified to go to the bathroom, because the women were shot trying to get to the toilet,\" she said, adding that the water to the church had been cut off for a few days.\n\nFood was also scarce, she said, with those trapped living off boiled spaghetti for three weeks.\n\n\"And I think the past couple of days they have had no food,\" she said.\n\nOn Saturday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said two Christian women - named as Nahida and her daughter Samar - were shot and killed while walking to a building in the church complex known as the Sister's Convent.\n\n\"One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,\" a statement said. Seven more people were shot and wounded as they \"tried to protect others inside the church compound\" on Saturday.\n\nThe patriarchate said no warning had been given and added: \"They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents.\"\n\nThe patriarchate said that earlier on Saturday an Israeli tank fired on part of the church compound with 54 disabled people inside. It caused a fire that destroyed the building's generator, the only source of electricity, and some of the disabled people can no longer use their respirators, the statement said.\n\nIn response to the church's letter, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said it took \"claims regarding harm to sensitive sites with the utmost seriousness\".\n\nIt said an incident with its troops took place near a church in the Shejaiya area, and that an \"initial review suggests that IDF troops\" were operating against a Hamas \"threat that they identified in the area of the church\".\n\n\"The IDF is conducting a thorough review of the incident,\" it said.\n\nThe BBC has contacted the IDF for further comment on the accusations of indiscriminate shooting.\n\nIt is unclear why the church is allegedly being targeted, but Ms Saba said she did not believe Hamas fighters were inside, and that her sister had not mentioned their presence.\n\n\"We've seen in the past 72 days how hospitals are attacked, schools are attacked, libraries are attacked, markets are attacked, bakeries are attacked.\n\n\"I find it hard to believe if that's the narrative they're using,\" she said.\n\nLayla Moran, a UK member of parliament, also told the BBC that members of her extended family, who are Christian Palestinians, were trapped in the church, having sought refuge after their home was bombed in the first week of the war.\n\n\"I'm now no longer sure they are going to survive until Christmas,\" she said, adding that they no longer had access to food or water.\n\nThe family members said soldiers had entered the church compound in the last 24 hours and had taken over a room in a building.\n\nThe family has sent a photo, seen by the BBC, of two bodies lying in a street outside the church building. Ms Moran's relatives say the bodies have been decaying for days.\n\nMs Moran said there had been no explanation as to why Israeli soldiers might target the church and no warnings or leaflets were sent to people sheltering there.\n\n\"It does feel like it's making a mockery of keeping civilians safe,\" she said.\n\nIsrael says it is carrying out military operations in Gaza to \"eradicate\" Hamas and rescue hostages taken by the group in its 7 October attacks. The Israeli military has repeatedly said it does not target civilians.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 18,700 people have been killed and 50,000 injured in the enclave since the start of the war.", "The roads project aims to tackle single carriageway sections between Inverness and Perth\n\nCompleting the dualling of the A9 between Inverness and Perth has been delayed by 10 years until 2035.\n\nTransport Secretary Mairi McAllan said a new rolling programme of improvements was \"achievable\" and there would be \"no let up\" in the work.\n\nBut opposition MSPs said communities had been waiting since SNP manifesto commitments in 2007 and 2011 to see the road upgraded by a target date of 2025.\n\nThe government said in February that finishing by 2025 was \"unachievable\".\n\nTwo sections of single carriageway totalling 11 miles (18km) of road have been upgraded over the past decade - but 77 miles of the route has still to be dualled.\n\nMs McAllan told Holyrood on Wednesday that fully dualling the route would make it safer and reduce journey times.\n\nShe said communities living along the route should have confidence a new rolling programme would fully complete the job by the end of 2035.\n\nShe told Holyrood a new hybrid way of funding the road-building project would be used, with some of the construction work involving private investment using a Mutual Investment Model developed by the Welsh government.\n\nMs McAllan said the total cost was estimated at £3.7bn at April 2023 prices, which she said was the equivalent of £2.45bn at April 2008 prices.\n\nShe said this was well within the original cost estimate of £3bn in 2008.\n\nMs McAllan said: \"Under this new plan, by the end of 2030 we anticipate that nearly 50% of the A9 will be open as dual-carriageway, rising to 85% by the end of 2033 and eventually 100% by the end of 2035.\n\n\"This means we will see significant benefits from the dualling programme years ahead of that backstop and 2035.\n\n\"The approach that I have set out means that the Highlands can have confidence that the considerable benefits of the A9 dualling programme will be delivered and in full.\"\n\nThe project has seen two sections of single carriageway dualled so far\n\nShe also pledged that there will be \"no let up\" when construction starts on Tomatin to Moy next year, and offered her \"heartfelt sympathies and condolences to anyone who has lost a loved one or been injured in collisions on the A9\".\n\nScottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said communities in Perth and Kinross and the Highlands had already waited too long for improvements to the road.\n\nHe added: \"Throughout that period, too many lives have needlessly been lost and more will die as a result of the delays we have heard about today.\n\n\"At best we will be waiting another 12 years for this project to be completed, and that is the most optimistic outcome we can hope for.\"\n\nLabour's Alex Rowley said the SNP first committed to dual the A9 in 2007.\n\nHe added: \"With the new date of 2035 for completion between Perth and Inverness, some 28 years after the initial promise, one has to wonder how on earth can the Cabinet Secretary say with a straight face that the Highlands can have confidence?\"\n\nSNP backbencher Fergus Ewing, who has been a vocal critic of the Scottish government's failure to meet its original targets for dualling the road, said he would continue to remain sceptical until he sees diggers on the road.\n\nHe added: \"There must be no more slippage, no more delays and no more broken promises.\"\n\nA9 safety campaigner Laura Hansler said she welcomed changes to how the project would now be progressed.\n\nShe told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme: \"On the surface of it, it sounds fantastic.\n\n\"What is most welcome is the change to the procurement procedures.\"\n\nBut Ms Hansler said she still had concerns over the length of time for completing each of the remaining sections.\n\nA Holyrood inquiry has been examining the delays to the project and has called for evidence from former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her successor Humza Yousaf.\n\nExpected completion dates of the remaining sections under the new programme, subject to contract and funding processes, are:\n\nThe A9 is Scotland's longest trunk road and often described as the spine of the Scottish road network.\n\nIt runs about 230 miles (370km) from Scrabster, near Thurso on the north Highland coast, to near Dunblane in central Scotland. The A9 then continues to near Falkirk.\n\nThe Inverness to Perth stretch is one of the busiest on the A9, and has been the scene of numerous fatal accidents in recent years.\n\nThe Scottish government has spent almost £500m on improvements so far.\n\nAmong the challenging sections left to be upgraded is the area around the 1,315ft (401m) Slochd Summit south of Inverness.\n\nThe first major revamps of the A9, in the 1970s and 1980s, included bypasses of more than a dozen towns and villages - but most of the road has remained single carriageway.", "Five children died in the Arizona house fire - the oldest was only 13.\n\nA father was Christmas shopping when his four children and a young relative died in an Arizona house fire, police said.\n\nThe fire tore through the two-storey home on Saturday evening, authorities said on Monday, leaving no survivors.\n\nFour children, ages 2, 4, 5 and 13 were siblings, while an 11-year-old was a visiting relative.\n\nOfficials are investigating the fire and have not released the names of the children or father.\n\nThe fire broke out in Bullhead City, 100 miles (160km) south of Las Vegas, just before 17:00 local time (1:00 GMT) on Saturday.\n\n\"The children's father reported to investigators that he was gone for approximately 2.5 hours to buy groceries and Christmas gifts,\" Bullhead City police said in a statement.\n\nThe preliminary investigation found that the fire originated in the downstairs entranceway, \"most likely making it impossible for the children in the upstairs bedroom to get out of the residence safely\", authorities said.\n\nAll five victims were found in the same upstairs bedroom. It appeared that the fire had made its way up the home's only staircase, blocking their escape.\n\nWitnesses described frantic neighbours gathering hoses and ladders in an attempt to fight the fire.\n\n\"We pulled the garage door open, there was guys pulling stuff out,\" one witness, Patrick O'Neal, told local CBS News affiliate KTVK. \"The closer we got to the door there was smoke starting to come into the garage and choking people out.\"\n\nThe neighbours were unaware that anyone was inside the home, he added. If they had known, he said they would have attempted a rescue.\n\nPolice say there were no adults home when the fire started.\n\nA vigil is planned in a local park for Wednesday night, and a GoFundMe drive has raised over $14,000 (£11,000) as of Tuesday to help the families cover funeral expenses.", "Police have made a renewed appeal for information on the 10th anniversary of Basil McAfee's murder.\n\nThe 50-year-old's body was found by his mother at his house in north Belfast on 20 December 2013.\n\nPolice said he was beaten on the head with a sharp object and then stabbed. A £20,000 reward is being offered by the charity Crimestoppers.\n\nDet Ch Insp Rachel Wilson said Mr McAfee's family are \"tortured with thoughts of how their loved one died\".\n\n\"Their run-up to Christmas - a happy time for many - is once again full of sadness,\" she said.\n\n\"This was a cruel attack, and one which shocked an entire community.\"\n\nMr McAfee had suffered a \"shockingly violent and vicious death\", the detective chief inspector added, and appealed to those with information to search their conscience.\n\nDetectives also are keen to speak to two women who may have information which could assist the investigation.\n\nIt's believed they took a taxi from licensed premises on the Dublin Road in south Belfast at about 23:00 GMT on 18 December, Det Ch Insp Wilson said.\n\nThey were then dropped off at Henderson Avenue off the Cavehill Road before making their way into Mr McAfee's home.\n\nA spokesperson from Crimestoppers said it could guarantee those with information \"complete anonymity\".", "The British Museum has struck a £50m deal with energy giant BP to help fund a major renovation programme.\n\nThe 10-year agreement was announced alongside plans to upgrade a third of the museum's galleries and \"phase out\" its reliance on fossil fuels.\n\nThe relationship with BP dates back to 1996 and climate campaigners have long criticised the decision to to take money from an oil and gas firm.\n\nOne group branded the new deal \"out of touch\" and \"completely indefensible\".\n\nIt is not the first time the British Museum has come under scrutiny over its ties with BP.\n\nEgyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif quit her role on the board of trustees in 2019, citing the museum's willingness to take oil and gas money in her resignation statement.\n\nMore than 300 professionals working in the museum sector signed a February 2022 letter urging it to cut ties with BP, and protests have been staged inside the museum itself.\n\nMinutes from a 27 November meeting of the British Museum's board of trustees reveal one member, Muriel Gray, quit ahead of a discussion about the upcoming BP announcement.\n\nHer resignation was described as a \"personal decision\". BBC News has attempted to reach Ms Gray for comment.\n\nThe same minutes show trustees discussed the security implications of their upcoming announcement and are mindful of \"increased risks to museums as a result of protest activity\".\n\nThe minutes said independent advice would be sought about enhancing security of objects in the museum to coincide with the BP announcement. They showed there was also a discussion about \"the potential impact of a high-profile announcement on the personal safety of staff and Trustees\".\n\nSeveral major cultural sites in the UK, including the National Gallery and National Theatre, have ended lucrative sponsorship deals with energy firms amid protests.\n\nLord Ed Vaizey, a former Conservative culture minister, welcomed the \"bold\" announcement, and said the agreement was the \"right decision\" for the museum.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: \"We tend to treat BP as a pariah - BP has put a huge amount into the arts and has been treated very badly by some of the beneficiaries of that funding.\"\n\nClimate protesters have demonstrated against the museum's ties with BP\n\nChris Garrard, of pressure group Culture Unstained, said: \"The only way you can sign up to a new sponsorship deal with a planet-wrecking fossil fuel company in 2023 is by burying your head in the sand, pretending the climate crisis isn't happening and ignoring the almost complete rejection of fossil fuel funding by the cultural sector in recent years.\"\n\nThe museum's deal with BP comes with some of the Bloomsbury site's 200-year-old buildings in \"urgent need of refurbishment\", according to Charlie Mayfield, chair of the British Museum's masterplan committee.\n\nHe said \"the process of completely overhauling our outdated energy infrastructure\" to cut the museum's emissions would begin next year, alongside a competition to find an architect to redesign settings for some of the world's most famous artefacts.\n\nLouise Kingham, senior vice president for BP in Europe and the UK, said the company is \"proud to be a long-term partner to this important British institution and play our part in its future transformation\".\n\nThe announcement of new funding and renovation comes after a difficult period for one of the UK's most internationally renowned cultural institutions.\n\nIn August, the museum announced a number of items from its collection had gone missing. It later emerged that as many as 2,000 objects were unaccounted for.\n\nBritish Museum bosses believe Peter Higgs, who was a senior curator at the museum, stole the artefacts. He has previously denied any wrongdoing and his family told reporters in August that he was innocent and \"devastated\" to have lost his job.\n\nThe incident was highly embarrassing for the museum and some in the antiquities world criticised museum bosses for failures in its system to record the items in its care.\n\nAn independent review recently instructed the museum to improve its recording methods.\n\nLast week, the BBC revealed deputy director Dr Jonathan Williams had agreed to step back from his duties after overseeing a botched investigation into the thefts.\n\nGeorge Osborne, the former chancellor who now serves as chair of the British Museum's board of trustees, said the museum is \"putting our own house in order\" after committing to implementing the findings of the review.", "On 4 January, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak set out his five priorities for 2023.\n\n\"I fully expect you to hold my government and I to account on delivering those goals,\" he said.\n\nWhat progress has been made?\n\nThe government's top priority is halving inflation - the increase in prices over time - by the end of 2023.\n\nInflation was at 10.7% in the three-month period between October and December 2022, so the aim was to reduce inflation to 5.3% or lower in the last three months of 2023.\n\nThe government is using a measure called the Consumer Prices Index, which tracks the price of a typical basket of goods.\n\nThe monthly inflation figure for the year to October was 4.6%, with the fall largely due to lower energy prices.\n\nAt this point, the government said it had met its target early, without having to wait for the final quarter figure.\n\nThe rate of inflation fell further to 3.9% in the year to November.\n\nWhen the prime minister made the pledge, many experts already expected inflation to drop sharply. However, it did not fall as quickly as anticipated at the beginning of the year.\n\nWhen will we know? The figure for the fourth quarter of 2023 will be released on 17 January 2024.\n\nDowning Street said the pledge to \"grow the economy\" will be met if the economy is bigger in the three-month period of October to December 2023 than it was in the previous quarter (July-September).\n\nIt is using GDP (or Gross Domestic Product), a measure of all the activity of companies, governments and individuals.\n\nThis would not normally be seen as a difficult pledge to meet, because the UK's economy is usually growing.\n\nBut the latest monthly figures for October show that the economy has been flat in 2023.\n\nAnd, in November, the Office for Budget Responsibility, which assesses the health of the UK's economy, cut its growth forecasts to 0.7% in 2024 and 1.4% in 2025.\n\nThe pledge to grow the economy has been made more difficult by the government's promise to halve inflation.\n\nThe Bank of England put up interest rates 14 times to stop prices rising so quickly.\n\nHowever, this also reduces spending, and slows economic growth.\n\nWhen will we know? GDP for the fourth quarter of 2023 will be published on 13 February 2024.\n\nWhen governments talk about debt falling, they almost always mean as a proportion of GDP.\n\nThe idea is that debt is falling if it is growing more slowly than the economy.\n\nBut debt is not currently falling - it is rising. The latest figures for October showed that government debt stood at 97.8% of the size of the economy.\n\nThat was 2.3 percentage points higher than October 2022 and, as the Office for National Statistics pointed out, \"remains at levels last seen in the early 1960s\".\n\nBut the government pledge wasn't about how much debt is today - it was that debt would be forecast to come down in five years (2028-29).\n\nIn the Autumn Statement in November, the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt claimed to be on track to meet that pledge because the OBR predicted a fall in 2028-29.\n\nBut it's going to be tight and will involve challenging spending restraint for some government departments.\n\nIn December, the statistics regulator criticised the prime minister for saying debt was falling when it was actually rising, as BBC Verify also pointed out.\n\nWhen will we know? The next debt forecasts will be published alongside the Spring Budget in 2024.\n\nMr Sunak said: \"NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly.\"\n\nHis pledge only refers to waiting lists in England, because Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland manage their own health systems.\n\nThe overall number of waits for non-emergency treatment in England was 7.71 million in October. This was about 40,000 down from September, but almost half a million higher than it was at the start of the year.\n\nOn a visit to a hospital in September, Mr Sunak conceded that his target was in doubt, saying it was \"very hard\". He said it would have been met without ongoing NHS industrial action.\n\nBut research by the Health Foundation think tank suggested that industrial action by consultants and junior doctors had only lengthened the waiting list by around 210,000, which is 3% of the list.\n\nThe NHS target is to see people within 18 weeks for non-urgent consultant-led treatment.\n\nWhen we asked Downing Street when the prime minister aimed to have waiting lists falling, we were pointed towards the plan for tackling the backlog of elective care (care planned in advance). This said the overall waiting list was expected to be falling by about March 2024.\n\nWhen will we know?: March's figures should be out in May.\n\nThe final priority was to \"stop the boats\" which bring people across the English Channel, after 45,755 migrants crossed over from France that way in 2022.\n\nMr Sunak has said that his plan to tackle small boat crossings is \"starting to work\".\n\nAs at 16 December, 29,437 people had been detected crossing the English Channel in 2023, according to the Home Office, which is down a third from the same date in 2022.\n\nWhen will we know? Figures on arrivals in small boats are collected daily.", "A 13-year-old who admitted to planning an attack on a synagogue was sentenced to probation - and a book report.\n\nThe boy was arrested in September after he created a plan to carry out a shooting at Temple Israel in Canton, Ohio.\n\nHe was told to write a book report about Carl Lutz, a Swiss diplomat who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis.\n\nThe teenager was also sentenced to a year of probation, US media reports said.\n\nThe boy previously pleaded \"true\", which is the equivalent of guilty in family court, to misdemeanour charges of inducing panic and disorderly conduct according to local media reports.\n\nHe was not named because of his age.\n\nJudge Jim James ruled that the boy is prohibited from having unsupervised use of the internet and ordered him to undergo counselling, local media reports said.\n\nAccording to a sheriff's incident report, the boy came to the attention of the authorities in early September - before the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel, which has brought heightened security concerns for the Jewish community.\n\nEmployees for Discord, a social platform popular with gamers, tipped the FBI off to \"threats and plans to burn down and shoot up the Temple Israel\".\n\nThe posts \"included plans and maps of the synagogue made possibly by the suspect\" along with an unknown individual from Washington state, the report said.\n\nThe FBI and local sheriffs interviewed the boy on 7 September.\n\nThe boy told them he was part of \"multiple antisemitic and political groups on Discord\", the sheriffs said.\n\nIn a statement, Stark County Sheriff George Maier said: \"We stand by a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to threats made against our community.\"\n\nDiscord confirmed that it detected the boy's online activities and reported him to the FBI's National Threat Operations Center.\n\nJohn Redgrave, Discord's vice president of trust and safety, said the platform did not allow hate and violent extremism \"and when we see it, we take immediate action\".\n\n\"It is a top priority for Discord to ensure a safe experience for our users,\" he added.\n\nThe local branch of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish advocacy and anti-extremism group, said it was \"horrified\" by the allegations and that it hoped the incident would be a \"teachable moment\".\n\n\"Hate and threats on social media, as in real life, cannot and will not be tolerated,\" the ADL said.\n\nThere was no indication of how far the attack plan had progressed or if the teen had access to guns.\n\nHe will now have to write a report on Mr Lutz, a Swiss diplomat who in 1944 issued credentials to thousands of Jewish families living under Nazi occupation in Budapest.\n\nHistorians estimate he saved up to 62,000 people, but he was reprimanded for overstepping his authority when he returned to Switzerland after the war, and for years remained largely forgotten.\n\nCarl Lutz in Budapest after arrival of the Russian Army", "Several senior Conservatives have urged Israel to show restraint in recent days\n\nIsrael has \"gone beyond self-defence\" and lost the moral authority in its war with Hamas, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee has said.\n\nTory MP Alicia Kearns told the BBC she thinks Israel has broken international law and risks increasing support for Hamas among Palestinians.\n\nShe said: \"Bombs don't obliterate an ideology and neither can a stable state be constructed from oblivion.\"\n\nFormer Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has also criticised Israel's tactics.\n\nWriting in the Daily Telegraph, he said Israel's legal basis for military action in Gaza was \"being undermined\" and warned its government was \"making the mistake of losing its moral authority alongside its legal one\".\n\nAsked if she agreed with Mr Wallace that Israel has damaged its standing with its conduct in Gaza, Ms Kearns told BBC Radio 4's World At One: \"I think unfortunately it has.\n\n\"International humanitarian law in my view has been broken.\"\n\nShe said a truce that could be turned into a lasting ceasefire should be pursued, rather than a focus on the eradication of Hamas - which Israel, the UK, US and some other Western powers class as a terrorist organisation.\n\nTen Tory MPs - including former Cabinet ministers Kit Malthouse and George Eustice - have written to the Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron urging him to push for an \"immediate ceasefire\", describing Israel's strategy as \"neither proportionate nor targeted\".\n\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted operations, which were launched when Hamas carried out an unprecedented assault on Israel on 7 October, will continue until the group is dismantled.\n\nAround 1,200 people were killed and an estimated 240 people were taken hostage by Hamas - and despite some being returned during a temporary truce, about 120 are still thought to be inside Gaza.\n\nMs Kearns - who chairs the committee of MPs tasked with holding the Foreign Office to account - warned Israel could inadvertently increase support for Hamas among Palestinians.\n\nShe said: \"Hamas is an ideology which recruits into its membership.\"\n\nAn opinion poll carried out between 22 November and 2 December by a respected Palestinian think tank, the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, found that support for Hamas had more than tripled in the occupied West Bank compared to three months ago.\n\nSupporters of Hamas were still in a minority, but 70% of the respondents said armed struggle was the best means of ending the Israeli occupation.\n\nIsrael has carried out air strikes and land operations against targets in Gaza\n\nIsrael has come under growing international pressure over the scale of civilian casualties in Gaza, which Hamas-controlled authorities put at more than 19,400.\n\nThe same authorities claimed 110 people were killed on Sunday in Israeli air strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, which had been the largest settlement for displaced people prior to the current fighting.\n\nThe retaliatory Israeli offensive has seen much of northern Gaza damaged and 85% of the territory's 2.3 million population driven from their homes.\n\nOn Sunday, Lord Cameron signalled a shift in tone from the government by calling for a \"sustainable ceasefire\" - echoing a form of words Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used in the Commons last week.\n\nWriting in the Sunday Times, the foreign secretary said: \"Our goal cannot simply be an end to fighting today. It must be peace lasting for days, years, generations.\"\n\nSpeaking to reporters during a visit to Scotland on Monday, Mr Sunak called for Israel to respect humanitarian law, adding: \"It's clear that too many civilian lives have been lost and nobody wants to see this conflict go on a day longer than it has to.\"\n\nThe government has consistently stopped short of calling for a full ceasefire, saying it respects Israel's right to self-defence.\n\nThe Israeli military said it located a large underground tunnel constructed by Hamas on Sunday\n\nIsraeli government spokesman Eylon Levy pushed back against Mr Wallace's criticism, describing his choice of words as \"unfortunate language\".\n\nHe told the BBC said allowing Hamas to \"literally get away with murder\" would be more likely to radicalise people than Israel's military tactics.\n\nHowever, Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, accused the Israeli army of normalising \"the mass murder of children, [and] women\" and \"the mass destruction of hospitals, schools, churches, mosques\".", "Patients are being warned to expect major disruption in England after junior doctors began their 26th day of strike action in their pay dispute.\n\nThe stoppage started at 07:00 and will last three days, with senior doctors drafted in to provide emergency cover.\n\nNHS strike action has seen more than 1.1 million appointments and treatments cancelled in the past year.\n\nThis walkout will be followed by a six-day strike at the start of January, the longest in NHS history.\n\nIt comes after talks between the British Medical Association (BMA) and government broke down, earlier this month.\n\nNHS England medical director Prof Sir Stephen Powis said the situation was further complicated by the holiday season - in the coming three weeks, only four weekdays in the NHS are unaffected by holidays or industrial action.\n\n\"These strikes come at a time that will cause huge disruption to the NHS, with services already feeling the strain of winter pressure,\" he said.\n\n\"Over the holiday period, I would encourage anyone who needs medical help to continue to come forward.\n\n\"In a life-threatening emergency, call 999 and use A&E in the usual way. For everything else, use 111 online.\"\n\nBut some A&E services are having to close. Cheltenham A&E, for example, will not open during either junior doctor strike, with emergency care provided by Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, run by the same NHS trust.\n\nChief medical officer Dr Ananthakrishnan Raghuram said: \"This is a very challenging environment - and decisions have not been taken lightly.\"\n\nThe BMA rejected a last-minute plea by five national organisations, including Age UK and the Patients Association, for the strike action to be downgraded to a partial walkout, with some emergency cover provided by junior doctors. Consultants and specialist doctors would provide life-and-limb cover, the union said.\n\nThe charities said they were concerned about the risks to elderly patients in particular and warned they could become \"stranded\" in hospital over the festive period because doctors were too busy covering emergency care to oversee wards.\n\nNearly half of NHS doctors are junior doctors - a group that spans those just out of university through to some who have 10 years or more experience.\n\nTwo-thirds are members of the BMA - and they will be joined by members of the much-smaller Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association union.\n\nHospitals services are expected to be worst affected but there will also be some disruption to GP care.\n\nSally Knight had appointments cancelled twice because of industrial action by doctors\n\nSally Knight started feeling pain in her hip at the start of 2023.\n\nIt was decided the 69-year-old needed a hip replacement - but after having two appointments cancelled because of strike action and being told the wait could be a year, she decided to pay to have the surgery privately. It cost her more than £13,000.\n\nMs Knight said she had felt she had no choice - the pain had been affecting her daily life.\n\n\"I feel really frustrated because I've worked all my life and paid my dues,\" she said.\n\n\"Yes the help is there - but you have to wait a very long time. I feel very let down.\"\n\nSir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health managers, said this set of strikes meant the \"worst fears\" of the health service were being realised.\n\n\"This is the last thing the NHS needs,\" he said. \"The quality of care will be affected, with efforts to cut waiting lists further dented by these walkouts.\"\n\nDr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, who co-chair the BMA junior doctors committee, said they were \"extremely disappointed\" to be taking action again - the last walkout was in early October.\n\n\"We had hoped that after a much-improved tone and approach from the new health secretary, Victoria Atkins, we were close to a solution to this dispute,\" they said.\n\nDr Laurenson and Dr Trivedi urged the government to make a new offer - the BMA ended talks after setting a deadline of early December for a resolution.\n\nAn offer of a pay rise averaging 3%, from January, was being discussed, which would have been on top of the average of nearly 9% junior doctors received in April.\n\nBut the BMA said that was too little - junior doctors had asked for an extra 35%, to make up for below-inflation pay rises since 2008.\n\n\"After so many missed opportunities in 2023 to settle the dispute, surely now is the moment to conclude that everyone's time would be saved by cutting out unnecessary posturing,\" Dr Laurenson and Dr Trivedi said.\n\n\"Patients in need of care deserve nothing less.\"\n\nMs Atkins said the strikes would cause \"significant disruption\", despite contingency measures.\n\n\"My door remains open should the BMA cancel these disruptive strikes and come back to the negotiating table, as we were making good progress,\" she added.\n\nIndustrial action in the NHS in England, which began last December with walkouts by ambulance staff and nurses, is estimated to have cost more than £2bn in planning, preparations and paying for cover.\n\nA pay offer to NHS staff other than doctors was accepted in May, while strike action by consultants has been put on hold as they vote on a fresh offer from the government.\n\nThis week, it was announced junior doctors in Wales would strike in January.\n\nAre you a doctor on the picket line? Are you choosing not to strike? Are you a patient affected? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The government has told the organisation that reviews pay for public sector workers, it is \"vital\" to take into account pay rises seen in recent years, when setting wages.\n\nPRBs consult the views of several groups including government departments.\n\nSome union leaders are concerned that the government's tone might mean pay settlements could be lower.\n\nUnison, one of the largest trade unions, said that addressing pay \"so late in the day\" will mean some workers won't get wage increase they're due on time.\n\nThe salaries of NHS staff, as well as other public-sector workers such as police officers, teachers and the members of the armed forces, are recommended by eight pay review bodies.\n\nThey cover about 45% of public-sector staff and a pay bill of around £100 billion.\n\nA letter from the health secretary, Victoria Atkins to the chair of the NHS Pay Review Body said: \"It is vital that the pay review bodies consider the historic nature of the 2023 to 2024 awards and the government's affordability position\".\n\nOther letters from Cabinet ministers to bodies looking at pay for teachers, prison officers, the military, pointedly said that last year \"the pay review bodies recommended historically high pay awards for their respective workforces in light of the extraordinary macroeconomic context.\"\n\nSome pay rises would, for example, impact upon school budgets, the Government said in its letter to the teachers body.\n\nThe role of the PRBs came into question during the past year's wave of industrial action.\n\nSome public sector unions said the process was not independent because of directions, such as this, from Government.\n\nAt times, leading unions have suggested they would withdraw cooperation.\n\nGovernment sources said the new language was designed to focus the process on recruitment, retention and affordability.\n\nThe negotiations this year may also be further complicated by the fact that inflation is likely to be falling sharply from the figures that will be used to increase state pensions and benefits from the same time period next April.\n\nThey are due to go up 8.5% and 6.7% respectively.", "We're now wrapping up our coverage, but before you go let's take a look at some of today's main headlines.\n• The Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that the latest inflation figure for the UK is 3.9%, making it the lowest annual rate of price rises in more than two years\n• Staples such as pasta, milk and butter were identified as some of the main items that saw slowing price rises\n• Inflation is now well below its peak in 2022, but it is still almost double the Bank of England's 2% target\n• Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the UK is \"back on the path to healthy sustainable growth\"\n• Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves welcomed the drop but said the Tory government's \"economic failure\" have left working people \"still worse off\"\n\nIf you want to read more about the biggest factors behind the inflation drop - from second-hand car sales to the bread and cakes - go here.\n\nTo find out your personal inflation rate, you can use our calculator (developed with the Office for National Statistics) here.\n\nAnd with Christmas just a few days away, find out more about how much you're likely to spend on food bills for your festive dinner here.\n\nToday's coverage was edited by Nadia Ragozhina and Nathan Williams. Our writers were Ece Goksedef, Derbail Jordan and Malu Cursino.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nLuton Town's Premier League match at Bournemouth, abandoned after their captain Tom Lockyer collapsed on the pitch, will be replayed in full.\n\nLockyer suffered a cardiac arrest during Saturday's game, with both teams taken off as he received treatment on the field. He was responsive as he was carried off on a stretcher.\n\nThe game stood at 1-1 when it was abandoned in the 59th minute.\n\nA Premier League statement said it will be rescheduled for later in the season.\n\nFollowing his collapse, Lockyer was taken to hospital, where he has had tests and scans.\n\nThe Premier League statement added: \"The decision to abandon the match in the 59th minute was made collectively between the match officials, players, managers from both clubs and the Premier League.\n\n\"The league would like to thank the medical staff and all those involved for their swift actions in responding to what was an extremely upsetting situation for everyone.\n\n\"We wish Tom a continued recovery and our thoughts are with him, his family and all those at Luton Town FC.\"\n\nLuton said on Sunday that Lockyer remained in hospital , but said they would not provide a \"running commentary\" on the health of their defender.\n• None Luton captain still in hospital after cardiac arrest\n• None Follow your Premier League club and get news, analysis and fan views sent direct to you\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shona Robison announced the income tax changes as she unveiled the Scottish budget.\n\nHigher earners in Scotland are to pay more income tax, the Scottish government has announced.\n\nA new 45% band will be introduced for people earning between £75,000 and £125,140 - meaning they will pay more tax than they currently do.\n\nThe top rate of tax, paid by those earning more than £125,000, will also rise from 47% to 48%.\n\nAnd the current threshold for paying the higher band - £43,663 - will be frozen instead of rising by inflation.\n\nFinance Secretary Shona Robison confirmed the move as she unveiled the government's budget for next year, which included funding increases for the health service and councils - the latter to help offset a freeze in council tax - but cuts to enterprise funding, housing, higher education and rural affairs.\n\nThe tax changes mean Scotland will have six income tax bands while the rest of the UK has three, with middle and higher earners in Scotland paying more than other parts of the country.\n\nThe Scottish government estimates that 114,000 people will pay the new advanced tax rate for those earning between £75,000 and £125,000, with a further 40,000 people paying the top rate for those earning more than £125,000.\n\nThe announcement is designed to help plug a £1.5bn funding shortfall in the Scottish budget, with Ms Robison saying the tax rises for higher earners would raise an additional £80m.\n\nThe finance secretary also confirmed the current thresholds for the higher and top bands - £43,663 and £125,140 respectively - would be frozen, while the basic and intermediate bands will see the rates at which they kick in rise by the rate of inflation.\n\nThe freezing of the higher band threshold means a further 62,000 people will be pulled into paying the higher tax rate of 42% or more.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A quick guide to the Scottish budget in 90 seconds. Video by Doug Kennedy\n\nThe Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) forecasts that the tax changes will help bring in a total of £1.5bn in revenue funding next year alone, although its chairperson said \"tough decisions\" were still likely to be necessary in individual government departments.\n\nPeople who earn more than £28,850 in Scotland - slightly above median earnings - already pay more income tax than they would elsewhere in the UK, with those earning less than that amount paying slightly less.\n\nThe changes mean that anyone earning £50,000 in Scotland will pay £1,542 a year more than they would if they lived in another part of the UK, while people earning £150,000 will pay £6,000 more, according to the Scottish Fiscal Commission.\n\nMs Robison told MSPs the Scottish government would provide local authorities with £140m in additional funding to help finance a council tax freeze.\n\nCouncil umbrella body Cosla had called for £300m to cover the freeze, which was announced by First Minister Humza Yousaf in October, with a report published last week warning that it was \"only a matter of time\" before a council effectively went bankrupt.\n\nA Cosla spokesperson said a special meeting would be held on Thursday to discuss the budget.\n\nOther major announcements included the government's intention to increase the Scottish Child Payment from £25 to £26.70 from April of next year.\n\nCampaigners had called for an increase to £30 a week and Child Poverty Action Group director John Dickie called the budget announcement \"bitterly disappointing\".\n\nMs Robison also said the government would provide £1.5m to local authorities to cancel school meal debt.\n\nAccording to research by the Aberlour children's charity published in October, more than 30,000 children had debts worth a total of £1.8m - up by 60% on the previous year.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak warned the Scottish government against raising taxes ahead of the budget\n\nThe higher education sector faces cuts as the budget papers show a £107.4m reduction for the Scottish Funding Council, with funding for colleges down by £58.7m and universities by £48.5m.\n\nFunding for NHS boards will rise \"above real terms\" by £550m (4.3%) MSPs were told.\n\nThe deputy first minister also announced business rates for premises valued at less than £51,000 will be frozen, while hospitality businesses in Scotland's islands will be given 100% relief, capped at £110,000 per firm.\n\nThe small business bonus scheme will also continue while the government will assess how valuations for business rates are carried out, Ms Robison said.\n\nThe finance secretary said Holyrood's block grant funding, derived from UK government spending decisions, had fallen by 1.2% in real terms since 2022-23.\n\n\"Devolution has brought many benefits, but it has also exposed quite how beholden we are to the decisions of Westminster,\" she told MSPs.\n\n\"We are fighting Westminster austerity with one hand tied behind our back.\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak said ahead of the budget announcement that the UK government was providing a record amount of funding via the Barnett formula to Scotland.\n\nSpeaking during a visit north of the border on Tuesday, he said Scotland was the highest taxed part of the UK and that it would be \"very disappointing\" to see tax rates rise further.\n\nThe Finance secretary says she's making very different choices to the UK government.\n\nIn broad terms by increasing the tax take and not replicating the business tax cuts introduced by the UK government, the Scottish government has created a pot of money to spend on public services.\n\nThere's extra cash for the health service and for social security benefits, and real terms increases in the education and justice budgets.\n\nBut the wellbeing economy, rural affairs and housing budgets have been cut.\n\nOpposition politicians argue that had the SNP not wasted millions on failed projects it would have even more money to spend\n\nScottish Tory finance spokeswoman Liz Smith criticised the \"extraordinary late delivery\" of the budget to oppositions MSPs, who were given only a few minutes to examine the document before the announcement. She called it \"discourtesy to parliament\".\n\nShe accused the government of a \"complete abrogation of responsibility for the running of the Scottish economy\" since the SNP came to power in 2007.\n\nMs Smith questioned whether the government was sending out \"the right message that Scotland is open for business\".\n\nShe said: \"For economic growth, for investment, innovation and job creation?\" She asked. \"Because it's abundantly clear that business and industry doesn't think so.\"\n\nMs Robison apologised to MSPs for the late deliver of the budget.\n\nScottish Labour finance spokesman Michael Marra claimed it was a \"chaotic\" budget from an \"incompetent government that will leave ordinary Scots paying much more and getting much less in return\".\n\nHave you been affected by issues covered in this story? You can share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Brianna Ghey was found dead at Culcheth Linear Park after being stabbed 28 times\n\nJurors in the Brianna Ghey murder trial have retired to consider their verdicts.\n\nThe 16-year-old, who was transgender, was stabbed 28 times in Culcheth Linear Park, near Warrington, in February.\n\nTwo teenagers, identified only as girl X and boy Y for legal reasons, both deny murder and blame each other.\n\nThe pair, then aged 15, both said they walked away when Brianna was stabbed and turned around to see the other killing the teenager.\n\nThe trial has heard both defendants had a fascination for violence, torture and murder and it was alleged they had planned the killing for weeks.\n\nJurors were told girl X enjoyed watching internet torture and killing material from the \"dark web\" and had an interest in serial killers.\n\nThe jury was also shown an alleged \"murder plan\" on how to kill Brianna along with messages they exchanged, including a \"kill list\" of other children they planned to harm.\n\nGirl X has said she enjoyed \"dark fantasies\" but with no intention to ever turn them into reality, while boy Y said he went along with them and did not take them seriously; both say they never expected the other to act on them.\n\nOn the 18th day of the trial, the jury was sent out to consider its verdicts shortly after 10:00 GMT.\n\nJudge Mrs Justice Yip said: \"It's important that you try to reach verdicts which are unanimous, that means verdicts on which all of you agree.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Brianna Ghey died after being repeatedly stabbed in Culcheth Linear Park\n\nA boy and a girl who had a fascination with violence and torture have been found guilty of murdering Brianna Ghey.\n\nThe 16-year-old, who was transgender, was stabbed 28 times in a \"ferocious\" attack in a park in Cheshire.\n\nGirl X and boy Y, who cannot be named due to their age, had blamed each other for the killing but were convicted of her murder at Manchester Crown Court.\n\nBrianna's mother Esther said the pair had not shown \"an ounce of remorse\" and she had \"lost all sympathy\" for them.\n\n\"To know how scared my usually fearless child must have been when she was alone in that park with someone that she called her friend will haunt me forever,\" she said, as her voice broke with emotion.\n\nHer father Peter Spooner said he was \"so proud\" of his daughter and would never stop loving her.\n\n\"When she was little, I remember the faces she would pull to make me laugh,\" he said, while fighting back tears.\n\n\"The cheeky giggle, the funny dances are engraved in my memory.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Esther Ghey said her daughter was \"betrayed by someone she thought was her friend\"\n\nThere were gasps in court as the verdicts were delivered after four hours and 40 minutes of deliberations.\n\nThe two teenagers, who are now 16 years old, showed no emotion from the dock.\n\nJudge Mrs Justice Yip told the pair she would \"have to impose a life sentence\".\n\n\"What I have to decide is the minimum amount of time you will be required to serve before you might be considered for release,\" she said.\n\n\"I'm not going to do that this week. I'm going to ask for some reports in relation to each of you.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The jury was shown footage of the 16-year-old leaving home for the last time on the day she died\n\nShe said she would deal with an application by the media to be allowed to publish the names of the teenagers on Thursday.\n\nA sentencing hearing is due to take place in the new year.\n\nWarning: Some readers might find the following report distressing\n\nThe 18-day trial had heard the pair were intelligent, \"high functioning\" and came from normal backgrounds, but had a \"thirst for killing\".\n\nNeither had been in trouble with police before.\n\nThe handwritten murder plan was found in the bedroom of girl X\n\nBrianna, who had thousands of followers on TikTok, was in reality a withdrawn, shy and anxious teenager who struggled with depression and rarely left her home.\n\nThe pair, who were 15 at the time of the killing, planned the murder for weeks before killing Brianna in Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington on the afternoon of 11 February.\n\nA handwritten \"murder plan\" of how to carry out the killing was found in girl X's bedroom following her arrest.\n\nThe pair also drew up a \"kill list\" of five children, before settling on Brianna as their target.\n\nOn the day of her death, Brianna was lured to the park by girl X before being attacked with a hunting knife in broad daylight, suffering stab wounds to her head, neck, chest and back.\n\nThe pair had planned to conceal her body in the park but were spotted by a couple walking their dogs and fled the scene.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Peter Spooner says he knew the teen would be a star and was \"so proud\" of what she did\n\nBoth teenagers went home and carried on as if nothing had happened with girl X later posting an online tribute with a photo of Brianna.\n\nThe jury heard girl X admitted to police that she enjoyed \"dark fantasies\", but claimed to have no intention to ever turn them into reality, while boy Y said he went along with them and did not take them seriously.\n\nBoth had also claimed they never expected the other to act on them and gave the same explanation of the crime, suggesting their own back was turned when the other began stabbing Brianna.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC ahead of the verdict, Brianna's mother said she would never forget her daughter's unwavering bravery and strength.\n\n\"She was fearless to be whoever she wanted to be,\" she said.\n\n\"She wanted to identify as a female and she wanted to wear girls' school uniform. She just did it - it wasn't a hurdle at all for her.\"\n\nBrianna was lured to the park by girl X before being attacked with a hunting knife\n\nSpeaking outside the hearing, deputy chief crown prosecutor Ursula Doyle said girl X and boy Y had been \"a deadly influence on each other and turned what may have started out as dark fantasies about murder into a reality\".\n\n\"The pages and pages of Whatsapp messages between the two, planning and plotting to kill people, talking of murder, torture and cruelty were very difficult to read,\" she said.\n\nShe said the messages \"provided a terrifying insight\" into the minds of the pair, but the jury had \"clearly seen their explanations for the lies that they were\".\n\nCheshire Police's Det Ch Supt Mike Evans said it became clear early on that the pair believed they could cover their tracks.\n\nGirl X, who the court heard had traits of autism and ADHD, even assured boy Y, who had been diagnosed with selective mutism and autism spectrum disorder, that he would not be caught, criticising the capabilities of police in the area.\n\nBrianna was lured to Culcheth Linear Park before being murdered\n\nHe said the pair were \"really high functioning, intelligent children\".\n\n\"I know people... will have this sort of image that they've built themselves, but actually they're both really clever kids and very bright, very articulate,\" he said.\n\n\"Their downfall has been their confidence or arrogance around the fact that they thought that they could take another human life and then thought there would be no comeuppance.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n• None The Murder of Brianna Ghey - A File On 4 special\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Palestinian children by the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli air strike in the east of Deir al Balah, central Gaza Image caption: Palestinian children by the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli air strike in the east of Deir al Balah, central Gaza\n\nIt's coming up to 03:00 in Israel and Gaza and 01:00 in London, and here's a recap of the past 24 hours:\n\nA vote on a new UN Security Council resolution calling for an \"suspension\" of hostilities has been postponed for the second day in a row after intense negotiations on the language of the proposal.\n\nThe language of the resolution proposed by the United Arab Emirates has already been watered down from calling for a ceasefire to get US backing, reports say, as it has consistently vetoed previous resolutions.\n\nReports also indicate negotiations over a new hostage exchange deal are in their early stages - with talks held in Poland between the US, Qatar and Israel earlier, while the head of Hamas's political wing will travel to Egypt shortly.\n\nOn the ground in Gaza, humanitarian agencies have expressed their anger and frustration at the lack of aid allowed to enter the strip.\n\nMore than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the north and south in the latest Israeli air strikes, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Around 19,600 people have been killed so far, the ministry also said.\n\nBBC Arabic has spoken to men from Gaza who say they were detained by the Israeli army for nearly a month, alleging abuse and mistreatment before their release a few days ago.\n\nUK MP Layla Moran, whose relatives are trapped in Gaza, says her family are \"down to their last can of corn\", and urged the UK government to support an immediate ceasefire\n\nThe head of the UN's maritime agency has condemned Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, warning they could threaten world trade\n\nOne of the world's biggest shipping firms, Hapag-Lloyd, has said it will not resume sailing on the vital trade route linking the Indian Ocean with the Mediterranean sea without safety guarantees.", "Russia's LGBT community has been under pressure from the authorities for years\n\nPolice in Moscow have raided several gay clubs, local media report, a day after Russia's Supreme Court moved to outlaw the \"LGBT movement\".\n\nClub goers were briefly held and their passports were photographed during the raids late on Friday, Telegram channel Ostorozhno Novosti said.\n\nOne attendee told the channel he feared he would be given a lengthy jail term.\n\nThe police said they were searching for drugs, Ostorozhno Novosti said. City officials have not commented so far.\n\n\"In the middle of the party, the music was stopped, and [police] began going into the lounges\", one eyewitness told the outlet, adding that foreigners were also present at the gathering in central Moscow.\n\nSota, another Telegram channel, said three clubs were raided on Friday evening in the Russian capital.\n\nPhotos and a video have emerged on social media purportedly showing a police van and officers outside one of the clubs.\n\nThe raids came a day after Russia's Supreme Court declared what it described as the \"LGBT public movement\" an extremist organisation and banned its activities across the country.\n\nThe ruling was prompted by a motion from the justice ministry, although no such organisation exists as a legal entity.\n\nRussia's constitution was changed in 2020 to make it clear that marriage meant a union between a man and a woman. Same-sex unions are not recognised in Russia.\n\nIn recent years the country's LGBT community has come under increasing pressure from the authorities, says the BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow. In 2013 a law was adopted prohibiting \"propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations\" aimed at minors.\n\nLast year, those restrictions were extended to all age groups in Russia. References to LGBT people have been deleted from books, films, adverts and TV shows.\n\nEarlier this month, one Russian TV channel discoloured a rainbow in a South Korean pop video, to avoid being accused of violating the \"gay propaganda\" law.", "Kevin Sinfield and his support crew started the ultra-marathon from Cardiff's Principality Stadium\n\nPeople in Cardiff have been cheering on rugby league star Kevin Sinfield on his latest challenge to support people with motor neurone disease (MND).\n\nHe has raised millions for charities since ex-Leeds teammate Rob Burrow was diagnosed with the condition in 2019.\n\nSaturday marks the second day of Sinfield's challenge, running an ultra-marathon each day for seven days in seven cities.\n\nHe said he had received an \"absolutely awesome welcome\" in Cardiff.\n\nSinfield and his team are due to finish on the pitch at the Arms Park at half time during the United Rugby Championship derby game between Cardiff and Scarlets.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jenny Ramsay This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSaturday's route of the 7 in 7 in 7 Challenge began at the Principality Stadium before heading to Whitchurch and then returning through Victoria Park, passing Cardiff City Stadium and Cardiff Bay, before finishing at the Arms Park.\n\nUp to 100 people from the MND community were invited to share a mile run with him at Bute Park.\n\nRugby league star Kevin Sinfield (right) has raised millions for charities since his friend and former teammate Rub Burrow (left) was diagnosed with MND\n\nKate, whose brother Sam died 11 years ago with MND, said she wanted to take part in the invitation-only \"extra mile\" to thank Sinfield for his efforts.\n\n\"People hadn't heard about it [MND] when my brother died,\" she said.\n\n\"I will do anything I can to find a cure, raise money and raise awareness.\"\n\nIt moves to Birmingham on Sunday followed by Edinburgh, Dublin and Brighton, before ending with a race from Twickenham Stadium to the Mall in London.", "Nigel Harman with professional partner Katya Jones in one of their routines\n\nThere was no elimination or public vote on tonight's Strictly Come Dancing after actor Nigel Harman was forced to pull out after an injury.\n\nThe Casualty star had been due to dance a Charleston in the quarter final with professional partner Katya Jones.\n\nOpening the show, host Claudia Winkleman said \"Unfortunately Nigel has sustained an injury... and has had to withdraw from the competition.\"\n\nViewers will be able to vote next week on who goes through to the final.\n\nCo-host Tess Daly clarified that the judges would still be scoring the dance and their votes would be carried over to next week.\n\nInitial reports suggested Harman had suffered a leg injury, but it was later clarified by the BBC that it was a rib injury.\n\nSpeaking on the show, Harman said he was \"leaping off a rostrum, about to be caught by some very handsome men. As I flew I was Peter Pan. As I landed I was in A&E.\"\n\n\"I've done something to my rib basically and it's quite painful.\"\n\nThe remaining celebrities are actress Ellie Leach, tennis star Annabel Croft, theatre and TV star Layton Williams and EastEnders actor Bobby Brazier.\n\nFans wished Harman well - they last saw him dancing a rumba last week\n\nSaturday's show saw judge Craig Revel Horwood award his first 10 of the season to Layton Williams, who got a maximum score of 40 with partner Nikita Kuzmin.\n\nEllie Leach scored 36 for her quickstep with partner Vito Coppola, Annabel Croft got 33 for her foxtrot with Johannes and Radebe and Bobby Brazier got 34 for his salsa with Dianne Buswell.\n\nLast Saturday, Harman and Jones danced a rumba to a cover of 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now' by Celine Dion.\n\nThe pair were given a score of 33 points by the judges.\n\nHarman told the Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two on Friday that the routine the pair had been practicing this week had been a step-up in intensity from last week.\n\n\"The rumba, just sort of mincing around and wafting my hips in the general directions was lovely, maybe one bead of sweat,\" he said.\n\n\"This week, St John's ambulance is on standby. This is the complete other end of the scale.\"\n\nThe quarter final is \"musicals week\" and Harman had been due to dance to Step in Time from Disney's Mary Poppins.\n\nA post on the show's Instagram page wished him a \"speedy recovery\", adding the couple will be \"very much missed by our entire Strictly family\".\n\nStrictly fans took to social media to express their concern for Harman at the news.\n\n\"Wishing Nigel a speedy recovery, it's such a shame to get this far and sustain an injury that is forcing him to quit, but health has to come first,\" one fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter.\n\n\"Heartbroken for Nigel & Katya. Their Charleston looked fantastic,\" another wrote. They added that they thought the dance show should not have an elimination tonight.\n\nAnother said Harman should have \"a free pass\" into next week.\n\nThe star had said he was \"amazed, excited, and terrified\" when he was confirmed in August to be doing Strictly.\n\nHe added: \"As an armchair fan of the show I have watched in awe as people have twirled and gyrated across the screen. And now it's my turn... gulp!\"\n\nHowever, he and Jones were absent from the line-up of participants taking part in the Strictly Come Dancing live UK tour next year.\n\nHarman is not the first to quit this year's show.\n\nIn October, actress Amanda Abbington withdrew from Strictly, citing \"personal reasons\" for being \"unable to continue\".", "Chauvin is serving concurrent prison sentences over the death of George Floyd\n\nA US prison inmate has been charged with attempted murder after stabbing Derek Chauvin, the ex-police officer convicted in the death of George Floyd.\n\nProsecutors said ex-gang member John Turscak used an improvised blade to knife Chauvin 22 times on 24 November at a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona.\n\nChauvin survived the attack and was said to be in a stable condition.\n\nHe is serving multiple sentences for Floyd's death, which triggered nationwide protests and rioting.\n\nTurscak, a former member of a Mexican Mafia gang, allegedly targeted Chauvin in the prison's law library at lunchtime. He later said that he had been considering killing Chauvin for about a month because of his status as a high-profile inmate.\n\nHe told correctional officers he would have killed Chauvin had they not reacted quickly, but later denied to FBI agents he had wanted to take the former officer's life, according to court papers.\n\nTurscak, 52, told FBI agents he attacked Chauvin on Black Friday - as the day after US Thanksgiving is known - as a symbolic connection to Black Lives Matter and the Black Hand symbol linked with the Mexican Mafia, according to prosecutors.\n\nAccording to the Bureau of Prisons inmate database, Turscak is white. An article in the Los Angeles Times says he was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in 2001 after admitting to carrying out crimes while working as an undercover FBI informant.\n\nBlack Lives Matter led nationwide racial justice rallies in the aftermath of the May 2020 killing of Floyd, an unarmed black man, by Chauvin, a white Minneapolis policeman.\n\nMinnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office prosecuted Chauvin, said in the aftermath of the stabbing that he was \"sad\" to learn of the attack.\n\n\"He was duly convicted of his crimes and, like any incarcerated individual, he should be able to serve his sentence without fear of retaliation or violence,\" Mr Ellison said in a statement from his office.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video has been removed for rights reasons\n\nThe wife of late Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan has said she hopes his song Fairytale of New York will be Christmas number one in his memory.\n\nVictoria Mary Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Today programme she was \"very much in favour\" of the track reaching the top spot.\n\n\"It would be nice, wouldn't it?\" she said. \"It should be the Christmas number one. It absolutely should.\"\n\nMacGowan, 65, died on Thursday, following a long battle with illness.\n\nFairytale of New York, which also features Kirsty MacColl, was originally released in 1987. It has never reached number one - only peaking at number two.\n\nHowever, streaming has taken it back to the top 10 every Christmas for the past six years and it is now climbing the chart again.\n\nThe song went from number 23 in Spotify UK's Daily Chart on Wednesday to number six on Thursday and number four on Friday.\n\nClarke, 57, compared Fairytale of New York's tumultuous love story with her own marriage to MacGowan.\n\n\"It's not [the romance that's] gone wrong - in the song, they still love each other,\" she said. \"But life has gone wrong. I think that's what's probably a little bit similar to our story.\n\n\"We were both very much affected by his addiction, but you can still love, even when you're in that situation. And you can be very desperately unhappy as well as love.\"\n\nMacGowan had been diagnosed with encephalitis after struggles with drug and alcohol addiction.\n\nClarke said \"she didn't understand\" the extent of his addiction when they met, and the constant drinking throughout his life \"took a toll on his body\".\n\nThe Irish journalist and writer reminisced about her relationship with MacGowan - who she met when she was 16 - during the interview, saying he \"was the kind of husband that would tell you how beautiful you are every single day\".\n\n\"He was always buying flowers, he was a really romantic man,\" she said.\n\nClarke also said the pair \"both enjoyed watching programmes about royalty\" and that MacGowan \"thought a lot about the Royal Family\" despite being \"an ardent republican\".\n\nHe was a \"contradiction\" because \"he had this huge love of England and also of Ireland\", she added.\n\nListen to the interview with Victoria Mary Clarke on Radio 4's Today programme between 07:00-09:00 GMT on Saturday and on BBC Sounds.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Gloria Steinem: The desire to control the womb is often lethal\n\nAt 89 years old, feminist icon, writer and magazine editor, Gloria Steinem has no plans to retire from a long career of challenging the status quo.\n\nIt's over 50 years since the political activist masterminded the Women's Action Alliance.\n\nIt was a group dedicated to fighting sexism, and Steinem - one of three co-founders - became the face of the women's liberation movement in the United States for the rest of the 20th Century.\n\nShe started her career as a journalist in New York in the 1970s and went on to co-found Ms. magazine, one of the first publications to focus on other women's issues than the perils of housekeeping and the mandates of the beauty industry.\n\nIn her apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side there's evidence of a life lived on the road, with artefacts from places she's visited adorning every surface.\n\nBut these days she is mostly settled in New York, \"happy to be in my neighbourhood,\" she says.\n\n\"I'm still, now, hyper-conscious of how great it is to be here.\"\n\nIt's over 50 years since Steinem became a political figure - and she hasn't stopped working\n\nThe apartment serves as the headquarters of her foundation, Gloria's Foundation, and as a place for women, journalists, activists and community leaders to gather now that she is at home more often.\n\nGloria Steinem has been named one of the BBC's 100 Women for 2023.\n\nDuring the 1970s, Gloria Steinem was one of the main voices campaigning for women's reproductive rights.\n\nShe celebrated the US Supreme Court's 1973 ruling in the case of Roe v Wade, which granted women the constitutional right to abortion.\n\nNearly half a century later she witnessed the reversal of this decision - the Supreme Court's historic ruling in June last year that ended the nationwide right to abortion.\n\nAnti-abortion groups across the US welcome the reversal of Roe v Wade in 2022\n\nFor Steinem and other pro-choice activists it was a stark reminder of the need to keep campaigning, to achieve changes she says she hopes to see in her lifetime.\n\n\"The most obvious and simplest [change] is that we can determine the fate of our own physical selves, so we can decide whether and when to have children, not to have children… whatever it is about our physical selves.\n\n\"That's where our difficulty begins, because we happen to have wombs and there is a desire to control wombs that is very central to authoritarian systems. Clearly, because we have a womb and men don't, the desire to control the womb is often the most lethal kind of effort.\"\n\nAs women's access to reproductive rights has become more limited in the US, some women in Latin America have successfully campaigned for the right to legal abortion and Steinem, who has been at the front line of countless street demonstrations in her life, admires their determined activism.\n\n\"Using our voices, protesting with our bodies, supporting other women is what the revolution is all about,\" she says.\n\n\"Reproductive freedom is basic, maybe more basic than freedom of speech.\"\n\nSteinem: It is not women's responsibility to make a revolution for men, as they adapt to new gender roles\n\nWith five decades of advocacy behind her, Steinem is in a unique position to reflect on the progress women have made.\n\nIn the US one major step forward has been an increase in the proportion of women turning out to vote, she points out.\n\nOther benchmarks are directly related to the family and the daily life of women, she says.\n\n\"Some are very domestic. Who is raising the children? Who is making dinner? Who is doing the dishes? That's crucial.\n\n\"There has been progress, just not enough,\" she says.\n\nSteinem closely monitors the pressure on women's rights across the world, including the curtailment of freedoms in countries like Iran and Afghanistan.\n\nShe regards the protests by Iranian women - who took to the streets burning their hijabs and chanting \"Woman, Life, Freedom\", after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran's morality police - as both a battle for self-determination and a form of feminist revolution.\n\nWomen cut off their hair in protest at the death of Amini, who was arrested for allegedly breaking hijab rules\n\n\"They are fighting for the idea that a woman's body is not shameful or to be restricted, just as men's bodies are not, so whether they use the word 'feminism' or not, is up to them,\" Steinem says.\n\n\"Some people say 'women power', or 'women's liberation'. It's up to us.\"\n\nThe intersection of gender and race has always been the focus of Gloria Steinem's work.\n\nIn the 1970s she worked closely with black political activist Angela Davis.\n\nA photo of Steinem and fellow feminist Dorothy Pitman Hughes standing shoulder to shoulder with their fists in the air became an iconic image of the fight by women and African Americans for equality and social justice.\n\nGloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes posed for what became an iconic photo of the feminist movement\n\nYet many around the world have criticised Western feminism for not being inclusive enough.\n\n\"That's probably true,\" says Steinem.\n\n\"I mean, we're dealing with racism in this country. We have always generally tried to say, 'OK, if the group we're starting with doesn't look like the country, then we should wait until it does.' You know, to do our best to represent all the women who are affected by a particular issue.\"\n\nSteinem remembers the days in which hand-outs and calls to action were made on a primitive duplicating machine called a mimeograph. She has now embraced the opportunities to connect remotely, fostered by the pandemic, and to reach a wider audience using the internet and social media.\n\n\"The problem with the internet is that it's discriminatory, because not everyone can afford to have a computer or understands the technology or knows how to express themselves on the web. And that's worrisome,\" she says.\n\nEven more so, she adds, \"since probably men have more access to technology than women do\".\n\nSteinem believes in the power of public demonstrations - here, with actress Jane Fonda (centre) in Washington\n\nSteinem also expresses concern about cancel culture, and the impact on younger generations and social media users.\n\nShe tells BBC 100 Women she hasn't experienced it herself but resents it on behalf of anybody who has, \"because free speech is crucial to any democracy\".\n\n\"We should not submit to cancel culture, it's social pressure as censorship, and it's definitely not a good thing even when it is suppressing evidence of bias. It still is silencing people.\"\n\nSome might argue that one of the shortcomings of feminism has been its inability to help men navigate change as gender roles are redefined. For Gloria Steinem though, it is not women's responsibility to \"make [men] their revolution and their dinner\".\n\nThat some men reject feminism should be expected, she says, as it is not beneficial for those \"using masculinity to dominate\".\n\nShe believes change has to start from within our own homes.\n\n\"That's where a lack of democracy begins, and that's the beginning of the change that we all can make,\" she says.\n\nIt's been over 50 years since the political activist masterminded the Women's Action Alliance.\n\nDays are busy at the Steinem house and foundation. There are books she needs to sign and meetings she needs to attend.\n\nAs she sits at a table in the corner of her living room signing posters for an event, the doors of her apartment swing open and two women walk in.\n\n\"It is just great to be home more,\" Steinem repeats.\n\nShe gets up to join them on the other side of the room.\n\n\"I turned my living room into a place for talking circles. You know, revolution is like a liquid that's being poured into different containers. It changes its form, but it's still the same liquid.\"\n\nVideo filmed by Andrew Blum. Edited by Rachel Qureshi and Munira Mohamed.\n\nBBC 100 Women names 100 inspiring and influential women around the world every year. Follow BBC 100 Women on Instagram and Facebook. Join the conversation using #BBC100Women.", "Rockets streak into the sky from Gaza towards Israel\n\nThe UK will carry out unarmed surveillance flights over the Middle East to search for Hamas hostage locations, the Ministry of Defence says.\n\nThe flights will help gather intelligence on potential hostage whereabouts.\n\nFive British nationals are missing and the UK government has not said how many could be held by Hamas.\n\n\"The safety of British nationals is our utmost priority,\" the MoD said.\n\n\"In support of the ongoing hostage rescue activity, the Ministry of Defence will conduct surveillance flights over the eastern Mediterranean, including operating in air space over Israel and Gaza.\"\n\nIt added that the aircraft will be unarmed and will be tasked solely to locate hostages.\n\n\"Only information relating to hostage rescue will be passed to the relevant authorities responsible for hostage rescue.\"\n\nThe aircraft will include Shadow R1s, which the Royal Air Force use for intelligence gathering, ministry officials said.\n\nInformation on the potential locations of hostages will be shared with Israel. More than 130 captives are thought to be in Gaza.\n\nThe Pentagon said unarmed UAV drones had been deployed over Gaza in \"support of hostage recovery efforts\", earlier this month.\n\n\"The US is conducting unarmed UAV flights over Gaza, as well as providing advice and assistance to support our Israeli partner as they work on their hostage recovery efforts,\" the Pentagon said.\n\nFighting resumed on Friday after a week-long truce in Gaza. The IDF said it had hit more than 400 Hamas targets on the first day.\n\nGaza's Hamas-run health ministry says at least 193 people have been killed in the latest wave of Israeli attacks.\n\nThe ministry says more than 15,200 people have died in the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October that killed at least 1,200 people.\n• None Israeli strikes heaviest so far, say residents of south Gaza city", "A former AFC Wimbledon managing director has been found by police after he had been reported missing.\n\nDanny Macklin, 42, had last been seen in Great Notley, near Braintree, Essex, on Friday morning.\n\nBut on Friday night he said on X that he had been found \"safely\" by police in Looe, Cornwall, hundreds of miles from where he was last seen.\n\nLeyton Orient Football Club, where Mr Macklin had also once worked, also confirmed he had been \"found safe\".\n\nMr Macklin, who also previously held posts at Southend United and Essex County Cricket Club, left his role at AFC Wimbledon on 8 September.\n\nOn Tuesday, the Football Association charged him with misconduct in relation to an allegation that he made abusive and sexist comments about a female colleague.\n\nPosting on X, Mr Macklin said he had been found \"safely\" by police and would now \"seek the help I need and sorry for the terrible pain I have caused so many and then seek to rebuild my career / life\".\n\nLeyton Orient, also posting on the platform, said: \"Danny has been found safe this evening. Thank you to all supporters for the help you have provided today.\"\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Radars tracking activity in \"deep space\" will help the UK protect itself from \"space warfare\", the defence secretary has said.\n\nIt marks a \"new phase\" of a security arrangement between the UK, US and Australia by 2030 - known as AUKUS.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said radars will enable nations to identify objects in deep space, up to 22,000 miles (36,000 km) away from earth.\n\nGrant Shapps said the system would be \"constantly tracking threats\".\n\nThe Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) programme will be used to inform UK defence operations.\n\nIn a post on X, the Mr Shapps continued \"that's why alongside the US and Australia we will build a global space radar system capable of constantly tracking threats in deep space.\"\n\nThe first radar site will be built in Australia and is expected to be up and running by 2026.\n\nCawdor Barracks in Pembrokeshire, Wales has been earmarked for the UK's radar, but the final decision depends on the outcome of an Environmental Impact Assessment and Town Planning application.\n\nThe barracks is currently home to a British Army Signals Regiment, which is due to relocate from 2028.\n\nIf given the go-ahead, construction is expected to be completed and the radar fully operational by 2030.\n\nThe radars will be operated from the ground, and will be equipped to provide 24/7 monitoring in all-weathers.\n\nThey have higher sensitivity, better accuracy, increased capacity, and more agile tracking than the current radars keeping tabs on deep space activity, the MoD said.\n\nThe \"unique geographic positioning\" of three radars would provide global monitoring and coverage, the MoD says, including \"detecting potential threats to defence or civilian space systems\".\n\nIt added the radars will assist in \"critical space-traffic management and contribute to the global surveillance\" of satellites in deep space.\n\nThe plan is part of the AUKUS security and defence pact between the three nations, which aims to maintain peaceful relations globally and in the Indo-Pacific area.\n\nThe DARC programme is key to \"space domain awareness\", a key objective of the UK's Defence Space Strategy, published last year.", "The Christmas version of the series features notable alumni competing on behalf of their former universities\n\nAn episode of Christmas University Challenge has been pulled after two contestants complained about a lack of provision for their disabilities.\n\nOne of the contestants, who is blind, called the experience \"distressing\".\n\nAudio description, which they said had been promised, was not provided, while a request for subtitles for another contestant, who is neurodivergent, is understood to have been turned down.\n\nThe BBC said it had apologised to the individuals concerned.\n\nThe show's production company Lifted Entertainment, which is part of ITV Studios, also offered its \"sincere apologies\".\n\nChristmas University Challenge, a festive spin-off from the BBC Two quiz show, features teams of distinguished alumni who compete on behalf of their former universities.\n\nBBC News understands that the two contestants flagged disabilities to the producers before the recording.\n\nIt is understood that the production team said subtitles were not possible but that audio description would be provided. However, in the event, audio description did not happen.\n\nOne of the affected contestants said: \"One minute before the show, we were told there was no audio description and that your captain will instead have to explain everything.\"\n\nThe contestant said the visual images, which needed describing, included a pie chart and maps. \"It was distressing,\" they added.\n\nThe other contestant, who is neurodivergent and has challenges with audio processing, said they had requested subtitles in advance, so they wouldn't be at a disadvantage when trying to answer questions at speed.\n\n\"Unfortunately, I was told this wasn't possible,\" they said.\n\nThey also asked for some other accommodations to help manage their sensory needs but say these weren't fully provided.\n\nThey still agreed to participate, but said, due to lack of accommodations and last minute changes, the experience was \"overwhelming and overstimulating\", and that it impacted their ability to function for a week afterwards.\n\nAfter the show was recorded, the two contestants - who have asked not to be named - complained to the BBC and asked for the episode not to be broadcast.\n\n\"I was in touch to say I'd prefer not to have the manifestation of my disability broadcast on network TV in the run-up to Christmas,\" the first contestant said.\n\nOn Friday, the decision was made to pull the episode.\n\nBoth contestants said the decision not to air it was greatly appreciated, and that they had offered to help make the programme more inclusive.\n\nAmol Rajan took over University Challenge hosting duties from Jeremy Paxman earlier this year\n\nA BBC spokesperson said: \"We can confirm that an episode in the upcoming series of Alumni University Challenge will not be broadcast because two of the contestants felt their access requirements were not sufficiently met by the production.\n\n\"We are working closely with producers to improve cross industry access on our programmes to ensure a consistent approach is implemented.\n\n\"We would like to apologise to the individuals and teams concerned, and they have been written to personally by the producers.\"\n\nLifted Entertainment said: \"During the pre-filming briefing for this episode, two contestants requested that certain adjustments be made in order for them to be able to fully participate.\n\n\"However, following the recording, we were made aware that the adjustments made fell short of their requirements. We have spoken to the individuals involved and offered our sincere apologies.\n\n\"Having listened very carefully to their descriptions of their experiences, we agreed with the BBC that the fairest course of action was not to screen this particular edition.\"\n\nFourteen teams are competing in seven first-round matches of Christmas University Challenge. The four top teams go through to the semi-finals, before the last two battle it out to be named Christmas series champions.\n\nThe contestants compete in the same format as the parent show, with teams pitted against each other as they take on a series of questions.\n\nIn the episode in question, which was filmed in November, two Oxford and Cambridge colleges were pitted against each other.\n\nBBC News understands the rest of the festive series is not affected by the decision to pull the episode. The show is presented by the BBC's Amol Rajan.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA German man has died and two others, including a British man, have been injured in a knife and hammer attack on a street in central Paris.\n\nThe attack occurred near the Eiffel Tower shortly before 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on Saturday.\n\nA 26-year-old French man was later arrested, and anti-terrorism prosecutors opened an investigation.\n\nProsecutor Jean-François Ricard said the suspect had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group (IS).\n\nMr Ricard told a briefing on Sunday that the suspect Armand R, a French national born in France to Iranian parents, made the pledge in a video posted on social media.\n\nHe converted to Islam aged 18, the prosecutor said, and was imprisoned in 2016 for four years after making plans to travel to Syria to join IS.\n\nPolice said he was supposed to be following treatment for psychiatric problems.\n\nMr Ricard added that the suspect had been under surveillance for suspected extremism and that three associates, including members of his family, had been detained for questioning.\n\nEarlier, it was revealed that the victim killed in Saturday night's attack was a German tourist who worked as a nurse.\n\nFrance's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the victim was with his wife when he was attacked and fatally stabbed on Quai de Grenelle.\n\nHe said the wife's life was saved by the intervention of a taxi driver and that the suspect fled across a nearby bridge spanning the River Seine.\n\nAfter crossing to the north side of the river he attacked two more people: a French man aged around 60 and a 66-year-old British tourist who was hit in the eye with a hammer.\n\nThe suspect was then Tasered by police and arrested on suspicion of assassination - defined in French law as premeditated murder - and attempted assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise.\n\nVideo published online appeared to show the moment the suspect was apprehended by armed police not far from where the attack happened.\n\nForensics teams work at one of the scenes of the attack\n\nThe two people injured were treated by emergency services and on Sunday, Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau told French media they were \"in good health\".\n\nMr Darmanin said the alleged attacker was heard shouting \"Allahu Akbar\", Arabic for \"God is greatest\", and told police he was upset because \"so many Muslims are dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine\".\n\nThe suspect is also understood to have suggested France was complicit in the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza.\n\nOn Saturday, a video was posted on social media in which the suspect criticised the French government and discussed what he described as the murder of innocent Muslims, AFP news agency reports.\n\nWriting on X, formerly Twitter, French President Emmanuel Macron sent his thoughts to all those affected by the \"terrorist attack\" and thanked the emergency services for their response.\n\n\"The national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office will now be responsible for shedding light on this affair so that justice can be done in the name of the French people,\" he said.\n\nIt comes less than two months after a teacher was killed in a knife attack at a high school in the northern city of Arras, prompting the French government to put the country on its highest level of national security alert.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A woman shares her experience of growing up in care to improve the system for others.\n\nA young woman who spent six years in the Northern Ireland care system says there were \"more dark times than good\".\n\nRhianna Brown had 26 social workers by the time she turned 18 and says \"it was hard to learn to trust somebody\".\n\nThe number of children in care here is at an all-time high, according to Department of Health figures.\n\n\"A lot needs to be changed in the care sector at the minute. The time for covering over the cracks is over,\" said Rhianna.\n\nThe 20-year-old has been contributing to an independent review of children's social care services.\n\nShe says entering the care system when she was 12 years old was \"scary and \"tough\".\n\nRhianna spent the majority of her teenage years in kinship care which is when a child lives with a relative or friend who is not their parent.\n\nHowever, she also had 18 different foster placements within the three months before she turned 18.\n\nRhianna says that she was bullied for being in care when she was a child\n\n\"I do hope a lot of the stigma and a lot of the attitudes change,\" Rhianna said.\n\n\"I was bullied in school for being in care and I don't want anybody else to feel the way I did.\"\n\nSince turning 18, Rhianna says her experience has changed for the better.\n\n\"I've had the same social worker since I started the 18-plus team. They helped me get a really good job and my first house as well.\"\n\nShe wants her experience to help shape the system for young people currently in care.\n\nSome 3,801 children and young people were recorded as being in care in March this year, 177 more than in 2022.\n\nA charity believes the rise is partly because of cost-of-living pressures and long-term effects of the pandemic.\n\nVoypic's Alicia Toal says high levels of deprivation are fuelling an increase in children in care\n\nVoice of Young People in Care (Voypic)'s chief executive also says it is due to a rise in the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children in Northern Ireland.\n\nAlicia Toal said: \"Our families and communities are experiencing a level of deprivation and hardship that we probably haven't encountered over the last number of decades.\"\n\nShe listed poor mental health, higher rates of domestic abuse and \"a significant number of families living in extreme poverty\".\n\n\"All of these impact on a parents ability to look after children safely.\"\n\nEarlier this year, a major independent review found a much higher rate of children being referred to services in Northern Ireland than in the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland.\n\nProf Ray Jones, who led the review, said: \"Children only have one childhood and the clock is ticking.\"\n\nThere are 53 recommendations in Prof Jones' report including the need for more support for families to help them care well for children\n\nThe report put forward 53 recommendations including the need for more support for families to help them care well for children.\n\nHowever, Voypic's Alicia Toal says the absence of Stormont has \"exacerbated the current problems.\"\n\n\"Ray Jones has set out a road map of how he sees change could improve outcomes for young people and families.\n\n\"There are a lot of recommendations within that report that we will not be able to progress with unless there is legislative change for which we need a functioning assembly.\n\n\"But we also need investment in the services and the workforce and unfortunately that is not going to happen unless power sharing is re-established.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How missiles and destruction quickly returned to Gaza\n\nThe resumption of fighting between Israel and Hamas has been met with a mixture of fear and anger in Gaza, with the UN calling it a \"nightmare\".\n\nA temporary ceasefire expired at 07:00 (05:00 GMT) with both warring sides blaming each other.\n\nSince then, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says 178 people have been killed in Israeli attacks.\n\nA UN official said much-needed aid had stopped coming through the Rafah crossing since the ceasefire ended.\n\nOn Friday morning, the sound of heavy gunfire could be heard in areas of northern Gaza infiltrated by the Israeli military, with clashes breaking out between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters.\n\nThere seemed to be no let up in the pace of fighting after the ceasefire, with jet fighters and reconnaissance planes deployed.\n\nAreas targeted by air strikes included north-western Gaza and Khan Younis in the south - where hundreds of thousands of people fled earlier in the war to escape fighting in the north. Houses in the city were targeted - including one house in close proximity to Nasser hospital, where the BBC Arabic team was based.\n\n\"Around 06:30 the drones started flying,\" Mohammad Ghalaiyini, a Briton who is currently in Khan Younis with his family, said in a voice message sent to the BBC. \"Around 07:30, I think, the bombings started and there's been like non-stop bombing every 10, 15, 20 minutes.\"\n\nLeaflets dropped by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned that areas east of Khan Younis and Salah al-Din were \"dangerous\" combat zones and urged people in some parts to head to shelters further south in Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.\n\nMeanwhile, Hamas and other groups fired rockets at Israel, which deployed its Iron Dome defence system to intercept them.\n\nThe renewed clashes were \"catastrophic for the people of Gaza,\" James Elder, a spokesman for the UN children's agency, Unicef, told the BBC.\n\nMr Elder said Nasser hospital - which he said was now Gaza's biggest functioning medical facility - was \"wildly overflowing with children and people with wounds of war recovering from the last attack\".\n\nHe said many families had been sleeping on mattresses at the hospital for weeks.\n\n\"This hospital cannot possibly cope with a surge in wounds from the battlefield with more children with burns, with those horrendous shrapnel injuries,\" he said.\n\nOther UN aid agencies have described similar conditions at other hospitals.\n\nThe situation at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City was \"like a horror movie\" even before the bombing started again, World Health Organization (WHO) senior emergency officer Rob Holden said.\n\nHis team - who visited the site earlier in the week - reported patients with \"the most horrific injuries\" lying on floors \"running with blood\", while the bodies of those who had been killed were lined up in the car park outside.\n\nThe WHO says only 18 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are \"minimally to partially functional\".\n\n\"Gaza's health system has been crippled by the ongoing hostilities,\" Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories, said. \"We are extremely concerned about the resumption of violence.\"\n\nThere is also major concern over the wider humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is likely to worsen as fighting resumes.\n\nAs supplies of cooking gas, food and water are dangerously low, shops are empty and there is not enough aid to distribute to displaced people.\n\nMany are sleeping in tents and have told the BBC they are struggling to cope with the cold weather conditions. They are desperately urging for more aid including warm clothing to be delivered.\n\nThey also say very little water, food and medicine is reaching hospitals.\n\nPhilippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN's relief agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said he was beyond mere concern that \"no humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza today including fuel\".\n\nHundreds of trucks carrying aid were able to enter Gaza during the seven-day ceasefire but they were still fewer in number than the roughly 500 trucks that entered Gaza every day before the war.\n\nOn Friday Mark Regev, senior adviser to the Israeli prime minister, said Hamas could have ensured the pause in fighting was extended if they had freed more hostages.\n\n\"They have close to 20 women [eligible for release] in the framework of the existing agreement, yet they chose not to do so,\" Mr Regev told the BBC.\n\nAsked whether those women were civilians or Israeli soldiers, Mr Regev said some of the women were in their 20s and had finished their military service.\n\nFor its part, Hamas says it did make several offers regarding further hostage releases - all of which were rejected by Israel.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its military strikes on Friday had hit Hamas command centres, underground sites and groups of Hamas fighters.\n\nOfficials in Gaza say more than 14,800 people including about 6,000 children have been killed since Israel began its military campaign against Hamas there, with thousands more believed to be dead under rubble.\n\nIt follows Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October during which it killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped 240 others.", "Producers of the long-running ITV reality show have apologised for the mistake\n\nI'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! producers have apologised after the show liked a comment about a campmate on social media which \"contained unacceptable language\".\n\nA statement from the ITV show said it \"seeks to champion all our campmates\" and \"urges users to be kind\".\n\nThe Instagram post has been deleted, but it referred to YouTuber Nella Rose.\n\nRose is a 26-year-old social media star with more than 750,000 subscribers on YouTube.\n\nThe show's statement said: \"Yesterday we accidentally liked a comment on Instagram while scrolling down through viewer comments.\n\n\"The post in question contained unacceptable language about one of our campmates and we apologise for the mistake made and any offence caused.\n\n\"We seek to champion all our campmates and would always urge our audience to be kind when commenting on social media.\"\n\nNella Rose is an influencer and YouTube star with more than 750,000 subscribers\n\nOn social media, some users welcomed the show's apology.\n\nOne said \"the hate towards Nella has been way [too] much. I disagree with some of her actions in the jungle but people are acting like she's the worst human being alive and that's unfair.\"\n\nBut others said the apology did not go far enough.\n\nThe incident came hours after tensions rose in the jungle between Rose and First Dates star Fred Sirieix on Friday's episode.\n\nThe YouTuber claimed Sirieix had made her life \"hell\" over his attitude to camp life including washing dishes - it follows several disagreements between the pair.\n\nEarlier in the series, Rose also clashed with fellow campmate Nigel Farage over accusations of him being anti-immigration.\n\nAnother contestant, This Morning host Josie Gibson, was seen in tears during Friday's episode, before explaining that she was missing her five-year-old son.\n\n\"I just miss my little boy, I shouldn't have ever left him this long,\" she said, adding that she felt \"very guilty\" about the decision.\n\nCampmate Danielle Harold comforted her, telling her: \"You're the best mum.\"\n\nBoth food critic Grace Dent and Britney Spears' younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears left the show, filmed in the lush forests of New South Wales, Australia, on medical grounds this week.\n\nThis year's series has so far attracted a lower audience than last year's - which featured former health secretary Matt Hancock.\n\nWhile the previous series' launch episode attracted an overall audience of nearly 12 million, this year's launch has only been watched by seven million in its first week.", "Two days into the resumption of military operations in Gaza, it’s becoming clearer how Israel says it intends to avoid civilian casualties - which are once again rising rapidly.\n\nIsrael is no longer calling on Palestinians to move to al-Mawasi, a thin strip of territory along the Mediterranean coast which officials for weeks described as the only “safe zone.”\n\n“Unfortunately, we’ve not seen huge amounts of people going there,” Major Peter Lerner told me this afternoon, “so we are adjusting our operational assessment of the situation on the ground.”\n\nDuring his visit to Israel on Thursday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged Israel to take steps to protect civilians, including “clearly and precisely designating areas….where they can be safe.”\n\nBut the new concept is probably best described as clearly designated un-safe areas, with Israel’s new grid map of the Gaza Strip showing areas where Israel intends to carry out military operations on any given day.\n\nMark Regev, a senior advisor to Israel’s prime minister, said Israel’s messaging – including leaflets, phone calls and online messages – would mean that Gazans would always know where to go to be safe.\n\n“News travels fast,” he told journalists. “The minute one person hears it, it goes to another family and then another family.”\n\nBut with airstrikes still happening up and down the Gaza Strip, Gazans feel that no-where is genuinely safe.\n\nMaj Peter Lerner said Israel would continue to hit other “high quality targets”.", "Maj Kevin McCool thrived in the military environment, the MoD said\n\nA British soldier has died while off duty in Kenya, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.\n\nThe BBC understands 32-year-old Maj Kevin McCool was on a motorcycle trip off base when he was attacked.\n\nMoD officials said it would not be releasing any details of what happened to the soldier, who was from Northern Ireland.\n\nDefence Secretary Grant Shapps led tributes to Maj McCool describing the death as a \"tragic loss\".\n\nHe added: \"It's clear from the tributes of those who knew him that Maj McCool was an exceptional person and an exceptional soldier, loved and respected in equal measure, who served his country with distinction.\"\n\nThe MoD said Maj McCool died on 29 November.\n\nHe was commissioned from Sandhurst in August 2014 and was deployed in Europe, the Middle East, the Falklands and Africa.\n\n\"As well as a glittering operational record, he also aced many of the military's hardest courses,\" the MoD said in a eulogy.\n\nIt added: \"His fitness was legendary, once beating the whole Battalion on a two miler, as was his endurance. His enthusiasm was infectious.\n\n\"He had a mischievous twinkle in his eye, that made him tremendous fun to be with. Yet his professionalism and sense of purpose was paramount, and clear to all those lucky enough to serve with him.\"\n\nMaj McCool has been described as a \"big family man\" and his commanding officer paid tribute to him as a man \"of the utmost integrity\".\n\n\"I will never forget my final memory of him, which was on operations; he had just come off the ground having slept a handful of hours in as many days,\" the officer said.\n\n\"We discussed the possibility of having to deploy another team into the operational furnace from which he had just come. He stopped me mid-sentence, fixed me with his piercing blue eyes, and simply said, 'send me'.\n\n\"A bright light has gone out amongst our ranks. He will be missed, but never forgotten.\"\n\nThe dead man's father, Joseph McCool, said his \"special\" son \"thrived in the military environment\", adding that \"he was at his best when deployed, and at his very best when the conditions were at their very worst\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: \"My heart goes out to Maj McCool's family, friends, and fellow soldiers today in the face of their tragic loss.\"\n\nA file photo of the British army holding a training exercise near Nanyuki, in Kenya\n\nFor many years the British army has had a unit based in Kenya, where soldiers receive training before being deployed elsewhere in the world.\n\nThe British Army has a small base in Nairobi and a bigger training support unit in Nanyuki which is 200km north of the Kenyan capital.\n\nAccording to the British Army website, there are around 100 permanent staff in Kenya reinforcing a short tour cohort of another 280 personnel.\n\nKenyan troops also receive training especially to help with the fight against Islamist militants in the region.\n\nUnder an agreement with the Kenyan government, up to six infantry battalions per year carry out eight-week exercises in Kenya.", "Nathan Turner and Paul Burton threatened neighbours and police during an armed siege\n\nThe dramatic developments of a 14-hour armed siege sparked by a cold kebab are recounted in a television programme.\n\n24 Hours in Police Custody features the tense stand-off at a tower block in Bedford in November 2022.\n\nPaul Burton, 45, and Nathan Turner, 37, were jailed after they threatened neighbours with a high-powered air rifle and Burton fired at a police car.\n\nSupt Steve Ashdown of Bedfordshire Police said: \"Thankfully we achieved a peaceful outcome.\"\n\n\"I've been a firearms commander for 10 years and this is the first siege of this type that I've dealt with,\" he said.\n\nHe recalled the weapon used by Burton was very powerful and praised firearms officers and negotiating teams who \"trained for scenarios like this on a regular basis\".\n\nBurton and Turner, who were drunk and high on drugs, initially kept a delivery driver prisoner in a lift for two hours after claiming their takeaway was late and cold.\n\nThey had ordered food at about 03:00 on 27 November last year but when the driver arrived on the eighth floor of the flats they placed a coffee table across the lift door to trap him inside.\n\nThe takeaway's owner later drove to the scene after receiving abusive calls from Turner and pleas for help from his distressed employee.\n\nOn his arrival, his car roof was damaged by an item thrown from above.\n\nPaul Burton (left) was jailed for seven years and Nathan Turner was sentenced to 20 months\n\nThe duo then began to threaten neighbours and police with the weapon.\n\nBurton vowed he would \"shoot the first officer that walks through the door\" before shooting at the windscreen of a manned police car.\n\nThe siege continued throughout the day with Turner throwing paint and plants from a balcony, damaging several vehicles below.\n\nHe eventually gave himself up at 12:34 and Burton finally relented at 17:49 - 14 hours after the stand-off began.\n\nPaint was thrown into the car park below the flat\n\nBurton was jailed for seven years after pleading guilty to attempting to cause grievous bodily harm and possessing a firearm without a certificate.\n\nTurner was sentenced to 20 months after admitting affray and criminal damage.\n\nSentencing them at Luton Crown Court in October, Judge David Farrell KC said: \"It was an appalling and terrifying incident.\n\n\"This was an extremely disturbing and frightening siege in which a firearm was present.\"\n\nSupt Ashdown said after a decade of working with the Channel 4 TV programme, \"you become familiar with the camera teams and it becomes second nature to walk past and ignore them\".\n\n\"It's very easy to look at the headlines and judge police and other emergency service on the outcomes but if you see the effort that goes into the investigations - and the actual siege in this case - you can see the added complexities that the public don't normally witness,\" he added.\n\nThe siege in Bedford features on the new series of 24 Hours in Police Custody\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The house was completely destroyed in the blast\n\nAn 84-year-old man has died after an explosion destroyed his neighbour's house in Edinburgh.\n\nA 43-year-old woman and a man, 54, were also taken to hospital following the blast in the Baberton area of the city.\n\nPolice Scotland said the alarm was raised on Baberton Mains Avenue at about 22:25 on Friday.\n\nA force spokesperson said: \"There are no suspicious circumstances and we are continuing to work alongside our partner agencies.\"\n\nThe 84-year-old man was named locally as James Smith.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) confirmed two properties were affected and said the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nGas distributor SGN said it was too early to speculate on the cause.\n\nOne neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: \"It was like a bomb going off.\"\n\nThe house was completely destroyed and the force of the blast shook dozens of properties nearby.\n\nRubble, including large chunks of masonry, was strewn across the street and several cars were also damaged.\n\nGas engineers and police officers at the scene\n\nNeighbour Arthur McAnna, 83, was in the back bedroom of his home when he heard the blast.\n\nThe retired firefighter, who lives across the road, said: \"Previously my wife had been sitting at the window and she had just gone up in front of me.\n\n\"So we both missed the explosion, luckily, when the windows got blown in.\"\n\nMr McAnna, who is now living with his daughter, said the roof of his home was also damaged as well as a door panel.\n\nArthur McAnna lives across the road from the house which exploded\n\nAsked to describe the explosion, he said: \"It was scary. So unexpected.\n\n\"There is structural damage to houses all around.\"\n\nMr McAnna knew the victim and added: \"It is sad.\"\n\nThe blast happened at about 22:25 on Friday\n\nAlison Broadhurst, 26, was getting ready for bed in her home a street away when there was a huge bang that shook her house.\n\n\"I thought something had hit the roof of my house, it was terrifying,\" she said.\n\n\"I went downstairs into the street and all the car alarms were going off.\"\n\nMs Broadhurst said she walked around the corner and saw that a house had been destroyed.\n\nShe added: \"I could smell gas and then I could hear the sirens of the emergency services getting closer and closer.\"\n\nThe SFRS said five appliances and specialist services were involved in the operation until 06:39 on Saturday.\n\nArea Commander David Dourley said: \"Our crews worked tirelessly in extremely challenging conditions to search for casualties, evacuate surrounding properties and make the area safe.\n\n\"Sadly, one male casualty passed away at the scene, and our thoughts are very much with his family, friends and all of those affected by this incident at this difficult time.\"\n\nHe added a joint investigation with Police Scotland was now under way.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSGN confirmed it was brought in to assist 999 crews.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"Our engineers worked with the emergency services to ensure the immediate vicinity in Baberton Mains Avenue was made safe in our role as the gas emergency service.\n\n\"Our deepest sympathies are with the family of the man who has tragically died as well as those who have been injured.\n\n\"While it is too early to speculate as to what has happened, we are working closely with the authorities to help discover the cause.\"\n\nLocals survey the damage from behind the police cordon\n\nWriting on X, formerly Twitter, the SNP's Joanna Cherry KC said: \"I am so sad to read of this terrible tragedy in #Baberton and just before Xmas.\"\n\nThe Edinburgh South West MP also shared her contact details and offered her assistance to the family affected.\n\nSue Webber, a Scottish Tory MSP for the Lothian region, wrote on social media: \"Such tragic news, in such a close community.\n\n\"Thank you to all the emergency services that attended.\n\n\"My thoughts and prayers are with those impacted by this incident.\"\n\nA neighbouring property was also extensively damaged in the blast\n\nAnd Cammy Day, leader of Edinburgh City Council, said: \"This is incredibly sad news for the city and all of our thoughts are with those affected.\n\n\"We're very grateful to the emergency services who responded so quickly and tirelessly last night, evacuating the scene and making the surrounding area safe.\n\n\"I know that council officers assisted into the early hours of this morning and continue to stand ready to support all agencies and the local community.\"", "Inbar Haiman, 27, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, and Carmel Gat, 39, were all kidnapped on 7 October\n\n\"She doesn't deserve to wait for the next deal, just because she's not somebody's mother or grandmother,\" writes Or Neko Maymon on Facebook in Hebrew.\n\nOr is talking about 27-year-old street artist and art student Inbar Haiman, who is his partner's sister.\n\nInbar was kidnapped by Hamas from the Supernova music festival in Israel on 7 October, and was seen days later in a hostage video circulated on social media, with blood on her face.\n\nShe is one of 16 women BBC Verify has identified as still being captive in Gaza, following a seven-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. This pause in fighting saw Hamas agree to release 110 hostages (including 78 women and children), in return for 240 Palestinian prisoners being freed from Israeli jails.\n\nIsrael's focus on securing the release of female hostages has raised and dashed hopes for the families of the women who are still left behind.\n\nSince her kidnap, Inbar's friends and family have been campaigning for her release, and using the hashtag #FreePink, a reference to her street artist name.\n\n\"I'm really not ready for you to take away my hope to see Inbar come back,\" Or wrote in another post three days ago.\n\nInbar Haiman is one of 16 women who are still being held captive in Gaza\n\nIn November, Inbar's boyfriend, 24-year-old Noam Alon, camped for 10 days in front of the central military headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling for the Israeli government to do more to secure Inbar's release.\n\nOf the 237 people taken hostage by Hamas and five other armed Palestinian groups during the 7 October attacks, BBC News has verified that 115 are left in Gaza. An Israeli government spokesman says 135 people remain captive. There is no official published list of hostages, so the BBC has had to confirm names itself.\n\nAmong the remaining hostages are at least 16 women and 95 men. This number includes French-Mexican Orión Hernández Radoux, the boyfriend of 22-year-old Shani Louk, who was killed after being kidnapped from the Supernova musical festival.\n\nSoon after the festival was attacked, a video began circulating widely on social media showing the body of a young woman being paraded through the streets. Shani's family was able to identify her in the footage from her dreadlocks and distinctive tattoos.\n\nOrión Hernández Radoux pictured with his girlfriend Shani Louk, who was killed in the 7 October attacks\n\nAt the end of October, Shani's mother Ricarda said she had been told by the Israeli military that a piece of skull bone belonging to her daughter had been found. Shani's body has not yet been recovered.\n\nIn November, her boyfriend Orión turned 31 in captivity.\n\n\"Today is Orión's birthday,\" wrote family friend Gabriel De la Fuente on Facebook in Spanish, \"already a month since his kidnapping, may God return you well.\"\n\nOrión is believed to have been snatched at the festival, and the Sun newspaper says it has seen threatening messages written in Arabic sent from his phone.\n\nHis friends and family join together in prayer each night at 7pm, in a WhatsApp group created to help them support each other.\n\n\"Only by uniting together in prayer will we provide the spiritual strength and support that your soul needs right now, wherever it may be,\" writes Gabriel.\n\nFamilies waiting for loved ones to come home have become a great source of support to each other, says Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat has been captive since 7 October.\n\nCarmel Gat was visiting her parents when she was taken\n\n\"We became like a real large family of families,\" he told the BBC News channel. \"It feels as though, when their relatives are getting released, so are mine.\"\n\nCarmel, a 39-year-old occupational therapist from Tel Aviv, had been visiting parents in Be'eri on 7 October.\n\nHer sister in law, Yarden Roman-Gat, was released by Hamas on Wednesday, and reunited with her husband and three-year-old daughter.\n\n\"I wasn't even sure that she was alive until I saw her,\" Gil says of Yarden.\n\nWhen the 36-year-old German-Israeli, her husband and daughter were captured, they managed to break out of the gunmen's car near the Gaza-Israel barrier, Gil explains.\n\nThe family then began to run away while being shot at. Realising she couldn't run fast enough, Yarden gave her daughter to her husband and surrendered so that the others could make their escape.\n\nYarden Roman-Gat initially escaped with husband Alon and daughter Gefen but went missing during the chase\n\n\"We were very, very happy to see her,\" says Gil.\n\nBut now the ceasefire is over, Gil grows more and more scared for his cousin Carmel, who has not yet come home.\n\n\"We were very, very worried by the fact that the truce is ended,\" Gil says. \"I'm personally very worried for her.\"\n\nMany people whose loved ones remain hostages in Gaza have been using social media to campaign for their release, share feelings and support each other in grief.\n\nThe mother of dual US-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin has been posting videos of herself talking about her son on his family's Bring Hersh Home Facebook page.\n\n\"I wanted to share with you what happened last night when I woke up at 2:13 in the morning,\" Rachel told the Facebook page's 17,000 followers on Wednesday. \"I started to think about how much pain Hersh must be in.\"\n\nHersh lost his dominant arm during a grenade explosion before being kidnapped\n\nAccording to eye witnesses Rachel spoke with, Hersh lost half of his arm in a grenade explosion before he was kidnapped from the Supernova festival.\n\nEyewitness accounts say the 23-year-old was seen being forced onto a white pick-up truck. The last-known signal from his phone came from just inside Gaza.\n\n\"It is really important that we get him home so that he can start the process of learning how to live his life in a very different way than he ever lived it before,\" says Rachel in one of her latest videos.\n\n\"It's just another reason why we are tenaciously and tirelessly fighting for him to come home.\"", "A federal appeals court has ruled that Donald Trump can be sued in civil court for his role in allegedly inciting the riot on Capitol Hill in January 2021.\n\nIt comes after two injured Capitol Police officers sued Mr Trump for telling the crowd to \"fight like hell\" shortly before the violence began.\n\nMr Trump had sought to claim immunity stemming from his role as president.\n\nBut the three-judge panel found that Mr Trump was not acting in an official role when he made the remarks.\n\nLawyers for Mr Trump had argued that he is protected from lawsuits related to anything he did as part of his official duties. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that presidents can only be held liable for anything falling beyond \"the outer perimeter\" of their responsibilities.\n\nBut the judges found that Mr Trump was acting as a candidate when he addressed the crowd, noting that he had produced no reason why the speech \"should be treated more like the State of the Union than [a] campaign ad\".\n\n\"When a first-term President opts to seek a second term, his campaign to win re-election is not an official presidential act,\" wrote Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan. \"The Office of the Presidency as an institution is agnostic about who will occupy it next. And campaigning to gain that office is not an official act of the office.\"\n\nThe judge added that a president \"does not spend every minute of every day exercising official responsibilities\".\n\nBut the decision only finds that Mr Trump was acting outside his official duties at the time, and does not go so far as to say he should be found liable in the lawsuits.\n\nMr Trump can still argue in future cases that he was acting as president, not as a candidate. He could also challenge the ruling at the conservative-leaning US Supreme Court.\n\nNonetheless, the unanimous decision could pave the way for further lawsuits against Mr Trump over his part in allegedly inciting the violence.\n\nA spokesman for Mr Trump told Politico that Friday's ruling is \"limited, narrow and procedural\".\n\nThe riot broke out as lawmakers were meeting inside Congress to certify President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election. In the hours beforehand, Mr Trump had addressed a rally in Washington DC where he urged supporters to march to the Capitol.\n\n\"You'll never take back our country with weakness,\" he said at the time. \"You have to show strength and you have to be strong.\"\n\nDuring the violence, at least 138 Capitol and Metropolitan Police officers were injured by rioters. Four police officers died from suicide in the months after the attack.\n\nCapitol Police officers James Blasingame and Sidney Hemby subsequently filed lawsuits against Mr Trump for his actions.\n\nThe officers are seeking compensatory damages and an undisclosed amount in punitive damages from the former president, citing emotional and physical injuries.\n\n\"Today's ruling makes clear that those who endanger our democracy and the lives of those sworn to defend it will be held to account,\" Patrick Malone, a lawyer for the officers, said in a statement.\n\nMr Trump is currently leading the pack of Republicans seeking the party's nomination for the 2024 election against Mr Biden.\n\nMeanwhile, his legal problems continue to mount.\n\nIn his federal election meddling case on Friday, Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed a motion to dismiss the case on the grounds of \"presidential immunity\", ruling that he cannot be shielded from prosecution.\n\nThe previous day, the judge overseeing Mr Trump's New York civil trial reinstated a gag order banning him from making disparaging comments about court staff.\n\nIn Georgia - where Mr Trump and others are facing racketeering charges for allegedly conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election - his attorney on Friday said that any trial should be postponed until 2029 if his client wins the White House next year.", "The Pope threw his weight behind calls for an end to fossil fuels in a message delivered here at COP28.\n\nIn a wide-ranging statement, Pope Francis called for an end to coal, oil and gas as well as lifestyle changes to save the planet.\n\nHe also asked for debt forgiveness for poorer countries hit by climate change.\n\nAs the pontiff was unable to attend the Dubai summit in person because of illness, his speech was read by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin.\n\nWith a long standing interest in climate issues, Pope Francis was set to make history by becoming the first Pope to address the Conference of the Parties, or COP as it is known.\n\nHowever the 86-year old leader of the Catholic Church was forced to cancel his trip as he is still recovering from flu and inflammation of his lungs.\n\nIn his place, Cardinal Pietro Parolin delivered a strong statement on the impacts that climate change was having on the world and what global leaders needed to do to tackle the issue.\n\nAt its heart was the message that climate change signals the need for major political change.\n\nCOP28 must be a turning point, the pontiff said.\n\nSultan Al-Jaber is tasked with presiding over COP28 talks\n\nThe ecological transition to save the world could be done by embracing renewable energy, \"the elimination of fossil fuels, and education in lifestyles that are less dependant\".\n\nThere has been growing political momentum at this gathering for a definitive statement on the future use of coal, oil and gas, the main sources of the warming gases that are harming our planet.\n\nThe president of COP28, Sultan Al-Jaber, has said the phase-out of these fuels is \"inevitable\", although the oil company he runs has embarked on a major expansion of production.\n\nThe Pope's statement criticised efforts to shift the blame for the ecological and climate crises to the poor and high birth rates.\n\nHe also singled out the biggest carbon emitting countries who \"were responsible for a deeply troubling ecological debt\".\n\nIt would only be fair, he said, that these countries wipe out the financial debts of poor nations because of their excessive use of fossil fuels.\n\n\"The Pope's message is very well timed as we move into discussions on a global stocktake at COP28,\" said Neil Thorns from Catholic international development charity, Cafod.\n\n\"These discussions must be a time for leaders to heed his call: not for a partial change, but a new way of making progress together, and for choosing a culture of life over a culture of death.\"", "Last updated on .From the section European Championship\n\nScotland will play Germany in the opening match of Euro 2024 after being drawn in the same group as the hosts.\n\nHungary and Switzerland complete Group A, while England are in Group C alongside Denmark, Slovenia and Serbia.\n\nWales would be in Group D with France, the Netherlands and Austria at next summer's tournament should they qualify via March's play-offs.\n\nGermany will face Steve Clarke's Scotland in the opener at the Allianz Arena in Munich on Friday, 14 June.\n\nEuro 2020 finalists England will begin their campaign on 16 June against Serbia.\n\nDefending champions Italy, who beat Gareth Southgate's side on penalties in the 2020 final, are up against three-time winners Spain, Croatia and Albania in Group B.\n\nThe final of Euro 2024 will take place on 14 July at Berlin's Olympiastadion.\n• None Follow reaction to the draw here.\n• None Euro 2024 - all you need to know\n\nFormer Scotland forward James McFadden said Scotland \"will be confident they can get out of\" a difficult Group A that features three-time winners Germany.\n\n\"It's a tough group, I'm not going to lie and say I'm delighted with the group,\" he told BBC Two.\n\n\"The opening game against Germany will be a great occasion and all the pressure will be on Germany to go and get a result, and that should suit Scotland because against the better sides they tend to do OK.\"\n\nScotland finished bottom of their group at Euro 2020, losing to Croatia and the Czech Republic, while they played out a goalless draw with England.\n\nMcFadden added: \"I think Scotland will give a good account of themselves and be a very good side because they have had the experience of playing in the Euros before this group and the disappointment of those games. They will want to put it right.\n\n\"The players will be supremely confident going into this group stage.\"\n\nEngland 'can't complain' about Group C\n\nSouthgate led England to the final of Euro 2020 at Wembley, which Italy won 3-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.\n\nFormer England striker Alan Shearer said Southgate will be \"extremely happy\" with the draw, with Serbia and Slovenia outside the world's top 30, while 1992 champions Denmark are ranked 19th.\n\n\"I don't think England can complain with that group,\" Shearer said.\n\n\"I think it's pretty favourable when you look at some of the teams that have been drawn out against each other.\"\n\nChris Sutton, who was capped for the Three Lions in 1997, added that it was a \"pretty soft\" group for England.\n\nDespite it not appearing the toughest group, Southgate says all the teams in Group C are \"more than capable\".\n\n\"You can look at it on paper, but the games aren't played on paper,\" Southgate said.\n\n'One of the toughest groups'\n\nIf Wales qualify for next summer's tournament, their first game will be against the Netherlands - winners in 1988 - in Hamburg on 16 June, before fixtures against Austria and France, who are ranked second in the world.\n\nRobert Page's side face Finland in the play-off semi-finals on 21 March, and should they win that they will play either Poland or Estonia in the play-off final on 26 March.\n\n\"It looks like one of the toughest groups there,\" Page said of Group D.\n\n\"We've got a lot of work to do to get there but the rewards are there. We're all in football because we want to play against the best teams, players and managers and they certainly fall into that category.\"\n\nEngland will be highly satisfied with their draw for the Euro 2024 group stage and while it looks like a tougher route for Scotland, they will feel they can make their way through into the knockout phase.\n\nAs for Wales, if they get to Germany via the play-offs they will face a very hazardous assignment to take their campaign any further than the group.\n\nEngland manager Gareth Southgate will ensure there is no complacency, but a group containing Serbia, Denmark - who they beat in the semi-finals of Euro 2020 at Wembley - and Slovenia will surely hold no terrors for a side now ranked third in the latest Fifa rankings.\n\nScotland get the glamour of the opening game and the chance to make an instant impact against hosts Germany.\n\nThey will start that game as underdogs, but manager Steve Clarke will know Germany are nowhere near the superpower of old and very much in transition under new coach Julian Nagelsmann.\n\nHungary and Switzerland are in with the Scots, who have been built into a solid and quietly confident unit under Clarke's astute guidance. This is a group to certainly give them a measure of optimism.\n\nIf Wales make it to Germany they will have a daunting task as they will go into a group with the Netherlands, World Cup runners-up France and Ralf Rangnick's Austria. Even if they successfully navigate the play-offs they will be rank outsiders.\n\nIf you are viewing this page on the BBC News app please click here to vote.", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nElla Toone scored a late winner for England as they came from two goals down to beat the Netherlands in a crucial Women's Nations League tie, keeping alive Team GB's hopes of qualifying for the Olympic Games.\n\nThe World Cup runners-up were 2-0 down after 35 minutes when Lineth Beerensteyn punished defensive errors and took advantage of a passive midfield to score twice for the Netherlands.\n\nBut England responded through Georgia Stanway and Lauren Hemp, who netted within two minutes of each other in the second half, before Toone fired in a dramatic late goal and received a roar of celebration from supporters at Wembley Stadium.\n\nOn a stage that has produced so many successful moments for the Lionesses, Sarina Wiegman's side did just enough to edge past a Netherlands team who had outwitted them before the break.\n\nOn a bitterly cold evening at Wembley, the Lionesses knew only victory would be enough to keep alive Team GB's hopes of competing in Paris.\n\nAs the nominated nation to qualify on behalf of Team GB, England need to win their Nations League group and reach the final - or finish third if Olympic hosts France make the final - in order to secure a place.\n\nBut having already suffered defeats by Belgium and the Netherlands in the competition, England's hopes were in major doubt and nothing short of victory against Andries Jonker's side would have been enough at Wembley.\n\nEuro 2022 stars Beth Mead, Alessia Russo and Toone all came off the bench to help inspire a comeback and it was the Manchester United midfielder, who scored the opening goal in that European success at Wembley, who delivered the goods again.\n\nEngland will qualify for the semi-finals if they beat Scotland on Tuesday and the Netherlands drop points in their final match with Belgium.\n\nHowever, even if the Netherlands beat Belgium at home, England could still go through if they defeat the Scots by a sufficiently large scoreline to take their goal difference above the Dutch.\n• None I really let the team down with error - Earps\n• None 'England get job done but mistakes could prove costly'\n\nLionesses do enough but job not done\n\nThere had been concern about England's form for several months with criticism even coming during their World Cup campaign, which ended in defeat by Spain in August's showpiece.\n\nWith just two wins in their previous five matches - having lost only once in their first 30 games under Wiegman - pressure was on England to perform.\n\nTheir first-half display was nowhere near good enough and they were duly punished by Beerensteyn's ruthlessness, with Wiegman also paying for some questionable team selections.\n\nLauren Hemp, making her 50th appearance for the Lionesses, was preferred in central attack over mainstay Russo, while Chelsea centre-back Jess Carter was the chosen replacement for injured club team-mate Millie Bright.\n\nBut England were all over the place for the majority of the opening 45 minutes as gaps broke in defence.\n\nThe Netherlands were able to carve through the midfield and England's forwards could not get into the game.\n\nGoalkeeper Mary Earps, wearing the armband in Bright's absence, was at fault for Beerensteyn's second goal as she allowed the ball to squeeze between her hands at the near post, after the Dutch striker had got the better of Carter and Lucy Bronze for her opener.\n\nHowever, a much-needed half-time break seemed to mark a reset for England and Stanway was unmarked in the box when she headed in Lauren James' curling cross, before Hemp's low strike beat goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar to make it 2-2.\n\nWiegman's wildcards - her substitutions - were all used, including a return for winger Mead for the first time in a year, and it eventually paid off with Toone's driven strike nestling into the far corner with minutes remaining.\n\nEngland's job is still not complete and they travel to Scotland knowing there is still much to do.", "After Mr Sunak's Greek row, eyebrows were raised by the pattern on the King's tie\n\nKing Charles's choice of neckwear at the COP28 conference has sparked speculation that it was a coded message to Rishi Sunak.\n\nThe King's tie had a pattern based on the Greek flag - after a week-long row between the UK PM and the Greek PM over the Parthenon Sculptures.\n\nThe dispute is over whether the sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, should return to Athens.\n\nBuckingham Palace suggested it was just a random choice of ties.\n\nDid the tie look like the Greek flag?\n\nRoyal sources noted that the tie, worn on Friday at the COP28 summit in Dubai, had also been worn by the King when he met the South Korean delegation on their state visit last week.\n\nThey insisted the tie worn by the King when he met Mr Sunak did not have any connection with Greece or the diplomatic row about the sculptures.\n\nMr Sunak cancelled a meeting with Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the last minute on Monday because Mr Mitsotakis said he wanted to talk about the return of the sculptures - something the UK prime minister is firmly against.\n\nIt sparked an angry backlash in Greece and claims by the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer that Mr Sunak had tried to \"humiliate\" an important European ally.\n\nFormer Chancellor George Osborne, who chairs the British Museum where the Marbles are currently housed, described Mr Sunak's actions as a \"hissy fit\".\n\nHe said the Museum was exploring a deal \"whereby they spend part of their time in Athens and part of their time in London\".\n\nKing Charles and Rishi Sunak met at the COP summit in Dubai\n\nMr Sunak has, however, ruled out a loan arrangement, saying: \"Our position is very clear - as a matter of law the Marbles can't be returned and we've been unequivocal about that.\"\n\nThe King has family connections with Greece - his father, the late Prince Philip, was born in Greece and was a member of the Greek royal family.\n\nThere were questions about whether the late Queen's hat had similarities to the EU flag\n\nThe King had given the keynote speech to the climate change summit. Although now, as head of state, he has to speak on the advice of ministers and there has been speculation about the King's private thoughts about delivering a government-approved message.\n\nIt's been said that nothing in the royal world is ever accidental - and with royals unable to speak out directly on political matters, there have been previous debates about hidden messages.\n\nThe late Queen was seen as saying it with flowers with blooms in Ukrainian colours\n\nIn 2017, with fierce debates running about Brexit, there were claims that the late Queen Elizabeth had opened Parliament wearing a hat that resembled the European Union flag.\n\nAfter the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the late Queen was pictured meeting Canadian premier Justin Trudeau, standing in front of a vase full of blue and yellow-coloured flowers, the Ukrainian national colours.\n\nAlthough saying nothing in public, the flowers were seen as an eloquent if unspoken message.\n\nBut in the case of the blue and white motif worn by the King in Dubai, sources were adamant that there were no political ties.", "A medieval tower in the Italian city of Bologna that leans by as much as its famous counterpart in Pisa has been sealed off over fears it may collapse.\n\nAuthorities have begun constructing a 5m (16ft) high barrier around the 12th Century Garisenda Tower to contain debris in the event that it falls.\n\nThe 47m (154ft) tower tilts at a four-degree angle, and monitoring has found shifts in the direction of the tilt.\n\nThe city council said the situation was \"highly critical\".\n\nThe Garisenda Tower is one of two towers that dominate the skyline of Bologna. The other, the Asinelli Tower, is around twice the height and also leans, though not so dramatically, and is usually open for tourists to climb.\n\nThe structures were built between 1109 and 1119, though the height of the Garisenda was reduced in the 14th Century because it had already begun to lean. The tower is mentioned in Dante's poem The Divine Comedy, which was completed in 1321.\n\nThe site was first closed in October after sensors picked up the changes in the Garisenda's tilt and inspections revealed deterioration in the materials that make up its base.\n\nThe council has launched what it calls a civil protection plan to preserve the tower and said the work now being started \"represents the first phase of making it safe\".\n\nIt said that as well as containing debris, the barrier would protect surrounding buildings and people in the event of a collapse. It said metal rockfall nets would also be installed around the tower.\n\nConstruction of the barrier will be completed early next year, while the tower and the plaza beneath it are expected to remain closed for a number of years while restoration work is carried out.\n\nThe city estimates that the barrier alone will cost €4.3m (£3.7m) and has launched a crowd funder to pay for the restoration.\n\nIt called the project an \"extraordinary challenge\" that would require \"commitment from the entire city and from those all over the world who love Bologna and one of its most important symbols\".", "Flights at one of the UK's busiest airports have resumed after dozens of planes were grounded due to heavy snowfall.\n\nDespite teams \"working through the night\" Glasgow Airport confirmed flights had been cancelled on Saturday morning due to heavy snow.\n\nRail services were also affected by the winter weather and 11 Scottish football matches were called off.\n\nThe Met Office later issued a new yellow weather warning for ice.\n\nIt covers parts of Dumfries and Galloway, as well as Lothian and the Borders, and will be in place from midnight until 11:00 GMT on Sunday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEarlier, two Glasgow-bound flights were diverted to Prestwick and Edinburgh.\n\nPassengers were urged to check with their airline before they travelled.\n\nGlasgow Airport said flights resumed just after 10:00 GMT, but disruption is still expected.\n\nAway from the disruption, people have been enjoying the snow in Victoria Park in Glasgow\n\nSnow in Glasgow, as scattered weather warnings for snow and ice are in place\n\nMeanwhile, at Aberdeen airport a flight was cancelled after a vehicle crashed into a stationary aircraft.\n\nBritish Airways described it as a \"minor issue\" and said they are \"working hard to get customers where they need to be\".\n\nIt comes after much of the UK experienced a freezing cold start to Saturday.\n\nThe weather agency had warned freezing rain, a rare type of precipitation which freezes on impact, could make driving dangerous.\n\nThe weather also caused issues on the railways.\n\nThe weather caused travel disruption across the country, including at Glasgow Central where a number of services were cancelled\n\nThere was a number of cancellations on ScotRail routes from Glasgow Central due to signalling issues following the wintry conditions.\n\nThe rail operator said staff were \"working as quickly as possible to rectify the issues\".\n\nEleven football matches in the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) were postponed due to snow and freezing temperatures.\n\nSouthern Scotland has also been hit by wintry conditions. This photo was taken in Dumfries and Galloway\n\nSnow fell across the West of Scotland overnight\n\nSeparately, the UK Health Security Agency has issued an amber cold-health alert for the health sector for a number of regions in England, meaning \"significant impacts are probable\".\n\nCold weather is likely to affect the whole health service, with the potential for the entire population to be at risk, the agency's alert says.\n\nThe alert is in place for the East Midlands, West Midlands, North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber until 5 December.\n\nTemperatures of between -3C (27F) to -6C (21F) were widely seen across the UK on Friday, even in major towns and cities. It was -5C (23F) in Manchester and Edinburgh and -3C (27F) in south-west London and Birmingham.\n\nSnow swept across south-west England, parts of Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland, while hilly areas - including the North York Moors and parts of Scotland - will see more snow later, forecasters said.\n\nHow has the weather affected your travel plans? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Actress Brigit Forsyth, best known for appearing in TV sitcoms Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads and Still Open All Hours, has died aged 83.\n\nLater that decade, she played Thelma in comedy Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and a Likely Lads film.\n\nHer other credits included TV dramas Playing the Field and Boon.\n\nForsyth's character Thelma was married to Bob, played by Rodney Bewes, in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?\n\nThe actress died peacefully in her sleep on Friday, surrounded by family, her agent Mark Pemberton said.\n\nIn a statement, Pemberton noted that she \"had a varied and notable career in stage, screen and radio\", including roles in theatres \"from the West End to the National Theatres of England & Scotland\".\n\nOn screen, she appeared in 1980s sitcoms Tom, Dick and Harriet, and Sharon and Elsie, and played a doctor in short-lived ITV soap opera The Practice.\n\nAnd in later life, she played Madge in Still Open All Hours, appearing in the BBC comedy from 2013 to 2019.\n\nForsyth pictured as Madge in the corner shop in Still Open All Hours\n\nPemberton added: \"She was in many radio plays on the BBC over the years and also featured in the Radio 4 sitcom Ed Reardon's Week. A talented musician, Brigit played the cello, sang and composed, and in later years played with several bands including The Fircones.\"\n\nShe \"loved collaboration and helping to develop new works with actors, writers and directors\", and set up theatre company Word Mills Productions in 2016, he said.\n\nForsyth also had guest TV appearances in The Bill, Doctor Who, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Coronation Street, and was the subject of the biographical show This Is Your Life in 2002.", "If you're feeling charitable, you might say things are not going well for the government.\n\nBut if you're feeling grumpy - perhaps because every morning you're leaving the warmth of your duvet to shiver in the freezing morning cold - then you might suggest No 10 is bouncing from bungle to bungle.\n\nThe bizarre diplomatic row with the Greeks over relatively niche artefacts (which has even piqued the King's interest). The home secretary's hot-mic swearing. Judges kicking out the centrepiece of Sunak's plan to \"stop the boats\" (more on that later). And as if that wasn't enough, Boris Johnson is getting his arguments in early before his appearance at the Covid inquiry - Rishi Sunak will soon take the stand too.\n\nAs the temperature plummets, there is a different risk that might trump all of them: what will happen to the NHS this winter?\n\nLast year, pictures of ambulances queuing for hours outside hospitals became familiar - agonising stories of delays and long, dangerous waits dominated the news.\n\nThe Health Secretary, Victoria Atkins, is with us in the studio tomorrow and how she fares in the coming months is absolutely vital for her party's prospects. One of her MP colleagues told me: \"I'm not sure she realised it when she took the job, but for a lot of us, whether we win is dependent on her.\"\n\nTake a look at the broad state of the service and it's not pretty. Nearly 7.8 million people are on the NHS waiting list - a record high. This is partly explained by the pandemic, as government ministers always remind you with some justification.\n\nBut check the figures more thoroughly and you can see that many of the numbers - from cancer treatment times to waits for diagnostic tests - were trending the wrong way before Covid-19 hit.\n\nNow, thousands of patients are in hospital not because they are too sick to leave, but because they don't have the help they need to get home. In October 2023, there were between 12,000 and 13,000 patients stuck like this, with the obvious knock-on effects for others needing care. That is roughly the same level as it was at last year, despite promises of action.\n\nThere are more than a 100,000 staff vacancies, shortages of NHS dentists and difficulties in getting mental health care. A series of bitter industrial disputes hasn't helped.\n\nVictoria Atkins was appointed Health Secretary in last month's Cabinet reshuffle\n\nIt is not, of course, all bad. Every day millions of people receive brilliant life-saving care. The government trumpeted meeting its manifesto promise to hire 50,000 extra nurses this week, and there are amazing advances in some forms of treatment.\n\nBut there is acute concern about what is going on in wards, clinics and practices all around the country.\n\nA nurse told me after finishing another long shift this week: \"The government are making out they're doing a great job, patting themselves on the back, but nothing could be further than the truth. Patients and their families fill up bays and corridors and every shift is short staffed.\"\n\nOne of our viewers told us they had to wait nine hours to be seen in their local A&E in the North West last week, followed by an even longer wait for a bed on a ward.\n\nThose fears go beyond anecdote and are widely felt, with the NHS often second only to the cost of living among voters' key concerns. One pollster tells me that in every focus group \"there is an NHS horror story\", alongside frustrations about not being able to see a GP or emergency wards being like \"war zones\".\n\nThe Prime Minister is well aware how important the service is to voters. Labour is well aware how vulnerable the Conservatives might be. In previous elections the party has had to struggle to get it onto the agenda, with their familiar cry of Labour having to \"save the NHS\". They won't struggle this time.\n\nFor whoever has the job after the election, a fundamental, long-term puzzle remains. The NHS has more money and more doctors than ever before. But according to the number crunchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank, it's treating about the same number of patients. In other words, the taxpayer seems to be getting less bang for its many billions of bucks.\n\nNHS England says it's more complicated than that. The figures focus on acute hospital care and only look at the numbers of people treated, it says, not the quality of care. But it does admit there are productivity challenges.\n\nThe \"productivity problem\", as the IFS calls it, is a big deal. The less productive the NHS is, the more the government - and therefore taxpayers - have to spend for the same level of healthcare.\n\nOur population is older and sicker, the health service more and more expensive, taking precedence over other parts of public spending. And just to remind you - as I seem to do every week - none of the big parties have yet come up with a fully worked-out plan for caring for the most elderly and vulnerable. Without that plan, the problems in the health service are much harder to solve.\n\nMost politicians would privately say it's hard to have candid conversations about radical long-term solutions because the public has such affection for the NHS, even when their own experiences might fall far short. But in the next couple of months, with winter coming, and pressure building, longer term discussions are likely to have to wait.\n\nIs Rwanda problem about to return?\n\nP.S. As we talked about last week, the government has a nightmare job on handling migration. Do not underestimate how fractious this is becoming as an issue on the Conservative backbenches. Cabinet ministers deny there is a vicious stand-off over how far the government should be willing to go in new promised laws, in light of a court decision to kick out their plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nOne source says there is a perfectly good reason for the delay to what was dramatically described as \"emergency legislation\" - it can't be sorted out until the revised treaty with Rwanda is concluded.\n\nIf that's true, no one seems to have told the backbenchers - and in the vacuum there is furious chatter. Several sources have even suggested to me in the last couple of days there could be real fireworks, potential ministerial resignations, and Rishi Sunak's leadership even questioned. One senior Conservative joked that there is someone who knows how to do the job back in Cabinet and could be a caretaker (yes, they mean the new Lord Cameron).\n\nI stress, all this seems pretty far-fetched, but the fact that even those speculative conversations are happening is a symbol of the deep unease.\n\nWhat questions would you like to ask Laura's guests on Sunday?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Mark Lovell was shot a number of times at close range in his car in Newry on 1 December\n\nPolice investigating the \"ruthless\" murder of Newry man Mark Lovell have revealed his killers tailed him home from a visit to his sick mother.\n\nFootage of the gunmen's car has been released in a new appeal for information on the first anniversary of the 58-year-old's killing.\n\nMr Lovell's widow, Eileen Hughes, said in a statement that his devotion to his mother \"was cruelly used against him\".\n\nShe urged anyone with information to come forward to the police.\n\nSix people were arrested following the attack, but so far no-one has been charged.\n\nPolice have not disclosed what they believe the motive was, but one possibility is that the murder is linked to a cross-border feud involving drugs.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mark Lovell: Police release CCTV footage in connection with the murder\n\nMr Lovell, a father-of-three, was known to the the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) prior to his killing.\n\nThe car used in the attack, a black Mercedes, had been stolen in Dublin in July 2022 and after the attack was found burned out in Dundalk.\n\nDet Ch Insp Anthony Kelly said CCTV footage showed the killers following Mr Lovell in south Armagh on the day of the shooting.\n\nHe said: \"I now know they followed Mark earlier that afternoon to Meigh where he was spending time with his sick mother.\n\nDet Ch Insp Kelly says this was a \"planned, ruthless and targeted attack which shocked an entire community and which has left a loving family bereft\"\n\nAfter leaving Meigh, Mr Lovell headed to Ardcarn Park in Newry, where gunmen, lying in wait, shot him multiple times outside his home.\n\nDet Ch Insp Kelly added: \"This was a planned, ruthless and targeted attack which shocked an entire community and which has left a loving family bereft.\n\n\"This violence has no place in our society. One life was taken and any passer-by could easily have been injured or killed by the reckless volley of bullets.\"\n\nMs Hughes added: \"Each day Mark made his way to look after his mother in Meigh. Ultimately, this devotion of care was cruelly used against him by his murderers.\n\n\"Mark was an only child and was his elderly mother's carer. Since his murder she has been in hospital, broken-hearted. She remains there still today.\"\n\nThe car used in the attack, a black Mercedes, had been stolen in Dublin in July last year\n\nPolice hope by releasing the CCTV footage, people may come forward with information to help the investigation, which also involves An Garda Síochána in the Republic of Ireland.\n\nDet Ch Insp Kelly said: \"I am appealing to anyone with information, or who may have captured dashcam footage, to come forward.\n\n\"I understand that people may be afraid to speak up, but please be assured that information can be given to Crimestoppers with total anonymity.\"\n• None Man shot dead in attack in Newry was Mark Lovell", "Two people have been rescued after a house was destroyed by a large explosion in Edinburgh.\n\nEmergency services were called to a property in the Baberton area of the city at about 22:30.\n\nImages from the scene show a building has been completely destroyed. Police are asking people to avoid the area.\n\nOne eyewitness said the area outside the house at Baberton Mains Avenue was strewn with rubble and there was a smell of gas.\n\nThe fire service said two people had been rescued from the building.\n\nAlison Broadhurst, 26, told BBC Scotland News she was getting ready for bed in her home a street away when there was a huge bang that shook her house.\n\nEmergency services were called to the area at about 22:30\n\n\"I thought something had hit the roof of my house, it was terrifying,\" she said.\n\n\"I went downstairs into the street and all the car alarms were going off.\"\n\nShe said she walked around the corner and saw that a house had been destroyed.\n\n\"I think it was a semi-detached house. I could smell gas and then I could hear the sirens of the emergency services getting closer and closer,\" she said.\n\nOne image showed a car covered in debris from the explosion\n\n\"They have now cordoned off the road and said they couldn't confirm if it had been a gas explosion.\n\n\"I could see rubble everywhere and loft debris. And I heard people saying they thought cars had been damaged in the street behind the house.\"\n\nA Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman told BBC Scotland that it was believed two properties were affected.\n\nOperation control mobilised five fire appliances and specialist resources to the area.\n\n\"Two casualties were rescued prior to our attendance. Crews remain at the scene,\" she added.\n\nA spokesperson for Police Scotland said it had been called to reports of an explosion at a property in Baberton Mains Avenue at about 22:25.\n\n\"Emergency services are at the scene, and we would advise people to avoid the area at this time.\"", "It is not hard these days to find Parisians quite happy to curse next year's Games\n\nAre Parisians falling out of love with their own Olympic Games?\n\nThat conclusion might seem inescapable after a series of bad news stories over the last couple of weeks.\n\nFirst the city's own Mayor Anne Hidalgo said out of the blue that transport for next summer's Games would \"not be ready in time\".\n\nThen it was announced that far from buses and metros being free for competition ticket-holders - as promised in the Paris bid for the Games - fares will actually double for the six weeks of the Olympics and Paralympics.\n\nThe police chief revealed that his security plan comprises no less than four separate exclusion zones around each Olympic venue - prompting the head of the hoteliers' union to say it was \"so complicated I get a headache just looking at it\".\n\nAnd an Odoxa opinion poll showed that nearly one in two Françiliens - inhabitants of the Paris region - now thought the Games were a \"bad thing\". The 44% negative rating was double what it was in 2021.\n\nThe same poll found that 52% of Françiliens were considering leaving Paris for the duration of the Games. \"Perceptions about the Games are reaching alert level,\" Odoxa reported.\n\nAnd that's not even counting the row with 230 quayside booksellers or bouquinistes - self-proclaimed guardians of historic Paris - who are resisting attempts to dismantle their boxes for the 26 July opening ceremony.\n\n230 quayside booksellers fear being evicted to make space for the opening ceremony\n\nCertainly it is not hard these days to find Parisians quite happy to curse the Games and all that comes with them.\n\n\"On the morning of June 9 I'm voting in the European elections then I'm out of here till September,\" says Evelyne, 65, encountered by the Place de la Concorde (scene of several events including break-dancing, or as the French felicitously put it, le breaking).\n\n\"Paris will be unbearable,\" she adds. \"Impossible to park; impossible to move around; impossible to do anything. Madame Hidalgo has wrecked Paris, and I want no part of the Games.\"\n\n\"How long is it before the police chief simply asks us Parisians to leave the city?\" another inhabitant asked on social media.\n\nOf course in any normal year Paris in July and August is already forsaken by a large part of its population, who prefer their second homes in the country or on the coast - that's why the city seems so pleasantly empty to visitors.\n\nBut summer 2024 promises more of a clear-out than ever, not least because of the tempting deals being offered on Airbnb and other platforms. Rentals during the Games are up to four times normal rates, and it is hard to find a Parisian who is not at least considering the windfall.\n\nThere was always a solid corpus of French people who opposed the Games on the left-wing grounds that they are a colossal waste of money and serve mainly the interests of the multinationals.\n\nTo them are now added all those who believe they will also be a monumental inconvenience.\n\nSo should the organisers be worried? Probably not. Most of the concerns are either exaggerated or easily resolved. And what Games ever took place without mega-jitters in the months ahead?\n\nTake transport. Mayor Hidalgo certainly set Olympic hearts racing with her dire warnings about lack of preparation.\n\nBut context is all. The mayor is in political difficulty. She is also the sworn enemy of both the sports minister and the (conservative) head of the Ile-de-France region, who has responsibility for suburban rail.\n\nAs one unnamed Olympic source told Le Parisien newspaper this week: \"Anne Hidalgo has always wanted these to be her Games. But it's not her role, nor does she have the budget. So she spends her time sending off these barbs.\"\n\nSo yes, there are worries about whether the extensions to RER E and Metro line 14 (both parts of the 20-year Greater Paris project) will be ready on time. But even if they are not, it will not be the end of the world.\n\nThere are worries about whether extensions to Metro line 14 will be ready in time for the Games next summer\n\n\"This will be - as promised - the first time in the history of the Games that people will be able to go to all the events on public transport,\" insists the Ile-de-France transport authority.\n\nThe transport ticket price controversy is also unlikely to turn Parisians off the Games - not least because the millions of Parisians who have monthly or yearly passes will be unaffected. The cost of all those extra Olympic buses and trains will be borne mainly by visitors - and who cares about them?\n\nThe multiple police perimeters and all the bureaucratic procedures for exemptions are admittedly complicated (and so French!) and people will have to get their heads around them. But they got their heads around the gilets jaunes (yellow-vest) protests and the Covid restrictions, so it's hard to believe they won't manage this time.\n\nAnd as for the bouquinistes, their argument that the real aim of the authorities is to get rid of them is simply not believable. The bookish antiquarians may be held in public affection, but they are not going to stop the Olympics' first ever fluvial overture.\n\nNo, it is hard not to agree with the veteran French athlete and IOC member Guy Drut when he says: \"Believe me, the nearer we get to the actual Games, the more of these rows there are going to be.\"\n\nSo expect more moaning from Parisians in the months ahead. And then, a cracking Games.", "The Russian military is planning to step up efforts at recruitment\n\nSome 170,000 will be added to the number of serving personnel in stages, bringing the total to 1,320,000.\n\nThe defence ministry said the move was a response to an increase in threats, including from the expansion of Nato.\n\nRussia is thought to have sustained heavy casualties in more than a year-and-a-half of fighting in Ukraine, even though it does not release figures.\n\nThe Russian defence ministry statement posted on the Kremlin's website said the numbers would be increased gradually through a recruitment drive, and not by mobilisation or changes to conscription.\n\n\"The increase in the number of servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is being implemented in stages, based on citizens who express a desire to undergo military service under a contract,\" it added.\n\nIt explained the increase by the \"growth of the joint armed forces of [Nato] near Russia's borders\" and threats associated with the \"special military operation\", which is how Russia describes its war in Ukraine.\n\nNato has recently expanded to include Finland, which has a long border with Russia. Sweden has also applied to join.\n\nThe alliance says Ukraine can join \"when conditions are met\", though it has given no timeframe. Ukraine cannot join Nato while it is still at war with Russia.\n\nEarlier on Thursday Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for reinforcements and stronger defences along the front line with Russia, as temperatures in the region fall below freezing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Earthquake shakes food from shop shelves in the Philippines\n\nA pregnant woman has died, four people injured, and nine are missing after a powerful earthquake hit the Philippines' second-largest island of Mindanao.\n\nDefence secretary Gilbert Teodoro said 529 families have been affected.\n\nThe US Geological Survey measured the first tremor late on Saturday at 7.6 magnitude, followed by four major aftershocks exceeding 6.0.\n\nThe quakes had triggered tsunami warnings that were later lifted.\n\nThe Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology measured the quake at 7.4, and recorded at least 600 aftershocks with magnitudes raging from 1.4 to 6.2.\n\nPeople were seen rushing out of buildings and staying in open areas after the first tremor\n\nEarlier, residents of coastal areas of Surigao Del Sur and Davao Oriental had been told to evacuate to higher ground after the first earthquake at about 22:37 local time (14:37 GMT) off Mindanao's eastern coast.\n\nPeople in several towns not far from the quake's epicentre were seen rushing out of buildings and staying in open areas. In Butuan City, patients were evacuated from a hospital.\n\nIn the Hinatuan municipality - about 21km from the epicentre - crowds gathered at evacuation centres. Disaster officials there are inspecting villages for damage and casualties.\n\nOne disaster official for Bilsig City told AFP that there have been no reports of major damage to buildings or infrastructure so far, but some roads in the city in the Surigao Del Sur province were cracked during the quake and the aftershocks.\n\nIn Japan, north-east of the Philippines, tsunami waves of up to 0.4m (1.3ft) were later observed on some outlying islands.\n\nThe two island nations are part of the Pacific \"Ring of Fire\" - a zone of major seismic activity which has one of the world's most active fault lines.\n\nThe Mindanao quakes come nearly two weeks after a 6.7 magnitude quake hit the island, killing at least nine people, shaking buildings and causing part of a shopping mall ceiling to collapse.", "A senior family court judge was treated in hospital after being assaulted by a man whose case he was hearing.\n\nThe attacker was representing himself in court in Milton Keynes and did not have a lawyer.\n\nDetails of the attack on Wednesday morning have not been released and it is not known what kind of case the judge was hearing.\n\nThe man has since pleaded guilty to three offences and will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court at a later date.\n\nThose offences are one count of assault of a person, thereby causing actual bodily harm, one count of criminal damage and one count of causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress.\n\nThe judge was taken to hospital for treatment and is now recovering at home. He is being supported by senior colleagues and has been offered counselling.\n\nThe Family Law Bar Association, or FLBA, which represents barristers in family proceedings, said members were \"shocked\" by the attack.\n\nIt said the assault highlighted the risks faced by judges and barristers.\n\nHannah Markham, chair of the Family Law Bar Association, said attacks were still very unusual.\n\nShe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it can be \"very difficult to manage\" people once inside a courtroom.\n\n\"Over the last 40 years we don't think there has been another example of this,\" she said. \"It does not mean it is any less shocking.\n\n\"These moments happen in a second and you don't always know that they are going to come because you are dealing with really difficult aspects of people's most intimate lives.\"\n\nFamily courts hear both public law cases, where children may be removed from their families, and private law cases, where parents are separating.\n\nThey decide cases involving families' most private lives, ruling on where children should live and what degree of contact parents should have.\n\nThey have the power to remove children from their birth parents, so they live with other relatives or with foster carers, and can order them to be placed for adoption.\n\nThere are frequently allegations of violence, marital rape, sexual and domestic abuse.\n\nCuts to legal aid mean that more people are representing themselves in private law cases.\n\nGovernment data shows that in 2011, nearly 61,000 people had lawyers, out of the almost 100,000 people involved in new private law cases. By 2022, that number had shrunk to just under 33,000 out of nearly 100,000 people.\n\nThe FLBA said \"robust and proper security\" was vital for all court users, the families, the judges and the advocates.\n\nThe association said it was rare to have security in court, or in the corridors outside.\n\nBBC correspondents became familiar with the security in local family courts during reporting under the Transparency Pilot this year.\n\nThere is a thorough search process at the main front door, but no guards are visible in the corridors or outside the courtrooms themselves.\n\nThe FLBA suggested that where there were serious allegations, or where family members or lawyers considered a case \"high risk\" then the court service could provide either security inside or close to the courtroom.\n\nA spokesperson for HM Courts and Tribunals Service said that the attack was \"shocking\" and that \"ministers had been in contact with the judge throughout\".\n\nThey said that such incidents were \"incredibly rare\" but they took the safety of judges and staff \"very seriously\" and were \"urgently reviewing the circumstances\".", "Muriel McKay, 55, was murdered by Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein but her body was never found\n\nThe daughter of a woman mistaken for Rupert Murdoch's then-wife and murdered is urging the Metropolitan Police to allow one of her killers back to the UK to reveal where she was buried.\n\nMuriel McKay, 55, is thought to have died at a Hertfordshire farm in 1969 but her body was never found.\n\nHer daughter Dianne McKay, 83, wants Nizamodeen Hosein allowed back from Trinidad to help locate the body.\n\nThe Met said it would keep \"an open mind to all available options\".\n\nMs McKay was 29 when her mother, wife of Mr Murdoch's deputy Alick McKay, was kidnapped from home in Wimbledon, south London, in 1969, and held to ransom for £1m.\n\nDianne McKay says she is determined to find her mother's body\n\n\"It was horrific and life-changing,\" Ms McKay told the BBC.\n\n\"I was involved every step along the way. It consumed one with horror: the fear, the terror.\"\n\nBrothers Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein were convicted of kidnapping and murdering Ms McKay, believed to have been held at Rooks Farm, now Stocking Farm, in Stocking Pelham.\n\nArthur died in prison but Mr Nizamodeen was later deported to Trinidad.\n\nNow 75, he has offered to show the exact spot where the body was hidden, but the McKay family said the process was being held up by the UK authorities.\n\nThe family employed a lawyer in Trinidad and offered Mr Hosein £25,000 to help them locate the body. He initially accepted but later refused the money.\n\nMrs McKay's family want Nizamodeen Hosein to visit the farm in Hertfordshire to show exactly where she was buried\n\nMs McKay said she and her son Mark were determined to find the body.\n\nShe said she had formed \"a sort of strange relationship\" with her mother's killer, quelling worries that had troubled her for decades.\n\n\"For years I'd gone over the question of 'How did my mother let the men - who looked pretty rough - into the house?' He told me quite simply - she was outside,\" she said\n\n\"She saw them coming. She ran inside and picked up the phone, but didn't put the chain on. So that's how they got in.\"\n\nDespite his murder conviction, Ms McKay says Mr Hosein has told her that her mother was not killed intentionally, but died after suffering a heart attack while being held hostage.\n\nMs McKay believes his account and says the brothers \"panicked\" and hid her mother's body under a dung heap on the farm.\n\nMs McKay said while it had been \"cathartic\" to talk about the case, she was desperate for the closure the discovery of her mother's remains would bring.\n\n\"It would be the end of the line after all these years of worrying where she was,\" she said.\n\nShe said the Home Office had delegated matters to the Met, who did not seem interested.\n\n\"I understand they've got a lot more urgent things to do, but we feel it's our right,\" she said.\n\n\"They should get a search warrant for the farm, and allow Nizam to come for 24 to 36 hours. He doesn't want to stay in England; he's just coming to help us.\"\n\nShe said previous attempts to pinpoint the location with computer graphics had not worked.\n\n\"Reality would really help him - actually being there. It would help him remember exactly the place,\" she said.\n\n\"We'd like to get to the end of our hunt as it's cost us a lot of energy and emotion, and we would just like to complete our project for our mother's memory.\"\n\nThe Met said: \"An extensive search for Muriel's remains was conducted in March 2022 at a site in Hertfordshire; unfortunately it concluded unsuccessfully.\n\n\"We have been engaging with some members of Muriel's family to keep them updated on an ongoing review. We will consider and assess any new information.\"\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Boris Johnson has faced weeks of heavy criticism at the inquiry by some of those he worked with most closely\n\nBoris Johnson is expected to apologise to the Covid Inquiry next week and acknowledge the government did not get everything right during the pandemic.\n\nBut the former PM will argue robustly that his government got many of the big calls right, people close to him say.\n\nMr Johnson will talk with pride about the vaccines programme and argue the UK emerged the final lockdown earlier than other comparable economies.\n\nHis evidence will follow weeks of heavy criticism of him at the inquiry.\n\nThose around Mr Johnson are letting it be known the broad tenor and scope of the arguments he is expected to make, before what could be up to ten hours of questioning from lawyers.\n\nMr Johnson's capabilities as a prime minister in a pandemic have been criticised by some of those who worked most closely with him when Covid struck.\n\nMore on Covid and the Covid inquiry\n\nHis former director of communications, Lee Cain, said the pandemic was the \"wrong crisis\" for Mr Johnson's \"skill set\", describing dither and delay.\n\nThe former chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said Mr Johnson was \"bamboozled\" by scientific data.\n\nAnd his former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, has long described the former prime minister as \"the trolley\" due to his tendency to veer around and constantly change his mind.\n\nSo Mr Johnson has some reputation management to do.\n\nThose who have helped prepare him for his appearance before the inquiry - which will happen next Wednesday and Thursday - say he will take on those who have accused him of constantly changing his mind by emphasising the volume of briefings he was receiving, how quickly advice would change and the magnitude of the decisions he had to make.\n\nHe will also defend his use of colourful language and phrases, and the adoption of provocative positions in private - saying it helped him get the best out of his advisers and it is not wise for a prime minister to sit in silence when being briefed by experts.\n\nOne source said: \"Ministers can argue for their briefs, as they should. So a health secretary will argue for public health. A chancellor will argue for the economy.\n\n\"But there is only one person in the British system of government that has to arbitrate between the competing arguments and ultimately come to a decision, having made a call on the trade-offs.\"\n\nThe source added: \"There is only one guy in this country who can tell you what it is like to be prime minister in a pandemic. And one day there will be another one.\"\n\nMr Johnson's written statement, around 200 pages long, has already been submitted to the inquiry.\n\nIt is thought the statement barely mentions Mr Cummings.\n\nThe former health secretary, Matt Hancock, has revealed in his written statement to the inquiry that \"the then prime minister has apologised to me for appointing his chief adviser and for the damage he did to the response to Covid-19\".\n\nMr Hancock regarded Mr Cummings as a \"malign actor\" who created a toxic culture in Downing Street.\n\nMr Johnson is expected to say he does not agree with that and that there were always likely to be elements of tension within government, particularly at a time of heightened stress.\n\nHe is, though, expected to say that he doesn't condone unreasonable behaviour or language.\n\nBoris Johnson has been advised in his preparations by Brian Altman KC.\n\nAt 10:00 GMT on Wednesday, his interrogation by Hugo Keith KC will begin. A country will be watching and waiting: for scrutiny, accountability, and answers.", "Satellite images commissioned by the BBC reveal the extent of destruction across Gaza, showing that nearly 98,000 buildings may have suffered damage.\n\nThe satellite images were taken last Thursday - before the start of a seven-day suspension of hostilities, which has now ended.\n\nDrone footage and verified video also show buildings and entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble after Israeli air strikes and on-the-ground fighting.\n\nWhile northern Gaza has been the focus of the Israeli offensive and has borne the brunt of the destruction, widespread damage extends across the entire strip.\n\nIsrael says northern Gaza, which includes the major urban centre of Gaza City, was a \"centre of gravity of Hamas\", the group behind the deadly 7 October attacks on Israel. The Israeli military says its bombing campaign has successfully targeted Hamas commanders and fighters and accuses the group of embedding itself in civilian areas.\n\nSatellite data analysis suggests that almost 98,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip may have suffered damage, mostly in the north - as shown in the above map.\n\nAnalysis of the data was carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University. It is based on comparisons of two separate images, revealing changes in the height or structure of buildings which suggests damage.\n\nWe have analysed satellite imagery from several areas with extensive damage.\n\nThe cities of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the north and north-east of the Gaza Strip were among the first to be targeted by air strikes after the 7 October attacks by Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the area was a hideout for Hamas.\n\nParts of Beit Lahia, which overlooked olive groves and sand dunes stretching towards the border with Israel, were flattened. The satellite image below shows an area in the north-east of Beit Lahia, where a significant block of buildings was destroyed.\n\nBulldozers appear to have cleared roads through the rubble and the Israeli military cleared land and set up defensive positions in surrounding fields.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe IDF also struck the small nearby city of Beit Hanoun, less than 1.6km (1 mile) from the border. It said 120 targets were hit in the area on the first day of air strikes.\n\nAs the images above show, a skyline of multi-storey buildings and a mosque was gradually reduced to rubble between 14 October and 22 November.\n\nAfter weeks of air strikes on Gaza, Israel moved in on the ground - tanks and bulldozers going through areas which had been heavily bombarded. The IDF worked its way southwards along the coast towards Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in the Gaza City area.\n\nAs the image below shows, a whole series of craters are visible in what was once a residential area. Some of the buildings on the beach front, which boasted Gaza's first five-star hotel, the Al-Mashtal, as well as huts and restaurants, appear to have been partially destroyed.\n\nAbout a week after the air strikes began, the IDF warned Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south of a river known as Wadi Gaza for their own safety.\n\nDespite the warning and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Gaza City, areas in the south continued to be targeted.\n\nNuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza was hit several times before the temporary pause in hostilities began. The camp was said to be home to about 85,000 people, according to the UN.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn this verified video, which emerged online, people are seen picking through the rubble of collapsed and damaged buildings.\n\nThe distinctive black chimney stacks of the Gaza Power Plant, situated just north of the camp, are visible in the background.\n\nThe BBC has approached the IDF for comment.\n\nIn Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, thousands of people are living in tents or the rubble of bombed-out buildings.\n\nAlthough the damage was not as widespread as in the north, up to 15% of buildings across the city may have been damaged, according to Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek's analysis.\n\nAs well as pushing down from the north, Israeli forces also cut across the Gaza Strip westwards, isolating Gaza City from the south.\n\nIn this image below, taken to the south of Gaza City, we can see that a previously populated residential area was cleared by the IDF with heavy machinery and a road bulldozed towards the western Mediterranean shoreline.\n\nYou can also see dozens of military vehicles, including tanks, grouped behind fortifications made from earth.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nSatellite images also show an open square of land with a Star of David carved into the earth by vehicle tracks in Gaza City, near al-Azhar University.\n\nImages online from before the war showed children playing there and suggested it was a park, but IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said the ground was used by Hamas as a parade square near a base. The area was taken over by the IDF's Golani Brigade.\n\nA Star of David - which is used as a Jewish and Israeli symbol - was made by armoured vehicles in a ceremony in memory of Israeli soldiers who had been killed since the war began, according to a post by Rear Adm Hagari on X.\n\nAdditional reporting by Thomas Spencer, Paul Brown, Jake Horton, Alex Murray and Shayan Sardarizadeh and Jemimah Herd", "Some bikers' groups are using their tough image to send a strong message against bullying\n\nThe leaders of an anti-bullying motorcycle club in northern France have been arrested on charges of threatening a school headteacher and his deputy.\n\nThe president of the Black Shadow North WC club and his wife were questioned by police in the town of Auchel, 65km (40 miles) west of Lille.\n\nThe alleged offences - which they deny - include threatening to bundle the headteacher into the boot of a car.\n\nThe row arose from reports of violence between pupils, prosecutors say.\n\nThe Black Shadow North WC club is one of several biker clubs that have emerged in France to combat bullying in recent years.\n\nMembers accuse police and school officials of not doing enough to tackle the problem. According to health experts, over 10% of French pupils experience bullying by the age of 16.\n\nThe confrontation in Auchel originated in a complaint last month by a mother who said her teenage daughter was being targeted, media say.\n\nThe bullying allegation was not confirmed by authorities. But feelings were running high after a teenager from a neighbouring school took her own life in early November.\n\nProsecutors say the president of Black Shadow North WC went near the school in Auchel to demand sanctions against the alleged offenders.\n\nThe prosecutor's office says the biker and his wife threatened to come back \"with dozens of bikers to put the headteacher in a car boot and take him across the Belgian border because of his lack of action\".\n\nThe accused, who deny any wrongdoing, are due to appear in court on Monday.", "Palestinians injured in Israeli airstrikes arrive at Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Younis on Saturday\n\nIsrael has carried out intense air strikes on Khan Younis in southern Gaza, with residents describing it as the heaviest bombing of the war.\n\nPeople in eastern areas of the city have been told by the Israeli military to evacuate further to the south.\n\nIsrael believes some Hamas leaders are in the city, where many civilians are sheltering after fleeing the north.\n\nGaza's Hamas-run health ministry says at least 193 people have been killed in the latest wave of Israeli attacks.\n\nOn Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) resumed its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, launched in response to the 7 October attacks in Israel which killed around 1,200 people.\n\nThe Hamas-run health ministry says the number of people killed in Gaza has now exceeded 15,200 people.\n\nIsrael's bombardment of Gaza resumed after a temporary ceasefire ended on Friday. The IDF said it had hit more than 400 Hamas \"terror targets\" on the first day of the renewed operation.\n\nRockets have also been regularly fired at Israel from Gaza since fighting resumed, including a barrage aimed at Tel Aviv and the surrounding area of central Israel on Saturday evening.\n\nFollowing this attack, Israel's ambulance service said it treated a 22-year-old man for \"minor shrapnel injuries\" to the head in Holon - a city just south of Tel Aviv.\n\nAt a briefing on Saturday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to continue with the Israeli military operation until \"we achieve all the goals\" in eliminating Hamas and securing the release of the hostages.\n\nHe acknowledged that \"a tough war is ahead of us\".\n\nKhan Younis and the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, were some of the places hit with heavy air strikes, with the next phase of the offensive likely to focus on southern Gaza.\n\nHundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter in the area, after being told to flee the north of the territory, which was Israel's main target in the early stages of the war.\n\nThe IDF's Arabic-language spokesman posted maps on social media indicating which areas civilians should leave, directing people in areas east of Khan Younis to evacuate further south to shelters in Rafah, an indication that a ground offensive could be imminent.\n\nHospitals, operating with limited resources after weeks of fighting, were overwhelmed with casualties, and at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, some patients were treated on the floor.\n\n\"A night of horror,\" Samira, a mother of four, told the Reuters news agency. \"It was one of the worst nights we spent in Khan Younis in the past six weeks since we arrived here... We are so afraid they will enter Khan Younis.\"\n\nUnicef spokesman James Elder, who was in Khan Younis on Saturday, told the BBC that hospitals were already \"saturated\" with casualties before the strikes resumed.\n\n\"There is literally blood in the corridors, there are mothers yet again holding babies who look like they've been killed\", he said.\n\nThe Palestinian Red Crescent charity confirmed 100 lorries with aid were allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt on Saturday. On Friday, no humanitarian supplies were delivered to the territory.\n\nTalks to reach a deal for another temporary ceasefire and to secure the release of the people kidnapped on 7 October who remain in Gaza collapsed on Saturday.\n\nA Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC that the negotiations were completely stalled, with no contacts or attempts to reach a fresh truce.\n\nOn Saturday, Israel announced it was pulling its negotiators from the Mossad intelligence service out of talks in Qatar, which has been acting as a mediator, following an \"impasse in the negotiations\".\n\nSaleh al-Arouri, deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that \"there are no negotiations now\" and there would be no more prisoners exchanged with Israel until the war is over.\n\nUS Vice President Kamala Harris, in a meeting with the president of Egypt, said \"under no circumstances [would] the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza\".\n\nShe also reiterated the US position that Israel had the right to defend itself.\n\nDuring their meeting in Dubai on the sidelines of the UN's COP28 climate conference, she told Abdul Fattah al-Sisi that peace efforts could only succeed if \"pursued in the context of a clear political horizon for the Palestinian people towards a state of their own led by a revitalized Palestinian Authority\".\n\nAt Saturday's briefing, Mr Netanyahu praised the release of 110 Israeli hostages - women and children - as well as some foreigners.\n\n\"Welcome back from hell,\" Mr Netanyahu said.\n\nThe hostages were released in exchange for the freeing of 240 Palestinian prisoners - women and teenagers.\n\nMost of the about 140 captives remaining in Gaza are men and military personnel.", "The Angel of the North statue in Gateshead covered in snow\n\nWeather warnings for snow and ice have come into force for parts of England and Scotland as forecasters predicted freezing temperatures this weekend.\n\nThe yellow warnings cover northern and southern Scotland and the east of England, down to London and Kent.\n\nTemperatures could fall as low as -10C in north-east Scotland and -4 to -8C across much of the UK overnight.\n\nIt comes as snow swept across parts of the UK on Friday, causing 30 schools in Cornwall to close or open late.\n\nOn Saturday morning Glasgow Airport had to ground all flights due to heavy snowfall overnight.\n\nTwo inbound flights had to be diverted to Prestwick and Edinburgh, as teams in Glasgow work to clear snow from the airfield.\n\nIt comes after parts of the UK experienced the coldest night in the UK on Thursday since mid-March, with temperatures in Cumbria dipping to -9.4C (15F) overnight.\n\nFlossie the Giant Schnauzer having fun in the snow in North Yorkshire\n\nThe Met's Office yellow warnings, which are in force from 17:00 on Friday until just before noon on Saturday, mean people could face hazardous conditions, with disruption and delays likely on roads and railways and icy patches on roads and pavements.\n\nThe weather agency has warned freezing rain, a rare type of precipitation which freezes on impact, could make driving dangerous.\n\nIn a post on X, the London Fire Brigade advised taking \"extra care\" while out and about \"as conditions could be icy\", warning people to \"keep well away from water\".\n\nMany areas have seen temperatures of 0C (32F) throughout the day. But as the evening begins - with clear skies and light winds expected - temperatures will quickly drop to well below freezing.\n\nThe Met Office said there could be 2cm (0.79in) to 5cm (2in) of snow for areas 100m (328ft) to 200m (656ft) above sea level, particularly in Northern Ireland and western Scotland.\n\nThere will be further wintry downfalls of snow for a time around North Sea coasts but into the weekend some rain or sleet and snow showers will start coming in from the west.\n\nThere is the chance of some significant snow in Wales, the Midlands and parts of northern England by Sunday morning, even at low levels.\n\nThe Angel of the North statue covered in snow in Gateshead\n\nSeparately, the UK Health Security Agency has issued an amber cold-health alert for the health sector for a number of regions in England, meaning \"significant impacts are probable\".\n\nThe alert indicates that the cold weather is likely to affect the whole health service, with the potential for the entire population to be at risk, the agency says.\n\nThe alert is in place for the East Midlands, West Midlands, North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber until 5 December.\n\nTemperatures of between -3C (27F) to -6C (21F) were widely seen across the UK on Friday, even in major towns and cities. It was -5C (23F) in Manchester and Edinburgh and -3C (27F) in south-west London and Birmingham.\n\nSnow swept across south-west England, parts of Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland, while hilly areas - including the North York Moors and parts of Scotland - will see more snow later, forecasters said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMany areas of the North East woke up to a blanket of snow, causing delays for motorists and some schools to close.\n\nIn County Durham, police said snowy conditions led to some crashes on the roads, while North Yorkshire Police reported 100 cars stuck between Whitby and Scarborough.\n\nOvernight from Thursday into Friday morning, some of the coldest places were:\n\nPeople in the snow in Gateshead\n\nYellow warnings for ice for Northern Ireland and south-west England ended at 10:00, but in some central and south-eastern areas of England freezing fog posed an additional hazard on Friday morning.\n\nBy Friday lunchtime, large parts of the UK were experiencing crisp, cold and sunny weather.\n\nDespite the alerts, this year has joined 2021 and 2022 as one of the warmest autumns on record in the UK, with the temperature for the past three months standing at 10.8C (51F) according to provisional data from the Met Office.\n\nHave you been affected by the cold snap? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFind out the weather forecast for your area, with an hourly breakdown and a 14-day lookahead, by downloading the BBC Weather app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nThe BBC Weather app is only available to download in the UK.", "Joint military drills were held between Palestinian armed factions from 2020 onwards\n\nFive armed Palestinian groups joined Hamas in the deadly 7 October attack on Israel after training together in military-style exercises from 2020 onwards, BBC News analysis shows.\n\nThe groups carried out joint drills in Gaza which closely resembled the tactics used during the deadly assault - including at a site less than 1km (0.6 miles) from the barrier with Israel - and posted them on social media.\n\nThey practised hostage-taking, raiding compounds and breaching Israel's defences during these exercises, the last of which was held just 25 days before the attack.\n\nBBC Arabic and BBC Verify have collated evidence which shows how Hamas brought together Gaza's factions to hone their combat methods - and ultimately execute a raid into Israel which has plunged the region into war.\n\nOn 29 December 2020, Hamas's overall leader Ismail Haniyeh declared the first of four drills codenamed Strong Pillar a \"strong message and a sign of unity\" between Gaza's various armed factions.\n\nAs the most powerful of Gaza's armed groups, Hamas was the dominant force in a coalition which brought together 10 other Palestinian factions in a war games-style exercise overseen by a \"joint operation room\".\n\nThe structure was set up in 2018 to coordinate Gaza's armed factions under a central command.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Videos reveal how armed groups trained together before 7 October attacks\n\nPrior to 2018, Hamas had formally coordinated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Gaza's second largest armed faction and - like Hamas - a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK and other countries.\n\nHamas had also fought alongside other groups in previous conflicts, but the 2020 drill was billed in propaganda as evidence a wider array of groups were being unified.\n\nHamas's leader said the first drill reflected the \"permanent readiness\" of the armed factions.\n\nThe 2020 exercise was the first of four joint drills held over three years, each of which was documented in polished videos posted on public social media channels.\n\nThe BBC has visually identified 10 groups, including PIJ, by their distinctive headbands and emblems training alongside Hamas during the Strong Pillar drills in footage posted on the messaging app Telegram.\n\nFollowing the 7 October attack, five of the groups went on to post videos claiming to show them taking part in the assault. Three others issued written statements on Telegram claiming to have participated.\n\nThe role of these groups has come into sharp focus as pressure builds on Hamas to find dozens of women and children believed to have been taken as captives from Israel into Gaza by other factions on 7 October.\n\nThree groups - PIJ, the Mujahideen Brigades and Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades - claim to have seized Israeli hostages, alongside Hamas, on that day.\n\nEfforts to extend the temporary truce in Gaza were said to be hinging on Hamas locating those hostages.\n\nWhile these groups are drawn from a broad ideological spectrum ranging from hard-line Islamist to relatively secular, all shared a willingness to use violence against Israel.\n\nHamas statements repeatedly stressed the theme of unity between Gaza's disparate armed groups. The group suggested they were equal partners in the joint drills, whilst it continued to play a leading role in the plans to attack Israel.\n\nFootage from the first drill shows masked commanders in a bunker appearing to conduct the exercise, and begins with a volley of rocket fire.\n\nIt cuts to heavily armed fighters overrunning a mocked-up tank marked with an Israeli flag, detaining a crew member and dragging him away as a prisoner, as well as raiding buildings.\n\nWe know from videos and harrowing witness statements that both tactics were used to capture soldiers and target civilians on 7 October, when around 1,200 people were killed and an estimated 240 hostages were taken.\n\nThe first Strong Pillar drill propaganda video showed a command room overseeing the joint exercise\n\nThe second Strong Pillar drill was held almost exactly one year later.\n\nAyman Nofal, a commander in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades - the official name for Hamas's armed wing - said the aim of the exercise on 26 December 2021 was to \"affirm the unity of the resistance factions\".\n\nHe said the drills would \"tell the enemy that the walls and engineering measures on the borders of Gaza will not protect them\".\n\nAnother Hamas statement said the \"joint military manoeuvres\" were designed to \"simulate the liberation of settlements near Gaza\" - which is how the group refers to Israeli communities.\n\nThe exercise was repeated on 28 December 2022, and propaganda images of fighters practising clearing buildings and overrunning tanks in what appears to be a replica of a military base were published to mark the event.\n\nThe exercises were reported on in Israel, so it's inconceivable they were not being closely monitored by the country's extensive intelligence agencies.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have previously carried out air strikes to disrupt Hamas's training activities. In April 2023, they bombed the site used for the first Strong Pillar drill.\n\nWeeks before the attacks, female surveillance soldiers near the Gaza border reportedly warned of unusually high drone activity and that Hamas was training to take over observation posts with replicas of their positions.\n\nBut, according to reports in the Israeli media, they say they were ignored.\n\nBrigadier General Amir Avivi, a former IDF deputy commander in Gaza, told the BBC: \"There was a lot of intelligence that they were doing this training - after all, the videos are public, and this was happening just hundreds of metres from the fence (with Israel).\"\n\nBut he said while the military knew about the drills, they \"didn't see what they were training for\".\n\nThe IDF said they \"eliminated\" Nofal on 17 October 2023, the first senior Hamas military leader to be killed during the conflict.\n\nHamas went to great lengths to make sure the drills were realistic.\n\nIn 2022, fighters practised storming a mock Israeli military base built just 2.6km (1.6 miles) from the Erez crossing, a route between Gaza and Israel controlled by the IDF.\n\nBBC Verify has pinpointed the site in the far north of Gaza, just 800m (0.5 miles) from the barrier, by matching geographic features seen in the training footage to aerial images of the area. As of November 2023, the site was still visible on Bing Maps.\n\nThe training camp was within 1.6km (1 mile) of an Israeli observation tower and an elevated observation box, elements in a security barrier Israel has spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing.\n\nThe mock base is on land dug several metres below ground level, so it may not have been immediately visible to any nearby Israeli patrols - but the smoke rising from the explosions surely would have been, and the IDF is known to use aerial surveillance.\n\nHamas used this site to practise storming buildings, taking hostages at gunpoint and destroying security barriers.\n\nBBC Verify has used publicly available information - including satellite imagery - to locate 14 training sites at nine different locations across Gaza.\n\nThey even trained twice at a site less than 1.6 km (1 mile) from the United Nations' aid agency distribution centre, and which was visible in the background of an official video published by the agency in December 2022.\n\nOn 10 September 2023, the so-called joint committee room published images on its dedicated Telegram channel of men in military uniforms carrying out surveillance of military installations along the Gaza barrier.\n\nTwo days later, the fourth Strong Pillar military exercise was staged, and by 7 October, all the tactics that would be deployed in the unprecedented attack had been rehearsed.\n\nFighters were filmed riding in the same type of white Toyota pickup trucks which were seen roaming through southern Israel the following month.\n\nThe propaganda video shows gunmen raiding mock buildings and firing at dummy targets inside, as well as training to storm a beach using a boat and underwater divers. Israel has said it repelled attempted Hamas boat landings on its shores on 7 October.\n\nThe fourth and final Strong Pillar drill saw fighters training on raiding buildings\n\nHowever, Hamas did not publicise its training with motorcycles and paragliders as part of the Strong Pillar propaganda.\n\nA training video posted by Hamas three days after 7 October shows fences and barriers being demolished to allow motorcycles to pass through, a tactic they used to reach communities in southern Israel. We have not identified similar earlier videos.\n\nFootage of fighters using paragliding equipment was also not published until the 7 October attack was under way.\n\nIn a training video shared on the day of the attack, gunmen are seen landing in a mock kibbutz at an airstrip we have located to a site north of Rafah in southern Gaza.\n\nBBC Verify established it was recorded some time before 25 August 2022, and was stored in a computer file titled Eagle Squadron, the name Hamas uses for its aerial division - suggesting the paragliders plan was in the works for over a year.\n\nBefore 7 October, Hamas was thought to have about 30,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip, according to reports quoting IDF commanders. It was also thought that Hamas could draw on several thousands of fighters from smaller groups.\n\nHamas is by far the most powerful of the Palestinian armed groups, even without the support of other factions - suggesting its interest in galvanising the factions was driven by an attempt to secure broad support within Gaza at least as much as bolstering its own numbers.\n\nThe IDF has previously estimated 1,500 fighters joined the 7 October raids. The Times of Israel reported earlier this month the IDF now believes the number was closer to 3,000.\n\nWhatever the true number, it means only a relatively small fraction of the total number of armed operatives in Gaza took part. It is not possible to verify precise numbers for how many fighters from smaller groups took part in the attack or the Strong Pillar drills.\n\nWhile Hamas was building cross-faction support in the build-up to the attack, Hisham Jaber, a former Brigadier General in the Lebanese army who is now a security analyst at the Middle East Centre for Studies and Research, said he believed only Hamas was aware of the ultimate plan, and it was \"probable [they] asked other factions to join on the day\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAndreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at Kings College London, told the BBC: \"While there was centralised planning, execution was de-centralised, with each squad operationalising the plan as they saw fit.\"\n\nHe said people inside Hamas were said to be surprised by the weakness of Israel's defences, and assessed militants had likely bypassed Israel's surveillance technology by communicating offline.\n\nHugh Lovatt, a Middle East analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Israel would have been aware of the joint training drills but \"reached the wrong conclusion\", assessing they amounted to the \"standard\" activity of paramilitary groups in the Palestinian territories, rather than being \"indicative of a looming large-scale attack\".\n\nAsked about the issues raised in this article, the Israel Defense Forces said it was \"currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organisation Hamas\" and questions about any potential failures \"will be looked into in a later stage\".\n\nIt could be several years until Israel formally reckons with whether it missed opportunities to prevent the 7 October massacre.\n\nThe ramifications for its military, intelligence services and government could be seismic.\n\nAdditional reporting by Paul Brown, Kumar Malhotra and Abdirahim Saeed. Video production by Soraya Auer.", "A mother cries as she hugs her returned son in Ramallah, in the West Bank\n\nA Palestinian man has described his time inside an Israeli prison as \"not normal\", after 30 more prisoners were released under the truce with Hamas.\n\nYounis Hawamdeh told Reuters news agency the unnamed facility had been a \"tragedy\" but did not elaborate.\n\nIsrael has said all its prisoners are detained according to the law.\n\nIts prison service said on Thursday that it had freed more Palestinians, hours after Hamas let eight more hostages go.\n\nThe releases brought the totals freed to 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners.\n\nA Red Cross bus carrying the 30 Palestinians arrived in Ramallah, in the West Bank, late on Thursday, as has been customary for each of the seven exchanges.\n\nIt was there that Reuters spoke to a handful of newly freed prisoners. One, Ali Askara, said detainees had been \"tortured ... psychologically, physically, everything\".\n\n\"They beat us, there were people with bleeding eyes,\" he was quoted as saying.\n\nAnother man, Abdallah Al Bao, said he hoped the remaining prisoners would be released soon.\n\nA full list of those freed is yet to be shared by Israeli prison authorities, who have spoken to the BBC's Lucy Williamson about abuse claims made by other freed Palestinians.\n\nImages from Thursday showed emotional reunions between Palestinians and their friends and family.\n\nIn one, a mother cries as she hugs her returned son, while the crowd around them applaud.\n\nAnother shows people, who have climbed on top of the bus, waving Hamas flags.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nNow that King Charles and Catherine, the Princess of Wales have been widely identified as the names in the race row mistakenly included in the Dutch edition of Omid Scobie's Endgame book, how can the Royal Family respond?\n\nIt is not helped by the Dutch publisher still not explaining how it happened - on Friday now saying it would not go further than previous, not very enlightening, comments about an \"error\". Is that the shadow of legal concerns?\n\nPrince Harry and Meghan, who have stayed away from any association with the book, have yet to give their views on the trustworthiness of the allegations, stemming from their Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021.\n\nBut it is understood that they are strongly rejecting any suggestion that they or their team provided Scobie with the private letters supposedly identifying the two members of the Royal Family.\n\nIn terms of a response from Buckingham Palace, \"all options are open\", was the message on Friday. That does not rule out legal action, but the spread of the story is being driven as much by social media as by mainstream news organisations, which initially did not name names.\n\nAnd how could you publicly respond to a book already pulped as a mistake?\n\nAll options are open, says Buckingham Palace about its response to what has appeared in the book's Dutch edition\n\nWhat has made the reverberations so far-reaching is because it is over one of the most sensitive possible subjects for the royals - about race and possible perceptions of racism.\n\nIt goes back to the unresolved question that followed the Oprah Winfrey interview about who in the Royal Family had raised questions about the skin colour of the baby that Prince Harry and Meghan were expecting.\n\nAlthough Prince Harry later emphasised this was about \"unconscious bias\" rather than racism, it still left a storm-cloud of questions.\n\nThe publishers have still not explained the differences in the Dutch edition\n\nIt was not helped by the race row over black British charity boss Ngozi Fulani being asked about where she was \"really from\" at a Buckingham Palace reception. And Commonwealth trips are now dogged with questions about the legacy of colonialism and slavery.\n\nThe timing is excruciatingly bad for the King too. It coincides with one of his biggest international speeches of the year, making the keynote address to the COP28 climate change summit, in front of world leaders gathered in Dubai.\n\nThe King should have been having a broadsheet moment, but instead is back in the tabloids again.\n\nLike some kind of toxic oil-spill that began as a couple of lines buried in a book in Dutch, the leak has now spread everywhere.\n\nBut there should be big flashing hazard warning lights about all this. Because so much of this story remains speculative, unexplained and contradictory.\n\nIt is not at all clear what happened in the Royal Family conversations surrounding the skin colour of Prince Harry and Meghan's baby. The couple themselves have been adamant in not wanting to disclose who was involved.\n\nThe late Queen's observation was that \"recollections may vary\". And perceptions on racism can vary too.\n\nPrince Harry, in an interview about his memoir Spare, said it had been the press that had called these family questions \"racist\", not the couple.\n\nMeghan told Oprah Winfrey in their interview about the questions about her baby's skin colour\n\nBut Meghan's comments in the Oprah interview in 2021 about these conversations about her baby's colour had a different feeling.\n\nOprah asked: \"Because they were concerned that if he were too brown, that that would be a problem? Are you saying that?\"\n\nMeghan replied: \"I wasn't able to follow up with why, but if that's the assumption you're making, I think that feels like a pretty safe one, which was really hard to understand.\"\n\nThis was serious enough for Meghan not to reveal the names of those involved, saying: \"I think that would be very damaging to them.\"\n\nScobie has repeatedly said he had never included any names in his manuscript. If that is the case, it is not the result of an earlier draft or previous version that was meant to have been changed.\n\n\"The book I edited didn't have names in it,\" he told the BBC's Newsnight programme on Thursday. It was a position he had put strongly on other interviews on UK and Dutch television.\n\nHe also said emphatically that it was not a marketing stunt.\n\nThe publishers initially blamed a mistake with the translation. But when it was evident that these lines, particularly about King Charles, were added to the Dutch edition, and not present in the English version, the position shifted to being a more general \"error\".\n\nAdding to the confusion, the translator of the book told the Daily Mail she had simply translated what she was given.\n\nIf there had been some mix-up and the names were in a line that should have been removed, it still seems strange from a journalistic perspective that such a colossal revelation would have been carried in a couple of lines in the middle of the book.\n\nWhile the reference to naming the King as part of this row is very clear, it is given in a short, unexplained line. The reference to the Princess of Wales is equally brief, but even vaguer.\n\nIt does not feel part of the rest of the text, when you would expect it to be the biggest part of the story.\n\nWhich is all to say, we do not know if these are the \"real\" names, alleged to have taken part in this uncertain conversation.\n\nIf this was found to be a false accusation - inserted at some point in the production process - it would fundamentally change the story.\n\nBut it will not be easy to reverse what is already out there.\n\nThe palace will be well aware of the so-called \"Streisand Effect\" - taking its name from an ill-fated attempt by Barbra Streisand to remove information about her property from online view, which in the process drew even more attention.\n\nBut the old royal approach to awkward news stories - \"never explain, never complain\" - becomes ever harder to maintain.", "In the end it was a diplomatic achievement that the ceasefire lasted as long as it did. Now, after a seven-day pause, Israel and Hamas are facing their greatest military and political challenges.\n\nFor Hamas, it is the fight to survive. As long as a Hamas gunman can pull a trigger or launch a rocket into Israel it will claim to be undefeated.\n\nFor all its overwhelming military power, Israel's task is more complicated.\n\nIts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swore \"mighty vengeance\" after Hamas breached the border and killed around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, on 7 October.\n\nIn the first hours after the Israeli military went back on the offensive, the government recommitted itself to its war aims in a WhatsApp post: \"Releasing the hostages, eliminating Hamas and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to the residents of Israel.\"\n\nIsraeli soldiers gather near tanks as smoke rises from Gaza in the background, after the ceasefire ended on Friday\n\nHow it does that and what happens next are now the number one preoccupations of Mr Netanyahu, his political allies and enemies in Israel and Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state who has made four trips to Israel and the region since the war started.\n\nPerhaps Mr Blinken knew that his attempt to prolong what he called the \"humanitarian pause\" would fail.\n\nOn the evening before the fighting resumed, he repeated America's support for Israel's right to defend itself, and once again condemned Hamas.\n\nMr Blinken repeated his insistence \"that Israel act in accordance with international humanitarian law and the laws of war, even when confronting a terrorist group that respects neither\".\n\nThen Mr Blinken made his starkest public statement yet about how Israel should fight the war.\n\nIt is worth quoting at length, because it is a checklist of what the US expects from its closest ally.\n\nMr Blinken said that it meant \"taking more effective steps to protect the lives of civilians, including by clearly and precisely designating areas and places in southern and central Gaza where they can be safe and out of the line of fire\".\n\nDisplaced Palestinians take refuge in a school in Khan Younis\n\n\"It means avoiding further significant displacement of civilians inside of Gaza. It means avoiding damage to life-critical infrastructure, like hospitals, like power stations, like water facilities.\"\n\n\"And it means giving civilians who've been displaced to southern Gaza the choice to return to the north as soon as conditions permit. There must be no enduring internal displacement.\"\n\nAt the beginning of the war Joe Biden, the US president, came here. While trying to wrap Israel in a warm and powerful embrace he also warned his allies not to be blinded by rage as they sought justice, as America had been after the al-Qaeda attacks of 11 September, 2001.\n\nMr Blinken's remarks suggest Joe Biden believes that Mr Netanyahu, with whom he has had a difficult relationship, did not listen.\n\nIsrael's war aims require that the next phase of its offensive is aimed at Hamas in southern Gaza. When it invaded northern Gaza, it ordered Palestinian civilians to head to the south for their own safety.\n\nWhile not as lethal as the north, much of which Israel has turned into a wasteland, nowhere in Gaza is safe.\n\nA few hours after hostilities resumed, Palestinians in Rafah, in the far south of Gaza on the border with Egypt, were being killed in Israeli air strikes.\n\nIsrael cannot claim to have eliminated Hamas without destroying its infrastructure in the south, where it believes Yahya Sinwar and the other leaders are lying low in tunnels under the civilian population, along with an unspecified number of fighting men.\n\nResidents conduct search and rescue works in Rafah, as Israeli air strikes resumed hours after the end of the truce\n\nIf Israel is going to use the same tactics as it did in northern Gaza, thousands more civilians will be killed. Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, already calls the plight of the people of Gaza \"an epic humanitarian catastrophe\".\n\nEgypt, and others, fear that extreme military pressure on approaching two million civilians in the south could mean thousands of desperate people forcing their way over the border into the Sinai Desert. A new Palestinian refugee crisis would be another dangerous and desperate moment for the Middle East.\n\nLet us assume that Israel has promised the US that Palestinian civilians will be told to move to specific areas where they will be safe. In a high-intensity war of the kind that Israel has been waging, with tanks, air strikes and heavy artillery, it is far easier to see how that plan might go wrong, rather than how it might succeed.\n\nPalestinians travel toward safer areas to avoid air strikes in Rafah\n\nIf Israel shifts to lighter counter-insurgency tactics, with troops moving without a blanket of heavy protection, it will most likely suffer many more battle casualties than it has so far.\n\nIsrael's next moves are also a significant moment for Joe Biden, who is facing strident criticism of his support for Israel from the progressive wing of his own Democratic party.\n\nBiden's chief diplomat, Antony Blinken, has spoken clearly, in public, about the way the US wants Israel to fight Hamas. If Israel kills anything like as many Palestinian civilians as it did in the north, in defiance of the stated will of Joe Biden, the US president will have to decide whether he can continue to give Israel so much support, not just on the battlefield but also in the United Nations Security Council, where the US has used its veto many times to protect Israel.\n\nHamas is not beaten. Its remaining hostages give it a powerful lever that it can use to disrupt Israel's military campaign, and to inflict more psychological pressure on the home front. The Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his men will also try to exploit opportunities that open up if and when Israel's generals follow American instructions to use less firepower.\n\nThis war is in a new phase. So is the whole region. Many Palestinians and Israelis, including those far from the battles in Gaza, seem beaten down by the weight of a dangerous and uncertain future.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Cold weather continues to grip the UK with warnings for ice and snow\n\nA fresh yellow weather warning for snow and ice has been issued by the Met Office for large parts of the UK.\n\nForecasters say the latest alert covers much of the Midlands, Yorkshire and north and central Wales, with roads and railways \"likely to be affected\" by the conditions.\n\nPolice have declared a \"major incident\" in Cumbria after heavy snowfalls.\n\nThey say people should \"only travel where necessary\", especially in the South Lakes and Millom area.\n\nCumbria Police said the M6 southbound between J38 and J37 was blocked due to jack-knifed lorries and that the A595 between Millom and Furness was impassable.\n\nNational Highways said it was also dealing with a large number of stranded vehicles on Saturday evening, particularly on the M6 between J38 and J40.\n\nPolice say they are aware of multiple reports of vehicles stuck in traffic because of snow.\n\nSuperintendent Andy Wilkinson said: \"We are working at pace, to help clear roads so those currently affected can get moving.\"\n\nBBC Weather forecaster Stav Danaos said temperatures could drop as low as -11C overnight in northern Scotland.\n\n\"We will start with a wintry mix in eastern England and south-east Scotland first thing on Sunday, which will be replaced with outbreaks of cloud and slightly less cold weather - although it's still going to be chilly,\" he said.\n\nMr Danaos added \"wetter and windier weather\" is predicted to sweep across the UK by Monday.\n\nThe forecast follows heavy snow overnight forcing Glasgow Airport to ground all flights for several hours on Saturday morning.\n\nDespite crews \"working through the night\" airport bosses had to suspend arrivals and departures due to \"heavier than forecast snow\".\n\nGlasgow Airport said flights resumed mid-morning on Saturday, but disruption is still expected and passengers are urged to check with their airline.\n\nA yellow weather warning for ice has been issued from midnight until 0800 on Sunday for London, the east of England, the West Midlands and parts of south Wales.\n\nThe Met Office added that rain or sleet falling on frozen surfaces could cause people being injured from slipping and falling in icy conditions.\n\nTravel disruption is possible as well as a \"good chance\" that some rural communities could become cut off\" and be affected by power cuts.\n\nGlasgow's Winterfest in George Square looked extra festive after being dusted with snow overnight\n\nThe chilly weather hit sporting events across the UK.\n\nEleven football matches in the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) were postponed.\n\nThe FA Cup tie between Alfreton Town and Walsall was dramatically called off with just minutes to go before kick-off after checks were made on the frozen pitch as a BBC TV crew was set to film the second round tie.\n\nSports presenter Alex Scott (left) with fellow BBC commentators at Alfreton Town's frozen ground just before the game was postponed\n\nCrewe Alexandra's FA Cup tie against Bristol Rovers was also called off, while Saturday's high-profile racing fixture at Newcastle was abandoned due to snow on the track.\n\nBad weather forced the cancellation of Manchester United's team flight to Newcastle ahead of their Saturday evening game so they made the journey by coach.\n\nThe latest Met Office yellow weather warning will run into Sunday.\n\nSeparately, an amber cold-health alert issued by the UK Health Security Agency remains in place for five regions in England.\n\nAn early morning frost in Cardington, Shropshire as temperatures fell to -4°C on Saturday\n\nCold weather is likely to affect the whole health service, with the potential for the entire population to be at risk, the agency's alert says.\n\nThe alert is in place for the East Midlands, West Midlands, North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber until 5 December.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHeavy snow has also been causing disruption across Europe this weekend.\n\nGermany, Austria and the Czech Republic have been hit by train and flight cancellations, with the German weather service predicting that 30-40cm of snow could fall by Saturday evening.\n\nHas your area been affected by the adverse weather? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFind out the weather forecast for your area, with an hourly breakdown and a 14-day lookahead, by downloading the BBC Weather app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nThe BBC Weather app is only available to download in the UK.", "West Midlands Police officers clashed with Legia Warsaw fans near Villa Park on Thursday\n\nForty-six men have been charged after violence broke out before an Aston Villa game against Legia Warsaw.\n\nFive police officers were injured in clashes with away fans near Villa Park in Birmingham on Thursday night.\n\nOf the 46 men charged, 43 have been charged with a public order offence, West Midlands Police said.\n\nA total of 45 of those who have been charged were expected to appear before a special court set up at Birmingham Magistrates'.\n\nTwo of the men have been charged with assaulting police officers, with one also accused of possessing a knife.\n\nPolice said the men charged were aged between 21 and 63, with 40 believed to be from Poland and a small number thought to be UK residents.\n\nVilla fans said \"all hell broke loose\" outside Villa Park before the club's European Conference League fixture against the Polish team.\n\nFlares were thrown outside the stadium in incidents of violence near Villa Park\n\nThe arrests were made after violence erupted during a row over what police and Villa said was Legia Warsaw officials' mishandling of the distribution of up to 1,000 tickets to away supporters for the match.\n\nIn a statement on Friday night, Villa confirmed it had lodged a complaint with Uefa over the club officials' \"complete lack of co-operation\" before the game.\n\nHowever, Legia Warsaw officials said they \"strongly\" objected to being blamed for sparking the violence through the ticket row.\n\nTwo officers from West Midlands Police, two from the West Mercia force and one from Derbyshire were all hurt in the clashes, with one hit by a burning flare.\n\nTwo police dogs and two horses were also injured but were recovering, police said.\n\nThe West Midlands force said it was continuing to review CCTV and body-worn footage in what it described as an \"appalling and violent public disorder.\"\n\n\"To charge this number of people so soon after such a major disorder has taken a huge effort by staff who have been working around the clock,\" added Det Supt Jim Munro.\n\nLegia Warsaw fans were stopped from entering the stadium over safety fears\n\nIn the wake of the violence, Legia Warsaw said: \"We emphasise that none of the individuals detained by the police had tickets for [the] match.\"\n\nDespite Villa officials' saying the club had been uncooperative, Legia officials said they had \"maintained continuous communication\" with Villa, Uefa and the police about \"necessary measures\" for the security of the venue and the surrounding area.\n\n\"Despite this, the British police, in their official responses, only acknowledged the potential risks without implementing our suggestions,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"Regrettably, due to the actions and inactions of Aston Villa FC, adverse incidents occurred.\n\n\"By disregarding our constructive feedback, the host club bears full responsibility for the situation.\"\n\nBBC Sport has been told Legia Warsaw's initial ticket allocation was first reduced to 1,700 by the local Safety Advisory Group.\n\nThe allocation was reduced further after Dutch police officers were injured following violence involving supporters of the Polish club, at an away game against AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Imelda Staunton is the third actress to play Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown\n\nFrom the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II to the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana, Netflix's The Crown has depicted five decades of the Royal Family's highs and lows.\n\nThroughout the heart of the series has been the relationship between the late Queen and Princess Margaret.\n\nThe Crown stars Imelda Staunton and Lesley Manville tell the BBC it was a \"special\" experience playing the royal sisters - but a \"shock\" when the Queen died while they were filming the final series.\n\nThe Crown has explored Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth's relationship during its seven-year run\n\nThe Crown began in 2016 by dramatising the death of Elizabeth and Margaret's father, King George VI.\n\nSince then, the show has won dozens of awards and attracted millions of viewers worldwide.\n\nBut as time has gone on, it has divided critics and viewers, with some accusing it of historical inaccuracy in its portrayal of private royal life and sensitive events.\n\nLast year, it was described by one of the Queen's friends as \"complete fantasy\", while Dame Judi Dench accused the show of \"crude sensationalism\" and joined calls for a disclaimer to make clear the series is not necessarily true.\n\nThe first part of the sixth and final series, covering the events surrounding Diana's death in 1997, was released in November.\n\nThe final six episodes will be released on Netflix on 14 December and will address the death of Princess Margaret in 2002, before introducing the relationship between William and Kate, now the Prince and Princess of Wales.\n\nSeason six part two will explore the early days of William and Kate's relationship\n\nStaunton is the third actress to play the Queen, following Claire Foy and Olivia Colman.\n\nMeanwhile, Princess Margaret has been portrayed by Vanessa Kirby and Helena Bonham Carter before Manville.\n\n\"It is lovely for us to conclude this relationship from the very first series to this one,\" Staunton says. \"For Elizabeth, the touchstone of Margaret was very important.\"\n\nManville adds that the sisters were \"probably one of the greatest loves of each others' lives\".\n\nMargaret was known as a party girl, with her romances and luxurious lifestyle well documented by the newspapers.\n\nFor Manville, the main challenge was to make her more than just that public perception.\n\n\"It is very easy to draw a very bold thumbnail sketch of Margaret and you can make her a cliché,\" the Oscar-nominated actress says.\n\n\"But of course that is never what someone is. There is always so much more that is making them tick.\"\n\nShe adds that \"there was definitely a sadness and loneliness\" that punctuated Margaret's life.\n\nLesley Manville is the third actress to play Princess Margaret\n\nThings took an unexpected turn for the actresses during the filming for the final series last year, when it was announced that the Queen had died.\n\n\"It was a very strange day,\" Manville recalls. \"We were doing a scene together, just the two of us all day.\"\n\n\"It was really shocking,\" adds Staunton, who previously sang at the Queen's 90th Birthday Pageant in 2016. \"More shocking for me than I thought I would feel.\"\n\nBy chance, Staunton had 10 days off work during the period of mourning. But when she returned to work, things felt different.\n\nIt was \"more difficult for people looking at me\" when she was dressed as the Queen, she says.\n\nImelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II and Jonathan Pryce as the Duke of Edinburgh\n\nShe adds that \"playing someone whose whole life has been about duty\" gave her an understanding of why the public queued in their masses when the monarch died.\n\n\"I think of lot people were saying, 'You went to work every day single day of your life and you didn't call in sick'.\n\n\"I think people were just saying, 'Thank you for turning up every single day'.\"\n\nThe series is coming to it conclusion after seven years and 60 episodes. \"To be a part of that is really special,\" Staunton says.\n\n\"To have this story going on with three casts, three different ages - I don't know if it will ever be done again.\"\n\nDespite The Crown reaching its final chapter, the Royal Family's story will \"continue to be told for many years\", she says.\n\n\"Historically we all like stories about the Tudors and Henry VIII. It'll always be told because they are fascinating characters.\n\n\"It is a world we have to imagine because we are not in it. It doesn't stop people telling the stories, and nor should it.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Will Wales see snow this weekend?\n\nForecasters have issued two weather warnings for wintry conditions in parts of Wales after temperatures fell.\n\nThe Met Office said snow could affect areas of mid and north Wales, with a yellow warning covering Conwy, Denbighshire, Gwynedd, Powys and Wrexham until 12:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nThe forecaster said up to 15cm (6in) of snow could fall on some higher roads.\n\nA separate ice warning has been issued for parts of north, mid and south Wales.\n\nSaturday: Snow temporarily closed part of the A470 between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Llechwedd in Gwynedd\n\nThe warning for ice covers Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Monmouthshire, Powys and Wrexham until noon on Monday.\n\n\"With temperatures falling this evening, refreezing of thawed snow will lead to some icy patches on untreated surfaces,\" the Met Office said on Sunday, adding that \"difficult travel conditions\" were possible.\n\n\"As well as this, later in the night rain will push north across much of the area, initially falling on to frozen surfaces.\"\n\nParts of Powys awoke to frost and snowy conditions over the weekend", "Amiram Cooper, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Tsachi Idan are being held in Gaza\n\nIsrael says 132 people remain unaccounted for after they were abducted and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attacks by Hamas.\n\nAn estimated 240 people were taken prisoner, but 105 were later released by Hamas during a six-day ceasefire at the end of November.\n\nThe Israeli military said it mistakenly killed three hostages in northern Gaza who had escaped from their captors and expressed \"deep remorse\" over the incident.\n\nOf the 132 still unaccounted for, Israel says that 20 of them are believed to be dead.\n\nThese are the stories of those hostages who are still being held, which have either been confirmed by the BBC or credibly reported.\n\nThis list is regularly updated and names may change, as some people feared kidnapped are confirmed to have been killed or released.\n\nLast updated on 19 December 2023 at 10:33 GMT\n\nYagev Kirsht, 34, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nirim, alongside his wife, Rimon Buchstab Kirsht. She has now been released.\n\nAlexander Trupanov, was taken hostage with his mother Lena Trupanov, 50, his partner Sapir Cohen, 29, and his grandmother Irina Tati, 73. All were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz as they spent the Sabbath together, according to a statement by Canada's Raoul Wallenburg Center for Human Rights. Irina and Lena were released on Wednesday 29 November and Sapir was freed the next day.\n\nAriel Cunio, his girlfriend Arbel Yahud and her brother Dolev are also thought to have been abducted in the same attack on Nir Oz. Eitan Cunio, Ariel's brother who escaped Hamas, told the Jewish Chronicle that his last message from Ariel said: \"We are in a horror movie.\"\n\nDavid Cunio, 33, another of Ariel's brothers, was also kidnapped from Nir Oz, family say. David's wife Sharon Aloni Cunio and their three-year-old twin daughters Ema and Yuly were released on 27 November. Sharon's sister Daniele Aloni, and her six-year-old daughter Emilia were both released on 24 November.\n\nDoron Steinbrecher, 30, a veterinary nurse, was in her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas attacked, the Times of Israel reported. At 10:30 on 7 October, the newspaper said, she sent a voice message to friends: \"They've arrived, they have me.\"\n\nItzhak Gelerenter, 53, was taken from the Supernova festival. His family said the IDF found his phone was located in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported. His daughter Pivko told the paper: \"I'm trying to think good thoughts, I have a powerful, smart, resourceful father.\"\n\nDoron Steinbrecher sent a voice message to friends during Hamas' attack\n\nNaama Levy, 19, was filmed being bundled into a jeep, her hands tied behind her back. The footage was released by Hamas and circulated widely on social media. According to her mother, the teenager had just begun her military service.\n\nYousef Zyadna, a 53-year-old Bedouin dairy farmer, was abducted from Kibbutz Holit and taken to Gaza along with his sons Hamza, 22, and Bilal, 18, and his daughter, Aisha, 16. Aisha and Bilal were released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nElad Katzir, 47, was abducted from Nir Oz with his mother Hanna. Hanna has now been released.\n\nOhad Ben Ami, 55, was kidnapped from Be'eri with his wife, Raz. She was released by Hamas on 29 November.\n\nTwin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, 26, were taken from Kfar Aza. Ziv was messaging a friend as the attack happened. Their family said the IDF has told them the brothers are being held in Gaza. Their brother Liran told CBN news the pair had \"twin power\" and were the centre of attention wherever they went.\n\nIraq-born Shlomo Mansour, 85, was taken captive from Kibbutz Kissufim, where he lived and worked as a chicken coop manager. His wife, Mazal, managed to escape.\n\nMichel Nisenbaum, 59, is a dual Brazilian-Israeli citizen who has lived in Israel for 45 years and works as a computer technician, his family told Brazilian media. They also say he is diabetic and has Crohn's disease. On 7 October, they say, someone claiming to be from Hamas answered his phone when they tried to call him.\n\nDaniela Gilboa, 19, sent messages saying that Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where she was staying, was under attack and asked her mother to pray for her. Her boyfriend, Roy Dadon, told the Economist 1843 magazine that he believes he saw a glimpse of her in a video showing three girls being driven away in the back of an SUV.\n\nItay Chen, 19, a dual US-Israeli citizen and IDF solider, was on active duty with a tank unit on 7 October, according to the Times of Israel. The paper reported that his family was notified by the IDF that he is officially considered missing in action and probably being held hostage. Another soldier in his unit, Matan Angrest, 21, is also presumed to be in Gaza.\n\nYosi Sharabi, 51, was taken from Be'eri with his brother, Eli Sharabi, 55. Eli's wife and two daughters were murdered in the attack. Ofir Engel, the boyfriend of Yosi's daughter, Yuval, was also taken, but released on 29 November.\n\nAgam Berger, 19, was kidnapped from Nahal Oz. She was seen being taken away in videos released by Hamas.\n\nEdan Alexander, 19, is an Israeli-US citizen who volunteered to join the Israeli army. He was serving near the Gaza border at the time of Hamas's attack. Edan's family said they had been told by Israeli officials that he had been taken to Gaza as a hostage.\n\nKaid Farhan Elkadi, 53, lives with his family south of Rahat and worked as a security guard, according to Israeli media. Reports said his family believes he was kidnapped and taken to Gaza, based on images shared by Hamas.\n\nIlana Gritzewsky and Matan Zanguaker were captured near the Gaza border, family say\n\nMatan Zanguaker, 24, was taken with his partner Ilana Gritzewsky, 30, from Nir Oz, according to Ilana's father. Ilana, a Mexican national, was released on Thursday 30 November.\n\nThe family of Eitan and Yair Horn believe they were taken from Nir Oz kibbutz\n\nEitan Horn, 37, and his brother Yair, 45, both Argentinian citizens, were also in Nir Oz at the time of the attack. Their father Itzik said he believes they were kidnapped. Yair is a construction worker while Eitan works in education.\n\nItai Svirsky, 38, is thought to have been abducted when his elderly parents were killed in Be'eri. He had been visiting them for the holiday of Simhat Torah.\n\nKeith Seigel, 64, and his wife Adrienne - often known as Aviva - Seigel, 62, were taken from their home in Kfar Aza, Keith's brother Lee Seigel told the BBC. Adrienne was released on 26 November.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, lived in Nahal Oz with his wife and two daughters. Omri was led away by Hamas with his hands tied, his wife Lishay told the Guardian newspaper. She told him not to be a hero, urging: \"Do whatever they want because I want you back.\"\n\nBipin Joshi, 23, a Nepalese student, is believed to have been taken from Kibbutz Alumim. Nepalese newspaper Setopati says he was one of 49 university students studying agriculture in Israel. It says 10 students were killed in the attack.\n\nIlan Weiss, 58, went missing from Kibbutz Be'eri after he was last seen leaving the house to defend the community. On 25 November, his wife Shiri Weiss, 53, and their daughter, Noga, 18, were freed from captivity in a hostage deal.\n\nAmiram Cooper, 85, and his wife Nurit, 80, were taken from their home in Nir Oz, their daughter-in-law Noa told the BBC. The family last spoke to the couple during the Hamas attack, Noa said, when the couple were in their safe room. The family later traced Amiram's phone to Gaza. On Monday 23 October, Nurit was one of two women to be released.\n\nAmiram and Nurit Cooper, pictured with their granddaughter, Gali\n\nOded Lifshitz, 83, and his wife Yocheved, 85 were taken hostage from Nir Oz. On Monday 23 October, Yocheved was one of two elderly women to be freed. After hearing the news of her mother's release, their daughter Sharone - a London-based artist - said: \"While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those - some 200 innocent people - who remain hostages in Gaza.\"\n\nHaim Peri, 79, was taken from his home in Nir Oz, reports the Times of Israel, and freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz said she saw that he was alive and well. His son Lior Peri told Talk TV that Haim had locked his wife inside the safe room before giving himself up to kidnappers.\n\nAvraham Munder, 78, was kidnapped from Nir Oz, Israeli officials say. His wife Ruthi, daughter and grandson have since been released.\n\nOmer Neutra, a 22-year-old Israeli-American and grandson of Holocaust survivors, put off plans to go to college in the US to study in Israel, and eventually joined the IDF. He was serving as a tank commander near Gaza when Hamas attacked. Omer's parents say they were told by the Israeli embassy that he had been kidnapped.\n\nRon Benjamin's vehicle was found empty following the attacks\n\nRon Benjamin, 53, had been taking part in a group cycle ride near the Gaza border when the Hamas attack began and he decided to drive home, his family told Israeli media. Days later, his vehicle was found empty and his family believe he was kidnapped.\n\nLouis Har, 70, is believed to have been taken from Nir Yitzhak. His partner Clara Marman was released on 28 November along with her sister Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and Gabriela's daughter Mia Leimberg,17. Clara and Gabriela's brother Fernando Simon Marman, 60, also remains in captivity.\n\nJudith Weinstein Haggai, 70, and her husband, Gad Haggai, 73, also went missing from Nir Oz after the Hamas attack. Ten days later, the Israeli military confirmed to the family they had been taken hostage, CTV News in Canada reported.\n\nAlex Danzig, 75, a scholar and historian of the Holocaust, was at his home in Nir Oz, when it was attacked by Hamas. \"We know for sure he was kidnapped,\" his son Mati told the BBC. Alex - whose older sister Edith is a Holocaust survivor - has spent the last 30 years working for Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance centre. His disappearance has triggered a campaign for his release, both in Israel and in Poland, the country of his birth.\n\nAlex Danzig has spent decades educating people about the Holocaust\n\nItzhk Elgarat, 68, was kidnapped at the same time as Alex Danzig, his brother Danny Elgert told Israel's Kan 11 TV station, adding that he had tracked his brother's phone to the border with Gaza.\n\nGadi Moses, 79, was also abducted during the same attack on Nir Oz, according to relatives and the Israeli aid agency where he worked as an agricultural expert. Efrat Katz, his partner, was initially thought to have been captured as well, but she was later found dead, the Times of Israel reported. Efrat was the mother of Doron Asher, who was taken hostage and later released with her two daughters. Ravid Katz, 51, Doron Asher's brother, was originally thought to have been taken hostage from Nir Oz, but on 28 November his family confirmed that he had been killed on 7 October.\n\nYair Yaakov, 59, is listed among the hostages. His partner Meirav Tal, 53, was released on 28 November. Yair's children Yagil, 13, and Or, 16, were released on 27 November.\n\nYair Yaakov was pictured being held captive by a gunman in a video shared online\n\nNimrod Cohen, 19, had studied software engineering in high school, according to reports. After he was kidnapped, his father was invited to meet Pope Francis in Rome along with other hostages' families.\n\nTsachi Idan, 51, was last seen by his wife, Gali, as he was taken away by Hamas gunmen. Their family had been ambushed in their safe room in Nahal Oz. Their ordeal was live-streamed by Hamas. Their eldest child, Maayan - who had just turned 18 - was shot dead, Gali told the BBC.\n\nTsachi Idan was ambushed with his wife and children and then led away\n\nYarden Bibas, 34, was abducted from Nir Oz. His wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel and Kfir, were also taken hostage, but on 29 November, Hamas claimed they had been killed in an Israeli air strike while in captivity. The Israeli government has said it is checking the claim.\n\nRonen Engel, 54, was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his wife, Karina Engelbert, 51, and their two daughters, Mika, 18 and Yuval, 11. On 1 December, the organisation representing the families said he had been murdered. Karina, Mika and Yuval were released on 27 November.\n\nKarina Ariev, a 19-year-old soldier, was serving at an army base near Gaza when she was kidnapped. Her sister Alexandra told the BBC she heard shooting as Karina called her during the attack, and later saw a video showing Karina being taken away in a vehicle.\n\nKarina Ariev was at the Nahal Oz military base, which was among the first to be attacked\n\nOfer Kalderon, 53, was taken by Hamas from Nir Oz. On 27 November his two children, Erez, 12, and Sahar, 16, were released. Two other relatives, 80-year-old Carmela Dan and her granddaughter, Noya, 12, were also believed to have been taken, but Israeli authorities later announced they had been found dead.\n\nYoram Metzger, 80, was a resident of Nir Oz. He has diabetes and broke his hip six months ago, his daughter-in-law said. Yoram's wife Tamar was released on 28 November.\n\nNadav Popplewell, 51, and his mother Channah were taken hostage by Hamas, said Channah's daughter Ayelet Svatitzky, who was speaking to them on the phone when the gunmen burst in. She said the captors sent pictures of her two relatives, who both have diabetes, with armed men in the background. Channah has now been released.\n\nOmri Miran, 46, was abducted after his family opened the door to their secure shelter to an Israeli child, who said he would be killed otherwise. Omri's wife, Lishay Lavi, said she saw him being taken away in handcuffs with three other hostages from Nahal Oz.\n\nLiri Elbag, 18, had just started military training as an Army lookout near the Gaza border when Hamas attacked, her father Eli told the Associated Press. Eli said he saw her in a video circulated later by Hamas, crowded with others on the back of a military truck which had been seized by the gunmen.\n\nLior Rudaeff, 61, was taken from Nir Yitzhak during the attack. His family have heard nothing from him since then.\n\nA number of people are believed to have been abducted from the Supernova music festival in southern Israel. Among them:\n\nShlomi Ziv, 40, was part of the security detail at the festival and was initially in contact with his sisters as the attack unfolded, according to an interview with The Times of Israel. A few weeks later the family learned he was officially considered to be a hostage, the report says.\n\nAlexander Lobanov, 32, is a Russian-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped at the festival.\n\nOri Danino, 25, is reported to have got away from the festival in his car, but it's believed he was captured after turning back in an attempt to save some people he had met there.\n\nAlmog Sarusi, 26, was kidnapped from the music festival and his partner Shahar Gindi was killed, according to Israeli media. Almog's father, Yigal, was among the relatives of hostages who met with Israel's prime minister in October.\n\nOmer Shem Tov, 21, called his parents as he was running away from gunfire and managed to get into a friend's car. His parents, Shelly and Malki Shem Tov, told Israeli media they lost contact with their son and the live location on his phone showed he was beyond the border in Gaza.\n\nIdan Shtivi, 28, an environmental sciences student, was attending the festival to take pictures at music and yoga workshops being held by friends. He escaped the site in his car but was attacked by Hamas along the route. The bodies of two of his passengers were found, and his family told the Jerusalem Post they suspect he was kidnapped.\n\nYosef Ohana, 24, had been at the festival with a friend, who told his mother he and Yosef had remained to help people escape the gunfire before running themselves. Yosef was last seen hiding under a car, and Israeli authorities have visited his mother to say he was kidnapped.\n\nAndrei Kozlov, 27, a Russian who moved to Israel in 2022, is missing from the Supernova festival, where he was working as a security guard. His mother told the De Taly publication the family was told by the IDF on October 26 that he was being held hostage.\n\nElyakim Libman, 23, was working as a security guard at the festival. In a Facebook post his father Eliyahu Libman said another guard told him his son had helped rescue others before trying to escape. He was last seen trying to help two badly-injured women.\n\nNoa Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was also kidnapped from the festival. Video footage - verified by her father Yaakov Argamani to Israel's Channel 12 - shows the 25-year-old being taken away on the back of a motorbike screaming, \"Don't kill me!\" Her boyfriend Avinatan Or, 30, also appears in the video being marched away from her by Hamas, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nEden Yerushalmi's family say they were told she had been taken hostage\n\nEden Yerushalmi, 24, called her family during Hamas's attack on the festival, her sister May told CBS News. The family say they were subsequently informed by the IDF that Eden had been abducted.\n\nChanan Yablonka, 42, is a father-of-two from Tel Aviv. According to reports, he attended the festival with friends and was due to celebrate his birthday a few days after the attacks.\n\nJonathan Samerano, 21, has been missing since 7am on the morning of the festival. His family have been told to presume he is being held in Gaza, Israeli media reported.\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal was filmed in captivity in Gaza, his family say\n\nGuy Gilboa-Dalal, 22, attended the festival with his brother. Guy appears in a hostage video that his family say confirms he is in Gaza.\n\nUriel Baruch, 35, was injured during the attack on the festival, his wife said on Facebook. Reports in Israeli media say his mother, Naomi, has heard from the IDF that he is a hostage.\n\nMaxim Kharkin's mother described speaking to him on the morning of 7 October\n\nMaxim Kharkin is aged 35 and a Russian speaker, his mother told Russian media. She added that he had called her at 07:00 on the morning of the attack.\n\nElkana Bohbot was seen in a video posted by Hamas\n\nElkana Bohbot, 34, had gone to the party with friends and, before losing contact, he spoke to his wife and mother telling them he was helping to evacuate the wounded, the Times of Israel reported. Hours later, his family found a video of him posted online by Hamas, which has been seen by BBC Verify.\n\nRom Braslavski, 19, was working on security for the festival. According to an account published by Hostages and Missing Families Forum, he was trying to rescue an injured person in the attack when he was caught in a volley of fire. He has not been heard from since.\n\nOmer Wenkert, 22, a restaurant manager, sent a message to his family to say he was going to a safe shelter but then lost contact, his father Shai Wenkert told the BBC's Today Programme. Shai Wenkert said he had seen footage of his son in captivity, including a photo of him handcuffed and wearing only underwear.\n\nEvyatar David's family say they were sent a video of him in captivity\n\nEvyatar David, 23, was at the festival and on the morning of the attacks, described fleeing from gunfire before losing contact with the outside world, his brother says. Later, his family say, Evyatar's sister posted on Instagram appealing for information about his whereabouts. She then received a text from an unknown number, which contained video footage of Evyatar handcuffed on the floor of a dark room. According to Israel's foreign ministry he is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.\n\nEitan Mor, 23, lives in Jerusalem, and was working as a security guard at the festival, the Times of Israel said. He reportedly texted his uncle after Hamas arrived and was last seen with a friend bringing others to safety.\n\nAlon Ohel, 22, a Serbian citizen, took refuge in a shelter after the festival came under attack, his family say. They have seen footage of him being dragged away after a grenade attack.\n\nAlmog Meir Jan, 21, tried to flee the festival. He and a friend made it to the friend's car but only managed to drive a short distance before being forced to stop. Almog's family say they have seen a hostage video in which he appears.\n\nInbar Heiman, a student aged 21, was seen by two young Israeli men being taken away from the festival on a motorcycle. Hamas have released a video in which she is seen very briefly.\n\nHersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a dual US-Israeli citizen, was badly injured in the attack, his family told the BBC. Eyewitness accounts say he was seen being forced onto a white pick-up truck - the last-known signal from his phone came from just inside Gaza.\n\nSegev Kalfon, 26, was running away from the festival, across the highway, when he was captured by Hamas, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.\n\nOrión Hernández Radoux, 30, from Mexico, attended the festival with his girlfriend, Shani Louk. He has not been seen since. The Sun newspaper says it has seen threatening messages written in Arabic sent from his phone. Shani, a tourist from Germany, was initially thought to be among those seized. But on 30 October, her mother Ricarda told German media that the family had been informed by Israeli military of her death following DNA identification.\n\nRomi Lesham Gonen, 23, was on the phone to her mother as she tried to escape from the Supernova festival. Merav Leshem Gonan has recounted a conversation in which her daughter begged for help after being shot. ABC News reports that Romi's phone is now in Gaza.\n\nBar Kuperstein, 21, last spoke to his family early on the morning of 7 October, as the attack unfolded. Later the same day, his family say they identified him in a video of Israeli prisoners, posted by Hamas. Since then, they say they have had no further information.\n\nEliya Cohen, 26, was hiding with his girlfriend Ziv from the attack, when Ziv felt him being pulled up and driven away by the gunmen, Eliya's mother has told the video initiative #BringThemHomeNow. The family then found a photo of Eliya in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nAmit Buskila, 28, from Ashdod, was last heard of making a call to her uncle, Shimon, as Hamas overran the festival. Her family say they have now been told by the government that she is being held in Gaza.\n\nCarmel Gat, 39, is Jordan's sister-in-law, and also was seen by her father being taken by gunmen from Kibbutz Be'eri, Haaretz newspaper reported. She has not been heard from since.\n\nOhad Yahalomi, 49, was abducted from Nir Oz, along with his 12-year-old son, Eitan, who was released during the November ceasefire.\n\nDror Or, 48, was seen by a neighbour being dragged out of his home in Be'eri, according to their nephew Emmanuel Besorai, along with his son and daughter. On Saturday 25 November Dror's son Noam, 17, and daughter Alma, 13, were released from captivity. The body of Yonat, 50 - Dror's wife and the children's mother - was identified among the 120 people murdered at the kibbutz, Yonat's brother told the Guardian newspaper.\n\nTal Shoham, 38, was taken from Kibbutz Be'eri. His wife Adi, also 38, her mother Dr Shoshan Haran, 67, were released by Hamas on 25 November, along with the couple's children Nave, eight, and Yahel, three. Dr Haran's husband, Avshalom - an economist and dual German/Israeli citizen - was killed on 7 October.\n\nTamir Adar, 38, who defended Nir Oz as part of the kibbutz's emergency squad, was taken to Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen, 35, an American-Israeli citizen, has been missing since Hamas's attack on Nir Oz, his father Jonathan told the BBC. He said his son was not found among the dead and the \"only reasonable explanation\" is that he was taken to Gaza.\n\nSagui Dekel-Chen's father has not heard from him since Hamas attacked the kibbutz where he lived\n\nThailand's ambassador to Israel says 26 of its citizens were taken hostage, 23 of whom have now been released.\n\nThose still being held are believed to include Watchara Sriuan, 32. His mother, Viewwaew, told the Thaiger news site that the family had been informed he was being held captive.\n\nKiattisak \"Top\" Patee and a Mr Pongtorn (no first name given) have also been named by the Thai foreign ministry as hostages.\n\nA number of other people thought to have been held hostage are now confirmed to have died, either during the 7 October attack or while in captivity.\n\nAs well as Ron Scherman and Nik Beizer, four bodies were identified this week. They were Tal Chaimi, an Israeli-Romanian citizen aged 41, and Joshua Mollel, a 19-year-old Tanzanian student. Also, 27-year-old Eden Zecharya, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, and 36-year-old Ziv Dado, who had already been declared dead by the Israeli military.\n\nOthers known to have died include Dror Kaplun, 68, Aviv Atzili, 49, Arye Zalmanovich, 85, Ronen Engel, 54, Maya Goren, 56, Guy Iluz, 26, Ofir Tzarfati, 27, Ofra Keider, 70, and Eliyahu Margalit, 75.\n\nThe bodies of 19-year-old soldier, Noa Marciano, and 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss were found by Israeli troops in buildings close to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.\n\nOn Saturday 9 December Kibbutz Bari announced that Sahar Baruch, 25, had been killed in Gaza.\n\nOther hostages whose death has been reported, but not confirmed include Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir.\n\nAre you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? If it is safe to do so, please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Resident Robert Groves says he will support any abolition of Thurrock Council\n\nA year has passed since Thurrock Council admitted the full scale of its financial woes - a £469m deficit that remains one of largest ever recorded by a local authority. What has it been like for those living under what is, effectively, a bankrupt council?\n\nIt's a cold, sunny autumn morning at the tranquil Hardie Park in the Thurrock town of Stanford-le-Hope, and parents are happily chatting with one another as children play.\n\nMention Thurrock Council, however, and the mood shifts.\n\nNearly everybody you meet here has noticed changes since the council announced a shortfall three times larger than its annual budget.\n\nSome might appear trivial, such as verge cutting or alterations to bin collections, while other changes can have huge consequences for those affected, such as special educational needs provision or axing an element of adult social care.\n\nThurrock Council, which covers an area of Essex just north of the Thames estuary, is merely one of an increasing number to have issued a notice under section 114 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 - effectively meaning the authority is bankrupt.\n\nThe BBC understands one in 10 county councils in England might soon be in the same boat.\n\nLeonie Vince says the council has stopped paying for her sister to attend a day care centre\n\nStanford-le-Hope resident Leonie Vince says she is \"disgusted\" with Thurrock Council.\n\nFor years, her sister - who has \"profound needs\" - used a day care centre five or six days a week and had countless friends there.\n\nBut when their mother Gillian Flack - a foster carer for 39 years - died suddenly last September aged 67, Mrs Vince's sister had to go into residential care.\n\nThurrock Council told her it could no longer pay for her day care centre provision, she says.\n\n\"My poor sister has felt the cuts massively in the last year,\" says mother-of-five Mrs Vince. \"They've pulled it all because of funding.\n\n\"She had her whole world turned upside down when our mum dropped down dead. Why should she suffer and lose out?\"\n\nShe says her sister is now struggling with her wellbeing.\n\nThe council says its decision to pull Mrs Vince's sister's day care was because it was respite care for her late mother and nothing to do with the council's finances.\n\nBecause her sister was now in residential care, the council said \"the offer of respite care can no longer be made\".\n\nMrs Vince also accuses the council of trying to make subtle changes to education, health and care plans (EHCP) for children with special needs.\n\nShe has a son with autism and says when she looked over a draft EHCP for a fellow parent, she noticed how, unlike her son's plan, it stated the parent was responsible for the transport.\n\nShe says while her friend successfully challenged the addition, she knows of others who had not noticed they would be responsible for travel and had signed the documents.\n\nThurrock has has recently added a disclaimer warning parents they might be liable for school transport if they do not choose the nearest suitable school.\n\n\"They are trying to cut corners and take away transport,\" she says - a claim strongly rejected by the council.\n\nCouncil leader Andrew Jefferies says: \"The cost of providing home-to-school transport, and the number of children transported, has increased since 2021. Any suggestion that this service has been cut is entirely incorrect.\"\n\nIrene Muma says she is considering leaving the area\n\nIrene Muma, who has a three-year-old son, runs the Black Working Mothers Network in Thurrock.\n\nShe is now considering leaving the district and moving to Upminster, in Havering, because she feels there is no future for her and her young family in Thurrock.\n\n\"I am conflicted about it,\" the 33-year-old says, claiming that when she moved to the area five years ago there were promises of regeneration.\n\n\"When the council revealed what its financial position was it was really shocking and I've been asking, what future does my family have in Thurrock now?\"\n\nMs Muma, who is an HR business partner, says she has noticed bin collections being missed and is aware of plans to charge for garden waste collections.\n\n\"I've been looking over the proposals - it looks like the people who will be paying the greatest price will be those on low incomes and the people using social care,\" she says.\n\n\"The council has made these mistakes and the residents are paying the price.\"\n\nLinda Roberts, a volunteer at the Hardie Park Cafe, says reduced bus services have affected residents\n\nMeanwhile, Linda Roberts, a volunteer at the Hardie Park Cafe, says: \"They've cut the buses, which has impacted on a lot of people - especially senior citizens, because they've now got to walk quite a way to get the bus.\n\n\"When you go for a walk, you see the bins are overflowing, bushes overgrowing and verges not cut, which all makes walking quite hard.\"\n\nThe council has ended its £455,000 subsidy for three routes (11, 265 and 374), including one in Stanford-le-Hope.\n\nResponding to Ms Roberts' concerns, Mr Jefferies says supporting some bus services is \"simply no longer possible as it does not represent good value for money\".\n\nRobert Groves lives around the corner from Hardie Park - a facility that he helped found as a community project, before handing it over to a trust in 2020.\n\nHe claims Thurrock Council's days are numbered and believes it will eventually be abolished.\n\n\"I think that's where it is going,\" he says. \"I would support that.\n\n\"We've only been a unitary since the 1990s and we haven't done a very good job.\"\n\nHe says the main changes he has seen include missed bin collections and reduced bus services.\n\n\"I know people who rely on services more than I do who have really felt the cuts, whether that's in transport services or education,\" he says. \"There are cuts and there are going to be loads more on the way.\"\n\nAsked whether people had been getting the same level and quality of care as they were 18 months ago, Mr Jefferies says: \"Yes.\"\n\nHe says any resident who disagrees should write to him and he will look into it.\n\n\"No statutory services are being cut,\" he says. \"There may well be cases where we are reviewing services that have been provided - that's what this [savings programme] is all about.\n\n\"Yes, we've had problems with our environment services, but we've put them right.\"\n\nHe says the proposed changes - for example, moving to a fortnightly waste collection and charging residents for garden waste collections - are in line with other local authorities.\n\nProposals for £18m of savings have been drawn up and he has urged residents to get involved and let the council know what they think of them.\n\nFollow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites."], "link": ["http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-67762097", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-67777472", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67635735", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67772294", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-67771630", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67783058", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67784134", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67771533", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67774902", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67771169", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67774025", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67782869", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67771532", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-67784572", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67779700", 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